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 MAPD
 
 "^ ^HO LOVES 
 
 JESUS. 
 JESVs. 
 
 PaR;s
 
 1. Every member is obliged to have 
 both family name and Christian name 
 recorded* {a) in a special register in any 
 one of the convents of the Fathers of 
 the Congregation of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, (b) or in one of the local centres 
 affiliated to the Archconfraternity. 
 
 *Be careful not to omit the Christian name. 
 It is required, in order that the member may 
 gain the Indulgences. 
 
 To be inscribed in the Archconfraternity of 
 the Blessed Sacrament, in the United States, 
 apply to the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament, 
 185 East 76th Street, Xew York City. 
 
 2. Members must pledge themselves 
 to make, once a month, one continuous 
 hour of adoration before the Blessed 
 Sacrament, either exposed or in the 
 tabernacle. They are perfectly free with 
 regard to the choice of the day, hour, 
 and church. They may, if they choose, 
 change these every month. 
 
 3. The Archconfraternity of the 
 Blessed Sacrament furthermore imposes 
 on its members one Commuxiox every 
 MONTH, on the day chosen for their hour 
 of adoration. This Communion is, in 
 effect, the condition absolutely required 
 for gaining the Indulgence of the adora- 
 tion.
 
 These are the fundamental obhgations 
 of the Archcon fraternity. They suffice 
 for membership, and for sharing in its 
 privileges. 
 
 4. The spirit and the aim of the Arch- 
 confraternity are, however, to form com- 
 municants, not less than adorers of the 
 Eucharist. To this end it urges its 
 members to as frequent Communion as 
 possible, offering to them the induce- 
 ment of numerous Plenary Indulgences, 
 which they can gain on every day they 
 receive Holy Communion. 
 
 §3. indulgf.nce:s and spiritual 
 advantages. 
 
 The members share in the following 
 Indulgences and spiritual favors : 
 
 1. Union and participation in the 
 merits and good works of the Congrega- 
 tion of the Fathers of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, of the Priests' Eucharistic League, 
 and of the other Associations of the 
 Congregation. 
 
 2. A Plenary Indulgence on the 
 day of reception into the Archconfra- 
 ternity, on condition of Confession,
 
 Communion, a visit to a church where 
 the Blessed Sacrament is kept, and a 
 prayer for the intentions of the Sover- 
 eign Pontiff. 
 
 3. A Plenary Indulgence daily, 
 on the same conditions for an hour of 
 adoration before the Blessed Sacrament. 
 (Brief of Jan. 19, 1875.) 
 
 The great privilege of this Archconfrater- 
 nity is that, if an associate spends several 
 hours of adoration in the course of the month, 
 even an hour every week or every day, he 
 may gain each time a Plenary Indulgence, on 
 condition, however, that he received Com- 
 munion in the morning and praj'-s for the 
 intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff. 
 
 4. An Indulgence of seven years 
 AND SEVEN QUARANTINES for thosc samc 
 hours of adoration on the days when 
 Holy Communion is not received. 
 
 5. The Indulgences commonly called 
 Delia Stazione del Santissiiiio Sacra- 
 mento that have been granted to the Se- 
 raphic Order; consequently, every time 
 the associates visit the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment in some public church or oratory, 
 and recite six Pater, Ave, and Gloria, 
 they may gain all the Indulgences of the 
 Stations of Rome, Jerusalem, Saint 
 James of Compostello, and the church of 
 the Portiuncula, i. e., an almost incal-
 
 culable number of Plenary and Partial 
 Indulgences. These Indulgences are, at 
 least, as rich as those of the Way of the 
 Cross, and they can be gained in five 
 minutes. St. Alphonsus di Liguori says 
 that these Plenary and Partial Indul- 
 gences are almost innumerable. 
 
 6. The Indulgence of the Portiuncula 
 may be gained every year (from 2 p. m.,. 
 August 1, to 7 p. m., August 2), by all 
 the members of the Archconfraternity. 
 in any parish church in which the Blessed 
 Sacrament is reserved. This extra- 
 ordinary favor consists in a Plenary 
 Indulgence w^hich may be gained during 
 these two days as often as a member 
 makes a visit of about five minutes to 
 the church, and prays for the Sovereign 
 Pontiff. Communion must be received 
 on one of the two days, the choice op- 
 tional. (May 15, 1908.) 
 
 7. A Plenary Indulgence on each 
 of the following feasts : Christmas,. 
 Epiphany, Holy Thursday, Easter, Cor- 
 pus Christi, the Feast of the Sacred 
 Heart, the Annunciation, the Immaculate 
 Conception, St. Joseph, Sts. Peter and 
 Paul (June 29), St. Michael the Arch- 
 angel (September 29), and St. John the 
 Evangelist (December 27).
 
 8. A Plenary Indulgence at the 
 hour of death, by invoking the Holy 
 Xame of Jesus. (Brief of Jan. 19, 1875.) 
 
 All the foregoing Indulgences, except 
 the last, are applicable to the souls in 
 purgatory. 
 
 §4. THE INAPPRECL\BLE EXCELLENCE OF 
 
 THE ARCHCONFRATERNITY OF THE 
 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT. 
 
 As may be seen from the preceding 
 pages, the Archconfraternity of the Alost 
 Blessed Sacrament is an Association of 
 capital importance and inappreciable 
 excellence. 
 
 1. Its object is not to honor any 
 saint, but to glorify the Divine Person 
 of Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, 
 living among us in the Most Blessed 
 Sacrament of the Altar. There is no 
 work on earth comparable to this. The 
 Archconfraternity of the ^lost Blessed 
 Sacrament is, then, as far superior to all 
 other Confraternities as the Divine Per- 
 son of Jesus Christ is superior to all the 
 saints.
 
 2. The most excellent of all in its 
 object, the Archconfraternity of the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament is, again, the 
 most excellent in its aim, which is the 
 sanctification of souls by the Holy 
 Eucharist. There is not, in effect, a 
 more powerful means of sanctification 
 in the Church than the Holy Eucharist, 
 which is Itself the Source of every grace. 
 Now, the Archconfraternity has no other 
 aim than to bring souls to the Eucharist, 
 to make It known, loved, adored by them, 
 and to lead them to receive It frequently. 
 
 3. By its very constitution 3.nd nature, 
 the Archconfraternity of the Blessed 
 Sacrament holds first rank among all 
 pious works. It is not a simple Confra- 
 ternity but an Archconfratkrnity, 
 *'Archi-Associatio Primaria," as it 
 reads in the Brief of Leo XIII., dated 
 May 8, 1897. and has the precedence 
 above the other Confraternities in a 
 parish. 
 
 4. If, in fine, we take into considera- 
 tion the innumerable favors and privi- 
 leges that have been granted it, we must 
 acknowledge that the Archconfraternity 
 of the Most Blessed Sacrament holds 
 first rank, and that it is one of the 
 richest Associations existing in the 
 Church.
 
 To ascertain the truth of this, one has 
 but to read what is said above in §3. 
 Among its many other privileges is not 
 that of a Plenary Indulgence daily for 
 an hour of adoration a very signal one? 
 Again, the privilege of being able to gain 
 daily by a simple visit of five minutes 
 to any church the innumerable Plenary 
 and Partial Indulgences of The Station 
 of the Most Blessed Sacrament F And 
 lastly, the unheard-of privilege of being 
 able to gain yearly, on August 2, in any 
 church whatsoever, the famous Indul- 
 gences of the Portiiinciilaf 
 
 In conclusion, we may truly say that 
 the Archconfraternity of the Most 
 Blessed Sacrament is a work of incom- 
 parable excellence, as well as the most 
 opportune Association for the present 
 day. It responds to the most pressing 
 needs of souls" and to the most earnest 
 desires of Holy Church by laboring to 
 spread devotion to the ]\Iost Blessed Sac- 
 rament, chiefly by Holy Communion and 
 Adoration to which tlie Pope exhorts his 
 devout children. Therefore, we must 
 not be astonished at seeing the Archcon- 
 fraternity of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
 rapidly spreading throughout all coun- 
 tries. 
 
 10
 
 §5. SPIRITUAL COUNSELS. 
 
 1. The members shall make it a point 
 to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass 
 every day, if possible, to receive Holy 
 Communion also daily, provided they are 
 in the state of grace and have the right 
 intention. 
 
 2. They are advised to recite often,, 
 every day, the following invocation in 
 honor of the Holy Eucharist and of the 
 Blessed Virgin : 
 
 'Traise and thanks be given at every 
 moment to the Most Holy and Most Di- 
 vine Sacrament." (300 Days' Indul- 
 gence.) 
 
 "Blessed be the holy, immaculate and 
 most pure Conception of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, Mother of God." (300 
 Days' Indulgence.) 
 
 3. All that pertains to the worship, 
 service, glory of Our Lord in His august 
 Sacrament is expected to find an echa 
 in the hearts of the Associates above all 
 others. A pious adorer will show his 
 love by his works, which are principally 
 the enrolling of new members ; the or- 
 ganizing of a service of adoration in the 
 parish, especially for the Forty Hours
 
 and the monthly Exposition; the adorn- 
 ing of the altar on which the Blessed 
 Sacrament is exposed, with flowers, 
 lights, hangings, etc. ; the assisting at 
 the Procession of Corpus Christi and 
 contributing to its solemnity; the accom- 
 panying of the Holy \"aticum and pre- 
 paring in the sick room a little oratory 
 to receive It with due respect, etc. 
 
 4. They shall have, also, a tender de- 
 votion toward the Blessed A'irgin Mary, 
 on account of the most intimate bonds 
 that unite Islary to the august Mystery 
 of the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. 
 They shall often invoke her under the 
 beautiful title of Our Lady of the Most 
 Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 FORMULA OF COXSECRATION. 
 
 I, X . servant of Jesus Christ, 
 
 although unworthy, but full of confi- 
 dence in divine grace, under the guid- 
 ance and auspices of the Immaculate 
 \'irgin ]^Iary, under the protection of 
 Saint ]^Iichael the Archangel, of Saint 
 Joseph, of the blessed Apostles Peter 
 and Paul, of the beloved disciple Saint 
 John, consecrate and devote myself with 
 
 12
 
 all my heart, with all my soul, and with 
 all my strength, to the service of adoring 
 Jesus Christ, our Lord, truly, really, and 
 substantially present in the Most Blessed 
 Sacrament for the love of men. And to 
 promote more efficaciously His reign 
 of love in me, in mine, and in the 
 whole world, I associate myself to the 
 life of adoration of the Congregation of 
 the Fathers of the Most Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, promising to make in union with 
 it and its associated members, the 
 monthly adoration, and to devote myself 
 according to my ability to the greatest 
 glory of Jesus in His Sacrament of Love. 
 
 Confirm in me, O my God, the work 
 of Thy grace ! O Mary, blessed Mother 
 of Jesus, and my own loving Mother, 
 help me as thy child ! Direct me in the 
 'service of Jesus, that I may serve Him 
 worthily and please Him during life, 
 and after death have the happiness of 
 praising and loving Him with thee for 
 all eternity ! Amen. 
 
 Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament 
 185 East 76th Street New York, N. Y.
 
 THE "MONTH OF MARY" 
 
 Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
 
 By VEN. FATHER EYMARD 
 
 A most desirable book for public or private devotion 
 during the month of Our Lady. 
 
 Price, Cloth Bound. Gold Title, - - 50 Cents 
 
 NOVENA TO OUR LADY OF THE MOST 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT 
 
 Price, 5 cents per copy $4.00 per hundred 
 
 PRAYER TO OUR LADY OF THE MOST 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT 
 
 25 cents per hundred 
 
 The same on the reverse of a beautiful photogravure of 
 
 Our Lady of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
 50 cents a dozen $3.00 a hundred 
 
 THE HOLY EUCHARIST 
 
 (4 volumes) 
 
 By VEN. PERE EYMARD 
 
 1. The Real Presence 3. The Eucharistic Retreats 
 
 2. Holy Communion 4. The Divine Eucharist and 
 
 Christian Perfection 
 
 Each Volume. Cloth, 50 Cents Leather, $1.00 
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC HEART. Fr. Tesniere, Cloth, $1.00 
 THE MONTH OF ST. JOSEPH. Pere Eymard. aotli, ^S 
 
 Address, THE SENTINEL PRESS 
 
 185 East 76th Street New York. N. Y.
 
 'All the day long have I spread My hands i 
 to a peo ple that believeth ^not. . ." 
 
 (Rom. X, 21)
 
 CT-
 
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 THE DIVINE EUCHARIST. 
 
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 ■^■^■^■^^■^■^■^■^3 
 
 ^»-V<l THE >-{-^«» 
 
 DilainE GucFianet 
 
 Extracts from the Writings and Sermons 
 
 of Venerable Pierre-Julien EYMARD, 
 
 Founder of the Oongregation of the Most Blessed Sacrament 
 
 — :•:— FOURTH SERIES — :}: — 
 
 THE EUCHARIST AND CHRISTIAN PERFECTION 
 
 FATHERS OF THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 
 
 i8s East 76th Street, NEW YORK. 
 
 tf J tiiiiiiniiiiiirr- riiiiriiytitiTri iiiilllimillilnrmimiiiB ^m
 
 Nihil Ob!>tat 
 
 LUDOVICUS ESTEVENON. S.S.S.. 
 
 SUPKRIOR GENERALIS. 
 
 Rome, Decembei- 8, iQtr 
 
 Nihil Obstat 
 
 REMIGIUS LAFORT. S.T.L.. 
 
 CENSOR. 
 
 IMPRIMATUR 
 
 JOANNES CARDINAL FARLEV, D.D.. 
 
 ARCHIEPISCOPUS NEO-EBOR. 
 
 'i 
 New York'. January 4, igi2 
 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
 
 ^■«&:&^*H^i&.i&^^^iS&*!^^i&^^iii^^^M 
 
 LETTER of the ARCHBISHOP 
 
 of CHAMBERY. 
 
 December ii, 1875 
 
 My dear Father and Friend, 
 
 I thank you for your last gift. This younger brother 
 appears to me worthy of its other brethren, and 
 worthily to complete the family of the holy Pere 
 Eymard 's Eucharistic Works. Indeed, I shall not be 
 astonished if here again Jacob supplants Esau. The 
 teaching of these three Retreats is reliable and ele- 
 vated. It is like the pith and the crowning of all 
 that has gone before. 
 
 I bless again this publication and all the good 
 Fathei^s and Brothers of this new Society, and I 
 commend myself to their prayers and to your own. 
 t P. A., Archbishop of Chamb£;ry. 
 
 IMPRIMATUR : 
 Carolus, Archiepisc. Turonensis. 
 Turonibus, die 19 martii, 1876. 
 
 1^ 
 
 r^nt^A^oi
 
 « 
 
 APPROBATION. 
 
 gfj^^S'^^^ «p"«« "t^ sQif -Wit iflsr«i: «if'*9? •**%"•%■ «9sf^<^"^ 
 
 WE have before us the fourth and last series of the 
 Venerable Pere Eymard's works. All his writ- 
 ings, sa far collected and put into form, are now at the 
 disposal of English readers. All have been approved 
 at Home as the first step toward the Beatification of 
 the holy writer. He could not have more fittingly 
 ended his labors with the pen than by giving us this 
 little volume on Christian Perfection. It is a pro- 
 found subject, which frequently daunts even the brav- 
 est of us in the spiritual life. But led on by the 
 firm hand and gentle guidance of this holy Apostle of 
 the Eucharist, timid souls gain confidence and expand 
 under the sunshine of the Sacred Host. 
 
 The whole code of Christian perfection ^as first 
 preached by Christ in His sermon on the nrount. 
 Pere Eymard has taken those bare, fundamental prin- 
 ciples and clothed them with the Eucharistic spirit. 
 They who have had not only the pleasure, but the 
 good fortune, of reading the other three volumes from 
 his Eucharistic pen, know that for him the Blessed 
 Sacrament was, indeed, Christ living and breathing 
 and still working among us. He points with all the 
 warmth and enthusiasm of a great preacher, to the 
 Sacred Host as the grand Model of every Christian 
 virtue. When he urges souls to follow the counsels, 
 it is because Jesus, " having loved His own who were 
 in the world, loved them unto the end. " He
 
 APPROBATION. 
 
 who proclaimed of Himself, *' I am the way7 the 
 truth, and the life, " is placed before us on every 
 page of these wonderful little books as still pleading 
 for love and service from His redeemed ones. 
 
 May the voice of the Good Shepherd, still guarding 
 His sheep-fold from the depths of our tabernacles all 
 over the world, be borne to souls far and wide by the 
 burning words of this modern propagator of the 
 Eucharistic life ! May its spirit stir up in the hearts 
 of the Faithful of all conditions "a great desire for 
 Holy Communion that thus they may render thera' 
 selves less unworthy to communicate daily ! " 
 
 J. Card. GIBBONS.
 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 JVe are happy to give to our readers the 
 Fourth Series of Venerable Pere Eymard^s 
 Instructions on the Divine Eucharist and Chris- 
 tian Perfectio?!^ which has been eagerly awaited 
 since the issue of the three preceding volumes. 
 
 Herc^ again, we shall listen to the Father 
 speaking. Not only his thoughts but, for the 
 most part, his very expressions have bee7t faith- 
 fully reproduced, for the notes which we have 
 used were taken under his own dictation. The 
 editor of this volume himself took those of the 
 first and the second Retreats. Plre Eymard 
 examined them carefully, and commended their 
 exactitude. 
 
 We arc under the impression that this volume 
 will be greatly appreciated by the numerous 
 Congregations founded recently for the adora- 
 tion of the Most Blessed Sacrament, since they 
 should in a special manner find in the Eucharist 
 the exemplar, as well as the nourishment, oj 
 their religious life. 
 
 To the secular Aggregates of the Society oj 
 the Fathers of the Blessed Sacrament or, as 
 they are known in this country^ The People 's 
 Eucharistic League, // also appeals. Although
 
 X PREFACE. 
 
 the instructions that it contains were delivered^ 
 for the most part, to the Religious of the Insti- 
 iuie, the Aggregates, the tnembers of the League, 
 who, though not leading the same life, ought to 
 breathe the same spirit, will find in it the pre- 
 cepts of EucJiaristic perfection, that is^ a Chris- 
 tian life whose principle, centre, and end is the 
 Eucharist. 
 
 If all the mysteries oj fesus Christ possess in 
 themselves so great a ^race of sanctifcation that 
 whoever aims at living by any one of them, 
 thereby receiving the divine influence of all the 
 others, arrives at perfection thai is very plainly 
 eT.)ident^ and in which the spirit, the character, 
 and the virtue proper to that 7nystery sovereignly 
 dominate ; if Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary, 
 above all, have their disciples, and people the 
 paradise of the Church with saints of their own 
 peculiar beauty, perfume, and usefulness, shall 
 not the Holy Eucharist also, have Its disciples ? 
 shall It not form Its saints ? 
 
 True it is that, as no one reaches the perfect 
 age of fesus Christ unless faithfully nourishing 
 himself with the Sacra?nent of Bis Body und 
 Blood, all the elect are really the fruits of that 
 Tree of Life. But it may be easily understood 
 that, if the Eucharist is the object of a dominant 
 devotion, a central love, a constant study; if one
 
 PREFACE. JCI 
 
 consecrates to It regular^ special, and exclusive 
 attention. It must operate tn souls touched dy 
 this grace and faithful to this attraction a 
 special perfection whose distinctive noie will be 
 the reproduction, as far as possible.^ of the 
 virtues and states of Jesus Christ in this Mys- 
 tery. 
 
 The grace of the Eucharist will flow info 
 these souls and will inspire their conduct with 
 the same motives that led Jesus Christ to insti- 
 tute and perpetuate the Sacra fn en t of His ador- 
 able Presence^ the chief of which is love, " In fi- 
 nem dilexit — He loved to the endP^ The grace of 
 the Eucharist will urge them to prefer the acqui- 
 sition of those virtues that most evidently sprino 
 from the sacramental state of Jesus- Hostia, and 
 none will be dearer to them than that profound 
 humility which is His permanent ^state, and 
 which constitutes the lowest degree Co which love 
 can descend. 
 
 Lastly^ the supreme aim of Our Lord being to 
 give Himself wholly and personally by Holy 
 Communion to every Christian, in order to live 
 in him, to take possession of his soul, his hearty 
 his powers, that He may direct, elevate^ and 
 sanctify them in that divine union, the soul 
 faithful to the action of Eucharistic grace, will 
 give herself to Jesus Christy will deliver over to
 
 XII PREFACE. 
 
 Him as purely as she can^ and every d"y more 
 perfectly^ her beings her ijuhole life^ that He may 
 Himself live in her^ possess her entirely^ and as 
 a Master direct her conduct^ thoughtSy affections^ 
 and actions. Then does the Sacrament attain 
 lis end. Jesus Christ lives in us^ dwells in vs 
 and, as He lives by the Father, so do we li^je by 
 Him. He is the Head, we are but His tnem- 
 bers. He is all, we are nothing, or rather, we 
 are Himself! 
 
 Venerable Pere Eymard shows in one word 
 {which we must call sublime) the supreme ai7n 
 of the work of perfection through the Eucharist : 
 " You must be (remember it well) only human 
 shadows and, as it were, the appearances of which 
 the Eucharist is the substance ! " 
 
 Evidently, this is not the work of a day. 
 What generosity, what fidelity, what labors and 
 combats this noble end exacts! This volutne 
 will serve as a guide to souls whom it interests. 
 May it multiply adorers in spirit and in truth 
 of the Sacrament of Love ! May it help them to 
 increase in the perfect service of the Divine Per- 
 son of Jesus Christ, our King and our Cod, in 
 the Holy Eucharist !
 
 ^^^^^^^^^4^ 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 
 PREACHED TO THE MEMBERS OF THE 
 = CONGREGATION OF THE Z== 
 
 Brothers of S^ Vincent de Paul
 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 HE instructions of this first Retreat were given 
 by the Venerable Pere Eymard to the Congre- 
 gation of the Brothers of St. Vincent de Paul. 
 
 This pious Institute dates from only a few years 
 back. Founded at Paris by the Reverend P^re Le 
 Prevost, of venerated memory, its end is to procure 
 the glory of God and the salvation of souls by opening 
 to the working-classes means of help, clubs, places of 
 assembly, and churches where every evening, and all 
 day on Sunday, workmen may find beneficial rest, 
 lawful recreation, and good instruction. 
 
 The spirit of the work is unbounded zeal and abso- 
 lute devotedness to the workmen, whom the members 
 must search put, attract, and guard by every means 
 supernatural charity can inspire. Here more than 
 anywhere else, the priest and the religious of St. Vin- 
 cent de Paul ought to make himself all to allio gain 
 all these poor hearts to Jesus Christ. He ought, if 
 occasion offered, to know how even to become a 
 martyr, for the Abbe Planchat, martyred during the 
 Commune, was a brother of St. Vincent and Director 
 of the Home of the faubourg Saint-Antoine, which he 
 had founded. 
 
 These few remarlcs will explain several passages of 
 the Retreat in which Pere Eymard alludes to the wnd 
 of the Institute, its works, and its foundation. 
 
 We shall not give the instructions in the order in
 
 FOREWORD, 
 
 which ihey were preached. Now intended rather for 
 spiritual reading- than for meditations of Retreat, the 
 reader will draw more profit from them by taking 
 them one after another in logical sequence, one thus 
 strengthening and throwing light on the other. 
 
 If, however, any one desires to follow the Retreat 
 just as it was preached, he may take them in the 
 order the Father mapped out for five days : 
 
 I. Day. — I. The Graces of Retreat. 
 
 II. Prayer, Its Necessity and Char- 
 
 acter. 
 
 III. The Religious Slate. 
 
 II. Day. — I. The Service of God. 
 
 II. Prayer, the Gift of Our Intel- 
 
 lect. 
 
 III. Does God Love Me ? 
 
 III. Day. — I. Do I Love God. 
 
 II. Prayer, the Gift of Our Heart. 
 
 III. Pardoning Love. 
 
 IV. Day. — I. Humility. 
 
 II. Prayer, the Gift of Our Will. 
 
 III. Meekness. 
 
 V. Day. — I. The Eucharist, the Principle of 
 
 Sanctity. 
 
 II. The Rule, the Sanctification of 
 
 the Religious. 
 
 III. Jesus in the Eucharist, the 
 * Model of the Three Vows. 
 Lastly, the sermon on the Profession orthe Vows.
 
 I TheGRACEof a RETREAT ^ 
 
 for RELIGIOUS. 
 
 f: 
 
 Estate •perfectl sicut Pater vester 
 CQtlestis perfectus est 
 
 Be ye perfect -as your Heavenly 
 Father is perfect 
 
 ERE in a few words is the whole Gospel. 
 Here is the end of Jesus Christ's 
 coming, the aim of the whole Christian life. 
 All the rest of the Gospel merely points out 
 the way and ' the means to attain that end 
 To be perfect as God is perfect, holy as 
 God is holy — behold the end and aim of all 
 our efforts! Never shall we so perfectly attain 
 it as to warrant our pausing to rest. Every- 
 thing here on earth has its limit, but perfection 
 has none. Perfection is a participation in the 
 holiness of God, who is infinitely holy, i 
 
 Even for souls of the best will, there are in 
 the world great difficulties in the attainment 
 of sanctity. Among them is the peril of self- 
 direction, to which may be added that of 
 absorbtion in the labors, the necessary duties 
 of life, the occupations imposed by one's
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 condition or choice. The way of perfection 
 is almost ignored. 
 
 Blessed are they whom God in His mercy 
 calls to the religious life, which separates 
 them from the world and its dangers opens 
 to them a secure way, affords them tried 
 and efficacious means, and employs all the 
 resources of the most active charity to facili 
 tate their acquiring perfection and holiness! 
 
 In the religious life time is given to the 
 care of the soul. The religious does not 
 hesitate to interrupt, to leave all other oc- 
 cupations, liowever good they may be. in 
 order to take time to examine himself, to- 
 reflect on his own interior, and the great 
 affair of his salvation. It is a great grace to 
 have the time, the means, the opportunity to 
 turn away from exterior things in order to 
 th^nk only upon God and self. That is the 
 grace of retreat, the grace of renewal, during 
 which we put our accounts in order, scrutinize 
 the secret folds of our conscience, the most 
 hidden motives of our actions, in order to 
 free them from that spiritual rust, which we 
 denominate routine, which fastens on to the
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 soul imperceptibly, like certain mollusks to 
 the sides of a vessel, weighing it down and 
 retarding its progress, its flight toward God. 
 Retreat offers three principal means of inte 
 rior renovation. 
 
 I. — Retreat purifies the soul from sin, 
 above all, from the habit of sin and affec- 
 tion to sin. 
 
 We walk on the highway, along which the 
 wind raises a thick dust, which falls upon 
 us. It clings to us, even without our knowing 
 it, and our garments become soiled. 
 
 I know very well that we make our examen 
 carefully every evening, and that is enough 
 to remove the heavier and more perceptible 
 part of the dust. But on looking more 
 attentively, is it not true that we find in our 
 soul some venial sins inveterate and of long 
 standing, which remain in spite of our daily 
 examens ? 
 
 We generally forget them in the con- 
 fessional, and neglect to obtain pardon for 
 them by other means. They have become 
 habitual. They no longer shock us. They 
 seem to be a part of ourselves. Now the
 
 8 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 more regular pur exterior life is, the more we 
 are exposed to retaining these venial sins of 
 habit. If we study ourselves by the light of 
 this Retreat, we shall find certain habits of 
 sloth, negligence, self-love, sallies of charac- 
 ter, freedom of speech, which are so deeply 
 rooted that we continually fall into them 
 easily and on the slightest occasion, as we 
 do the most ordinary things. One might say 
 that they form a part of our life-work. We 
 do not know their cause, for we have never 
 searched for their root. How, then, can we 
 rid ourselves of them? 
 
 The Retreat furnishes us more vivid light. 
 It will discover ourselves to us, reveal to us 
 our own interior, show us the causes of those 
 venial sins, enable us to destroy their roots, 
 and thus free ourselves of them. The light, 
 the divine light that penetrates our darkness, 
 more or less involuntary on our part, and 
 purifies us, is the greatest good of the Re- 
 treat, for all depends on being pure. Purity 
 alone is demanded for heaven. We .enter 
 therein with sanctity more or less adorned 
 with virtues, with prayer more or less elevat-
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 ed; but no one goes in w^ithout purity, and 
 purity of soul is sufficient for all. 
 
 How shall we receive the purifying light 
 of the Retreat? By giving ourselves to at- 
 tentive, minute, examinations, by searching 
 our conscience, like the savant studying mi- 
 croscopic animal life in air and water by 
 the aid of his lens. Self-examination should 
 be serious, severe, sincere. In making it, 
 we should, above all, seek light from' God, 
 and then proceed in a spirit of tenderness, 
 love, and filial piety toward Him. We must 
 not become so absorbed in self as not to 
 be able to act or move, but go straight to 
 Oar Lord. See what His love demands of us 
 in spite of our continued refusal. Listen to 
 His reproaches. See where we are under loving 
 obligations to Him, but all this with a true 
 desire to retrench every obstacle, to do all 
 that is necessary to become pure. Let us 
 reflect deeply on this thought: at the hour 
 of death, the dying think neither of their 
 virtues nor merits. They ask in fright whether 
 they are pure, whether they are sufficiently 
 so to appear before the God of purity. 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 10 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 II. — The second grace of Retreat is our 
 renewal in the spirit of fervor. 
 
 It is an incontrovertible axiom that the soul 
 of herself always tends to loss of piety, just 
 as fire, consuming itself, always tends to its 
 own extinction, even while sending up its 
 most brilliant flames And on the battlefield, 
 ihough the soldier may not be killed, he 
 gets tired even while winning, he exhausts 
 his strength. And so the conqueror takes 
 time to refresh his troops by rest 
 
 Tjie exercises and the struggles of th'? 
 spiritual life use up the strength of the soul 
 It must have repose in order to recruit its 
 vigor. Above all, is this necessary in an active 
 life in which the soul pours herself out much 
 more freely in charity to those around her 
 What IS true for all religious is much more 
 so for them. Let a religious, for eight days 
 only, abandon his exercises of the interior 
 life, his prayer, his Office, in one word, his 
 life of piety, and we shall see what he has 
 become at the end of that time, if he h not 
 altogether lost! 
 
 We are only reservoirs, and not very deep
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 11 
 
 ones at that! The source is not in our- 
 selves. If we want, to pour ourselves out, 
 we must at the same time receive, otherwise 
 we shall soon run dry. Ah ! we, more than 
 all, who give much to others, who expend 
 ourselves on so many works, we must begin 
 by being well filled. We must first become 
 saints ourselves before going to sanctify 
 others. We must first glorify God in our- 
 selves, if we would afterward glorify Him in 
 others I 
 
 Jesus Christ prayed and fasted long before 
 undertaking His exterior mission. The Apos- 
 tles spent fifty days in prayer before scattering 
 throughout the world; and Our Lord with- 
 drew them into the desert after their first 
 mission, which had, however, lasted only a 
 short time. 
 
 Let us watch very closely lest, instead of 
 expending only the interest, we touch upon 
 the principal, eating up at once both capital 
 and revenue, which would be to our ruin. 
 Have we always our head well above water 
 during our habitual occupations? Do we con- 
 trol our labors? Are we swayed, carried away
 
 12 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 by them, or do we pass our life under the eye 
 of Jesus Christ, imder the empire of His grace? 
 
 The more we are engaged m holy things 
 the more need have we of frequently with 
 drawling into ourselves, ^of scrutinizing our 
 heart and sounding its depths. 
 
 I do not say to put our virtues under our 
 eyes in order to take complacency in them, 
 to examme them with pride, and to number 
 up our merits But the fear of falhng into 
 self-complacency and self satisfaction must not 
 prevent us from studymg and rendering an 
 exact account of our position — do we rule 
 It? do we rise above it? If we do, oh, God 
 be blessed! All is going well! We are 
 seraphs hurrymg, flying toward God! What 
 do we upon this earth? We have nothmg 
 more to do here below! — But is it, indeed, so"-' 
 
 III. — In fine, the Retreat prepares for us a 
 grace greater than all these, one that is not 
 always sufficiently thought of What is this 
 grace? 
 
 It is that of tasting God in common, in 
 the family, in the reunion of brethren gathered 
 around their father. A religious makes pro
 
 THE GRACE QF A RETREAT. 13 
 
 fession of immolating himself to God throug?i 
 love. His ordinary anticipation is sacrifice, 
 struggle, and death on the summit of Calvary. 
 All is dark and depressing, ever new efforts, 
 new fatigue. 
 
 Well, the Retreat comes to afford us time 
 and grace to enjoy God. We assemble 
 together from everywhere in one family. The 
 Retreat will make us taste the sweetness of 
 fraternal charity, which will find in it new 
 bonds, closer, more intimate. 
 
 The religious has his personal graces, but 
 God dispenses to him still more, the social 
 graces. The first he receives as chosen of 
 God to sanctify himself by personal fidelity; 
 the second he receives as member of a body 
 which God has formed for His designs in 
 the Church. Now, these graces come to us 
 from Jesus Christ through the channel of 
 the. Superior. Graces follow an order es 
 tablished by God, a certain hierarchical order. 
 They descend from the universal Head, who is 
 Jesus Christ, into the secondary heads, who 
 distribute them throughout ;the members. 
 Thus the graces of Pentecost fell first upon
 
 14 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 
 
 Mary, next to Jesus Christ, the largest channel 
 of grace, in order afterward to fill the 
 Apostles. The graces that the universal 
 Church receives are transmitted to her through 
 (he Pope, her visible Head. In the same 
 way, all the graces of a religious Society pass 
 through the Superior thence to spread over 
 all the members of the body. It is this that 
 makes unir\' of spirit based upon unity ol 
 grace. 
 
 The Retreat places us in a perfect state to 
 receive the graces of the spirit, of the vo- 
 cation, of the body of the Society to which 
 we belong, in a word, it puts us in the 
 best condition to receive the grace of our 
 religious life, by bringing us close to our 
 Superior and uniting us more directly with 
 him. We may say that, in general, we have 
 not enough faith in the religious body, in 
 ihe grace of the Superior. We do, indeed, 
 believe that he represents Jesus Christ and, 
 in a spirit of faith, we wish to obey and 
 honor Jesus Christ in his person. But we 
 must, besides, have faith in his grace, that is, 
 m the power he possesses of communicating
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 15 
 
 grace to the whole body, and of giving to 
 it that unity of spirit which forms its strength 
 and its holiness as a religious body. 
 
 It is in this union of children around the 
 paternal table that God communicates Him- 
 self to each of us with goodness, sweetness, 
 and tenderness. Yes, this Retreat ought to 
 be the Pentecost of love. That we may go 
 forth from it strengthened and ready to 
 resume with joy our daily work, we must 
 have in it a taste of God. He must pet us 
 like a tender mother. 
 
 Alas! sad to say, we are so miserably 
 that we fear God's goodness, fear tasting 
 it too much, fear to allow ourselves to 
 plunge into it, to be submerged in it. We 
 are willing to behold the sanctity, the truth, 
 even the mercy of God^ All that still leaves 
 a certain distance between God and ourselves, 
 and gives us, so to say, time to escape Him 
 and not to be caught by Him. It leaves us 
 again to ourselves. We all fear not belong- 
 ing to self, because then we could no longer 
 give ourselves a little to the world or to 
 self-love !
 
 16 THE GRACE OF \ RETREAT. 
 
 But from God in His goodness, in His ten 
 derness, in His ineffable effusions, from God 
 clasping us to His Heart and giving us a taste 
 of His love in perfect union, we flee! Ah! it 
 IS because if God once enters into us ajid 
 fills us With His goodness, if He once makes 
 Himself felt, if He once makes us burst 
 into tears of love and gratitude, all is over 
 we are no longer our own, we are caught 
 in the snare of His love, we can no moro 
 escape, and we must surrender uncondition 
 ally to Him' 
 
 He charms us in His tenderness, He carries 
 us in His arms and, wounded in heart, we 
 have but one word. "Lord, what wouldst 
 Thou have me do? I am all Thine forever! " 
 
 Love is a captor. It gives wings, it casts 
 fire into the soul. Ah, let us allow Oui 
 Lord to make us happy! If He once does so 
 we shall be all His. We say to him whc 
 wants to guard his heart in the midst of 
 the world: Take care never to shed tears and 
 never allow them to fall before you; other- 
 wise, you will surrender all your strength 
 you will no more belong to yourself;
 
 THE GRACE OF A RETREAT. 17 
 
 But here there is question of God, of Jesus 
 Christ. Ah! let us permit ourselves to be 
 inebriated by His tencterness, ravished b>'- 
 His love! 
 
 If we wish to make a good Retreat, let 
 us place ourselves under the protection of 
 Mary. She is the Mother of interior souls. 
 She disposes of the secret treasures .of 
 Jesus' bounty. May she obtain for us self- 
 enlightenment, a clear light, pure and ef- 
 fective, capable of lighting the fire of the 
 heart and spreading the flame of the will!
 
 IP 
 
 
 The SERVICE of GOD. 
 
 ^ 
 
 e 
 
 I. — We ought to serve God, for we are 
 His creatures and His property. Although 
 God gives us liberty, He does not mean to 
 relinquish His rights over us. We belong 
 to Him, we are His; and should we endeavor 
 to free ourselves by disobedience, which is 
 a true robbery of God's goods, a demal 
 of His rights, we then declare war agamst 
 God. God has then to declare anew His 
 right to possession, and He does so by 
 chastisement. Did He allow the revolt to go 
 unpunished, He would no longer be God. 
 
 God does nothmg without an end. When 
 He gave us a mind, a heart, and a will, 
 He meant to render us capable of knowing, 
 loving, and serving Him. How greatlv this 
 end honors us! 
 
 That God willed to render us capable of 
 loving Him, and that He willed to accept our 
 love, is the grandeur of Christian grace, the 
 most brilliant testimony of God's infinite con- 
 descension. The inferior cannot presume to
 
 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 19 
 
 love one who is above him. Love supposes 
 or produces equality. It binds on both sides. 
 Now, God cannot consent to be our equal, 
 excepting by His love of condescension. 
 But in truth, He wishes it. He wants to be 
 loved, hence He stoops to us. Truly, He 
 did not fear to go even to the end in that 
 way of mercy and, becoming incarnate, 
 sending His Son to be our Brother, Pie 
 became really our equal. 
 
 But at the same time that in the Word 
 He abases Himself to us, in the Humanity 
 of the Word He raises us even to Himself, 
 so that in Jesus Christ He loves us infinitely; 
 and we, too, in Jesus Christ and by His 
 merits, can love Him infinitely. Loving Him, 
 we necessarily serve Him, for we cannot lov« 
 Him without knowing Him; and that knowl 
 edge gives rise to the necessity of serving 
 Him, for it shows Him to us as God, Our 
 Lord and Master, and it puts us in pur 
 rank of creatures who owe Him all that 
 they have and all that they are. 
 
 Thus the necessity of serving God flows 
 from the knowledge of what He is and from
 
 20 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 the grace to love what He gives us, as the 
 effect springs from its natural cause. 
 
 But how serve God as He deserves, and 
 what motives ought to animate us to serve 
 Him well? 
 
 II. — First, It is a duty of justice which 
 obliges us to the positive law in all that it 
 demands.- This law ought to take precedence 
 of every private will. 
 
 So, first the law of God, the Decalogue, 
 then the laws of the Church, all her laws; 
 and, lastly, the laws of our state. Herein is 
 contained the testimony of the expressed will 
 of God. It ought to take precedence of all 
 duties of supererogation we may have im- 
 posed upon ourselves. 
 
 Alasl under this pretext of domg more, 
 how unfaithful are they who presume to 
 dispense themselves from what is prescribed, 
 and who really thereby violate some law I 
 How many sins against the simple law of 
 justice 1 
 
 Let us base our sanctity on this firm rock: 
 let the first foundation of our religious life 
 be the exact and rigorous observance of the
 
 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 21 
 
 law explicitely laid down and of the law of 
 justice; for the religious life, while subject to 
 the counsels, does not dispense from the 
 common law. Our obligations increase, our 
 graces also. We must keep the counsels and 
 not omit the law. 
 
 The Lord in His mercy, has promised a 
 recompense for the fulfilment of justice. He 
 lias a right to be served for Himself without 
 any retribution, but He desires to multiply 
 the forms of His love. After having infused 
 His love into us in order that we may be able 
 to merit, He crowns it in us for the 'works 
 that it has therein performed. 
 
 Thus loved and prevented, shall we not 
 do for God what we would do for men? If 
 1 have not done it, I am a wretch. I have 
 preferred the devil, vanity, to the service of 
 God I I have, perhaps, never thought of it, 
 but that is a poor excuse. Ignorance gives 
 no right to insult God. 
 
 III. — We must sei-ve God, because it is to 
 our interest, because we have everything to 
 gain in His service, and the recompense will 
 be magnificent. Again God's goodness shows
 
 22 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 itself here. He could have exacted of His 
 creature absolute service without any rec- 
 ompense. But no. He wills that His ser- 
 vice Itself should be useful to us and that, 
 m serving Him, we labor far more for our- 
 selves than for Him. His laws, in fact, afford 
 us supernatural helps and at the same time, 
 the rules to accomplish them. They elevate 
 us and supply for our natural mdigence. 
 They render us happy m this world and in 
 the other. Here below they put us at rest 
 in the order and happmess that result from 
 peace and the spiritual goods that flourish 
 m it; and after this life, they give us divme 
 and unending joy. Surely, the service that 
 God demands of us gives more to us than 
 to Himself! But m spite- of that, we fail to 
 serve Him, and even for our own mterest! 
 We desire with all our strength to be able 
 to abuse our liberty, and we despise God's 
 magnificent promises! "We bestir ourselves 
 for a stipend," says the" Imitation, "and we 
 will not r^se a foot for the kingdom of God.* 
 Oh, the blindness of ingratitude! 
 IV — But we must serve God through love.
 
 THE SF VICE OF GOD. 23 
 
 Interested service is good, but it is not 
 perfection. Our God is a Father, let us servo 
 Him as children by devotedness which takes 
 no account, which expects nothing, but which, 
 gives itself through a need of the heart, in- 
 order to return love for love. Do children 
 demand a salary for the services they render 
 their parents? Filial love wants no other 
 recompense than to love and devote itself 
 through gratitude. 
 
 At the time of the Crimean War, a soldier 
 came to me, desiring to confess before em- 
 barking. He was not a conscript. He was 
 going of his own free will. He had sold 
 himself as a substitute for the support of his 
 aged father and mother. That all appeared 
 very natural to him, and he told me that he 
 had only done his duty. He went off quite 
 happy. See what filial love can do! See 
 what human parents receive! Shall we not 
 do as much for God? And shall not this 
 Father of all goodness be able to rouse in 
 us filial love, generous and disinterested? If 
 hot, it is a great shame for us! 
 We may, perhaps, say that we have left all
 
 24 THE SERVICE OF GOD. 
 
 for Him. That is well, but let us examine 
 whether we have m reality left all. 
 
 Let us, then, serve God, for it is justice. 
 We have to repair, and the more we have 
 offended Him, the more rigorously we ought 
 now to observe His laws. 
 
 Let us serve Him through interest, in order 
 to do henceforth for Him as much, at least, 
 as we formerly did for ourselves. 
 
 Let us serve Him, above all, through love 
 as a Father, a Friend, as Our Saviour, to 
 return Him a little of our love for the in- 
 finite love that He has shown us. and that 
 He still daily lavishes upon us! 
 
 \7
 
 ^ 
 
 ■ W 
 
 The RELIGIOUS STATE. ^ 
 
 I 
 
 HE religious state is along with the 
 Episcopate, the state of perfection in 
 the Church. There is between them this 
 difference, that the Episcopate supposes per. 
 faction acquired, while the religious state 
 essentially tends thereto, but by sure and 
 perfect means. 
 
 Happy the religious . who can occupy him- 
 self with his salvation alone, concentrate on 
 that great affair all his efforts and all his 
 graces! The secular priest is far from having 
 these facilities. He is, above all, for others. 
 He is God's minister to souls, an inter- 
 mediary. The religious life is,- then, a grace 
 of security and mercy. 
 
 T. — It is, in effect, the greatest grace of 
 mercy. Our Lord sees a poor soul, weak 
 and surrounded by enemies. He knows not 
 how to defend himself, and he will, without 
 doubt, succumb. He calls him to the religious 
 life. He shuts him up in that citadel in which 
 he will escape the great struggles of the 
 plain. There He surrounds him with graces, 
 
 The Divine Euchsyist. 3
 
 26 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 
 
 lights, experience, and salutary means. The 
 religious life is a favor-, a privilege of the 
 good God to a saul. If we would understand 
 it, we nwist examine it. Ah! if we have ever 
 drunk the poison of the world,, if we have 
 been caught in the snares of vanity and sin, 
 if we have, in a word, experienced our own 
 weakness and weighed the work that we did. 
 we know well how great is the grace that 
 withdrew us into the religious life. We do 
 not sufficiently reflect on vocation m the 
 light of its being a mark of Jesus Christ's 
 love of pr.eference for us. So now it behoov^es 
 us to attach ourselves to it. to hold fast to 
 It as to the only plank of salvation. \\'hat 
 chances he loses who abandons the religious 
 life he had once embraced! .\nd what 
 temerity to leave that fortress in order to 
 expose himself to those dangers from which 
 God's kind providence had snatched him.. 
 because he could not face them! The 
 journey from the cell to heaven is short. Let 
 us not quit it I 
 
 This is a great favor! Sometimes we pride 
 ourselves on the merit of havnng become a
 
 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 27 
 
 religious, and think we have done a heroic 
 action. Alas! we are in arrears with mercy. 
 The advantage is all on our side. We receive 
 a hundred times more than we have given. 
 It js all for our gross interest. It is we 
 who are the gainers, we who are served by 
 it, and not we who serve. The Society to 
 which we belong, its Superior, its other 
 members, its graces, its virtues, its sanctity 
 and its experience, the will of God oyer it — 
 all that is offered us, and we make use of it 
 as belonging to us. Oh! woe to him who 
 thinks himself something in a Society, who 
 thinks that it owes much to him for having 
 entered, and who makes self the end of the 
 services that it renders! No. no, we are all 
 the favored ones, let us understand that well. 
 What we give is nothing in comparison with 
 what we receive. We ought to love our So- 
 ciety with a love of gratitude, acknowledge 
 what we owe to it, and incessantly thank 
 God" for the mercy He has shown us in calling 
 us to it. 
 
 II. — The religious life is a grax^e of very 
 special love, of choice, an extraordinary grace.
 
 28 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 
 
 It is to His disciples, to those that His love 
 distinguishes; to His chosen ones that Our 
 Lord says: "Go, sell all that thou hast, and 
 come follow Me." 
 
 All the helps afforded by the religious life 
 share in the nobility of its end. All its graces 
 are eminent. Only extraordinary graces are 
 therein received. Everything- in it elevates 
 us to uncommon holiness, to eminent sanctity 
 In It we must be saints under penalty of 
 being altogether unfaithful There is no 
 middle course. Every religious is called to 
 be a great saint, and the graces he receives 
 are m proportion to this subhme vocation. 
 
 AIL the means it offers, are, besides, sure 
 and tried The saints employed them, and 
 sanctified themselves by faithfully doing so. 
 The way is clearly marked out. God Himself 
 is the guide, or His angels. It is really 
 as in the desert, the government of God 
 Himself represented in His visible angels. 
 He there speaks by His law, the Rule; by 
 His own mouth, the order of Superiors. 
 Happy people of whom God is the leader, in 
 the midst of whom He abides, and of whom
 
 the; religious state. 29 
 
 He intrusts the conduct to no one but Him- 
 self and His angels! The Jews wanted to 
 have judges and kings. It was for their own 
 loss. Would that they were still under the 
 immediate conduct of God! This we enjoy 
 in the religious life. Let us greatly ap- 
 preciate this grace. It is not to be found 
 hi the world. 
 
 Still more, in the religious life every one 
 is helped by his brother. They support one 
 another. Each one increases his strength and 
 his merits a hundredfold by the virtue and 
 merits of his brethren? Is that nothing? 
 Ah! if in the world they knew what the 
 religious life is, they would storm the con- 
 vents, and no one would remain in it ! 
 
 ni. — Lastly, the religious life is a grace of 
 excellent and very special honor, which Jesus 
 Christ extends to us. The religious is to 
 Our Lord what the Cardinals are morally to 
 the Sovereign Pontiff. He is a prince oi 
 the blood, the intimate companion ot Our 
 Lord. 
 
 To. religious, the Father confides His Di- 
 vine Son and Mary, as He did to Saint John.
 
 30 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 
 
 He places m their hands the salvation of 
 souls. Yes, He intrusts religious with the 
 salvation of the world. To save souls, to 
 be the victim of salvation and of life for the 
 world, is the essence of the religious grace. 
 He creates religious the apostles and chiefs 
 of His chosen people. And for us in par- 
 ticular, see what honor He does us by con- 
 fiding to us all His poor children! People 
 hand over the educat on of those whom they 
 love particularly only to safe and experienced 
 masters. Well, He gives to us to save, pre- 
 serve, mstruct the poor, His dearest children 
 And so, the religious life gives us the pleni 
 tude of the grace of our apostolate, the 
 most beautiful of all on earth. 
 
 See, now, whether we ought not to be saints 
 Alas! it is sad to see where we are! 
 
 We must, then, sanctify ourselves in good 
 earnest; otherwise, how shall we worthil> 
 respond to this word: "God has loved me 
 with a love of preference," if not by saying. 
 "I wiU Jove Him without reserve!" 
 
 Our grace is so much greater as we form 
 the beginning and the foundation of our So-
 
 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 31 
 
 ciety. We shall not have so much glory as 
 those that will come after us, but we shall 
 have more merit. Our successors will live 
 on the fruits of our labors and sacrifices. 
 As for us, let us live of the pure love of God, 
 and sacrifice ourselves to our work. Calvary 
 is of greater value than Thaborl 
 
 If there are still in our Society things in- 
 determinate, undeveloped, not yet well order- 
 ed, little and humble, let us love them. It 
 will be our glory to have been nothing, to 
 have made no show, and to have served God 
 and our work amid the difficulties of for- 
 mation. 
 
 We have the grace of the present time. 
 Our Lord allows Himself to be seen in the 
 Blessed Sacrament for the salvation of the 
 world. He will act through us upon the 
 people. We know that the world can be 
 reformed only by the miserable. The majori- 
 ty of those that hold the first places in 
 learning, in science, in social position, are 
 gangrened by vice or wandering in indif 
 ference and rationalism. Too often success 
 follows on vice. On the other side, the hatred
 
 32 THE RELIGIOUS STATE. 
 
 of the poor, of those that suffer far from God, 
 threatens to consume everythmg 'm a horrible 
 conflagration. That hatred n;ust be stamped 
 out ; the clay of the people must be kneaded 
 agam, and mto it breathed the breath of 
 Jesus Christ The poor must be -led back to 
 God, and God restored to the poor. This is 
 our mission. Let us seek, ol^ let us seek 
 the lowly, and give to them their Brother, 
 their Father, and their Saviour 1
 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 ^ Its NECESSITY and CHARACTER. 
 
 ^ 
 
 Oportet orare et nunquam deficree. 
 We ought always to pray, and not 
 to faint. 
 
 JRAYER, incessant prayer, otherwise call- 
 ed the habit of prayer, is necessary 
 for every Christian. All have received the 
 grace of prayer in Baptism. It is the Holy 
 Spirit who inspires us to cry to God: "Abba 
 Fater — Father, Father 1" It is the gift, the 
 grace, the privilege of all. We 'can do no 
 good, practise no virtue without prayer, which 
 obtains for us the grace of goodness and 
 virtue. Prayer is the foundation of all the 
 virtues, and faith itself, the beginning of 
 justice, it but the exercise of prayer. 
 
 The prophet, therefore, thanked God for 
 leaving him in the midst of his weaknesses, 
 his tribulations and falls, the faculty of prayer, 
 and he says: '' Benedictus Deus, qui non amo- 
 vit orationem meam et misericordiam suam a 
 me — Blessed be God, who hath not turned
 
 34 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 
 
 away my prayer nor His mercy from mel" 
 as if to be able to pray and to obtain mercy 
 were one and the same thing. He com 
 prehends the importance of prayer, and that 
 to pray is to possess the Heart of God and 
 the salvation of one's soul. 
 
 But prayer must be made with confidence, 
 and confidence is breathed into us by the 
 Holy Spirit Himself. It is He who gives us 
 The spirit of the children of adoption, that 
 childlike confidence which makes us turn to 
 God as to a Father. It is given co us as 
 a permanent gift and a habit which we ought 
 to exercise. 
 
 It is in grace 'as in the order qi nature 
 The child is essentially prayerful. It is the 
 need of the child to supplicate its mother, to 
 address itself to her to obtain all it wants. 
 It does so with confidence, and that is a 
 proof of its love. A mother is saddened and 
 complains that her child never asks her for 
 anything She augurs from that that he does 
 not love her, and she is right. 
 
 Let us, then, ask of the good God, put His 
 goodness into play. What will He do with
 
 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 35 
 
 graces with which His hands are filled, if 
 we da not ask Him for them? Here is a 
 good idea, and one fruitful in practice, that 
 is, we must make use of God's bounty, 
 occupy it actively in distributing graces by 
 asking them of Him confidently. We always 
 want to go to God by way of our misery. 
 Doubtless, before God one should not be 
 without humility. Let us not, however, remain 
 too, much in our lowliness. Let us think that, 
 although a sinner, we are always the son, 
 and He is the Father. Let us not always 
 be like mendicants groaning at the gate and 
 exposing our miseries. We must remember 
 our title of son, the most beautiful, the most 
 influential of all our names. 
 
 Strong in this confidence, let us address 
 ourselves to Mary : " Good Mother, I come 
 to thee with confidence, for thou must be to 
 me the Queen of Mercy ! " 
 
 Say to Jesus Christ : " Good Master, who 
 hast suffered so much for me, let me not 
 lose the fruit of Thy sufferings! Apply them 
 to me Thyself abundantly. 
 
 " O good Jesus, Thou hast acquired treas-
 
 36 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 
 
 ures of merits, and Thou hast no greater 
 desire than to give me a share in them 
 Follow, then, the inclination of Thy Heart 
 Save me. give me to Thy Father! I will 
 be the trophy of Thy victory. Thy glory 
 will become brighter. For Thy name and for 
 Thy glory, hearken to my prayer!" 
 
 Prayer is, then, all-powerful. Instead of 
 supporting it on our misery, it should be 
 based on God Himself; instead of being a 
 distasteful contemplation of our own wretched- 
 ness, It should become a combat of love. 
 Behold the gift of prayer! 
 
 II. — Many say. " I know not how to pray; 
 and if I did receive the gift in Baptism,' I 
 do not know how to exercise it, " 
 
 There is much illusion in this plea. Prayer 
 is not a mountain to be climbed. One must 
 proceed more simply than that. Let us pray, 
 then, with our grace of the moment, with 
 our grace of state. Let us pray by our 
 titles of religious and priests, presenting our- 
 selves such as we are, employing the little 
 means, the faculties, such as they are, that 
 the good God has given us.
 
 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 37 
 
 I may say that our state, as religious, is 
 a state, a profession of prayer. Let us perfect 
 ourselves in our profession. Men of the 
 world have a wonderful talent for perfecting 
 themselves in their calling, whatever it may 
 be. They are constantly inventing, shortening 
 the time of manufacturing, rendering it less 
 laborious, less costly. They are always bring- 
 ing out more beautiful, more convenient 
 things. Shall we be they who will always 
 remain unskilful in the lise of the instruments 
 belonging to their profession? Shall we never 
 know how to say anything but Paters and 
 Aves ? Shall all our meditation be limited to 
 the examen of conscience, to reckoning up 
 our faults, to gazing upon and rehearsing 
 our miseries? 
 
 We should make of prayer a practical 
 virtue, a virtue of every instant, whose acts 
 should be easy and,- as it were, natural. 
 Nothing supplies for this virtue. Such the 
 prayer, such the life. Ille recte vivere novif, 
 qui recte novit orare. If we pray badly, we 
 shall lead a poor religious life, nothing will
 
 38 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 
 
 Superior. This exercise should excel all others 
 in fervor and assiduity. The prayers of Rule, 
 first and indispensable, do not ordinarily 
 suffice to sustain the fervor of the interior 
 life. They are made only at regular intervals. 
 Now, it is necessary that prayer should never 
 be discontinued. For this reason, in practice, 
 one should always have on hand some sup- 
 plementary prayers, some novena. for in- 
 stance, over and above those of our profession, 
 some devotion suited to the time or to the 
 state of the soul. The saints ised to do this. 
 Again, we must vary the same prayer by 
 directing its intention sometimes upon one 
 subject, sometimes on another, for it would 
 not be profitable, it would even be dan- 
 gerous, to want always to add new formulas 
 of prayers to the old ones. But it is well 
 to vary the intention of our prayer according 
 to circumstances. There are some simple 
 souls who with their Rosary, obtain all 
 graces, are enlightened in all things with 
 special lights. It is because they have a very 
 special intention. 
 In prayer one must have an inventive
 
 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 39^ 
 
 talent, and acquire the facility of making his 
 prayer himself. Such prayer works miracles, 
 because it springs from the depths of the: 
 heart, from the heart supernaturaliz-ed by the 
 presence of charity, by the grace of the Holy 
 Spirit. Let us look to this, we who make 
 such efforts to find the way to pray, as if 
 prayer could be produced by our own mind 
 and our own natural heart. I know not what 
 pride seeks to persuade us that it is we who 
 should pray, and it is on that account we 
 thmk it necessary to make those extraordinary 
 efforts. Ah! it is the Holy Spirit who de- 
 sires to pray in us! Of ourselves, we are 
 incapable of doing so; but the Spirit of 
 Jesus Christ, who abides in us, wishes to help 
 our impotence and to pray by His ineffable 
 groanings. Then, let this Spirit of love speak 
 and pray. The prayer that comes from Him 
 is the true and good prayer of the heart, 
 that which penetrates the- heavens and obtains 
 all that it asks. Prayer is, then, a thing- 
 far more simple than the demon represents to 
 us! To be silent, to destroy obstacles, in 
 order to let the Holy Spirit pray in us, and
 
 40 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 
 
 to unite with the prayer that He is making in 
 us, — behold the exercise and the virtue of 
 
 prayer 
 
 III. — Only be constant in prayer and in 
 exercising this so necessary virtue. 
 
 There are some prayers that we ought not 
 easily to abandon, some old formulas of 
 childhood whose antiquity makes their virtue. 
 They form, as it were, a part of our soul. 
 Keep them, provided you have not too 
 weighty a baggage of them. With siill 
 greater reason shun loading yourself with all 
 those new prayers which are multiplying on 
 all sides, and with whose composition every 
 one busies himself. Above all, guard against 
 prayers composed by women. They inundate 
 the avenues of piety. They are not always 
 secure from error, not always perfectly or- 
 thodox. Imagination plays a great part in 
 them. And would you be willing to form 
 your prayer of errors in Faith, your prayer 
 which is your preservative, your means of 
 intimate union with God! In practice, show, 
 submit all new prayers to your Superior. 
 His grace will know how to distinguish the
 
 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 41 
 
 true from the false and, among so many 
 unsubstantial and deceptive viands, that which 
 is proper for you. 
 
 Again, do not place all your confidence 
 in prayer-books. Without doubt, they are 
 good and useful. They help, I know, but 
 they also greatly foster laziness. I say this 
 to you, on account of the respect this holy 
 thing, yoiu* prayer, your intimate relations 
 with God deserve. There are so many en- 
 lightened in our day. They think themselves 
 enlightened by God. But it is only their own 
 excited imagination that deludes them and 
 makes them prophesy, for they have not 
 received their spirit of prophecy from the 
 Holy Ghost. 
 
 Pray by your grace of faith. Ah, to pray 
 by faith, by submission to the will of God. 
 in adoration of His Being, His^ grandeur. His 
 beauty, and goodness, — that is not subject 
 to illusion! 
 
 Pray with your heart, and submit to the 
 rays of grace and love your prayer, your 
 sentiments, all that comes forth from that 
 heart. 
 
 THe Divine EucharisL
 
 42 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 
 
 As to vocal prayers, never neglect those 
 of the Rule, but do not take up many more. 
 
 Pray also with the mind, by submitting it 
 to the grace of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit 
 of prayer. Form in yourself, as it were, a 
 perpetual creation of good thoughts, but join 
 affection to it, for the mind by itself would 
 soon succumb under the labor and fatigue. 
 
 The saints are admirable in drawdng prayer- 
 ful affections from everything and every- 
 where. It is because they abide in God. 
 They see ever>'thing in Him. Everything 
 raises them to Him and excites them to love 
 Him. Prayer is their inspiration and expira- 
 tion, the movement of their affection toward 
 God admits, undergoes no interruption, and 
 in this way they realize the words: " Oportet 
 semper orare — We must pray always." 
 
 We cannot always have new thoughts, but 
 we can always direct our affection toward 
 God. The heart is united to all our faculties 
 and devotes itself to all. Along with their 
 uninterrupted prayer, the saints found time 
 to compose magnificent works, to traverse 
 the world, and to discharge an indefatigable
 
 PRAYER, ITS NECESSITY, CHARACTER. 43 
 
 ministry. They prayed with heart and affec- 
 tion, they converted all their labors into 
 prayer. 
 
 To reach- that point, one must will it, ask 
 it urgently of God as the grace of graces. 
 One must make frequent acts of it with 
 some exterior assent which will recall his 
 resolution, and oblige himself to some 
 exterior signs that will arouse his attention.
 
 si^jSR 2^ •a^i&2^^i^j^^2a&2^i^ji&^»fi^»a^^^ ; 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 the GIFT of our INTELLECT. 
 
 RAYER is the homage of the whole 
 man, of his being and all his faculties 
 to God. It ought, then, to begin by an 
 offering of self to the Di\ine Majesty. By 
 that we enter into the true spirit of prayer. 
 It is a visit of homage, a recognition of 
 God's greatness and our own dependence. 
 The first thing to do is, then, to prostrate 
 interiorly and exteriorly, in order to offer to 
 God the homage of our whole being, our 
 soul, our intellect, and our heart. 
 
 This homage ought to be deep and silent. 
 It is the act. of annihilated adoration, just 
 as in heaven, they say not a word, and yet 
 they say everything. 
 
 The first thing, then, is to be silent, to 
 adore, and to annihilate one's self before God 
 
 I. — But after that begins the meditation 
 properly so called, which is the exercise of 
 the sanctification of oui* faculties. Here the 
 mind, the heart, and the will act. As for
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 45 
 
 ^he body, it must be lulled to rest as* much 
 as possible, left in repose. If it is made to 
 suffer too much, it will disturb the action 
 of the faculties. 
 
 The first faculty that ought to be exercised 
 in prayer is our mind, our understanding, 
 our reason. This faculty, which perceives the 
 relations of things, which seizes on them, 
 gives birth to our knowledge. 
 
 Now, it is necessary to sanctify the mind, 
 supernaturalize the intelligence. One's spir- 
 itual education is made only by God Himself, 
 in converse with Him, in prayer. Every mind 
 that has not received lessons from God in 
 prayer, which has not been trained and 
 reformed by prayer, will have an education 
 wanting in the supernatural. Put no great 
 confidence in him who is not accustomed 
 to the practice of this exercise. All that 
 books and masters can teach is but the 
 method of prayer. They introduce into the 
 sanctuary, but man must give up his mind 
 to God. It is God alone who can fill it 
 with His divine light and render his educa> 
 don supernatural.
 
 46 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 
 
 This alone can form serious souls. With- 
 out prayer, they who receive Our Lord in 
 Communion will never know how to converse 
 with Him. Our Lord will not penetrate into 
 their understanding, which is not open to Him. 
 He will remain, as it were, in the ante- 
 chamber He will not enter into the depths 
 of their heart. Their soul will not be 
 nourished by Him, will not live on. Him. will 
 never be transformed into Him, abandoning 
 her own natural life, her judgnients and affec- 
 tions,in order to put on the life;thoughts, affec- 
 tions, and virtues of Jesus Christ Himgelf. 
 
 To return to what I was saying, in order to 
 meditate, begin by forming thoughts and 
 considerations in the understanding. Study, 
 consider attentively, recall, compare, strike the 
 flint in order to get the brilliant spark. This 
 exercise of the understanding is essential. It 
 is what produces the affection of the heart. 
 It Is more important than the affections them- 
 selves, which can neither be enkindled nor 
 be lasting, if the understanding, which is 
 their furnace, is not well fed. In heaven, it 
 is the sight of God that produces union,
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 47 
 
 transformation, happiness. The knowledge of 
 an object produces that object in us, and 
 we can feel the intellectual contact of a thing 
 without adhering to it in heart and affection. 
 All, then, depends on knowledge. It is the 
 foundation of prayer, its source, its furnace. 
 To see is to love, to possess. 
 
 If the piety of our days is so languishing, so 
 shallow, it is because people attach them- 
 selves too much to its practices, neglecting 
 the principle. They warm the sentiments, 
 they set the imagination boiling. They do 
 not force themselves to reflect sufficiently, 
 to study, to fathom, and so they fall into 
 the piety of routine. The heart and the will 
 turn to them by a kind of instinct and 
 need, which they have contracted, but there 
 is nothing solid, nothing deep, nothing very 
 generous about it. There is wanting to them 
 the food of the understanding, which would 
 furnish new motives, renew them constantly, 
 manifest God more clearly, as well as all 
 that we owe Him. 
 
 The understanding is the seat of faith. It 
 is faith that receives the imprint of God,
 
 48 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 
 
 which communicates it to the heart; and it 
 IS in faith, above all, that God abides, much 
 more than in the heart and the will. The; 
 emotions of the heart are constantly changing. 
 The will has more or less enthusiasm ac- 
 cording to change of circumstances. But the 
 light of faith is invariable. It comes from 
 the truth of God, it rests on what He is, 
 on His word, and it rules all the dispositions, 
 all the states of the soul. 
 
 It is this light of faith that upholds the 
 soul, elevates, and directs it. It is the rec 
 ompense of fidelity. " He that keepeth My 
 commandments, " says the Saviour,... " I will 
 come, and I will manifest Myself to him. " 
 This is the light that He promises. This 
 light of faith is never extinguished. No 
 human blast can put it out. It is the beacon 
 which is seen immovable in the most violent 
 tempests of the heart and the senses. Deeply 
 rooted in us, enkindled in us by the Holy 
 Spirit Himself, there it remains in spite of 
 all disturbances. 
 
 I do not mean to say that the understanding 
 must be so entirely separated from the heart
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT, 49 
 
 that we are satisfied with the light of the 
 former alone. No, on the contrary, the light 
 received, formed in the understanding, should 
 descend to the heart and there be prepared, 
 so that the will may derive from it the fresh 
 strength that it needs. We are one, and we 
 can not isolate our faculties one from another. 
 They depend on one another, they help one 
 another, and they are all necessary to perfect 
 our vital operations. But what I want to say 
 is this -that we must use the understanding 
 actively, fill it with God by faith, because 
 it is the beginning and the principle of all. 
 Before digesting nourishment and using the 
 strength it imparts to the body, one must 
 first receive it, take it, and that, too, is the 
 function of the understanding. 
 
 Saint Paul, converted by Jesus Christ, is in 
 the very moment of his conversion a perfect 
 image of meditation. The Lord threw him to 
 the ground and made Himself known. " Quis 
 es, Domine? — Who art Thou, Lord?" He 
 touches him at once: "I am Jesus, but Jesus 
 whom thou persecutest. " Paul's heart is mov- 
 ed, he sees Jesus, Jesus crucified, and his.
 
 50 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 
 
 will is inflamed: "Lord, what wilt Thou have 
 me do ? *' 
 
 n. — How ought we to exercise our under- 
 standing ? In the first place, we must prepare 
 our subject of prayer. It is absolutely nec- 
 essary for us to know what it is going to 
 be. It is not necessary to know beforehand 
 all that we shall say, but it is necessary to 
 know exactly upon what we are going to 
 meditate. 
 
 After that we must proceed from the known 
 to the unkno\vn, from the natural to the 
 supernatural, that is to say, we must make 
 use of all that we know to facilitate the 
 study of the truth we are proposing to our- 
 selves. 
 
 We always have some thoughts, some re- 
 membrance of reading ^r lessons on the 
 mysteries and truths of religion. We may 
 make use of them in the beginning, ap- 
 plying them to our subject. They will shed 
 greater light by being brought to bear upon 
 the truth under actual consideration. It has 
 its grace. Touched, struck, it will give out 
 its spark. Little by little, the light will be-
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 51 
 
 come greater, and Our Lord will manifest 
 Himself to our good will. 
 
 We may set out at least with our misery, 
 ^ith some negative truth, if we have no 
 positive one upon the mystery or the truth 
 tve are considering. See how wanting it is 
 to us, how far we are from it, how for- 
 bidding the contrary vice. Discover some- 
 thing. Establish some connection that will fix 
 our mind on our subject. When the un- 
 derstanding is once fixed on it, it will always 
 end by being penetrated more or less by it, 
 for grace faitMully responds to the humble 
 and upright good will. 
 
 Only let us not try to do more than our 
 intellectual strength permits, nor seek to make 
 the meditations of Bossuet, if we have not 
 his genius. Let us hold on to these two keys 
 of meditation, these two methods, one by 
 negative truth, the other by positive truth. 
 
 The first starts from the knowledge of our 
 nothingness, our sins, our temptations, in 'a 
 word, our misery. The soul that starts from 
 this truth, that begins her meditation by it, 
 always has, enough to occupy her. She has
 
 52 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 
 
 always a familiar point upon which to plant 
 her foot, and from it to take flight toward the 
 divine truths. This is the easiest method. It 
 is good, because it plunges us into humility, 
 and it is always profitable to place under 
 our eyes our own abjection, in order not to 
 lose sight of our origin. 
 
 The positive method, on the contrary, enters 
 at once into the truth considered in itself. 
 into the love of the mystery. It confines 
 itself, above all, to exalting God, to acknowl- 
 edging His love, His attributes in such or 
 such a mystery. His perfections in such or 
 such a virtue, the glory that redounds to Him 
 from it, the perfection with which Jesus Christ 
 practised it. 
 
 If, for example, we are meditating on the 
 death of Our Lord, the method of positive 
 love leads us to think at- once on the immense 
 love He has shown us, and to offer to God the 
 glory which His justice and majesty derived 
 from it. It is love, glory, God or Jesui 
 Christ in themselves that it offers for our 
 contemplation. 
 
 By the former method, the soul beholds in
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 53 
 
 that death only her sins which caused it and, 
 in self-examination, she seeks to find out 
 which of them was the special cause of the 
 sufferings and death of the Man-God. Then 
 she plunges into regret, self-humiliation. 
 
 In this way. the positive adores, exalts God 
 in herself; the negative beholds herself in 
 God. 
 
 Which is preferable ? To establish any com- 
 parison between two methods which come 
 from the Spirit of God, and which lead to 
 Him, is not necessary. In practice, the one 
 must not be separated from the other. 
 
 But what we may say to you, to you who 
 were not converted yesterday, is that, if you 
 desire to be more quickly recollected, more 
 immediately united to God, it is far better 
 not to concentrate yourselves in yourselves, 
 and not always to put your miseries between 
 your soul and God. Be more desirous of 
 seeing His goodness, His love, of contem- 
 ■plating Him in Himself and in His divine 
 attributes. You will come afterward to. self. 
 Love to see the virtue in Jesus Christ, lo 
 study the perfection and intention with which
 
 54 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT. 
 
 He practised it; in a word, nourish your 
 soul with God alone. That will raise you 
 nearer to Him, give you a greater force of 
 expansion. Allow Our Lord to place you in 
 the negative, show you your miseries, and 
 plunge you into your nothingness. Thus it 
 was that on Thabor He entertained His 
 Apostles with the excess of His sufferings and 
 humiliations in the midst of the splendors 
 that environed Him. 
 
 Keep the negative method for the hours 
 of labor, weariness, impotence, when your 
 mind has not the strength to soar to the 
 heights on which to contemplate pure truth, 
 to see God and things in their divine causes. 
 
 There will result from this practice less loss 
 of time in prayer. You will be more refined 
 toward God, and you will discharge more 
 properly the duties of friendship, you will be 
 less egotistical; for there are some souls who 
 never say a word to Our Lord about Himself, 
 who hardly salute Him, who -have no hom- 
 age to present Him, but are occupied only 
 with themselves and their needs, who present 
 themselves only to begin at once to beg at
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF INTELLECT 55 
 
 the very door. Be a son! Love and con- 
 verse I 
 
 You will give pleasure to Oui- Lord by 
 speaking of Himself, by entering a little into 
 His interests. You will touch His Heart, 
 like the leper who alone of the ten returned 
 to thank for his cure. Jesus praised him for 
 having rendered glory to God. That poor 
 leper is an example of positive love in 
 prayer. See how sensible Our Lord was of 
 it! Then do you, also, give glory to God!
 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 The GIFT of OUR HEART. 
 
 'e have said that meditation is the 
 homage of man and all his faculties to 
 God, and the sanctification of man by God. 
 We have seen how the understanding ought to 
 comport itself therein. Now let us speak of 
 the heart. 
 
 I. — The understanding performs the office 
 of the needle which introduces the thread 
 into the fabric there to design the embroidery. 
 The needle enters first, drawing after it the 
 thread, but only the thread remains; thus it 
 is with the affection of the heart. It must 
 remain. We excite the intelligence only to 
 warm and move the heart by motives of faith 
 and love the most capable of touching it, 
 for the heart follows and embraces what the 
 understanding esteems and shows to it as 
 good. 
 
 The affection must, then, be in accord with 
 the reflection, be a natural consequence of 
 It. It should be its complement and, as it
 
 PRAYEK, THE GIFT OF OUK HEAR I. 57 
 
 were, its expanding, its blossoming. l'"ew 
 thoughts are sufficient to make a good niedi-' 
 tation. The affection ought to take the 
 thought well conceived, well ruminated, and 
 hold on to it, completing and amplifying it, 
 nourishing itself with it. The thought ought to 
 pass from the understandmg to the heart with- 
 out effort. Guard agaiust raising a struggle and 
 wearing your soul out by too many different 
 reflections. Give to your heart to ruminate, 
 only those thoughts that your; understanding 
 has already weighed and prepared. Be batis' 
 fled with developing by the heart the thought 
 which was in your mind. Simply convert it 
 into affection. 
 
 Let the affection, then, be born naturally, 
 from the thought, and be conformed to the 
 nature of your lieart. Let us love God m 
 prayer as we love them whom we ought to 
 love. Let us love with our, heart, according 
 to its nature, its strength, its life, more or. 
 less ai'dently, with more tenderness or more 
 constraint. Time, age. circumstances change 
 the heart infinitely. Grace knows how to con- 
 form Itself to the temperament of every one. 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. S
 
 58 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF OUR HEART. 
 
 It is neither temperament nor nature that 
 God desires ns to crush in ourselves, but sin, 
 the inclinations and the habits that come 
 from it. 
 
 II. — Natural, that is, conforming itself, in 
 as much as we form it in ourselves, to our 
 individual nature. The affection ought to be- 
 come supernatural by its union \vith divine 
 grace, which elevates and purifies it, and by- 
 its correspondence to. the movements of the 
 Holy Spirit. 
 
 We have three ways of supernaturalizing 
 affection: to unite it to the light of actual 
 grace which the Holy Spirit excites in us; 
 to allow it to follow the movement of the 
 Holy Spirit in us; and when we feel neither 
 the call nor the interior movement of grace, 
 the affection must be supernaturalized by 
 the acceptance and the offering of the state 
 in which we are. You feel nothing? Confess 
 in your heart your misery, your paralysis, 
 your impotence, and even your sins. God 
 will receive this confession of the humbled 
 heart It will take the place of the sweetest 
 and most exalted affections. It is He Him-
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF OUR HEART. 59 
 
 self who sends that impotence in order to 
 detach you from reflections to which, perhaps, 
 you attach yourself too nmch. He casts you 
 to llie earth and withers you, in order to 
 prevent your wanderinj^ in self-love. God's 
 desire would be to press you to His Heart, 
 but your good demands that He keep you 
 under His feet, and empty your heart of 
 every sentiment of love. 
 
 Humble your heart in this state, until grace 
 visits you anew. 
 
 Affection must descend from general to 
 particular, and the soul apply herself to taste 
 the special ^nd particular love of God to her 
 irx the mystery which the understanding 
 presents. You have admired the ineffable 
 mystery of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed 
 Sacrament. Now, exclaim in your heart: 
 
 Oh, how good Thou art to remain there 
 for, mel" Place clearly before your heart 
 the personal benefits of God to you. Show- 
 it that everything in the life, sufferings, 
 death, and love of Jesus Christ is for you, 
 for. you alone. It will be consumed before 
 the burning furnace of God's love. It will in.
 
 60 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF OUR HEART. 
 
 rapture exclaim: "He has loved m^I He has 
 loved I'nel" The conclusion of this love will 
 be: "Who shall ever separate me from Him 
 who loves me and whom I love?" 
 
 I have said that it is not necessary to medi- 
 tate much in order to arrive at affection- 
 Here, however, we must guard against sloth. 
 The mmd is slothful regarding the things of 
 grace. It must not be allowed t6 pass too 
 easily over the reflection. It would willingly 
 act like the tribune Felix, who trembled for 
 fear of being enlightened by Saint Paul on 
 a truth that he did not wish to understand, 
 and who dismissed the Apostle, saying: 
 ''We shull hear you, another day./' 
 
 Not to apply the mind to meditate seriously 
 under pretence that one has long kno^^^l his 
 duties, IS an evident mark of sloth. Every 
 virtue liot the consequence of reflection, is 
 soon lost, it is not sustahied by conviction, 
 sentiments pass, they come and go. Truth 
 alone remains. 
 
 Nevertheless, nothing should be exaggerated 
 and, if it pleases Our Lord to transport you 
 at once into the ;3lfections, follow Him. He
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF OUR HEART. 61 
 
 has himself performed your preparatory labor 
 So, also, when your understanding is not 
 sufficient to inflame you. you must take a 
 book. It is rare for one to love to such 
 a degree as to be able to meditate by his 
 own strength. Some souls possess this gift» 
 but they are few. But do not imagine that 
 in taking a book all is done. It is necessary 
 to appropriate what it says to one's own 
 grace and needs. No book contains what 
 is suitable and necessary for every one, for 
 graces are infinitely varied, and one does 
 not identically resemble another. The best 
 book is that which obedience gives. But if 
 sufficient for you to-day, it may say nothing 
 to you to-morrow. No book satisfies always. 
 The book that you ought to open incessantly 
 is yourself. Again, when there is a good 
 will all books are good. But take care not 
 to hunt, for work already done. Let us love 
 with our own heart and with' the grace that 
 the Holy Spirit nourishes in us.
 
 •a&^«&2&^!&^!&«&9£2&*£*&*&^!i&2i^Sa&Sa& 
 
 PRAYER, 
 
 ^ the GIFT of the WILL. ^ 
 
 i\ . ^ 
 
 RAYRR is our sanctification by means of 
 God. It ought, then, to prmluce ref- 
 ormation of manners. That is the immediate 
 €nd of prayer, its practical conclusion, its 
 necessary' result. Above all. in this matter, 
 let us not forget that " not they who s:iy. 
 Lord, Lord, shall possess the kingdom of 
 heaven, but they who faithfully fulfil the 
 wi^l of the Father who is in heaven. '* 
 
 But how proceed in the- correction of one's 
 self? What means are ta be taken?* Whnt 
 rules observed? 
 
 The art of arts, the science the most 
 difficult is that of the direction and sanc- 
 tification of souls. It is the gift of few to 
 impart good princ pies, sure rules. How 
 many souls buried in the world and its spirit 
 would become heroic in sanctity were they 
 well directed! They are left at petty prin- 
 ciples, they go on from day to day, step 
 by step, without connection. They neglect
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL 63 
 
 the great principles that apply to everything, 
 and which would make them take giant strides. 
 
 The fundamental principle is that the sanc- 
 tification of a soul ought to be carried on 
 according to its nature and special grace. 
 Not that grace depends on nature and is 
 subordinated to it, but grace works on na- 
 ture only: nature is the material for its ope- 
 rations. It must then, be associated with grace 
 and taken into account. It is, however, on 
 grace that the manner of sanctification is, 
 above all, to be measured; and to it con- 
 formed, Avithout appeal, the practical .rules 
 that should be employed in directing the 
 soul to sanctity. 
 
 Take, for instance, two men one of whom 
 has but his grace of conversion, and the 
 other, having belonged .to God for a length 
 of time, is drawn to sanctity. 
 
 I. — The converted one must be told to say 
 prayers of conversion, which attack the evil 
 directly, which struggle, which carry on a 
 high war. 
 
 To the sensual man, the unchaste, show 
 first of all the unhappy consequences of his
 
 64 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 
 
 State in view of his eternal salvation. Place 
 before him the supernatural chastisements ; the 
 last things, death, judgment, hell that he 
 deserves, heaven closed to him, the wrath of 
 God and His a;venging justice. Make him 
 feel the tortures of his conscience, listen to 
 the cries of remorse. Let this be his prayer. 
 Keep him there, and do not try to convert him 
 by showing him only the fatal consequences 
 of his faults for time and his own well-being. 
 That is done too much in our day. That is 
 trying to correct one vice by another. It is 
 a want of faith in the supernatural power of 
 grace. ^ 
 
 The fruit of his meditations, the practical 
 conclusion will be that he will govern himself 
 rigidly and like a declared enemy of his 
 passions. These last have their seat in the 
 senses, in the body. Now, the body under- 
 stands nothing about reasons ajid considera- 
 tions; brute force must be brought against it. 
 Saint Paul, when tempted, prayed to the Lord. 
 But that was not sufficient. The revolt of 
 the flesh continued, and so he scourged it,
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 65 
 
 chastised it, to bring it into ^ubiectiorit Cas- 
 tigo corpus m&wm. 
 
 He, says tlie proverb, who has ' a slave 
 and treats him indulgently, will see him revolt 
 against him : Sentiet contumacem. 
 
 It is in the struggle against the flesh that 
 ihe kingdom of God demands us to employ 
 violence. Force must be used against the 
 senses. The body must be mastered by blows. 
 That is the only way to reach it. No doubt, 
 the rules of prudence must be observed, but 
 it is not for us, but for those that direct us, 
 to fix these rules. In spite of all our care, 
 there are certain passions against which it is 
 necessary to struggle long, without truce or 
 mercy. Even should we fall with weariness 
 on the battlefield and leave there a little of 
 our life, that is no great misfortune. 
 
 We admire the sweetness of mortified men. 
 But they are not sweet toward themselves, 
 even if they are toward others, or if they 
 have not attained this resemblance with Jesus 
 Christ by mortification and the scourge. A 
 saint is a soldier of Jesus Christ, one who
 
 66 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 
 
 has known labors, fatignes, bloody struggles, 
 and who bears the marks of them. 
 
 Every Christian is launched into the thick 
 of the fight, first to combat against himself, 
 and then against the world within and with- 
 out: "Militia est vita .hominis super terram 
 — Man's life on earth is a warfare. " All 
 this calls for vigorous effort. 
 
 Our Lord shows Himself sweet and tender 
 in the beginning. He has only caresses for 
 the infancy of the spiritual life, but He 
 quickly leads to combat those that want to 
 love Him. His grace is honey in the lion's 
 jaws. He begins by sweetness, and ends by 
 authority. After the caresses of His tender- 
 ness, come the blows of His mortification. 
 He is at one and the same time sweet and 
 forcible. 
 
 If you cannot like Him join sweetness to 
 the hatred of evil, take the latter, arm your- 
 self with strength. There is greater need 
 of it. 
 
 It is wfong to blame the converted because 
 they are austere, rigid, severe. " See how 
 hard he is!" What would you have? En-
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OP THE WILL. 67 
 
 tirely taken up with lashing himself against 
 himself, there escape him some blows against 
 the neighbor. That must be pardoned, on 
 account of his necessity of being violent 
 against self. His temptation is impatience. 
 
 This is the way to establish the reform of 
 the passions that have their seat in the exte 
 rior senses. 
 
 If there is question of uprooting a sin of 
 the heart, tactics are different. The heart 
 is as delicate and sensitive as the body is 
 blind and brutal. The heart is all affection. 
 It possesses and it is possessed by love. It 
 acts only by sympathy. Its idol must be taken 
 away from it, its affection changed, and itself 
 turned from its sympathy. 
 
 In his prayer, such a pne ought to consider 
 the. nothingness of what he adores, the vanity 
 of what he loves, and even the abjection of 
 his state. In contrast with his created idols, 
 place before him the beauty of the uncreated 
 Good. Take care never to withdraw from 
 him what he has seen without giving him 
 another object for his loVe, more beautiful, 
 more worthy, sweeter than the first. The
 
 68 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WTLL. 
 
 heart cannot remain empty. Take away fiom 
 it the world only to give it God. It must 
 attach itself, it must love. That is its na- 
 ture, its essence. Tf left alone and void, it 
 will soon return to Its first love. Give it. 
 give it God, the Love of loves, Jesus Christ, 
 its Saviour, infinitely good and lovable. 
 
 They over whom the heart domineers, ought 
 to be led and instructed by the heart. They 
 must be gently made to feel their misfortune, 
 made to see, catch a glimpse of the happi- 
 ness of attaching one's self to God and 
 loving Him. Do not handle them too roughly, 
 for you will break them. Be even affection- 
 ate, but do not allo\V yourself to be cap- 
 tured by them. Take care! They will be 
 inclined to attach themselves to you, but do 
 not permit it, though without repulsing them, 
 shaking them off too rudely. At the begin- 
 ning, a little balm is necessary' for the heart. 
 Have pity on the heart I Do not entirely 
 discard it. 
 
 Thus, the way to reform the heart, Is to 
 reason with it by its pain, its unhappy 
 state. After that it must be made to feel.
 
 PKAYEK, THE GUT. Of THE WILL. 69 
 
 Show it a greater, good, a pmer and jnorc 
 perfect happiness; and, lastly, replace affec- 
 tion to the creature by love for the Creator. 
 
 But if the soul seeing its evil state, rec- 
 ognizing and admitting it, hesitates, holds 
 back under various pretexts, fails in courage 
 to break away from it, raise it up cour- 
 ageously,hesitate not to force it even violently, 
 otherwise it will be lost I It must be snatched 
 from the danger without delay. Permission 
 is not needed ior that. Pressing peril is a 
 reason more than sufficient 
 
 I he method to be employed with the under- 
 derstanding is different. While the heart 
 yields to sentiment, the understanding wants 
 to be convinced by reasons ; it succumbs only 
 to evidence. Reason with it. Length of time 
 is needed to convert il» It is difficult and 
 rare ever to conquer it entirely, and this is 
 especially true of pride. 
 
 Let the meditation in such cases be that 
 of reason and light. Enlighten forcibly, in 
 a manner to make a lively impression.. Con- 
 vince the understanding of its errors, show 
 it the injustice of sin, the offence that it
 
 70 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 
 
 offers to God, its ugliness and deformity. Say 
 with Saint Ambrose, responding to Theodo- 
 sius, who was excusing his fault by citing 
 the example of David, a royal simicr, also: 
 " If you have imitated him in his crime, 
 imitate him in his penance! " Here is reason, 
 evidence that convinces, and to which no reply 
 can be given. Act in the same way in con 
 verting your own understanding and reforming 
 it. When convinced of its faults, light will 
 force it to submission. 
 
 II, — All that we have hitherto said regards 
 penitents, those who are breaking with the 
 world and sin. 
 
 As for them who belong to God by faith 
 and charity, by charity more or less great, 
 it is true, but who are, nevertheless, in the 
 way of salvation, reformation of mor^s follows 
 another course. It consists especially in the 
 acquisition of the Christian virtues much 
 more than in the destruction of sin. How 
 is that to be put in practice? 
 
 There are two ways, and both are good. 
 Either may be employed according to the 
 attraction of grace. Follo\ving the first, the
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 71 
 
 soul energetically desires to attain virtue. 
 She sees its. moral good, its- integrity, its 
 supernatural beauty. She sees that virtue is 
 proper for the Christian, that without zeal for 
 the Christian virtues, her salvation is endan 
 gered; that the practice of perfect Christianity 
 produces innumerable fruits in this life, but,, 
 far. above all, the fruit of eternal life. This 
 view inflames desire. She labors day .by day, 
 hour by hour, mounting from degree to 
 degree. Her progress encouraging her she 
 sees her upward course, and that strengthens 
 her to labor with more fidelity. Here, in- 
 deed, is a good method which infallibly 
 leads to sanctity. Now, you religious, begin 
 with the practice of the duties of your state, 
 poverty, chastity, obedience. They arc the 
 essential virtues of your state. Follow your 
 trade above all. As for the rest, all the vir- 
 tues are sisters. A single one well practised, 
 dominates, attracts the others, and renders 
 their practice easy. Take the virtue most nec- 
 essary to your state. You must begin with 
 the one most needed, but always hold ^on 
 faithfully to those virtues that form youf
 
 72i PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 
 
 law, your, essential duty. Later, you will 
 occupy yourself with the virtues of counsel'. 
 
 Thus, to labor for the good of virtue, for 
 the recompense it entails, and the fruit it 
 produces, is a good principle, a good method 
 to follow in the reformation of one's life and 
 in the labor of the will. But there is a 
 better one, and that is, to labor through love, 
 to desire only one thing, and that is to love, 
 and in doing so, to expect all the rest. 
 
 There is no longer any question of ac- 
 quiring virtue, of gathering fruits of sanctity; 
 the only question now is of loving, of longing 
 tor God above everything, in ever^'thing, and 
 all through love for Him. There is no longer 
 question of impressing one's self with this 
 truth, of convincing one's self of this prin. 
 ciple, namely, that it is necessary to love Him 
 and sanctify one's self by love for Him. To 
 love — behold the principle, the beginning 
 and the end. Means will be taken and used, 
 but only to apply this principle, obtain this 
 end of love. The first method in the ac- 
 quisition of the virtues proceeds by analysis; 
 the second by synthesis. This grand ptm*
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 73 
 
 ciple of love is applied according to the need 
 and progress' of grace. The important thing 
 is to establish it firmly in the beginning, to 
 set out with it, to follow it in all things, 
 holding on to it like a flambeau, like a 
 clue. 
 
 Again, it is a principle which corresponds 
 admirably to our nature and to the grace of 
 God in us. We are the children" of man. 
 Now, the mother aims first of all to enkindle 
 in her child the flame of love, and then 
 she demands of it the sacrifices of obedience, 
 submission, study, in a word, all the sac- 
 rifices demanded by education. She exacts 
 them by urging her love for her son, which 
 she testifies to him in so many ways, and 
 as proofs of the gratitude and affection of 
 her child's heart. If the child is noble and 
 well-disposed, he understands this language, 
 and he accomplishes heroic things through 
 love. 
 
 We are, moreover, childrefi of God. As 
 
 such we have received in Baptism the spirit 
 
 of adoption of children, which consists in 
 
 the gift and the habit .of love. The Holy 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 6
 
 74 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL, 
 
 Spirit, substantial and subsistent love, resides 
 in lis. He fills our faculties and our soul, 
 disposing them to love by habit and state, 
 and by His movements exciting them to acts 
 of love. The Holy Spirit is more in our 
 soul than the soul is in herself, for He 
 envelops her, elevates her, supernaturalizes 
 her, and transforms her into Himself, who is 
 Love, essential Love. Love is one same thing 
 with grace. The spirit of grace is then the 
 Spirit of Love. The movement and the apti 
 tude of love is the acting by love, for every 
 being acts according to its nature. 
 
 Do you understand how much this prin 
 ciple of love faithfully corresponds to our 
 inmost being, to our nature and our grace 
 as children of Adam and children of God? 
 Why, then, not start out with the love of 
 God in order to arrive at the virtues? Come 
 then, let us start from itl Our greatest 
 strength lies there I 
 
 In application and practice, this love will 
 take every form of virtue, for Saint Thomas 
 says that perfection essentially resides in 
 love. All the virtues, according to Saint Au-
 
 PRAYER, THE GIFT OF THE WILL. 75 
 
 gustine, may be reduced to love. Saint Paul 
 said the same thing before him ; and to be 
 perfect, says the Angelic Doctor, is nothing 
 else than "to love enough to throw aside all 
 obstacles that oppose our union Avith God, 
 the end of all perfection. " Love, then be- 
 comes chastity, poverty, obedience, patience, 
 sweetness, and humility. In all these we pro- 
 fess only one thing, namely, to love, to 
 make an act of love, to destroy some obstacle 
 to love, to help on love and union with God. 
 Admirable unity, unique beginning! Lu- 
 minous principle, strength so much the' greater 
 as it is more concentrated, point of view 
 always the same, without division, without 
 dispersion of force, of attention, of heart, or 
 of soul! 
 
 Lastly, remark that Our Lord came on earth 
 only to make His Father loved; that Me was 
 the figure of His beauty, and tliat He rec- 
 ommends to us, in short, but one thing, to 
 love Him above all things, and all things on 
 account of Him. The resumd of His doctrine 
 is: " Manete in dilectione mea — Abide in My 
 love! "
 
 76 PRAYER, THE GIFT OK. THE WILL. 
 
 Behold what your state demands, the only 
 thing that recommends it as a state, as a 
 habit. This is what forms the centre of every 
 Christian and supernatural life, and from the 
 centre one goes easily and surely to the cir- 
 cumference, because on all points we fmd 
 radii. 
 
 I counsel you, then, to establish yoursehcs 
 firmly on this principle. Make it the starting- 
 point for the reformation of your life, for 
 your life, for your efforts after the virtues 
 and hoHness ; for, to return to what we said 
 in the beginning, the reformation of morals, 
 the sanctification of life, the acquisition of 
 Jesus Christ's sanctity, is the end of prayer 
 and the end of the religious life : " Estate 
 perfecti sicut Pater vester ccelestis perfectus 
 est — - Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father 
 is perfect. " 
 
 -A5>^<^^<S>^
 
 ^^^^«^4^^^^^^^4^^^j&^^ 
 
 DOES GOD LOVE ME ? 
 
 HIS question is not often heard. But 
 that' is not right; for if it is well to 
 ask ourselves whether we love God, it is 
 also very useful to convince ourselves that 
 God loves us. 
 
 I. — Yes, God loves us! He loves us with 
 an eternal love, which has neither beginning 
 nor end, neither succession nor vicissitude.- 
 We are eternal in His love. From all eternity 
 before we had any existence, God had con- 
 ceived us in His thought, willed us in His 
 decrees, and it was a thought and, a decree 
 of love! 
 
 Ah! we shall never love Him as He has 
 loved us. We may dilate our love, extend 
 it, carry it beyond all bounds, but we shall 
 always be in arrears of gratitude, always in 
 a debt of love. Alas! we do not love Him. 
 even during the short moments of this life, 
 which He leaves us freely to prove our grati- 
 tude, while He has loved us from all eter- 
 nity! Here we find the source of those in- 
 consolable tears of the saints on earthy The
 
 78 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 
 
 present - hardly suffices to respond to His 
 present love. How, then, satisfy the weight 
 of love accumulated during endless ages? 
 This impossibility to love sufficiently, to re- 
 pair their defect of Jove, is the torment of the 
 saints. They are inconsolable. The world 
 does not understand their tears. Naturally, 
 it must be so, for we scarcely shed tears 
 enough over our sins to obtain i>ardon for 
 them. But the saints w6pt for not having 
 employed all their time in loving; and if they 
 l»ave offended God, their tears are never 
 dried. Behold Saint Peter pardoned, con 
 firmed in grace, the Head of the Church, 
 and yet he wept incessantly. Morning found 
 him on his knees bathed in -the tears that 
 had dug a double furrow on his emaciated 
 clieeks by the incurable wound of his re- 
 pentance. Oh, how great is our misery! 
 Scarcely a few acts of contrition to repair 
 lost love, love offended! Alas! it is love 
 that lights and feeds the fire of the damned, 
 and tlieir most cutting regret is for not having 
 loved 
 God's eternal love is manifested for us by
 
 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 79 
 
 the benefits of time. We exist only by a 
 benevolent creation of God's love, and we 
 are preserved only because He bears us in 
 His arms. 
 
 Besides, this life is given lis only to love 
 God. Man's perfection consists in that. He 
 is good only if he loves God. This is the 
 end fixed for him by the Great Qr in His 
 loving liberality. And so it seems that, if 
 God did not say of man when creating him, 
 that thia work of His hands was good, as He 
 had said of all the others, it was because man 
 will be truly finished and perfect only when 
 he shall have loved God and proved his 
 Jove by his works. 
 
 There is on the part of God as much 
 condescension in wishing to be loved by 
 us, in giving us the faculty and the grace 
 to love Him, as in loving us Himself and 
 loading us with testimonies of His love. 
 
 n. — Created in His love, it is His love 
 that redeems us. He condescends to our 
 nature, to the need of our heart; and be- 
 cause our love has become materialized, no 
 longer loving anything but the sensible, God
 
 80 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 
 
 accepts us such as we are, making Himself 
 sensible in order to replace in our Ibve" the 
 sensible idols to which we consecrated it. 
 
 Listen to this council of love : " Which of 
 Us will go to man?" that is, which of the 
 three Divine Persons, eternal, essentially 
 spiritual, will become love, human love, sen- 
 sible and visible, to gain man ? For his heart 
 is caught only by this means. " Atid the 
 ^Vord was made flesh, Caro. " We see, we 
 understand only love, for the word itself 
 indicates it. The Holy Spirit might have 
 said man, He was made man. But no, iiesh! 
 That is a more sensible love, one more 
 conformed to our own heajrt of flesh : " Caro 
 factum est. " 
 
 And Jesus Christ is only God's lovje hu- 
 manized, given to men in all possible ways, 
 under all forms and conditions, to prove to 
 him the love of his Creator. How can we 
 doubt that God loves us when the Word 
 has come to tell it to us by His speech, 
 His eyes. His Heart, by everything that man 
 can feel and understand? 
 
 His only purpose in coming was to tell
 
 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 81 
 
 us: ''Sic Deus dilexit — God has so loved 
 
 the world. " He loves us, He loves us as 
 
 God, that is, infinitely! 
 He has taken into His Heart all the various 
 
 forms of love that move us, and He has 
 
 given us proofs of it. 
 Parental love being the most natural and 
 
 the strongest, because it is wrapped up with 
 
 the blood and the sources of life, Jesus has 
 called Himself our Father, and He has made 
 Himself our Brother. 
 
 Friendship,, based on equality of position 
 and character, being one form of love. He 
 has become our Friend. The love of parents 
 supposes some inequality, a certain distance 
 of fear and respect, but Jesus loves us as 
 a Brother and a Friend ; consequently, all 
 distinctions and distance disappear. With 
 Him we share the same condition, the same 
 name, the same table, the same life. And if 
 He willed to be born an infant and to pass 
 through all the ages of life, it was that in 
 every state, at all periods of their life, /all 
 men may have in Him a Brother and be-
 
 82 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 
 
 hold God's love humanized and like unto 
 their ovm. 
 
 It was not enough for Him to become 
 like unto us in nature He would share our 
 trials, our miseries, our sufferings, that we 
 might be overcome by that -evidence and 
 forced to cry ouf "Yes, God has loved us! " 
 And He has done so. He has taken all my 
 sins on Himself, borne them alone, and ac- 
 cepted their terrible chastisement- interior 
 trials, pains of soul, horrible sufferings of 
 body, His interior and exterior Passion I Be 
 hr»ld the proofs of His Jove. Is this enough? 
 Shall we deny a love that is proved by 
 suffering's and death ^ Ah! who would do 
 what He has done? No one no one! Shall 
 we be unjust tovvaid God alone, and shall 
 we not acknowledge that He loves us? 
 
 III. — Yes, He loves us, but it would not 
 suffice for Him to love us in general, as a 
 whole. That would, indeed, be much, and 
 even sufficient to save us. But He wills to 
 go even to the end of infinite love, and so 
 He loves us personally, individually, as if we 
 were, each one, the only one in the world.
 
 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 83 
 
 If some one would say to you: "God willed 
 to love you, and to prove it He created this 
 world with all its wonders for you alone. You 
 are sufficient for Him. You alone are the 
 end of all His works of nature, grace, and 
 glory. " If God Himself should add : " I will 
 give My only Son for you. He will die 
 for you. He will establish the Church and 
 His Sacraments for you; and again for you 
 He will abide in the Blessed Sacrament until 
 the end of the world, continuing therein His 
 life of love for you, and incessantly renewing 
 therein His Passion and His death for the 
 love of you. All this is for you alone " — 
 If some one should tell you this, if God 
 Himself should assure you of it, would you 
 believe him? And if after that, it had to be 
 acknowledged that you will not love Him, 
 that all those benefits will not be able to 
 gain your love, — ah! what would you reply? 
 No, there could be no" response to that. You 
 would lower your eyes, you would blush, 
 you would experience a feeling worse than 
 that of the demons! 
 And yet, it is so God's love for every
 
 84 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 
 
 one of lis is personal. In all His works, He 
 had but each one of us in view. All creatures 
 are at the service of every one of us, as well 
 as all graces, all treasures of sanctificaiion, 
 all the marvels of grace. Every one should 
 cry out with Saint Paul '' Dilexit mc ! He 
 has loved me, " me, me alone, and to prove 
 His love for me, " He has delivered Himself 
 for me, " for me alone, to the death of th.e 
 Cross! With how much stronger reason has 
 He made all other things, visible and in- 
 visible, for me, for me alone! 
 
 And all that love of God may be summed 
 up, condensed, vouched for in the gift that 
 God made me of His Son, that Jesus Christ 
 made me of Himself in Holy Communion. I 
 am His end. He finishes by uniting Himself 
 to me! All, then, was for me, and for me 
 alone! All since the beginning of the world, 
 and before, has prepared that Gift of per- 
 sonal love He makes me of His Body, His 
 Blood, His Soul, and His Divinity, of all 
 that He is, all that He has, for all ends in 
 me, in my heart, in my soul.
 
 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 85 
 
 Christian, behold your price— God Him- 
 self! ^' Tanti vales, quanti JDeus ! " 
 
 Oh I after such love, I can understand hell. 
 And we do not love God! We should commit 
 suicide out of despair and shame as a fit 
 punishment for such ingratitude! 
 
 And man does not love God! He offends 
 Him! Ah! God brings contempt on Him- 
 self by dint of loving One might say that 
 He sought It! Would you allow yourselves to 
 be thus despised and msulted by your chil 
 dren, your subordinates? God showers man 
 with riches, loads him with benefits in spite 
 of his sins, his daily sins! It is that he may 
 return to Him, be conquered by Him. 
 
 We must have the hearts of demons not 
 to love God! 
 
 And Our Lord shields the ingrates, excuses 
 them- "Father, forgive them, for they know 
 not what they do," and this while they are 
 cursing Him I No, God has no more dignity, 
 no more -honor, He has love only! 
 
 I cannot think of that. It tortures me J 
 One would wish to kill himself for love! 
 
 The demon cried out one day by the mouth
 
 86 DOES GOD LOVE ME? 
 
 of a possessed: "You men, God has loved 
 you too much! " 
 
 That is true I The good God made a 
 mistake! He has loved us too much! " Prop- 
 ter nimiam charitatem qua dilexit nos — For 
 His exceeding charity wherewith He loved
 
 t! ^j&as3;fe^jg^3i^j^*».-tf^->ife*»-*fe3a&^^ 
 
 DO I LOVE GOD ? 
 
 jo we love God? That is the one thing 
 necessary. Here we must have a posi- 
 tive answer. No doubt, no evas'on — yes or 
 no, do we love God? 
 
 There is no middle course. We love Him 
 or we hate Him. Do we love Him? To say 
 yes without fear would be to proclaim one's 
 self a saint, to crown one's self. The answer, 
 then, will be to see whether we do not offend 
 Him, or better still, whether we are scru- 
 pulous, considerate in our dealings with Him. 
 We love God when we are thoughtful in our 
 relations toward Him, for love is but the 
 refinement of fidelity, honor, and generosity. 
 
 I. — Have we the refined fidehty of a good 
 servant for his maister? We at least owe 
 obedience to our Sovereign Good. That is 
 the least He can exact. We owe Him ab- 
 solute obedience, submissive, unlimited, a 
 passive obedience. They give that to human 
 masters. Is not God of more account than 
 an earthly master? God tells us that such" 
 or such an action militates against His author-
 
 DO I LOVE GOD 
 
 ity, contravenes His designs, and yet we do 
 it all the same. Is this fidelity? Is this con 
 siderate? We deserve for such conduct exem- 
 plary chastisement, for under pain of being 
 no longer God, God cannot permit us to 
 violate His laws with impunity. " Morte mo- 
 rieris — Thou shalt die the death!" Such is 
 the decree justice pronounces against us 
 every time we violate God's authority. On 
 the other side. He rewards us if we do not 
 disobey Him. No master is satisfied with 
 asking so little as the good God I 
 
 Alas! it is \vritten that man's enemies are 
 his sen-ants and familiars. Let us not realize 
 this word against God, but let us arm our- 
 selves with that refinement of fidelity, which 
 accomplishes the law, the whole law exactly. 
 That is the first duty imposed on us by the 
 title of creature, as is also that of being, in 
 the first place, grateful if we love God. 
 
 II. — We must have, also, the consider- 
 ateness of children toward their parents. A 
 child's considerateness is a sure sign of its 
 love. 
 
 Filial considerateness, not content with duty,
 
 DO I LOVE GOD? 89 
 
 seeks and divines what pleases or displeases, 
 in order to do the one and shun the other. 
 
 As the soul increases in piety, she becomes 
 more refined, for refinement flourishes, ex- 
 pands very naturally on love. A refined soul 
 comes -to ghun venial sins with as much 
 solicitude as others use in fleeing mortal 
 offences. A certain sin may be only venial 
 by nature, but it is mortal for her heart. 
 
 Filial delicacy shuns all that might be ca- 
 pable of displeasing, even if it be not a sin. 
 Oh, how many sins people would avoid if 
 they were considerate I 
 
 III. — By our quality of religious, which 
 unites us to God by a free choice on either 
 side, we are more than children of the 
 household. God has called us. He has 
 charmed us. We have espoused Him. Now, 
 these are the relations, so full of thought- 
 fulness of the spouse for the spouse, that we 
 ought to have with Our Lord. 
 
 Well, that calls for mcomparable purity, 
 for tmion with Our Lord is more or Jess 
 intimate according to the degree of purity 
 He cannot dwell in a house full of venial 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 90 DO I LOVE GOD? 
 
 sins, with people who have them without per- 
 ceiving them and who commit them so easily 
 The religious is bound to more perfect 
 purity than the priest himself, for he dwells 
 with Jesus Christ, he is in constant com- 
 munication with Him; and Our Lord cannot 
 endure the sight of venial sin. Would you 
 convert the King's court into a leprous hos- 
 pital ? 
 
 Ah, be careful about purity of life, purity 
 of conscience! Do not seek so much the 
 virtues that crown you in the eyes of men, 
 as well as in your own, but be pure! Labor 
 to preserve and increase your purity Suffer 
 not even the appearance of sin. 
 
 Our Lord loves Mary^ Saint John, little 
 children with a love of complacency because 
 they are pure. This love is only for purity 
 To others He shows compassion and mercy 
 
 Ah! be pure, and fly the least stain as you 
 would fly a serpent! Be refined in purity! 
 
 Now, to be refined in puiity, it is sufficient 
 to love the good God more than self, more 
 than all else. He who loves thus will never 
 offend, will have a horror even to sadden.,
 
 DO I LOVE GOD? 91 
 
 Purity is born spontaneously 6f love. It 
 is not learned as a science. It is inspired. 
 Jt is felt. Love gives birth to it .as it.s 
 beautiful white flame. When we love well, 
 we carry delicacy even to severity, to the 
 extreme. Refined love abhors mixture. It 
 destroys the misty. It can live only in purity. 
 
 God's first creation was the perfect light 
 What God creates in the soul, also, before all 
 else, is light. We have been baptized into the 
 light. The newly-baptized were formerly 
 caUed the illuminated. God works only in 
 the light, and Hght is but the purity .of love.. 
 
 The state of grace is purity, and it gives 
 heaven to those that are clothed with it. 
 But had I all the virtues, and did I fill the 
 world with my miracles, if I had not love, 
 that is, the state of grace and purity, all 
 would serve me little. 
 
 Sanctity is, then, the state of grace puri- 
 fied, illumined, adorned with the most perfect 
 purity, exempt not only from grave sins, but 
 also from the least faults. If is the purity 
 of light prepared for the glory ^nd the sight 
 of God.
 
 92 DO I LOVE GOD? 
 
 The martyr purified by fire, goes straight 
 to heaven by virtue of his perfect purity. 
 The work of grace in us is to purify ,us 
 constantly. It acts in us only after having 
 purified us, as the flame commences by con- 
 suming the rust on iron. After that it 
 embraces it, transforms it into glowing fire, 
 because it has become perfectly sympathetic 
 with it; in like manner does it dry up wood, 
 depriving it of all moisture before kindling 
 it. Purify yourselves incessantly, ever more 
 and more. Purity will make you saints. Pure 
 from all evil, Jesus Christ will fill you .with 
 every good and with Himself; for He enters 
 into us and gives us His life in proportion 
 as we abandon our own, and empty our- 
 selves of sin: " Dilata cor tuum, et implebo 
 illudi — Enlarge thy heart, and I Will fill itl" 
 
 If you are pure, if you constantly purify 
 yourselves, you will love God truly. All 
 consists ui that. 
 
 <^>
 
 PARDONIISTG LOVE. 
 
 I. — God loves us personally^ since He has 
 created us and all things for us, and has 
 redeemed us by dying for us. 
 
 There is one greater proof of God's love 
 for us, and that is, the power He gives of 
 obtaining pardon after having offended Him. 
 
 God's mercy to us, which rises superior to 
 all His others mercies, is His goodness in 
 pardoning us. 
 
 How much has God loved us? As much 
 as He pardons us, as He has pardoned us, 
 as He will pardon us! Gqd is good. He 
 loves me, since He pardons me when I have 
 offended Him. I need no other proof. There 
 is none more convincing, none that touches 
 me so deeply. It was from the love that had 
 pardoned him that Samt Paul drew his own 
 love as an Apostle. It was from the mercy 
 which had remitted so many sins that Saint 
 Augustine imbibed that love which inflamed 
 and pierced his heart, changing it into the 
 heart of a seraph. 
 
 God's love for us is more merciful than
 
 94 PARDONING LOVE. 
 
 benevolent, because, sinners by nature, we 
 have need of mercy above all else. It is 
 also His mercy that, above all His other 
 attributes. He exerts during our life on this 
 earth. This world is its empire, and time is 
 its reign. 
 
 Mercy has abandoned heaven. It has come 
 down to earth, it covers, envelops man. It 
 is his centre, his atmosphere, the air that 
 he breathes, the light that enlightens him. 
 We live on mercy. 
 
 It shields the sinner from the justice which 
 would punish every sin. It arrests it, retards 
 it until death. It follows man, accompanies 
 him every^rtrhere, never quits him, no, not 
 even after death, for it follows him to pur- 
 gatory. Purgatory is nothing else than the 
 last effort of God's mercy in behalf of the 
 sinner. Above the portals of that fiery prison 
 is written : Misericordia Dei ! 
 
 God's mercy for man is infinite. We shall 
 never exhaust it. We shall never stifle it by 
 our ingratitude. We nevar wear it out, never 
 discourage it. It pardons always, pardons 
 everything. Even when the crime is evident,
 
 PARDONING LOVE. 95 
 
 it says. "Father, forgive, for they know not 
 what they do I " 
 
 When we reject it, iil-use it, it seizes upon 
 us, pursues us, still eager to vanquish us: 
 " Judas, hetrayest thou the Son of Man with 
 a kiss ! My Friend / " Our sins will never 
 be so great as the mercy of God. There is 
 one thing, however, one thing that it cannot 
 conquer, and against which it can do nothing, 
 and that is, the pride of supernatural gifts, 
 which with full knowledge reject's Gods 
 goodness, and kills itseif. 
 
 II. — The Holy Scriptures are full of proofs 
 of the divine mercy. God designedly mul- 
 tiplied them, because we have absolute need 
 of it. The sinner of necessity, as it were, 
 despairs. That is the effect which always 
 follows sinful pleasure, and the second effect 
 is much more certain than the first. Adam 
 and Eve, who fled and doubted of mercy, 
 Cain, who rejected it and exclaimed: "My 
 sin is too great for pcwdon, " are types of 
 the sinner after his fall. They are discouraged 
 for having been unfaithful; and the majority 
 of sinners who put off their conversion are
 
 96 PARDONING LOVE. 
 
 held back by despair " It is impossible for 
 me to be pardoned. I have too deeply offend- 
 ed God I" The day on wich they would 
 weep, they would be converted. 
 
 And the pious, — why do they fall? Be- 
 cause they, too, despair. They are discourag- 
 ed by their falls. They have not succeeded. 
 That is not what they were hoping" for. 
 The demon fills their soul \vith diffidence. 
 That is his best secret for entering into the 
 soul and ruining it. May this sentiment never 
 rule in yours I What I would you doubt 0f 
 the mercy of God! No, nol — If you fall, 
 rise again by humble and repentant con- 
 fidence. Humility that seeks to rest in its 
 misery is only pride humbled and vexed. Hu- 
 mility flies toward God on the wings of 
 confidence. " Oratio humiliayitis se, nubes pe- 
 netrant — The prayer of him who humbleth 
 himself, pierces the clouds. " 
 
 The more pious and virtuous you are, the 
 more you will experience temptations to dis- 
 couragement. One always holds on to self, 
 fearing to cast himself into the arms of God. 
 And yet would you make a good act of
 
 PARDONING LOVE, 97 
 
 contrition? Instea'd of descending into hell 
 to view your own place therein, make an 
 act of faith in God's mercy. Take God by 
 His weak side, His bowels of mercy and His 
 Heart. A man taken by his weak side, will 
 give his whole purse and something else 
 besides. Show God that it is to His glory to 
 grant you mercy, that it cannot be better 
 exercised than on you, that you will be His 
 victory and His masterpiece. Take God by 
 the Heart! 
 
 I think that, by drawing nearer and nearer 
 to God, a soul would reach the point of 
 never again experiencing temptations to 
 discouragement, and that in His vicinity, she 
 would forever be established in perfect con- 
 fidence. Saint Alphonsus di Liguori says 
 that the temptations God sends to the saints 
 are those against faith, confidence, chastity, 
 and the confessor, who visibly represents God 
 to the soul. Alas! this is very true. Such 
 tempests are horrible! God rouses them to 
 show men's virtue in the highest degree of 
 confidence, in naked faith grounded on His 
 word alone. In proportion as they advance
 
 9a PARDONING LOVE. 
 
 toward God, life is purified and transformed 
 When, above all, it is on the eve of finishing, 
 in order to become the life of heaven and 
 happiness, all the virtues impeach one. Sins 
 grow greater, and one sees in his actions 
 only defects. All conspire agamst confidence 
 and the div'ine mercy. I have seen the 
 holiest soul one could meet m heart-rending 
 despair. It was not his faults that had re- 
 duced him to such a state, but he accused 
 himself with tears, frozen by despair, of not 
 having loved enough I He feared for the 
 graces he had received, being convinced that 
 he had not profited enough by them Im- 
 possible to restore to him confidence. Nei- 
 ther exhortations, nor prayers, nor reasoning 
 availed. He was weighed down by despair 
 and, as it were, crushed by its weight. There 
 was no other remedy than to say "Ah, well I 
 I accept this state. I will go to hell, but 
 Thou wilt come with me, O my God I " And 
 he found peace in this heroic act of con- 
 fidence. 
 
 Oh! those temptations to despair and dis- 
 couragement, those temptations against con-
 
 PARDONING LOVE. 99 
 
 fidence in God ! — never entertain them in 
 your soul. Tell them to your superior or to 
 your confessor Do not harbor them one 
 instant, for they attack the sources of the 
 spiritual life, they even dry up that of the 
 body. Discouragement and despair produce 
 sadness, of which the Holy Spirit says that it 
 IS a moth that preys upon the marrow of 
 the bones. But God's mercy is life, the bright 
 sun of life : " Misericordia Dei super vitas ! 
 — The mercy of God is better than lives! " 
 
 III. — But see how God pardons. Ah! it 
 -is -not like men. Man in pardoning shames 
 the culprit, and the fear of shame prevents 
 the child from asking forgiveness. The good 
 God pardons with goodness. His forgiveness 
 is a grace which restores honor, purifies, 
 sanctifies, embellishes. It is one same act 
 to be pardoned and to become holy. It at 
 once restores the robe of innocence, the white 
 robe. One abases himself only to be raised 
 up immediately by mercy. 
 
 Men grow weary of pardoning. They are 
 more severe toward the relapsing sinner, and 
 impose more conditions on him. But the
 
 100 PARDONING LOVE. 
 
 more He pardons, the more merciful does 
 God seem to become. Great sinners who 
 return to Him are His greatest friends. He 
 came for the sick, and for one sinner He 
 left the angels. Provided there are some 
 humility and confidence in our confession, we 
 are always sure of being welcomed. 
 
 God pardons absolutely and forever. He 
 casts our sins behind His back, say the 
 Scriptures, He plunges them into the sea, 
 and the scarlet of crime assumes the whiteness 
 of snow, of innocence, in the bath of His mer- 
 cy. They will never again rise up to accuse 
 us! I love this thought of a large number 
 of theologians, according to whom, they will 
 not even be mentioned at the Last Judgment, 
 because the Lord says • " 1 will pardon you 
 them, and I shall remember them no more! * 
 
 Only, it is necessary to obtain pardon for 
 them, and to take care not to hold on to the 
 fag-ends of sin. 
 
 Men exact some punishment for pardon, at 
 least the loss of position or ci\nl honor; but 
 Jesus Christ restores to us our honors, 
 reestablishes us in all our rights as before we
 
 PARDONING LOVE. 101 
 
 sinned. Thus did He reestablish Saint Peter 
 after his fall and confirm him in his charge 
 of Supreme Pastor 
 
 Jesus ennobles in pardoning. Of Magdalen, 
 the sinner, He made the heroine of super- 
 natural love, and He publicly praised her with 
 the most beautiful eulogium a God can 
 make: '' Dllexit muUu7n — She hath loved 
 much ! 
 
 He bowed down to the ground ni order not 
 to make that other sinner of the Gospel blush. 
 He put no question to her concerning h'er 
 offence; but, on the contrary, He accn3ed her 
 accusers: ^^ Where are thetj wJio accused thee? 
 Hath no man condemned thee?" He placed 
 her above them all: '' Go,and ain no moreT' 
 
 He takes sinners and makes of them princes 
 of His mercy and love, like Saint Matthew, 
 Saint Paul, and so many others. 
 
 And could one become discouraged alter 
 that? Know, then, that it is a need for Our 
 Lord to pardon. His Heart is weighed down 
 by the thought of the necessity of condemning 
 us. He weeps over us, and when He for- 
 gives us. He is relieved and His Heart
 
 102 PARDONING LOVE. 
 
 dilated by mercy. If Our Lord could still 
 suffer, it would be at seeing us despairing 
 of His mercy and failing to ask pardon. 
 
 But it is to us, priests and religious, that 
 God's mercy especially shows itself. We 
 deserved by our sins to be degraded from 
 our dignity, as the world does its magistrates 
 and officers of State. But then He would 
 no longer have priests to pardon the other 
 sinners. 
 
 Our Lord is more benevolent toward us. 
 His mercies more abundant His pardon more 
 full of kindness. It is because we have need 
 of more pardon than others. 
 
 It is this that ought to render us more 
 lenient toward sinners. Sinners ourselves, 
 pardoned many times, still having need of 
 pardon in the future, shall we not pardon? 
 
 Let us, then, have faith in the mercy of 
 God, who will not abandon us provided we 
 implore it ^nth confidence and humility. 
 Eternity will not be too long to thank Him 
 for His infinite mercies, which have so fre- 
 quently restored to us life and which will save 
 us on the day of the Lord's justice.
 
 
 ^ 
 
 THE EUCHARIST, 
 
 The PRINCIPLE of the SANGTI- 
 
 FICATION of the RELIGIOUS. 
 
 ^ 
 
 UR Lord Jesus Christ in the Most 
 Blessed Sacrament of . the Altar ought 
 to- be the principle of your sanctification. 
 That is just. You are lodged with Him. Are 
 you not in the house of OUr Lord? The 
 servant dwelling in the house of his master, 
 is fed by him. He ought, tRen, to labor 
 for him. Now, Our Lord will sanctify you 
 if you labor according to His inspiration, 
 under His eye, and through love for Him. 
 I. — One must work under the inspiration of 
 Jesus Christ. That must guide us in all we 
 do. Do you understand me? There are two 
 inspirations that determine us in every task, 
 no matter what it is. The first is sensible, 
 namely, the order of the Superior or the 
 sound of the bell. To act by this inspiration 
 alone does not suffice to make a work meri- 
 torious, for we can bring to it only a material 
 obedience like to that with 'which the soldier
 
 104 THE EUCHARIST, PRINCIPLE 
 
 executes orders at the command of his gen- 
 eral. To obey the exterior sign is but the 
 body of the virtue of obedience. A soul 
 is necessary, and that is the inspiration of 
 grace, the call of Our Lord. A work will be 
 perfect if we join the interior inspiration of 
 .Our Lord to the sign that imposes it. 
 ' How must we draw inspiration from Our 
 Lord, and how obey Him in all that .we do? 
 By recalling His Presence in the Blessed 
 Sacrament and by praying for His guidance. 
 Do not go to seek Our Lord in heaven, for 
 He is nearer to you than that. It is well; 
 doubtless, to rise toward His glorious throne 
 from time to time, and to desire to see His 
 splendor, but in practical life, you should 
 have Him nearer to you, and it is in the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament that you should 
 seek and find Him. Our Lord might say to 
 you: "Why do you neglect My Presence 
 here? Do you think it is ol no importance 
 and that you can do without it? In heaven 
 I am the God of glory for the elect; in My 
 Sacrament I am the God of grace for them 
 that struggle. " In all your actions, then,
 
 OF SANCTIFICATION. 105 
 
 draw your inspiration from His Eucharistic 
 Presence, 
 
 How? By adoration, by prostrating yourself 
 in spirit at His feet, by renouncing your 
 own natural lights, and sentiments, in order 
 to ask of Him the how of all things. Ask of 
 Him in everything the best means, the best 
 thought, the best way by acknowledging your 
 blindness and impotence. Our Lord perform- 
 ed nothing but by the inspiration of His 
 Father. He read iri Him how He should 
 think, judge, speak, and act Do the same 
 with regard to Jesus Christ. Then you will 
 act by His Spirit. He will send Him to you, 
 for the Spirit proceeds from Him, and He 
 will communicate to you the thought and 
 intention, supernatural and divine, of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 This first inspiration is very important, be- 
 feuse it ^ives to the action its impetus and 
 character. Let us, then, labor with Our 
 Lord and under. His orders, since He is so 
 desirous of associating us with Himself. Let 
 us leave the direction to Him and follow it. 
 Let us be His docile and worthy instruments, 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 8.
 
 106 THE EUCHARIST, PRINCIPLE 
 
 by submitting to Him all our faculties, all 
 our activity. Let Him direct everything to 
 which they may be applied. It is for Him, 
 the chief Organ and Head of the spiritual 
 body, to give the impetus and direction. Faith 
 is not enough. The union of souls in love is 
 necessary, 
 
 11. — You must perform your actions under 
 the eye of Jesus Christ in the Most Blessed 
 Sacrament that you may do them cour 
 ageously, holDy, and with pleasure. 
 
 Know that the eye of Jesus Christ is di- 
 rectly upon you. How dare we offend Him 
 under His very eyes, for He sees us as we 
 would see Him were the veil of the Sacred 
 Species to fall? But, like the guilty old men 
 of the Scriptures, we turn our back on the 
 eye of Our Lord in order to sin, otherwise 
 we should never dare offend Him. The Jews 
 who insulted Him in the praetorium covered 
 His adorable Face. His glance would have 
 touched them or blasted them as by lightning. 
 Ah! if we thought that Our Lord, who is 
 so near us on the altar and in His taber- 
 nacle, inasmuch as one same roof covers us,
 
 OF SANCTIFICATION. 107 
 
 is eye-witness of every one of our actions, 
 and that at the end of the day we should 
 have to appear in His august Presence to 
 render Him an account of it, how faithful, 
 diligent, and holy we should be in all our 
 ways! Do, then, as Abraham, and hearken 
 to Our Lord saying to you from His taber- 
 nacle: "Walk before Me and he perfect." 
 
 True, God is everywhere, but we have need 
 for Him to draw near to us under sensible 
 signs, and this is what He does in the 
 Blessed Sacrament. 
 
 Think, then, that He is there. That Pres. 
 ence is sweeter, is recalled more easily than 
 the presence of the invisible, the impalpable 
 Divinity. It is less easily forgotten. Recall 
 it everywhere, whatever you may be doing; 
 and know that it is His human glance, the 
 eye of the glorified and risen Body that 
 follows you through walls, and never loses 
 sight of you. 
 
 ni. — Act always through love for Our Lord 
 in the Most Blessed Sacrament. Do all for 
 Him, and nothing but for Him alone. You 
 have not entered religion to make for your-
 
 108 THE EUCHARIST, PRINCIPLE 
 
 self a position there, you are no longer 
 hirelings and day-laborers. You have come 
 through love and to sacrifice yourselves, 
 hence, your own personality is of no account 
 and it can never be your end. 
 
 Love even the things and persons of reli- 
 gion, Its means and graces, because they are 
 a part of the family and form its resources 
 for the service of Our Lord. But do not make 
 them the end and aim of your life. Would 
 you make some person, some employment, or 
 some work the end of your love? All such 
 things are created, and they will like your- 
 self come to an end. Would you, then, labor 
 for man? That would be to miss your end. 
 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ alone can be the 
 end of, your love. Labor, then, for love of 
 Him. Let all your actions be dictated by 
 this sentiment: "My Lord and my God, I 
 love Thee, and I prove it to Thee by per- 
 forming this action. " Provided God be 
 pleased, do you be satisfied. Of what account 
 to you is all the rest? 
 
 But it is in the Blessed Sacrament that 
 Jesus ought to be your end, therefore, perform
 
 OF SANCTIFICATION. 109 
 
 all yoiir actions in view of Holy Communion. 
 Let that be the pivot of your day, the centre 
 of your life, whence all radiates and to which 
 all converges. Let all you do, be a prep- 
 aration to receive Our Lord, or a thanksgiving 
 for having received. As Communion is the 
 end here below of all the mysteries of Jesus 
 Christ's life, let it be the end of your life, 
 also. It alone is worthy of being your end, 
 the end in which you will abide in which you 
 will take your rest, for it aJone perfectly gives 
 you Jesus Christ, and allows you tQ dwell in 
 Him'. Virtues, good acts, are only means for 
 attaining perfect union with Him. 
 
 With this end and intention, all your ac- 
 tions will unite to form the bouquet you will 
 offer to your Saviour the next time He 
 comes to you, the day after to-morrow, or 
 even to-morrow itself 
 
 Our .Lord will come to give the finishing 
 touch to your actions, the last increase to 
 your merits, by His personal union with you. 
 By renewing your love. He will renew all your 
 habits of virtue. He will increase them by 
 increasing your love. He will produce closer
 
 110 THE EUCHARIST, PRINCIPLE 
 
 union, strengthen and render more effectual 
 mutual society and action. You will act with 
 Him in one same act, one same intention. 
 Your life will be but one prolonged act 
 of thanksgixdng in which Jesus will inspire 
 and conduct you, and in which you will 
 be only* th^ executor to reproduce exteriorly, 
 by your faculties and members, by your exte- 
 rior life, the di\nne life that He leads in your 
 soul, for it is no longer you who will then 
 live, but He who will live in you. 
 
 Hold on to these principles of life. Fear 
 not to live with Our Lord, under His inspira- 
 tion, His eye, in His love. That alone can 
 make the religious life sweet and agreeable. 
 Without that, it is a galley where men are 
 condemned forever to forced labor. Go di- 
 rectly to Him. ■ Live of Him. Live in Him. 
 The zig-zag line does not lead straight to 
 the end. Lose not your time in the means. 
 Behold here the grand means, the really 
 fruitful principle. Love the Blessed Virgin 
 and the saints. Invoke them. Help yourself 
 by their example, implore their aid; but let 
 all this be only to help you to reach Our
 
 OF SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 Ill 
 
 Lord. Then offer to Him your actions and 
 your life, for He is your centre and your 
 end, and the centre and end of the saints 
 themselves.
 
 
 JESUS in the EUCHARIST, 
 
 
 the MODEL of the three VOWS. 
 
 UR Lord in His Sacrament is the prin- 
 ciple of our holiness; still more, He is 
 our model. The law. is not sufficient for us; 
 we must see it accomplished to understand it 
 well. Our Lord presents Himself as our 
 model that we may follow and reproduce 
 Him: "Ve7ii, sequere Me!" 
 
 Now, we must take Our Lord where He 
 shows Himself to us, and that is in the Blessed 
 Sacrament. He continues the Gospel under 
 our eyes. The Eucharist ought to be our 
 Gospel. It is a living Gospel. Why would 
 you deprive yourselves of the sight of His 
 Person in order to read His word, which 
 comes do\vn to you through nineteen cen- 
 turies? And indeed, the Gospel itself is a 
 closed book if Our Lord does not open it. 
 It is in the Blessed Sacrament that He un- 
 folds it, that He comments upon it, throws 
 light upon it by His virtues, renewing and 
 continuing them under our eyes. It is, then.
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 113 
 
 Our Sacramental Lord whom the religious 
 ought to take for his model. Study Him 
 there. "Follow Me", and this other word: 
 " Looic and malce according to the Model that 
 has been shown thee, " are for all time. They 
 are, then, for us, also. 
 
 What is it to be a religious? It is to be 
 a man who offers and immolates himself to 
 God by poverty, chastity, and obedience, 
 which he has vowed forever. 
 
 I. — You must, then, of necessity be poor, 
 since you have vowed it. Poverty consists in 
 having nothing and in expecting from chari- 
 ty even the most necessary things of life. 
 True, in consequence of the instability of 
 the times and the adverse spirit of civil 
 governments, the Church is constrained no 
 longer to admit Congregations to the solemn 
 vows, by which the religious renounces all 
 propriety over his possessions. By the simple 
 vow of poverty lie renounces only the use and 
 disposal of them, retaining the ownership ; but 
 as far as regards tlie vractice of poverty, the: 
 simple vow differs in nothing from the solemn.^ 
 
 All, then, that you have for your use, ia
 
 114 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 
 
 lent you by the Congregation. If you regard 
 it as your o^vn, you fail in poverty. If you 
 say: It is mine, you steal. The Superior is 
 obliged to take away from the religious all 
 to which he appears to be attached, in order 
 to hinder him from transgressing his vow. 
 Take care that, after having renounced great 
 things, you do not attach yourselves to little 
 ones, and that your heart be not caught and 
 bound by trifles in a way that it was not 
 amid the abundance of wealth and fortune. 
 
 Behold a most important subject for 
 examination. See whether you are perfectly 
 free with regard to all things. 
 
 Or rather, look upon Our Lord in His 
 Sacrament, and compare your poverty with 
 His. 
 
 Wh3.t does He possess? Of what does He 
 nnake use exteriorly? Neither glory nor maj- 
 esty nor any of the attributes of His Di- 
 vinity; and the same of the faculties of His 
 Sacred Humanity. He leaves all His posses- 
 sions in heaven to be the joy of the blessed. 
 He comes with only His Divinity and Human- 
 ity to give Himself to us, and in our breast
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 115 
 
 even to despoil Himself of thepi by Holy 
 Communion. Be like Him, naked and pos- 
 sessing nothing but your good will. The 
 Faithful give Our Lord all that He needs, 
 for He consents to receive as an alms the 
 roof that shelters Him, the articles that serve 
 for His Sacrifice and Communion, even the 
 white linen on which He reposes. He does 
 not own all this as net property. It may 
 be taken from Him at any moment, and 
 He will not defend it. Still more! He has re- 
 nounced all right over Himself. They may do 
 to Him whatever they please. He resists no 
 treatment, whatever it may be. 
 
 Our Lord is not annoyed at being poorly 
 served, provided it is with good will. He 
 rejects nothing. He is willing to make use 
 of anything. Ah! He espouses holy poverty. 
 It is His inseparable companion. 
 
 If poverty sometimes costs, raise your eyes, 
 and look upon Jesus in the Eucharist. He 
 is still poorer than you, He has much less 
 than you. You will never equal His pover- 
 ty. He keeps only the species, not even the 
 small substance that would represent a host,
 
 116 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 
 
 if it remained bread. Xo, He has but the 
 appearances of bread and wine, the accidents 
 without substance. Is there anything that so 
 nearly approaches nothingness? That is all 
 the property of Jesus Eucharistic. Ah! study 
 and imitate this august poverty. You have 
 not yet reached the day when you will be 
 entirely separated from all things and from 
 yourself. 
 
 And yet it is then that you will find liberty. 
 The Imitation says that to be free, we must 
 seek rather to have less than more. Poverty 
 is the independence of the freedman of Jesus 
 Christ, of His voluntary slave, When re- 
 ligious bodies have become wealthy, they have 
 perished. 
 
 The day on v.'hich the religious says : " I am 
 rich, I have need of nothing, " on that day 
 he ceases to be a religious, and the wrath 
 of God will fall upon the foundations of the 
 Order which uses such language. As long 
 as a religious body labors, confidently ex- 
 pecting its help from God, it prospers, it is 
 sure of success. 
 
 This does not mean that a Society may
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 117 
 
 not possess anything. It belongs to the Rule 
 to provide, for it. 
 
 II. — Our Lord is the model of chastity. 
 This is the second of the vows by which we 
 promise God to love only Him", never to love 
 any one who might take a part of that love, 
 for you give it entirely to Him by the 
 beautiful vow of chastity. 
 
 The grace of purity comes only from Our 
 Lord. Communion gives it, increases it, 
 strengthens it, preserves and maintains it 
 against all the assaults of hell, the world, 
 and the flesh. You drink there the virginal 
 Blood of the spotless Lamb. It is absolutely, 
 true that, without Communion, one cannot be 
 chaste. 
 
 In His Eucharist, Jesus is the very essehce 
 of piurity. He is so pure that He unites 
 Himself to no body, not even to the substance 
 of the bread, since He destroys it in order 
 to take its place; nor even to the visible 
 accidents, for He is united to them neither 
 substantially nor personally. He desires only 
 a form without matter, which cannot touch 
 Him.
 
 118 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 
 
 This teaches us that we ought to love no 
 one, nor unite ourselves to any one soever 
 £or himself. Unite yourselves to souls for 
 Our Lord, but for them, ne\er! None of 
 those unions in some way substantial, in 
 which hearts become one, in which souls 
 lose themselves in one another, are absorbed 
 by one another, so to speak! No, no union^ 
 no commingling. One must be a virgin in 
 heart, as well as in body. 
 
 If in the past you have lost this beautiful 
 treasure, know that we are made over, creat- 
 ed anew when we embrace the re igious life. 
 Baptism created us in Jesus Christ. The re- 
 ligious profession is a Baptism. Some com- 
 pare it to martyrdom. You have drawn from 
 it, with new life, new purity. Guard it well, 
 and to that end receive Communion. Let 
 Our L8rd come into you to practise in you 
 Himselif the holy virtue of purity. 
 
 In temptations, when they redouble and 
 show themselves menacing, pray, and com- 
 municate more frequently than you "have been 
 accustomed to do- Extinguish the impure fire 
 of hell by the fire of divine love. It is Jesus
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 119 
 
 who commands the winds ajid the tempests. 
 They are calmed aj; His voice.' Receive, then, 
 frequently Purity in its essence, Jesus Christ, 
 the God of all purity. 
 
 III. — The vow of obedience comsummates 
 the sacrifice of the religious. It is the 
 essential vow of religion. It alone might 
 suffice, for it eminently comprises the others. 
 It perfects the holocaust begun by poverty ir 
 the goods of fortune, and continued by chasti- 
 ty in those of the body, by offering to God 
 the liberty, the will, even the essence of man, 
 his freedom of choice, and his personality. 
 
 Adore now the obedience of Our Lord .in 
 the Blessed Sacrament. What promptitude I 
 What passive, blind, absolute submission, 
 without condition or reserve! The priest is 
 His master, whom He always obeys, whether 
 he be holy, fervent, or not. He obeys all 
 the Faithful who oblige Him to come to them 
 by Communion, when and as often as they 
 present themselves. His obedience is lasting, 
 constant, ever ready 1 And He is the Son of 
 God, who rules, the whole universe! And it 
 is. He, His power, that gives life and pre-
 
 120 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 
 
 serves it to those same people whom He 
 wills thus to obey with . the absolute sub- 
 mission of a slave. He has no more right 
 over His actions, over His Body, nor over His 
 life itself, for He delivers up even His lifel 
 
 There are priests of whom we might ask 
 whether they offer the thrice-holy Sacrifice, or 
 rather perform an insulting parody of it : 
 Sacrificat an insulted} And Our Lord recoils 
 not before the sacrileges that He receives. 
 He will be obedient to them, always obe- 
 dient until death! 
 
 Probably, your obedience will not be call- 
 ed on to go so far. To render homage to 
 the obedience of Our Lord, obey Him at 
 least in your Superiors and their representa- 
 tives. Read His orders even in your Rule. 
 Regard neither the person who commands 
 nor the act to be performed, whether it is 
 honorable or humiliating. Some one gives 
 you an order, go! There is but one prin- 
 ciple of authority, and that is God. He speaks 
 through different instruments, and the more 
 hiunblc His organ, the more meritorious will 
 be your obedience.
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 121 
 
 Only do not , lose sight of Our Lord in 
 His Sacrament of obedience, if you would 
 have the strength to obey always, in every- 
 thing, promptly and joyously. Whatl Our 
 Lord comes to you whenever you wish. You 
 choose your hour, you yourself measure your 
 dispositions, you present yourself, and He is 
 already there. And you? You will not go 
 whither He tells you by the voice of your 
 Superior! And you will not do all that He 
 wishes! Are you, then, greater than He? 
 
 No, obey in mihtary style. Set off at the 
 first word. Execute punctually. The soldier 
 knows no obstacle to his orders, and regards 
 no one when there is question of executing 
 them. Do you do likewise. 
 
 Obey as the angels whose outspread wings 
 attest with what promptitude and joy they 
 fulfil the least command of God. 
 
 Obey as does Our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, 
 how consoling to be able to say that, by 
 our vows, we do what Our Lord does! 
 
 Thus, Our Lord in His Sacrament will be 
 your model in your religious virtues, as He 
 is, your principle and your end. 
 
 The Divin Eucharist. o
 
 122 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS.. 
 
 IV. — Something more is necessary on the 
 part of Our Lord, and that is, He must come 
 to practise them Himself in you. By your 
 union with Him, it is necessary for you to 
 do more than a single moral person, inasmuch 
 as He gives the life, inspiration, grace, and 
 merit, and that you act only as His member 
 and organ. 
 
 Comprehend well this grand principle. Our 
 Lord who has assumed the state .of all the 
 virtues in the Blessed Sacrament, having en- 
 tered into His glory, can no longer make 
 meritorious acts of them. Nevertheless. He 
 ardently desires to practise them for the glory 
 of His Father. He wishes to live again, to 
 find a soul capable of meriting, with faculties 
 that can truJy love, labor, and sacrifice. It 
 is for this that He unites Himself to His 
 Faithful, who become His members. He is 
 their Chief, their Head, their moral and su- 
 pernatural Heart. He pours into them His 
 grace, His divine sap, moving them, making 
 them act and labor. Then He performs in 
 them meritorious and satisfactory works. He 
 takes on again His life of viator, His In-
 
 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS 123 
 
 carnation is recommenced. The Father sees 
 Him again poor, chaste, obedient, meek, and 
 humble as in the days of His -mortal life. 
 He lives again in us. Our actions are His as 
 much as our pwn. The supernatural life 
 exists entirely in this union of companionship 
 and life. Let us enter into it, preserve it 
 well, render it more and more close, until we 
 reach the point of doing nothing, absolutely 
 nothing of ourselves, whether by our reason, 
 our heart, our faculties, or our senses, human 
 and natural, that cannot mount to God, that 
 cannot effect something for His glory,, and 
 even for our own eternal happiness. It is 
 a little thing to act upon others. But let our 
 whole life, our- thoughts and actions be pro- 
 duced in- us by Jesus Christ, who makes 
 Himself our soul and our heart, our mind 
 and our thought, who does all in us and 
 in all things, who desires to replace our 
 life by His own life; our natural being, the 
 being of Adam, by His own supernatural 
 being, the being of the Son of God; who, 
 in a word, wills to substitute His own Per- 
 sonality for ours in order to make us His
 
 124 JESUS, MODEL OF THE THREE VOWS. 
 
 second self, acting only by the Father, for 
 the Father, in Jesus Christ, His Son, and in 
 His Holy Spirit. Then we shall be true re- 
 ligious and saints, and God will find His 
 glory and pleasure in us!
 
 j^*i&Si&*i&*^«;^*&23&!i&l!^«&!!&!^i!^i!&Sa&^S!&!!^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 HUMILITY. 
 
 1^ 
 
 |hich are the foundations of sanctity? 
 iWe may answer in a single word, Jesus 
 Christ is the model, the grace, and the end. 
 
 He is the necessary model, in Him we 
 must view the virtues in order to comprehend 
 them. A virtue is. but the reproduction of 
 some one of His actions, the imitation of 
 Jesus Christ in some one of His acts. It is 
 all very well in theory to define virtue in 
 itself; but to imderstand it, and above all to 
 reproduce it supernaturally, it must be studied 
 in Jesus Christ, otherwise we see and perform 
 only natural virtues. 
 
 Jesus is the grace, as well as the model, 
 of every virtue: ''Without Me," He says, 
 " you can do nothing. " We must, then, be 
 helped by Him. The work of virtue is only 
 a co-operation with the divine action of Jesus 
 Christ in us. He comes to aid us and to 
 make us do what He Himself is doing. 
 
 He should be, also, the end of the virtues 
 and of holiness. Every virtue must become 
 His in order to be pleasing to God, and we
 
 126 HUMILITY. 
 
 will be crowned only in Him and by Him 
 as members under their only Head. This 
 being premised, let us study the virtues of 
 Jesus Christ most necessary for the religious. 
 
 I. — Now, the great virtue of Jesus 
 Christ is humility "Learn of Me,'' He says, 
 ''because I am meek and humble of Heart." 
 He makes humility jHis characteristic, His 
 dominant virtue, in the very depths of His 
 Heart and His divine and human character. 
 As God, He humbles Himself; as Man, He 
 humbles Himself still more. In everything, 
 everywhere, we discover that humility which 
 is His name, His sign, and His seal, as 
 Saint Augustine says . " To name Jesus Christ 
 is to point out humility: Ciwi Christum no- 
 mino, maxime vobis humilitas commendatur,'' 
 
 Our Lord, not being able to humble Himself 
 for His sins, since He had never committed 
 any, embraced humility through love, choice, 
 and complacency. As for ourselves, we must 
 be humble both on account of our sins and 
 for love of Jesus Christ humiliated. The first 
 kind of humility is negative; the second, pos- 
 itive.
 
 HUMILITY. 127 
 
 Now, Jesus Christ manifests His humility 
 in His dependence on His Divine Father. 
 
 He refers to Him all glory, and declares 
 that He Himself receives from Him His being-, 
 action, word, even His thought. If men 
 proclaim Hini good, He xeplies that God 
 alone is good. If they ask of Him miracles. 
 He invokes His Father before working them, 
 as if demanding of Him the power to do so, 
 and He avows that the Son has nothing of 
 Himself: " Filius a se non'habet quidquam." 
 He is Man. His human nature is created 
 and dependent on God. He desires to main- 
 tain it in this dependence in the eyes of all, 
 in order to give us the most sublime example 
 of humility, for that same humanity, by its 
 union with the Word, was worthy of acting 
 by itself and of receiving all homage and 
 adoration. But Our Lord wished to inculcate 
 humility by practising it in voluntary and 
 and absolute dependence on His Father. 
 
 When there is question of natural trials and 
 humiliations, He embraces them eagerly, 
 submits to them even to their last conse- 
 quences, undergoing .the humiliation of weak-
 
 128 HUMILITY. 
 
 ness, fatigue, sadness, dejection, fear, dis- 
 couragement, and disgust. He then speaks 
 and complains as ]\Ian. 
 
 Behold the humility of Jesus Christ! Truly, 
 humiliation in itself is not lovable. It is 
 enough to endure it patiently. But viewed 
 in Jesus Christ, practised with Him and in 
 Him, — how it changes its appearance and 
 becomes transformed! It U no longer humil- 
 iation, it is Jesus Christ humbled, and He 
 is nowhere so lovable as in His humiliations. 
 
 We must see, also, humility in Mary. She 
 is the most humble of creatures, and yet 
 she was not condemned to humility by her 
 sins, for she had none; nor by the fear of 
 falling, for her -love united her indissolubly to 
 God. But she is humble, through love, 
 through choice. Tliat is positive humility, 
 which is no other than the entire renun- 
 ciation and abnegation of self, in order to 
 receive, to live, to depend in all things only 
 on God. Though Mary ravished God by her 
 purity, she became His Mother by her hu- 
 mility 
 
 II — Here is the first-class humility that
 
 HUMILITY. 129 
 
 we ought to imitate, although sianers and 
 condemned necessarily to humble ourselves 
 by our- state. 
 
 Let us then, refer all to God. Return to 
 Him His graces, which He lends you only that 
 you may make them fructify to His profit 
 and glory. Do not pride yourselves on God's 
 gifts. Do. not appropriate them, as if they 
 came from yourself, but confess that they are 
 from God. Do not rely on them, as if they 
 were part and parcel of what is naturally your 
 due; but maintain yourself in a constant and 
 actual dependence on God, as receiving al- 
 ways, but never possessing. Acknowledge 
 that the state of grace itself which seems 
 connatural to you, actually flows from God. 
 that it is preserved by a positive decree of 
 His mercy, and that of yourself you are 
 but nothingness and absolute impotence. 
 Take notice that Lucifer fell only for having 
 considered his gifts as coming from himself, 
 and for having thought himself sufficient 
 for himself while, in truth, he existed and act- 
 ed only through the divine influence of grace. 
 You will say, perhaps, that since you co-
 
 130 HUMILITY. 
 
 operate with grace, a part of the result ought 
 to be attributed to you, and that you may 
 share the fruits at least by the right of the 
 farmer whose labor increases the value of 
 his master's lands. Not at all I Your own 
 labor becomes valuable only by the grace 
 which accompanies it, elevating it, rendering, 
 it supernatural and meritorious, just as it had 
 commenced it. Doubtless, God will reward 
 you, but it will be His own gifts that He 
 will crown in your merits. And so, there 
 is no moment, neither at the commencement, 
 the middle, nor the end, when you may 
 consider yourself as acting by yourself, by 
 your own strength. But you are always 
 moved, elevated, acted upon, by grace, by 
 Jesus Christ, as theology says, like the 
 member which operates only under the di- 
 rection of the head and conjointly with it 
 by the mind, the movement, and the life 
 that it communicates to it. Now, Jesus Christ 
 is our Head, caput. To that august Chief 
 be the honor and glory of the victory, the 
 fruit and the result of the labor, as in heaven 
 they chant honor, strength, power, and
 
 HUMILITY. 131 
 
 thanksgiving to God and to the Lamb "who has 
 conquered! 
 
 Alas, that we should rob the good God in 
 the spiritual life I Let us say with Saint Paul: 
 "Not I, but the grace of God with me!" 
 And let us hold on to that word of Jesus 
 Christ: ''Without Me you can do nothing, 
 absolutely nothing. " 
 
 But in practice, man is naturally a Pe- 
 lagian. He believes himself all-sufficient. He 
 first has recourse to his own resources, he 
 makes use of his own means, he forms his 
 own plans before asking God's_ help, so little 
 is he impressed by his own -absolute insuffi- 
 ciency and his necessary dependence on God ! 
 He will soon consent to be helped, and he 
 will pray to be delivered from embarrassment, 
 but he will not begin by turning to God 
 before putting his hand to the task. Re- 
 nounce self, then. Know for certain and for 
 all time that of yourself you can never ac- 
 complish anything, neither here nor there, 
 neither today nor to morrow, neither for this 
 one nor for that one, and go ask God's help 
 before beginning- anything whatsoever. This
 
 132 HUMILITY. 
 
 is true humility; to omit it, is stupidity. We 
 should perform prodigies did we act in this 
 way, for it would be God who would operate 
 in us. But we do just the contrary. How 
 much time we lose in experimenting, in leav- 
 ing oft, in taking up again, and in failing! 
 How many towers of Ba'bel! We work, we 
 perspire, we fatigue ourselves. We quail not 
 even before failure. Pride comes in and. 
 when we are in dead earnest, we would 
 rather wear ourselves out than desist. But 
 because God has no hand in it, nothing 
 bears fruit. He looks down upon this stren- 
 uous labor, and He brmgs it to confusion 
 and ruin. Beware of that! When holy obe- 
 dience does not oblige you to it, and you 
 are tenacious of a certain work, it is pride 
 that is urging you on, and you are sowing 
 in the whirlwind ! 
 
 Be humble, then, before, during, after. To 
 be humble is to depend on God, to be under 
 His hand, without supporting one's self upon 
 self, but only on His all-powerful arm. 
 
 ni. — Behold in what positive humility con- 
 sists! Sin counts for nothing there. — Behold
 
 HUMILITY, 133 
 
 the negative, to which we are bound by our 
 original sin, and the state in which it places 
 IIS before God, Although pur fied from the 
 stain by Baptism, we bear within us a nature 
 infected by sin, bruised by sin, whose pores 
 are open to sin, absolute poverty, pitiable 
 misery. Alas I a weak mind, a feeble heart 
 thoroughly- vitiated — this is what we must 
 recognize and confess before God and man. 
 This ought to give us an inward and; as it 
 were, natural feeling of humility, like the 
 weakness and ignorance of the child who 
 says so simply: "I cannot, 1 do not know. " 
 This is necessary, for if you do not become, 
 especially in this point, like to little children, 
 you shall not enter into the kingdom of 
 heaven. 
 
 Still more. — Our personal sins are another 
 source of profound humility and humiliation. 
 1 am a sinner, more of a sinner than all other 
 men, for 1 could have and 1 might have 
 done all that they have done. With as many 
 graces as I, they would not have been so 
 wicked as I. That is the truth. The truly 
 humble man places himself below all others
 
 134 HUMILITY, 
 
 in his own esteem. He knows that he de- 
 serves the last place, and he places himself 
 last. Besides, without need, of comparisons 
 and proportions, have you even once offend- 
 ed God? Well then, you have, you your- 
 self, crucified Jesus Christ in you. Is not that 
 sufficient ? And if you have frequently offend- 
 ed Him, oh, into what abysses of humility 
 should you not plunge and hide yourself ! You 
 have multiplied the Passion, the Crucifixion, 
 and the Death of Jesus Christ — Rursnm cm- 
 cifigentes. Keep this before your eyes, and 
 you will be humble. Bit, you will say, with 
 such a thought one can not live. Without 
 doubt, one should die of shame and remorse! 
 Our Lord in pity pardons us and, in His 
 goodness, like the father of the prodigal 
 son, veils our faults. He pardons, he has for- 
 gotten everything, and he covers his boy's 
 rags with festive robes. But the son accuses 
 himself, humbles himself, and rehearses his 
 wanderings. Behold true humility! Well, if 
 He forgets, let us not forget. Let us not 
 fear to descend, for God will raise us up. 
 Pride remains in humiliation, glorying like
 
 HUMILITY. 135 
 
 the cynic in its abject condition,* but grace 
 raises the humble soul making it rebound in 
 proportion to its voluntary abasement. Hu- 
 mility is the fountain of living water which 
 shoots up mightily even into eternal life: 
 Qui se hutniliat, exalidbitur
 
 
 MEEKNFSS. 
 
 EEKXESS, like humility, is one of Jesus 
 Christ's characteristic virtues. It is, con- 
 sequently, one of the fundamental virtues of 
 evangelical perfection. Sanctity- that is not 
 meek is not true. Our Lord set down meek- 
 ness and humility as the dominant \nrtues of 
 His Heart. 
 
 I. — Upon what rests, then, its importance, 
 and what is it that merits for it this high 
 rank among the virtues? It is because it is 
 the fruit of the supernatural love of God, it 
 is man's palm of victory over his pride, it 
 is the renovation and the transformation of 
 the whole natural man. The old Adam is 
 wrathful by nature, and the more so in pro- 
 portion to his pride. Every proud man is 
 violent, severe, and choleric. Impatience is 
 nourished by pride, it is its voice and gesture. 
 Wrath rests on the love that man entertains 
 for himself, for his own ease, his own nat 
 ural happiness. It is man's resistance to 
 whatever tends to snatch from him what he 
 loves. It is the cry of self-love and egoism.
 
 MEEKNESS. 137 
 
 Now, these are things that plunge their roots 
 into the depths of man's being. They are 
 his very nature. To render a man meek, is 
 to reform him thoroughly and supernaturalize 
 his whole .nature. 
 
 All are subject to anger. The impious man 
 knows no limits to its transports, and he 
 attacks God Himself when he is tired of 
 wreaking it on his fellow-men. 
 
 And those pious natures, apparently so sweet 
 and calm, — if you inflame them, will be 
 most terrible in their wrath. They cannot 
 be extinguished at . once, and the hot ashes 
 will long cover coals ready to ignite. The 
 anger of the phlegmatic is the most difficult 
 to appease, nor does it take much to excite it ! 
 
 Meekness is not, then, a natural virtue, 
 and one attains it not by his own strength, 
 nor by merely saying. " I want to be meek. " 
 
 It is a virtue proper to Jesus Christ, en- 
 tirely supernatural. For us to practise it, Hib 
 grace, a powerful grace, is necessary. It is 
 the question of . simply vanquishing one's 
 self-love entirely, and that is no easy thing 
 But when we reach that degree, we are pleas- 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. lo
 
 138 MEEKNESS. 
 
 ing to Jesus Christ, who holds intercourse 
 only with the meek. We possess the kingdom 
 of heaven, we gain souls to God, and we 
 deserve to reign with the Lamb, 
 
 II — We must be meek before God. God 
 is at times severe. He hides His goodness 
 under an irritated exterior. He appears to 
 hold back His help, to stop the channels 
 of grace. 
 
 He allows nothing that we undertake to 
 succeed, even those things that are for His 
 glory. We are contradicted, calumniated both 
 by the good and the wicked, by enemies and 
 friends. We are abandoned like holy Job 
 on his dung-hill. 
 
 Then we are discouraged, and un disgust 
 we give up everything. Sadness lords it over 
 us with impatience. We feel secret irritation 
 boiling up in our soul. It is then that one 
 must be meek before God, for all that comes 
 from Him. Meekness will make us say to 
 Him: "My God, I know Thou art as good 
 as Thou art just. I accept everything from 
 Thy hand, I adore Thee in this mysterious 
 way and in all Thy good pleasure concerning
 
 MEEKNESS. 139 
 
 me, for I know that all comes from Thy 
 paternal Heart. " 
 
 We suffer, but we are submissive and we 
 serve God as on the days He turns to us 
 the radiant simshine of His face. God is 
 conquered by this meekness of the submissive 
 soul. He yields, for the experience He 
 desired to make is over. He wanted to see 
 whether we love Him more than His favors. 
 
 We must reach this degree of meekness 
 toward God. Without it, we shall never ac- 
 cept His will, we should struggle against God 
 Himself. From that to murmuring, to blas- 
 phemy, and to despair, the descent is rapid. 
 
 Job is our modeK The Holy Spirit praises 
 him for his meekness. He triumphed over God 
 by supporting His visitation with patience. 
 And yet Job had never seen Jesus Christ f 
 
 Oh, how meek Jesus Christ was toward 
 His Father! His Father had imposed on Him 
 all His sufferings, and He had made Him 
 rigorously undergo all that Jesus Christ had 
 accepted from eternity. He let Him off from 
 nothing. And Jesus Himself said: "All jus- 
 tice must be fulfilled. " Nevertheless, the
 
 140 MEEKNESS. 
 
 chalice was bitter! Jesus could not help beg- 
 ging His Father to spare Him, but He added: 
 ''Father, let Thy will he done! " And on the 
 Cross, what a martyrdom for Him was the 
 abandonment of His Father! And how heart- 
 rending was that cry of the Saviour: " Father^ 
 Father, why hast Thou abandoned Me!'' But 
 •He was not irritated. He is -the Lamb that 
 they immolate and that allows Itself to be 
 sacrificed, and He -ends His life with the 
 words: Consummatum est! 
 
 God will make you taste these trials. Love 
 needs to pass through them. Oh, how much 
 need you have of meekness toward God! 
 Meekly humble yourself. Have confidence in 
 His mercy, in His goodness, which knows not 
 how to let you perish forever. Look not 
 at your sins, nor seek the key to your suffer- 
 ings. You would only find trouble and fright. 
 No, cast yourself on God's mercy, and say to 
 Him: "As Thou wilt, my God! But Thou 
 shalt lose nothing, for 1 ivill serve Thee in 
 spite of trial ! " 
 
 III. — You must be meek toward the neigh- 
 bor. The principle of meekness toward the
 
 MEEKNESS. 141 
 
 neighbor lies in charity. You will be meek 
 toward him, if you see in him the gifts of 
 God, if you love God in him. To love men 
 for themselves is time and trouble lost. Men 
 are sacks full of holes. He who puts his 
 treasures in them, is sure to lose them. 
 
 If you behold God in the neigbor, you will 
 put up with his defects, you will reprove 
 him without sharpness, you will treat him as 
 you would have treated Jesus Christ gping 
 to Calvary laden with His Cross; you will 
 pity his misery, and it will not irritate you; 
 you will patiently and kindly render him 
 service, and for all this you must love God in 
 him. Nothing is more necessary than this 
 meekn''ess toward the neighbor, especially in 
 Community life. Peace, fraternal union, de 
 pend upon this meekness, for the neighbor L«i 
 exacting. We must gently put up with him, 
 remembering that, " tit for tat, " we shall not 
 fail to exercise him in our turn. Meekness 
 shuns contentions and quarrels. Our Lord 
 recommended it to His disciples at the last 
 repast He took with them before leaving 
 them the Supper of the Eucharist.
 
 142 MEEKNESS. 
 
 IV. — We must, too, be meek toward self. 
 This may appear, perhaps, contrary to this 
 word of the Saviour: ''He who loves his life 
 shall lose it. " But it is not so. If there is 
 question of shunning sin, of flying the oc- 
 casion, of combating a habit, of punishing 
 a fault, oh, there is no question of meekness^ 
 then! Force and energy must come in 
 there. 
 
 But against that weakness which is in us 
 the basis of every temptation, why become 
 irritated? That is our corrupt nature. Unless 
 it impels us to some sinful act, why should 
 we torment ourselves about it? Let us not 
 uselessly fatigue ^r faculties already so weak. 
 
 Against one's innate misery, against that 
 weakness it entails, which mounts not upward, 
 which incessantly falls back on self, neither 
 struggle nor violence must be employed, but 
 the humility and the patience of meekness. 
 One must accept his state just as it is, and 
 take it to God in the same way. You are 
 weak in mind, and still more in heart? Offer 
 that to God. Otherwise, what will you do? 
 We cannot kill ourselves to change ourselves.
 
 MEEKNESS. 143 
 
 In vain, will you be angry against yourself 
 and vex yourself for not being perfect. 
 
 Do you want to appear so in your own 
 eyes, and make perfection increase in you 
 in spite of everything? You . will be like 
 those infatuated ignoramuses, or those poor 
 proud men who want to pass for savants 
 and millionaires — nothing more odious ! 
 
 A poor person comes to you. You give him 
 an alms, because of his need, without in- 
 quiring into the cause, more or less legitimate, 
 of his poverty. To what purpose would you 
 inquire and discuss? He is poor, you receive 
 him as such, and give him charity. 
 
 Treat yourself in the same way. Your spirit- 
 ual weakness and indigence are the con- 
 dition of humility for you. Accept your 
 impotence with meekness. That will engender 
 a certain peace, which will sufficiently unite 
 you with God. 
 
 The perfection of meekness would be even 
 to thank the good, God, for your misery 
 glorifies His ineffable greatness; to be sen- 
 sible of the least graces, and to bless Hini 
 for them as for immense favors which He
 
 144 MEEKNESS. 
 
 grants you who arc altogether unworthy of 
 them. 
 
 Meekness is necessary in the service of 
 God, in all interior operations, in all spiritual 
 communication with God, above all in prayer 
 and direct relations with Him. You are, for 
 example, going to make your. meditation, and 
 you have neither thoughts, nor affections, 
 nor the means to produce them. Then say: 
 " My God, I am nothing, but I will remain 
 at Thy feet all the same. They do not put a 
 child out of his father's house, because he 
 is an imbecile 1 The dog has a right to lie 
 full length at the door and to pick up the 
 scraps that fall to the ground. " This is a 
 suffering, but it must be accepted, for it 
 pleases God. We do not want it, but of 
 ourselves we know not how to do better. 
 
 Irritation would be the vexation of pride, 
 the annoyance of self-love, which dreams of 
 great things and thinks itself capable of the 
 most difficult. 
 
 The good God keeps us in our place and 
 shows us our nothingness. We must regard it 
 meekly and offer it to Him with thanksgiving,
 
 MEEKNESS. 145 
 
 for He will not disdain to look upon that 
 nothingness, to send upon it a genial ray of 
 light to make it produce, at least some little 
 flower, at least some ears of wheat, which 
 the angels may gather and put into the gran- 
 aries of heaven; for God regards the poor 
 man on his dung-hill, and raises up the meek 
 whose heart is contrite. 
 
 The Prophet said, and every morning the 
 priest . repeats : " Why art thou sad, my 
 soul, and why dost thou trouble me'? Spera 
 in Deo — Hope in God ! " Here is the answer, 
 here is the remedy: meekness, hope, and 
 confidence in the mercy of God, who disdains 
 none of the creatures of His hand, for He 
 has created them all in His love, and for 
 His designs of love. 
 
 .♦^.
 
 *&1&*ii&2&2i&2&*;&J&J!&!&<^*i&2&!&*&^^«3g^^ 
 
 The RULE, 
 
 SANGTIFIGATION of the 
 
 RELIGIOUS. 
 
 Kr 
 
 ^^^5^^f^^^W^'^W^*^'^^W^W^^ 
 
 I. — What law will make you holy? The 
 Rule, your religious Rule, the Rule of the 
 Society to which you belong. Your holiness 
 consists in its practice. It is for you the 
 will of God. It tells you what is His design 
 over you, how He desires to conduct you. 
 what graces He will give you. The religious 
 can sanctify himself only by his Rule. Here 
 individual piety and observances count for 
 nothing. Everything is given to the body 
 as a whole, and the members have to receive 
 their life from their union with that body. 
 In religion we are saved only as a whole, 
 that is, inasmuch as we are united to the 
 body. Now, the Rule is the soul which makes 
 the unity of a religious body. God will not 
 recognize your personal holiness. What He 
 looks for in you is the perfect religious pf 
 such or such an Institute. You must be 
 blended with youi Institute that you may be
 
 SANCTIFICATION OF THE RELIGIOUS. 147 
 
 a living incarnation of it. It is not the holy 
 man, it is the holy religious, who will be 
 crowned in you. 
 
 Do you understand from this how important 
 it is that you should esteem your Rule; that 
 you should value its practice above all at- 
 tractions, however good they may otherwise 
 be ; that you should imbibe its spirit .and judge 
 of everything from its point of view; that it 
 ought to be your guide, your supreme cri- 
 terion ? 
 
 Esteem it, love it, practise it. You will re- 
 ceive three great graces from it against three 
 very dangerous temptations. 
 
 1. The Rule guards against inconstancy. 
 
 In the world, inconstancy is the great enemy 
 of piety. Were you always at the same 
 level? On the contrary, did not your piety 
 follow a perpetual see-saw movement, some- 
 times high, sometimes low? The Rule holds 
 you fast, and prevents your inclining to the 
 right or to the left. It hinders you from 
 shirking. It seizes the religious, urges him 
 on by a constant movement, and cries to 
 hini by the voice of the regulations, of the
 
 148 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION 
 
 daily exercises, of the bell: "Move on! Go 
 on!" And then, all doing the same thing, 
 one multiplies himself a hundredfold by the 
 strength of his brethren. He is drawn onward 
 by those that are advancing, and it is difficult 
 to lag behind. The love of God, and also 
 a certain self-love, obliges one to follow. 
 This is a great help against personal weakness 
 and natural inconstancy. 
 
 2. The Rule protects against tepidity and 
 negligence. When there is question of work- 
 mg on one's self, a man experiences diffi- 
 culty, he soon finds that he always does 
 enough. But he will greatly devote himself 
 for others, will sacrifice himself for their 
 advancement, though he rcTa-y be 1^ when 
 there is question of self. In the same meas- 
 ure as he rushes forth to serve the neighbor, 
 does he experience annoyance at entering 
 into self to sacrifice self. He thinks that 
 devotedness to others suffices, and he makes 
 it his life-work, as if it supplied for every- 
 thing else. This is a great snare. He will lose 
 himself under pretext of saving others. 
 
 Now, the Rule preserves us from this peril.
 
 OF THE RELIGIOUS, 149 
 
 It lays down for you the exercises of personal 
 holiness. It imposes on you some hours dur- 
 ing which you have to think of yourself, 
 work only for God in yourself. Be faithful 
 to them. These exercises are the nourish- 
 ment of your soul. Your spiritual life is 
 supported only by them, and nothing will 
 replace them. They have no equivalent, re- 
 member that! I except only the case of 
 evident, necessity, which is very rare. In what 
 illusion some are on this point! They want 
 to labor, ever to struggle. Ah! struggling 
 does not nourish, it destroys! All that you 
 do for others does not equal in value what 
 the Rule orders you to do for yourself, and 
 which you have neglected. The best reasons 
 in this case are only pretexts that veil self- 
 love or tepidity; for, do not forget, there is 
 more virtue in combating against self than 
 in combating against all the vices of the 
 world, and there is more strength and true 
 devotedness necessary to labor at one's own 
 perfection than to give one's self up to that of 
 others/ We must go to God before going to 
 men.
 
 150 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION 
 
 The pious exercises of the Rule stand, then, 
 before all else, absolutely before all else I 
 No exercises of personal piety then, if they 
 are against your Rule, or if they cause you 
 to neglect what it imposes on you. In the 
 latter, you share the abundant grace of the 
 whole body; in the former, you have only a 
 little drop of individual grace. 
 
 In a word, to leave the common for the 
 particular, is the source of all illusions. 
 
 3. The Rule fortifies you, also, against the 
 danger of exaggeration, the foimdation of 
 illusion in the spiritual life. One is young, 
 the heart is ardent, the imagination easily 
 inflamed. He reads the lives of the saints, 
 sees there some extraordinary actions, and 
 at once desires to imitate them. He fmds 
 in some book an account of a very secret, 
 very extraordinaiT way of some holy per- 
 sonage, and he wants to enter upon it, for 
 it seems that sanctity is there. He forgets 
 the whole of their ordinaiy life, bowed under 
 the yoke of the Rule, in the practice of 
 daily duties, in the mortification* of the 
 passions, and he sees only some of their
 
 OF THE RELIGIOUS. 151 
 
 brilliant actions generally willed by God 
 more to manifest their sanctity than to 
 increase it. 
 
 Now, I say to you, first of all: Are these 
 saints of your Order? Had they the same 
 grace and the same Rule as you? — Th'en, 
 imitate them; if not, let them go. You have 
 not their grace, and if God wills you to be 
 a violet, why presume to make yourself a 
 cedar? On pronouncing his vows, the re- 
 ligious gives up all the particular rules he 
 had followed till then. His vows take the 
 place of whatever obligations he may have 
 formerly contracted. If you belonged to a 
 Third Order, if you had some particular 
 vows, you commute their obligations intoi those 
 of your religious vows. Regard them with 
 affection, if you wish; but let alone their 
 practice. 
 
 Hold on to your Rule. It is sufficient for 
 everything. Ask private penances, if you so 
 desire. The Superior's authority interprets the 
 Rule, therefore sanctifies and permits" such 
 penances. But he ought to watch that noth- 
 ing contrary to- the spirit of the Rule is in-
 
 152 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION 
 
 troduced. In this case, it is all bad, penances 
 as well as the rest. 
 
 Be sober, modest. Have the spirit of pen- 
 ance and mortification. Exercise it in the 
 ordinary practices, and guard against the 
 extraordinary. 
 
 Lastly, you must be holy in the way that 
 God wills, and not otherwise. The Rule 
 points out to you the will of God. With it, 
 you are secure, you are in His grace, you 
 possess the means by which you will surel'y 
 glorify Him. Everything else will be of no 
 use to Him or to you, but indeed, dan- 
 gerous for you. They are giant steps, but 
 out of the way, like the great deeds of the 
 Romans and their high moral virtues, of which 
 Saint Augustine has said: Magni passus, sed 
 extra viam! 
 
 A saint, speaking of the Rule of Saint 
 Francis, said: "He who keeps this Ride will 
 surely be saved. " I tell you the same of 
 your own; and without it, you will fruit- 
 lessly kill yourselves m trouble and labor, 
 you will never reach the goall 
 
 Keep your Rule always under your eyes;
 
 OF THE RELIGIOUS. 153 
 
 If it does not speak clearly, have recourse 
 to your Superior. He is the living Rule. His 
 interpretation gives authorization 
 
 II. — Besides for your own sanctification 
 and the advantages I have enumerated, you 
 ought to practise your Rule for your Con- 
 gregation. 
 
 1. First of all, you ought to love this 
 Congregation with a filial love, you ou^ht 
 to cherish gratitude toward it. You owe to 
 It your eternal happiness and the peace that 
 you taste, the facility of sanctifying yourself, 
 the happiness you enjoy here below Give 
 It all your support, and this you cannot 
 better do than by practising its Rule. Recall 
 that one never repays a Society as it deserves 
 for the benefits it confers. One is always 
 a debtor to one's morher. Your daily labors 
 are only part payment of your immense debt. 
 
 Now, for all that it gives you, it asks 
 only that you observe its Rule. Its Rule is 
 the essential condition of its life. If you do 
 not observe it, you kill your mother, you 
 destroy your adopted family, little by little 
 ypu introduce division, anarchy, civil war. 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. "
 
 154 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION 
 
 Whoever fails in his Rule gives rise to a 
 revolution, as far as he can. He makes a 
 breach in the holy citadel. But, above all, 
 may God preserve us from ever wishing to 
 touch a Rule in order to change it, to modify 
 it! Should you be recreant ia this point, 
 you overthrow it, though perhaps not for- 
 mally. Keep, then, your Rule in order to pre- 
 serve the life of the Society that is you? 
 mother. 
 
 2. You are under obligation to extend this 
 Society, to render it prosperous, and to attract 
 numerous children to it. If you do not prac- 
 tise your Rule they will see it, and they will 
 withdraw from it, saying: "It is only dis- 
 order!" And thus, will they dry up a So- 
 ciety in its roots. It has life-force, great 
 grace, it ought to increase. But they arrest 
 it, paralyze it, by not observing its Rule, 
 for its Rule is its furnace of life. It will 
 expand only if that furnace is glowing, well- 
 fed, well-guarded. 
 
 On beholding you, may. they say: "Here 
 are true religious. They faithfully obser'/e 
 their. Rule. " You are the fruits of the So-
 
 OF THE RELIGIOUS. 155 
 
 ciety. As a tree is known by its fruits, jt 
 IS by you that the Society will be judged. 
 You are its rays. Shed around its light, and 
 people will come to it. 
 
 3. Lastly, you ought to contribute to the 
 end of your Society, and act in such a way 
 that it may happily attain it.. Tliat end is 
 to glorify God by works of charity among the 
 laboring classes 
 
 If you have not your Rule at heart, \v\ua 
 will you do for God? 
 
 You can glorify linn only m the spun and 
 according lo the grace of your foundation 
 and, imderbland well. God gives but one 
 grace of foundation. 
 
 The great danger of nascent Societies is 
 to be wanting in faith in the first grace. 
 Some may enter who say " But if we mod- 
 ified this, if we added that, we have done 
 wrong ni acting until now in this way. ' — 
 They may have talent, experience, influence. 
 i tell you they are voluntary or involuntary 
 traitors, who split up the first grace, the gjace 
 of the foundation, the thought of the Founder,
 
 156 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION 
 
 and ihey who listen to iheni will dcblioy the 
 Society! 
 
 There arc always some who think them- 
 selves called to reform iheir, I'omider and 
 to do better than he. But God blesses only 
 those whom He has chosen for Founder, 
 and never those that wish to go against 
 him. The example of Brother Elias and 
 Saint Francis is well known Elias wanted 
 to add, diminish, censure; and by. the order 
 of God, the saint always answered : " Without 
 comment, widiout comment, without com- 
 ment!"- Elias separated from the sauit. He 
 went into Germany, where he died miserably 
 hi the party of the schismatic Emperor while 
 sustaining an antipope. 
 
 No, God never blesses outside of the first 
 grace. They may develop it, they may draw 
 from it all that it contains at the time and 
 in the measure that circumstances demand; 
 but it is never permitted to change nor in- 
 troduce anything contrary to it. God will 
 fructify only the first seed, and He will never 
 give another. 
 
 And if any have departed from it, they.
 
 OF THR RFXIGIOUS. 157 
 
 must return to it purely and simply. Prima 
 opera fac, take up again your first works, 
 return to the purity of your first grace. If 
 noc, I will 5;cattei- you: Sin autem venio tibt 
 ft moveho candelabrum iaum de loco suo (Apoc. 
 II, 5). Never allow anything new or strange 
 to be introduced into your R,ule. Like that 
 saintly Founder reply " Let them be as they 
 are, or let them disappear altogether!" This 
 danger is great. Guard carefully against it. 
 
 Lastly, observe youi- Rule, keep it religious- 
 ly through respect for the good God. Your 
 Rule comes from Him. Do you think any 
 man would be capable of composing a Rule? 
 No! Neither virtue nor holiness is sufficient 
 for that. The choice, the special call from 
 God is necessary It is He who mspires it, 
 and the Founder transmits it to you, tracing 
 it in his sufferings and tears. What man 
 could infuse light and holiness into a line 
 written by his own hand.? The Rule bears 
 with it grace. It sanctifies. Now, God alone 
 can give the grace and the power to sanctify. 
 
 The Rule is for you what the Gospel is for 
 the Church, the Book of life, the Book of
 
 158 THE RULE, SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 the word of God, filled with His truth, His 
 light, His grace and His life. And you would 
 dare change a syllable of that Gospel, or 
 throw out a word? No, let all its words be 
 sacred to you! 
 
 Hearken to the threats of Saint John written 
 at the close of his Apocalypse, You may 
 apply them to the book of your holy Rules : 
 
 " I testify to every one that heareth the 
 words of the prophecy of this book: If any 
 man shall add to these things, God shall 
 add unto him the plagues written in this book. 
 And if any man shall take away from the 
 book of this prophecy, God shall take away 
 his part out of the book of life, and out of 
 th*^ holy city I "
 
 
 SERMON on the PROFESSION 
 
 of the VOWS. 
 
 Elegi abfectics esse in domn Dei niarns qiiam 
 hahitarc in tabernacuUs v^ccatorum. 
 
 I One day, in His kindness, the good God 
 knocked at the door of your heart. He said 
 lovingly to your soul as to the spouse in the 
 Canticles . ' Open to Me, My sister, My love. 
 open to Mel" You recognized the voice of 
 your Well-Beloved, you opened to Him, and 
 you begged Him to enter and be Master in 
 your house, to rule over you and all your 
 possessions. 
 
 Our Lord promised you in return His goods, 
 His graces, the possession of Himself. To- 
 day there is question of signing that divine 
 contract by the profession of your vows. 
 
 What is passing here below, is reproduced 
 at the same time in heaven, or rather we 
 are only registering the promises you are 
 making to God Himself, and which He is 
 accepting in heaven. It is the Heavenly 
 Father who accepts you on the part of His
 
 160 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 
 
 Son, who receives your sacrifices and your 
 person, promising you in return the Person 
 of Jesus Christ, His Son, and His graces. 
 
 The notary of this contract is the Sovereign 
 Pontiff. The Superior here represents him 
 and receives your vows in his name. 
 
 You are going, then, to pledge youi- word. 
 Think seriously on it. You are still free to 
 withdraw. When you shall have signed no 
 one will annul the contract. 
 
 I know that the Pope can remit vows,, but 
 he does it only with difficulty, and against 
 his will, for he knows that a vow remitted on 
 earth is not always remitted in heaven. It is 
 to God that one engages himself. He alone 
 beholds the secret of hearts. He knows 
 whether the. reasons brought forward to break 
 the chain of love are such, in reality, as rep 
 resented. The Church judges by the exterioi 
 only. One is absolved only if things are 
 such as are shown to her. Terrible doubt, 
 which the unfortunate dispensed one canries 
 everywhere with him! 
 
 When one signs the contract of his vows, it 
 is with his own blood, and that first drop
 
 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 161 
 
 demands and exacts the effusion of all that 
 remains in his veins. One cannot deceive 
 the Lord. He exacts the rendition of the vow 
 made to Him, and it is better not to vow 
 than not to fulfil one's vows. 
 
 What, then, to understand it well, i?^ thi<; 
 profession you are about to make? 
 
 II — It is, as I have said, a deed of gift, 
 a divine contract, between the religious and 
 God Himself. A contract exacts a contri- 
 bution from two parties. What do you give? 
 You give yourself entirely and imcondi 
 tionally. God does not love conditions. They 
 hide reserves, they prevent the sincerity of 
 the gift. He wants all or nothing 
 
 Give your whole self, the world and its 
 riches, to which, if you do not already pos- 
 sess them, you might at least aspire. Re- 
 nounce the power of desiring and possessing. 
 Renounce the desire of position, of future 
 prospects. In a word, renounce the desire of 
 everything you might love, possess, or receive. 
 Give it in advance. Give even the faculty 
 and the power of ever being the object of any- 
 thing whatever. This donation comprises all.
 
 162 THE- PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 
 
 Give your person, your soul, your rriind. 
 your heart forever with the resolution of 
 never taking; them back,' 
 
 What are you going to nsk Our Lord to 
 bring on His side to the common contract? 
 Ah! I think you will not be satisfied with 
 the hundred-fold i^romised to Saint Peter. No, 
 but with Saint Thomas of Aquin, you will 
 say : " What I ask of Thee, O my Lord 
 and my God, i> Thyself and nothing else!" 
 You wiM get the hundred-fold into the bargain. 
 
 For how long a time do you sign this 
 contract? The Rule prudently requires an 
 engagement of some years, one or three. Are 
 you going to say to yourselves: "Well, I give 
 myself for that long, and in a year I shall 
 see whether I can persevere?" Well, that 
 beats everything! No, the heart makes per- 
 petual vows. If you do not want to belong 
 entirely to God, you are not worthy to belong 
 to Him for n year. Go no further, do not 
 go on, do not make trial of the good God! 
 If you doubt Him, His help. His grace. His 
 love, you are doing Him an injiury. 
 
 What constitutes the greatness and the no-
 
 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 163 
 
 bility of love, is the surrender of one's liberty, 
 present and future, tlie binding of one's self 
 forever, admitting not even the possibility of 
 a rupture 
 
 You Cdii no longer say: " I want to take 
 back the gift of myself in one year I did 
 not know this! I did not expect that! " God 
 save you from such conduct ' Draw a circle 
 and shut- yourself up in it with God, so that 
 you may never again be able to leave it. 
 The circle is the symbol of the infinite In 
 all things, then, and forever with God, lo 
 God I It is thus that Inve speaks and acts. 
 
 In fine, what you give to God is little, and 
 yet it is more to God than to yourselves 
 Without His grace, what would it be^ And 
 then, loo]^ not so niuch on what you give 
 God will see it. It is His affair. Do yon 
 look only at the favor He grants you, the 
 infinite mercy of which you are not worthy. 
 
 If holy King David esteemed himself more 
 blessed and more honored to be among the 
 lowest servants in the house of Go<l than 
 to reign in his own palace over an immense 
 nation, what is not the honor done >x)u of
 
 164 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 
 
 entering into the chosen and privileged fam- 
 ily of the Church of Our Lord! Estimate 
 this grace at its true price, if you cari. 
 
 Give all you have acquired of merits and 
 virtue; give all you will acquire in the future 
 by your actions, your labors, the sufferings 
 of your whole life. If you have nothing, 
 borrow the virtues and merits of Our Lord 
 and of the Blessed Vifgin. Beg that good. 
 Rebecca to clothe you with the garment of 
 Jesus, her Well-Beloved Son, that you may 
 be pleasing to the Heavenly Father and re- 
 ceive His benediction. Ask her to clothe yoii 
 with Jesus Himself, for then your mise ies. 
 your demerits, and impeifections will be con- 
 cealed under cover of Jesus Christ's infinite 
 holiness. 
 
 Remember this, liowever, that once a reli- 
 gious, you will not be free from temptations. 
 The demon will tempt you in every way to 
 take back what you have given. He will 
 scatter gold under your feet, if needs be. 
 Like Saint Antony, do not even look at him. 
 Repulse him with a kick. You have given 
 yourselves. That is something which admits
 
 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 165 
 
 no appeal. Love giveb forevci and without 
 repentance. 
 
 Ill Still more, the religious profession is 
 a consecration. 
 
 Things profane are offered and consecrated 
 to God by the rites and prayers of the Church, 
 and thenceforth, they are destined exclu- 
 sively for her worship. Thus it was that they 
 separated imder the Lawi the victims intended 
 for the Lord. They were removed from 
 common use, from the ownership of men, to 
 become the property .of the Lord, thmgs 
 sanctified and consecrated. 
 
 The religious profession is the consecration 
 of the victims of the New Law, for the re- 
 ligious becomes by his vows the victim and 
 the holocaust of the Lord. 
 
 It separates you, then, from the profane. 
 It raises you above all ordinary use, removes 
 you from all propriety either of men or your 
 selves. You have no longer nanic or place, 
 no rank, no destiny ui this world, for you 
 become the goods, the property of Our Lord, 
 His consecrated creature. 
 
 For that end, the leligious pioiessipn sane-
 
 166 THE PROFESSlOiN OF THE \ OWS. 
 
 tifies and ennobles you, rendering ^ou worthy 
 to serve so great a Master. The domestic 
 wears the livery of hi§ master; the Church 
 gives you the livery of Jesus Christ. She re- 
 ceives your vows and makes them public, 
 which renders you amenable to her authority 
 alone, and having made of you her own men, 
 she deputes you to the service of her Royal 
 Spouse. You are the property of the Churcli, 
 sacred persons; and you. cannot sully your- 
 selves by human contact without sacrilege. 
 Hence, honor your profession, guard the 
 grace that is bestowed on you. The servant 
 is bound to safeguard the honor of the 
 master whose livery he wears. The servants 
 of kings are ennobled by them and become, 
 as it were, the extension, the reflection of 
 the royal dignity. Well, religious are the 
 nobility, the aristocracy of the Church. But 
 as the nobility of a kingdom form its main 
 strength, and is always in the first rank, to 
 defend the person of the prince and the hunor 
 of their country; as we see them expose 
 themselves to all perils with admirable cour- 
 age, which proves that they count their own
 
 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOW<.. 167 
 
 life as nothing, so ought the reUgious to be 
 in tlie first rank to defend the sacred Person 
 of Jesus Christ and the Church, which is 
 His kingdom. They should be always ready 
 for orders' always at hand, that she may send 
 them forth to all quarters. They have given 
 up all. What can they fear to lose? And 
 so, of her religious, the Church makes mis- 
 sionaries and apostles. She always sends 
 them on before, places them at the most dif- 
 ficult posts. It is by them that she works 
 wonders among the nations, that she gains 
 and saves the world. And that is not as- 
 tonishing! They join to the power of the 
 priesthood that of the religious consecration 
 They have given up in advance all that 
 could retard them, hinder them from flying 
 to the conquest of souls. The religious priest 
 IS essentially a conqueror, while the secular 
 priest is more of a pastor, the shepherd of 
 the flock — too often, alas ! the guardian of 
 tombs ! 
 
 IV The profession is, in fine, a compact 
 of companionship with Our. Lord. He as- 
 sociates you to Himself. You must heiictilorlh
 
 IL-S THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 
 
 have with Him but one same end, one same 
 aim in all your labor?. He is going to furnish 
 you with the grace and the funds of tlie 
 Society. In return, He asks of you labor and 
 sacrifice. You must be indissolub'ly bound 
 to Him, heart and soul attached to His in- 
 terests and His work. 
 
 The profession is an oath, an oath to labor 
 always for Our Lord, whatever it may cost 
 you. It is a solemn and irrevocable oath. It 
 must be your strength that you may aerc.r 
 flinch. It binds for life and death. 
 
 The oath is the chief strength of. those 
 Societies that are everywhere organized for 
 evil. They bind themselves to one another, 
 give up their liberty and, by abominable 
 pledges, cut off anything like withdrawal from 
 them. They give the right of life and death, 
 one over the other. 
 
 That makes one tremble! Men are snared, 
 and they cannot free themselves from these 
 diabolical complications. When one lives not 
 m the love of God, he lives in terror! 
 
 Well, do you, too, take an oath. Give to 
 Jesus Christ the right of life and death over
 
 THE PROFESSION OF THE VOWS. 169 
 
 you. You say that you love Him? You must 
 prove it. The profession is an engagement 
 to go on even to the end, to the immolation 
 by love. And if martyrdom lies between you 
 and the service of Our Lord, ah, well! you 
 must pass through martyrdom in order to be 
 faithful to your oath. 
 
 To-day, give your life, and offer your ac- 
 ceptance of death, should it please God to 
 demand it of you for His love. 
 
 To die on the battlefield of the Church, 
 IS to enshroud one's self in Our Lord's glory 
 Happy they whom He chooses to testify to 
 Him by the sacrifice of their life in some 
 perilous mission! Happy they, also, who con- 
 sume themselves for Him in their daily duty! 
 Our Lord receives them into His arms. 
 
 Let your profession be that of a martyr of 
 poverty, chastity, and obedience. Forever re- 
 member this day. You life will witness none 
 more beautiful. It is the day of your love! 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 ^=^Hafe:Kafe=^H^H^=^=^; |^ 
 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 PREACHED TO THE RELIGIOUS OF THE 
 = SOCIETY OF THE - 
 
 Most Blessed Sacrament. 

 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 B^J8| HE following instructions were preached to the 
 B^^ Religious of the Most Blessed Sacrament in the 
 chapel of the Mother-House, Paris, 1867. 
 
 This explains Ven. Pere Eymard 's constant allu- 
 sions to the Society of the Blessed Sacrament, its end, 
 its work^^, and its Rule. 
 
 Ven. Eymard spoke to his sons en /am i//e, with 
 closed doors, as it were. He could not otherwise 
 speak freely and say all, through fear of not being 
 understood. The familiai:ity of home-life permits one 
 to dwell more forcibly on certain things, to return to 
 them, to repeat them in a manner more trenchant 
 and more absolute, in order to engrave tliem more 
 deeply on minds. 
 
 He repeats several times that he is pleading a 
 Retreat of conversion, of reformation of manners, and 
 not one of repose or perfection ; consequently, he has 
 always in hand the burning lamp of duties, obliga- 
 tions, which he turns about attentively on the con- 
 science, discovering its hidden folds, unveiling the 
 secrets that self-love voluntarily forms for itself, 
 Sl^owing the difference between what one really is 
 and what one ought to be, he exhorts, he urges, he 
 presses his hearers to set to work that their lite may 
 respond to their vocation, and their fidelity of corre- 
 spondence in some degree equal the magnificence of 
 their grace.
 
 174 FOREWORD. 
 
 The ^^en. Eymard did not preach the Blessed 
 Sacrament, and he gave his reasons for it. He did 
 not aim, as he usually did in his sermons, at preaching 
 the Eucharist, the mysteries of lis life and the marvels 
 of It5 love. "Our Lord," he said, *• will Him<;elf 
 make your Eucharisiic Retreat. As for me. I want 
 to be here only a John the Baptist, crying -i '' Do 
 penanre .''" He wanted only '' to prepare for ihe life 
 of Our Lord, to conduct to the gate of sanctity, " and 
 there he paused. 
 
 There is time for all. The Christian life cannot 
 follow the course of treatises on Christian perfection, 
 in which they start from a definition, advancing by 
 principles, divisions, and subdivisions, up to the end, 
 without ever returning to the beginning, or repeating 
 what has already been said. That is the logical 
 way. 
 
 • The practical way is different. It moves one some- 
 limes to purify one's self, sometimes to press tor- 
 ward ; sometimes to live the life of love, sometimes 
 that of fear ; now to keep one 's self very low in 
 humiliation, and then again, to rouse confidence 
 as much as possible, for fear of falling into discour- 
 agement. After some years, it is necessary to return 
 to a virtue that we think we have acquired, to 
 renew our fervor in its practice at the beginning, 
 because the Holy Spirit of God incessantly varies the 
 state of souls, and breathes where He will, without 
 their knowing whence He comes nor whither He 
 goes. They are sure of but one thing, and that is,
 
 FOREWORD. 175 
 
 that He always destroys and pursues to the death 
 all support founded on self or on one's virtues, one's 
 past and acquirements. 
 
 It is good, also, to make from time to time a Re- 
 treat which revives the a, b^ c of conversion, even for 
 persons the most virtuous, in the most heavenly 
 vocations, and the most retired Communities. That 
 is the moment to lay aside the ordinary motives of 
 life, even the best and those to which one, is most 
 habituated, in order to concentrate one's attention 
 on the law and duty, and sorrowfully to confess one 's 
 omissions, weaknesses, miseries, and sins. 
 
 We have already perused a great number of instruc- 
 tions on the Eucharist, the Eucharislic virtues, and 
 the life of union and love with Our Lord, delivered 
 by the venerated Founder of the Society of the 
 Blessed Sacrament. We have given, also, several 
 Eucharistic Retreats in which Jesus' love and good- 
 ness form the whole teaching, the means, and the 
 end. Love is, indeed, the atmosphere of the Eu- 
 charist. There Our Lord, effecting the consummation 
 of all love, He being the Love of loves, can act only 
 according to the nature of that Mystery, that is, by 
 love. The essential grace of the Eucharist is to 
 nourish and iYicrease love, to strengthen in us its 
 habit, and to multiply its attractions, in a woid, to 
 make love live. 
 
 In this Retreat, the Father will be one with him- 
 self, he will , put the finishing-?5troke to the law of 
 love.
 
 176 FOREWORD. 
 
 He still shows us, in effect, Our Lord 's love, but 
 as the sovereign motive, the truly efficacious means of 
 all sacrifice, conversion, and mortification ; love, as 
 the sole force which causes the cross to be embraced 
 with joy and borne with perseverance. 
 
 If he exhorts to self-purification, it is because love 
 is, above all, fastidious. If he shows the gravity of 
 sin, it is through the pain that it gives to Jesus Christ 
 whose- love it wounds. If he wants iis to see the 
 combat between the spirit, the heart, and the senses, 
 he localizes its force in the love of Jesus Christ Our 
 Lord alone. 
 
 But on account of human misery, no way of the 
 spiritual life, however good it may be, is without 
 danger. Imprudence and presumption impel man's 
 mind to quit the beaten palh and take imaginary 
 short cuts, 
 
 The way of love does not escape this rock. Its 
 danger lies in this, that they take the word for the 
 thing, the sentiment for the reality, forgetting that 
 love is sacrifice, death to self and the world, the life 
 of Jesus Crucified in Jesus-Hostia. Its danger lies, 
 again, in forgetting that this life of Jesus is exercised 
 only by the destruction of sin and, above all, of 
 pride ; by the faithful practice of all one*s duties, by 
 the mortificaiion of all concupiscence of the flesh and 
 the spirit ; in a word, the danger is found in the 
 dilexif mcy and in the neglect of the tradidit sevutip- 
 sum fro me. 
 
 The Ven, Father 's aim is to divert from this danger,
 
 FOREWORD. 177 
 
 and to offer a remedy to him who has fallen into it. 
 The plan of the twenty-one instructions of this 
 Retreat may be reduced to these two terms : 
 
 Believe in Jesus' love' for you in His Passion, in 
 His Eucharist, in the vocation and the graces He has 
 given you. DiUxit ! 
 
 Then deliver yourself up entirely to Him by death 
 to self, in order to prove your faith. Tradidit ! 
 
 We shall see, also, that the Ven. Father wished 
 that we should make to Our Lord the gift of our own 
 personality, which gift he calls the characteristic vir- 
 tue of the Religious of the Blesssed Sacrament. 
 
 We shall better understand in what that consists 
 when we shall have read the last Retreat of this 
 volume. But at present, resuming all the spiritual 
 doctrine of the Ven. Father, we think we shall be 
 safe in saying that for him, for the Religious of the 
 Blessed Sacrament, and for all souls whom, grace 
 calls to sanctify themselves by the Eucharist, the 
 dominant motive of sanctity, the soul of perfection, 
 and its formal matter, is the love of Our Lord, Piis 
 Eucharistic love. 
 
 The principal and essential means is the gift of one 's 
 own personality, and the practical virtue of this gift 
 is humility, the humility of love, not only that which 
 abases on account of one's nothingness and sins, but 
 that which renounces living for one's self, one's own 
 principle and end in anything whatever, and which 
 lives but of Jesus Christ, by Him and for Him alonCj 
 in the total annihilation of self.
 
 
 END of the RETREAT, 
 
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 HE most important, the .essential aim of 
 this Retreat, is to examine the state of 
 our conscience to purify it, to study the 
 motives, the occasions, the frequency of our 
 falls in order to apply a remedy. 
 
 I. — Are we in a state of grace? Is that 
 our. habitual state? Are we alive? All con- 
 sists in that. 
 
 We must seek in what degree of life or 
 death we are; whether we commit and in 
 -what, why, how, mortal or venial sins, and of 
 what nature are our most frequent imper- 
 fections. 
 
 It might be that we are in a state of 
 conscience mortally culpable. It is possible. 
 I hope it is not so, but we are exposed to 
 falling into that sad state as long as we are 
 on this earth. 
 
 We shall, always have the triple concu- 
 piscence, which obstinately buffets us, in order 
 to make us fall. Even to our last sigh, we
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 179 
 
 shall feel tlie warring of the two men in us. 
 Never will the carnal man accept the sway 
 of the spiritual man; nnd if the latter does 
 not defend himself by war, he will of ne- 
 cessity be subjugated by the former. In 
 spite of us, this war will endure as long as 
 ourselves. It is so much the more painful 
 as it is waged in us and by us. Wc carry it 
 around everywhere, and we are in constant 
 danger of succumbing. 
 
 Oh! I well understand • what .Sa-int Paul 
 exclaimed: "Better death than such a life! ' 
 
 Have we not, besides, the demon who 
 tempts us, who pursues us without relaxation, 
 and with so much the more hatred the nea;*er 
 we are to God? That is understood. Rob- 
 bers do not attack beggars, and in battle it 
 is th5 generals who arc aimed at. By our 
 vocation, we are nearer to Jesus. We live 
 with Him as His familiars. Not being 
 able to lay hands on our Master, the devil 
 turns his rage against us, wishing that we 
 should at least serve Him badly, if he cannot 
 snatch us altogether from Him. 
 
 Thence it comes that, in the Eucharistic
 
 180 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 vocation, one has often temptations until then 
 unknown to him, temptations longer, more 
 terrible, more abominable, even before the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament ! 
 
 And so yourselves and the demon acting 
 against you — behold by what you are tempt- 
 ed. There is here sufficient to make you fall. 
 
 Does not your imagination pursue you with 
 its remembrances ? — the natural man, also, 
 sold to iniquity? 
 
 But you will say, "I have faith!" That is 
 possible, but the natural man has not. Your 
 carnal heart does not love Cod, it loves only 
 itself. Think you that your ]:)ody loves mor- 
 tification? It is an animal which sees both 
 sides .of the road bordered by wliat it covets. 
 There it continually rushes. In spite of blows, 
 it always returns. The body is like unto 
 swine, which delight in wallowing in filth, Susi 
 lota in volutabro luti; or like the dog that 
 returns to his vomit. Oh, how trying to have 
 a beastly body with an angelic soul made for 
 God! But it is our condition. We are all 
 children of sinful Adam. 
 
 The world is another occasion of sin. True.
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 181 
 
 we have quitted it, but we still see too 
 much of it even while not seeing it, though 
 not the scandalous world; but whatever it 
 may be, the world has always its dangers. 
 If the angels were visible, 1 tell you they 
 would become for us a subject of temptation! 
 It is sad! This comes from our perverted 
 nature, which corrupts everything. 
 
 Ah I we dare not think, — it would be too 
 frightful, ^ — how easy is sin even among 
 creatures, the most mnocent. Yes, the angels 
 did, indeed, sin in heaven in the presence 
 of God. and Adam in the terrestrial Paradise! 
 
 i easily understand the saints who fled 
 into the desert, and those that 6hut them- 
 selves up in a Trappist monastery in order 
 to escape the dangers of the world. 
 
 Our vocation does not call us to that; but 
 during pur Retreat, at least, let us shut our- 
 selves up in a Trappist monastery. 
 
 But all is not accomplished by flight. The 
 tendency to evil pursues us everywhere. 
 
 Even were you to retire to a Carthusian 
 monastery, you would carry self with you, 
 and the devil would follow; you. Shall you
 
 182 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 not always have your body and your imag- 
 ination? Look at Saint Jerome, after twenty 
 years passed in the sacred grotto of Beth- 
 lehem, transported again in imagination to 
 the dances of Rome! It is not solitude that 
 makes saints, but the will. The devil haunts 
 hermitages, as well as great cities. 
 
 What is to be done, then? Fight! Do not 
 say: If I were here, or there. No! Wher- 
 ever you are, you are your own most cruel 
 enemy. Besides, peace does not aonsist in 
 suffering no temptations, but in not offending 
 God. 
 
 Oh, what misery! What are we, then, O my 
 God? And sometimes we seek matter of hu- 
 miliation, and we complain of not finding it. 
 Humble yourselves in your corruption. Noth- 
 ing is lower, nothing more contemptible than 
 you, not even the most repulsive animals. 
 They, at least, do not degrade themselves. 
 You seek motives for humbling yourselves, 
 forsooth! But your sins, your sinful nature, 
 — behold sufficient to deserve eternal chas 
 tisements. You ought to be chased from 
 the presence of God and from the assembly
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 183 
 
 of the saints. How. is that ? Can that be 
 possible? Ah, yesl Sin is leprosy. Now, the 
 leprous are driven oiit from the society of 
 men. 
 
 11. — But how far am. I in evil? — This is 
 the question that must be determined during 
 this Retreat. Am I in a state of grace, free 
 from all mortal sin? What venial sins have 
 I committed? Which are those that I retain 
 through affection? Are not my confessions 
 rendered useless by want of contrition? 
 
 But I have only venial sins, and venial 
 sin does not kill. That's true, slight wounds 
 do not kill. But wait for some occasion, 
 and you will see whether it will not cause 
 your death. 
 
 Be as regular to your exercises as you will, 
 come like the others to Adoratioii and Oilice ; 
 but if you do so with your conscience bur- 
 dened, you are paralyzed, you profit nothmg 
 by it. 
 
 But I hope I am not so far gone. I 
 have at most only a doubt. — Get out of 
 that doubt. Clear up your doubt. It is not 
 enough to hope, you must be sure. You will
 
 184 SELF-PURIFICATIOiN. 
 
 come to the truth by seriously examining 
 yourself in the light of grace, and afterward 
 by confession and the decision of your con- 
 fessor. 
 
 Some do not take enough care to become 
 familiar with their- faults. One must always 
 be a new-comer before God, habituated to 
 nothing, I know that we very easily become 
 accustomed to living in the midst of sanctity, 
 and that we may readily grow useless in the 
 most perfect state. 
 
 Oh, how- necessary it is to watch not to 
 become a whited sepulchre! It is very much 
 easier, although there may be no mterior 
 devotion,, to appear perfect exteriorly, than, 
 although holy in the interior, to show it in 
 the exterior. They who are taken up with 
 their interior do not pay so great attention 
 to some external miseries that still cling to 
 them. God, also, allows them to remam in 
 order to humble them; while the others, 
 neglecting all care of their interior, occupy 
 themselves only in painting and disguising 
 themselves. 
 
 Am I one of these? — Perhaps! Examine
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION.: 185 
 
 well whether you are making any progress in 
 getting rid of your sins. Are you increasing 
 in purity? That is well. Are you always at 
 the same point? Take care! Those stagnant 
 waters breed corruption and engender death. 
 But, perhaps, you are less pure. You sin 
 more easily? Oh, unhappy man! Your con- 
 science is sleeping the sleep of death! 
 
 Take care! One reaches that point in- 
 sensibly. There are many such in the service 
 of God with no will to correct their faults and 
 to advance, and who are benumbed in con- 
 science. The good Christian exposed in the 
 midst of the world watches over the least 
 things, always' struggling on account of the 
 dangers that sun ond him. The former, on 
 the contrary, allow themselves to be carried 
 along by their Rule of, life, which provides 
 for everything, and by their state, which 
 is in itself most perfect, like a voyager who 
 allows himself to be put aboard a ship with- 
 out inquiring its destination. But some ships 
 go to Cayenne, and others to the Fortunate 
 Isles. Whither are you going? 
 
 We must, then, watch. We must have an 
 
 The Divine Kuchaiisi. • 13
 
 186 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 eye to our sins, their principle, their occasion. 
 One does not love God unless he purifies 
 himself from his sins, at least in will; and 
 he is not a religious so long as he is not a 
 man pure and delicate concerning all that 
 relates to his . conscience. 
 
 Do you know what this delicacy is? It is 
 the heart of love and, if you are not refined 
 and tender toward the good God, you have 
 no heart. You are religious quacks, if the 
 mere shadow of the trouble you are about 
 to undergo for God affrights you! 
 
 Delicacy, refinement, consists in permitting 
 one's self nothing that might offend God. 
 It consists in abstaining, from even the ap- 
 pearance of evil. It is the Jionor due to our 
 position and life. One preserves it through 
 respect for God and for the honor of His 
 service. No longer to be alive to it, is to 
 have lost the sentiment of honor. It is the 
 callousness, besottedness of the drunkard who 
 reels along the streets oblivious of his shame- 
 ful condition. What can make him blush? 
 Does he still. think himself a man? 
 
 Are you come to that ? Have you no longer
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 187 
 
 any sentiment of your sins? and, if you do' 
 see them, do you correct them? No, I am 
 constantly falling back into the same faults, 
 without paying any great attention to it. 
 Then, are you already dead ! You are without 
 feeling! There is no state more frightful than 
 that in which one is insensible to his sins. 
 
 I know that you cannot escape sin en- 
 tirely, but the evil consists in not seeing our 
 faults. The saints saw atoms, and we are 
 blind to rocks! 
 
 But what you say on this subject makes one 
 tremble. If I dwelt on such thoughts, I 
 should lose courage. — So much the better, 
 for fear is the beginning of wisdom. How 
 now, you would not know; your sins, and 
 you would do nothing to correct them? But 
 there lies the evil. You are mortally sick, 
 and you are drinking iniquity like water. 
 
 Place your hand upon your conscience. 
 Sound it, and find out; your sins mortal, 
 venial, or against the Rule. If you go on 
 falling into them, you are like the sun setting 
 in a fog, disappearing, leaving after it dark-
 
 188 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 ness, cold, and death; or are you like him 
 mounting to your full meridian? 
 
 Take care! You are on the way to lose 
 your vocation, whether you be novices or 
 professed. Our Lord is going to Vomit you 
 out of His mouth. What is to be done? Give 
 a cordial to Our Lord at once, by saying to 
 Him. from the bottom of your heart: No, 
 my God! I- want no more sin. 
 
 How severe are those words! — They are 
 the simple truth. I know very well that you 
 have not swallowed sins as large as camels, 
 but I know also that a hole as large as a 
 pin's head suffices to 'submerge the largest 
 vessels. 
 
 Do not speak to me of those religious who 
 make a trade of their holy state. I prefer 
 to them highway sinners. When the latter 
 return to God, they can be made in four 
 days to mount to four degrees of virtue; 
 the others languish in the sunshine, grow 
 mouldy before a great fire, until Our Lord 
 drives them forth, for of necessity it comes 
 to that. 
 
 How is it that even very old religious turn
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 189 
 
 their back on the Lord, to whom they shad 
 pledged themselves, and return to the world 
 as apostates? They go away of themselves 
 without any one's sending them, by the sim- 
 ple consequence of their own negligence, 
 •which has degenerated into an inveterate 
 habit of sin. They were not grave sins, but 
 a state of routine and affect:ion to venial sin. 
 
 Do not say: I am an adorer. I" am in 
 the sublime vocation of /the angels and the 
 saints, I belong to Our Lord's family. — That 
 is very true, but your obligations are in 
 proportion to the sublimity of your voca- 
 tion. Have you weighed that well? Alas! 
 some never even think of it! Some are always 
 in their glory, exulting in the honorable rank 
 to which God's goodness has called them 
 near His Son! But thinlc you, then, that 
 even that grace may be withdrawn, if you 
 do not correspond ta it? Does God owe you 
 anything ? 
 
 We are like the poor Apostles before the 
 coming of the Holy Spirit. Their thoughts 
 were constantly taken up with the glory of 
 their vocation. They spoke only of their
 
 190 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 great Master, of His future kingdom of 
 which they wanted to be the ministers and 
 councillors. They were always ready to de- 
 spise others. Alas! we have seen them in 
 the day of their trial! 
 
 Remark well, their sins were all venial, 
 but see to what they led them — they all 
 fled, and their chief denied his Master. 
 
 Ah! let us not talk so much of our great 
 Master of our sublime vocation, but a little 
 more of what we owe Him. 
 
 This Retreat is for that. All the year round 
 we speak of Our Lord and exalt His reign. 
 But in this Retreat, there is question only oi 
 ourselves and our obligations. We must 
 rouse ourselves. We are half -paralyzed. Hot 
 and vigorous treatment is necessary for us. 
 Let us take it during the Retreat. May it 
 consume- all there is in us sinful and im- 
 perfect ! 
 
 If the Retreat purifies you, it shall, have 
 accomplished all that it ought to do. 
 
 HI. — By purity, by increasing and guard- 
 ing it, you will practise all the virtues, and 
 you will become perfect adorers. If your
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 191 
 
 conscience is pure, your service will be pure 
 and worthy of the good God. You wotild 
 be ashamed to come to adore Our Lord 
 with a sullied heart, and to place Him on 
 a vile throne. 
 
 Do people appear before a respectable 
 person in soiled and tattered garments? 
 
 If you are pure, you will properly fulfil 
 the mission confided to you by the Church 
 and the Society in deputing you to Adora- 
 tion, for you go to it in the name of the 
 Church, of your brethren, and of sinners, in 
 order to intercede for them. But if you your- 
 selves are sinners, would you insult the good 
 God? The first quality of a mediator, is to 
 be agreeable to the person before whom he 
 presents himself to intercede. And you would 
 be willing to show the Father the executioner 
 of His Son? How would you be able to 
 plead successfully for others when you your- 
 selves inspire horror? 
 
 We do not dare to look at one who has a 
 cancer on his face, for fear of embarrassing 
 him. And would you want Our Lord to look 
 upon you with complacency, disfigured as you
 
 192 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 are by sin much more hideous than 'any 
 cancer ? 
 
 But the good God knows our misery. He 
 would not be offended by it. — That is true 
 of what arises from our poor nature. That 
 He acknowledges .and pities. We are the 
 good God's paupers. But those weaknesses 
 of the will, those that we commit through 
 want of delicacy and because we prefer 
 ourselves to Him, — these the good God 
 cannot endure. They horrify Him. He would 
 rather send an angel to chase us like He- 
 liodorus from His presence. 
 
 Be, then, pure that you may be fit for the 
 service of Our. Lord. It is at this we must aim. 
 It is the first of all conditions. All the rest 
 without that is nothing. Souls enter heaven 
 only in a robe washed white in the Blood 
 of the Lamb. If it is not entirely white, 
 they have to finish its purification in pur- 
 gatory. Now you are serving Our Lord in 
 His heaven on earth. 
 
 Lastly, you come to Adoration to glorify 
 God by your praise, your homage, and to 
 encircle His Eucharistic Throne like the
 
 SELF-PURIFICATION. 193 
 
 angels and saints, chanting at the foot of His 
 throne of glory. 
 
 But tell me, do you think you can glorify 
 •God with impure lips? 
 
 You should by your love erect for Him 
 in your heart a throne of pure gold, as the 
 priests raise thrones for Him in the hearts of 
 the Faithful. But do you imagine that He 
 will mount with pleasure a throne of mire? 
 
 Above all things, then, is it necessary for 
 you to become pure men. Without that, you 
 will never be servants capable of pleasing 
 your Master. What I demand of you to that 
 end is that you enter into yourselves, ex- 
 amine, yourselves thoroughly, have no con- 
 fidence in what you think yourself to be, but 
 exact of yourselv^es a careful account of 
 everything. 
 
 Examine again, whether your Communions 
 and this life, made up -entirely of prayer, are 
 advancing you y:i holiness. In other words 
 is it a life or an agony? 
 
 And whence comes all the misery? From 
 a bad will, from not seriously desiring to 
 enter into the life of Jesus Christ. We will
 
 194 SELF-PURIFICATION. 
 
 it, but with some conditions. We will it for 
 one thing, but not for another. 
 
 Enter, then,, into yourselves. You will be 
 able to save yourselves in the world by 
 fulfilling the law while enjoying its wealth 
 and lawful pleasures. You have said: I will 
 follow the narrow path, I abandon parents, 
 family, liberty. You have quitted all, and 
 you have joined the followers of Jesus Christ. 
 And, after all, would it not be a fine thing 
 to do nothing more than the people of the 
 world, and to gain nothing more for heaven 
 than they? We -would, then, have deceived 
 the good God! 
 
 The blush of shame mantles my forehead 
 when I think that I was more perfect in the 
 world than I am to-day! I have by degrees 
 become accustomed to God. Oh, what a mis- 
 fortune ! 
 
 To decide the question, examine these 
 three points: Are you sur^ of being in the 
 state of grace or in that of sin? Are you 
 faithful to your service? What glory are you 
 procuring to Our Lord?
 
 5ts;&s£&^Sjii&!^^^5&*&^!£ig^!&^^S£^^3 
 
 BENEFITS 
 
 ^ of the RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 HE Imitation says: " Frequently ask 
 yourself why you have left the world 
 and entered religion. Is it not to serve God 
 and become a spiritual man?" 
 
 It is necessary for us to know the great- 
 ness of the grace which God has bestowed 
 on us in withdrawing us from the world, 
 and placing us in the religious life. It is a 
 grace of infinite mercy, ae well on account 
 of the dangers from which it snatches us, 
 as of the means of salvation that it gives us 
 
 I. — Now, I say we have embraced the 
 religious life, first, in order to shelter our- 
 selves from the dangers of the world. There 
 are certainly many perils in the world, and 
 we might very easily lose our soul therein, 
 as so many others have done who were 
 better than we. We felt our weakness, we 
 feared losing our soul there. We suffered 
 the law of the members; we have already 
 made shipwreck; we are wounded. And then,
 
 196 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 if we have already served it, it retains do- 
 minion ovier us, and we are afraid of falling 
 forever under its yoke. 
 
 Nothing is- more frightfully true than this 
 principle, namely, that what has once enslaved 
 us always retains its power over us, even 
 after our deliverance. It is the law of 
 strength against weakness, the chastisement 
 that sin brings with it. Hence it is, that so 
 many persons converted and purified, fall 
 back on the first temptation, on the first oc- 
 casion which their old master shows them. 
 The old law has again seized upon them. 
 Evil has a magnetic influence. It deposits 
 seeds. It leaves firebrands, which ignite at 
 the first contact, like charred wood. There 
 is an old sympathetic bond, which drags 
 them along. Saint John has well said that 
 he who sins becomes the slave of sin. It 
 will hold him captive a long time, even after 
 he has shaken off its chains. It is God's 
 revenge upon the sinner who, rejecting His 
 yoke, falls under that of the devil. 
 
 Fearing to be, like so many others, enslav- 
 ed forever^ we have sought a refuge from it.
 
 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 197 
 
 We have done well. That is prudent. In 
 ancient times, the general of the army used 
 to proclaim: "Let those that fear, with- 
 draw! " And the timid were not ashamed to 
 do so, for it was a pledge of security, not 
 only for themselves, but for the whole army. 
 
 In the same way, God told Abraham to quit 
 the land of Ur, because in it he would 
 not be able to sanctify himself. He made 
 Lot, also, leave Gommorrha, although he was 
 a saint ifi the midst of that abominable city. 
 God acted prudently. The highest prudence, 
 and the most laudable, is to shun danger. 
 
 Who is that handful of soldiers who always 
 press on ahead? Who are those presump- 
 tuous young men who rashly confront the 
 greatest dangers, wishing to convert the whole 
 world? They will soon be punished, for pun- 
 ishment always follows presumption. 
 
 Wounded, or fully expecting to be so, we 
 retire into the fortress with those that are 
 unable to struggle on the plain. And so, 
 vocation is, first of all, an affair of prudence 
 and of the love of one's salvation. There 
 is, .consequently, no room for being so proud
 
 198 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 of having quitted the world for the religious 
 state. We have done it for ourselves, and 
 we have been the gainers. 
 
 ■ I know well that there are some difficulties 
 to be overcome, and that it is meritorious, 
 but when one labors for one's own interest, 
 nothing costs. At what price would not a 
 man have purchased a place in the Ark? 
 At what pi ice ought not one to purchase a 
 place in the religious life, the true ark of 
 salvation of which Jesus is the pilot! 
 
 We read in the Gospel that a man having 
 found a treasure, went to hide it in a field, 
 and then sold all he had and bought that 
 field. Ah, well ! for the religious life we ought 
 to sell all, for it is the incomparable treasure. 
 
 It is, then, a prudent choice, one all to 
 your own advantage, and for which you ought 
 not to be paid. One does not pay a sick 
 man, because he has cured him, nor a guest 
 because the host lias received him. Be, then, 
 most grateful that you are allowed to stay 
 here. Let no one say: "Religion is indebted 
 to me, for. I render it services. " What ser- 
 vices do you render it? Rather are you a
 
 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE, 199 
 
 weight upon it. Others aspire to heaven, but 
 you by your example hold them back, to 
 earth. 
 
 I am,_ therefore, not astonished at the se- 
 verity of the ancient Fathers of the Desert 
 in admitting their disciples. They received 
 them first with contempt, humbling them, 
 and making them wait long weeping at the 
 gate. They mortified them, and submitted 
 them for several years to all sorts of trials, 
 and only then did they allow them to enter 
 their monasteries. 
 
 In our day, faith is wanting for the en- 
 durance of such trials. Men speak only of 
 their rights. — Rights to what, if you please? 
 You want to be a novice? — 'Humble yourself, 
 serve, and learn. The religious life expects 
 nothing of you, but you expect everything 
 from it. What it asks of you is not your 
 services, but yourself. 
 
 The religious has only one right, and that 
 is, to be humbled and contemned, none other. 
 Should you dare look for esteem and honor? 
 What! you would come to get everything,- 
 to receive everything from religion 1 It gives
 
 200 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 you peace, safety, perseverance. It snatches 
 you from the world and your own destruction, 
 and yet you want honors! You want to be 
 recompensed and paid for that ! 
 
 Ah I rather attach yourself to it, in spite 
 of all that you may have to suffer, in it, as 
 to your only refuge of salvation. It is for 
 you the necessary, the indispensable grace. 
 If they chase you out by on& door, return 
 by another. Tie yourself to the altar-cloths 
 rather than let them diive you hence! 
 
 See how unhappy are they who leave re- 
 ligion! Daily ask God to keep you in it, 
 and make every effort to deserve it, for it is 
 a favor, a mercy, and not a right. Count 
 not too much on your graces, on your call, 
 without your own most active co9i>eratioa 
 While a man is carried on by grace, he is 
 accounted brave and generous ; but left to 
 himself, he throws down his arms at the 
 first shock, and plunges into ignominy. He 
 cannot hold out against his senses without 
 the rampart of very great virtue. There are 
 some flowers that bloom only in a hot-house 
 and under a glass shade; you are oiie of
 
 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 201 
 
 them. If you do not believe it, go make a 
 trial of it — or rather, may God preserve you 
 from ever doing- so! 
 
 II. — The religious life not only preseiVes 
 you from the danger of perdition, but it 
 provides you with the surest and most abun- 
 dant means of salvation. 
 
 There is cultivated, there is the flower of 
 the favored garden which the Church pre- 
 serves for her Spouse: Flantatus in domo 
 Domini. It is planted by God, and cultivated 
 with every care by Jesus Christ, 
 
 There it is trimmed and pruned in order 
 to bear more fruit. The good tree is that 
 which is pruned. The nutritive force, scatter- 
 ed throughout too many little branches, would 
 not produce fine fruit. They lop off most 
 of the shoots, keeping only the principal ones 
 that give hope. And so, in the religious life, 
 they remove you from all that could distract 
 you, divide your attention, and they concen- 
 trate you upon the one thing necessary. 
 
 In religion they mash the fare for you. 
 They give you the portion of labor for every 
 day, every instant, all prepared. They do not 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 14
 
 202 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 ask you to weave the garment of Our Lord 
 that you. have to wear; they give it to you 
 ready-made. All you have to do is to adorn it. 
 
 As to the servant of the Gospel who re- 
 ceived the five talents in order to turn them 
 to the best account, Jesus Christ gives to you 
 the funds of the religious life that you may 
 devote yourself to making them fructify by 
 the most suitable means. 
 
 Our Lord would have us yield like the ever 
 verdant trees of the Orient, which are always 
 covered with flowers, buds, and ripe fruits. 
 
 His Church, His saints, His graces, — all 
 are occupied with us in the religious life! 
 
 What a misfortune if such means cannot 
 make us good! Why? The seed is bad. 
 There is some inward canker, a, hidden rot, 
 which is eating the plant within. 
 
 If we do not advance, if even we do not 
 keep ourselves safe, it must be confessed 
 that we are very bad to render useless graces 
 so magnificent! Ah! what would have be- 
 come of us in the world .^ Long ago we 
 might have been dead! 
 
 Let us, then, make up for time lost. Let
 
 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 203 
 
 US quickly regain what is wanting to us. Let 
 us be more faithful. If we should lose our 
 soul with so great graces, it would show that 
 from the beginning we were eaten away at 
 the root by some kind of a worm, which 
 sucked all the sap and rendered everything 
 useless 
 
 You perform all your exercises as do your 
 brethren, and yet you do not profit by them. 
 There is, then, some secret defect, some 
 impurity in. the blood. Royal families have 
 adopted stray children, and had them educat- 
 ed in the very best manner. But the day 
 came when their low instincts appeared and, 
 instead of the princes they would have wished, 
 they found only proud fools or cruel tyrants. 
 Jesus Christ has taken us in our baseness and 
 profound misery, to make us men according 
 to His Heart. Was He not deceived? Like 
 lions that they want to tame, but which 
 little by little regain their natural ferocity, 
 shall we now show our claws ? Shall we be 
 only young wolves that the Society, like a 
 good mother, nourished in her bosom, be- 
 lieving them her children, but who now rise
 
 204 BENEFITS OF THE RELIGIOUS LIFE. 
 
 up to devour her? But you can never injure 
 her, because she comes from God, who will 
 continue to protect her as He has hitherto 
 done, because she is His. The chastisement 
 will fall back upon yourselves. He will 
 punish you as ingrates and parricides who 
 ha\'e not known how to understand His in- 
 finite love! 
 
 Come, then, see whether you profit by 
 the grace of the religious life. If not, the 
 blame lies with yourself ; you are not wholly 
 a religious. Instead of inclosing yourself in 
 the circle of perfection, and saying : " Cost 
 what it may, I will never more cross lliat 
 line. " you trace for yourself one that suits 
 your own fancy, you lay down conditions 
 to God. What happens? Thus, you find in 
 religion the same dangers as in the world, 
 you lose your soul in the very port of sal 
 vation.
 
 ^^^^!^^^^^^^^^^j&^^^*3&^j 
 
 The EUGHARISTIC 
 
 VOCATION. 
 
 
 Non vos mc elegistis, sed ego elegi vos. 
 You have not chosen Me, but I have 
 chosen you. 
 
 HEN one is in a vocation which demands 
 so much holiness of its members as 
 does ours, one is, indeed, obliged to say, 
 " God has called me here, I have certainly 
 not intruded myself. It is He who has chosen 
 and invited me. " If one could even doubt 
 of this call, one would be tempted to abandon 
 it, so greatly would he feel his mability to 
 correspond worthily with it. 
 
 I. — Now, we have been chosen by God 
 the Father from all eternity to become by 
 our state adorers of His Divine Son in the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament. He predestined us 
 for this glorious service, for its graces and 
 its recompense. 
 
 The Father created us to give us to Jesus 
 Christ, and for nothing else. All creatures 
 are, doubtless, for Him, but there is a bier-
 
 206 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 archy in graces, there are vocations that are 
 at the same time dignities. Thus, we have 
 the sacerdotal vocation, the rehgious voca- 
 tion, and our own, which brings us so near 
 to the King, thereby ennobling us. 
 
 God the Father chose us out of a thousand, 
 and all His graces were destined to make 
 of us adorers. He disposed us body and 
 soul for that. He gave us the strength, the 
 will, congeniality, sympathy for this service. 
 He made us love this vocation, and that is 
 the reason why all who are truly called, 
 derive so much benefit in the Society of the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament. There they are in 
 their centre and end. All in them tends to 
 that. Place them elsewhere and they suffer, 
 they are no longer on their own soil, under 
 the rays of the Sun thai is necessary for them. 
 No, they are never well-off but there. Every- 
 where else they are on strange ground, useless 
 and without aptitude, because their graces, 
 their supernatural qualifications, and even 
 their natural dispKJsitions ^Hvere prepared by 
 God for the life of adoration and' for the 
 Most Blessed Sacrainent.
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 207 
 
 This is a fact confirmed by experience. I 
 am not speaking of those that go away, 
 unfaithful to their sacred engagements. God 
 knows what will become of those poor un- 
 fortunates. But I am speaking of those who, 
 being only aspii'ants just beginning to receive 
 the Eucharistic influences, abandon their vo- 
 cation for something they think better. They 
 are happy nowhere else. Their centre was 
 before the Blessed Sacrament. There they 
 should have lived and died. You yourselves, 
 when on a journey, no longer know how to 
 pray in the churches, although Our Lord is 
 there present. But it is not your Jesus radiant 
 and glorious, such as the Church offers you 
 to honor by the solemn worship of Expo- 
 sition. 
 
 I tell you that, when you were created, 
 the Father said to His Son: "Here is an 
 adorer for Thee. I will endow him with all 
 the aptitude, graces, and qualifications for 
 it, and he will be pleasing to Thee. " 
 
 H. — Let us examine what are the quahfi- 
 cations for this vocation. I am not speaking 
 of what we are, alas! but of what the vocation
 
 208 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 is before God. I want to tell you how great 
 
 and sublime this grace is in itself. I am 
 not comparing- it with what we are, nor to 
 the vocation of others, but I am judging 
 things in themselves according to received 
 principles, in order to classify the virtues 
 and the different states of the religious life. 
 Now, the Eucharistic vocation is among all 
 others the excellent one. The excellence of 
 a thing depends upon its end. The end of 
 our vocation is the service of Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ in the most glorious state that 
 He can hav^e here below, in the solemn and 
 perpetual Exposition of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment. There can be no end more excellent 
 than that, inasmuch as by our service, we 
 come in immediate contact with Our Lord. 
 There is no intermediary' between Our Lord 
 and our sernce. It is not the neighbor, works 
 of zeal and, through the neighbor and those 
 works. Our Lord. No, but it is Our Lord 
 Himself alone and immediately whom we 
 serve. Like the angels who never quit the 
 throne of the Lamb, we are bound by our 
 vocation to the adorable Person of Jesus
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 209 
 
 Christ, not to His members nor to His works. 
 From Him, then, and from Him directly, our 
 vocation, derives its dignity and excellence,- 
 for whatever serves the king is royal. 
 
 Nothing on this earth is more excellent than 
 the Eucharist, for Jesus Christ is no longer 
 ■passible as during His mortal life, but resusci- 
 tated, glorified, and regnant. 
 
 Again, we serve by adoration. But ador- 
 ation being the expression of the virtue of 
 religion is by that very fact the most ex- 
 cellent of all the virtues. It is again the 
 e'xercise of the theological virtues of faith, 
 hope, and charity, and these virtues having 
 God for immediate end, hold the first rank 
 among the virtues, and communicate their 
 eminent dignity to the virtue of adora- 
 tion. Oh! had we comprehended a,ll the ex- 
 cellence of the vocation that God has given 
 us, never would we have dared to follow it! 
 
 But for a vocation so elevated, greater 
 perfection is necessary. How far we are from 
 it! We should have the sanctity of Mary, 
 of the angels and the saints, since we have 
 here below the same employment as they have
 
 210 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 in heaven before the throne of God. If we 
 only had the virtues of the Christian! 
 
 WTiat a difference between what we have 
 and what we ought to havel These are two 
 abysses! It makes one tremble! 
 
 You will say : " Hut why has the Father 
 called us to it, if He knew that we should so 
 badly correspond to it?" He has loved us 
 too much! He has called us in spire of our 
 unworthiness, in 'the hope of elevating us to 
 the level of our duties. 
 
 Honor imposes obligations, they say. 
 Honor your vocation by your virtues. Never 
 sully the mantle of honor and glory, that 
 beautiful white garment of Jesus Christ, which 
 covers your indigence, and never relax in 
 this sublime service of the King of Kings! 
 
 Ill — Our vocation is holy. Like that 
 which makes virtue of the means, that is 
 perfection more or less great with which one 
 attains his end, our vocation possesses an 
 immense power of sanctification, because it 
 places us in a very special manner in par- 
 ticipation with the state of love the highest 
 and the most perfect, namely, the Eucharistic
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 211 
 
 State, in which Our Lord carried His love 
 to its utmost consummation. 
 
 It is holy, because it gives us the most 
 powerful means of sanctification, putting us 
 m immediate relation with them and in liv- 
 ing intercourse with Jesus Christ, who is not 
 only a grace, but the Author Himself of 
 grace in His Most Holy Sacrament. 
 
 It renders great glory to the Heavenly 
 Father, because it presents to Him Jesus, His 
 Son, in the Blessed Sacrament. Now, Jesus 
 is there in a more perfect state than He was 
 during His mortal life. He is there glorified 
 and imrnortal, and it is this state of glory and 
 royalty that He is incessantly immolating to 
 the glory of His Father. 
 
 Well now! Our vocation renders us partic 
 ipants in these states of Our Lord. He wills 
 to reproduce them in us and to exercise them 
 through us. It is for that He has called us. 
 
 But in order to correspond worthily to this 
 call, we must become saints. So holy is God 
 that He finds stains in the angels themselves. 
 What will it be with us ? At least, we should 
 imitate them and, veiling our face, say;
 
 212 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 "Lord, I am not worthy of so holy a voca- 
 tion! " 
 
 And yet Our Lord permits us to approach 
 Him. He keeps us for His service. He ex- 
 I>oses Himself for us on His throne of love. 
 He is satisfied with our poor service, and. 
 daily does He load us with new graces. 
 Seek not the reason for this, saxing in His 
 ineffable condescension. He hopes to make 
 us understand, at last, what we owe Him. and 
 to render us worthy of His' adorable sanctity. 
 
 IV. — Our vocation is eminently apostolic. 
 The apostolate is nothing else than the diffu- 
 sion of God's reign in souls. It is the prop 
 agation of His knowledge and love, the 
 destruction of sin. and the exaltation of Our 
 Lord and His Church. Behold the great pow- 
 er of apostolate that our vocation gives us- 
 
 If judged by our exterior life, we pass for 
 useless beings. We do not run after sinners, 
 we do not go on missions, we do not teach. 
 Biit it would be a mistake to place the whole 
 apostolate in the means of exterior zeaJ. Such 
 works are only the shell, the canal. The 
 apostolate consists essentially of prayer which
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 213 
 
 obtains grace, of sacrifice which expiates sin 
 and applies the merits and satisfactions of 
 Jesus Christ. He is the most apostohc who, 
 with Saint Paul, the Apostle par excellence^ 
 completes, fills up in himself what is wanting 
 to the Passion of Jesus Christ for the Church; 
 that is, who makes it live again, merit, suffer, 
 atone in his own soul and body ; for Jesus 
 Christ lives again in us, to save through us. 
 He demands of us to complete Him by 
 uniting" our merits to His. It is then that He 
 continues His office of Saviour, for He is 
 the Apostle of the Apostles, and it is He 
 alone who, in the Apostles, redeems souls 
 by grace and by the power of His Blood. 
 Now, we make Our Lord labor for the con- 
 version of souls by exposing Him and uniting 
 our adoration to His prayers and apostolate. 
 It is the unique privilege of our vocation 
 to expose Our JLord, to place Him in the 
 solemn exercise of His office of Mediator. 
 Indeed, it is only because we are at His feet 
 that He is on His throne, for the Church 
 would not permit His perpetual Presence, 
 day and night, were there no adorers to be
 
 214 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 found who would succeed one another by 
 day and by night. We. are necessary to Him 
 that He may manifest Himself in His Ex- 
 position. We unbind His power. 
 
 And what does He do upon that throne "- 
 He presents to His Father His adoration. 
 His annihilation to compensate for pride. 
 His thanksgiving- to compensate for ingrat- 
 itude, His Blood and His sufferings to atone 
 for sin, and His incessant prayers to obtain 
 the salvation of the souls He has redeemed. 
 Behold the public Victim! But prostrate at 
 His feet, we unite m His intentions, we enter 
 into His functions of Mediator. With Hini we 
 save and redeem, we participate in His perpet- 
 ual apostolate. 
 
 Think you that those prayers of Jesus Christ 
 are not more powerful than all apostolic 
 works? They are their condition and life. 
 Now, see, in what way we are apostles, name- 
 ly, by imion of prayer, suffering, sacrifice 
 with Jesus Christ. 
 
 The missionary spreads abroad but one 
 grace; we open the Source of graces. The 
 apostolate is, above all, sacrifice. Jesus suffer-
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 215 
 
 ing no longer in Himself, wishes to suffer in 
 us. He demands of us the sacrifice of our 
 tastes, of our liberty, of our life, of our 
 whole self in adoration. We offer it to Him, 
 and thereby we are possessed of the greatest 
 power of the apostolate. And that without 
 any danger of mixing up with it the in- 
 fidelity of pride, which may vitiate the apos- 
 tolate; without the danger of stealing a part 
 of the fruits for our own profit, for the 
 apostolic life has its charms. When a 
 preacher has health and talent ; when he 
 sees his audience hanging on his words, 
 eagerly following his sermons; when, he be- 
 holds the fruits oi his labors; when he brings 
 forth souls to grace, he experiences all the 
 joys of a mother. His labor was, perhaps, 
 severe, but it was mixed with many great 
 joys and sweet rewards. 
 
 But as for us,- our apostolate immolates us 
 entirely in secret, in forgetfulness, in death 
 at the feet of the Divine Victim. We see 
 none of its fruits, we taste not its recom- 
 pense; we are satisfied in knowing that it is 
 productive.
 
 216 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 Surely, he who baptizes, does not do more 
 than he who has merited the grace of that 
 Baptism. If no one prayed, if there were not 
 some souls to immolate themselves with Jesus 
 Christ for sinners, the missionary's voice 
 would be but the empty sound of a tinkhng 
 cymbal. What could the winds produce, if 
 the sun did not fertilize the seeds they scatter? 
 
 You will say, perhaps: " Ic is a good thing, 
 though, to preach the truth, to save souls 
 by the word. " But you iviU preach, you 
 tvill save, only it will be by^ Our Lord, by 
 His direct influence. Others preach Him by 
 His grace; we, by Himself. Others manifest 
 His truth; we, ice show Himself in His Pres- 
 ence of love, in His living Presence. By 
 Him you will worlf, you will do much. But 
 preach only by Him, and you will see that 
 people will run to the Master from all sides, 
 for He has said: "When I shall be lifted 
 up, I will draw all to Me. " 
 
 Behold your vocation! It is most beautiful. 
 Love it well,and never compare it with others. 
 Understand clearly that the service of Our 
 Lord's Person is of far greater importance
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 217 
 
 than the service of souls, and Jesus is cer- 
 tarniy as great as Saint Dominic or Saint 
 Francis. 
 
 V. — But if it is so beautiful a \'Ocation, how 
 is it that we are so few in number? How 
 is it that Our Lord has so few disciples 
 while the saints have so many? 
 
 It is because the saints are looked upon as 
 protectors, as friends near God. People go 
 to them for help, to make use of their power, 
 their prayers, their protection, and all that 
 is very consoling. It is greatly to their ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 But when they go to Our Lord, they find 
 nothing for self. He is the King, and they 
 come to serve Him. He is the Master, be- 
 fore whom they come to bow down and 
 adore. He is the immolated Victim, and they 
 come to immolate self with Him. 
 
 They do not come to Our Lord to arm 
 themselves with His help and protection, that 
 they may afterward undertake good works 
 for which they, may have an attraction. That 
 is the characteristic of the active vocations. 
 But here Jesus says to youi " Serve Me, adore 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. .S
 
 218 THE EUCHARISTIG VOCATION. 
 
 Me with your whole self. Keep back nothing 
 for self. Sacrifice to Me your attractions, 
 your activity, your talents, your zeal, your 
 life, all I Lay all that at My feet, make a 
 perfect holocaust of it. Men honor Me as 
 much in the sacrifice of their gifts to Me 
 as in using' them for the increase of My, 
 glory: Deus mens cs tu, quoniam lonoruw 
 vieorum non eges. 
 
 So too, when you came here, were you 
 asked: "What do you bring? What dowry? 
 What talents?" No, no', never has such a 
 word left my lips! Never was it in my heart I 
 
 But you were asked: Will you serve?" 
 Come, then. We do not ask anything of a 
 servant. We give him something. The only 
 promis? exacted of him is that he should be 
 faithful to the interests of the master whom 
 he wishes to serve. Those things are de- 
 manded elsewhere, for they have need of 
 wealth, they have to exercise zeal and mul- 
 tiply works of charity. Among 'us, we have 
 only to serve and adore by the gift of self. 
 
 With regard to virtues, were you asked 
 whether you would become a samt, whether
 
 TPIE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 219 
 
 you would be humble, mortified, whether you 
 had performed some good works I Not at all! 
 
 But you were simply asked: "Who sent 
 you? Wlio attracted you?" "Jesus Christ 
 in His Sacrament." 'To whom do you 
 come?" 'To Jesus Christ." "On what 
 conditions'''" "None." 
 
 "Have you long desired this? Hive you 
 tested your desire?" "Yes." 
 
 "Will you have the courage to go thiough 
 fire, for it is a fiery vocation?" "I hope 
 so. ' "Come in, then, come in quickly!" 
 
 They then initiated you into the adoration and 
 service of Our Lord. They told you that was 
 all that was necessary for your new vocation. 
 They recommended you to have but one aim, 
 but one sole view, the service of His Divine 
 Person, to desire to please Him alone, and to 
 labor only for Him alone, for here He is all. 
 The Society is not your end. It comes only 
 after Our Lord. It and all its members are 
 only His servants., and they who direct it 
 are only the head-servants of the only Master, 
 Our Lard. If yc^u.are pleasing to Him, you 
 shall Jiave nothing to fear. If you serve Him
 
 220 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 well, nothing more can be asked oi you 
 for to serve Him is your whole perfection. 
 
 In other places, they, do well to exact ap- 
 titude in their subjects for such or such a 
 work, since it is for that they are received; 
 for instance, leaching, the missions. When 
 one labors in a vineyard, one has need of 
 tools. As for us, we do not employ ourselves 
 in what might forward the general good, be- 
 cause it is not the vine, but the Master of 
 the vine that we cultivate. 
 
 Inquiry was made however, as to your 
 respectability. No one comes here to do 
 penance for a life of disorders. There are 
 tuher places for that. The couit of the King 
 must not become a penitentiary and, before 
 being admitted to His service, it must be 
 proved that applicants have always led. a 
 respectable life. 
 
 Still another condition was proposed to you, 
 namely: "Will you take your place on this 
 prie-Dieu and, like the candle before you, 
 there burn, there be totally consumed without 
 even a little ashes remaining? 
 
 ■ Will you be servants iu the full acceptation
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 221 
 
 of the word?" You should serve Him by 
 the entire gift of self, with no other end 
 than that of annihilating self that He rnay 
 appear Surely, the servant cannot presume 
 to share the honors of his master. 
 
 But it is precisely this service by one's 
 whole self, by the sacrifice of even ono's 
 personality, which must disappear, that costs. 
 You must be nothing: He must be all! 
 
 Oh, how difficult it is to make one's self 
 one's own end in hothing! See whether you do 
 not take yourself back ten times a d.iy, 
 acting by yourself, for yourself, looking out 
 for your own repose, speculating upon your 
 strength, acting naturally; and yet you must 
 reach the point of being all His, all for Him, 
 all by Him! 
 
 VI. — Hence, remember that the Society 
 O'Ught to do only one thing, and that is, to 
 make you disappear as much as possible, in 
 order the more to exalt Our Lord by your 
 abasement. It should neither give nor per- 
 sonify itself in any of its members, were lie 
 the holiest and the most learned, but remain 
 only the servant of Jesus, referring to Him
 
 222 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 and offering to Him the excellent fruits of 
 this member on wliom God has lavished some 
 of His best gifts. It ought not to glory in 
 his success, but in having a better victim, 
 as did Abel, to offer to his Divine Master. 
 You may perform, also, the most brilliant 
 works, and receive neither praise nor notice; 
 on the contrary, they should put you and 
 your works down very low, all the more to 
 honor the Lord alone, who has been acting 
 in you. But you, you exalt yourself indind 
 ually? Never! 
 
 Praise and glory are foj- Our Lord alone, 
 d.nd. all those grand works are, after all, 
 only what you ought to perform, and they 
 are very small compared with what the King 
 whom you serve merits! To praise you, to 
 thank you, would be to make yoti an in- 
 dividual and to consider you as still belong- 
 ing to yourself. But you have given your- 
 self to be nothing and to belong only to 
 Our Lord, who alone deserves to be. Hence, 
 praise to Him alone! The soldiers gain the 
 victory in a battle, but the general alone 
 has the glory and the triumph.
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION, 223 
 
 One day we shall be well recompensed 
 for all that we have done. While awaiting 
 that day, let us busy ourselves with serving. 
 Oh, how often one takes back the gift of 
 self by his negligence, impatience, his seeking 
 after satisfaction, approbation, or something 
 of the kind! That shows how difficult it is 
 to give up self entirely. 
 
 In other Orders, they cultivate the gifts of 
 a religious, and aim at making him produce 
 as much as he can.- He becomes a distin- 
 guished savant, a great orator. They bring 
 him forward as much as possible, they exalt 
 his success, they make him a kind of flag- 
 bearer of the combat of truth and religion 
 against error. They make use of him to say 
 to the impious and the unbelieving: "See, 
 what religion can make a man! You will 
 never come up to him! " 
 
 That's all right! They are the great men 
 of the Church. But we must never pretend 
 to that, never cultivate a subject in order to 
 make of him a conspicuous individual. To 
 wish to make great men before the living 
 God! To say to some one that he is holy
 
 224 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 before the Holy of Holies! Imagine it! No. 
 no, let the savants, the geniuses, and the 
 saints abase themselves before Our Lord. 
 Let them disappear as do the stars when 
 the sun rises. Although their fires be not 
 extinct, but eclipsed by the brilliancy of the 
 sun, they can no longer be distinguished. 
 Well, it is the same in this case. We ought 
 to see only Our Lord, show only Him, never 
 a man, were he a prodigy of learning, elo- 
 quence, and sanctity. Let him in the pres- 
 ence of Our Lord annihilate all these great 
 gifts. His sacrifice will be all the better for 
 it. Let him never expose himself to drawing 
 on himself the notice, the attention, the. 
 respect due only to his Master and King. 
 Behold the Eucharistic yocation, the So- 
 ciety of the Most Blessed Sacrament with its 
 end, its spirit, and its conditions. It is and 
 it wishes to exist only for the service of the 
 Person of Our Lord. It consecrates to Him 
 all that it has, all that it is, its children and 
 all that they are. It wants to gain nothing 
 either, for itself or for- others, for it is so 
 little in comparison with what its great K'ng
 
 THE EUCHARISTIC VOCATION. 
 
 225 
 
 deserves! May it at least hear Him say: "I 
 am satisfied. Here are men who adore Me, 
 love Me, and serve' Me for Myself alone I"
 
 ^ 
 
 The RENUNCIATION 
 
 
 Of ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 r any man will follow Me let liini deny 
 himself and sell all that he possesses. " 
 
 I. -Thus does Our Lord lay down the 
 first condition of the religious life: renuncia- 
 tion, the Cross, death. Because He has else- 
 where promised the hundredfold to those that 
 have left all to follow Him, it must not be 
 imagined that religion affords natural happi- 
 ness, and that people may enter it to find rest 
 in the present life. Poor people! Looking 
 at it in the natural light, such persons are 
 more unhappy in religion than they would 
 be in the world. 
 
 In the world, they have only the law to 
 practise; here they have the counsels, as 
 well as the law. In the world, they might 
 have enjoyed domestic life, surrounded them- 
 se'h'es with a family, built up a future ac- 
 cording to their tastes, indulged in lawful 
 pleasures ; but here there is nothing of that 
 They cannot even enjoy the good they do
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 227 
 
 The truth is, that, when one becomes a 
 religious, he takes up a cross which hf! must 
 carry till the end of his life. 
 
 No, human happmess is not for the re 
 ligious. You do not call by that name a 
 recreation, a rest that is granted you from 
 time to time. That only makes you feel more 
 keenly the privation that you ordmarily en- 
 dure. 
 
 Happiness in the religious life? Heavenly, 
 yes; but human hapi>iness,— nonsense! And 
 so there are some who go about sad and 
 discouraged, saying that they have made a 
 mistake, that they had no idea things were 
 going to be so hard. They want happiness 
 in Turkish fashion. 
 
 Jesus has promised the hundredfold, but 
 It is of that interior joy which is the fruit 
 of mortification and the Cross, and not the 
 hundredfold of natural happiness. 
 
 In the world, one may have a mixed happi- 
 ness, half-heavenly, half-human, but in re- 
 ligion this is not possible. There, on the 
 contrary, one can be happy only by the 
 destruction of all that m.ikes up natural
 
 228 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 happiness. How many deceive themselves! 
 
 The religious must always renounce self 
 and what he loves, always sacrifice self. Do 
 you want to follow Jesus Christ on His 
 throne? Follow Him in His sufferings, and 
 understand well that you are going to daily 
 immolation. It is hard, but it is so. It is 
 impossible to persevere, unless we excite in 
 ourselves these sentiments. 
 
 In our vocation, above all, is this true. 
 It deprives us of even the consolations of 
 zeal, and crucifies us as holocausts at the 
 feet of Our Lord. 
 
 Missionaries have a hundredfold here be- 
 low. They enjoy their conquests and con- 
 versions. Nature and grace have worked 
 together Nature furnished the labor, and 
 grace made it flourish and fructify; and then, 
 too, they are recompensed by the gratitude 
 of souls. Here we are consumed, and no one 
 can find even the spot upon which we have 
 passed away. 
 
 And yet Jesus said to His Apostles: "As 
 to you who have persevered with Me in My 
 tribulations, behold I am goinpf to prepare a
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 229 
 
 throne for you. " He was speaking of Hib 
 eternal kingdom, assured to those who are 
 wilHng to fulfil certain conditions to obtain it. 
 
 The first is to leave all and to foUow 
 Jesus empty-handed. You must abandon your 
 riches and the use of all that you possess. 
 This is what is done at the profession. 
 
 li you have a fortune and you want to give 
 it to the Society for the support of Our 
 Lord and its members, do so, it is well. But 
 it is not demanded of you. You are free to 
 give it to whomsoever you please. 
 
 The important thing is that you reserve 
 nothing, and that you abandon yourself to 
 the Master, who will give you all that is nec- 
 essary. But that costs! The priest loves so 
 much to have his own Httle. things, his books, 
 to receive little presents, to make for him- 
 self his little spiritual boudoir 1 Here, noth- 
 ing of all that is permitted you. You can 
 receive nothing. The Community alone re- 
 ceives and disposes, and should you appro' 
 priate some thing, taking it for yourself, 
 reserving it for your own exclusive use, you 
 commit a theft, and you fail in poverty.
 
 230 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 All that is in your use is but for a time, and 
 if it should be said to you: 'Go at once, " 
 you must do so immediately, abandonmg 
 everything, without thinking of what you leave 
 behind. 
 
 One must be poor in one's food. It is true 
 that now you have all that you need, but 
 it may happen, from one reason oi another, 
 that something is wanting at table. If you 
 complain then, 1 shall say to you. "Have 
 you, then, made a vow always to eat two 
 dishes at your meals? Go, go back to the 
 world, and eat your acorns!" 
 
 Is not the poor niaji subjected to wait 
 lor his bread, which is not always forth 
 coming? Well, you have made profession 
 of being poor. Be so in reality, at least when 
 occasion offers. 
 
 Alasi 1 am sure if that happened to yoii, 
 you woidd murmur. It will happen to you. 
 Be sure of it ! 
 
 If, for example, you are traveling on a 
 Friday, although custom allows a traveler to 
 make use of meat if he can get. nothing 
 else, you, ui homage to poverty, would eat
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 231 
 
 no meat, understand, and would content your- 
 selves with whatever you could get, were il 
 only bread. 
 
 Like the poor of the Lord, religious have 
 a right only to bread and water. 
 
 1 know that they give reasons for being 
 treated comfortably. Health is weaker than 
 It used to be, one must sustain one's self 
 m order to work, etc. But 1 know, also, 
 that by such reasonmg, they come to puliiug 
 sensuality and goui"mandizjng in the place 
 of poverty 
 
 What! jesus suffered hunger. With tlie 
 Apostles, He was reduced to crushing the cars 
 of corn in order to strengthen llimsell a 
 little; and we religious, we want always to 
 have enough so that nothing ever fails! 
 What becomes of the poverty of Our Lord? 
 
 We should be poor in our clothing. If we 
 look out for what is fine and beautiful, w c 
 fail in poverty. The greatest scandal of poor 
 Italy was to see there religious men vying 
 with "women m the fineness and whiteness 
 of their habits. 
 
 Examine youisclvcs well on this point. I ine
 
 •232" RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 cloth lasts longer, they say, and it is eco- 
 nomical to make use of it. I tell you it is 
 only pride in poverty. 
 
 " But they give it to me, and poverty wills 
 that I should receive it. " Ask permission 
 first, and then wear it with reluctance and 
 bhame. Go to Argenteuil and there see Our 
 Lord's tunic. Is that made of fine cloth? 11 
 you are a religious of Our Lord, adopt His 
 costume. 
 
 Indulge m no illusion. It is very fine, 
 very eaay to say: "I am poor," Look into 
 yourself, and see whether you are or are not 
 poor. Examine to what you are attached, 
 and cast it away, for it would ruin you. 
 
 ITie religious is like a passenger traveling 
 with all his fortune on a ship well provided 
 with everything. A tempest arises. Jesu5 
 Christ is only a few feet off in a little boat 
 He extends to you a plank of rescue, only 
 a plank, — understand? "Come to Me, but 
 leave all. Your baggage would capsize the 
 plank, and you and it would be lost. • 
 
 Have, then, always before your eyes this 
 truth, that you have left all, and that you
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 233 
 
 have come here for Our Lord without reserve 
 or condition. Take nothing back neither for 
 the body nor for the mind, for besides poverty 
 with regard to external goods, the reUgious 
 must renounce self in body, mind, and heart, 
 in order to give all to Our Lord. 
 
 in. — Our. Lord expects of you this double 
 homage of body and soul. Keep back the 
 gifts of the soul no more than those of the 
 body, if you wish to be a good and loyal 
 servant. 
 
 He endows you with intelligence, and He 
 wants its fruits. Let all your studies be for 
 Him. Examine yourself well on this subject, 
 and you will find that you are taking back 
 something every day. You study for yourself, 
 through your natural attraction for such or 
 such a subject, and yet the science of the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament ought to be yours, 
 and your, only science. 
 
 Have ^you always in view this sole knowl- 
 edge of His Divine Person, of His supreme 
 service? No, and that is because you have 
 not given your mind to it perfectly. 
 
 '^lave you given your heart? Do you love 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. ib
 
 234 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 Him alone? Byt in what degree? Have you 
 not other affections that thwart the former? 
 Examine whence come your thoughts, whether 
 they are habitually fixed on Our Lord, His 
 love, His adorable Presence. We think on 
 what we love. Where your thought is, 
 thither your heart turns. 
 
 If you love Our Lord alone and above 
 all else, you will ^hink of nothing but Him, 
 you will study Him with ardor, and you will 
 end by understanding Him. It was the love 
 of the saints that made them conceive 
 thoughts so noble, and the most loving were 
 the most learned. God is -light, because He 
 is love. 
 
 Well, now, your heart — is it all for the 
 Most Blessed Sacrament? Have you nothing 
 opposed to Its service, nothing outside of it'? 
 There is the touchstone. 
 
 Let your body, also, be entirely for the 
 service of Our Lord. This is absolutely nec- 
 essar>', if you want wholly to give yourself. 
 6aint Teresa says that, as long as we have 
 not abandoned to God our health, we have 
 not yet given Him anything. She is right.
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 235 
 
 In the order of health, what appears the 
 least perfect is often the most difficult and 
 becomes the occasion of holiness. 
 
 If you say : " I want to give my mind first " 
 that is sloth. First give your body; you will 
 give your mind afterward. That costs more, 
 because wc are essentially corporeal and sunk 
 m the senses. 
 
 In practice, the ego is the body, the natural, 
 the sensual, much more than is the mind. 
 Our mind, shut up in the flesh, seems to be- 
 come itself flesh. Give, then, first the body, 
 which so entirely absorbs your attention. 
 
 Some there are who wish to serve Our Lord 
 only on condition of being better treated 
 than they were in the world. Oh, how many 
 there are who demand of religion only its 
 advantages, who enter it only to make sure 
 of their bread, to find m it a resource, a 
 commodious shelter! Religious nobodies! 
 Garibaldi might have recruited his ranks from 
 them, for they are robbers in the sanctuary, 
 and God could say to them : " You have con- 
 sidered Me of less account than your body! " 
 
 Let us examine ourselves well on th'<=' point.
 
 236 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 There is something to do here for sure! 
 
 Behold the total gift, behold renunciation. 
 The vow of poverty extends to our \vhol# 
 being. To pause on exterior things, is not 
 to comprehend the mind. Poverty conse- 
 crates the whole religious. If we do not give 
 ourselves entirely, we enter not into the 
 virtue of poverty. It is easy to say: "My 
 God. 1 give Thee all, " but it is not so easy 
 to do so. 
 
 Come, then, reflect, reason out your duly. 
 Know well what you should do and to whom 
 you have engaged yourself. Always rise to 
 the iirimuni mobile of your life, that is. to your 
 good will and intenticHi. Let the lo\ e of God 
 ever combat your self-love. 
 
 Whene\-cr you possess more than Jesus 
 Christ, correct yourself. 
 
 Vou have made a vow always to advance. 
 Flinch not, look neither to the right nor to 
 the left. Behind you are the bayonets of 
 God's justice; to right and left, ate the prec- 
 ipices of hell! Act through principle, for 
 that enduies; sentiment, on the contrary, 
 gleams and dies out.
 
 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 237 
 
 Some are seen entering religion flushed with 
 joy, speaking only of the happiness of the re- 
 ligious life, of their delight to enter. In gen- 
 eral, count little on them. They are caught 
 by the heart like children. Theirs is a sudden 
 blaze, which has no fuel 
 
 But when some one presents himself, 
 saying: " I am come to immolate myself 
 daily for God by renunciation. Up to this 
 day, I have been bad enough, but I will now 
 be a victim of propitiation for my own sins, " 
 Ahf here is a. true vocation! 
 
 Go on, then, through conviction, through 
 an unshaken and evident persuasion that it 
 is your duty and the will of God. Say to 
 yourself that your happiness itself lies in so 
 doing. 
 
 You can no longer shrink. In the world, 
 you would drag your vows like the chain and 
 ball of a galley-slave, and if you live a 
 tepid life in religion, you wUl be in a true 
 hell. You will do as much as others, but 
 without profit. To do good outwardly, to 
 condemn one's self to a life of rule and 
 constraint without experiencing any interior
 
 238 RENUNCIATION OF ALL OWNERSHIP. 
 
 satisfaction; to be even punished at every 
 instant by remorse, fear, and agony of con' 
 science, — but that would not be supportable! 
 Peace of conscience, at least, is necessary. 
 
 If it costs to do good, it costs ven' much 
 more not to do it while appearing to do it. 
 It is impossible to lead the life of a saint 
 and yet be a demon interiorly. 
 
 Give yourselves, then, entirely and in all 
 truth, and let it be through reason and con- 
 viction. If your body complains, show it what 
 it gains by doing well, since it has to lead 
 the same life as the others even if it does 
 not wish it. 
 
 As for your mind, — show it how noble it 
 is, how good and great to serve Our X^ord. 
 Show it good in itself, and that it should 
 not be through interest, but for love, that 
 it devotes itself, and then act accordingly. 
 
 <^^-¥0^r<^
 
 
 SIN, the INJURY DONE 
 
 to GOD. 
 
 ^W^^*^^*^^*!^'^*^«K SS^'M 
 
 HAT is most displeasing to God on earth 
 land in us, is sin. This truth must be 
 attentively considered. The. just, and the 
 saints theinselves, are not exempt from sin. 
 And we, have we not on our conscience, 
 perhaps, at least some venial sins? Have 
 we never had to weep over mortal sins? 
 
 There is but one evil on earth, but one 
 thing to dread, and that is sin. All creation 
 pleases God, even those beings which to us 
 appea.r hurtful. Neither the worm nor the 
 mire of the earth offends God's sight, for 
 those thmgs are in their natural state. Sin, 
 on the contrary,. is a peiversion of the divine 
 will, a degrading of His work, a contradic- 
 tion of His nature -and oC His divine Being. 
 Sin tends to annihilate God, for it denies 
 and attacks His attributes. Now, those at 
 tributes are His nature itself. 
 
 Let us now consider this frightful evil 
 against God.
 
 240 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 I. — Sin is an offence, an insult offered 
 to the sovereign Authority of God. to His 
 majesty, to His empire. It is the creature 
 insuhing his Creator. 
 
 People easily think that sin is not so greatly 
 opposed to God, does not effect Him so 
 much, since He does not show Himself angry, 
 does not chastise the offence immediately. 
 And yet what more serious than to fail in 
 respect to a superior? Want of respect to 
 others ia in society the cause of hatred, duels, 
 wars. It is a crime. 
 
 Not to give to one's superior in the world 
 the place and the marks of honor due. him, 
 is to despise him. And truly, men are very 
 watchful on these points. They are things 
 that are not allowed to pass. They are inex- 
 cusable. People always suppose you have re- 
 ceived education enough to respect others, 
 and they reject from society the badly 
 reared. They despise them, they do not even 
 look at them. 
 
 Well, then, does God desen^e to be treated 
 uncinlly? Is He not the Lord of Lords, the 
 King of Kings, He to whom everything in
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 241 
 
 heaven and on earth is subject, whom the 
 elements obey, whom the angels regard with 
 trembling, and for whom His desires are 
 orders ? 
 
 Animals, plants, inanimate beings, recognize 
 God's dominion and obey Him. It is without 
 sentiment, indeed, but their obedience is no 
 less homage to His authority which governs 
 them. 
 
 The smner alone dares despise divine au- 
 thority. God lays down laws. He threatens, 
 He punishes transgressors.. The sinner mocks 
 at God, at His threats, at His chastisements. 
 
 You have not done so in this sentiment. 
 That is possible, but your actions have done 
 so. And if you do not insult Him directly 
 and to His face, you despise Him by your 
 indifference and forgetfulness. ♦The sin is not 
 less. 
 
 Pay strict attention I At the judgment, God 
 will know very well how to show you your acts 
 of contempt He will say to you: " You obey- 
 ed men. Am I of less value than a man? 
 You respected a creature, and kept your 
 insults for your Creator. Was it this that I
 
 242 SIX, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 deserved? " And you will not know what to 
 
 answer to irritated Justice whose light will 
 place clearly before your eyes all the horror 
 of sin. its incalculable consequences, and your 
 own most secret intentions. 
 
 But so many others offend God I — You are, 
 then, willing- to damn yourself witli them? 
 And you will offend God, because He does 
 not at once punish those that insult Him? 
 
 And we, we sin before the face of God, 
 in the Presence of Jesus Christ in the Blessed 
 Sacrament, of Jesus Christ living there His 
 life of the Man-God! We do as the abom- 
 inable executioners who insulted Him to 
 His face on Calvar>l The executioners of 
 the praetorium, at least, veiled His face be- 
 fore insulting Him. They dared not do so 
 under His gc^e! And we, through sloth, 
 through negligence, and other reasons, com- 
 mit under His eyes faults that are real sac- 
 rileges, venial, if you choose, but sacrileges 
 all the same. 
 
 Oh, if we had a little refinement of soul, 
 never would we offend the good God! There 
 is no need to be scrupulous in order to avoid
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 243 
 
 even the appearances of sin. The scrupulous 
 man is he who is always in the state of 
 half-consent. It is sufficient to be of a 
 sensitive conscience. When we esteem, we 
 do not insult 
 
 But men we see. We think not of God 
 because we do not see Him. Have you, then. 
 no faith? Faith is a real sight, which cer- 
 tifies to us the things of God more plainly 
 than our eyes show us exterior objects. 
 
 We see by the eyes of faith as by the 
 intelligence. Do you see the relations of the 
 sciences, the laws of niunber? And yet you 
 believe them. Why do you not believe in God ■* 
 
 Our greatest evil is sloth, negligence, for 
 getfulness, and discouragement. That shows 
 our little faith, respect, and love. We want 
 what gives us pleasure, and we refuse what 
 contradicts us 
 
 How often, also, have we been restrained 
 by human respect! We have left God for 
 men, and transgressed His law through fear 
 of what they might say. What contempt 
 or what indifference! And it is God whom 
 we treat thusf
 
 244 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 II, — Sin is opposed to God's sanctity, 
 which is His nature. God is essentially holy. 
 Sanctity is the first of His attributes. It is 
 all that is good, beautiful, and true; and it 
 IS against it that sin rises up. 
 
 We sully the divine sanctity in ourselves, 
 for this sanctity dwells in us. We received 
 an emanation of it in Baptism, which renders 
 us holy and like unto God by sanctifying* 
 grace. We sully this divine image. Our soul 
 is from God, our body the temple of the 
 Holy Spirit. We are the members of Jesus 
 Christ. We profane His body, we plunge 
 Jesus Christ and the white robe of holiness 
 and justice He has given us into a filthy 
 pool, we deliver Him to the demon. 
 
 Sin is infectious. It is corruption, putrid 
 dissolution. It turns our soul into a horrible 
 corpse, above all, sins of sensuality, and we 
 appear before God in that state 1 With what 
 horroi we must inspire Him. as well as the 
 angels and the saints, for they all see us! 
 
 Saint Paul tells us: "To show forth the 
 good odor of Jesus Christ, " and we spread 
 an infectious odor. There have been saints
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 245 
 
 who recognized sinners by their odor. Ah! 
 if our sins spread around their natural odor 
 so that others perceived it and told us of it, 
 what shame! We would not dare to show 
 ourselves, we could not bear ourselves 1 They 
 say of Antiochus that the wound inflicted on 
 hini in punishment of his pride was so in 
 fectious that it filled his army with pestilence. 
 Behold the exhalation of our sins! 
 
 We sully the sanctity of God in our body 
 and in our soul by sin. How can God enter 
 a soul in which sin dwells? How can He 
 'set foot in it? And yet we force Him to come 
 into this impure cesspool. Oh, of what arc 
 we thinking! 
 
 As for sms of human weakness, they arc 
 only dust, and God does not hold m horror 
 this dust inherent to our misery But sin& 
 of the will, 6f affection, of habit I 
 
 It would be better not to receive the body 
 of Our Lord than to take It into our heart, 
 if stained with habitual sins. He enters but 
 with disgust. We do violence to Him. He 
 is bound, and He obeys us. But at the hour 
 of death, we shall see His vengeance! His
 
 246 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 voice will be terrible: "How didst thou dare 
 to receive Me into thy body sullied with 
 abomination! " 
 
 We presume to take our filthy corruption 
 even to the Body of Jesus Christ to befoul It, 
 for those Species that we touch, are Jesus 
 Christ Himself. They are inseparably united 
 to Him. The Church wills that we adore 
 them with the same worship of latria as His 
 own visible Body It is, then, He whom we 
 sully by our abominable contact! 
 
 But the sin in our soul rebounds upon the 
 Most Holy Trinity Itself, which dw^ells therein, 
 and which is sullied by its fetidness; for the 
 Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 
 come into us substantially and really when we 
 communicate; so that all that is sacred, God, 
 the three Divine Persons, Jesus Chrii,t, are 
 all attacked by sin. 
 
 Oh, how God bears with such thmgs! If 
 He punished at once, we would be constantly 
 beaten with rods like Heliodorus at the gate 
 of the Temple. His goodness puts up with 
 us, but is goodness a reason for being in- 
 sulted?
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO COt). 2M 
 
 I know not of what we are thinking, but 
 enraged against self, one is forced "to exclaim: 
 "do not treat God as men treat their lowest 
 domestics! " 
 
 "I did not think of that." You arc bound 
 to think of it. It is. not lawful to commit 
 crimes, in order to distract one's self. He 
 who has gone so far as to forget duties so 
 essential as the respect due to the sanctity 
 of God, is more culpable than he who offends 
 Him through the seduction of passion. 
 
 Oh, the divine sanctity will have its re- 
 venge 1 It will provoke the arm of justice, for 
 God cannot consent to our profaning Him 
 in this way. It is a fearful thing to say, but 
 we make God serve us in our iniquities, and 
 it is of that He complains. " Scruirc mc 
 fecisti in peccaiis tuis." Wo cannot make a- 
 movement in which God does not cooperate, 
 in which we do not force Him to make an 
 actual act of the will. We thus turn the 
 power and the life that He gives us against 
 His own designs, and what was good when 
 emanating from Him, we render bad. This 
 is . doing violence to Him. He will avenge
 
 248 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 Himself eternally, for He will have His day! 
 
 HI. — Lastly, sin is an injury offered to the 
 goodness of God, an abominable ingratitude. 
 How is it possible that, living on His bounty 
 and mercy, we go on offending Him? 
 
 God is so good that, if He cxDuld die agani 
 for us, He would do so. And because He is 
 -good, we offend Him! 
 
 He does not want to damn us at once. 
 Well, then, we will sin another time! 
 
 Oh, when we think of these things, we 
 say: "I am the abomination of creatures." 
 Ah, yeS; to be surel And as sin is measured 
 by the graces and favors received from the 
 divine bounty, judge of the enormity of our sins. 
 
 Men are more offended at the coldness 
 of a friend than at the outrages of an enemy. 
 How little considerate are we toward the best 
 of friends! 
 
 We. at least, hide ourselves when offendmg 
 Him. Not at all! We sm under His Encha- 
 ristic gaze. We offend Him at His very feet 
 while in adoration! Oh, what shall we do? 
 Conceive horror for self, looking upon self 
 as an abortion, a wretch.
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 249 
 
 Nevertheless, God keeps on treating me as 
 a friend. That proves how very good He is. 
 But you, if I should tell you that all sins 
 flourished in your soul, if I could unveil it 
 and show you to the eyes of all such as 
 you are in the eyes of God, what would y6u 
 say ? You would blush with shame, you would 
 want to hide yourself under the earth. Ah, 
 well, blush, for God sees you! Oh, shun sin, 
 above all things, sin no morel Men forgive 
 a child for not helping its parents, for not 
 knowing how to do anything ; but they never 
 forgive it for insulting them. 
 
 Start, at least, from this principle of good 
 sense, that you should not do to God what 
 you would not have a man do to you. 
 
 Have, at least, as much^onor as the soldier 
 who wants to pass his time without punish- 
 ment, only that he may be able to say : " 1 
 never was punished. " Shall we not have 
 that last sentiment of honor, and shall we not 
 pass one day without sin? Oh, it would be 
 too badl 
 
 I heg of you, do not offend the good God 
 any more. Be more or less humble, patient, 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. x?
 
 250 
 
 SIN, INJURY DONE TO GOD. 
 
 mortified; perform the most beautiful actions, 
 or do nothing at all. I can pass over your 
 not having virtues, but at least, I entreat you, 
 no sin, no sin!
 
 ^4&*&4&^«&^*&3i&»&^4&4&^*&ji&«&«&*2&4&^ 
 
 The EFFECTS of VENIAL SIN. 
 
 ^ 
 
 JT is very certain that the love of God 
 supplies for everything, suffices for 
 everything". But when it does not purify from 
 sin, it is not true, or not yet very strong. 
 The first effect of love is to purify. 
 
 For this reason, we must go on examining 
 sin, its fatal consequences, to awaken horror 
 for it. 
 
 Whence comes it that we have so little 
 horror for sin, that we remain in it without 
 fear, that we know of its being in us, and 
 yet take no care to shun it or to correct 
 ourselves? It comes from bad will or neg 
 ligence. from want of delicacy of conscience, 
 or from our little love of God. 
 
 If men did for the good God and for their 
 soul what they do to succeed in business 
 affairs or in any other state in which they 
 are, they would soon become saints. God has 
 to pay us for what we do for Him and for 
 the care we take of our soul, but He is 
 badly served in spite of thatl 
 
 Some say : " But what is it, after all, but a
 
 252 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 venial sin? It is only a little fault which 
 does not kill the soul. " And on the score of 
 venial sin, they no longer disquiet themselves. 
 Oh, what purgatory will teach us I But now, 
 see what are the effects of venial sin, and 
 you will comprehend how much you ought 
 to shun it. 
 
 I am not speaking of those faults of weak- 
 ness and frailty, against which we are on our 
 guard, which we commit only through sur- 
 prise, and of which we get rid at once as 
 soon as committed, but of the affection to 
 venial sin, which makes one commit it easily, 
 little sensitive to the wrong that he does, 
 taking no care not to expose himself to it 
 agam in a word, I am speaking of venial 
 sin which is committed through affection and 
 which has become habitual. 
 
 I. — Venial sin paralyzes God's power over 
 our soul. When God encounters venial sin 
 on His way to the soul, His power is arrested, 
 it can do nothing. 
 
 In the other world, justice is indemnified 
 without needing the consent of the culpable. 
 But here below, liberty is always granted us.
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 253 
 
 God can do in us only what we consent to 
 allow Him to do, and the perverse will of 
 man, in repulsing God's power, is stronger 
 than Gods will. Yes, indeed! God can do 
 nothing with one whose conscience is taken 
 up by an affection to venial sin. It is im- 
 possible for Him to unite His power with 
 ours, His action to ours. Sin is by its very 
 nature, a turning away from God, It consti- 
 tutes an opposition between essence and 
 essence, between nature and nature. What 
 would you have God do? He cannot destroy 
 us. He has given us a certain time to live 
 and to enjoy our liberty, and He respects 
 that decree. 
 
 Venial sin arrests the course of God's good- 
 ness. Grace is the effusion of the divine 
 goodness. Now, God is absolutely unable 
 to give His grace to one who says by act: 
 " I do not want it. " He cannot render good 
 an act bad by nature. Venial sin is refusal 
 opposed to the grace that solicits. It annuls 
 its action. God, not being able to force the 
 door of the heart, withdraws. He does not 
 violently force an entrance. The Scripture
 
 254 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 SO often shows Him present to the soul as 
 a friend demanding entrance with His graces, 
 supplicating Israel to hear Him. Our Lord, 
 also, during His life asked men to receive 
 Him well. They would not, and He was 
 obliged to retire. 
 
 I am speaking only of venial sin which, not 
 entirely destroying the state of grace paral- 
 yzes its action. It is not opposed to the habit 
 of charity, but to its efficacy and its acts 
 
 Venial sin is opposed to actual grace, so 
 necessary to him who would act supernat- 
 urally that without it we can absolutely do 
 nothing for salvation. Actual grace is a Jight, 
 an inspiration. It is the action of Jesus Christ 
 and His Spirit in us. Now, venial sin destroys 
 or hinders its effects. It obscures the soul, 
 it limits its gaze, it envelope it in darkness. 
 The light of grace presents itself incessantly 
 to enlighten our intelligence, to show it 
 supernatural motives, the divine good; but 
 if we close the entrance, it cannot penetrate. 
 This sun of love will light up the stone of 
 our tomb, while we ourselves remain buried 
 in darkness.
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 255 
 
 In this Venial sin corresponds to a secret 
 instinct of our fallen nature. Man fears God's 
 light more than His goodness itself. Light 
 remains, it stays. The Jews did not want 
 even to listen to Jesus Christ, and they stoned 
 Him when He wished to tell them the truth. 
 So some do not want to listen, to a beggar 
 relating his misery. They give him an alms 
 at once in order not to have to look upon 
 what might too deeply touch them. And so 
 we, too, do not like to see ourselves, nor to 
 see God and His will and what He demands. 
 But the light that we reject accuses us, and 
 this so much the more as it is greater. What 
 will it be for us who live in the darkness of 
 sin before the brilliant light of the Eucharist? 
 We can, indeed, say that we sin in the 
 light. Our sins are all the more serious, 
 and we shall be punished more severely. 
 
 Grace is, also, a vivifying heat by which 
 God desires to touch our will, exciting it 
 sweetly in order to bend it to what He is 
 demanding of us. But sin is the cold, the icy 
 coldness of the tomb. It prevents the divine 
 heat irom penetrating to our heart, for fear
 
 256 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 of our being awakened from our torpor. 
 And yet the heat emanating from the Blessed 
 Sacrament is so powerful, so sweet, so be- 
 neficent! There is the furnace of the living 
 Heart of Jesus Christ. But sin makes us 
 flee from it. If we feel that Our Lord is 
 presenting to us His Heart in order to gain 
 our lore, we flee. We are afraid of His 
 saying to us: "I love thee!" for we should 
 then bi obliged to respond: "And I, also!" 
 They say it, indeed, on the tip of the lips 
 and while retreating, but they do not want 
 to be taken at their word. When an enemy 
 allows himself to be embraced he is disarm- 
 ed, he becomes a friend. It would be the 
 same with us, but we fear the duties of 
 friendship. 
 
 Grace is, again, the action of the Holy 
 Spirit by which He renews and continues in 
 us the life of Jesus Christ. He says to us: 
 " Take My grace, and perform this good ac- 
 tion, make this sacrifice, labor with Me. 
 I will supply the funds and the means, you 
 shall have the merit and the fruit. " But 
 sin prevents our accepting this loving pro-
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 257 
 
 posal, it rejects it, and this contract of com- 
 panionship becomes impossible, for Our Lord 
 cannot join His action to sin, which is op- 
 posed to Him. So venial sin is the destruc- 
 tion of actual grace, preventing and de- 
 stroying its action. It binds Jesus Christ at 
 the gate of the soul. Little by little, it 
 ruins sanctifying grace which, like stagnant 
 water, becomes corrupt, because no living 
 source feeds it, no movement purifies it. 
 
 Venial sin destroys the glory that we ought 
 to render to God by our actions. 
 
 God is the Owner and Master of our life, 
 and we are His tenants and servants. He 
 intrusts to us talents tO' be put out at interest. 
 It is a rigorous obligation for us to procure 
 His glory on earth. Recall how the servant 
 who neglected, who buried his talent, was 
 punished. 
 
 By sin we cease to recognize God as our 
 Master to whom we owe everything. We take 
 His place, and we act for ourselves. What 
 glory remains for Him from actions per- 
 formed through self-love? Sin destroys all 
 that could elevate toward Him and glorify
 
 258 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 Him. It annihilates God's glory in His crea- 
 tures. Behold the conflict mortal sin wages 
 against God and His attributes! 
 
 n. — Considered, besides, in its effects on 
 us, how sad is venial sin I See what it 4id 
 in the Apostles. For three years they had 
 lived with Our Lord, seeing Him, listening 
 to Him, rejoicing in His miracles and in His 
 particular and private explanations. Did they 
 profit by them? Not at all. They did not 
 even go so far as to correct themselves of 
 their defects. Their ambition, their jealousy, 
 their self-love still domineered them. What, 
 then, was the obstacle? Venial sin, for the 
 Gospel records their faults, and they were 
 but venial faults, only venial faults. But see, 
 whither they conducted. Behold them fleeing 
 from the Garden of OKves, and Peter denying 
 his Master. Judas, also, had lived with Our 
 Lord, and his infidelity began with only 
 small faults of cupidity. 
 
 I assure you, one may, in fact, live in the 
 holiest vocation, may spend his lifetime be- 
 fore the Blessed Sacrament, and yet for all 
 that" not be a saint
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 259 
 
 Oh, have pity, at least, on Our Lord, do 
 not insult Him to His face! People do not 
 chase away a beggar with injuries although 
 they can not give him anything. Jesus is 
 begging for our heart. They do not return 
 rude words tO' a benefactor who has bestowed 
 a gift upon them. With how many benefits 
 is not Our Lord incessantly loading usl 
 
 And that is not all. Venial sin, which 
 paralyzes God's power, delivers us into that 
 of the demon and of corrupt nature, which 
 he governs. Then we act by the instincts of 
 nature, by self-love, land we succeed and 
 are satisfied, for nature is very skilful when 
 it acts for itself. But what is there for God 
 in these works? 
 
 In effect, annulling actual grace by venial 
 sin, all that we do under its influence re- 
 mains. God offers us His grace, but we 
 refuse it, we reject His guidance in order 
 to depend on ourselves, and that is an in- 
 fidell!y. 
 
 "" know that all a man's actions performed 
 purely frcrni nature are not sins, and that 
 he, can, even without Supernatural grace, per-
 
 260 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 form some acts of the moral virtues that are 
 both good and honorable. But that is not 
 mounting on high. For an action to reach 
 the throne of God there to be cro\\Tied, it 
 must be borne up by grace, which alone has 
 the pow^er to carry it on to eternal life. 
 
 And then, if this is true in theory, it is 
 otherwise in practice. I do not believe in 
 the moral virtues of men who have not the 
 divine virtues. He who refuses the grace 
 of God which is offered to him, in order 
 to act by nature, acts perversely. 
 
 But how much truer is that for us I We 
 fall not from graces as great as ours, with- 
 out breaking limbs. 
 
 We deprive ourselves, in consequence, of 
 merit. He who labors in sin wears himself 
 out without gaining anything. Still more, 
 he will be punished for what he ought to do, 
 since he has the grace for it, and does not 
 cooperate. Our good works then become our 
 condemnation, for all that venial sin touches, 
 it renders useless. It is the worm at the root. 
 
 If what you have commenced well by grace 
 you finish by self-love, it becomes worthless
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 261 
 
 as far as recompense is concerned. So, venial 
 sin renders good things bad. It looks out 
 for them in order eventually to destroy them. 
 We are then, like the laborer who sees the 
 hail destroying in the twinkling of an eye 
 the hopes and labors of a year. A little sin 
 of self-love, a look upon self, is sufficient 
 for that. 
 
 Lastly, venial sin makes us unhappy. The 
 tepid religious is the most unhappy of men. 
 He labors as much as his brethren but, un- 
 like them, he does not receive those heavenly 
 consolations that sweeten labor. He refuses 
 them. On account of that obstacle of sin, 
 which is an insurmountable barrier to His 
 goodness, God cannot make him taste His 
 peace. His unction. 
 
 He no longer tastes the joys of a good 
 conscience, for they flourish only m con- 
 sciences that God illumines and visits. His 
 own, instead of being this perpetual feast, 
 is dark and breathes of brimstone. It is 
 tortured by remorse and fear. It is always 
 trembling and carrying around with it per- 
 petu-*:! chastisement.
 
 262 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 
 
 He has not even the consolations that the 
 world gives to its servants. The world cannot 
 come to him with its pleasures and, should, 
 he abandon his vocation to go demand them 
 of it, it does but increase his unhappiness, 
 for he drags after him everywhere the chains 
 of his vows and obligations. 
 
 Oh, how dear one pays for venial sinf 
 It enters by flattering, and it remains to bite. 
 It is a swarm of ants that eat away the 
 heart. No more pleasure, no more joy in 
 prayer, the soul no longer wants to see GodJ 
 Do you not know this from experience? 
 
 Come, now, let us lave Our Lord so much 
 at least as not to offend Him any more 
 and, above all, not to remain in sin. May 
 love and repentance raise us out of it at 
 once! 
 
 How we pain the good God. It would be 
 easy during the retreat to add up our venial 
 sins for a day. You would be frightened 
 to see the sum total. What would it be, 
 could you count all you have committed in 
 your lifetime? One minute is sufficient to 
 commit a sin, and interior sins call for still
 
 EFFECTS OF VENIAL SIN. 263 
 
 less time. Our venial sins are incalculable. 
 
 Some think themselves responsible for only 
 those that they know. Let us say for those 
 that they commit, for that is another thing. 
 To know and to commit, are two things. 
 
 Our Lord says we shall render an account 
 for every idle word. If an idle word forms a 
 subject for judgment, count, if you can, 
 your sins of sloth, of sensuaHty, of vanity, 
 of self-love. You will have to see them in pur- 
 gatory, and expiate them to the last farthing. 
 
 Be, then, very scrupulous about the least 
 faults, about everything that concerns your 
 conscience and the Rule. Take care! They 
 who abandon their vocation for crimes have 
 begun by nothings. When a stone be- 
 comes detached from a mountain, we know 
 not how far it may fall We know only 
 that the greater the height from which it fails, 
 the deeper will be the descent.
 
 t*&*&*£^*£j^«&s£<ii&^s3&*&«&^2&*&*2&*&j&1 
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION 
 
 of SIN. 
 
 
 ET us meditate on the way Our Lord 
 expiated sin. We shall find there the 
 true idea of reparation and penitence, and 
 we shall comprehend its malice. 
 
 Some say: "What wrong has sin done to 
 God, after all? In reality, it neither attacks 
 nor destroys the essence of God. It takes 
 nothing from His happiness. What can 
 pygmies do against a giant?" 
 
 This is the reasoning of the world. The 
 pious, also, use it more or less in order to 
 excuse themselves for their sins. 
 
 Here is the answer: God, in order to man- 
 ifest clearly what sin is in His eyes, has 
 given His own Son to pay the debt rigor- 
 ously, and to expiate it in a manner equal 
 to the offence. Sin deserves all that Jesus 
 suffered. God did but satisfy the demands 
 of His justice by condemning Him to that 
 terrible Passion and to that death on Calvary. 
 
 Jesus came and, having taken upon Him-
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 265 
 
 self our sins, became our security, and endur- 
 ed all that we should have to undergo. If, 
 then, you would comprehend the magnitude 
 of- the evil, study the greatness of the rep- 
 aration. Sin means Jesus Crucified. 
 
 Now, as all sins spring from these three 
 sources, pride, cupidity, and the pleasures of 
 the flesh, let us see how Jesus has expiated 
 this triple evil. 
 
 I. — Jesus took upon Himself every hu- 
 miliation in order to repair every species of 
 pride. The Word was humbled even to the 
 form of a slave. He came on earth to be 
 annihilated. His whole life was but one long 
 humiliation ending in the opprobrium of 
 Calvary. 
 
 Behold Him humbling Himself in His birth. 
 Men love to vaunt their birth, their noble 
 origin. They love to tell of the chateau in 
 which they were born. To confound this 
 pride of station, Jesus was born in a stable. 
 
 Men speak of their education, of their 
 illustrious masters. Jesus fled into Egypt. He 
 returned to Nazareth, a country of such ill- 
 fame that a well-bred man would say : " Can 
 
 The Divine Eucharist i8
 
 266 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 anything good come from Nazareth?" In 
 the eyes of the public a Nazarene counted 
 less than nothing. 
 
 Men like to say : " I am from a fine country, 
 a great city, a rich region." Jesus says: "I 
 am from Nazareth, " although, in reality, He 
 was of the royal city of Juda. One might 
 say that He had a weakness for humiliation, 
 His boast being annihilation in every thing. 
 
 Men speak of their successes, their studies. 
 They so much love to pass for savants ! Jesus 
 was the Word of God. He knew everything, 
 and yet for thirty years, He maintained si- 
 lence He passed for an illiterate man, a 
 day-laborer, a carpenter. 
 
 Later on, He will perform admirable works, 
 but He will give orders for them to be hidden, 
 to be passed over in. silence; and when men 
 want to glorify Him, He will flee to the 
 desert. 
 
 Men love to nmke a boast of their rela- 
 tions with the great and the influential, and 
 to say : " That illustrious man is my friend. 
 He knows me. He receives me. " Thus they 
 elevate themselves in their friends.
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 267 
 
 Our Lord was not known by the great, and 
 He knew no person' of influence. On the 
 contrary, the rich and the great are His 
 enemies, because He is poor and hails from 
 Galilee He used to be surrounded by the 
 poor, the untutored, the coarse-mannered. 
 As a general thing, only the poor and the 
 lowly followed Him and formed His auditory. 
 Others came only to surprise Him in His 
 words. If, however, one or two great men 
 among the people were attracted to Him, they 
 hid, they came to Him by night. There was 
 a kind of shame attached to being seen with 
 Him. 
 
 Behold how Our Lord during His 1 fe re- 
 paired for pride! 
 
 But how recount the humiliations of His 
 Passion? I enter not into detail, for you 
 know it. But follow Our Lord to the house 
 of Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, and see what 
 pride cost Himl Look at Him on the Cross 
 between two thieves, execrated by all, and in 
 some measure rightly, since He willed to 
 pass for guilty. The judges of His country 
 having condemned Him, all who beheld Him
 
 268 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 on the Cross, cried out: "Cursed is He 
 that hangeth on the Cross!" 
 
 Thus was He the accursed of God and of 
 man, a worm of the earth. Men dared not 
 even look upon Him, such was the humil- 
 iation, such the humiliations of every kind 
 that mantled Him, that disfigured Him 
 Never did a leper excite such disgust! 
 
 Humility — so fondly did Our Lord em- 
 brace It. love It, make it His own that it is 
 the only thmg in which He glories and 
 wishes us to see in Him: " Discite a me quia 
 hiimilis corde — Learn of Me that I am meek 
 and humble of Heart!" 
 
 See what pride cost Him, what the Father 
 exacted of His Son, to satisfy His justice 
 and to restore the rights of His Majesty 
 wounded by sin! Do you still say that God 
 is indifferent to sin ? 
 
 Now, every time that we commit a sin 
 of pride, we renew all the humiliations of 
 Our Lord. 
 
 Pride is at the bottom of our being. All 
 our sins spring from it directly or indirectly. 
 Take away pride, and you dry up their source.
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 269 
 
 Cpncupiscence itself is most frequently its 
 punishment, for God, as says Saint Paul, 
 abandons to the insensate desires of the flesh 
 men who yield to their pride. The avaricious 
 man is what he is only through pride. Egoism 
 is his last word: self, to the cost of all 
 else; self, the end of all. All sins may thus 
 establish relationship, trace their lineage to 
 pride. It is what Our Lord expiated more 
 than all other sins, and willed, above all, 
 to be humbled in everything and at all times. 
 
 But there is one species of pride which 
 must be shunned more than any other, and 
 that is, spiritual pride, which consists in 
 glorifying self in God's graces, in making self 
 the end of one's supernatural gifts, in 
 crowning self with God's benefits. It is pride 
 springing from one's noble vocation, from 
 the priesthood, by which one seeks to elevate 
 himself in the eyes of men on account of 
 his prerogatives, and attract upon himself 
 their esteem and confidence. Such was, the 
 pride of Lucifer in heaven, the worst pride of 
 all, for that is sacrilegious pride. 
 
 It is, also, the most subtle and lasting.
 
 270 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 When one prides himself on some natural 
 quality, such as his fortune, his knowledge, 
 it is only in passing. He soon finds some 
 one richer and more learned than himself 
 But of that Satanic pride, who can explore 
 its depths? Your outward life is in keeping 
 with what you want people to think of you 
 The world sees only your graces, the place 
 you occupy in the sanctuary, and it knows 
 not of your deep-rooted unworthincss. This 
 kind ol pride always strikes deeper and deeper 
 roots. It is a sacrilegious robbery It is seiz- 
 ing upon God's gifts, stealmg from Him the 
 love of souls, to which He has a right, and 
 to accomplish that end they make use of His 
 grace, of his own functions, of the sublime 
 gifts He has bestowed on them as His min 
 isters. 
 
 We wish to be esteemed among men on 
 account of the dignity to which God has 
 called us, as if we ourselves had merited it, 
 as if we held it of ourselves as the just rec- 
 ompense of our deserts. Of these entirely 
 gratuitous gifts which God has confided to 
 •us that we may put them out at profit for
 
 OUR lord's expiation of sin. 271 
 
 Him and deliver them over to His Christian 
 family, we make a throne for self and lay 
 claim to be honored instead of God whom 
 we have deprived of it I I declare that this 
 sacrilegious pride is worse than even that of 
 Lucifer and his angels, when they fell from 
 heaven, for they had never beheld Jesus 
 Sacramental ! 
 
 And we are proud before Our Lord anni- 
 hilated, humbled to an unheard of excess I 
 We even go so far as to elevate self upon 
 Our Lord's abasement, and make of it a 
 ladder by which to rise! 
 
 I am convinced that all the punishments 
 God sends to His elect, to those of His sane 
 tuary, are only to chastise that abominable 
 pride, for it is so deceitful in- reality and in 
 outward appearance that God alone can pun- 
 ish it. See what falls, into what abysses 
 they tumble who make self their end and 
 their recompense by crowning themselves 
 with their gifts and taking to themselves the 
 homage of souls! 
 
 Worldings say that there, is no one so 
 proud as religious with their privileges and
 
 272 OUR lord's EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 their beautiful habits. May they never be 
 able to say that of us! Always remember 
 that Jesus Christ is m the midst of you 
 hidden, annihilated, deprived of all glory, 
 and even of every sign of glory divine or 
 human. Wrap yourselves up in the obscurity 
 under which He is hiding His Divinity and 
 His Humanity, His glory and all His gifts, 
 and never emerge from it 
 
 Do you not see that to expiate pride, 
 Our Lord wills to continue till the end of 
 the world humbled in the Eucharist? Of 
 all the sufferings of His mortal life, He 
 retains only His humiliation. You see Him 
 there always humbled; or rather, you do not 
 even see Him, for He has no being, He has 
 only the appearance of being 
 
 The humiliations of the Eucharist are per- 
 petuated only to form a counterpobe to the 
 fatal effects of spiritual pride, which makes 
 so terrible ravages even in the assembly of 
 the saints. What horror God must have of 
 it for Him to condemn His glorious Son, 
 who ought to have been reigning in splendor 
 and majesty, to such excess of humiliation,
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 273 
 
 and that till the end of time in the Eu- 
 charist 1 
 
 II. — I shall say little of the way Our 
 Lord repairs concupiscence after earthly 
 goods. Avarice cannot be the sin of re- 
 ligious such as you, for you own nothing, 
 you are not aiming at making a fortune. 
 
 Still take care against spiritual cupidity, 
 spiritual ambition. Know that nothing is 
 more shameful than to enter religion there 
 to make a position for one's self, to find 
 therein what one could never have achiev- 
 ed in the world. There are some who, not 
 being able to rise through want of talent, 
 enter religion in order to receive from it 
 name, position, influence. Because of the 
 glory crowning the name of some Institute, 
 they hope to become popular preachers, 
 popular confessors. More do this than is 
 suspected. They deserve to be struck by 
 the divine wrath! We are not far wrong if 
 we seek the cause of the terrible chas- 
 tisements that fell on the Religious Orders 
 during the French Revolution, in those mem- 
 bers who were religious rather for their own
 
 274 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 aggrandizement than for God, who labored 
 more for their own interests than fo-r His 
 glory 
 
 To expiate these evils of cupidity, Our 
 Lord came poor of poor parents. He work- 
 ed for His daily bread, He received assist 
 ance from charity, He died poor, owning 
 not even the winding-sheet for His burial 
 He lived without support, without protectors. 
 He never had any position, but went here 
 and there, as the Spirit urged Him, preaching 
 to all, sometimes followed, sometimes aban- 
 doned. He could say of Himself " The Son 
 of Man came not to be ser\'ed, but to serve." 
 
 III. — Our Lord expiated concupiscence of 
 the flesh by the austerity and sufferings 
 of His whole life, but above all by those of 
 His Passion. Some may ask how the Father 
 could have tlie heart to condemn Our Lord, to 
 torments so cruel as those that Het endured 
 Our Lord had to repair for our sensuality, 
 for the sins of our flesh. The Father let 
 nothing pass away from His Son. He did 
 not even allow Himself to be moved by that 
 prolonged prayer accompanied by tears and
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 275 
 
 sweat and blood, which Our Lord made to 
 
 Him for three hours in the Garden of Olives. 
 
 No I all that was necessary to expiate the 
 
 sins of sensuality. 
 
 It was, above all, according to some saints, 
 
 during His bloody Agony in Gethsemani, 
 
 that Our Lord repaired for the sins of 
 
 thought. 
 Are those sins, then, so grave?' Yes, there 
 
 is often more of sensuality (in the thought 
 than in the act; at least, it may be renew- 
 ed without interruption, it may be dwelt upon, 
 while the act is committed but in passing. 
 It was for this that Our Lord suffered the 
 crucifixion of His soul during three hours. 
 It was a suffering as great, as intense as 
 that of the Cross, for the special support of 
 His Divinity was needed to prevent His 
 succumbing under it. His crushed soul 
 abandoned Him. Oh, what our evil thoughts 
 have made Him endure ! Through them 
 alone, He endured all that Passion of Geth 
 semani. And the sensuality of gourmandir 
 ing. The Saviour who had always lived like, 
 the poor, content with bread and water the
 
 276 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 greater part of the time, took nothing during 
 the whole of His Passion, though having 
 sweat blood and water, having been flag 
 ellated with three thousand blows, having 
 traversed under the Eastern sun the streets 
 of Jerusalem laden with His Cross, and having 
 fallen, unable to go farther, and parched 
 with devouring thirst. And yet He waited 
 until He reached Calvary. There only did 
 He ask for some relief for tliat thirst, and 
 they presented Him vnnegar! 
 
 The sensuality of the bed. Was the bed 
 of the Cross rather hard? And that of 
 Gethsemani? It began by the straw in the 
 stable, then the bare earth, a stone of the 
 vvayside, were Jesus' bed and pillow during 
 His life. The straw, the ground, and the 
 Cross — behold how He repaired for the im- 
 mortification of the couch! 
 
 As to the sin against holy purity, we dare 
 not even mention it or show how the Saviour 
 expiated it, so humiliating was it for Jesus 
 to be obliged to take upon Himself that 
 horrible sin, also. 
 
 They led Him. purity itself, before the in-
 
 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 277 
 
 cestuous Herod. Of whom was the court of 
 that lewd man composed? To what looks 
 was Jesus there to be subjected ? And Pi- 
 late and the pagan executioners, — what 
 were they but idolaters of the senses, like 
 all pagans? Jesus consented to submit to 
 the shame of nudity, of complete stripping 
 before those wretches; and it is in the naked- 
 ness of the Cross that He will show Himself 
 even to the end of the world, exposed to the 
 railleries of libertines, as well as to the adora- 
 tion of pure souls. He is a worm of the 
 earth! He is naked in expiation and covered 
 with ignominy to expiate the sin that Adam 
 committed in innocent nudity and clothed with 
 glory. No, there is not in creation a being 
 as naked as Our Lord in His Passion! 
 
 And the vanity of sensuality, the vanity of 
 the body, see Our Lord repairing it. People 
 idolize their hair, they powder their face. 
 Our Lord's head was pierced with a crown 
 of thorns and His cheeks covered with spittle. 
 The feet that men cover so elegantly and 
 which lead them to evil, the hands that they 
 keep so white and delicate m order to per-
 
 278 . OUR lord's expiation of sin. 
 
 form it — do you see how Our Lord's are 
 pierced with nails? His body is everywhere 
 dug, because we are vain and sensual ir 
 all our members. 
 
 Behold how worthy reparation is made, by 
 always choosing the contrary to the evil, and 
 by repairing it under all its forms 
 
 Behold why the saints spent their whole 
 life mortifying themselves! 
 
 The whole man is summed uj) in these 
 throe things: the mind and its pride, the 
 heart and its cupidity, the flesh and its con- 
 cupiscence. Jesus expiated these three evils, 
 these three sources of sin. 
 
 IV. — But if the Heavenly Father exacted 
 such reparation from His Son. how will ii 
 fare with us? What torments He will invent 
 against us, not for expiation, but to punish us! 
 
 Vou see, then, in Our Lord what sin is. 
 If it were so small a thing, God would not 
 arm Himself with all His justice against His 
 Son merely because He has assumed its re- 
 sponsibility, and although He had never 
 committed it. God would rather cease to be 
 God than to suffer sin to go unpunished.
 
 OUR lord's expiation of sin. 279 
 
 And at the end of your life, had you Uved 
 the life of a saint and performed miracles, 
 if there remain a single sin in you, only a 
 little dust of sin, you would go to get rid of 
 it in the flames of purgatory. 
 
 God does not look upon sin as a jest. We 
 are His children. Our place is in heaven. 
 He is there awaiting us, and He wants to 
 clasp us in His arms. But as long as there 
 is one sin on us, He will keep us at a dis- 
 tance, for . ages if necessary. 
 
 Now, listen! Have you committed a mortal 
 sin in your life? Then, you deserve hell. 
 Why are you not there? Justice which does 
 not punish the guilty is not justice. God is, 
 then, no longer just? Yes, but He sees His 
 Son supplicating Him to spare you. " Do not 
 strike, " says Jesus to His angry Father, 
 "wait awhile!" He presses you to His 
 Heait, covers you with His Person. " I want 
 to resuscitate him, to give Him My blood 
 to purify him. Let Me save him!" 
 
 And the Father spares us. Justice suspends 
 its course and, instead of chastisement, we 
 are honored, loaded with graces and favors.
 
 280 OUR LORD'S EXPIATION OF SIN. 
 
 In this life goodness is greater than justice. 
 It will be otherwise after death! 
 
 Expiate your sins, then. Weep over them 
 incessantly.. Saint Peter did not remain long 
 in his sin, but he bewailed it all his life. 
 Expiate, above all, certain sins which attack 
 O'ir Lord m His. Heart. When one has a 
 friend, one never pardons himself for having 
 given Him pain. 
 
 Doubtless, God has pardoned you, but you, 
 do you not pardon yourself. Be toward God, 
 who is so good, like the child whom its 
 mother has forgiven, but who, m spite of 
 that, returns constantly to ask pardon, so 
 sorry is it for having offended the mother it 
 loves so much ! 

 
 ^ ■ j^ 
 
 HELL. 
 
 ET US speak of hell. The greatest 
 saints have been helped by this con- 
 sideration, and they have found in it motives 
 for loving Our Lord more. Love produces 
 sanctity, but sometimes it has need of being 
 helped by fear. There are times when it is 
 necessary. 
 
 1. — I confess this subject affrights me, 
 and that the hardest truth to believe is that 
 of hell. Every one believes in it, however, 
 infidels, pagans, Turks, and heretics, as well 
 as Catholics, all believe in it. And yet the 
 incredulous, or those whose faith is dormant, 
 are frightened by this truth and, if some one 
 prove> it to them, they blaspheme against 
 God. There are countries where hell cannot 
 be spoken of without scandalizing and driving 
 the people away. 
 
 Hell makes a salutary impression only on 
 those that love God; others maice use of it 
 only to insult Him more by blaspheming His 
 justice. 
 
 Now, how is it that God who is so good, 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 19
 
 282 HELL 
 
 can condemn one of His creatures whom Ho 
 has made in His love, one of His children 
 whom He so loves, to eternal hell? It is true, 
 however, for after death He is without mercy. 
 The elect are few, He has said. Of the two 
 ways that lead, the one to life aiid the other 
 to death, the first is little tiodden, but the 
 second runs all over the world According- 
 to these words, the greater part of men will 
 be damned. Although the Gospel does not 
 speak in plain terms on this point, yet what 
 we see is sufficiently clear to make us fear. 
 
 Buc the mystery is still more obscure. How 
 can God, who is so good, condemn so many 
 souls to hell for all eternity? We know men 
 who would condemn to death not even the 
 greatest villains, and yetGod condemns with- 
 out pity, and to such a death, to such tor- 
 ments i Mercy appears, however, to follow 
 us into the other life, since He pardons the 
 souls in purgatory. He is pitiless only to.vard 
 the damned. He condemns them and laughs 
 at them: " Subsannabo vos ! I also will laugh 
 in your destruction. " 
 
 There are however some, among these
 
 HELL 283 
 
 damned souls who served Him a long time, 
 who passed for saints on earth- " Siihsan- 
 naOo!" God finds in them a mortal sin, He 
 counts all their services for nothing, and 
 He hurls them into the abyss of hell. 
 
 Eternity! Eternity of chastisement, of ihe 
 loss of God 1 When we thinJk of it, we shudder 
 with fright! 
 
 Above all, an eternity of despair, of shame, 
 
 of pimishments — the very .words make us 
 
 tremble! And we know of DociOis who 
 
 taught that hell is not eternal, because it 
 
 would be too repugnant to the goodness of 
 
 God; but that, after a thousand years, it 
 
 would be closed. That is an error condemned 
 
 by the Church. But we can easily understand 
 
 that such an error would have many partisans. 
 
 It does away with that fear of hell and eternal 
 
 pain, and soothes the frightened soul. No! 
 
 Ever to despair, to tear out one's hair, to 
 
 gnash the teeth, to be eaten up with remorse, 
 
 that is the eternal law of hell. 
 
 Even in this life, despair is one of the 
 
 most cruel torments. Men can resist it only 
 
 by a special help of grace. They who have
 
 284 HELL 
 
 no faith prefer death to despair, and they 
 5hun it by suicide. But in hell they cannot 
 take their hfe, they Uvc on in agony, in the 
 agonies ot a despair that will know no end, 
 that will nev^er receive a ray of consolation, 
 a drop of refreshment ! 
 
 11 ere is a scene which has been deeply 
 engraven in my memory, and which will give 
 you buiuc ide.i of the suffering oi despair: 
 
 In the year 1852, there was brought to me 
 one poss-essed, a very good man, and in his 
 momenta of liberty, an excellciU Christian. 
 The demon spoke by his mouth. He blas- 
 phemed against the everlasting torments to 
 which he was condemned. A priest who was 
 present said to him: "To what conditions 
 would you consent, in order to obtain in a 
 million of years one gleam of hope?" Thca 
 that demon, who said he had once been a 
 seraph in heaven and was called Astaroth, il- 
 Uunined the face of the possessed man with 
 a sinister brightness, and replied in a voice 
 hissing with rage : " If from hell to heaven, 
 ihere were a pillar bristling with scythes, 
 poignards, and other sharp instruments, and
 
 HELL 285 
 
 it were necessary to mount it every day 
 for that million of years, we would all do it, 
 for the sake of being able to hope merely 
 for one minute. But that cannot be done!" 
 And blaspheming with rage, he launched im 
 precations against God. " Oh, " said he to 
 us, "how unjust is God! You men, you 
 have sinned a thousand times more than we! 
 We sinned but once, and you renew your 
 crimes daily. And yet He pardons you. All 
 the love is for you; for us, the vengeance 
 of justice! " And he tore his hair in despair. 
 He would have killed himself had he not been 
 restrained. 
 
 Behold, again, in the Gospel, that unfor- 
 tunate, rich man of the earth' in hell. He 
 supplicated Father Abraham to give him. one 
 drop, only one drop of water to moisten his 
 burning lips. " It is impossible, " responded 
 the Lord. "There is an impassable abyss 
 between you and us! You enjoyed when on 
 earth, now you are suffering justly!" Do 
 you understand that word? That man had 
 not committed any of those great crinies 
 which human justice punishes, he had only
 
 286 . HELL 
 
 enjoyed immoderately the p;Ood things of 
 earth. He was condemned without hope,, 
 without consolation, forever, forever! 
 
 The greatest suffering of the damned i^ not 
 physical, but moral suffering. Their great 
 est punishment is in the imagination, their 
 memory, and their understanding. 
 
 But, more than all, what must not those 
 souls suffer who, for tlie greater part of 
 their life, performed good works, or even, 
 like that priest Saprise, 0[ whom the History 
 of the Church speaks, who had begun to 
 suffer the first torments of martyrdom, but 
 wlio did not persevere lo the end?* Ah. tl\ey 
 are the truly despairing, the damned that 
 suffer most ! They once loved God. They 
 could so easily have continued faithful to 
 Him. They see that now They had a fore- 
 taste of eternal happmess when they served 
 Him, and now they behold themselves for- 
 ever separated from Him! Forever! since, 
 as i>a\.^ the Wise Man, there are three grCcU 
 abysses which never say enough, the miser, 
 death, and hell! 
 The conclusion for us is to fear, to work
 
 HELL 287 
 
 out our salvation with fear and trembling". 
 There are in hell some who certainly have 
 not sinned so much as I. Oh, how good 
 was God not to have struck' me at once 
 after I had sinned! I deserved it, however. 
 Had He condemned me, I should have had 
 nothing- to say. The assassin has no reply 
 lo make when he is condemned to death. 
 It is the Jaw of retaliation. Now, a single 
 one of my mortal sins put Jesus Christ to 
 death. I am His executioner and His as- 
 sassin, • 
 
 Hell is not wanting in men who,- when on 
 earth, were regarded as saints. There are 
 priests and religious there, for certain. The 
 same might happen to me, for they were 
 holier than I. 
 
 How good is God not to have abandoned 
 me I On the other side, who can say wheth- 
 er I shall persevere till the end? This is 
 the great question. I now desire it, certainly; 
 but shall I always say so? 
 
 Men have not enough horror for sin, and 
 when they commit it, they have not sufficient 
 courage to do penance for it as they should.
 
 288 HELL 
 
 They hope, and they say: " When I get sick, 
 I will go to confession. I will make a good 
 act of contrition, and seciire my salvation 
 that way. " No, no I Illusion! Our Lord has 
 promised to come to us like a thief. He will 
 laugh at us, and frustrate all our plans. 
 
 And then, in reality, who knows whether I 
 shall not again commit some mortal sin? 
 Who knows whether, if for the Faith I wete 
 dragged before some tribunal, I would not 
 apostatize? That happens to those that are 
 negligem about little things. 
 
 Moreover, the doubt alone is frightful. The 
 fear inspired by these words: " Who knows 
 whether he is worthy of love or hate? " 
 terrified even Saint Bernard. 
 
 Let us, then, adopt the most energetic 
 means. Let us not confide in our own de- 
 sires and resolutions only, for one is never 
 secure when there is question cf eternity 
 
 Who knows whether I am not already on 
 the downward course, whether I am not 
 about to lapse into mortal sin? 
 
 To know this, examine your most ordinary 
 temptations and your venial sins. They are
 
 HELL 289 " 
 
 the little cords with \Vhich Dalila bound 
 Samson before sho found out his secret. 
 He arose and broke them easily; but one 
 day, he allowed himself to be entirely deluded, 
 and you know his unhappy end. 
 
 There are certain venial sins, certain temp- 
 tations that almost always end in mortal sin. 
 
 First of all, there are the temptations of 
 impurity. Saint Alphonsus di Liguori says 
 there is, perhaps, not one damned soul that 
 is not in hell in consequence of impurity, or 
 with sins of impurity 
 
 Then come the sins of pride, above all, 
 of spiritual and satanic pride, which always 
 leads to apostasy. 
 
 See to it, and see hell at the end. That 
 will make you enter into yourselves, and 
 you will, perhaps, be converted. 
 
 If the sight of hell on one side, and that 
 ^f the immense and infinite love that God 
 bears us on the other, no longer make any 
 impression on us, we are hastening to om* 
 eternal perdition! Let some occasion present 
 itself, and it is all over with usl 
 
 But I know what some may say to excuse
 
 290 HELI. 
 
 themselves in their own eyes: " I am a 
 religious of the Bkssed Sacrament I am 
 living wilIi Jesus, my Sa\nour What have I 
 to fear? 
 
 Tudas, also, lived with Jesus. 
 
 " But T love the good God Judas, also. 
 loved Our Lord in the beginning, but tepid- 
 ity came, little by IJtlle, and ovtinguished 
 that love. Then he became sacrilegious and 
 the executioner of His Master 
 
 There were two thieves on Calvary One 
 was a saint, dechued such by Our Lord 
 Himself, the other was a reprobate. 
 ■ To live wiih Jesus Christ in presence of 
 His great Sacrament of Love, is everything 
 for him who desires, cost what it may, to 
 save his soul; but it only increases the 
 chastisement of him who there damns himself. 
 He falls from heaven as did the rebel angels. 
 He plunges with them to the very bottom 
 of the abyss, and finds there prepared es- 
 pecially for him more cruel tortures, very per- 
 sonal torments: " Potentes poteyiter tormenta 
 patientur -The mighty shall mightily suffer 
 torments. "
 
 
 The MERCY of JESUS. 
 
 i 
 
 ET us meditate on the goodness of Our 
 Lord in pardoning us. 
 
 I. We have greatly offended. The days 
 of our life are much less numerous than 
 our sins, for; we can offend by evfery one 
 of our thoughts, and even mix up sin with 
 our good works. We should have to despair 
 at having sinned so much, of feeling our- 
 selves again so borne to evil, if God were 
 not infinitely good. 
 
 If we only offended Hnn by the pas.sions 
 of our depraved nature, — but no, His graces. 
 His gifts, Himself, we make use of all to 
 sin. I mean when we pride ourselves on 
 the graces of our vocation or of our priest- 
 hood. These faults cause Him double pain 
 because our malice is greater as the graces 
 we abuse are more excellent. In the next 
 place, He regards us as His friends, and you 
 know how much the w'ounds of a friend 
 make one suffer. 
 
 The malice of him who abuses the choice
 
 292 THE MERCY OF JESUS 
 
 graces of God is so great, and men are 
 so alive to the fact of its deserving His 
 vengeance that the inajoritv' of tlinse that 
 fall after having been loaded with special 
 privileges of grace by the good God, remain 
 in evil, not so much because they love evil 
 as because they despair of pardon for a 
 sin so great as theirs. Every sinner, however. 
 must of necessity consider God \mder the 
 aspect 'if His merc\'. Before His other attri- 
 butes, His sanctity. His ni-ajesty. Hi?* jus- 
 tice, he would feel ci'ushe'd. 
 
 But wlio would not look up with con- 
 fidence [o Jesus Christ so good, so merciful, 
 ho Incarnate Mercy? Sinners used to go 
 lo Our I. on! without fear. They n\entioned 
 their crimes, expressed their regret, and were 
 immediately pardoned. 
 
 One will fear a man, however good and 
 holy he may be, will blush to confess to 
 him his sill, since he feels that that man's 
 holiness is his own condemnation, and that he 
 himself has not been able to persevere in 
 good as he has done. But he goes to Jesus 
 without fear, because He is the Saviour, the
 
 THE MERCY OF JESUS 293 
 
 Physician, who came for them who had fallen 
 He sees in Him, not the aspect of a man, 
 still less of an accuser or a judge. Jesus is 
 only mercy personified. Jesus is formed of, 
 altogether made of, mercy. Saint Paul, telling 
 us this, says with good reason. " The good- 
 ness and mercy of our God have appeared 
 in Jesus Christ, the Saviour. " Mercy is the 
 expression of His thoughts. His looks, His 
 words, His actions. He was so governed by it 
 that He was seen clothed only with mercy, in 
 order that the most guilty, the most hardened 
 sinners might go to Him Our fathers, who 
 lived shordy after Him, represented Him in 
 the catacombs under the figure of Orpheus, 
 who charmed by the music of his lyre the 
 savage beasts, attracting them to himself, and 
 holding them captive at his feet. And thus Our, 
 Lord drew sinners. They surrounded Him. 
 He loved to find Hin'vself in the midst 
 of them and, by His kind words, He touched 
 them and restored them to life: " I am 
 come only for sinners and the lost sheep. " 
 He watched that this character of His 
 mission shoxild not be changed under any
 
 294 THE MERCY OF JESUS 
 
 circumstance. When the son of Zebedee want- 
 ed to punish a guilty city for not wishing to 
 receive Hini, Jesus reprehende .1 him severely: 
 " You know not of what spirit you are! 
 
 He openly declared against the malev- 
 olence and calumnies of the Pharisees: "Not 
 they who arc in health, but the sick need 
 a physician. " 
 
 Such is His mission, to pardon, to save, 
 to show mercy. Saint Paul says that the Father 
 sent Him to show forth forever, llie super 
 abundant riches of His goodness and mercy. 
 Take away mercy from His character, and 
 Jesus Christ no longeV exists. 
 
 In the institution of the Church *aad the 
 priesthood. He wished again to perpetuate 
 forever His mercy. Priests do not exist to 
 give certificates of virtue to the just, but to 
 absolve and console poor sinners. 
 
 Behold Our Lord I Study now the all- 
 merciful circumstances of the pardon He ac- 
 cords sinners. 
 
 II He waits for us. Justice, unless il 
 shows itself weak, demands the punishment 
 immediately after the fault. But Jesus, like
 
 THE MERCY OF JESUS 295 
 
 the vinedresser of the Gospel, asks for a 
 delay. " Be patient! I love this poor sin- 
 ner, " -says Jesus to His Father, who is ready 
 to strike. " I want to save him. By dint of 
 care, I shall restore him to righteousness and 
 life. I desire to make of him a gem in 
 My crown of Saviour! " and He enfolds 
 him in His arms, protecting him from blows. 
 
 He waits for us. Even while we are in 
 sin, He 5 s loading us with favors. Many 
 sinners thereby deceive themselves, taking 
 occasion from it to think their sins du no 
 great injury to God, since He does not 
 punish them, whereas, when they have re- 
 turned to Him, on looking back they are 
 astonished at His having been so good as 
 to give them time to be converted. That 
 is the longanimity of mercy, patient even to 
 excess! 
 
 Still more, God shows the snuicr greater 
 kindness than He did when the latter fol- 
 lowed the good way. ^ 
 
 Many are scandalized at this. " God 
 forgets. His dignity, " they say. They should 
 put His goodness above «very other attribute.
 
 29b THE MERCV OF JEbUS 
 
 Jesus has said that for a bingle lost sheep 
 He would leave the nmety-nine, and that 
 there would be more joy in heavea on the 
 return of one sinner than lor the perseverance 
 of ninety-nuie just men 
 
 Ah I it is very necessary for Our Lord 
 to show more condescension for the poor 
 smner than for the just, since he has so 
 much more need of it He is at the bottom 
 of the pit, so some one must descend to 
 draw him out. 
 
 Oh, how Jesus longs for the sinner's return! 
 How He endures the duty of waiting for 
 hinil He presents Himself to him. solicits 
 and torments his heart, until He gets him 
 hack again. He is like a mother who weeps 
 over her child, pursues it with her tears 
 and caresses, in order to make it leave the 
 evil path. 
 
 Wo may say that if God \vere not infinite 
 and indefatigable in His action, the seeking- 
 after sinners would^ alone destroy His happi- 
 ness- and His power Our Lord, during Hi? 
 lifetime, gave Himself up to the pursuit of 
 them, and the thought of them always made
 
 THE MERCY OF JESUS 297 
 
 Him sad.. He often wept over their misfortune, 
 and all the goodness of the just, not even 
 the holiness of Mary, could console Him. 
 Now He prays for them, watches for their 
 coming-, and sends His angels in search of 
 them. He moves heaven and earth to save 
 a sinner. 
 
 They say sometimes that it is sufficient 
 to be impious to be long--lived. We might 
 believe it on seeing God's longanimity toward 
 certain impious men. The Holy Spirit, also, 
 has said: " The just man dies in the midst 
 of his good works, and the impious man 
 lives long in his iniquity. " God is waiting 
 to convert him. He permits him to heap up 
 crime upon crime that He may make of 
 him a trophy of His mercy. He loves those 
 great strokes of grace, those miracles of His 
 mercy. They are feast-days of mercy, holidays 
 in heaven. 
 
 " God waits to have pity on us. " Every 
 hour of that waiting is a new pardon, a new 
 creation. of mercy toward us, for justice press- 
 ingly urges its claims. It constanly demands 
 our death, which it cannot allow to be de- 
 
 Tbe Divine Eucharist. 20
 
 298 THE MERCY OF JESUS 
 
 ferred. Every moment of our life belongs to 
 God, and would be sufficient for our death. 
 Mercy snatches the sentence from Him, thus 
 perpetually creating for us a new life. Oh, 
 what thanks do we owe the divine mercy! 
 
 What touches sinners more than all else 
 IS that God has' waited for them. "What! 
 He has preserved my life, which 1 used 
 only to offend Him! "' and they shed tears of 
 gratitude. 
 
 But what shall we say of His goodness hi 
 receiving and pardoning us? Oh, truly God's 
 mercy is too great! If He severely reproached 
 us for our faults, if He imposed on us pubhc 
 penances as did the Church in the first 
 ages, He would still be too good ni pardoning 
 us at that price. But no reproaches. Ho 
 speaks to us neither of our ingratitude, n"br 
 of our cruelty. He veils His justice, silences 
 it, in order to show us only His Heart. He 
 takes us in His arms, presses us to His Heart, 
 like the Father of the prodigal, and tenderly 
 embraces us with tears of joy. He replies 
 not to our self-accusation, or rather, He re- 
 plies: " Bring him his first robe. I'ut a gold
 
 THE MERCY OF JESUS 299 
 
 ring on his finger, and let us make merry, for 
 my son was dead, and he is again alive. " 
 
 In the world, they who solicit favors are 
 made to wait, but Jesus forestalls us. lie 
 even gives us hope upon which we dared 
 not count. He rouses our confidence, gives us 
 new life. The sweetest moment of all in the 
 life of the sinner, the most touching, that 
 which will ever make him shed tears of joy, 
 is the moment of his conversion, when Jesus 
 gives him the assurance of pardon, and says 
 to him: " Go in peace! " 
 
 He rises from agony, he resuscitates from 
 the tomb, he is restored to Hfe. Confession 
 has cost, but once made, he experiences 
 only the joys of a mother after bringing 
 her first-born into the world. He wants only 
 one thing, only tp fall on his kness, to 
 weep, and to say : " Lord, I have sinned ! J 
 do not deserve to be pardoned. " Then God 
 forgets all, pardons all. 
 
 Look at Our Lord during His life,— how 
 well He knew how to pardon I The adulterous 
 woman is there. Jesus reproaches her with 
 nothing, but He humbles her accusers and
 
 300 THE MF.RCY OF JESUiJ 
 
 pulb them to flight. He doeb not even glance 
 at the woman, for fear of making her blush, 
 but sends her away absolved. 
 
 And Magdalen— very far from reproaching 
 her with her disorders, He praises her, defends 
 her, and crowns her with this word " She 
 hath loved much! " 
 
 And now, heir of His mercy, the minister 
 of Jesus Christ has jonly one word to say 
 to the repentant sumer: "Go m peace! Yo'i 
 are pardoned forever. 
 
 His mercy knows no bounds. The Lord 
 declares that He will no more remember our 
 41ns, that He will cast them behind Him into 
 the depths of the sea, and that, were our 
 crimes red as scarlet, He would make them 
 Avhite as snow in His mercy. 
 
 The glor>' of the divine mercy is to de- 
 stroy the body of sin, and to act so powerfully 
 that what it has effaced is gone forever. It 
 operates so energetically tliat it creates in us 
 a new heart, a new mind, a new being; and 
 if a sinner returns to his crimes after ha\ing 
 been once converted, he will be judged only 
 for the sins committed since his new fall,
 
 THE MERCY OF JESUS 301 
 
 and not for those that have been forgiven. 
 
 But then he is more ungrateful, more guilty. 
 That is true, and he will be punished according- 
 to the degree of his ingratitude, but not for 
 those sins that mercy has effaced. 
 
 What can the good God do more for sin 
 ncrs? One might be tempted to think' that He 
 is in connivance with them, such goodness 
 does He show" them! Our Lord hides them 
 under His mantle, covers them with His Blood, 
 makes them enter into His wounds as into a 
 refuge secure against irritated justice. Like 
 a mother hiding her child from the pursuit 
 of human justice, though even he had made 
 an attempt on her own life, because before 
 all else, she is his mother, so is Jesus, 
 above all, a Saviour. 
 
 To our pardon, Jesus joins graces of in- 
 effable sweetness. He depriv^es us of the 
 painful remembrance of our sins. Instead 
 of keeping us in sentiments of continual 
 regret. He diminishes our sorrow, and restores 
 our confidence. He gives peacie and joy 
 to such a degree that he who confesses 
 in shame and tears, rises so happy after
 
 302 THF, MF.RCV OF JESUS 
 
 t+ie abspluiion that he is quite astonished. 
 
 In the world, a man released from prison 
 is always marked by dishonor and a had 
 name. But Jesus rohnbilitatcs those thnt Tie 
 pardons- He treats them as if they had never 
 offended Iliin, and frequently the greater 
 sinners become the greatest saints. 
 
 Saint Paul wrote, to the gloi-y of mercv. 
 that he had been a blasphemer and a perse- 
 cutor, the greatest of sinners. But Our Lord 
 called him a vessel of election. 
 
 Saint Peter received, in return for his triple 
 denial, the triple crown of his tiara. < )ur 
 Loid knows how to pardon as God. 
 
 And we ourselves, despite our sins -has He 
 not honored us with the priesthood, the re- 
 ligious life, chosen graces, graces of honor? 
 Has He not crowned us with glory and honor, 
 and Covered us with the buckler of His 
 benevolent preference? He has forgotten all. 
 He even forgets our present miseries, and 
 that we still offend Him in spite of His 
 so great love. 
 
 But it is not for us to forget! Let cis 
 live on gratitude and love for this mercy.
 
 THE MERCY Of JESUS 303 
 
 Let us count only on it, for it is thanks 
 to it that we have not been condemmed 
 forever like so many others: " Misericordia 
 Dormni quia non smnus consumpti! — The 
 mercy of the Lord thai we have not been 
 consumed. "
 
 i^iS^SjS&S&i^fS&&i&^^^^^^*^ii^J^^f&n 
 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT. 
 
 ^ The FAMILY Of the MOST ]^ 
 
 N French, we no longer make use of the 
 word family to designate the servants of 
 a person. We restrict that term, to the 
 members related by blood or affinity. But 
 the Church has preserved that signification 
 and, at Rome, the Pontifical family comprises 
 all officials attached to the person of the 
 Holy Father. 
 
 Now, Our Lord has called us to be His 
 servants. His familiars. We have come to 
 serve His Divine Pers6n, to the exclusion 
 of every other function. Let us understand 
 well this essential condition of our vocation. 
 All Christians arc the servants of God, 
 but some serve Him in the world according 
 to the law of the Commandments while 
 retaining their liberty for all other things. 
 They give the intention to God, but resen'e 
 for themselves the action. Provided the mten 
 tion refers their actions to a good end, 
 approved by God, they may labor at their
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 305 
 
 own interests and according- to their own 
 tastes. They have a mixed end, and they 
 labor for it at the same time. Nothing 
 more legitimate. At certain times only, when 
 ihare is question of salvation, God orders 
 them to prefer Him to all other interests, 
 that is when those interests are opposed to 
 their salvation. Then they must sacrifice every- 
 thing, in order to remain faithful to Him. 
 
 But Our Lord chose in the world another 
 class of servants, who make profession 
 of laboring only for His interests. These 
 are religious, who take the place of the 
 seventy-two disciples and the twelve Apostias, 
 whom He had chosen from among all others 
 during His lifetime 
 
 Now, among religious, -.omc are attached 
 to His mission, others to His Person. The 
 former spread His teachings; the latter serve 
 ?Iim as a King, a royal person is served, 
 for Our Lord still lives among us. He is 
 in the Most Blessed Sacrament to exercise 
 His priesthood. He is there as God and 
 Man. DoQs not this Presence call for a 
 special, service, a court, a family, which has
 
 306 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 no other occupation than lo serve the great 
 Kino- ? 
 
 Ah, well! This is what iho Society f>f 
 the Most Blessed Sacrament proposes to it- 
 self. By the authority of His Vicar, Our Lord 
 has given to it this peculiar and special end, 
 to serve the Person of Jesus Christ, to live 
 around Him, to compose His court and His 
 suite in such a way that we never quit Him, 
 and thai He may never appear without His 
 servants, who have no other duty than to 
 follow Him and serve Him. 
 
 He has called us to enter into this family 
 of His domestics. You came preferring this 
 noble and beautiful servitude to all the em- 
 ployments in the Church, to which you might 
 have aspired for His glory. But it is all for 
 Him, all through Him, ad on account of 
 Him. Vou must work for Him alcne, leaving 
 all other employments lo others, living but 
 for Him^ and not for your own zeal and 
 works. As a domestic on entering the service 
 of His Lord, becomes the property of his 
 master and clothes himself with his liver>', 
 so you will lose your name and personality.
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 307 
 
 You have promised this, perhaps without well 
 comprehending- to what you have engaged 
 yourself. Now, pay strict attention. 
 
 This entire and absolute service was the 
 condition of your admission. It ought to 
 be the law of your life. The perfection of 
 your sanctity is to serve. Your talents and 
 virtues, your qualifications and yotir priest- 
 hood, — all oiig-ht to be confounded under 
 the name of service and be nothing more 
 than acts of it. You are no longer anything 
 else than a servant, a domestic, one of the 
 family of Our Lord in His royal Sacrament. 
 
 I will say without hesitation that the way 
 Our Lord wants us to be with Him is like 
 to that of the Apostles, for they, too, were, 
 and far more than the seventy-two disciples, 
 the family of Our Lord when living on this 
 earth. Besides that their personal service 
 ceased at the death of Our Lord, because they 
 had then to scatter in order to announce His 
 reign and found the Church, there are be- 
 tween their service and ours other differences 
 which it is well to note, the better to un- 
 derstand how much Our Lord wa-nts us for
 
 308 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 Himself, exclusively ior Himself in His 
 Eucharistic life, which will end only with 
 the world. 
 
 n. The Apostles follQwed Our Lord to 
 be instructed by Him, They were pupils 
 of His teaching- and examples, and they had 
 to study them deeply in order to repeat 
 them to the Church and preach them every- 
 where. 
 
 We 'do not come to be instructed, but to 
 serve Our Lord. We come but to give Him 
 all that wc have and all that we are. We 
 come for Him, not for ourselves. No doubt, 
 lie has to instruct us, and even to teach us 
 the manner of serving Tlim, for who knows 
 anything that he has not learned from the 
 grace of Jesus Christ? But 1 wish to say 
 that the first and dominant end of our 
 vocation is, not to come to acquire some- 
 thing, but to consume ourselves in His service. 
 
 The Apostles generally followed Our Lord 
 in His missions, as well in Jerusalem as in 
 the towns of Judea and Galilee. But He 
 separated from them at times, and sent them, 
 too, on missions far from Him.
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 309 
 
 As for us, we cannot separate even one 
 moment from Our Lord; that is, under pain 
 of failing in its end, the Society ought always 
 to be with Him in the person of some of its 
 members, for Our Lord cannot be exposed 
 without adorers, and we are the adorers 
 under obligation of attendance on Him. As in 
 heaven, there are angels who are never sent 
 down to earth, but who are constantly around 
 the throne of God, so ought we always to 
 surround His Eucharistic throne. We exist 
 only for that. If the Eucharist were to be 
 taken away 'from earth, if Exposition could 
 no longer be carried on, the Society would 
 have no reason for existence, because its 
 essential end would be destroyed. 
 
 The Aposdes were fed and entertained by 
 Our Lord, but they did not feed Him. This 
 Master furnished them with necessaries, and 
 often served them Himself. 
 
 But we, we both feed Him and entertain 
 Him. It is our beautiful privilege to give 
 Him a throne and ornaments. Those flow- 
 ers, those lights, which must always adorn 
 His throne, and which are like the rich tap-
 
 310 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 cstry that He Avished to be hung in the 
 Cenacle, are given to Him by us. If we 
 uwn something, the best of it is for Him, the 
 leavings for us. By this we afford Him the 
 means of manifesting His royalty, and of 
 solemnly fulfilling His office x>f Mediator be- 
 tween earth and heaven, of Ambassador from 
 the Church to the Father. 
 
 We must add the interior ornamentation, 
 the spiritual nourishment, for Our Lord desires 
 that worship far more than the other. He 
 wishes to be nourished with acts of love, 
 faith, and reparation. All our virtues are for 
 Him, and not for ourselves. We ought to 
 offer Him all their merits, for .He is the 
 Master, the Owner of our soul, and all 
 the actions of a servant are for his master. 
 If we do not give to Our Lord this spir 
 itual nourishment, we deprive Him of what 
 He chiefly desires, for it is our soul that He 
 most longs for. 
 
 Again, He expects His glory from us, and 
 we ought to procure it by every means in 
 our power, above all by fidelity, recollec- 
 tion in this service, for the good behavior
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 311 
 
 of servants is the glory of their master. 
 
 Behold in what our service before Our 
 Lord differs from that of the Apostles. But 
 He offers us the highest advantages, if wc 
 know how to reap them. Listen to them! 
 
 III. The Apostles became the friends and 
 confidants of Our Lord. He had no secrets 
 from them. " T call you not only My ser- 
 vants, but My friends, because all things 
 whatsoever I have heard of My Father, 
 1 have made known to you. " 
 
 The Gospel relates some of the confi- 
 dential communications that He made to 
 them. Doubtless, they received many others, 
 but they kept them, pondering them in their 
 own heart. 
 
 Well, in the life of adoration docs not 
 Our Lord reveal to us His secrets? If we 
 do not hear them^. it is our own fault, 
 for we do not listen. But we have an 
 actual right to them springing from our 
 familiarity with Jesus. The secrets that He 
 desires to impart to us are sweeter and 
 closer even than those that He confided 
 to the -Apostles, because they arc made heart
 
 312 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 to heart without the intermedium of the senses. 
 Many of those secrets remained obscure to the 
 Apostles until Pentecost. But the Holy Ghost 
 came. He cleared away difficulties concern- 
 ing the Eucharist. He inhabits that Cen- 
 acle of love. Nothing- can prevent our under- 
 standing all the secrets of Our Lord, nothing 
 but our own infidelity. But if we were 
 faithful, we should receive more intimate 
 communications than did the saints. When 
 we are some time with any one, we come 
 to know all his thoughts. All that is neces- 
 sary is a persevermg and earnest fidelity. 
 We must be faithful to union with Him Saint 
 Magdalen of Pazri had made for herself a 
 cell in the tribune of the church, in order 
 never to quit Our Lord. Thus it was that 
 the saints came to know all the secrets oi 
 His Heart. 
 
 Be interior, assiduous in your converse 
 with Jesus, and you, too, will have His 
 secrets. Living under the same roof breaks 
 down all estrangement, both in good as in 
 evil. 
 
 Sambon lived a long time without reveal-
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 313 
 
 ing his secret; but he took a wife from 
 iSmong the Philistines. Daily intercourse 
 pierced through all veils and, little by 
 little, he allowed himself to be surprised. 
 It was for his own destruction,. 
 
 If we were truly men of adoration, 
 we could touch, as it were, with the finger, 
 the Heart of Our Lord, we could read 
 in His Soull 
 
 Do we not feel something when we come 
 to adoration purified and prepared by some 
 sacrifices that- have cost? How quickly then 
 the hour flies 1 It is Thabor where Jesus 
 silently reveals Himself to your soul, and 
 ravishes you with joy and happiness. Then 
 you have no need of words, for Jesus speaks 
 sufficiently. You say nothing, but you are 
 making a sublime prayer. 
 
 This is your portion as an adorer. Why 
 do you not cultivate it more? As I say 
 to you often: Pray from your own soul, by 
 your own grace and your heart of an ador- 
 erf Put aside for awhile all those books of 
 devotion, unless sleep or sloth prevent your 
 praying. Know your own profession. Make 
 
 The Divine Euchaiist. a»
 
 314 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 use of your right as an adorer, and go to Our 
 Lord by your position, your title of one 
 of His household. 
 
 Moreover, the Apostles were the heirs 
 of Our Lord. They received from Him the 
 price of Redemption to spread it all over 
 the world, the fruits of His Blood, His 
 Sacraments, the power of His word, the 
 infallibility of His doctrine, and the grace 
 of His miracles. To-day, they are the heirs 
 of His glory in heaven. But they were, 
 also, the heirs of His sufferings and death. 
 
 I say that Our Lord wants to give us 
 ail that in the order of our vocation. We 
 have not to convert the world to the Faith; 
 our mission is connected with Our Lord's 
 sacramental state. We ought to be apostles, 
 ministers, instruments of the Eucharist-; 
 and as the Apostles received the grace to 
 preach the Cross. Our Lord gives us the 
 grace to preach the Eucharist. The Eucha- 
 rist ought to be our centre, our life, our 
 strength of action and apostolate. If a i^li 
 gious of the Bless'ed Sacrament were put 
 under the wine-press, he should come out
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 315 
 
 a host ! Our Eucharistic g:races are first and 
 foremost for the v/orid, therefore, we expose 
 Our Lord in the cities that people may see 
 Him and come to adore Him. 
 
 We ought to preach the Eucharist by our 
 works, our writings, and our words. No 
 one ought to speak better of the Eucharist 
 than we. We are Its religious. Who has 
 better spoken of Our Lord than the Evan- 
 gelists? They lived with Him! 
 
 Yes, no one ought to speak more or better 
 of tlie Eucharist than we; not by way of 
 boasting, but because it is our profession. 
 It will ever be so, I hope. 
 
 I cannot understand how a religious of 
 the Blessed Sacrament could desire to excel 
 in any other science than that of the Eucha- 
 rist. Our state is the Eucharist. If wc 
 do not know how to make everything tend 
 to It, wc have not the science belonging to 
 oar state. 
 
 Some ignore the Eucharist! they do not 
 preach It! The Faithful complain of this, 
 and look for those that will distribute to 
 them this word of true life. If preachers
 
 316 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 do not preach It, it is because their heart 
 does not know It. It preachers would adore 
 It more, they would preach It more, also. 
 And yet there is no salvation but in Jesus 
 Clirist present among us. 
 
 For you who are not priests, my brethren, 
 but who are, however, adorers, you ought 
 to talk among yourselves of the Blessed 
 Sacrament and of all that relates to Its 
 honor. Speak of It before strangers, preaclj 
 It in some sort in your conversation. Where 
 is the artisan who does not frequently speak 
 of his trade? 
 
 As Saint Paul desired to know but Jesus 
 Christ, and Jesus crucified, so we ought to 
 know only the Blessed Sacrament; otherwise, 
 we are not yet in the plenitude of our grace. 
 Remember you are called to set fire to the 
 four quarters of the world with the burning 
 torch of Jesus exposed on the altars! 
 
 And the miracles ?— You will perform spir 
 itual miracles. You will cure souls by virtue 
 of the Eucharist. Oh, how powerful It is 
 to touch, to convert, to lead back to God 
 souls furthest removed from Himl But know
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT ^ 317 
 
 how to apply It. Show Its goodness. Draw 
 forth from It the salutary sap and all Its 
 virtue to cure souls. You have in the Eucha- 
 rist the unique and sovereign remedy, as 
 says the Church in the post-communion on 
 the Feast of Saint Magdalen. 
 
 You have Our Lord for bodily cures, also. 
 He is the divine ointment that cures every 
 wound. Did not virtue escape fro'm His Sacred 
 Humanity, curing every disease? It was 
 necessary pnly to touch Him to be healed. 
 Has His power grown less? Is not contact 
 with Him always as helpful? 
 
 I tell you that the little lamp which burns 
 before Our Lord has never failed to cure 
 those that, in their infirmities, have been 
 anointed with its oil, which is faith and love. 
 
 God preserve us from those miracles in 
 which is seen the hand of man ! Wc must 
 then hide, for fear they should adore us 
 more than the Master. But you will perform 
 miracles through Christ, through His Sacra- 
 ment, if you have sufficient faith in Him. 
 We must oblige Our Lord to manifest Him- 
 self gloriously, that .all may know that it
 
 318 THE FAMILY OF 
 
 is He who, in His great love, is hiding 
 Himself behind those veils. 
 
 God keep us, also, from those magnificent 
 and illustrious preachers capable of filling 
 the world with their renown! Such men re- 
 main strangers to the knowledge of the Most 
 Blessed Sacrament. They stammer when 
 speaking of the Eucharist. 
 
 The science of the Blessed Sacrament will 
 always be sufficient for your sermons, for 
 It can never be exhausted. Study It. serve 
 It well, love It generously, and you will find 
 everything in the Eucharist, the fiery word, 
 knowledge, and miracles. 
 
 Yes, even miracles. No one has ever been 
 recommended to the Most Blessed Sacra- 
 ment without receiving the grace that he 
 asked. Our Lord does but keep His word. 
 The first day that we placed Him upon 
 His throne, we asked Him for what He had 
 granted Solomon for the Temple, namely, 
 that He would be pleased to accord the same 
 to His sanctuaries, in order to make Himself 
 known, and to bring to Him, the whole 
 world.
 
 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 319 
 
 We said to Him: "Honor this house by 
 the manifestation of Thy glory and goodness, 
 that all may come<here, and that not one of 
 those that enter to solicit a favor may go 
 away without being heard favorably. " As 
 for myself, I have never yet had a refusal 
 from Our Lord. 
 
 In fine, the Apostles received the solemn 
 promise of the kmgdom of heaven, and all 
 died martyrs. There have been few martyrs 
 of the Blessed Sacrament, such as the young 
 Tarcisius in the early ages, and the martyrs 
 of Gorcum. There will be more, I hope. 
 
 At all events, there will be martyrs of 
 love. I think that we ought to die on the 
 pric-Dieu, at the feet of Our Lord. He 
 who shall have fallen there, will be well 
 received in heaven. This would be only to 
 exchange the service of grace for the service 
 of glory in full possession. How happy, then, 
 we ought to be in so holy a vocation ! 
 We take the place of the Apostles around 
 His Person, and it appears that we receive 
 more graces, and that the effusion of His 
 goodness is greater. We arc bound to Him
 
 320 THE BLESSED SACRAMENT 
 
 as servants. He makes not a movement with- 
 out us. His love wills to depend on our 
 care and our presence. 
 
 Saint Peter showed to the Jews Calvary- 
 still reeking with the Blood of Jesus Christ; 
 we point out the Sacrament full of life and 
 love for men, and we give It to all. 
 
 Like us, the Apostles could not expose 
 the Eucharist. They were even obliged to 
 hide It, on account of the persecutions. The 
 time for the Eucharist had not yet come. 
 The world had to be conquered by the 
 Cross of Jesus Christ before elevating Him 
 on a throne to reign. But to-day, He desires 
 to manifest Himself, He wishes to reign 
 everywhere. The age of the Eucharist is 
 opening. Ah! ask for the extension of the 
 reign of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment. Beg Him to form for Himself servants 
 and Apostles of His reign of love, that He 
 may be well-known, loved, and served by 
 all. Adveniat regniim tuum!
 
 LOVE, the PRINCIPLE of the 
 
 SPIRITUAL COMBAT. 
 
 ^ 
 
 'hat must we do to belong entirely to 
 Our Lord, and to make progress in His 
 service?- 
 
 I answer in one word : We must combat 
 through love for Him, and in the strength of 
 that love, everything that is opposed to His 
 reign and to His life in us. 
 
 I. Man is faced by two laws : the love of 
 God and the love of self. These two loves 
 are forever at war. One of the two must be 
 obeyed. A choice must be made of one or 
 the other. Neutrality is impossible. 
 
 An habitually virtuous life does not end the 
 combat. We are a balance. The more holy 
 we become and rise toward God, the more are 
 we combated and dragged down by self-love. 
 
 You have chosen the love of Jesus Christ. 
 Well, then, He must be your iaw, your model, 
 your centre, and your end I To live for Him, 
 you must live of Him and by Him. 
 
 This demands that we should declare war
 
 322 LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 agaist the human ego, against self-love; that 
 we must clothe ourselves with the strength of 
 divine love, which is stronger than death; 
 against ourselves, against all things. But this 
 force must be regulated and directed. We 
 must combat courageously and be skilful in 
 employing the best means. 
 
 How shall we get that strength? Through 
 Jesus Christ: Omnia possum in co qui me 
 confortat. 
 
 This force is a constant necessity at every 
 instant, Jiever any rest. The old man is never 
 slain. "We may chain him,; arrest him in one 
 or other of his eager desires, but he will 
 reappear in something else. We must always 
 begin anew, always use fresh vigilance. They 
 who do not start from this principle are 
 already conquered by a false peace. 
 
 Strength consists in the love of God: For- 
 tis ut mors dilectio. Jesus Christ must be 
 loved sovereignly, universally, absolutely. 
 Nothing must be put above Him, nothing on 
 a par with Him. This demands a complete 
 sacrifice of self-love, which is always crying 
 out: " i .' for 7«e.'" We must reply: ''Our
 
 OF THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 323 
 
 Lord! What does Our Lord want? \\'hat 
 does He not want? " That once known, ought 
 to be sufficient to determine our action. His 
 will, His glory. His pleasure, behold our law, 
 our word of command. Well understood, the 
 word of command msures victory. 
 
 n The first combat to which we must 
 deliver ourselves, through the strength of the 
 love of Jesus Christ, is in the mind; to will 
 or not to will, to determine interiorly, to 
 place one's soul in the state of refusal or 
 acceptance There all begins. The combat 
 in action is only secondary, and its result 
 depends on the first interior combat. God 
 is a spirit, and our soul made to His image, is 
 our principle, our sovereign principle and 
 moving power. Its acts are, then, most im- 
 portant. They are those that are crowned or 
 punished, for even good works, unless they 
 spring from a pure intention, are. of no worth 
 before God. What He demands, above all, 
 is the gift of our soul, its submission to His 
 lafw. It is for this reason that the demon is 
 constantly attacking the interior will, trying
 
 324 LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 to blind it, to weaken it, if he cannot 
 corrupt it altogether. 
 
 Pride and the seven capital sins, are, above 
 all, spiritual; and if we do not repulse them 
 in our mind, we are lost. It is the mind that 
 directs life, it is the starting-jwint of our 
 actions. 
 
 Watch, then, over your thoughts, over your 
 imagination which suggests them. Watch 
 over' all your thoughts, even over those that, 
 having a praiseworthy end, leave, nevertheless, 
 I know not what ill-defined disquietude. 
 Watch! for in mental combats, even peevish- 
 ness, a single voluntary pause in the struggle, 
 means defeat, and we are caught. One instant 
 is sufficient for either defeat or victory. 
 
 Know how to say yes or no; no examining, 
 no hesitation. Be not of those loitering, 
 misty, muddy minds that want to see how 
 far their evil thoughts will carry them, that 
 want to analyze them, that pause only when 
 the case becomes grave, and that rouse them- 
 selves only after being wounded. Refined 
 souls perceive the evil at its first appearance. 
 When a thought goes so far as to creep into
 
 OF THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 325 
 
 your mind, you are already conquered. Some 
 want to know how it will turn out, they 
 want to enjoy it just a little. The whole of 
 it? Oh, no, but only the least bit of it, like 
 one who would not dishonor herself, but who 
 would allow herself to be flattered, who would 
 like to know how far she is loved, — she is 
 already lost! 
 
 We amuse ourselves with the evil thought by 
 half-glances, half-consent. Is it any wonder 
 that our conscience is always troubled? Re- 
 member that the most frequent sins are those 
 of the mind, of the imagination, of pride, 
 vanity, impatience, or of interior sensuality, 
 for we have not the opportunity to sin ma- 
 terially, nor would we go so far! 
 
 If our adorations are so badly made, if we 
 experience nothing in them, it is because ouf 
 poor mind is harassed by all kinds of nat- 
 ural, human, frivolous, or bad thoughts, which 
 we habitually entertain there. It has no 
 longer the strength, the courage to look up 
 to Heaven. 
 
 III. The second combat is that of the 
 heart. The heart is a blind faculty, which
 
 326 LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 readily attaches itself to everything that is 
 allowed to touch it. 
 
 The good attracts wherever it is seen, and 
 it is very quick to attach to itself souls in 
 whom is found piety, above all, unctuous 
 piety joined to an expansive nature. 
 
 It is very dangerous to converse even with 
 human angels. They have ever>thing to 
 attract our heart, one same love, one same 
 piety, an identical fund of good, which creates 
 purely natural sympathy. The devil makes 
 use of this to distract us from the soul to 
 the senses, from the things of God to the 
 things of man. Water and earth are two 
 very pure elements. Mix them together, and 
 they become mud. 
 
 One suspects no danger, because that person 
 is so good, so devoted at heart to the good 
 God. lie assures himself at any rate and 
 silences prudential fear by the thought of 
 his own good intentions. In times of sadness, 
 above all, in trials interior or otherwise, they 
 look to one another for kind words, for con- 
 solation. They love to encourage one another, 
 to hear one another say that he or she is
 
 OF THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 327 
 
 good,, that he has zeal, virtue, that he succeeds. 
 They love to receive grateful acknowledgments 
 for the good they have really done each 
 other, — and here lies the danger. 
 
 Accustomed to burn with the love of God, 
 and feeling that flame no more, one cannot 
 support the privation. He must pour out that 
 heart which is accustomed to do so. The 
 bosom of God being closed, he pours it into 
 that of the creature, and all very holily, 
 without intending any evil, without even seeing 
 it very clearly, or, at least, without wishing to 
 confess it even to himself. Oh, to what that 
 often leads I How easily he falls from God to 
 the creature, from supernatural love to na- 
 tural love I 
 
 You must, then, act energetically against 
 this inclination, these natural sympathies of 
 the heart. Take it into your hands, shut it 
 up, aod let no one occupy it naturally any 
 more than your thoughts. Give it entirely 
 to God and to Him alone. Let no one pene- 
 trate into it, not even for a moment; other- 
 wise, you will have tempests and thunderbolts, 
 and you risk being submerged.
 
 328 LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 God demands of you your heart. He wishes 
 It absolutely. If you refuse it to Him, you 
 refuse Him everything, and there can no 
 longer be vmion between you and Him. The 
 heart is our whole self, our joys, our trials, 
 our affections. God wishes all these, or noth- 
 mg. When there is question of final love, 
 there is none to share with the neighbor 
 God wants our whole heart, and consents to 
 divide it with no one. Certainly, it is not too 
 great! Give it to Him whole and entire. If 
 you break it into parts, know that the creature 
 will always get more than the Creator. 
 
 Vou should no longer love any one with 
 a love purely personal. You should no longer 
 do for him what affords you pleasure of which 
 he is the end. None of your sympathies, none 
 of your affections may henceforth be given to 
 the creature, may rest in him, otherwise you 
 belong not to Our Lord. You are only a 
 pagan in religion, for a pagan is one who 
 adores the creature. 
 
 Shall I, then, no longer love my neighbor? 
 — Supernaturally, yes! with a love that rests 
 not m him but goes to God in him. That
 
 OF THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 329 
 
 is well. But with a final love, which gives 
 Itself, no! You will give to the neighbor the 
 acts and the fruits of charity; but the heart, 
 the tree that produces them, Our Lord alone 
 wants to possess. You will still be a son, 
 you will communicate flames to your rela- 
 tives and friends; but the furnace, for God 
 alone. 
 
 See how far that goes! If any one loves 
 you naturally, on account of your qualities, 
 you should say to him " I know you not! 
 You are deceiving yourself in attaching your- 
 self to me. I no longer have a natural exis- 
 tence. I have given my peison and my heart 
 to Jesus Christ: He alone lives in me. You 
 would make me a man again? — -Never! 
 I want no more to be 1 myself, and yoUy 
 you love this I! I want no longer to be 
 treated as one who belongs to himself, 
 who can give and receive. Seek in me Jesus 
 Christ, for it is He whom I have chosen 
 to be the Master of all that I am, of all 
 that 1 have. I am now only a member 
 of which He is the only Head, a servant 
 who has no longer a name nor an indepen- 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 32
 
 330 LOVE, THE PRINCIPLE 
 
 dent life, and who can receive nothing but 
 for his Master. I wish, then, no longer to be 
 esteemed or loved personally, I want no long 
 er to be the object of anything whatsoever, " 
 
 Do not forget this, for you will be pur- 
 sued by the esteem, the admiration, and the 
 love of pure souls, angels of this earth, on 
 account of your sublime vocation and 
 your glorious mmistry around the most Bless- 
 ed Sacrament. They will desire, at least. 
 to see you, hoping to derive from your 
 presence some great good for themselves. 
 They will try to speak with you and listen to 
 you, and they will carry away your least words 
 with emotion. If you lend yourselves to that, 
 you will be unfaithful to your Master, you 
 will be usurping His place. 
 
 You, adorers and servers of Jesus Christ 
 annihilated, you take His glory, that glory 
 and that love which He expects for the tnagnif- 
 icent favors He has shown you, and you 
 crown yourselves with them? You receive 
 those homages to which He alone has a 
 right? You are robbers of the sanctuary, and 
 you profane the dignity of the Eucharistic
 
 OF THE SPIRITUAL COMBAT 331 
 
 and religious vocation. You are aiming at 
 being gods, and you are serving Our Lord 
 in order to elevate yourselves at His ex- 
 pense! Woe to you! 
 
 If you do not comprehend all that I am 
 saying to you, you will make the experience 
 of it when you shall have had some success 
 in the good that you do. But notice whether 
 some are not already running after you, 
 whether they are not around you too much. 
 Take care of allowing yourself to be put. 
 like Dagon, in place of the Ark. Like that 
 idol, you will be broken by the wrath cf 
 the Lord. 
 
 IV. There still remains the combat of the 
 will, of the will that acts. That will of the 
 old man must be mortified. It is always 
 trying to rebel. Crush it. It is always saying: 
 « It is enough », or else, « After awhile » 
 Take hold of that will, and pit lessly immolate 
 it at every moment. Contradict it in every- 
 thing that it wants to do. Here it is that a 
 man must hate his soul to possess it, and 
 lose it to gain it. This is the sacrifice of 
 the wole man.
 
 332 LOVE, THE PRINXIPLE 
 
 A man cannot find in self a love greater 
 than self. It would be contrary to reason 
 that an effect should be greater than its 
 cause. Seek, then, a love that comes from 
 on high, from Jesus Christ, for it alone can 
 arm us to struggle against self. 
 
 This combat against nature in the mind, 
 the heart, and the will, must last as long 
 as our life, as long as ourselves. Yes, we shall 
 die struggling. 
 
 It is hard, but we reach it by the love cf 
 Our Lord. The only thing to be done is to 
 deal it a great blow in the beginning. That will 
 be noc only the death-blow, but also the 
 blow of victory. If you do that, you will 
 be very happy, because from that instant 
 you shall have lost self and found God.
 
 I P 
 
 f The SPIRIT of PENANCE. ^ 
 
 I— & 
 
 /^ "J? *!^' =«if *^" *?f " *V?' *yi?' *^ *3ff" *■-*■ 1^ •3if' *3if" *?f *3if" *35f ■ -W *^' *3t ^ 
 
 Durus est hie sermo, et quis potest 
 671111 audire ? 
 
 This is a hard saying and, who 
 can take it ? 
 
 HUS exclaimed the Pharisees when Our 
 Lord set forth to them the Mystery of 
 the Eucharist, and demanded of them the sub 
 mission of their Jewish repugnances to the 
 Faith of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Perhaps, you also say: " Jf constant morti-- 
 fication is the condition of the religious life,, 
 it is too hard. " 
 
 True, it is hard, and there are few who 
 persevere in it and become saints. They mor- 
 tify themselves for a time while the passions 
 are still to be feared ; and when peace reigns 
 they cease to do so. From this it comes that 
 there are so many of merely ordinary virtue, 
 and that they never rise above the vulgar 
 level. Sloth leads to that state. Now we 
 are full of fervor, but the Retreat is not 
 sufficient to form us to a habit and, when it
 
 334 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 
 
 is over, we fall back to where we were 
 before. 
 
 I. How ward off this danger? By asking 
 of God the spirit of penance. It is absolutely 
 necessary to acquire the spirit of penance. 
 Without it you will effect nothing lasting. 
 You will fall back into tepidity and, after 
 the Retreat, you will be more unhappy than 
 before, because yovi shall have to reproach 
 yourself with having lost great graces. 
 
 What is the spirit of penance? It is the 
 constant will to mortify one's self in every- 
 thing as soon as the occasion presents itself, 
 and of seeking' that .occasion should it fail 
 to come. 
 
 There are some moments for corporal morti- 
 fication, but there are none marked out for 
 that of the spirit. We make use of some 
 corporal mortification in the time of temp- 
 tation, of seductive dangers, to exf«ate some 
 fault, or when we are seized with a strong 
 desire of pleasing God. But we may have 
 the spirit of penance in everything-, carry 
 it about with us and apply it to everything, 
 •because it is an all-embracing desire. On
 
 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 335 
 
 that account, it is the perfection of morti- 
 fication. 
 
 Ask it of God with earnestness. Exercise 
 yourself in it during your Adorations and 
 Communions. Beg for it incessantly. Make 
 ot it a general intention which will embrace 
 your whole life, and which may be, as it 
 were, the seal of all your resolutions. Make 
 also, a particular intention by which you 
 will determine upon certain acts of the day to 
 which you will especially apply it. Hesitate 
 not even to perform corporal penance to ob- 
 tain this spirit, which will make of your 
 entire life a holocaust offered to the glory of 
 God, as was the life of Our Lord. 
 
 For the practice of this virtue, offer to 
 God all that He will send you in the way 
 of suffering and contradiction, and be fai'hful 
 to those bodily- privations recommended by 
 the saints, and which form, as it were, an 
 integral part of sanctity. Practise them to tbis 
 end in the refectory, on your couch, in prayer 
 and in labor, and in the secret of your cell- 
 But if you habituate yourself to offer to 
 Our Lord through love your legitimate joys,
 
 336 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 
 
 even your spiritual ones, they will form a 
 bouquet. This is the true mortification of 
 love, the most perfect spirit of penance. 
 There are two ways of honoring Our Lord 
 t>y penance; the one is inspired by nega- 
 tive love, the other by positive love. By the 
 first, we prevent evil or we correct it. It 
 is necessary, but it makes us act only through 
 the strict duty of Christian justice. For the 
 practice of this kind of penance, it suffices 
 to have a conscience and to know one's self 
 to be a sinner. .This is rigorous reparation. 
 It would be a very^ unfortunate thing not to 
 have sufficient love to mortify one's self in 
 this way. 
 
 But the penance that springs from positive 
 love is what I counsel you, what I desire 
 for you. It is more noble. It is not satisfied 
 with paying its debts, but it gives over and 
 above of all that it owns. Animated by this 
 love, we do not mortify ourselves to avoid 
 hell, but to please God. We deprive our- 
 selves of what we might lawfully get. It 
 is the sacrifice of filial love. It applies itself 
 to everything, fmding in all things matter
 
 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 337 
 
 from which to cull some privation to offer at 
 once to the Well-Beloved. 
 
 By this loving mortification, we make self 
 the end of nothing. We refer to God all 
 praise, even that which might be justly ours. 
 We desire nothing for self This is not that 
 false, worldly humility whicli makes a sem- 
 blance of turning away from the praises that 
 are given it, but which in reality refuses 
 them only to have them repeated with more 
 earnestness. No, on certain occasions, we must 
 know how to accept eulogium and how to 
 be silent. That is a great sacrifice of humil- 
 ity. 
 
 In like manner, you would like to obtain 
 permission for something that pleases you, 
 and you want to demand it at once But 
 you defer asking, in order to mortify your 
 will so desirous of its .own good. This is 
 mortification of love. 
 
 Again, you are at Adoration, and you ex- 
 perience great joy. You might, indeed, enjoy 
 it, but you prefer to sacrifice it to Our 
 Lord, and you begin to meditate on His Pas- 
 sion. Oh! this is the most agreeable thing you
 
 338 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 
 
 can offer Him for is there anything sweeter 
 and more lawful than the spiritual joys of 
 prayer r 
 
 On the contrary^ you are in aridity and, 
 having done all that you could to remove 
 the causes that keep you there by your 
 own fault, perhaps, it continues. That is a 
 suffering for you. You might take a book in 
 order to go out of yourself and distract 
 your mind from the weight that overwhelms 
 it, but you prefer, for the love of Our Lord, 
 to accept that state with resignation. Oh, 
 how satisfied Our Lord would be with that! 
 — And you, also, in the depths of your soul, 
 although perhaps you may not be conscious 
 of it. 
 
 If you possess the spirit of this lovmg mor- 
 tification, yon will not be disquieted at not 
 having the other virtues. In it you practise 
 them all, for it is perfection in action, follow- 
 ing you everywhere, immolating you every- 
 where in the most excellent way to the good 
 pleasure of God. 
 
 He who mortifies himself through justice 
 obtains peace. He who adds to this the mor-
 
 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 339 
 
 tification of love obtains joy and a great 
 increase of happiness. No one is more happy, 
 more joyous than the most mortified re- 
 ligious. 
 
 To love God above everything and for 
 Himself is a certain sign of the true love 
 of God. The mortification of simple penitence 
 through justice does not prove that a man 
 loves God more than himself. It touches not 
 the interiar, it is satisfied with what is rigor- 
 ously necessary ; he may be outwardly very 
 obedient in all that is commanded, and very 
 disobedient interiorly. 
 
 The mortification of love immolates the 
 interior. It goes straight to God, sacrificing 
 self only to please Him and to avenge His 
 rights upon itself. It executes against itself, 
 through love of Him and for His glory, 
 acts of justice, and it is its own purgatory. 
 It does not wait till chastisement is im- 
 posed upon it, it anticipates it. It desires God 
 for Himself, and never asks anything of Him 
 for self, unless ever to love Him more. 
 
 Ah, what a grand way to approach God! 
 Such a one has ever the fire of love in hand
 
 340 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 
 
 to destroy, to consume all that is opposed 
 to the life of God and His good pleasure 
 in him. He disappears in order to make God 
 increase and appear more. God becomes the 
 only end to which all is sacrificed. This is a 
 treasure that you hold in your own hands. Rec- 
 ognize it and profit by it. Study it, penetrate 
 into its depths. Let it become the frequent 
 subject of your examens. 
 
 In the morning, foresee the mortifications 
 of the day. In the evening, if you have prac- 
 tised them, thank God for it, or ask pardon 
 for having been too indolent in doing so. 
 Measure all things by this standard. Here 
 lies the true secret of spiritual advancement. 
 
 If you take not my word for this marvelou? 
 virtue, try it yourselves, for a time, at least ; and 
 when you shall have had a taste of it, ah ! you 
 will not give it up. You must become con- 
 vinced of it, enthusiastic over it, for to do 
 anything well, to arrive at the possession of 
 a virtue, one must first esteem it, then ad- 
 mire it, then love it passionately. The will and 
 the body will perform easily what the mind 
 judges good and the heart greatly desires.
 
 THE SPIRIT OF PENANCE 341 
 
 Cultivate, then, the spirit of penance. ,]\Ior- 
 tify youFselves in everything- and everywhere, 
 in body and soul, in mind and heart, through 
 love for Our Lord Jesus Christ. Ah! I would 
 that these words were fire and engraved with 
 a red-hot iron in your heart 1 Look not at 
 the pain in them, but at the unction. The 
 Cross is more of a consolation than a pun- 
 ishment. The saints understood it, and there- 
 fore they embraced it with such love and 
 joy.
 
 
 ^ 
 
 The MORTIFICATION of the 
 
 SENSES. 
 
 Ifg^^E have said that it is absokitely neces- 
 i^^Bi sary to give one's mind to God, that the 
 most dangerous struggles are those of the 
 mind, that tepidity of 1 fe has its source 
 in sloth and indecision in choosing God and 
 rejecting evil. We have said that, at once 
 and unhesitatingly, thoughts that have even 
 the appearance of evil must be banished. 
 
 We have said that it is necessary to give 
 our lieart to God, that He exacts it ab- 
 solutely for Himself alone; but that, in ordei 
 that the gift of our heart may be constant, 
 we must offer it through the love of generos- 
 ity and sacrifice. This love is the spirit of 
 penance, the mortification of love. It is the 
 true way to sanctity. Without it, all the rest 
 is nonsense, ways more or less flowery intend- 
 ed to amuse. All other means are child's 
 play in the service of God. 
 
 There is no question of that. We must be 
 serious. May God preserve us from the friv-
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 343. 
 
 (J 
 
 olous! We can make nothing out of them. 
 Levity is, as it were, an oil that floats over 
 their mind and heart, preventing grace from 
 penetrating into them. No; have one thought, 
 one very definite aim, and tend thereto by 
 serious means suitable to conduct you to it. 
 
 I. Now, to come to belonging entirely to 
 Our Lord, one must absolutely give Him 
 both body and senses, and for that he. must 
 become their master. Cost what it may, we 
 must have in our pocket the keys of our own 
 house. We must keep the body under the 
 empire of duty, under the empire of the will 
 and of the grace of God. 
 
 The body has neither intelligence nor faith, 
 therefore must the will subdue and lead it. 
 The body is an animal which can be reasoned 
 with only by blows. It knows neither sobriety 
 nor honor, and it cares not for virtue. Of 
 its nature, it is disorderly and tends obsti- 
 nately to its own satisfaction. It desires sen- 
 sible good, its own particular good, and with all 
 the violence of concupiscence it inclines to 
 its own enjoyment. If reason opposes it. it 
 tries to prevent it and attain the object of.
 
 344 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 its desires in spite of it. It is a rude combat; 
 and if, unhappily, the mind is in connivance 
 with it, we are lost. 
 
 It is for this reason that interior mortifi- 
 cation is not sufficient. The body, which has 
 the power to betray us, must also be mor- 
 tified. 
 
 Perhaps, if you have a very strong will 
 and a very great love, you will be able to 
 get along- without that, but as a general rule, 
 it is better to have good ramparts "well guard- 
 ed and gates well closed. 
 
 The evil man ought to be continually re- 
 pressed, kept down, and mortified, for he 
 has only brutish instincts. The mind ought 
 to be directed and elevated toward God, the 
 body restrained and mortified. The spirit 
 should not be fettered, for fear of stifling 
 it, but it should be constantly directed to 
 God. Prayer, which is essentially a function 
 of the mind, is denominated the elevation of 
 the soul to God. The mind has need of 
 light, the heart of nourishment, the body 
 of repression. It must be conquered and 
 chained.
 
 THE MORTIl ICATION OF THE SENSES 345 
 
 The will which is the yes or the no, which 
 forms the royalty of man, ought to have 
 for only end the will of Cod, to which it 
 should be constantly united and submissive. 
 The mind sees, the heart labors, the will 
 decides. The will ought to be mistress of 
 both mind and heart. It is the sovereign, 
 and it is able for all with the grace of God. 
 It is admirable, this Christian will which, 
 clothed with the strength of God Himself 
 knows no obstacles. 
 
 God is with the will to vanquish, when the 
 will is with God in submission to Him. 
 
 The will should always rule oven the body 
 and the senses. It is a difficult and fortunate 
 thing to become master of one's body. On 
 account of contact with the world, there arc 
 some discouraging difficulties, and it is rare 
 for one to become absolute master of his 
 senses. For a time, yes; but surprise awaits 
 you, seizes you when you think least of it. 
 Occasions, attractions are so numerous, so 
 subtle! They entangle you on all sides. Then, 
 some day, cojnes an occasion in which one 
 feels all his weakness returning; like the 
 The Divine Eucharist 2^
 
 346 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 domestic animal, very gentle ordinarily, but 
 which, when roused to passion, no longer 
 recognizes his master. 
 
 This it is that discourages converted sinners. 
 They are faithful for a long time, then sud- 
 denly they feel the most violent attacks, and 
 sometimes experience hea\-y falls. The heart 
 and the soul were, indeed, converted, but the 
 body had not changed. 
 
 To love God, to pray, to make resolution?, 
 are good and necessary. But still more is it 
 necessary' to keep your slave in subjection 
 As long as a man is not master of his own 
 body, he is neither holy nor truly pious. He 
 cannot produce good acts, he is not in a 
 state of solid and lasting piety. 
 
 Oh, how hard it is to arrive at the death 
 of the body 1 A man consents to the sacrifice 
 of the mind and the heart — but the body, — 
 oh, not so readily 1 Examine your life, and 
 you will see that your sins come through the 
 senses. They attack the soul, but by means 
 of the body. That is easily understood. Our 
 soul is united and bound to the senses in 
 such a way that it can do nothing without
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 347 
 
 their help. But they make use of that to 
 betray it as often as they can, to injure it' 
 instead of serviing it. They do everything to 
 attract it to themselves. And so, the body is 
 the irreconcilable enemy of grace, which wills 
 to sanctify our soul and unite it to God, 
 separate it from things terrestrial "to attach 
 It to things celestial. The body escapes all 
 vigilance, corrodes all bonds. It knows its 
 power and still more, it has its allies even 
 in the mind, the soul, and the heart, for 
 since sin entered the world, the whole man, 
 both interior and exterior, is wounded and 
 inclined to evil. 
 
 By the original fall, reason in the midst 
 of the senses has but feeble light and, again, 
 it is dulled by the bad use we have, perhaps, 
 made of it. It disappears before the fire of 
 the senses, which possess two-thirds of man. 
 If you do not begin the work of your sanctifi- 
 cation by mortifying them in order to reduce 
 them, you amuse yourself, your time is lost. 
 
 Recall what we have said of the mortifi- 
 cation of love. The Iirst victim it ought to 
 sacrifice to God is the body.
 
 348 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 III all his epistles, Saint Paul preaches 
 the crucifixion of the flesh, of the senses, 
 of the old man. He must be reduced to 
 slavery, for never will he who has not en- 
 tirely conquered, be virtuous. In that con- 
 sists the exterior exercise and the proof of 
 the virtue of mortification. 
 
 II. There is a heresy current m the 
 world, which is making fearful ravages in 
 morals. They say: " There is no original 
 sin. The body, as well as the mind is in its 
 rectitude. Then, all their instincts aie good, 
 and they ought to be satisfied. " Thus do 
 they legitimatize the most deplorable excesses. 
 If there has been no fall, of what good is 
 reparation? By this reasoning, they deny the 
 necessity of Christian mortification and of 
 even simple moral restraint. 
 
 This error has glided even into piety. It hai> 
 invaded the direction of souls by veiling itself 
 a little, naturally, and by not avowing its 
 principles so openly, for that would make souls 
 recoil. But you read books, you hear certain 
 confessors saying that exterior mortification 
 is not neccssiary. If it is proper for religious^ 
 
 i
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 349 
 
 it is not so for people of the world. Fasts^ 
 discipline of the body — they are good for 
 the cloister. It is better to conduct souls by 
 sweetness. — To this I reply: Sweetness be- 
 longs to God. It is for Him to cause it to be 
 felt in the soul as an encouragement and 
 recompense. Rut it is for man to cooperate; 
 it is his to mortify and crucify self. He 
 has been condemned to eat his bread in 
 the sweat of his brow. The earth is cursed 
 for him, creatures are for him a continual 
 occasion of sin. Ho must separate from them; 
 he must hid adieu to them, that he may not 
 rest in them preferring them to God. How can 
 he reach this point but by mortification of 
 the senses? 
 
 Remark that man is constantly attracted 
 to his body. The vices of the soul .lay hold 
 on the body through the senses. Become cor- 
 poral, they arc more tenacious, more guilty. 
 If their exterior life is not supj-yorted, they 
 will die more quickly. 
 
 Thus pride which is not allowed to mani- 
 fest itself by vanity, by honors and first places 
 does not last. By rejecting eulogiums and
 
 350 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 exterior marks of vanity, pride is stifled in 
 itself 
 
 The aim of tlie avaricious man is. also, the 
 body. He amasses wealth only to enjoy it some 
 ''lay, when he shall have acquired enough. 
 
 How many people live only to eat, and 
 disfigure in themselves the image of Jesus 
 Christ to take that of one of the vilest animals! 
 
 What shall J say of the other vices, of 
 anger, sloth, and, above ail, of the shameful 
 vice? The body is the field of then- enjoy- 
 ment. They nourish themselves for it. they 
 live on its sensations They have all struck 
 deep roots into it. 
 
 Listen to Saint Paul demanding the chas- 
 tisement of the members. He speaks of chas- 
 tising his body, that body of death, and of the 
 Christian he gives this beautiful definition: 
 " He is a man crucified in his flesh, and living 
 of the virtue of the love of God. " Here is 
 mortification, and for all! 
 
 Saint Paul is only echoing the Precur- 
 sor, upon whose lips Our Lord placed these 
 first words: Do penance and abandon your 
 evil ways. Bring forth worthy fruits of penance.
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 351 
 
 namely, expiate by humiliations, fasting, and 
 ashes the sins of your senses. May we behold 
 these fruits as we have seen the crimes! 
 
 The Church, instructed by Our Lord, exacts 
 corporal penance: fasting, public prayers, sol- 
 emn expiation. These authorities speak loudly 
 enough against the teachers of sensualistic 
 piety. 
 
 III. Corporal mortification is, then, law- 
 ful and necessany^ It is for all times, for all 
 persons. Practise it, for you have" need of it. 
 Here are some new motives: 
 
 Our body is evil, infected by sin, filled 
 with bad inclinations. It must be purified, 
 restored to health by blows, as the tempest 
 purifies the atmosphere; as the sick, by certain 
 strong doses, are made to cast off the bad 
 humors that disable them. 
 
 We have sinned not only in our origin, 
 but voluntarily by our acts and senses. They 
 must be renewed in the mortification of Jesus 
 Christ, for we have corrupted a nature al- 
 ready vitiated. 
 
 Every sin deserves punishment equal to 
 its malice. Voluntary reparation ought, then.
 
 352 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 to be equail to the punishment demanded by 
 justice. If we have committed one single 
 mortal sin, we have deserved hell. How shall 
 we discharge the debt of hell?? 
 
 Should we have only venial sins, how com- 
 pensate for the purgatorial flames?* 
 
 God has pardoned us, it is true, arid you 
 enter at once into the joy of the angels, as 
 if you had never sinned. But satisfaction — 
 what of that -* We should have our sins ever 
 before our eyes, in order to repair them, 
 for true conversion consists not only m sinning 
 no more, but in repairing for the past. Let 
 us purify ourselves, or God will, indeed, 
 purify us by His chastisements euher in this 
 life or in the other 
 
 Because we do it not, He frequently stretch- 
 es out His own hand. See, you say, that 
 person. .How he suffers, how lie is perse- 
 cuted! He does not deserve it. It is possible 
 that that may be a trial of love, but it is 
 often an expiation of sin. God has made 
 him do penance, because he forgot what he 
 owes. 
 
 Temptations assail you and make vou suffer.
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 353 
 
 They are long and grievous. It is a true pun- 
 ishment, you say. 
 
 But have you ever yielded to iheiii? Ex- 
 piate now God is inflicting on you the 
 chastisement that you yourself have not had 
 the courage to unxlergo 
 
 But in such a case, is it, then, good to 
 have temptations? Yes, it pays past debts and 
 keeps one in humility It forces on 2 to do 
 penance, to struggle when he would like to 
 be in peace. 
 
 There is, above all, a kind of trial which 
 brings with it much suffering, and thai is 
 the persecutions and calumnies coming from 
 the devout. Nothing gives so much pain, be- 
 cause their virtue makes you think they have 
 cause for what they do and say, and that it 
 is God Himself who is angry with you Some- 
 times He permits the best of people not to aoe 
 clearly, and to persecute you in spite of your 
 innocence, in order to purify you more. 
 
 Sickness and physical sufferings are. again, 
 corporal expiation that God imposes Do not 
 seek them, no more than temptations and 
 persecutions. But if they come, thank tlie
 
 354 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 mercy- of God for them, which! makes you 
 do penance now to spare you" later. 
 
 Lastly, it is not sufficient to embrace 
 works of corporal mortification^ because one 
 has sinned. That is only simple justice. It is 
 not enough. If you want to do only that, you 
 need .not have taken the trouble to come 
 into religion. And, then, this penance is all for 
 ourselves. It is to make us shun future pains 
 and procure our salvation. 
 
 We should, moreover, practise the morti- 
 fication of Jesus Christ, who chose suffer- 
 ing not through necessity, but through love, 
 because iHe saw in it the means of more 
 clearly proving His love for His Father and 
 for us. We should consider this mortification 
 as a virtue to be acquired, and say: " Even 
 had I no sin to expiate, I wish to mortify 
 myself, because Jesus Christ has given me 
 the example. He was scourged and crucified, 
 He suffered hunger and thirst, cold and naked- 
 ness joyfully for the love of God, His Father. 
 I want to be like Him. " 
 
 Behold the beautiful, the true motive for 
 mortification! Let us embrace it, let us clothe
 
 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 355 
 
 ourselves with the garments of Jesus Christ, 
 in which alone we can please the Heavenly 
 Father, namely, mortification and the Cross. 
 
 IV. How shall we practise this virtue? By 
 ncvev enjoying- anything-, by depriving,- our 
 body of the pleasure it desires, by never 
 seeking our own satisfaction in ourselves nor 
 in the things around us, by never looking for 
 the approbation and the praise of men. 
 
 We may practise mortification ])y denying 
 ourselves in eating, not so much in quantity as 
 in quality, and embracing with permissiojn 
 the corporal mortifications and the humilia- 
 tions so loved by the saints. Rest assured, you 
 will be able tO' do all that without falling sick. 
 
 Do it then. Without it, all your professions 
 of love for God are but illusions and, did 
 God not know our ignorance, they would 
 be insolence. 
 
 Some say that it is hard to mortify one's 
 5clf always. 1 believe it. One must carry 
 lis cross every day, have his sword constantly 
 .n hand. But we do not discharge delUs 
 vvith sentiment and loving words, but with pen- 
 ance. That is the coin of Calvary.
 
 356 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 First of all, we should perform all the mor- 
 tifications of our state in life. They absolute- 
 ly oblige, and above all others. It would be 
 wrong to neglect them for others. Then again, 
 we must seek occasions, be ingenious in pun- 
 ishing one's self and immolating one's body 
 to God by sacrifice incessantly renewed.- 
 
 Had we no love for mortification, we might 
 have room to despair. Some seek their own 
 case above everything else. They allow the 
 bell to ring without at once obeying it. They 
 have always too much to do when obedience 
 prescribes something. They are slow in rising, 
 they lie some moments longer in bed. What 
 advancement do they make? They arrive after 
 the Office has begun. The devil leads them 
 in and presents them to Our Lord, saying 
 mockingly: " Behold a slave who wants to 
 be fed. That is the reason that he attends the 
 Office. But I have robbed Thee of all the 
 merit that he might have offered Thee, *' 
 
 Oh, it is a shame to be so wanting in ex- 
 actitude toward Our Lord,- our King! 
 
 When conversing with some one in the 
 parlor, they remain a few moments after the
 
 THE MORTII'ICAIION OF THE SENSES. 357 
 
 bell has rung, in order not to appear im- 
 polite, or to multiply words of regard. But the 
 good God w lio is calling you? — Ah. \vell. 
 He can wail! 
 
 Is it possible? Are not the passions terrible 
 when \vc reason with them? And yet, I atn 
 speaking the truth, though not the whole 
 truth. 
 
 Ajid then, after all that, we want to be 
 treated as princes. Nothing must be wanting 
 to us. We must be servecl promptly and 
 comfortably. The religious life is a Cal\''ary 
 and a school of suffering, but some enter 
 to make in it a bed of idleness. As soon 
 as anything is wanting to them, they become 
 impatient, they murmur. They speak of their 
 rights. They have them_ always in hand .3.s a 
 buckler. Ah, then know that, as religious, 
 you have a right only to bread and water and 
 a camp-bed. You are siiuiers, and you have 
 deserved to be arraigned at the judgment-seat 
 of God. The Rule niitigates that, because 
 it is a mother; but by rights, that is what 
 you deserve. 
 
 And, in fact, before entering religion, were
 
 358 THE MORTIFICATION OF THE SENSES 
 
 we all so well-off that nothing was ever wanting 
 to us? Perhaps, we came from a family ol 
 ihe working-class, or we were shepherds. 
 In our childhood, we had to work m order 
 to help gain bread for the family. Are you 
 come into the religious life to be belter 
 treated than in yom* own home? A hundred 
 times better would it have been for you to 
 have remained there ! 
 
 Well then, we must begm; It is a serious 
 thing. Regard not the form of my words, 
 but their meaning. We do not say it everyday 
 nor in public, because he who would do so, 
 would begin his own condemnation. "Rut it 
 is the truth. 
 
 Come, then ! The religious life is a death, 
 but one that gives life. Understand it in 
 this way, let the love that crucified Our Lord 
 fasten you to the Cross with Him. 

 
 1^' 
 
 The GIFT of SELF. 
 
 I. ^JSJO attain to the virtue of strength and 
 i^^l Christian mortification there is a 
 means, the most powerful of all, and it alone 
 can perfect all the others, and that is> the 
 love of Our Lord. 
 
 The means of acquirmg a virtue must be 
 \n accordance with prudence, but elevated 
 by love. Saint Paul reached at once the per- 
 fection of Jesus Christ by the love of the Cross. 
 God cast him to the earth to manifest Him- 
 self to him in His love; and in this single word, 
 ^'I am Jesus whom thou persecutes!:. " H6 
 revealed to him all the love of the Redemp- 
 tion, of Calvary, of His death. Paul under- 
 stood all, and he went away repeating the 
 great word: " Dilexit me, ct iradidit semei- 
 ipsum pro me — He loved me and delivered 
 Himself for me. " 
 
 After that, he looked upon the greatest 
 sacrifices as small. He accepted all. He deliv- 
 ered himself to Jesus Christ, saying that 
 he lived no longer, but that Jesus alone 
 lived in him; that for hmi there .were no
 
 360 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 longer either parents or friends, or Jews, or 
 Gentiles, or life, or death, but in all things 
 Jesus Christ: Omnia ct in omnibus Christus. 
 
 Listen to him : " Since Jesus Christ has 
 loved me, I will love Him. in spite of every- 
 thing, and nothing shall hinder me from lov 
 ing Himl The things of time, the spiritual 
 powers, hunger, nakedness, the sword, death, 
 — nothing shall separate me from the charity 
 of Jesus Christ by whom we triumph over 
 all things, Sed in his sitperamus propter, eum 
 qui dilexit nos. " 
 
 But for that he regards the love of Jesus 
 Christ as belonging to him, as personal. He 
 makes himself the end of that love: " He 
 loved 7ne, Paid. He loved me to such a 
 degree that He delivered Himself to death 
 for me: DiLexit me\ I shall love Him, also, 
 and I shall know only Hirn, and Him cruel 
 tied. " 
 
 Jesus Christ has loved us also, us. The 
 i>roof is that He has called us to the priest- 
 hood and the religious life. He has given us 
 this grace of preference, and daily He renews 
 and increases it by fresh graces. After dying
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 361 
 
 on the Cross for every one of us, He dies 
 daily in this Sacrament, and agiin, for each 
 one of us. If He had not died, He would 
 now mount Calvary to save us ; and if He had 
 not? already instituted the Blessed Sacrament, 
 He would institute It for each one of us. 
 Does not Saint Paul say: " He loved me " 
 concentrating in himself alone all the love of 
 Our Lord? He is right, and we ought to do 
 as he. 
 
 That the love of God may enkindle our 
 soul, it must be concentred entirely on self, 
 as in a powerful lens.. 
 
 Redemption is for all of us, but it is entire- 
 ly for each one in particular. It is like the sun 
 which, shining at one and the same time on 
 all creation, does not give you less of its light 
 and heat than if it shone upon you alone. 
 A man is of no value compared with Jesus 
 Christ, It is true, nor does he merit that 
 personal and individual gift of the Son of 
 God. But if Jesus Christ wills to love him 
 more than he deserves, if He wills to show 
 Him excess of love in order to triumph over 
 his heart (for the Cross and the Eucharist 
 
 The Divine Eicharist. a^
 
 362 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 are. both excesses) who will prevent Him? 
 He is infinite in His love and in His gifts, 
 and the Infinite in giving Himself neither 
 divides nor d rainishes Himself. 
 
 Let us now look at what regards our voca- 
 tion. The Eucharist — is It not for" you all 
 entire? The Exposition of the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment — is it not you who make it? The 
 Church has given It into your keeping and, as 
 long as there will be a religous of the Blessed 
 Sacrament able to kneel at the prie-Dieu. 
 solemn Exposition and Adoration will be kept 
 for him, will belong to him. 
 
 Jesus loves you, then, in particular, and 
 does He not come every day entirely to you 
 and for you, alone? 
 
 II, How respond to this personal,individual 
 love, which leads Jesus Christ to give Him 
 self entirely to each one? Gift calls for gift. 
 Since Our Lord gives Himself with His graces, 
 give Him not only your works, but yourselves. 
 
 To understand how you ought to make 
 this gift, look at your Model, Jesus Christ 
 Himself giving Himself to His Father to be 
 His servant.
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 363 
 
 The Eternal Word came upon this earth 
 to offer to the Father a perfect sacrifice. 
 Now, He begins by sacrificing to Him the 
 Humanity that He took and united to Him- 
 self, by depriving it of its natural and human 
 personality, thereby reducing it to a state 
 of dependence, slavery, and absolute sacri- 
 fice. But the human Soul of Jesus, the Sacred 
 Humanity, accepts lovingly and for life the 
 privation in which it is. It manifests it by 
 His words and acts. In effect, open the Gospel, 
 and there you see Our Lord refusing, as Man, 
 to direct Himself, to act or judge by Himself 
 and, above all, to receive the glory and 
 honor that people wished to give Him. 
 
 It is as Man united to the Person of the 
 Word, that He says: " The Son of Man can 
 do nothing but what He has seen the Father 
 do>. " " I dp all that pleases My Father. '" 
 
 I seek not My own glory, but the glory 
 of Him who sent Me, " And again: "Why 
 call me good.^ One is good, — God." 
 
 Whence this insistence in attributing noth- 
 mg to Himself, in wishing nothing for Him- 
 self? It is because to direct, to lead, to receive
 
 364 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 glory and affection, belong to man's per- 
 sonality, it is the characteristic of the human 
 ego. Now, Our Lord having sacrificed His in 
 order to depend only on the Divine Person 
 of the Word and live only by It, wishes to 
 be faithful to His sacrifice, and to prove 
 that It alone is His principle and His end. 
 
 By t his. Our Lord is in a state of perpetu.ai 
 servitude, the state of victim and holocaust, 
 since as Man He has sacrificed what most 
 contributes to the pride and glory of man, 
 the human rgo, the human personality. 
 
 Thence it follows, that His sufferings and 
 His Passion are but the execution, the accom- 
 plishment of the first sacrifice that He made 
 of Himself to His Father on coming into 
 this world: "Burnt offering and sin-offering 
 Thou didst not require, then said I : Behold 
 1 come. " 
 
 But what is most marvelous is that this 
 state of absolute dependence remains in Our 
 Lord, and will eternally remain in Him. In the 
 Blessed Sacrament as in heaven, wherever Je- 
 sus Christ is, the Father beholds Him sacri- 
 ficed, to Himself, always dependent on the per=
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 365 
 
 soiiality of the Word and offering Himself In 
 sacrifice to His Infinite Majesty. 
 
 It is. moreover, in the Eucharist that Our 
 Lord best manifests that interior sacrifice by 
 obeying, by depending on all priests, and even 
 upon all the Faithful, and by }[is state of 
 exlenor anniliilation. 
 
 Behold how Our Lord was the Servant 
 of His Father, how He gives Himself to Him, 
 to save us and perfectly to glorify Him. 
 
 Well, you can imitate Him in this gift of 
 Himself. What do I say? That is the very 
 grace of your vocation. 
 
 These words of your Rule: " They shall 
 serve by the gift of themselves, " which are 
 written in its most important chapter, since 
 it treats of Adoration, — these words place 
 you under the obligation of imitating Our 
 Lord in His sacrifice of personality. 
 
 Tiue, you cannot destroy, really sacrifice 
 your human personality. The Word alone, be- 
 cause He was God, had this power over the 
 humanity to which He united Himself in 
 order to make of it His victim; but you 
 can and you ought; to imitate by grace and
 
 366 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 virtue what He did in reality by His power 
 How can you do that? By making to Our 
 Lord the entire and absolute gift of your 
 personality; by taking Him, in this conse^ 
 cration, as your Master, not for some passing 
 acts, but forever and for ever^'thing. 
 
 For that you must renounce the right to 
 be your own guide, giving to Him and to Him 
 alone the right to direct you, and laboring- 
 only for Him alone. You must be unreserv- 
 edly submissive to His will over you and 
 all that concerns you, in soul and body, in 
 the present and in the future. You must 
 cease to be a person who possesses and 
 governs himself, for you are no longer but a 
 servant, a member, an instrument led by Our 
 Lord alone. He will majiifest to you His 
 will by the law of your state, obedience 
 to your Superiors, the movements of His grace 
 and the events of every instant. 
 
 Again, He should be your only end. Your 
 gifts and virtues, your studies and labors, 
 should be only for Him, and in all things 
 you should have in view but His good pleasure 
 and glory. Your actions and vour sufferings,
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 367 
 
 your merits, — all ought to be remitted into His 
 hands, as to Him who possesses you and by 
 whom you act. Even the gifts of grace and 
 glory you ought to desire only as means of 
 loving and glorifying Him more. The gift of 
 perfect love is that which loves God for 
 Himself and because He deserves it, although 
 there might be no other reason for loving 
 Him. In this we do not exclude the other 
 motives of love, but we propose to ourselves 
 the most perfect. 
 
 Do you comprehend how beautiful is the 
 grace granted you by your vocation, of placing 
 yourself under the obligation of making to 
 God a sacrifice of personality analogous to 
 that which Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, 
 makes ? 
 
 I say that it is the proper and distinctive 
 mark of our vocation. As the Franciscan 
 is distinguished from all others by his poverty 
 a'nd the renunciation of all propriety, as each 
 Order has its own dominant virtue, so renun- 
 ciation not only of what we have, but of what 
 we are, our own personality, — behold the 
 characteristic of our vocation.
 
 368 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 The religious state does not exact thl? 
 formal gift. It is sufficient to sacrifice one's 
 will, one's goods, and one's body by the 
 three vows. But your vocation demands " still 
 more, that we should give our personality. 
 
 We should be, remember it well, but human 
 shadows, like the species of which the Bless- 
 ed Sacrament is the living and personal 
 subject. 
 
 This gift is nothing new in itself. Saint 
 Paul says: " 1 live no more, but Jesus lives 
 in me. " Many saints have taught it, and all 
 have practised it; for how reach sanctity 
 without giving one's self entirely to Jesus 
 Christ to be absorbed by Him? 
 
 But it is new, inasmuch as we propose 
 It as the dominant \drtue of a whole So- 
 ciety. Practised by those that have a special 
 attraction for it, this gift has never been 
 proposed as a general and universal law, as 
 the starting-point and the foundation of reli- 
 gious perfection for a whole body. It is look- 
 ed upon as the consummation of sanctity 
 and the portion of only a few. But the Imita- 
 tion says: " A spontaneous oblation of thyself
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 369 
 
 into, the hands of God ought to precede 
 all thy works, if thou wouldst obtain liber- 
 ty and grace " (Bk. IV, c. 8). 
 
 It is for this reason that we propose it 
 as the elementary means of holiness for all, 
 as the very key of l^uc.haristic perfection. 
 wliose wliole effort will afterward be to render 
 that gift always more comp'ete and more pure. 
 
 We do so, because we understand that it is 
 the best manner of participating in Our Lord's 
 state of adoration in the Blessed Sacrament. 
 in which He adores His Father by His per- 
 sonal annihilation. Let us adore Him, then as 
 Himself, and with Him the Father, by the 
 annihilation of our personality. 
 
 Here lie youi: grace and your virtue. It is 
 for you and for such souls in the world as 
 have the attraction to the Blessed Sacrament. 
 Study it and, if you understand it well, you 
 will open a new way in piety, not in itself, but 
 in its practice. It is the grace of sanctity by 
 the Eucharist. 
 
 III. But as Our Lord has manifested the 
 gift that He has made of Himself to His. 
 Father by His life of continual sacrifice, so.
 
 370 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 once given to Him, you ought like Him, for 
 love an^ with" joy, embrace the Cross and 
 the death of the Cross. As this gift can be 
 made only by love, so it is by love that you 
 ought to sacrifice self to realize it. 
 
 Our Lord never took any natural pleasure,- 
 but in everything He sought the good pleasure 
 of His Father. Behold true love! And I tell 
 you that, if you do ndt love Our Lord, you 
 will not love His Cross. You may perform 
 crucifying acts for some moments but you 
 will not live in the state of one ci-ucified, and 
 you will not persevere. You will do what is 
 just necessary' to be saved; but you will not 
 serve God, you will not glorify Him in the 
 way by which He calls you to do so. 
 
 Love Him, then, and suffer for Him, bur 
 only because Hfe has loved you. When some- 
 thing presents' itself to be done, examine, how 
 Our Lord did it, enter into His intentions, 
 and do it as He did. You know His life. 
 
 If it is an action of which' the Gospel 
 makes no mention, ask yourself: How would 
 Our Lord have done this? Consult your grace,- 
 His will in you, and act accordingly. In
 
 THE GIFT OF SE^^F 371 
 
 this way, you will have a model to reproduce. 
 You will be united to Him in a,ction as an 
 mstrument in the hand that guides it. You will 
 be in His company. You will make one with 
 Him, — He the Head and the Chief, you the 
 memb.er and the servant. 
 
 But try always to please Him at any cost 
 To imitate, is good; to give pleasure is more 
 perfect. Do not be satisfied with what He 
 exacts, but as soon as you think that some- 
 thing would please Him, do it. 
 
 Love every one according to your grace 
 and your state. Young people love more 
 with the beart and through the virtue of 
 gratitude: the more mature through positive 
 virtue and reason; and old men through the 
 sacrifice of resignation, for all are deserting 
 them. Love Him, then, according to your 
 grace and your age, only love Him more than 
 everything and all others. The recompense 
 of your sacrifices will be to love Him more. 
 This is the only thing for which we ought to 
 be eager, namely, while giving others to Him, 
 to give ourselves 
 
 But if we love Him more, He will give
 
 372 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 US to taste more abundantly the suavity of His 
 love, the sweetness of His Heait, the delights 
 of converse with Him. We love Him so 
 little that we do not often thste these ineffable 
 delights. Are you not humbled at expeiiencinjr 
 nothing on your pric-UieuP Ask the good God 
 by incessant sacrifices, to make you feel His 
 Heart by increasing His love in you. Endeav- 
 or to find that Heart so tender and, when 
 you are sleeping upon His Breast, ah! remain 
 there as long as you can, and drink at the 
 sources of love! 
 
 If you love, you will grow in the strength 
 and the power of mortification, you will seek 
 for it as for something you need; but if you 
 love little, ah, you will be little mortified! 
 Mortification is the measure of love, the 
 touchstone of holiness. Even if you preached 
 magnificently and converted all the world 
 without this virtue you are like the baptismal 
 water which purifies the neophyte and runs 
 off to lose itself in the piscina. 
 
 Let this mortification through love become 
 the soul of your soul. 
 
 Love, and when some sacrifice faces you,
 
 THE GIFT OF SELF 
 
 373 
 
 say: " O my God, who hast loved me so 
 much, I will do this for Thee, to return 
 Thee a little love! " 
 
 After this act of love, the sacrifice will no 
 longer cost. It is already made in your will 
 and" heart.
 
 
 EVERYTHING OUGHT TO 
 
 BE DONE WELL. 
 
 fe 
 
 OU will remark that in this Retreat . I 
 do not speak to you of Our Lord and ot 
 the Blessed Sacrament. There is a time for 
 everything. Now there is question not of Him, 
 but of you. This Retreat is to make you 
 good servants of His Divine Person, by purify- 
 ing you from the faults that mark your serv 
 ice and by acquiring the virtues that are 
 necessary for it 
 
 I To-day, we say . Everything ought to 
 be done well. The good God must be able to 
 say of us what they said of Our Lord : " He 
 has done all things well — Bene omnia fecit. " 
 All and each in particular. " Age quod agin 
 — Do well what you do, " says the Jnu- 
 tation. Every man to his own business! 
 
 All actions have a right to be pei formed 
 well. The day of a religious of the Blessed 
 Sacrament is a chain of which, in the morn- 
 ing, he clasps the first link to the Eucharist 
 ana in the evening the last. There ought
 
 EVERYTHING TO BE DONE WELL 375 
 
 to be neither break nor difference neither 
 in the metal of the links nor in their folrm. 
 They ought to be all Eucharistic, made with 
 Eucliaristic grace and love, and on the model 
 of the Eucharist. You ought to perform 
 manual labor as well as you do Adoration or 
 Communion, because your actions derive their 
 merit from the Master who commands them, 
 and for whom you are doing them. 
 
 All Our Lord's acts were divine and of 
 infinite merit, because the Person of the Word, 
 who directed them and appropriated them, was 
 divine. All your actions ought to be religious 
 and Eucharistic, done according to your grace 
 of a Religious of the Blessed Sacrament, 
 thence drawing their respective value. 
 
 All that you have to do here is a part of 
 your Eucharistic service and, if you are inspir- 
 ed with this principle, you will no longer care 
 for one thing more than another. All are in 
 themselves indifferent. Their merit comes only 
 from the will of Our Lord, who orders them by 
 the Rule; and were you to perform an heroic 
 action not demanded of you, instead of an 
 ordinary and simple one prescribed you by
 
 376 EVERYTHING OUGHT 
 
 obedience, it .would be a work of death, 
 and God would reprove you for it. There is 
 no good but what is commanded you for His 
 service. Doubtless, certain actions more nearly 
 touch His adorable Person and are done under 
 His very eye. They are more consoling and 
 more honorable. But to leave some employ 
 ment of obedience to go to Adoration, for 
 example, to the feet of Our Lord, would be 
 ill-done. The seal of His will is not on that 
 work, and He does not accept it 
 
 n. That an action may be well done, 
 certain special conditions are necessary for 
 It. 
 
 In the first place, God must will it. All 
 our acts are indifferent, and this is true, 
 above all, for those that live under obedience. 
 As for people in the world who retain their 
 liberty, they should do this rather than that 
 according to circumstances. They may dispose 
 their life within the limits of God's law 
 But for us, obedience equalizes all our ac- 
 tions. They must, then, be performed as in- 
 dicated. The Rule fixes for you the ordinary 
 employment of your life. The living authority.
 
 TO BE DONE WELL 377 
 
 the Superior, determines the rest of your 
 actions. In fine, the necessity of order shows 
 you in certain cases what you ought to do. 
 
 You ought to leave everything, even your 
 communications with God, in order to obey 
 the Rule and your Superior. And should you 
 receive a revelation contrary to your Rule^ 
 you should hold to your Rule and believe 
 the marvel an illusion. God cannot speak 
 against the Rule. 
 
 There are some who are willing to prefer, 
 their own interior sentiment to what authority 
 prescribes, their own inspiration to that of obe- 
 dience. These are protestants in the spiritual 
 life. There are more of them in our days than 
 ever before. When faith decreases, illusion 
 increases. 
 
 Whoever, as an excuse for his tenacity to 
 his own judgment and disobedience, says to 
 you: "I am in an extraordinary, supernatural 
 way. God Himself is ordering me to do so 
 and so, " listen patiently to- him and then, 
 without noticing what he has said, give him 
 this, reply: "Discite a me quia mltis sum et 
 humilis corde," "Learn of Me because Iain 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 25
 
 •378 EVERYTHING OUGHT 
 
 meek and humble of heart " and leave him 
 to his pretended supernatural way. 
 
 Even if Our Lord were with you in your 
 cell, you ought to leave it and go where 
 you are called at the sound of the bell. 
 
 Nevertheless,, there are some interior inspi- 
 rations that incline to such or such a woric. 
 There are both true and false inspirations. 
 To find out whether they come from God, 
 consult the Hule. It is silent? Consult the 
 Spirit about the matter. And if you want 
 to be perfect, go ask advice and permission 
 of your Superior. I except only prayer in 
 the cell. To that you may give yourself up 
 during all the time left free from special 
 obedience. 
 
 III. To judge of the degree of goodness 
 of our actions, let us recall this axiom. 
 
 " Bonum ex integra causa ; malum ex quo- 
 cumque defectu — For an action to be good, 
 it ought to be good in every way; a single 
 defect on any one point vitiates it entirely. " 
 
 It is for this reason, therefore, that an 
 action should correspond, first, to its nature; 
 for instance, Adoration, according to the meili-
 
 TO BE DONE WELL 379 
 
 od taught you; study, according to the rules; 
 employment, according to received custom. 
 
 It should be performed in its o\vn time. 
 If you yourself change the time of an action 
 you vitiate it. God's gracie is attached to 
 that hour. It is a divine messenger, which 
 does not wait. For the divine Office, for 
 example, the angel of God, the angel of 
 prayer, comes at the beginning of it, giving 
 to every one the grace- to say it with recollec- 
 tion. You are not there, you will find that 
 you will say your Office badly. If, however, 
 obedience has detained you elsewhere, or if 
 it is not by your own fault that you are late. 
 Our. Lord answers for you and reserves for 
 you your grace. To make Our Lord wait, is 
 an insult, do not forget that. Let us, then, 
 for His sake, have a certain pride in per 
 forming our service well 
 
 Our actions must be done in the proper 
 place. Grace is attached to places, also. The 
 grace is where the Rule wishes you to be, 
 and there, too, is the glory of God. The 
 Church attaches Indulgences to places, and 
 obedience sanctifies them.
 
 380 EVERYTHING OUGHT 
 
 Our actions should be performed according 
 to their circumstances, according to their partic- 
 ular manner. Do not perform magnificently 
 an action that ought to be simple. Attend to 
 the exterior and recognized form of every 
 thing. Our Lord's service is composed of acts 
 whose form is prescribed. Hold to that, for 
 it is the plan of your obedience. 
 
 Again, to our actions, we must give a soul, 
 and that is, purity of intention. Perform your 
 'actions neither through pride if you succeed, 
 nor through vexation if you do not. These 
 are gnawing worms which, leaving the action 
 externally good, have ruined it within. Have 
 always a supernatural intention. Do all for 
 the love of Our Lord. This is not necessary 
 to make the action meritorious. A motive of 
 any virtue whatever will be sufficient for 
 that, but an action performed through love 
 is more precious and agreeable to God. • 
 
 Be, also, faithful in doing them, performing 
 them entirely, neglecting nothing, for it is a 
 little portion of ihe gift of God which must 
 not be lost. Crumbs are pearls in the service of 
 Our Lord.
 
 TO BE DONE WELL 381 
 
 Lastly, give them humility for end and 
 Vesture, that they may all tend to that humility 
 in which Our Lord envelops Himself in thQ 
 Blessed Sacrament. This will preserve you 
 from vanity and discouragement. Saint Ber- 
 nard says that God neither asks nor looks for 
 success, but only for the care that we take to 
 do His will. To succeed or not to succeed 
 is only secondary. 
 
 Lay up these words. They are for every rUy 
 and for all the actions of your life.
 
 
 SANCTITY by the RULE. 
 
 I. ^^' HE law of youv holiness and the condi- 
 ^^M lion of the glory of God in you, as 
 well as the power of the duration and action 
 of the Society, consist in the observance of 
 rhe Rule 
 
 Although a man might become a saint 
 without the religious Rule, this holiness can 
 not be yours. 
 
 We must distinguish between regulation and 
 the Rule. Regulation is the Rule materialized, 
 the nomenclature of its positive prescriptions. 
 It i«; the word of command, the order of each 
 action. The Rule is the spirit of our actions. 
 It is the interior law, the form of sanctity. 
 It is what gives spiritual education. 
 
 I say that you can become saints only 
 by the perfect practice of your Rule, for 
 God has created you only to be Religious of 
 th6 Blessed Sacrament. Everything in you is 
 for that grace and for that life. The Rule is 
 the Gospel applied to your temperament and 
 needs. The Gospel is the general law; the 
 Rule, the particular law. If all religious bodies
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 383 
 
 are identical inasmuch as they are composed 
 of the disciples of Jesus Christ and because 
 all practise His counsels, they are, never- 
 theless, distinguished from one another by the 
 spirit and end for which they practise them. 
 
 Every man is bound to know and to practise 
 the Gospel. As for you, if you know and 
 practise your Rule, it' suffices. That is 
 your Gospeh 
 
 You will say, perhaps, that ours , is not 
 approved by the Hole See. That is true. 
 Nevertheless, the approbation of the Society 
 by the Holy See is an indirect approbation 
 of the Rule. They have examined it at Rome. 
 They have concluded that it is capable of 
 forming religious with one special aim useful 
 to the Church, having the power to glorify 
 God and sanctify souls. They praised it as 
 a whole. The Holy Father pointed out some 
 corrections, and they have been made in it. 
 You ought not, therefore, to respect it less, 
 under pretext that it is not yet canonically 
 approved (}). 
 
 I. Ven. Pere Eymard uttered these words in 1867. 
 But since then the Constitutions drawn up by bim, and
 
 384 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 
 
 It is through prudence and favor that the 
 Church ha^ not yet approved it. Her approba- 
 tion gives to a Rule a definite character 
 after which it can no longer be retrenched 
 nor added to without her permission. But 
 now we can still do so, and it is necessary 
 in the beginning. 
 
 While waiting for us to solicit a definite 
 approbation, your own conduct must approve 
 this Rule. The Church wants to find out 
 whether it is praticable. If you do not practise 
 it, to what purpose have it approved? 
 
 The Society says to you: I beg you, my 
 children, observe the Rule that I give you. 
 practise the virtues that it teaches you, that 
 it may be seen whether these are, indeed, the 
 virtues that your vocation exacts. Why do 
 you wish Our Lord to inspire His Vicar to 
 approve the Rule, if men are not found 
 sufficiently holy to put it in practice ? 
 
 at which he labored constantly and even till his last 
 hour as at his only book, have been approved by a 
 Decree of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and 
 Regulars. — We allow his argument to stand however^ 
 in Its first form, as being more forcible.
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 385 
 
 Observe it, then. Keep it with love and 
 respect. 
 
 -It is respectable for you. We do not say 
 that, because we have made it, we are but 
 wretchedness. Nor do we tell you that it has 
 come from Heaven by a particular revelation. 
 nor by a miracle of assistance direct from 
 the Holy Spirit, It has none of these extra- 
 ordinary characteristics of so many other holy 
 Rules. 
 
 The thought that conceived it, the pen 
 that wrote it were inspired only by this, to 
 serve Our Lord in His Sacrament of Love 
 by a Society of men who would devote 
 themselves especially and entirely to that 
 service. 
 
 God has not given it through its members 
 those brilliant sanctions that consecrate a 
 Rule. We have no shining saints neither living 
 nor dead, who preach it and recommend it. 
 It has, then, no glory from its children. 
 
 What; then, is its glory? It is to have none 
 before men. It is a teacher, an institute, 
 to form you to give yourselves to Jesus Christ 
 in the Eucharist. What glory is there in that?
 
 386 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 
 
 Bui let the Society possess a thaumaturgus, 
 and all would flock to hear his teaching, 
 see his miracles. They would not even go in 
 to the Master. They would come to try the 
 spirit of that man, and they would go away 
 glorifying themselves in it. Who would remain 
 in the shade with Our Lord? 
 
 The glory of the Rule and of the Society, 
 consequently, is in its end, which is the service, 
 so noble, so glorious, of Our Lord reigning 
 and triumphing on His throne of love. His 
 glory, again, consists in forming you for Him- 
 self. If the Rule can make good servants 
 whom the world ignores, but who are pleasing 
 to their Divine Master, it wishes nothing 
 more. 
 
 We should bless God for the obscurity in 
 which He leaves the Society. Let its Rule 
 oe dearer to you on account of its little eclat, 
 for its obscurity places you more perfectly in 
 your state of adorers, which is humility. If you 
 understand and practise it, you will be saints. 
 
 It is hidden and mysterious as Our Lord 
 m His Sacrament. The world will never com- 
 prehend it. Does it comprehend. Our Lord
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 387 
 
 and His Mystery of love? But they who have 
 the vocation comprehend it, and it will lead 
 them to perfection. 
 
 It places us in the Blessed Sacrament 
 and reduces ns to notliing. Other Rules perfect 
 the individual in order to make him a use- 
 ful man, whom they can oppose to human 
 glory in order to prove that of religion, and 
 it is well. But yours hides you, annihilates 
 you in order to lose you in Our Lord, for you 
 have not to come forward and do battle, but 
 to adore. 
 
 11. Practise it, (hen, and love it, for it alone 
 will sanctify you. First of all, because it put>^ 
 you in the way of holiness and constitutes 
 for you an atmosphere of graces. Afterward, 
 it points out to you by its regulations what you 
 have to do at every hour of the day. It makes 
 known to you the actual will of God over you, 
 and that is a great point. What kills the devotion 
 of pious laics and of the priest in the world, is 
 liberty. They know not what they have to 
 do, and whether they have done all that 
 God requires of them. The Rule shields you 
 from this danger. When it leaves you free, it
 
 388 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 
 
 shows you the Superior who can regulate, 
 for you. Again, the Rule gives you 3pecial 
 grace adapted to your spiritual temperament. 
 It is for you a resume of all truth. It is your 
 special grace, that which God destined for 
 you when He conceived you in His thought, 
 that which must gain the crown Pie then 
 laid up for you. 
 
 Every man has his own grace, and he 
 must be led in a special manner. The Rule 
 is your grace of life. It is the light suitable 
 for your mind and your eyes. It shows you 
 Our Lord in ever^'thing and everywhere. It 
 establishes you in Him and upon Him without 
 distracting you by anything else, because He 
 alone is your end and your all. 
 
 A saint once said : " I want to die with my 
 Rule, which has been my way; my Crucifix, 
 which has been my strength; and my Rosary, 
 which has been my perseverance. " Instead of 
 the Cross, put the Blessed Sacrament, and ask 
 the same grace. 
 
 Besides your personal sanctity, you ought 
 to practise the Rule for the sake of the 
 Society, your Mother. Its life is in the Rule
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 389 
 
 observed and sanctified by the practice of 
 her children. 
 
 It is not your number that will support, 
 strengthen, and give long life to the Society, 
 but the practice of the Rule. 
 
 The Rule is its soul and life. Every Society 
 consists in authority. There lie its strength 
 and its centre, and he who does not obey 
 the Rule disarms authority and gives death 
 to the Society. 
 
 Still more, the Rule is its power of action. 
 The Society cannot lead you to the virtues 
 of Our Lord if you do not follow the way 
 that it traces out in the Rule. By failing in 
 obedience to the Rule, you paralyze the So- 
 ciety. 
 
 On the (Contrary, it you have love and 
 zeal for ihe Rule, the Rule will be its glory. 
 Then vocations will come, and the Society 
 will extend afar; for the first thing that postu- 
 lants look for is the Rule, and they cannot 
 better see it than in those that comment it 
 practically by their conduct. In order to 
 attract, the Society should be luminous as the 
 sun; but you arc its rays. When one desires
 
 390 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 
 
 to become a religious, he does not ask to see 
 the buildings nor the habit. He wants to see 
 the works, and to observe whether the 
 members are saints. And when the Rule is 
 well kept in any place, they enter there with 
 confidence, for they say: « Here I should 
 reach sanctity, for they follow a sure path, » 
 
 The Rule violated can complain and, like 
 God, curse its transgressors : " They who de- 
 spise Me, shall be despised — Qui contemnunt 
 mc, erunt ignobiles. " Yes, Our Lord will de- 
 spise them. 
 
 Remember that all who have abandoned 
 their vocation had little esteem for the Rule. 
 They wanted to add to it or retrench from 
 it. But Our Lord rejected them, because He 
 does not want two laws, nor a will contrary 
 to His own, which He has indicated to the 
 founder. 
 
 It is not for me. lo give the sanction 
 nor to recommend the Rule. I am but a weak 
 instrument. But the weaker the instrument, 
 the more does Our Lord show His strength 
 in defending it ; and the better the mstrument, 
 the more severe does Our Lord show Himself.
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 391 
 
 Never is any one sent away, nor does he go 
 of himself ; but he is chased away by Our 
 Lord Himself, because he has been unfaith- 
 ful to the Rule. 
 
 Keep the Rule it you wish to glorify Our 
 Lord. Since you have entered religion, He 
 wishes no longer your individuality, however 
 good it may be. You have become a member 
 of a body, and you are no longer an independ- 
 ent individual. You can no longer do anything 
 but when united to the soul and the body to 
 which you are joined, and your personal vir- 
 tues, not practised in the spirit of your Rule, 
 no longer honor Our Lord. 
 
 Even should you martyrize yourself if it be 
 outside your Rule, Our Lord will pay no 
 attention to it. And you will not persevere, 
 and you will not attain very high perfection, 
 for you are deprived of your necessary grace. 
 Pay atter;tion! Take a religious of moderate 
 talents, but possessing fully the spirit of his 
 Rule, esteeming it, and faithfully employing 
 the means of apostolate that it furnishes ; take 
 another, superior to the first both in knowl- 
 edge and talents, but making little use of the
 
 392 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 
 
 means afforded by his Rule, and you will see 
 that the former will effect wonders while the 
 latter will have no fruit to show for his efforts. 
 
 Come thenr the Rulel Behold your grand 
 ascetic book, your power, and your grace! 
 It, above and before all things, is what must 
 make you saints. Let it be your criterion 
 in your studies and labors, and judge nothing 
 but by it and from its point of view. There 
 lies the secret of your strength, because it 
 IS the bond of your union. There is the future 
 of the Society and the glorification of the 
 Eucharistic reign of Our Lord. 
 
 Love it well, then, if you love the Society, 
 for the Rule and the Society are but one 
 and the same thing, the latter living only by 
 the former, which, is its soul. 
 
 Ought you not to love the Society as your 
 mother witli the most devoted love? We can 
 say of it what the woman said of Mary, the 
 Mother of the Saviour : " Blessed the womb 
 that bore Thee, and the paps that gave Thee 
 suckl " 
 
 Yes, bless the Society, respect it, and 
 surround it with your esteem, for it is honor-
 
 SANCTITY BY THE RULE 393 
 
 able as the daughter of the Church, as the 
 spouse of Jesus Christ glorified and reigning 
 in the Blessed Sacrament. It has been ap- 
 proved by a great and saintly Pope. 
 
 Give it the love of true children, of well- 
 born sons, for it has brought you forth in 
 sorrow. 
 
 Submit fo it your intelligence and your 
 works, for it is your mistress in doctrine it 
 will make your spiritual education. Live in 
 Its spirit, its maxims, and its means, if you 
 want to attain its end, which is likewise the 
 end of your vocation and your life, your 
 happiness in this world and in the next, the 
 reign of the Eucharist in yourselves and on 
 all sides. 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 
 PRAYER, the MEANS of our 
 
 SANCTITY, 
 
 ^ 
 
 O perform well our actions, behold our 
 spiritual business , to perform them ac- 
 cording to the Rule, behold our sanctifica- 
 tion; to perform them in the spirit of prayer, 
 behold our perfection! 
 
 I. For several reasons, the spirit of prayer is 
 absolutely indispensable. 
 
 In the first place you have need of Gods 
 grace, of superabundant grace, for 30U aiic 
 contemplative adorers, and as such obliged to 
 lead a life entirely celestial and ever animated 
 by supernatural motives. The only means of 
 obtaining this grace is prayer. And as you 
 have need of grace at every instant, it is 
 necessary for you to form the habit of prayer, 
 to become men of prayer. 
 
 I lay down as a principle that the grace 
 of the Society is a grace of prayer, that 
 the spirit of prayer is one of its characteristic 
 and distinctive virtues. This grace is the dowry 
 of all whom Our Lord calls here, for He
 
 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 395 
 
 ^ives the grace when He makes known the 
 call. Naturally, and as it were instinctively, 
 you ought to possess the spirit of prayer, for 
 It forms part of your state as a religious 
 adorer. And as every creature fulfils quite 
 naturally, with satisfaction, and as if it knew 
 no other thing, the end for which it was 
 created, so ought yoa to practise the life of 
 prayer with facility, and with the joy of 
 a being acting coniormably to its end. 
 
 \Ve have by virtue of ihc Rule, counting 
 the choral Office, eight hours daily of public 
 prayer m the chapel. How will you live, if you 
 do not know how lo occui)y yourself during 
 all this time.^ 
 
 But 1 tell you since God has called you, 
 since you have remained, since you make 
 these eight hours of prayer, you have, more 
 or less, the gift of prayer, God never calls 
 to an end without giving the means, and one 
 sign of vocation, above all others, will be 
 the making with pleasure these eight hours of 
 prayer. But if we make them only perforce, 
 if we are glad when they are over, we have no 
 vocation, or, indeed, we have lost it.
 
 396 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 
 
 II Prayer ought to be not only the grace of 
 our sanctificati.on, but its principal exercise, 
 the virtue of virtues. By it you will have the 
 virtues of your state, because, being a virtue 
 which has God for immediate object, it attracts 
 the other virtues after it and makes use of 
 them to exercise itself. 
 
 All will go well when your soul shall have 
 taken with appetite its spiritual nourishment. 
 You will have strength for the sacrifice, and 
 vigilance for the combat. Ah! why do we not 
 place our perfection in prayer? Why do we 
 not direct our studies, our virtues, to increase 
 the state and the practice of prayer in our- 
 selves? We employ our time and our graces in 
 correcting some defects; but even should we 
 not leave a single one, we must not pause 
 there, for our end is the service of Our 
 Lord by Adoration, and it is only in order to 
 make our Adoration better that we ought to 
 correct our faults and acquire virtues. This is 
 necessary, it is indispensable, for Our Lord 
 can admit holy servants only. But even should 
 they possess virtue, still the spirit of prayer 
 must give to it the form suitable for the
 
 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 397 
 
 service of Our Lord, which is Adoration. 
 
 For us, then, all consists in performing- 
 this royal service well. Make for yourselves, 
 therefore, a science of Adoration. Make of all 
 that you read a manual, a repetoire of material 
 for Adoration. When you read a pious book, 
 let it be only to discover some new aliment 
 for prayer. After prayer, all the rest will 
 follow as something over and above. 
 
 But if you pray badly, be sure you can 
 never practise virtue. Again, you must have 
 some centre of rest, and that cannot be 
 found in virtue; consummate sanctity is neces- 
 sary for that. But for us virtue is combat, 
 and never shall I tell you to find therein 
 your resting-place. If you should pause . in 
 it, you would fall like the bird which ceases 
 to flap its wings. You must reach the perfec- 
 tion of the Father who is in heaven. You can 
 never say: "It is enough. Now I shall rest." 
 
 Nor will study nor knowledge afford you 
 the happiness of repose. What does one 
 know as a whole? 
 
 You will find your happiness, remember 
 it '"ell, only in your communications with God,.
 
 398 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 
 
 in your Adorations, in your thanksgivings, 
 but above all in your Adorations ; for frequently 
 thanksgiving is struggling and suffering, be- 
 cause Our Lord wants us to share in His 
 Cross and humility by coming to us as the 
 Divine Crucified. 
 
 But in your Adorations, you must be happy, 
 you must there taste God ; and if you are. not 
 happy in them, I tremble for your vocation. 
 Every state in which God places a soul, 
 renders her happy, unless she is unfaithful. 
 And remark that if you give way to dis- 
 couragement, if you have not put your whole 
 heart in your work, it is because your Adora- 
 tions are faulty. People do not suffer when 
 th^y love, or rather joy being above suffering, 
 they feel only happiness. 
 
 But to enjoy Adoration, one must make 
 Adoration. He must give himself up to it, 
 prepare for it, labor for it. He must make 
 it the end and aim of everything he docs. 
 
 You would wish to be like the Israelites 
 in the wilderness where the manna fell every 
 morning, requiring only to be gathered. That 
 was an admirable miracle of condescension
 
 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITV 399 
 
 which could not last, and ia the Promised 
 Land, as in Paradise itself, labor was the 
 law. 
 
 People enjoy themselves greatly at a deli- 
 cious festivity, thinking not of the expense 
 and the- trouble of those that have prepared it 
 Do you want to enjoy the delights of prayer 
 at the banquet of Adoration? Prepare it, for 
 you will taste only what you shall have pre- 
 pared. 
 
 III. Your Adorations must be made accord- 
 ing to the method of the Societ>% the 
 method proper to your vocation. 
 
 Every religious body employs the method 
 best suited to its needs and its end. We 
 have adopted the method of the four ends of 
 the Sacrifice as uniting us better than anS' 
 other to Jesus Christ, the first and perfect 
 Adorer, whose Adorations and prayers for 
 the glory of His Father and salvation of souls 
 we ought to reproduce. The sacrifice of Jesus 
 Christ is His prayer par excellence. It is the 
 prayer par excell&nce of the Church, also, 
 and it reunites in itself all the duties that 
 the creature owes to the Creator, while at the
 
 400 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 
 
 same time it expresses all that we should 
 ask. 
 
 To adore, to thank, to ask pardon, and 
 to pray in union with the Sacrifice of adora- 
 tion, thanksgiving, reparation, and petition 
 of Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament — 
 this is the method of the Society, this is 
 what ought to be sufficient for you. Other 
 methods are not made for you, they do not 
 correspond to your grace. If yours is not suffi- 
 cient, it is because you do jiot know how to 
 make use of it. You are sick, or you are 
 children who do not know how to manage 
 your tools. But learn, ask, you have the radical 
 grace for it. 
 
 But with this method, which is, as it were, 
 the plan of your Adorations, you must diver- 
 sify them, giving to each a distinct character, 
 in order to shun routine and loss of time. 
 You have three every day. 
 
 Now, the first ought to be an Adoration 
 of virtue in which the interior labor, the 
 instruction ,of your soul and the correction 
 of your defects should form the principal 
 occupation. It is an Adoration of perfection
 
 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 40"' 
 
 and sanctity, the school and the apprenticeship 
 of the past and of the Eucharistic life of 
 Jesus whose mysteries and virtues you are 
 meditating. You try to practise them first 
 in your Adoration, and afterward by taking 
 the resolutions necessary for the conforming 
 of your life to them. 
 
 The second ought to be an Adoration of 
 suffering, in which you unite in the passion 
 of Our Lord, meditating on His sufferings 
 interior and exterior, for suffering is the 
 perfection of the virtues. 
 
 But the third ought to be an Adoration 
 of recollection, of rest and joy in the good- 
 ness of Our Lord, upon His Heart or at His 
 feet. There meditate the joyous and glorious 
 mysteries of His life, behold His love, and 
 taste His tenderness, no longer in labor, but 
 in silence and repose, 
 
 I do not tell you to seek for joy only But 
 Our Lord will give it to you, for you have 
 need of it, as He Himself feels the need of 
 commynicating it to you. He loves so much to 
 give happiness! See how every time He mani- 
 fested Himself- to the Apostles, it was always
 
 402 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 
 
 peace; joy, happiness. If you never taste this, 
 it is your own fault. 
 
 I am very particular about this, that you 
 be happy in prayer. It is your encouragement, 
 it is the oil that makes the wheels run smooth- 
 ly. When you do not experience it, you ought 
 to say: " I am not faithful, I do nothing well, " 
 and that discourages you. " I do nothing 
 well, — that is ver>' possible, but pause not 
 there. Humble yourself and begin again. Take 
 the means to do better. 
 
 That may also be a trial from the good 
 God The saints were long tried in this way, 
 and you are not yet a saint. As a rule, if 
 you. feel no happiness in prayer, it is your 
 own fault. Humble yourself, then, and b^ 
 a better life, quickly regain the good graces 
 of Our Lord. 
 
 If you do not reach the point of being 
 happy in your Adorations, I pity you greatly. 
 You will have no other consolation. Men 
 cannot give it to you, you will not find it 
 at the table nor in repose, for you will have 
 to labor. And, again what kind of conso- 
 lations are those? True, they say of the
 
 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 403 
 
 religious that he has no cares, but that is an 
 insult. Happiness is but the soul's content- 
 ment. Neither will the exterior ministry con 
 sole you, for that will be permitted you only 
 as far as your spirit of prayer and 'the regu- 
 larity of your Adorations do not suffer from it. 
 
 The world will not come to you, and evert 
 should you have some success among souls, 
 that joy will not be left to you; for you 
 should be like John the Baptist pointing out 
 Our Lord and seeing himself as was right, 
 abandoned by his own who flock around Him 
 whom he points out. 
 
 And then, believe me, nothing, no one can 
 really make you happy but Our Lord. Your 
 heart becomes paralyzed whenever you put 
 it in contact with any other thing than that 
 to which it is sensitive, namely prayer and 
 the good God, He has given you a heart like 
 to the sensitive plant, which can endure the 
 touch of the sunbeam and of the celestial 
 dew only, but which closes up to any other. 
 
 Be, then, men of Adoration, have the spirit 
 of prayer. Love Adoration, and go to it 
 joyfully as to the Banquet of heaven, and
 
 404 PRAYER, THE MEANS OF SANCTITY 
 
 then you will be happy, you will serve the 
 Lord in the joy of your heart. Ah ! be content- 
 ed with the good God. 
 
 m
 
 ^•i^5&*^^;dS2&!^^S&S&:^^fi&!a^»^S^5^a^: 
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY. 
 
 'Pf'W^^'^^'^'^'^^'^'^^'^'^'^WW^W^^^f^ 
 
 BIDE with God that you may learn His 
 kindness. Abide in recollection with your- 
 selves that you may discover your own misery 
 and learn how to despise yourselves. These 
 are the two sources of fraternal charity, and 
 the secret of love for the brethren. 
 
 Fraternal charity is the well-beloved virtue 
 of Our Lord. It is the characteristic of His 
 true disciples: " They will know that you 
 are My disciples, if you have love one for 
 the other. " 
 
 This is the whole law, says Saint- John. 
 He who practises it, is a good religious. 
 Charity alone is sufficient, for it is the Lord's 
 precept. 
 
 He who loves his brother loves God. Our 
 Lord makes over to the neighbor the right that 
 He Himself has to our love, and if we do not 
 love the neighbor whom we see, how shall 
 we love God whom we do not see? 
 
 Jesus Christ calls charity a new precept. 
 Although men had to love one another before 
 His advent, yet not having seen the love
 
 406 FRATERNAL CHARITY 
 
 of the Saviour, they did not know how to 
 love one another supcrnaturally. Since He 
 has made Himself our Brother and died for us, 
 we know what we owe to all men, who in Him 
 have become our brethren. 
 
 But fraternal charity is still more gravely 
 imposed on us who live by tlic Blessed Sacra- 
 ment, for it is the law of the Last Supper and 
 the virtue ot the EucharibL. 
 
 What, then, are the characteristics of frater- 
 nal charity? The same as those of Our Lurd;> 
 love for us. 
 
 First, Our Lord loved us for ourselves, and 
 not for Hiinself. Love that loves others for 
 self, is only egoism. Wc must, then, love 
 our brethren for their spiritual good, and 
 even for their temporal good according as 
 charity demandb it. That is love pure and 
 supernatural. 
 
 We ought to love our brethren with whom 
 we live more than any one else: "He who 
 loves not his own is worse than a pagan. " 
 Our charity ought to be extended to the body 
 and the soul of our brother, because he has 
 given to the Society his body and soul. For
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY 407 
 
 his soul you are bound to pray, and keep him 
 from committing a fault when you can. To 
 love souls, to hinder God from being offended, 
 this is what rouses zeal in Apostles and good 
 priests. After the service of His Person, noth- 
 mg glorifies Our Lord so much as spiritual 
 charity toward our brethren. There are in 
 it two fruits for His glory, that of the act you 
 perform, and that of the brother whom you 
 prevent from falling. 
 
 Fraternal charity possesses wonderful mflu- 
 ence. It never labors in vain, even when not 
 obtaining what it seeks. The merit of it is 
 yours who have tried to do good, but have not 
 succeeded.. In heaven, the saints are reward- 
 ed for the good they have done" to souls who 
 arc damned, in spite of their efforts. In tHe 
 same way, a Superior who turns all his zeal 
 to the practice of the Rule has the same merit 
 whether his subjects do or do not hearken 
 to his admonitions. To give an alms is a good 
 thing even though the unfortunate recipient 
 will make use o£ it for an evil purpose 
 
 Have, then, charity for your brethren. Let 
 your first love be for iheui. It would be a
 
 408 FRATERNAL CHARITY 
 
 great misfortune for you to have more charity 
 for people out-doors than for those of the 
 family. You owe yourself to your neighbor 
 only according to the measure of your mission, 
 and not to the full extent of charity. 
 
 In your prayers, yes, be universal ; in action, 
 remain in the limits of obedience. And still 
 in your prayers, you ought to place your 
 Eucharistic family before all others, even 
 your parents themselves coming after. You 
 belong more to your family of grace thaii to 
 your family of flesh. You owe yourself to the 
 first by the sacrifice of the second.i I know 
 that the heart will retain more natural senti- 
 ment for the mother from whom you have 
 received life; but for the Society, your mother 
 by adoption, ought to be the first sentiments 
 of grace, the first supernatural love. Your, 
 heart ought to be where are your affairs 
 and your life. " Man shall leave father and 
 mother, and adhere to his wife, " says the 
 Lord. You have espoused the Society. Put her 
 before everything else. 
 
 Apply prayer to the soul of your parents, 
 your relatives. That is a duty of gratitude.
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY 409 
 
 But with their temporal concerns, you ought 
 no longer to busy youreself. In any kind 
 of necessity, obedience will tell you what is to 
 be done. 
 
 You have, also, renounced individual charity 
 to the poor. Remember those unfortunates 
 before God. That is all you can do. It is a 
 great sacrifice not to be able to give, and they 
 who have had the habit of giving alms feel it 
 keenly. Let your heart and the world cry out 
 against you, for you are poor, and you can no 
 longer dispose of a cent. To satisfy the pre- 
 cept, the Superior will give alms in your name 
 
 As for you, remember that every good 
 thing that God does not demand is evil, and 
 that your vow is opposed to your liberality. 
 And so, your brethren before all. 
 
 Now, love them for the pure love of God 
 and themselves in God, and not for any seek- 
 ing for their gratitude and a return. Render 
 them all the services that you can and that 
 are proper; and when you do them a good 
 turn, let it be for this motive alone. Then 
 you will not complain that they do not thank 
 you for it. Did you do it for thanks? But if 
 
 The, Divine Eucharist. 27
 
 410 FRATERNAL CHARITY , 
 
 it is for God, what need have you of the thanks 
 of men? You have done what you ought, and 
 you waste your charity and deprive God of 
 His glory when you want a personal return. 
 I say, even if they want to testify too much 
 gratitude to you, you ought to take offence 
 at it as at an injury. You have done only 
 your duty in rendering service. 
 
 Let your charity extend to all your brethren 
 without distinction. All are your bre::hren, 
 and all have equal rights, although you do 
 not owe to all the same exterior testimonies. 
 Priests by their character have a right to more 
 honor and respect. They are priests, and as 
 such represent the Sovereign Priest, Jesus 
 Christ. They are kind toward you and treat 
 you with condescension, and to them you owe 
 very profound respect. Never let a laic pre- 
 sume to think himself equal to a priest, and 
 treat him with familiarity. Never regard him 
 as a comrade, but as a superior. Remain 
 in your place; and if priests are willing to 
 descend to you. take advantage of it only to 
 lower yourself still more. 
 
 Another characteristic of Our Lord's charity
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY 411 
 
 is humility. Our Lord looked upon Himself 
 only as the servant of His Apostles. Never put 
 yourself above others. Never esteem yourself 
 more than they on account of your knowledge 
 or virtues. 
 
 Our Lord treated His Apostles with re- 
 spect, for charity ought to be respectful. Famil- 
 iarity is pride and contempt. Our Lord rep- 
 rehended His Apostles when necessary, and 
 He gave them good advice for their correc- 
 tion; but when He reprehended them, He 
 did not lower them. He taught them to be 
 respectful to one another, and if He frequently 
 told them that He loved them, it was that 
 they might behold in one another the objects 
 of His love, His privileged friends. I repeat 
 It, the charity which does not pay honor 
 is pride. It builds for self a throne out of 
 the abasement of others. 
 
 Perhaps your brother has fewer gifts than 
 you, less knowledge, less virtue. In that he 
 owes you respect. But would you wish on that 
 account a place above him, and treat him 
 haughtily? That would be natural and w:ordly. 
 If you want to show personalities you must first
 
 412 FRATERNAL CHARITY 
 
 attain superiority. But then it would not be 
 love that animates you, but a worldly point of 
 honor. Now, there is no question of that here. 
 
 We must, it is true, for the sake of order, 
 observe the law of precedence; but that is 
 not for the sake of persons, but for the dignity 
 and maintenance of order. It is the hierarchy 
 established by God even in heaven, and by 
 Our Lord in the Church. Apart from that, 
 I beg of you, entertain none of that sensitiv^e- 
 ness which savors of ambition and wordly 
 vanity. Let honor be cheerfully rendered by 
 every one and sought by no one. Honor the 
 least of your brethren with an unaffected and 
 cordial love, not measured by his qualities 
 nor by your own natural sympathy, for all 
 that is human. 
 
 What you ought to honor in your brother 
 is the grace that Jesus Christ has infused 
 into his soul, his vocation to the service of 
 the same King, Jesus Christ Himself who 
 dwells in him and comes to him by Commu 
 nion; in fine, Jesus Christ lienors your bro- 
 ther, do you honor him, also. He serves the 
 Master as well as you and, if he possccses the
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY 413 
 
 appearance of virtues, you ought to believe 
 that he really possesses them. Conscience 
 makes this an obligation of justice for you. 
 That humble brother, that ignoramus, will, 
 perhaps, be higher than you in glory. Honor 
 in him the future prince of God's glory; and 
 even were he only the reliquary of Jesus 
 Christ, who comes into his heart, would not 
 that be sufficient to clothe him with esteem 
 and respect? 
 
 Again, charity ought to be devoted. Honor 
 is not enough. One must give help, be devoted 
 to the soul of one's brother, pray often that 
 he may become more holy, that he may 
 arrive at perfection. When God shovvrs us 
 a defect in him, it is in order that we may 
 correct it, at least by prayer; and we fail in 
 charity, if we do it not according to our power. 
 
 As to exterior charity, the Rule marks out 
 for you your duties. If you have the care 
 of him help him, do it devotedly. If you 
 are associated with one of your brethren 
 in some employment . of which he has charge^ 
 you become his inferior, and you owe him sub- 
 mission in all that regards that employment.
 
 414 FRATERNAL CHARITY 
 
 As to souls outside, you must be very 
 devoted to them, but by prayer. You must 
 have a universal heart both to love souls 
 and to labor for their salvation, but principally 
 by the apostolate of prayer and mortification 
 It is more fruitful than that of the word; it 
 is the beginning of martyrdom and perfect 
 charity. We behold persons entering religion 
 in order to be victims for souls. By their 
 immolation, they win more souls than all 
 preachers together. They are the mediators of 
 salvation. 
 
 Practise, then, charity always and in all 
 things, for the occasions are numberless. If 
 they do not come to you, seek them. When 
 you are free to choose between two good 
 works, one personal, the other charitable, take 
 the latter. It has double merit. 
 
 But. above all, I repeat, let your charity 
 be humble. Proud charity is egoism, or forced 
 charity 
 
 Ponder upon these words: Am I super- 
 naturally charitable? Do I honor my brethren 
 by my charity? Am I devoted to them? 
 
 How many sins are committed against char-
 
 FRATERNAL CHARITY 415 
 
 ity in thought by rash judgments! Remember 
 what will distress you most at the moment of 
 death, after thoughts against chastity, will be 
 the remembrance of those against char- 
 ity. Who has made you the judge of your 
 brethren? This mquietude at death, according 
 to" Saint Vincent Ferrer, is the punishment that 
 always attacks that sort of sin, even in this 
 world. The first movements of rash judgment 
 are of no account; but to encourage them, to 
 acquiesce, is to be our brother's murderer 
 in our own heart. 
 
 Again by words. Oh, with how many faults 
 pious and religious souls have to reproacK 
 themselves on this point! 
 
 There are still other sins against charity 
 by act and by omission. Let us examine 
 ourselves on them, and adopt the means to 
 correct them. 
 
 He who does not sin against the neigh- 
 bor, is almost free from sin against God, 
 because love is one, although it h'as a double 
 object and, as it were, two channels.
 
 
 SIMPLICITY. 
 
 ^ , 
 
 & 
 
 ;HE just man walks simply; and the im- 
 pious man, deceitfully. 
 
 I counsel you earnestly to make simplic- 
 ity the mould and the foundation of your 
 life. This \drtue was recommended by Our 
 Lord: "Unless you become as little chil- 
 dren, you shall not enter into the kingdom 
 of God. " It is the form of humility and 
 Its vesture. It is poverty of spirit beatified 
 by the Divine Master. 
 
 If you have given yourself to Our Lord 
 no longer to have any personality, you ought 
 to be simple as the little child that one 
 carries in the arms or leads by the hand, 
 that acts only by its mother. Our Lord will 
 be your wisdom and your* prudence. 
 
 One of the characteristics of holiness is 
 simplicity, while one of the principal signs 
 of spiritual decadence is duplicity. 
 
 To sanctify one's self and to be happy 
 in the life of prayer and Rule which we have 
 embraced, w^e must be simple.
 
 SIMPLICITY 417 
 
 I. First of all, simple with God. " He 
 who walks simply, walks securely, " says the 
 Holy Spirit. This simplicity with God is pre 
 cisely the confidence with which a soul places 
 herself in the hands of God, because she 
 kno^vs His goodness. She abandons herself 
 to everything- that He may will and she is 
 disquieted by nothing that may happen to 
 her. She beholds only the will of God in 
 persons and events' the most varied, and this 
 singleness of view is already great holiness^ 
 because it shows her everything at one glance, 
 and she is surprised at nothing 
 
 When a soul is troubled and disquieted, 
 she is no longer simple. She is looking down 
 at her feet, instead of keeping her glance 
 raised above her head. We must be like 
 the simple, candid child that hides nothing, 
 that does all its mother wishes and only 
 because its mother wishes without questioning 
 whethfer it is good or bad. Thmk, too. that God 
 is good, that He wishes to be your good, and 
 that you cannot glorify Him more than by do- 
 ing His will. 
 
 When we possess this simplicity, everythmg
 
 418 SIMPLICITY 
 
 appears possible, nothing any longer costs. 
 It is enough that God wills it. 
 
 II. Be simple toward your Superiors, that 
 they may not groan under their burden, for 
 that would not be advantageous to you 
 
 A Superior is a shepherd who has charge of 
 souls. He answers for your life and your soul. 
 Lessen the burden for him. Act so that he 
 may approach you without fear of seeing 
 his orders or his remonstrances taken bad- 
 ly, misinterpreted, and therefore rendered 
 capable of producing more harm than good. 
 
 I have remarked that, when the members 
 of a Community are not simple with their 
 Superior, God does not bless it. For, under 
 stand, God blesses a Superior more than all 
 the religious, and He blesses the religious 
 only through him. All the graces are de- 
 posited in him, who is the head, that they 
 may flow down upon the members, as the oil 
 of anointing flowed from the head of Aaron 
 down to the hem of his garment. But God 
 never blesses religious who are against their 
 Superior in points of duty and of his charge 
 Vou understand clearly that God is always
 
 SIMPLICITY 419 
 
 one with Himself, and that He cannot go 
 against him whom He has chosen to represent 
 Him. 
 
 Ah! my brethren, how painful it is to 
 be Superior! It should, indeed, be the good 
 God who nails you on this cross; for unless 
 he be a proud man, devoured with the desire 
 of shining before others, or an avaricious 
 man who wants at any cost to handle a 
 little money, never would one dare to desire 
 such a charge. Seen from a distance, it is 
 fine,, perhaps; but close at hand, it is a far 
 other thing. If there is one unfortunate being, 
 it is a Superior Never has he a moment 
 to taste the happiness of peace. He belongs to 
 all and to everyone. He has to sacrifice 
 himself on a rude cross. 
 
 But there are honors attached to it! — 
 What honors? Ah! if you knew what value 
 lb placed on these honors by the Superiors- 
 General who govern the great Orders, who 
 command legions of religious, and whose posi- 
 tion is so high at Rome and in the Church! 
 No, they are there only to behold misery, 
 to receive only crowns of thorns. And to
 
 420 SIMPLICITY 
 
 whom do they confide all their anxiety and 
 trials? They have to stifle them in their 
 own heart and turn to God 
 
 Never envy your Superiors, but pity them. 
 They have taken upon themselves your respon- 
 sibility and. at the Day of Judgment, they 
 will ha\e to answer for you. To desire 
 superiority, is to have lost one's head 
 
 Honor your Superiors simply, without flatter- 
 ing them. The flatterer despises or insults 
 him upon whom he fawns Whoever you are. 
 be perfectly simple with them Genius is 
 simple, while false knowledge is puffed up 
 Believe me, be simple as children Vou may 
 be more learned than your Superior in many 
 things, but in the knowledge of his charge, 
 never! Superiors receive from God special 
 gifts for themselves and, above all, the gift 
 of penetrating hearts. It would seem that 
 God gives them this privilege of maternal 
 love, which divines the heart of the child. 
 I generally know of what you are thinking, 
 in what state you are, what you want, even 
 before you have told me. 
 
 Be simple with them in the relations of
 
 SIMPLICITY 421 
 
 life; be a child toward your father. Many 
 fail in simplicity not daring to tell their 
 needs and troubles, either hiding them or 
 telling them only by half; but the good God 
 tells the Superior' all. The Superior has gen- 
 eral graces for the whole family, and every 
 one receives from God only in proportion 
 to the measure of his confidence in His 
 representative. Be simple, then, m making 
 requests. Before asking for anything whatever, 
 cxamme whether the Superior can grant your 
 request without infringing upon the rights of 
 the Rule, and without making an exception or 
 showing personal favor in your regard. Next 
 ask God whether your desire is according to 
 His Heart. After having thus prayed, if 
 you still have the wish for something, oh, 
 go confidently and simply make it known! 
 God will inspire His servant to do the right 
 thing. If you hesitate, if you are timid, you 
 are a stranger, and not a son of the family. 
 The Superior would wish always to say yes, 
 because he is a father. To refuse, gives him 
 pain; but he is obliged to do it when any one 
 asks something through mere whim, which
 
 422 SIMPLICITY 
 
 might be hurtful, or which might militate 
 against the general good. To accede to such a 
 request, would be to commit a fault that 
 he would have to expiate in purgatory. 
 
 When you are in recreation and the Supe- 
 rior presents himself, after saluting him, con- 
 tinue the conversation upon whatever topic 
 It may have turned, for that will interest him. 
 He is a father who wants to join in the 
 pleasures of his children. If you interrupt your 
 conversation, if you change the subject, it is 
 a sign that you talk of things you do not 
 want him to hear. Then, were they not bad? 
 
 Well now, you see clearly that simplicity 
 toward Superiors brings happiness, for every 
 family has its centre. The hardness- of the dia- 
 mond comes from the cohesion of its mole- 
 cules. The Community in which inferiors are 
 united with their Superiors, resists every at- 
 tempt of the demon to dissolve it. 
 
 Pay attention to this. Nev^er i;riticize and 
 never listen to criticisms on the acts of your 
 Superiors, whoever they may be. Even should 
 your Superior have all the defects in the 
 world, pray, suffer, but never judge. The good
 
 SIMPLICITY 423 
 
 God will take his part, while you attack the 
 very heart of the life of obedience. 
 
 Ohl there are, unhappily, in religious houses 
 always some who sow cockle by criticizing 
 Superiors. Whoever you may be, if they criti- 
 cize him before you, protest, silence the critic, 
 no matter who he is, were he even a priest, a 
 savant, eminent for all qualities. Do not suffer 
 a whole society to perish through the pride- 
 ancl discontent of a single individual, for that 
 is what would happen. God treats subjects 
 as they treat their Superiors. As the subjects, 
 so the Superior. God gives the subjects only 
 what they deserve and, if you have a bad 
 Superior, it is because you have deserved it. 
 Change then, be humble and submit, and God 
 will give you a father. 
 
 Oh, I beg of you, never suffer fault-find- 
 ing in your presence. Remember the admir- 
 able conduct of Constantine refusing to judge 
 the Bishops accused before him. He who 
 curiously scrutinizes majesty will be crushed 
 by its weight, that is, he who searches into 
 and reveals the defects of those in authority 
 will be cursed by God as Cham was byNoc.
 
 424 SIMPLICITY 
 
 It is known by experience that God never 
 ble§ses a religious who does not walk simply 
 before his Superior. And the lower the posi- 
 tion from which the Superior has come, the 
 less . his learning, the less remarkable for 
 natural qualities, the greater is the offence, 
 the more terrible the vengeance, for God 
 is more careful to protect the weak. 
 
 III. Be bimple among your brethren and 
 with yourselves. Charity springs fiom truth. 
 Never falsify, not even in joke. Remember 
 that Our Lord held lying and pretence in 
 horror. 
 
 Love and respect one another as brethren. 
 Let criticism of the neighbor find no place 
 m your conversation. Have no eyes to see 
 only defects, have simple eyes. It is for God 
 and the Superior to see defects, and to dis- 
 cern the goats from the sheep. Be always 
 simple among yourselves, saying simply what 
 you thmk in the hearing of all, without parties, 
 without asides. The simplicity of the dove 
 is the bond of peace. 
 
 I except our relations with strangers; then 
 the prudence of the serpent is necessary.
 
 SIMPLICITY 425 
 
 Never speak to strangers of the affairs of the 
 house. It is only a busybody who recounts 
 to every one the family secrets. Discretion 
 is necessary. No one ought to betray author- 
 ity, and indiscretion is unpardonable. He 
 who knows not how to be discreet, is a 
 conceited person who can be pumped by 
 flattery. Listen, speak little, edify outsiders 
 by your silence. Be well-bred and polite, be 
 gentlemanly in your conduct, for your voca- 
 tion elevates you to a noble condition. Honor 
 by your manners and command honor for 
 your character without affectation or mincing, 
 but with true supernatural charity, which is 
 marked by urbanity and refinement under 
 all circumstances. 
 
 Be meek and humble toward all, and let 
 the world talk, if it does not find you aimable 
 enough for it. Aim at nothing else than the 
 good God. What is all the rest to you! 
 
 Blessed are the simple! They possess God, 
 His grace, and His power of action. . 
 
 The Divine Euchariiit.
 
 
 The EARNESTNESS of LIFE. 
 
 |T is to be desired that this Retreat should 
 have for one of its results what I am 
 now going to propose to you, namely, that 
 you become earnest men. 
 
 Had I begun the Retreat with this truth, 
 as I might have done, I should have missed 
 my aim. You would all have sought after 
 recollection, but it is not of recollection that I 
 wish to speak. Recollection is only the flower 
 and the fruit. What I want is, that the charac- 
 ter itself become serious. Recollection is 
 capable of more or less degrees, it varies 
 according to the thoughts and the states of 
 the soul. What I desire for you is a character 
 founded always and in all things on earnest- 
 ness. He who is not earnest of character 
 and heart, is capable of nothing. We call 
 such a man light-headed. 
 
 Give no credence to his words He is not 
 thinking of what he is saying, he speaks 
 without reflection. His speech flows incoher- 
 ently, showing very plainly his want of judg- 
 ment. A man of this character, who speaks to
 
 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 427 
 
 every one of everything at random, is in the 
 world called a fop. 
 
 He who does not reflect necessarily forms 
 false judgments, for judgment is the result 
 of ideas compared with one another. But the 
 frivolous man gives himself no trouble on this 
 pomt> 
 
 He has memory, perhaps, and miagination, 
 but he acts by impulse. Instead of one thing, 
 he begins ten, he promises, but does not 
 perform. 
 
 What dominates in him is the heart. Take 
 him m passing When sentiment and impulse 
 pass, there is nothing left. What would you do 
 with such a subject in the religious life? 
 
 Do not try to educate him. You will lose 
 your time. Occupy him in exterior things, 
 for he will never apply to serious study. 
 
 What a misfortune- are these light-headed 
 men in the world when they possess wealth' 
 What rules the world and drowns it in scan- 
 dals, is this light-headedness. In religion it is 
 a radical evil, and a light man will always 
 be a poor religious. The grace of the virtues 
 is infused, but theu" practice is acquired by
 
 428 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 
 
 subsequent labor and attention. They must be 
 cultivated, and that is what a frivolous man 
 will never do. 
 
 Virtue is a plant from Calvary, which Our 
 Lord confides to us that we may cultivate 
 it with blood and tears. Its strength is in its 
 root, which strikes into the soil of the soul. 
 If through frivolity you leave that root un- 
 covered, the shrub will die. 
 
 Virtue calls for struggles m which one 
 must be skilful, able, and vigilant. A man 
 has before him an enemy always new, who 
 endlessly varies his attacks. If you bjing 
 against him only the piety of sentiment, you 
 will not know how to baffle his snares, you will 
 not even perceive them in time. He will sur- 
 prise you a thousand times, and you will have 
 received a wound even before you dream 
 of resisting. 
 
 Knowledge to lead the interior life is 
 necessary, a very great intelligence as to 
 the needs of one's soul. For obedience and 
 the virtues of the common life, there is not 
 so much need of mind; but to lead the 
 life of prayer, our life of Adoration, the
 
 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 429 
 
 mind, as well as the heart, must be exercised. 
 You must know haw to study self and to 
 study Our Lord. You ought constantly to 
 have your eye on your Model, to measure 
 Him, and then to refer those measurements 
 to yourself and your duties. It is an affair 
 of constant observation, of intelligent study, 
 which demands of us seriousness. 
 
 Books are not sufficient; personal labor 
 IS necessary. One must study, must scrutinize 
 with his mind and his grace. Our Lord and His 
 mysteries. His intentions in His Eucharistic 
 life, and in His ways over souls. A man 
 who does not know how to reflect, will never 
 persevere in our vocation, unless he con 
 demns himself to recite myriads of Rosaries. 
 To spend your three hours daily ion the 
 prie-Dieu, you must be learned and eloquent, 
 educated and very intelligent. I do not mean 
 natural intelligence, but that which grace 
 confers, which Our Lord communicates to him 
 who is serious, and who earnestly applies 
 himself to live the interior life. Experience 
 confirms what I say. If you take the most 
 pious people of the world, even priests them;
 
 430 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 
 
 selves, and put them on this prie-Dieu for 
 our three hours, they will not know how 
 to employ their time. It is your grace for 
 you, but correspond to it by earnestness of 
 life. Reflect on and reason out your own case. 
 
 All who have left us found fault with Ador- 
 ation. They did not know what to do during 
 it, and they grew tired. Pay attention, then, 
 to yourselves ! 
 
 Correct that le\dty which carries you away 
 or, at least, prevents your enjoying Our 
 Lord in Adoration, understanding Him, and 
 discovering the ravishing marvels of His love. 
 
 The earnest mind is that which lives on 
 the truth of God and things. It abides in 
 truth, in reality, and not in sentiment. 
 
 The serious man is the man of duty. He 
 does not act because it so pleases him, but 
 because his duty commands him. He searches 
 into the reason of his duty and of all his 
 actions, in order to accomplish them accord- 
 ing to their spirit, but not because he wants 
 to know the reason of the command be- 
 fore obeying. He obeys at once, at the first 
 signal, because it is his duty. But instead
 
 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 431 
 
 of doing so mechanically, he fixes his 
 thoughts on the glory that God wall derive 
 from that action, upon the good that will 
 redound from it to the Society and to his 
 own soul. In this spirit, he applies to what 
 he has to do, and does it better. He recoil? 
 not before any difficulty. JHe looks at it 
 attentively, conquers it, or turns it aside. 
 The frivolous man perseveres only as long 
 as he feels a taste for anything. He stops 
 short before a difficulty/, or when his enthusi- 
 asm cools. 
 
 The earnest man dissects the virtues. " I 
 want to be humble, for instance, in such or 
 such a conjuncture, for such' or such motives. 
 Why? Because, sinner that I am, I must 
 repair my pride, because Jesus was humble, 
 because this virtue opens hoaven and is the 
 measure of glory. " He scrutinizes reasons 
 and motives, he persuades his own mind 
 about them, and he ends by forming' a strong 
 desire for humility. 
 
 If you act through impression and sen- 
 timent, once the time has passed, — and it 
 does not last long,— nothing remains.
 
 432 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 
 
 Take a man, pious, but light-minded, and 
 a sinner only just converted, but earnest, 
 and lead them both at the same time on to 
 perfection. The second will soon outstrip the 
 first. He, says the Imitation^ who labors zeal- 
 ously will make more profit in spite of his 
 having more passions to overcome than the 
 man of a good natural disposition who applies 
 with less care to the acquisition of the 
 virtues. 
 
 One must, be earnest in ernploying usefully 
 all one's time for God and his soul. The Rule 
 cannot fix everything, and in what it imposes 
 much is still left to the inclination of individ- 
 uals. It furnishes the form and the method, 
 but how varied is its application! This is 
 the work left to each one. What %vill you 
 do with this latitude if you have a light mind? 
 You will lose your time, it will pass, all 
 will be carried away by this unfortunate 
 defect. You will not know how to converse 
 with Our Lord, you will not hear His voice, 
 you will not understand His Spirit, and He 
 will not be able to act upon you. 
 
 And again, v hat graces can He intrust
 
 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 433 
 
 fo you? Would you have all your graces 
 fall on the highway or among thorns, which 
 will grow up and stifle them? The light 
 mind is the great highway sw'ept by every 
 wind, traversed by all passers-by, and on 
 which nothing rests. 
 
 One must be earnest, in order to act for 
 the best in certain cases in which he cannot 
 take counsel with any one,» Important em- 
 ployments may be confided to you, yoa may 
 have responsibility, accidents may happen, 
 and you are obliged to act for yourself 
 But you are light-minded? You will know 
 only }iow to compromise yourself, and 
 thereby render yourself unfit to serve the 
 Society. 
 
 Labor, then, in an orderly manner to ac- 
 quire virtues. Pursue the work with the 
 spirit of observation, with constancy. Proceed 
 always by principle. God's way over a soul 
 whom He wills to lead on to sanctity is to 
 give her, above all, a sei-ious mind. Even 
 before He shows her His grace of choice,. 
 He makes her reflect. When He spoke to 
 the Prophets, the Lord began by rousing
 
 434 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 
 
 their attention; and when they transmitted 
 His orders to the people, they said: " Hear, O 
 Israel, hearl " 
 
 On Sinai, He multiplied prodigies in order 
 to strike the mind of the inconstant people, 
 of all nations the most light-minded in their 
 resolves. And when Our Lord wanted to 
 form His Apostles, He took them into the 
 desert with Himself, that nothing might 
 distract them. He who wants to make a 
 reservoir has to dig into the earth, that the 
 water may gather in it and there remain. 
 
 The light-minded never knows what he 
 ought to do. He is in perpetual need, but 
 the serious man always finds wherewith to 
 occupy Himself. 
 
 When God forms a soul to prayer. He 
 gives her the power to sound her own heart 
 and to dwell within herself. Later on, he 
 leads her to comprehend the designs of His 
 providence and to search into His ways: 
 " Maria conservahat omnia verba haec in corde 
 suo — Mary kept all these words in her heart. " 
 
 Have, then, earnestness of character with 
 regard to faith, conscience, and the religious
 
 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 435 
 
 life. This is a grace that ought to be 
 solicited of God. Without it, one will never 
 accomplish anything 
 
 Levity is the first cause, although an 
 indirect one, of all sins, of all defects, and 
 above all of the want of the spirit of prayer 
 Defective Adorations, forgetfulness of the 
 divine Presence, contemptible familiarity, 
 unceremoniousness with Our Lord, — all come 
 from it. 
 
 You have, perhaps, a well-disposed heart, 
 but a light mind has counteracted that good 
 disposition. Grace presented itself, but you 
 were not at home. 
 
 Levity plunges us into constant embar- 
 rassment. The" demon watches to cast those 
 that have this defect, though otherwise zealous 
 and good-hearted, into a thousand little 
 works, good without doubt, but unconnected, 
 in order that they may no longer behold 
 themselves; for he is master of the situation 
 when he can cast the soul into the net of 
 distraction, embarrassment, and inquietude 
 by the multiplicity of her occupations- 
 Experience shows that business affairs
 
 436 THE EARNESTNESS OF LIFE 
 
 hinder the calm necessary to the life of 
 Adoration. Going abroad and absence, above 
 all, bring about the loss of facility in con- 
 versing with Our Lord. It is for this reason 
 that the Society refuses the preaching pf 
 stations and is very reserved in permitting 
 absence, in order that you may preserve 
 the seriousness of the life of Adoration, and 
 aJways be free and ready -for the sersnce 
 of the Lord. This is a servitude, it is true, 
 but a roval servitude!
 
 
 FRUITS and RESOLUTIONS 
 
 
 Of the RETREAT. 
 
 ^^^ EEP the good things committed- to you. 
 gg^l Labor as a good soldier of Christ. Dive 
 into these things, and put them in practice. " 
 Such among other things were the counsels 
 that Saint Paul gaye to Timothy, his disciple, 
 after making him Bishop of Ephesus. 
 
 I. " Depositum cusiodi. — Guard the good 
 things of truth. " 
 
 Our Lord has given you His truth. He 
 has told you what was an obstacle to His 
 life and His glory in you. He has given 
 you good sentiments and a good will. You 
 have begun' a true religious life. Guard well 
 the treasure of your Retreat, by watching 
 against the temptations of the evil one. 
 
 He does not attack openly, for his hideous- 
 ness would make you flee. But he fascinates 
 us, bewilders us, and seizes us from behind. 
 " Circuit qiKzrens qiiem devoret — He goes 
 about seeking whom he may devour. " 
 
 Yo'i now know what temptations triumph
 
 438 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 
 
 over you and trouble you. You know how 
 the world dissipates you and engages yonr 
 attention. Take good care not to allow it 
 to reach you. Guard even against the saints 
 of the world f 
 
 You are a royal priesthood, a holy people. 
 Do not profane your dignity by exposing: 
 it. Do not mix in outside affairs. 
 
 If obedience places yoij in relations with 
 the world, be angels, that is, messengers who 
 come and go, delivering your message and 
 immediately returning. Do not be too ac- 
 cessible. So much for i^e world. 
 
 Watch, also, over the traitor who is in. 
 you, who is yourself. Xeep him down by 
 force, for he is your unrelenting enemy. 
 We understand the hatred of the saints for 
 their body, which they combated as their 
 greatest enemy. 
 
 Let us distrust ourselves. We must hate and 
 struggle against ourselves without relaxation. 
 As soon as we have said, " It is enough, " 
 we are lost. 
 
 Alas! even after the very best resolutions, 
 we are so weak and so tepid! We come
 
 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 439 
 
 from confession, we meet another occasion 
 at the door, and we fall again. We have 
 in us a powder-mill that explodes . at every 
 contact with fire, were it only a spark. 
 
 "/?^ omnibus vigilia. » Watch in all things 
 and everywhere. Watch over your senses, 
 above all, over your eyes. We shall not 
 be masters of ourselves as long as we can 
 not restrain our eyes. 
 
 If you wish to be in peace, never have in 
 your mind the picture of any creature, and 
 remember that the eyes are painters. 
 
 Love every one in general, commend 
 every one to God, and know no one in partic- 
 ular, unless charity or obedience makes it 
 a special duty for you. Leave the obliga- 
 tion of conversing with the world to your 
 Superiors. It is on them such responsibility 
 •is incumbent. 
 
 Oh, how happy you are to be biurdened 
 with no one! You are independents. AD 
 your heart, all your life may be for 
 Our Lord! He must imprint Himself on 
 it all entire, not broken, not shattered 
 as in troubled water or a concave niiror.
 
 440 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 
 
 You must be photographs of Our Lord. The 
 lens is your own soul, the light is His 
 love, the model is Jesus Christ. 
 
 Ah, be determined with creatures! Know 
 how to cut short. Be independents. Be 
 even haughty when there is question of guard- 
 ing yourselves. Do not allow yourselves to 
 be bound in spider-webs. 
 
 How often I have regretted being a 
 shepherd of souls I One is ever, as it were, 
 on a rough sea. People come to abuse one, 
 to deceive one. One must listen to every- 
 body and, in spite of one's self, be sprinkled 
 with dust. 
 
 And you who are not obliged by your 
 charge to intercourse with the world, will 
 you go to seek it although God does not 
 require it of you? Ah, shelter yourselves 
 in the sacred sanctuary of Jesus Christ,, your. 
 King, for whom alone you are here! 
 
 II. " Lahora ut bonus miles Christi. — Labor 
 like good soldiers of Jesus Christ. " 
 
 To take care, is well. That is enough 
 in the beginning. The virtues that we trans- 
 plant are tender shoots, which must needs
 
 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 441 
 
 be protected against the intense cold or the 
 too scorching heat, in order to take root. 
 
 Later on, they must be cultivated. This 
 wori: consists in purifying one's self inces- 
 santly, acquiring the spirit and the habit 
 of prayer, and reforming one's rnanners by 
 conforming one's life to that of Our Lord. 
 Here generosity, cooperation, and faithful 
 correspondence to grace, are necessary. 
 
 We must begin with one virtue, the one 
 that ought to be in us the dominant virtue, 
 the characteristic virtue, while at the same 
 time we acquire the perfection of our Rule, 
 for as religious we are obliged to this per- 
 fection. 
 
 You must first acquire the exterior perfec- 
 tion of your Rule, namely, modesty, silence, 
 good use of your time, obedience, and fidelity 
 to the exercises of piety You should know 
 how to be ready for everything required 
 of you, and to be idle if you are ordered 
 to rest 
 
 For the interior, see of what you have 
 need. Attend first to your conscience. If it 
 torments you, ah! give it your first attention. 
 
 The Divine Euciiarist- ao
 
 442 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 
 
 leave everything to set it in ord^r first of 
 all.. 
 
 If it is your lieart which allows itself lo 
 be caught by creatures or to sleep thit)ugh 
 sloth, cast it into the love of God, into 
 continual sacrifices. In this way you will 
 fill it with divine love, and there will no 
 longer be room for the creature. 
 
 If it is the mind that is light, nail it lo 
 the Cross of Jesus Christ. Choose some fixed, 
 some striking thought. Hold on to it for 
 several consecutive days. Dwell on it for 
 eight days. Your mind is a child. The more 
 it amuses itself, the more it wants to amuse 
 itself. It must- be restrained by something 
 that strikes it powerfully, or by a touching 
 thought that moves you. Place it often in 
 the presence of God. Have some thought 
 on hand that rouses you and recalls His 
 presence. If you concentrate your mind on 
 one pointj you tvill do so on others. It 
 then acquires an energy of principle and 
 action no longer upon one thing, but upon 
 all that presents itself to be done. 
 
 Take whatever thought suits you best, but
 
 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 443 
 
 do not rely too much either on your heart 
 or your mind. Dwell not exclusively on 
 your conscience, but let the practical and 
 continued result of the Retreat be to make 
 you embrace once for all, both interiorly 
 and exteriorly, the mortification of Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 111. " //i his esto.- Ah'idc in that, " and 
 thus revive the work, of the Retreat. 
 
 Take, m hand the affair of your amend- 
 ment. Begin with the exterior. 1 have often 
 given utterance to this principle that wc 
 must go from the interior to the exterior. 
 Begin by reforming the interior before at- 
 tacking exterior faults. This is true theoret- 
 ically, and also for souls that arc already 
 interior. They fall only through weakness. 
 They have already conquered their great 
 exterior defects. The combat now for them 
 is above all interior. 
 
 But this is not true for beginners. You 
 seek God like poor souls that have need 
 of pardon. You must first become reconciled 
 to Him, by destroying those obstacles that 
 come from without and acquiring the power
 
 ^44 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 
 
 to mortify self in all that is material, all 
 that airests your progress and turns you to 
 evil. You are only children in prayer. It 
 you liave not books at that time, you du 
 nut know how to occupy yourselves. You 
 arc not yet able to walk under the interior 
 inspiration of Our Lord. 
 
 What shall I say to these latter? Shall 
 you occupy yourselves only with labor and 
 interior combat? No. 
 
 In your state, there is qucbtion less uf 
 interior progress than of disengaging your- 
 selves from the chains of the senses, less 
 of advancing than of purifying yourselves 
 and getting rid of the roots of sin. 
 
 You love God, doubtless, but like children. 
 You have not been rooted on Calvary. If 
 you launch out into interior ways without 
 the curb of mortification and exterior reforma- 
 tion, you will become fanatics and visionaries. 
 
 To wish to apply the principles of the 
 interior life of union and love to souls that 
 are yet full of their senses, is to build upon 
 sand, and without foundation. 
 
 Gods i^race works in the intciior, but it
 
 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 445 
 
 is for US to join to it" exterior labor It 
 works from within to without. In our coope- 
 ration wit]\ it, we must go from without 
 to within 
 
 The two actions must be joined and never 
 separated, filling: our soul with love by 
 prayer, and purifying ourselves exteriorly by 
 mortification. 
 
 It is easy to say, " I love God, " but if 
 this word is not followed by mortification,. 
 It is vain and unfounded. Self-love has^ 
 quickly taken the place of the love of God 
 
 Love alone makes saints. There is noth- 
 ing truer than this principle, but it must 
 be applied with discernment. Now, the love 
 of Jesus Christ for us is His Cross. 
 
 Personal mortification of justice and peni- 
 tence must be the foundation and the exer 
 cise of love; and if one has not sinned, 
 it must be mortification through love inspired 
 by the example of Our Lord's sufferings 
 
 Put your confidence in God, and wage 
 the great struggle of mortification. 
 
 Think not on the years and years you 
 must live in this struggle. You have not
 
 446 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 
 
 at present the grace of the future, but for 
 every moment its own sufficient grace will 
 be given. 
 
 To-day you have only to accept the combat 
 and take a generous resolution. Be satisfied 
 with that, and count upon grace for the 
 future. 
 
 Besides that, look for success from God 
 alope, count on Him alone. Have confidence 
 in His grace for the victory. Do not trust 
 too much to the means, however good they 
 may be, nor upon the success of your 
 prayers, nor upon the victories you may 
 have gained over your faults, for he who 
 analyzes his success loses it. 
 
 Expect some defeats, but do not let them 
 discourage you. When you shall have fallen, 
 acknowledge your fault and your weakness, 
 and ask God to hold out to you a helping 
 hand. 
 
 The humility which rises again is a per- 
 fect victory, and it becomes more vigilant. 
 God sometimes sanctifies souls only by their 
 falls and wretchedness. We are already so 
 borne along by pride that, if God did not
 
 FRUITS OF THE RETREAT 447 
 
 humble us at times, we should become more 
 proud, more wicked than Satan, because we 
 are grosser than he, and equally proud. 
 
 Do you grieve over the fact that God 
 leads you by the way of humiliation? But 
 that's a favor! Every one will pity you and 
 help you. If you appeared richer than 
 others, every one would oppose you. No, 
 put on the habit of your Master If He 
 showed Himself m His glory, every one 
 would come to Him; but while He is poor 
 and humiliated, the world passes Him by. 
 Love to be unknown and humiliated with 
 Him. 
 
 I have finished. I leave to Our Lord 
 to give you Himself, in your Adorations, 
 the Eucharistic Retreat, and to teach you 
 His life of love, prayer, and sacrifice in the 
 Blessed Sacrament. I want to be only a 
 John Baptist crying. "Do penance!" I have 
 shown you the way, I have led you up 
 to the portal of sanctity, and there I pause. 
 
 Behold your Saviour, your King, yonr 
 Master! Love Him, glorify Him, serve Him' 
 This is my only desire!
 
 '^-^^^^i^^s&^^^y^ 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 
 PREACHED TO THE SERVANTS OF THE 
 
 Most Blessed Sacrament.

 
 ^ 
 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 1^ 
 
 This Retreat was preached during the month of 
 November, i866j to the Servants of the Most Blessed 
 Sacrament. 
 
 Here again, we behold the Father in the midst of 
 his children. The notes piously taken while he 
 spoke, breathe the perfume of paternal intimacy and 
 familiarity, which his title and the love borne him as 
 such authorized. 
 
 Only in the two meditations on the gift of self, in 
 which the Venerable Father touches on the most 
 elevated doctrines of theology concerning the Word 
 Incarnate, are there some omissions. We can under- 
 stand that a woman little familiar with such subjects 
 could not follow the Father, word for word, in the 
 development of this beautiful doctrine. But some 
 words here and there were thrown in as landmarks, 
 in order that we might be able some day to resume 
 the course of the conference, and render it complete. 
 This is what we have endeavored to do, by drawing 
 our inspiration especially from a personal Retreat of 
 two months, which the Venerable Father ended with 
 the gift of self, in which this teaching is laid down in 
 detail 
 
 We hope this Retreat will put the finishing-stroke 
 to a clear understanding of the spirit of sanctity 
 through the Eucharist. Many secrets of divine love 
 are here brought to light, and the heart sees opening
 
 452 FOREWORD 
 
 up to it a field of immense love. It is to pure lovev 
 to the love of God loved for Him??elf, that the Father 
 incessantly exhorts. Although he does not reject 
 interested love so necessary to our weakness, it seems 
 that there was for his soul no satisfying love but thai 
 which loves in order to love, that sees in the virtues 
 and in sacrifice only love, that desires for its reward 
 only a greater love, and that aims at heaven only 
 because there we. love better and eternally. 
 
 The practice and guarantee of this love, he places 
 in fidelity to duty, in tender considerateness never to 
 offend even in the least point ; in sacrificing to the 
 love of God nature, not only in its evil instincts anrl 
 its roots of sin, but in itself, in its natural personality, 
 in the principle which constitutes it the child of the 
 earthly Adam. 
 
 The gift of one 's own personality is, in eftect, the 
 essential means of binding one 's self to live of love, 
 since it consists in remitting one 's self entirely into 
 the hands of Jesus Christ, taking Him for one 's only 
 motive and»end, dedicating and devoting one's self 
 to His service as a slave without name or ownership. 
 This gift is meant to establish, as far as in us lies, 
 Jesus as our own person, and to bind us to live with 
 His grace, only as members, a nature directed by Him. 
 
 This doctrine is not new. In the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, Cardinal de BeruUe reduced it to the formula of 
 a vow, which was approved by over ten Bishops and 
 Doctors.
 
 FOREWORD 453 
 
 By this vow, one simply engages himself never to 
 retract the donation he has made of himself, his whole 
 self, soul, body, faculties, actions, merits, and sufifer- 
 ings, his whole being to Jesus Christ, to all His 
 designs over him, and to all His commands. In the 
 second place, he resolves to live as far as possible 
 according to the spirit of this vow, always accepting 
 the views and ways of grace preferably to natural 
 views and human means, by abandoning himself in 
 everything and for everything to the conduct of Prov- 
 idence, by laboring always for God, for Jesus Christ, 
 chosen as the unique Master and Proprietor of his 
 being, of all his properties, qualities, actions, and 
 possessions. 
 
 There is no additional duly, no obligation under 
 pain of sin, for this beautiful vow consists only in an 
 obligation of love, an elevation of intention, and that 
 is all. Does not this realize the life of Jesus in us? 
 And followed out in practice with perseverance and 
 good- will, does it not make saints, that is, other Jesus 
 Christs ? 
 
 After the Retreat, of which we have spoken above, 
 the Venerable Father made this vow of the gift of 
 self to Jesus Christ, March 21, 1865. He summed it 
 up in these two words : '* Nothing by myself, 
 nothing for myself. All by Jesus Christ, all for Jesus 
 Christ in me ! " 
 
 Then, comprehending how powerful is this means 
 of sanctification, since it places us in the perfect grace
 
 454 FOREWORD 
 
 of Christianity, by giving us entirely to Jesus Christ, 
 and by renewing and perfecting by a free and deliber- 
 ate vow the consecration of our whole being which 
 was made to Him in Baptism, he exclaimed : *' Ah ! 
 had I understood this means sooner ! What lime 
 gained, how many mora merits for Jesus Christ ! " 
 Who does not understand, in effect, that this vow is 
 but an explicit renovation, carried in the light of faith 
 even to its last consequences, of the vows of Baptism? 
 We have, then, renounced the devil and his works, 
 that is, all that is of the demon in man, and all that is 
 simply of Adam in us, in order to belong to Jes.us 
 Christ. But is it only by the acts of the Christian 
 life, by the fultilmcnt of the Law, that we belong to 
 Jesus Christ ? Is it not rather, first and above all, by 
 the very substance of life, by a radical adjunct, volun- 
 tary and absolute, embracing the being, as well as its 
 acts? 
 
 Sanctifying grace, which is the life of Jesus in us, 
 is a state, a stable thing, fixed, inherent in the very 
 substance itself of our regenerated being. W^e should, 
 then, give ourselves to it in a similar manner by our 
 state, by a constant profession of living only of it, in 
 it, and by it. The gift of self is nothing else than 
 this profession. 
 
 WTiether we think it or not, it is also at the founda- 
 tion of the religious vows. However little we may 
 desire to practise them perfectly, we see it springing 
 up ar, the natural fruit of ihio conbeCKition which.
 
 FOREWORD 455 
 
 certainly, is sufficient to deliver the whole being over 
 to Jesus Christ. And what does the religious conse- 
 cration mean except the reproducing of the life of 
 Jesus Himself, the first and perfect Religious of God, 
 who became such only because He had sacrificed to 
 the Word His human personality and who, living 
 thus separated from Himself, was by His state perpet 
 ually offered and immolated to the Father by the 
 Word. 
 
 When we read attentively the meditations of this 
 Retreat and those of the preceding, we shall readily 
 comprehend the spirit and the practice of the vow of 
 impersonality as the Venerable Father understood 
 it. To them who.desire more extended explanation, 
 we recommend a little book of Pcre Grou entitled : 
 Du don de soi-meme a Dieu, which is a continuation 
 of a Retraite sur V amour de Dieu (') ; and again, the 
 Vie du Pere Charles de Condren^ by the Abbe Pin (*), 
 in which may be seen the perfect practice of the vow; 
 lastly, in the Works of the Cardinal de Berulle, Dis- 
 couts et Elevations stir Vlticarnation (3). 
 
 1. Leco_ffrey Paris. 
 
 2. Chaiiffardt Marseilles. 
 
 3. Migfie^ Paris.
 
 ^«;&s&»fe*a&!fea£3^*a*yi«&«fe2^*ifei&aa&^a&^*:£< 
 
 CONVERSION 
 
 is ALWAYS NECESSARY. ^ 
 
 RETRLAT is the greatCbt of all graces, 
 because it comprehends all the graces 
 of conversion and renewal in the devout 
 life. When God wills to convert a soul. 
 He puts her into a Retreat. We all need 
 conversion, because we have defects, and 
 because we carry in us the old man. It 
 is true that, in the devout life faults are 
 less apparent, less gross; but as by them 
 we sin against Our Lord's love of preference 
 for us. His Heart is more sensitive to them. 
 Retreat is a real conversion of the old 
 man into the new, or of an imperfect virtue 
 into a perfect virtue; and, believe me, it 
 costs more to be converted from an imperfect 
 state than to rise out of sin. The evil is 
 less apparent, less avowed, and pride often 
 takes it for good. How difficult it is to 
 persuade the semi-perfect that they arc below 
 what Our Lord wishes, and to make thcni 
 acknowledge their defects!
 
 CONVERSION ALWAYS NECESSARY 457 
 
 Oh! I do not like to hear* " They are 
 religious, then they are saints, angels!" All 
 that is only dust in the eyes. One is a 
 saint only on entering heaven. Examine'your- 
 selves in the light of Our Lord's love. Look 
 at the duties of your vocation, and tell me 
 whether you are saints 1 
 
 I do not say that you have on your con- 
 science those sins that roll us in the mud.- 
 But there are sins of the sanctuary, sins of 
 the service of God. They are so much 
 the more painful to Our Lord as He loves 
 us more, as He has granted us more graces 
 Oh! how pained, how saddened is Our Lord 
 on seeing us offending Him even at His 
 feet, under His gaze; and that, in the midst 
 of His choice graces, we live not of Him 
 and for Him, but of the old man and for 
 the old man! Is there no pride in our life, 
 in our thoughts, in our actions ?— that pride 
 which delights in self, which secretly judges 
 others, which puts itself above them, esteem- 
 ing only its own excellence.? Here, 'indeed, 
 is need of conversion, the conversion from 
 spiritual pride. This pride is the worst of
 
 458 CONVERSION ALWAYS NECESSARY 
 
 all, since one is then proud of the grace that 
 he receives, of the good that he does. 
 
 Have we no self-love, that egotism virhich 
 makes us love God, not for Himself, but for 
 one's self ? — that personal pride which makes 
 self, and not the good God, the end of our 
 life and our love? One never calls one's 
 srelf to account for this, and yet it exists. 
 It is always I, ego. 
 
 Every one is attacked by this malady, but 
 we more easily in Community than the 
 fievout in the world, where the trials of every 
 day, the crosses of all kinds, leave no leisure 
 for so much thought of self. More occupied 
 with resisting and combating, they more easily 
 forget the spiritual and personal I. But in 
 Community, where we live under the beautiful 
 sun of graces, we have the love of self in 
 our heart, we constantly contemplate self, mak- 
 ing it the end of our thoughts and virtues. 
 
 Now, for you, adoratrices, your Rule or- 
 ders you to love God by the sacrifice of 
 your own personality, which ever tends toward 
 becoming a centre, an end, something outside 
 of God.
 
 CONVERSION ALWAYS NECESSARY 459 
 
 Again, it is this love of one's personality 
 that is the furnace of idleness, of sensuality, 
 which loves repose and rejects mortification, 
 for. the old man does not love mortification. 
 He wants his rest, his tranquility. He is 
 by nature slothful. 
 
 Still more, your dominant virtue is the 
 humiHty of love. That is the royal virtue, 
 which puts in practice the gift and the sac- 
 rifice of personality. It is from it that all 
 your other virtues ought to draw their 
 strength. If you have it not. although pos- 
 sessing the others, you are laying up in 
 a perforated sack. 
 
 It is the characteristic virtue of the Eu- 
 charist. It is the love of the annihilation 
 of Our Lord for man. Without it, you have 
 not your characteristic virtue. 
 
 You call yourselves the Servants of the 
 Blessed Sacrament. What, then, is the virtue 
 of a servant, if not humility? The servant has 
 no longef a name, a house, a family. He 
 lives no longer for himself. His condition is 
 to serve, his aim is the interest of his master, 
 his name is that of him whom he serves.
 
 460 CONVERSION ALWAYS NECESSARY 
 
 In humility, then, lies all for you. This 
 Retreat must perfect you in this virtue, and 
 you ought to labor all your life to acquire 
 it. You will never reach the point of pos- 
 sessing it in all its entirety. That is Our 
 Lord's perfection. But I say that an adora- 
 trice who grows in the humility of love, 
 Vv'ill be the holiest of all. 
 
 Examine, then, attentively whether ui iiul 
 you are striving to attain it, how you stand 
 in this so necessary virtue. Examine whether 
 you love God with a perfect love; whether, 
 on- the contrary, you do not love the virtues 
 for yourselves, — good works, graces, the 
 neighbor for self, and not for God. See 
 whether you are not your own end, your own 
 centre. The love of annihilation is necessary. 
 
 In this Retreat, begin by the grace of con- 
 version. Begin by that. Then apply yourself 
 to your grace of vocation and, lastly, to 
 your grace -of adoration. These are the three 
 degrees of grace that God vouch^ifcs you. 
 and they exact of you corresponding duties. 
 
 Examine them in the light of love that 
 Our Lord offers you during these days of
 
 CONVERSION ALWAYS NECESSARY 461 
 
 grace. By it. He wishes to testify to you 
 
 His friendship, to make you repose at His 
 
 feet, to repair your strength, and renew you 
 
 in fervor". Act in such a way that ihis 
 Retreat may be the best of all.
 
 ^ 2&^^ j^,^^ •^.^^S&j^ ^ ^d& ^^^2^^^^ 
 
 The ETERNAL LOVE of GOD. 
 
 OD has loved us from all eternity. This 
 is a truth upon which we ought to 
 meditate all our life. We have always existed 
 in the love of the good God, always been 
 present to the thought of the Holy Trinity. 
 The Father thought of His creature, the Son 
 of those that He was to redeem, the Holy 
 Spirit of those that He was to sanctify. 
 
 God has always loved me! Grand thought, 
 which shows our greatness and the nobility 
 of our origin. We were still in nothingness, 
 although in God we had a life preexistent 
 to our creation. He saw us, He loved us 
 with a love of benevolence, as a mother 
 already loves the child she bears in her 
 womb. 
 
 He pressed us to His Heart, saying: "Be- 
 hold this 'little creature who will be born 
 at such a -time, under such circumstances, 
 who will have such and such a grace, and 
 who will love Me!" This truth ought to 
 rouse gratitude in us. God loved us first. 
 Then our love belongs to Him, though it will
 
 THE ETERNAL LOVE OF GOD 463 
 
 never return what it owes to infinite love. 
 To the creature who would demand our heart,, 
 we should respond *\God has loved me 
 first. It is to Him I owe it. " 
 
 The good God loves us with a. love of 
 benevolence. He does not love us from 
 interested motives, for He has no need of 
 us. He has loved us, then, only to testify 
 for us love, a love absolutely gratuitous. 
 He loves us to render us happy. He gives 
 me everything without thought of self-interest, 
 for I can do nothing to increase His glory 
 and happiness. 
 
 Still more, He has created us under the 
 best conditions of grace, in a Catholic country, 
 of Christian parents, who have given us a 
 pious education — but how number up all 
 the graces with which He has surrounded 
 us in order to lead us where we are! 
 
 He has chosen you to serve Him in His 
 Sacrament of Love, and to belong to Him 
 alone. Do you deserve it? It is a grace 
 of preference. But by it. He reveals to you 
 the whole plan of His eternal love, the design 
 of His providence is manifested to you. He
 
 464 THE ETERNAL LOVE OF GOD 
 
 predestined you, He created you and con- 
 served you in His love only that one day 
 you might know Him, love Him, and serve 
 Him by the gift of your life, only that you 
 might give yourself to Him wiio has given 
 you all things. 
 
 God desires to be the centre and the end 
 of man's love. He has subjected to him 
 everything in the universe, and He wants 
 his love for Himself, for Himself alone. He 
 expressly reserves it for Himself. He wishes 
 to be his end, in order to be the first to 
 have all his love, and 'here there are no limits. 
 He wishes that we love Him with a filial, 
 absolute, sovereign love. This is the precept 
 that He has given to all men. 
 
 But there is a love that God has not 
 exacted of all and that He leaves us free 
 to offer Him, namely, the virginal love 
 which is given to Him without being shared 
 by any creature. We were free either to 
 offer Him a virginal heart, or to ally with 
 Kim a creature in our love, by a union which 
 He Himself has consecrated But we have 
 not desired this portion, however honorable
 
 THE ETERNAL LOVE OF GOD 465 
 
 it might have been. We have preferred God 
 to all else, because He revealed Himself 
 to us with more loveliness, because He show- 
 ed Himself to our soul with more love than 
 to many others. Ah! here it is that we 
 see His benevolence, His preventing love 
 of preference! On our side, we owe Him 
 a love unique, whole, and entire. 
 
 He has said to us • " As creature, you 
 owe Me love as to your last end. But if 
 you wish to love Me still more, with a 
 pure, virginal love, I will introduce you into 
 the privacy of My Heart. " And your ravish 
 ed soul exclaimed " My God, I Avill love 
 only Thee I " 
 
 How you ought to thank the good- God 
 for having prepared and reserved this choice 
 grace for you! What happiness! What 
 honor!. How you ought to love Him! 
 
 And, now, how respond to the love of a 
 God who wishes to be loved in a special 
 manner by you, who wishes to be the only 
 end of your life, of your mind, and of 
 your heart? Ah! let us ask His pardon 
 for having spent so much of our life with
 
 466 THE ETERNAL LOVE OF GOD 
 
 out loving Him. Let us thank Him, let us 
 live on acts of thanksgiving, and thus return 
 to Him the fruits of the grace of which 
 we have deprived Him by loving Him too 
 little up to this day. 
 
 We generally say that time lost never re- 
 turns. This is true if we lov^e God only to ful- 
 fil the commandment; l)ut in embracing the 
 counsels. l)y doing more than we are rigorous- 
 ly obliged to do, we regain lost time. How 
 beautiful it is to see a soul who wishes 
 to repair for lost love and who says : " I 
 do not want to be satisfied with the Com- 
 mandment to love. Nothing will be too much 
 for the love of my God. " In one day, such 
 a soul does more than another in a lifetime. 
 Thus it was tha. Saint Magdalen with one 
 act of love redeemed her whole past. "Many 
 sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved 
 much! "
 
 
 CONFERENCE 
 
 ON DIRECTION 
 
 IRECTION should apply not to our sins, 
 but to our defects. We should examine 
 and expose in it our defects of body, mind, 
 heart, and will, also our shortcomings in 
 the service of Our Lord. 
 
 The defects of the body are those exterior 
 faults which proceed from temperament and 
 from individual character. Temperament it- 
 self is not a defect, but only its excesses, 
 its sallies against sound reason. You are 
 lively. Is that a fault? No But in what 
 do you exceed through vivacity? Here is the 
 object of direction. The defect is the excess. 
 
 Remember that the exterior must be correct- 
 ed first. Look at your soul, then, in your 
 exterior, in order to see what there is to be 
 made over. 
 
 After that, you must examine whether there 
 are any defects of heart, that is, whether 
 there are any disorderly affections or antip- 
 athies. You must see clearly whither your
 
 468 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 
 
 heart is carried, whether it does not love 
 too much, whether it does not seek too 
 eagerly those that it finds sympathetic. Tf 
 it does, it is natural, imperfect. — But 1 do 
 not consent to it— Then there is no .sin. 
 But it is none the less a bad root on which 
 direction ought to be exercised. Direction' 
 is not confession. 
 
 Direction is the history of our soul. 
 
 Lay open temptations of sympathy or of 
 aversion toward the neighbor. With self. 
 what temptations to discouragement, dejec- 
 tion, sadness? With God, what temptations 
 against confidence in Him at prayer at 
 Adoration? So much for the heart 
 
 For the will, say what costs you in regard 
 to obedience, tell your repugnances, in what 
 you have the most trouble to obey. The 
 resistance of nature shows you on what point 
 your will is more feeble, and by what you 
 might slip into formal sin. 
 
 As for the defects of the mind, they are 
 more tenacious than the others. They must 
 be followed up long and attentively in 
 direction, but ■without discouragement.
 
 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 469 
 
 While by violence we may readily snatch 
 the body from what if covets; while the 
 heart as quickly forgets that it has loved 
 when we change its object, the mind reasons, 
 reflects, and cannot turn away from that 
 on which it has fixed itself. 
 
 The mind leads the man, his senses, his 
 heart, and his will. If it is not ruled by 
 the Spirit of God, it is very bad.. It becomes 
 Satanic pride and the principle of ruin. 
 
 One's defects of mind, one's fixed and 
 personal ideas must be well searched into. 
 It must be seen whether any thought troubles 
 you, habitually disquiets you, above all in 
 prayer and Adoration. 
 
 We must be very careful not to allow 
 ourselves to entertain certain thoughts, which 
 become fur the mind a kind of disease. 
 When one indulges an impression of pleasure, 
 and still more of pain, the mind finally loses 
 all tranquility. It is ,no longer sufficiently 
 at peace to pray, and so the soul grows 
 quite sick, because the mind is sick. 
 
 Oh! guard well against trouble of mind! 
 
 The body is stubborn; but when we have
 
 470 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 
 
 conquered it from the beginning, it becomes 
 our slave. When the heart does not relish 
 God, It flies to the creature, because it has 
 the need of pouring itself out; but if God 
 IS proposed to it, if He is showTi to it in 
 all His love, it returns and attaches itself 
 to Him. In the same manner, souls that 
 have passionately loved pleasure, once return- 
 ed to God, abandon the world wnth the 
 same ardor, fly toward pcrfccUon, and become 
 saints. 
 
 But for the mind, it is another thing. 
 When a fault has grown to be a fault of 
 the mind, it is very difficult to conquer it 
 and to deliver one's self from it. It is 
 commonly said that a proud man cannot be 
 corrected. Why? Because pride is a defect 
 that has its scat in the mind. He is per- 
 suaded that he is always right, he does not 
 admit thai: he is i)roud, he adores his own 
 opinion, and wishes to receive neither ad- 
 monition nor reprimand. 
 
 Again, violence can effect nothing against 
 the troubles and defects of the mind; rather 
 does it contribute to keeping them alive.
 
 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 471 
 
 Some people become irritated and excited. 
 They riesolve energetically to think no more 
 about their trouble, and yet they return to it 
 a hundred times. They say: "I will not 
 disquiet myself about that, " and they force 
 themselves to turn away from it. But all 
 is useless, their disquietude redoubles. What, 
 then, must be done?— Call patience to your 
 aid. Combat by patience. 
 
 In practice, when a person endures pain 
 of mind, let him examine whether it comes 
 from some sin, or whether it is only a 
 trial. If it is from sin, it is easy to get 
 rid of it. He has but to go to confession. 
 If it is only a trial or a temptation, never 
 dwell on it wilfully. Patience is the only 
 means to be employed in this case. -If a 
 person allows his mind to become disquieted 
 under such circumstances, he will get sick, 
 and- that will only increase the evil. 
 
 He must not disquiet himself as to the 
 consequences. It is clear that, as soon as 
 one wishes not to sin, he does not sin. 
 But then, one does not feel this assurance, 
 and it is that which makes him suffer.
 
 472 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION- 
 
 By what sign, may it be recognized th^t 
 a thought is a mental trial ? When the tixed 
 and persistent thought is not simply in God 
 or m duty, that is, when, instead of remaining 
 at home in our own house, we go abroad 
 into those of others. 
 
 We arc all inclined to that, and subject 
 to this kind of trial. The devil is always 
 seeking to seize upon our mind, for it is 
 the gate of the house. 
 
 We should be like children, without preoc- 
 cupation, and masters of oiu: mind in tlic 
 good God. When you come to Adoration, 
 to Communion, you should be, as it were, 
 entirely fresh, so that nothing past should 
 burden or occupy your mind, in order that 
 you • may be ready to receive whatever 
 impression the good God wishes. Vou must 
 have peace of mind, and for that end, you 
 must be submissive to God, resolved to follow 
 His will, and to accomplish it as soon as 
 it is made manifest to you; in a word, it 
 is necessary for you to be entirely given 
 up to the divine will. Here is peace. Doubt- 
 less, you will have combats, but they will
 
 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 473 
 
 not harm you, because you will be in the 
 peace of duty, in the peace of grace and 
 of the Law. 
 
 In giving an account of your soul, you 
 must study God's way in you, what direction 
 He gives you interiorly. Explain, first of 
 all, what is your grace of recollection, what 
 sacrifices God demands of you, and what 
 are your attractions in prayer. See what is 
 the grace that unites you to God, that makes 
 you practise His holy will. God attracts 
 sometimes, by a grace of force, sometimes 
 by a grace of sweetness. His Spirit is very 
 active, and It constantly solicits the attentive 
 soul. If you do not perceive Its movement, 
 it is because you are not at home in your 
 own soul. Grace knocks in vain, and passes 
 on. 
 
 Observing the foregoing points, you will 
 give a good account of your interior. Do 
 not fear to disclose your exterior defects. 
 Timidity in this matter is a sign of self 
 love. 
 
 But hearken to this: You must reach the 
 point at which you live of the spiritual relig- 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. •»!
 
 474 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 
 
 ious life, of the Eucharistic life, that is, you 
 must live of God Himself, purely for God, 
 above all creatures. Habituate yourself to 
 find in God your food, your nourishment, 
 your strength, and your life. I tell you, 
 go to Our Lord, abide in Him. I shall 
 add that the true religious ought to possess 
 great obedience, submission, and humihty. 
 but at the same time just as great liberty 
 and independence. 
 
 The good God has bestowed on me a 
 great grace, and that is I am not disquieted 
 as to whether I have or have not hearts de\ot- 
 ed to me. And if any one should come and 
 say to me that he thinks of me in his 
 heart, I should say to Him: "You are, then, 
 very rich in heart? What! You have only 
 one poor little heart, and you do not keep 
 it all entire for the good God? That is 
 too bad!" Love, then, those that hold the 
 place of God, and render them filial obe- 
 dience, but passing beyond, go and rest in 
 God Himself. 
 
 I tell you not to restrain your confidence; 
 on the contrary, you ought to open your
 
 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 475 
 
 heart with all confidence. But the heart itself, 
 the final affection, ought to be for God 
 alone. 
 
 A soul espoused to Our Lord, ought to 
 reach the point of living of God, and acting 
 with her gaze upon Our Lord. He enters 
 into relations with her, and He loves her. 
 His love radiates over all that surrounds 
 her. Let her, too, enter into constant and 
 direct communication with Him. 
 
 Directors are merely to lead us to God. 
 They are guides whom we should obey, but 
 riot a bond, not an attachment, not a sersd- 
 tude. God alone is the end. Let your heart 
 rest in Him, entirely indep'endent of every 
 creature. 
 
 The moon, is beautiful, because she reflects 
 the sun's rays. When turned toward him, 
 she is wholly white, she is filled with his 
 rays, and she radiates them even to the 
 earth. But let a cloud intervene, and she 
 is at once in darkness. Thus it is that a 
 soul turned toward God is filled with the 
 rays of His grace, and she reflects them 
 even on her neighbor by charity. But nothing
 
 476 CONFERENCE ON DIRECTION 
 
 must intercept the influences that she receives 
 from her focus of light. 
 
 Let us give ourselves, then, neither to 
 creatures nor to ourselves, but let us live 
 of God, for God, and be always at His 
 disposition, always under His gaze of light 
 and love.
 
 GOD has CREATED US 
 
 for HEAVEN, 
 
 ^yss^i!S^*!if'*jg'*fe'^^'^'fi^<t^^'^i^*f^ 
 
 OD has created us for heaven, and not 
 for earth. He has created us in order 
 to render us eternally happy. The life of 
 time is only the road, the bridge, over which 
 we must pass in order to enter Paradise. 
 
 As soon as a man is baptized, his name 
 is inscribed in the Book of Life. He ha? 
 his place in heaven, he is an heir of glory, 
 he has the right of heritage with Jesus 
 Christ and in Him. 
 
 Paradise is God possessed, the term of 
 God's love for us. Love longs to give itself 
 and to share all that it has and all that 
 it is. God, who is infinite love, does not 
 desire to be happy alone. He puts us in 
 Paradise, in order tQ, give Himself to us 
 just as He is, in all His perfections, in 
 His infinite happiness 
 
 Here below, God cannot give Himself to 
 us in the whole extent of His love, because 
 we are in a state of purification, incapable
 
 478 GOD HAS CREATED US 
 
 of receiving and containing Him. In order 
 that God should give Himself fully to us, 
 we should have the capacity of Jesus Christ. 
 He forms it in us day by day, but only 
 on the day of our death, if we die in His 
 love, will it be complete and perfect. 
 
 Here below, God enters into us and gives 
 Himself according to the measure of the 
 room that we make for Him. We give Him 
 more or less of it. He occupies only just 
 as much as we allow Him, always less than 
 He Himself desires. He is constantly knock- 
 mg to get in further. He is not entirely 
 within us. 
 
 But in heaven, we shall be in God, plunged 
 in Him, totally penetrated by Him, receiving 
 in a capacity in some measure infinite, and 
 that without intermediary. We shall see and 
 love Him in the same way that He sees 
 and loves Himself. This will be the complete 
 communication of perfect love. The saints 
 on this earth have certain presentiments of 
 the tenderness, the intensity, the happiness 
 of this union; and, feeling that they cannot 
 yet taste it, they groan, they suffer as did
 
 FOR HEAVEN 479 
 
 Saint Teresa, who- died from not being able 
 to die. 
 
 But a soul who does not live by love 
 for God, suffers in another way. She is 
 not happy, because she does not correspond 
 generously enough with divine love. She 
 hears a call and feels an attraction to which 
 she does not respond. God punishes her 
 by preventing her from being at rest in the 
 happiness of sloth that she creates for herself. 
 
 [ will say that divine love, also, suffers 
 from not being able to enter, that some- 
 do it violence by resisting it. With the eyes 
 of faith, we may be able to see the love 
 of God soliciting our heaft, and begging 
 us to allow it to penetrate further, and we 
 say to it: "It is too much. One would have 
 to love too much. Do not come in! " 
 
 How often God is thus dismissed! He 
 can enter only if we permit Him, and it 
 seems that the demon, who also stands at 
 the gate of our heart, says to God mocking- 
 ly: "What are you doing there. Lord? You 
 are waiting' for them to open to you, but 
 it is trouble lost. They do not want vou.
 
 480 GOD HAS CREATED US 
 
 They prefer the nothings and the vanities 
 that I give, to your love!" And thus does 
 the demon humiliate God's love. But in 
 Paradise, the love of God finds no obstacle. 
 It displays itself in all its power, and the 
 soul is in God as God is in the soul. Then 
 there is liberty of love, effusion of love, and 
 it is this that makes Paradise. God gives 
 His gifts, His goodness. His riches, His ten- 
 derness. He gives to the soul all that He 
 has, and in Him the soul is deified as well 
 as beatified. 
 
 Behold our end, to become one with 
 God by love, by the possession, and the 
 enjoyment of unlimited happiness ; to live 
 in love eternal, happy with the happmes? 
 of God, beautiful with His beauty, rejoicing 
 in the happiness of Mary, of all the elect, 
 and of the angels, as if it were our own. 
 What a sublime end! what an end of love I 
 
 With a true and earnest desire, God wishes 
 us in Paradise. He wants to make us all 
 enter therein, and that at once. This was 
 the desire that would have been realized 
 for all, if Adam had not broken the law
 
 FOR HEAVEN 481 
 
 of love by sin. But now God gives it only 
 to those that are clothed with the merits 
 of His Divine Son's Redemptio 
 
 As for us, we are in the way, we are 
 going there, we are tending to it along 
 the road that God Himself has marked out. 
 The soul that ' loves God dies not. She 
 simply reaches ;the end of her journey, and 
 the barriers fall. She only changes her con- 
 dition. Her love of suffering becomes a 
 love of beatitude. Her body itself does but 
 rest in the earth, therein preparing for its 
 renewal in glory. Plants and animals die, 
 btrt man dies not, he only changes his state. 
 The earth will • not retain the dust of his 
 bones. It will restore all for the glorious 
 resurrection, and the whole man will live 
 again forever. 
 
 Paradise is, then, our end prepared by God 
 in order that we may be enabled to love 
 Him infinitely. We must, then, desire it 
 for that, above all, since we can there love 
 the good God without obstacle, without end, 
 without limit. 
 
 There are degrees in the desire ot tieaven
 
 4S2 GOD HAS CREATED US 
 
 Some say " I want to go to heaven, because 
 I shall be happy there, ^because people are 
 so well-off there. " This is the first and 
 lowest of desires for heaven. It is lawful, 
 but it is chiefly the desire of those that 
 live only for self, that work only for wages 
 as the day-laborers. It is lawful, it fits in 
 perfectly with the Christian law. But where 
 is the love, where is the desire to see the 
 good God? 
 
 Others say: "I want to go to Paradise, 
 that I may no more offend God. " That 
 is better, that desire is more noble, it has 
 the interests of God's glory more in view. 
 There is some love in that motive since 
 it is to be forever faithful to Him that 
 they desire heaven. 
 
 But there are others who say: "I want to 
 go to Paradise in order to love the good 
 God, to see Him, to praise Him, and always 
 to thank Him. " Oh! here is perfection, 
 since they want the good God for Himself 
 What a pleasing thing to hear one speaking 
 in this way! We say: Here are souls who 
 really love. It is, indeed, beautiful!
 
 FOR HEAVEN 483 
 
 But would it not be better, instead of 
 desiring heaven, to ask to remain upon earth 
 in order to labor and suffer in humiliation? 
 
 Some of the saints made this prayer in 
 a transport of love. But I think, taking 
 the thing in itself, there is more perfection 
 in wishing to go to God in order to love 
 Him more; the one desires to increase his 
 crown, the other wants to glorify God by 
 the love of heaven, which is far more 
 powerful than love here below. If the desire 
 of heaven in order to love more were not 
 in itself more perfect and gave not more 
 glory to God than the desire of remain- 
 ing on earth in order to labor more, 
 how explain those ardent longings that the 
 saints in general had for heaven, even at 
 the time when they were laboring most for 
 God? Had they thought it more perfect 
 to remain, they would not have so urgently 
 supplicated to be united to God. But they 
 knew that in heaven they could love and 
 glorify Him more. Thus Saint Paul, though 
 converting the nations, earnestly demanded 
 the dissolution of his body. However holy
 
 484 GOD HAS CREATED US 
 
 one may be, he will never love as much here 
 below as he will love in the Fatherland. 
 
 Behold the beautiful desire of heaven, 
 behold the most perfect! Sigh thus after 
 Paradise, 
 
 Love essentially longs for union. The great- 
 er the love, the more it aims at close and per- 
 fect union. If I love the good God, I desire 
 Him, He loves me, and He, too, desires me. 
 These two attractions end by exhausting life, 
 and then love enters into all its power and 
 its liberty of expansion in the bosom of God. 
 
 The desire of heaven is holy. God wishe? 
 us frequently to desire it, and that is the 
 reason He has filled our life with suffering, 
 persecution, and the cross. It is for thar 
 -He permits the inconstancy of human friend- 
 ships. He does not want us to be attached 
 to the goods of this world, nor to any 
 one in the world. We are not made for 
 one another, but for God alone. The hap- 
 piness of this world is but a point without 
 continuity, without length. One cannot attach 
 himself to it for any length of time, cannot 
 establish himself in it.
 
 FOR HEAVEN 
 
 We complain of the difficulties of the way, 
 of the crosses that we encounter. They 
 are the key of Paradise. Life is a road 
 bordered by briers and thorns. Our Lord 
 is walking before us bearing His Cross, let 
 us follow Him. He has left the imprint 
 of His steps, let us place our feet in them. 
 If we turn to the right or to the left, 
 thinking to find happiness, we shall scratch 
 ourselves with the thorns, for it is the Saviour 
 Himself who compares the joys of this world 
 to thorns. 
 
 Follow, then, Our Lord, for He is on 
 the way to Paradise. Take your cross, carry 
 it courageously to the end in order to arrive 
 in His suite. Fear not to suffer and to die 
 daily for Paradise. If you find the road 
 difficult, Our Lord says to you that you will 
 thereby arrive more quickly. 
 
 Do not think so much of the difficultie? 
 of the way. That which His grace has 
 traced out for you, is the good way for 
 you, and His mercy will sustain you in 
 it. It is that way which will surely lead 
 you straight to heaven.
 
 ^^i»^«aft«ft««'R*a^a&«ift*yii'tft«afe«y^*y-,«y.«ift«as^a5^ 
 
 ONLY TO PURITY OF HEART. Bf 
 
 ^ HEAVEN is GIVEN 
 ^ 
 
 OD in His love has created us for 
 heaven. Heaven ought to be the ob- 
 ject of all our desires, our only true end. 
 We are on earth only to render ourselves 
 worthy of heaven. But heaven is not given ; 
 it has to be purchased. Little children who 
 die after Baptism receive it without personal 
 merit, it is true. Our Lord pays for them, 
 but adults receive it only on a title of justice, 
 Coronam justitice. True it is that God gives 
 us the means of meriting it, but we must 
 correspond with His grace and faithfully em- 
 ploy those means. He gives and He recom- 
 penses in us His own gifts, if we have 
 rendered them fruitful. Thus does He rec- 
 oncile the goodness of His mercy and the 
 requirements of His justice. 
 
 Let us not forget that we have to merit, 
 purchase, and pay for heaven. The present 
 time is intended only for amassing its price. 
 The crown of justice is given only to victory.
 
 HEAVEN IS GIVEN ONLY TO PURITY 487 
 
 and to receive it we must persevere till death. 
 It is not enough tO' run the race for some 
 years, one is crowned only when he reaches 
 the goal. For every one, the absolute and 
 necessary price of heaven, is fidelity to his 
 own grace, to his particular grace. God does 
 not demand from all an equal measure of 
 merits and virtues; but there is, nevertheless, 
 one measure strictly required, one condition 
 essential for all, and that is the state of 
 grace. One must be pure to enter heaven. 
 This law is indispensable and without ex- 
 ception, — heaven is awarded only to purity. 
 Nothing- soiled will ever enter there. 
 
 Hence, not knowing: when God will call 
 us, let us have always at hand the price of 
 our Paradise, and let us be pure of heart, 
 pure in our life, free from all sin. The 
 purer we shall be, for there are deg-rees 
 in purity, the more glorious shall we be in 
 heaven, and the nearer we shall approach 
 to God. It is purity of life that decides 
 the degree of every saint's glory. 
 ^We must, then, adhere to purity of life. 
 Let us not tiirh away from it, for it is
 
 488 HEAVEN IS GIVEN ONLY 
 
 essential, absolutely necessary. We must be 
 free from every mortal sin under pain of 
 eternal damnation, and from every venial 
 sin under pain of delaying our happiness, 
 sometimes for a very long time 
 
 Do you want, then, to go to Paradise? 
 Be pure from every mortal sin, and I add: 
 Be pure from every deliberate venial sin. 
 Oh, never consent to it; or if you do 
 get rid of it at once I In the Old Law. 
 God prescribed innumerable purifications. 
 This was the warning that He gave us of 
 the necessity of purifying ourselves inces- 
 santly by the baptism of love in the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 Are you sensitive on the subject of purity, 
 avoiding even the appearance of sin, the 
 least occasions, all that which, far or near, 
 looks like sin? If so, you are on the straight 
 road to Paradise; purgatory will have no 
 work to do in you. 
 
 Shun, then, the least faults, in order not 
 lo force Our Lord to make you wait for 
 your reward. It distresses Him much to put 
 souls into purgatory. He does it, because
 
 TO PURITY OF HEART 489 
 
 His justice demands it, but it is most painful 
 to His love. 
 
 The conclusion of all this is that you 
 be ready to die rather than commit a mortal 
 sin, and ready to die, also, rather than commit 
 a venial sin with deliberation. Rather endure 
 all things, rather death itself than offend 
 Godl It would be better to let the whole 
 world go to ruin rather than try to save it 
 by the smallest venial sin. 
 
 Live, then, in this disposition of enduring 
 everything, of allowing yourself to be de- 
 spoiled of everything, to be ready to beg your 
 bread barefoot, rather than consent to a 
 venial sin. 
 
 But how often we tell fibs to excuse our- 
 selves and hide our faults! 
 
 How many sins against the neighbor I Be 
 very strict in this regard. God is very reserv- 
 ed in pardoning such sins- Because they 
 are sins of society, committed against family 
 union. He metes out their punishment upon 
 the whole family. They strike Him in the 
 Heart, and He has not patience to await 
 the other life in order to punish them. He 
 
 The Divine Eucharist, ^2
 
 490 HEAVEN IS GIVEN ONLY 
 
 takes vengeance upon them in this world, 
 and terribly I Such faults violate His two 
 most sacred laws, that of the love of God, 
 and that of the love of the neighbor. And 
 yet, how many faults against charity, humility, 
 patience with regard to the neighbor! Our 
 Lord warns us that we shall render an account 
 for every useless word. What will it be for 
 those words against authority, those back- 
 biting words, those words against God's 
 S'oodness, those words against the poor of 
 Jesus Christ, against the lowly who are 
 already humiliated by their inferiority, what- 
 ever it may bel 
 
 Ah, what matter for the exameni What 
 fuel for the fire of purgatory 1 Do. not excuse 
 yourselves for these faults. Some may tell 
 you through charity that they are small, 
 that you commit them only through levity 
 and surprise. But never do you say that 
 to yourselves. Can we excuse ouiselves for 
 having given pain to the good God? 
 
 Now examine again the good that you 
 have spoiled, the grace that you have lost. 
 — They are not sins, do you say?— In them-
 
 TO PURITY OF HEART 491 
 
 selves, perhaps not; but yes, indeed, in their 
 cause. How have you lost those graces? 
 By sloth, by negligence, is it not? You are, 
 then, guilty of negligence and sloth. 
 
 Yes, yes, you may expect to go a long 
 time to purgatory, and for these trifles, for 
 a little word that escaped you, and which 
 you knew not how to repress. Ah, you will 
 remember it a long time ! A little laziness, 
 a little duty put off, for all such things you 
 will pay in purgatory even to the last 
 farthing. 
 
 Fly the shadow of sin, says the Hol> 
 Spirit, as you would flee from a viper. Notice 
 carefully that He is speaking of only the 
 shadow of sin, and He recommends flight 
 from it as from death itself. 
 
 Do not delude yourselves. We can appear 
 perfect exteriorly, and yet commit many sins 
 interiorly. Most of the sins of a rehgious 
 are in the' heart, in thought, feeling, pausing 
 in the interior will without manifesting them 
 selves in the exterior act. 
 
 And then, what abomination, very often 
 what folly I We commit faults against the
 
 492 HEAVEN IS GIVEN ONLY 
 
 good God in order not to displease the creat- 
 ure, in order not to sadden her, or even 
 to give her pleasure; but no one deserves 
 that you should give her pleasure at the 
 price of venial sin ! 
 
 I can understand faults, of weakness and 
 surprise; but what I cannot understand, is 
 that some commit such sins through fear of 
 displeasing the creature. What I understand 
 is that I am master of my own conscience, 
 that no one can do it violence, and I would 
 rather make an enemy than wound my 
 conscience. 
 
 Is it not true that a child can never be 
 forced to strike its father? Well conscience 
 has no friend. When there is question of 
 sin, you know no one. It is life or death. 
 "This thing pleases you? So much the 
 better. That thing displeases you? So much 
 the worse. I know only God and my own 
 conscience! " 
 
 The world says that the sa nts are inflex 
 ible. That's what they 'ought to be. It says 
 that religious people are intolerant. That's 
 what they have to be. 
 
 i
 
 TO PURITY OF HEART 493 
 
 You say that we should yield all we can, 
 and be conciliating. You are going to sully 
 yourselves. Are you obliged to taste poison 
 in order to try it? Remember that old man 
 Eleazar whose enemies wanted him to eat 
 in secret the flesh of the sacrifice, which 
 was forbidden. No, he preferred death. 
 
 Well now, our whole Christian life relig 
 ious and Eucharistic, ought to tend to make 
 us purer. The sun's rays, striking through 
 the air, purify it. Ah, behold the divine 
 sun, the sun of love! It ought to purify 
 you. The love of God is the fire of our 
 life. Its first and last effect is to purify us. 
 
 Remember that they who have a pure 
 heart are happy, because they will see God, 
 and because they are the virgins who.singing 
 His canticle, will follow the Lamb in heaven 
 whithersoever He goeth. 
 
 I was very much touched the first time 
 that I read that verse. Not all the saints, 
 but the saints that are virgins, have the 
 beautiful privilege of drawing nearest *to 
 the Lamb. 
 
 Consequently, be always pure. And when
 
 494 HEAVEN IS GIVEN ONLY TO PURITY 
 
 you shall have displeased Our Lord, give 
 yourself no rest until you have purified 
 yourself, and He has pardoned you. Be 
 pure, and for that be very loving. It is 
 love that makes the refinement and the 
 whiteness of purity. It is love that renders 
 it luminous ajid brilliant. May Our Lord 
 say to you as to Magdalen: "Many sins 
 are forgiven you, because you have loved 
 much. " 
 
 A pure soul is heaven begun, for Paradise 
 does but consummate and crown her purity.
 
 CONFERENCE 
 
 4 
 
 ON the EXAMENS. 
 
 ^T is good and necessary to have some 
 methods for the different exercises 
 of one's life, because if we rely on our 
 good will, we shall lose three-fourths of 
 our time in considering how to perform 
 them, aridity being more frequent than 
 fervor. 
 
 Methods are to the devout life what disci- 
 pline is for an army. If every one fought 
 according to his own ideas, there would 
 be no longer any force of cohesion. The 
 ord<2r well given, well transmitted and "execut 
 ed from point to point, assures victory. In 
 the same way, exercises made with order ^ 
 support one another and encompass our life, 
 hindering it from straying, and maintaining 
 it in the facility of acting always according 
 to obedience and grace. 
 
 I am going to speak to you about ex- 
 amens. First, let us lay down some prin- 
 ciples.
 
 496 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 If every' religious were very recollected 
 in God, he would be always present to 
 himself and would follow without effort and . 
 by a single interior glance, even the first 
 movements of his heart. He would, at first 
 sight recognize all that might be contrary 
 to the truth or to the sanctity of God. 
 
 To supply for the weakness of virtue and 
 to hold it always on the alert, your Rule 
 orders you three examens every day, name- 
 ly, the examen of foresight in the morning, 
 the particular examen at noon; and the gener- 
 al examen of the whole day in the evening 
 before retiring. 
 
 Perform these different examens with great 
 care and diligence, because they are the 
 indispensable means to arrive at the knowl- 
 ^edge of your faults and effectually to cor- 
 rect them. Make them even the matter 
 connected with your spiritual direction, a$ 
 far as regards exterior defects and tempta- 
 tions. 
 
 In your examens, aim first at correcting 
 all your exterior defects, one after another, 
 or according as circumstances render you
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 497 
 
 weaker in one or the other. Exterior de- 
 fects wound directly and openly the respect 
 and dignity of your service "near Our Lord. 
 They are more opposed to charity and the 
 edification of the neighbor. 
 
 Remember, however, that the best made 
 examens always remain fruitless, if the sanc- 
 tion of penitence and some means of greater 
 vigilance do not assure their efficacy One 
 of these- means is the little reminder which 
 we call a bernard, whose beads serve to 
 mark, as soon as committed, faults or omis- 
 sions, in order that they may be recalled 
 more readily in the next examen. Get one, 
 and carry it about you and, at every failure 
 in your resolutions, draw down a bead. It 
 is very simple but little means lead to great 
 things. 
 
 Now, let us see the nature of the examen 
 and its practice. 
 
 In the first place, you must give to it 
 primary importance, and consecrate to it all 
 the dihgence it deserves. The examen is 
 the true discussion of our interior and 
 exterior acts, in order to observe and discover
 
 498 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 defects, humbling ourselves for them before 
 God, and trying to amend for His love 
 and glory. 
 
 People do not like the examen. It is 
 the most difficult and the most repugnant 
 act of piety. Because no one likes to be- 
 hold himself always guilty and always hu- 
 miliated. It also costs much to reflect on 
 one's thoughts, to analyze and discuss them. 
 One would often prefer some great exterior 
 mortification to some minutes of serious exam- 
 en; and yet, without the examen, afnend- 
 ment is impossible. One never corrects that 
 of which he is ignorant. Hence, more true 
 humility, since this virtue rests on the truth 
 derived from the knowledge of one's misery. 
 Confidence in God loses its eloquence before 
 poverty and misery, and even love is silent, 
 because one is in self-ignorance. 
 
 It is," then, too true that a pious soul 
 who does not follow herself up, who does 
 not examine herself regularly, is no longer 
 sensitive to the avoidance of sin. She be- 
 comes exterior, an enigma and a mystery 
 to herself. She is like a wheaifield, which
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 499 
 
 presents a fine appearance, because it ii> 
 still green, but which tares invade and de- 
 vour the sap. On the day of the harvest 
 only poor and scattered ears will be found. 
 
 A pious soul who does not examine her- 
 self is always on extremes, either in blind 
 security, like the merchant who ruins him 
 self by selling at a loss without knowing 
 it; or in false and exaggerated humility, 
 because she does not want to take the trouble 
 to examine and determine precisely the 
 truth of her state. She thinks that she has 
 done well and has said all in confessing her' 
 self before God and her own self the poorest 
 and most miserable of creatures, and this 
 same accusation she carries to the tribunal of 
 penance. Now, what happens? She remains 
 ever in her defects, her piety, meantime, 
 constantly decreasing. 
 
 The best agent of the examen is love. 
 A soul that lov^es God with all her heart 
 easily sees her faults, and even the smallest 
 movement of evil nature, and she is in- 
 standy conscious of the presence of the 
 tempter. Such a soul beholds herself in God
 
 500 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 as in a faithful mirror. She reads herself 
 in God as does the child who, at a mere 
 glance, reads its fault in the trouble, or 
 the silence, or the withdrawal of affection 
 on the part of its father and mother. This 
 is - the most perfect examen, since it is in 
 its centre of action and perfection, in the 
 life of love, which suffices for all things, 
 and is the end of all means of holiness, 
 tvhatever they may be. 
 
 This should be the first disposition of the 
 soul on coming before the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment. The light of the divine fire that 
 bums in the Heart of Our Lord ought, at 
 the beginning of all your Adorations, pen 
 etrate into the inmost recesses of your 
 souT, -and show you in one instant all its 
 poverty and all its actual misery. It should 
 fill it at once with a profound sense of 
 its ingratitude, its unworthiness while, at 
 the same time, encouraging it by confidence 
 of bbtaining pardon, since you are at the 
 foot of the throne of grace and mercy. 
 
 When one enters the presence of a prince, 
 his first act is to look at him, and then to
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 501 
 
 cast: a glance on self to see whether every- 
 thing about him is as it should be, whether 
 lie will be pleasing to him just as he is. 
 
 But in this method there is less an examen 
 properly so called than the vigilance of 
 refinement. Make of the examen a relig- 
 ious exercise in itself, according to the form 
 and method that we shall here give you 
 by the appUcation of the four ends of . the 
 Holy Sacrifice. 
 
 The first is the examen of foresight, which 
 is made in the morning. It should last only 
 five minutes. 
 
 1. Adore Our Lord as your Knig, who 
 IS calling you to labor this day in His 
 lovely service and for His glory. Offer Him 
 at once and for the whole day the homage 
 of your heart, mind, body, of your whole 
 life, because He sovereignly deserves it from 
 every creature. Rejoice at the honor, the 
 happiness of spending this beautiful day 
 wholly in the service of the adorable Eu- 
 charist. 
 
 2. Thank this good Master for so great 
 a grace, as well as for all others of your
 
 502 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 life, but principally for your Baptism, your 
 vocation, and for the graces His love ha? 
 prepared for you to-day. Thank Him for 
 accepting your services. To ser\'e Him one 
 day is worth a whole life time, all Paradise. 
 
 3. Recognize, your weakness and defects 
 in view of so beautiful and holy a vocation 
 as is that of Adoration. Coyifess anew to 
 Our Lord your faults of the eve, your habitual 
 tepidity. Detest again that spirit of the world 
 which is always reviving, the power of self- 
 love, dissipation of soul,, cowardice of the 
 will; and promise Our Lord to correct your 
 dominant defect, of which you will determine 
 some special act to shun and to correct 
 on the present day. Recall the particular 
 resolution you took for the whole month at 
 your monthly retreat. Resolve what acts of 
 it you will make during the day; but. 
 above all, fix upon some penance to perform 
 after your failings, immediately after, if pos- 
 sible. This is important. 
 
 4. Pray and ask Our Lord for the grace to 
 be more faithful to-day. Commend yourself 
 iq the Blessed Virgin and to your good angel.
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 503 
 
 and set to work with the help of grace. 
 
 We may, also, make five acts for the exam- 
 en in this order: Recall the presence of 
 God, and adore Him; thank Him; implore 
 light of the Holy Spirit through the inter- 
 cession of Mary; then inquire into one's 
 faults; lastly, repent and resolve. 
 
 The four ends of the Holy Sacrifice com- 
 prise these acts, as you see. It is better 
 for you to make use of this method, which 
 you already employ at Adoration and in 
 Communion. That leads to unity in piety, 
 and it is very advantageous to simplify these 
 pious means. 
 
 In the same way, again, when a feast, 
 or a mystery, or some special circumstance 
 presents itself, let your examen touch upon 
 the spirit of the occasion. Adore Our Lord in 
 the state of this mystery, and perform the 
 other acts in its spirit. You will, then, have 
 its grace for the whole day'. 
 
 The second examen is that which I shall 
 call particular, because it bears upon some 
 certain point. Make it, also, during two or 
 three minutes only.
 
 504 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 1. Adore Our Lord as a good Master, 
 in whose .service you are happy to be. 
 
 2. Thank Him, but quickly, by a single 
 act, for the past half-day. 
 
 3. Cast a rapid glance on the actions 
 of the morning, to see whether you have 
 performed them well, according to the law 
 of obedience and the virtue proper to them. 
 Then concentrate your examen upon the 
 virtue that you are aiming to acquire espe- 
 cially during this month. See whether you 
 have made some positive acts of the virtue 
 that you had determined in the examen of 
 foresight. 
 
 4. Excite yourself to contrition and to 
 keep it better. 
 
 The third examen is that of the whole 
 day, called the general examen. It is made 
 on all the duties of your vocation and on 
 all the faults you may have committed 
 during the whole day. 
 
 Make it, also, by the four ends of the 
 Holy Sacrifice, but with the following mod- 
 ifications : 
 
 1. Adore Our Lord as your Judge, to
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 505 
 
 whom you come to render an account of your 
 day as of the last, perhaps, that He will 
 give you before calling you to appear at 
 His tribunal. 
 
 Thank Him for all the graces of the day, 
 run over the principal ones, and praise Hi? 
 infinite goodness toward you. 
 
 3. Humble yourself, and examine your 
 conscience by glancing at the different duties 
 of the day from your rising until the evening. 
 Recall the resolutions of the morning and 
 of noon. See whether you have made the 
 acts that you promised. 
 
 4. Lastly, excite yourself to true contrition 
 as you do when you receive sacramental 
 absolution. Make satisfaction to Divine Jus- 
 tice by the penance proposed, and abandon 
 yourself to the mercy of God. Then go 
 asleep near Him, under His roof, or better, 
 in His arms so maternal. 
 
 Remark relatively to the contrition of the 
 cxamen, the best means is humbly tO' ask 
 it of God. It is not necessary to feel it. 
 He really has it who asks for it with humility 
 and earnestness, although he may feel no 
 
 The Di%ine Eucharist. 13
 
 506 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 
 
 movement of it. The. sensible feeling is never 
 requisite. As one adv'ances in age, he feels 
 less. As for those that always want to feel 
 keenly, if^ they are not careful, they will 
 hurt themselves. 
 
 Remark again that the examen ought to 
 be made on positive acts, which have really 
 taken place, whether from without, or only 
 in the will. As to temptations, do not try 
 to recall them, to give life to their phantoms, 
 in order to know whether, perhaps, you have 
 not consented. This is not necessary. It is 
 a ruse of the demon to make the temptation 
 return, to make you find in it a little 
 pleasure, and to extort from you a half- 
 consent. 
 
 No, be conscientious, but not scrupulous. 
 When one has been wounded, one feels it 
 enough without having need to search minute- 
 ly. You will very soon be conscious of 
 remorse and trouble. Humble yourself for 
 it without trying to awaken what has been 
 hushed to rest, and which might, perhaps, 
 sully you by its remembrance. 
 
 So much for the examen, its nature and
 
 CONFERENCE ON THE EXAMENS 507 
 
 its spirit. Be very faithful to it, and you 
 will find peace in it, while at the same 
 time Our Lord will reward you magnificently 
 for having faithfully administered in the 
 little things of every day, the talents and 
 graces that He has entrusted to you.
 
 
 WE MUST LIVE 
 
 of the MERCY of GOD. 
 
 [he Prophet composed a Canticle, the 
 most beautiful with which his heart 
 had been inspired. It is the canticle of the 
 mercy of God, in which he repeats at every 
 verse that His mercy endureth forever. 
 (Ps. cxxxv.) 
 
 David had good reason to bless that mercy, 
 to sing that ocean of mercy, because he 
 had sinned, and that mercy had saved him 
 from hh sin. There are saints who are the 
 work of divine mercy, and who became 
 greater saints by -the power of mercy and 
 by the constant homage they afterward 
 rendered to it, than they would have been 
 by innocence and virginity. Witness Saint 
 Peter, far greater, far more devoted after 
 his sin than before, also Saint Paul and 
 Saint Magdalen. Their sanctity was nourish- 
 ed on mercy, their tears were the food of 
 their love. 
 
 If you are angels, live of the majesty of
 
 THE MERCY OF GOD 509 
 
 God; but if you are human and sinners, 
 live of the mercy, exalt the goodness of God 
 who has saved you, and who gives you 
 life. We must learn how to exalt the mercy 
 of the good God, to see therein all our 
 gifts, all our graces, and to have constantly 
 on our lips this cry of gratitude: "My God, 
 Thou hast been so good to me who am so 
 wicked! " 
 
 This thought of past sins does not render 
 one unhappy. It detaches from sin and at 
 taches to the divine goodness. If one weeps 
 over it, the heart pours itself out in sweet 
 tears of penance and love, and such tears 
 make one happy. 
 
 Every one knows how much he owes to 
 the mercy of God, and we can all say that 
 it is due to Him that we have not fallen 
 into hell. The more sins we have committed, 
 the more grateful should we be to His 
 mercy. 
 
 If we have never sinned mortally, God's 
 mercy in pardoning us our venial sins is 
 not less. It is always the fruit of Jesus' 
 blood. And then we renew them so often
 
 510 THE MERCY OF GOD 
 
 that God has to exercise it incessantly, while 
 the occasions of mortal sin are raider. Be- 
 sides, when we sin venially, we are in His 
 friendship, and we afflict His Heart and His 
 love in the tender est point. 
 
 God's mercy is magnanimous. He pardons 
 generously and forever, for He knows not 
 how to forget only half. He restores the 
 joy of innocence and the honor of the first 
 state. He pardons not as a man, but as 
 God. He Avishes us still to remember our 
 sins, but with a thought of love, of gratitude, 
 in order to laud His mercy which has par- 
 doned them. 
 
 And yet, we sometimes tremble and ask 
 whether God has indeed pardoned our sins. 
 Have you prayed earnestly that He would 
 pardon them? Have you come with confi- 
 dence that He might pardon them? Yes. 
 Well, then, God has pardoned them. That 
 confidence — it is He who has inspired you 
 with it. Had He not wished to pardon you, 
 He would not have called you ^^o Him, nor 
 led you to His feet. And again, did not 
 Our Lord give you some moments, in
 
 THE MERCY OF GOD 511 
 
 Communion or in devout Adoration, above 
 all at night, in which you tasted so sweet 
 I peace that you were surprised at it? Alone 
 with the good God, you were so happy that 
 you forgot your body and the earth. You 
 were transported into an atmosphere of divine 
 peace. It seemed to you to eat the good 
 God I This is a proof that He has pardoned 
 your sins. God loads you with caresses, 
 [presses you to His Heart, embraces you. 
 If He did not love you as His child to 
 whom He has restored its rights and His 
 love, He would, not treat you thus. 
 
 In the same way, the contentment you 
 feel after your confessions is a proof of 
 your pardon and of the renewal of friendship. 
 Goci wishes us to ,have the consciousness 
 of pardon, by the friendship that He testifies 
 toward us. How consoling this is! He is 
 not satisfied with giving us faith in the 
 power of the Sacrament of Penance, He 
 gives us, moreover, testimonies of friend- 
 ship, in order that we may go away happy 
 and, as it were, sure of our .pardon. 
 
 God's mercy is such that one might think
 
 512 THE MERCY OF GOD 
 
 He wishes to tempt us. Our Lord says to 
 us: "Sin not. Nevertheless, if you offend 
 My Father, come quickly to Me, and I 
 will pardon you. " Can mercy go farther 
 than to grant pardon to the sinner in 
 advance, and promise to place itself between 
 him and Divine Justice? These are the ex- 
 cesses of mercy which triumph over God's 
 justice — Misericordia superexnltat judicium? 
 
 Live, then, of this mercy. Let its patience 
 in waiting so long and pardoning so often 
 draw you toward it. The sooner you re- 
 turn after having sinned, the sooner will 
 you be pardoned. Consequently, no discour- 
 agement! Never say: "I have sinned too 
 much to be pardoned. See how many times 
 I fall back into the same faults!" — No, but 
 see how much greater than sin is mercy. 
 You are able to count your sins, but you 
 cannot measure mercy. Return, then, always 
 without delay as often as you offend, and 
 say, as the weeping child to its mother: 
 " My God, I have given Thee pain, I have 
 wounded Thy Heart, pardon me I " You will 
 not rise without having received pardon.
 
 THE MERCY OF GOD 513 
 
 The good God is, then, very good in 
 His mercy! He has multiplied the means 
 of pardon. It is not necessary to confes? 
 every time you have committed a venial 
 sin. He has placed in your hands the sac- 
 ramentals, the Confiteor, the Pater, and above 
 all holy water. Any one of these with an 
 act of regret, purifies you. Holy Mass and 
 Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament are, 
 also, sacraments of mercy. Lastly, there is 
 love, the turning of the contrite heart toward 
 Our Lord, which is an absolving from venial 
 faults. How sweet tO' receive absolution from 
 Our Lord Himself! When a soul is at Our 
 Lord's feet, humbling herself, believing her- 
 self unworthy to communicate because she 
 has sinned, oh, Our Lord pardons her, gives 
 her absolution for her fault! Our Lord loves* 
 us to make Him pardon us in this way, 
 because love then repairs far beyond the 
 injury of the fault. 
 
 Believe me, then, live always of the mercy 
 of God. Let me suppose that you have 
 never committed sin; but can you not com- 
 mit it? Oh! yes, as much as the greatest
 
 514 THE MERCY OF GOD 
 
 criminals. If, then, you can commit it,, what 
 difference is there between you and him 
 who has really committed it? Wliat has 
 preserved you ? jNIercy, the same that reclaim- 
 ed^ me, a. sinner. We are then, both the one 
 and the other, debtors to this divine mercy. 
 And you yourselves owe it more, you whom 
 it preserved at. the moment, perhaps, when 
 having already taken the first step toward 
 evil, you were going to consummate it. By 
 withdrawing you from it, mercy has performed 
 two miracles instead of one. Live, then, 
 also on gratitude toward it, and place all 
 your trust in it. 
 
 If the good God were not infinite in 
 mercy, if He did not know that it could 
 never be exhausted, however great the floods 
 of it that He constantly pours out, He 
 never would have undertaken to lead us 
 to Paradise. How many preventing graces 
 to give, how many falls to repair, how many 
 long-suffering pardons, what .innumerable 
 pajrdons during a man's lifetime! The good 
 God is never discouraged. His mercy never
 
 THE MERCY OF GOD 515 
 
 abandons us, • and at our last sigh, it i? 
 there to receive us. 
 
 It is God's mercy that disposes for u? 
 all our graces. It was it that prepared for 
 you this vocation which you never could 
 have merited by yourselves So many other 
 souls in the world who are purer than you, 
 who deserve more than you to be always 
 in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament 
 as Its servants, Its family! But mercy loves 
 you. It has called you, and it desires now 
 to give you all that is wanting to you. 
 
 Aht say whether or not the good God 
 has not been good to you, whether He ha? 
 not been prodigal of mercy! And you will 
 not live in this love, in this infinite mercy? 
 You will still rest your glance on self, and 
 be held back by a spider-web? No, live 
 of the love of God's love and mercy, and 
 you will begin to become saints!
 
 
 The VIRGINAL LOVE 
 
 of JESUS. 
 
 ^^S? «0S'' * «*f" •*■' *!■" •^c' «^^»^ ?5'W*^'^ 5^ •5?3^ »^»^: 
 
 OD created you in His love. His mercy 
 has loaded you with graces. He has 
 placed you in the best conditions for sal- 
 vation. How respond to this love, if not by 
 love? God having so greatly loved you, it 
 is for you a necessity to love Him. 
 
 But to you, above all, who have vowed 
 yourselves to Him by the religious life, it 
 is a necessity to live of love. The vow 
 of virginity that you have made, is none 
 other than the vow of love, which obliges 
 you by your state, by your vocation to love. 
 The other vows are a profession of the 
 evangelical virtues; but by the .vow of vir- 
 ginity, you say to God: "My God, I vow 
 to love Thee perpetually, and none other 
 than Thou shall ever possess my heart. " 
 
 How beautiful is this vow which gives 
 heart and love to God alone! In the early 
 days of the Church, before there were any 
 monasteries, it was the only vow made, and
 
 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 517 
 
 by it virgins were religious in the world. 
 They continued to dwell in their families, 
 but they were considered a sacred Order 
 of the Church, an eminent Order, which 
 Saint Paul and the Fathers exalt by the 
 most magnificent eulogiums. Nothing is so 
 beautiful as the prayers of the consecration 
 of a virgin, handed down to us from the 
 Apostolic age 1 
 
 This vow by itself alone consecrates to 
 God. It separates from the common, com- 
 municates a sacred dignity. Like the priest 
 and the chalice of the Holy Sacrifice, the 
 virgin is a sacred thing. Her vow takes 
 the place of the holy anointing. This vow 
 consecrates the virgin to Jesus Christ as 
 His spouse. It is the contract of an eternaji 
 alliance with Him. For the woman, it takes 
 the place of the sacerdotal consecration which 
 devotes the Levite to Our Lord as His 
 eternal minister. 
 
 Ah, well I you have made this beautiful vow. 
 Its nobility springs from this that it has its 
 seat in the heart, and gives its love and affec- 
 tion to Jesus Christ. It is a vow of absolute
 
 518 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 
 
 and irrevocable love, which obliges you to 
 love Our God above all others, entirely and 
 in a virginal manner. The vows of obedience 
 and poverty are the way of merit; but the 
 vow of virginity is the way of love and 
 excellence, for it elevates those that make 
 it to the honor of being truly the spouses 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Our Lord loves this vow. He is jealous 
 of it. I think, indeed, it is the vow of 
 the he.art and of love. You ought, then, to 
 love it in a special manner and without 
 division. You are no longer free as regards 
 your heart and its affections, all belong 
 to your Divine Spouse. Ah! do not mingle 
 the love of creatures with His love. That 
 would be an abominable profanation. 
 
 As the unfaithful spouse is branded for- 
 ever with the name of adulteress, the Church 
 stamps the virgin who violates her vow of 
 virginity with still more shameful disgrace. 
 She calls it sacrilege. It is the name that 
 she gives to those that profane the sacred 
 vessels, the holy temple, the Sacred Hosts, 
 The unfaithful virgin, also, profanes a thing
 
 THE VIRGINAL . LOVE OF JESUS 519 
 
 that is" holy and consecrated to Jesus Christ. 
 Our Lord had reserved her for Himself. 
 He wished her to be His, and His alone. 
 He wanted her whole heart, her whole love. 
 She profaned the sacred vessel of Jesus Christ, 
 His ciborium, and His host! 
 
 You must, then, love Our Lord as faithful 
 spouses, you must ♦submit to all His rights. 
 You are bound forever, and you will be 
 crowned under the title of faithful virgins, 
 or condenmed as sacrilegious virgins. 
 
 You have vowed and consecrated your- 
 selves. You must, moreover, be immolated 
 to Our Lord. What do I mean by this? 
 That you must be immolated to the love 
 of your Spouse, and live for Him in continual 
 sacrifice. Your vow, by constituting you a 
 sacred t.hing, marks you out for sacrifice 
 like the victims that are chosen young, pure, 
 and without blemish, and are destined to 
 be immolated to the Lord from the moment 
 they are separated from the profane. 
 
 Love is crucifying. It imitiolates. More- 
 over, it is to the Crucified Spouse that you 
 are united. Ought not the spouse to share
 
 520 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 
 
 the State of her Spouse? It is not yet time 
 to enjoy the happiness of your union. As 
 long as you are ' on earth, you are only 
 the betrothed of Jesus Christ. You belong- 
 to Him, you are no longer free, but the 
 plenitude of union and His delights are for 
 heaven. In the meantime, Our Lord will 
 visit you from time to -time, and He will 
 send His angels to console you, but you 
 must not expect present enjoyment. 
 
 This is the time to perfect yourselves, to 
 adorn yourselves with virtues for the day 
 of your eternal nuptials. Our Lord wants 
 to see in you wise and prudent virgins who 
 fill their lamps witli oil, and who watch 
 for the coming of the Spouse. The virtues 
 of Our L-ord are not acquired all at once. 
 Their practice costs. Devote yourselves to 
 them without fear, with courage and perse- 
 verance. They must be your adornment on 
 the day on which He will present you to 
 His Father for the celebration of the heaven- 
 ly nuptials in Paradise in presence of His 
 angels. 
 
 Recall, however, that, on account of your
 
 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 521 
 
 title of spouses, you are bound to devote 
 yourselves through love to the practice of 
 the virtues, that all you do ought to prove 
 this love to your Spouse, and that you 
 ^should recoil from no sacrifice for Him. 
 Let your love be sovereign, absolute, u- 
 nique, and for nothing but Him. Neither self 
 nor. any creature has a right outside of 
 Him. What! you would make yourself the 
 end of that heart which Our Lord ennobles 
 by His grace, which He fills with His love, 
 in order to be the only and sovereign object 
 of it? 
 
 Will you make any creature whatsoejver 
 the end of that heart by stealing it from 
 Him to whom it belongs? God preserve you 
 from that! In the religious life, above all, 
 you ought to love- one another. You form 
 a circle around Our Lord, but He is to 
 be the only centre of it Let all its rays 
 converge straight to Him. Woe to you, if 
 you do not love Our Lord, or if you do 
 not love Him alone! 
 
 But how ought you to love Him? You 
 ought to love Him as He loves you. Love
 
 522 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 
 
 calls for equality, reciprocity. Now, Our 
 Lord loves you as He loves His Father, 
 that is, just as Jesus loves His Father by 
 a continual reference of all that He is, of 
 all that He does to His glory and service, 
 so Our Lord has a constant relation of 
 love and grace toward you. His Heart, His 
 spirit, His merits are all yours. He loves 
 you with His whole being, making you the 
 end of His thoughts, His love, of all His 
 actions and sufferings. 
 
 Behold, then, how you ought to love Him 
 by referring all that you are, all that you 
 have, your merits and sufferings, your en- 
 tire life to Him, by love. Give Him your 
 mind, in order to think only of Him and 
 for Him; your will, that it may be happy 
 in obeying and serving Him in all that 
 He wills; your body, that He may reproduce 
 in it His virtues and His meritorious suffer- 
 ings. Establish and preserve this constant 
 relation between your faculties and His 
 faculties, your mind and His mind, your 
 heart and His Heart, your body and His 
 Body, in a word, between your whole being
 
 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 523 
 
 and His whole Being. In this way, will you 
 love as you are loved. 
 
 Our Lord says to you: "I am thinking 
 of you constantly. Why will you not think 
 constantly of Me? 
 
 " My Heart desires only to do you good, 
 to- fill you with love. Why does your heart 
 not make some return to Me by continual, 
 homage of gratitude and love? 
 
 " I give you My Body. I immolate It 
 daily for you in sacrifice, and I even give 
 It to you to eat, so that It becomes your 
 Victim, your Food. Why will you not con- 
 secrate all your senses and your body to 
 suffer with me and repair sin, which offends 
 My Father and wounds My Heart?" 
 
 Oh, how Our Lord suffers if we do not 
 respond to His love! He loves us with, so 
 much ardor, with so strong a love. Beholding 
 you, you, poor, little creature, poor worm of 
 the earth. He says to you: "I love thee with 
 a passionate love. I love thee, I am cap- 
 tivated by thee!" His passion makes Him 
 forget His dignity. He desires a return. He 
 demands it, and He longs to be loved by
 
 524 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 
 
 this worm, as if such love were worthy of 
 Him and would make His happiness! In 
 human relations, if an inferior says to .his 
 superior: "I love you," he insults him, for 
 it is putting himself on a level with him and 
 exacting a return. He has a right only to 
 respect him. But Our Lord effaces all dis* 
 tances of dignity, and says to us: "I love 
 thee, love Me! " 
 
 When we love some one, we want to see 
 him, to look at him constantly. And so 
 Our Lord is always casting on you a glance 
 of love. He regards you with eyes full 
 of kindness,, full of a father's tenderness. 
 He follows you everywhere. You are His 
 constant thought. Why do you not look at 
 Him? Your loving eyes ought to be fixed 
 upon Our Lord, and never lose sight of 
 Him. If your bodily eyes are arrested by 
 walls, those of the soul can behold Him 
 everywhere. Sight is knowledge, it is love, 
 and love is ever a painter. It creates the 
 object loved, and constantly places it before 
 the eyes. 
 
 Our Lord is always wishing you well,
 
 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 525 
 
 always seeking" the occasion to confer new 
 benefits upon you. Why do you not do 
 all through love for Him? First, in your 
 exercises of piety, but still more in your 
 cell, in your employments. Why is not every 
 one of your actions a homage of love to 
 Him? 
 
 What is love, except a pure flame that 
 mounts toward heaven? What you do not 
 for His love is mingled with smoke while 
 you might be a flame bright and clear. 
 
 Again, Our Lord loves you with an ever 
 increasing love, which is always a new and 
 greater grace. Our Lord varies and increases 
 incessantly His gifts of grace, -and ever shows 
 Himself in a new light The love of to-day 
 is greater than that of yesterday, and until 
 the end of your life it will daily increase, 
 because every new grace is an addition to 
 those of the past. His love expands like 
 the flower, which, opening under the ris- 
 ing sun, continues to unfold until it is perfect 
 in the noonday rays. 
 
 You, too, ought to love Him ever with 
 a new love. You must be able to say
 
 526 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 
 
 to Him: "I love Thee to-day more than 
 yesterday, because I have one day more, 
 more graces, more debts of love!" 
 
 Pay these debts by living of love, of 
 gratitude, of homage, by retaining nothing 
 for self of whatever you do. 
 
 Personality, the ego, always remains, you 
 draw to self. That wound, which is constantly 
 opening must be healed by the fire of love. 
 
 In doing everjting for Our Lord, you are 
 doing nothing extraordinary, but only your 
 simple duty. You will never reach Our 
 Lord's love for you. Many of the saints 
 wept at not being able to love Our Lord 
 enough, and they cried out : " Ah I why have 
 I not an infinite love to respond to His 
 infinite love!" Such tears are very pleasing 
 to the good God. They are the desires and 
 the impotence of love. It is the little creature 
 holding out its arms to the Creator from 
 the river of time, longing to embrace Him. 
 And God responds : " I love thee, poor little 
 worm of the earth!" 
 
 Ah, then, will you love Our Lord? Give 
 yourself to Him and live for Him by love,
 
 THE VIRGINAL LOVE OF JESUS 527 
 
 as He lives for you. Seek in your heart 
 all that can give Him mosf pleasure, as 
 He does for you. Is this perfection? No, it 
 is only the beginning, and your duty as 
 a child. There cannot be pride in presum- 
 ing to act in this way. Who can be proud 
 when looking at Our Lord? 
 
 Renew your vow of virginity. It is your 
 vow of love. The others are the fruit of 
 your life, but this is your flower. Renew 
 it often. Say : " My God, I consecrate my- 
 self to Thee in order to love Thee chastely, 
 in order to love Thee^— how shall I say? 
 — with a love of blood, with an eternal 
 love! "
 
 
 CONFERENCE 
 
 ON CONFESSION. 
 
 ONFESSION is the last plank of salvation 
 that God gives us amid the tempests 
 of this wicked world. To render it useless 
 is infallibly to ruin one's self, since there 
 is no other means of pardon. There remains, 
 indeed, the act of perfect love which jus 
 tifies, but it must contain also the desire 
 of confession. Take great care, then, to shun 
 whatever could injure the good of confession, 
 and practise what assures to it utility and 
 success. 
 
 In the first place, rigorously shun all 
 natural and human relations with the confess- 
 or during the dread action of confession. 
 He is no longer a man^ he is Jesus Christ 
 on His tribunal of justice and mercy. 
 
 It is the Saviour Himself who communicates 
 to him by the Sacrament of Order this 
 power, formidable and consoling at the same 
 time.of doing what He Himself does. "What 
 soever sins you shall loose upon earth shall
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 529 
 
 be loosed in heaven, and whatsoever sins 
 you shall bind upon earth shall be bound 
 in heaven. " 
 
 Thus the priest's judgment is the rule of the 
 judgment of God. His sentence precedes that 
 of Heaven. It is the law that Jesus Christ 
 has established, that He respects and follows. 
 
 The confessor is, then, the minis^ter of 
 God's justice, the guardian of the divine 
 law. He must assure its execution and 
 punish the infraction of it under pain of 
 being an unfaithful minister, and of taking 
 in purgatory or in hell the place of the 
 guilty unjustly absolved. 
 
 He has to judge. He ought, then, to 
 know the nature and the number of our 
 faults; hence, the necessity for sincere and 
 entire accusation on the par't of the penitent.. 
 Go to him, then, in the truth and sincerity 
 of your conscience. 
 
 But the confessor is, above all, the minister 
 of mercy. He is a father, as well as a 
 judge, the divine physician of our souls, 
 the good Samaritan of our wounds. Jesus 
 has placed in his hands all the graces of
 
 530 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 Redemption. He has given him power to 
 restore life to our souls. Go to him, there- 
 fore, with the confidence of faith. 
 
 Again, avoid in confession, all that is for- 
 eign to this great action, because you lose 
 sight of the chief end and expose yourself 
 to failing in respect toward the Sacrament, 
 to diminishing, to losing contrition. This is 
 the danger of frequent confessions. They 
 commence with God and often end with 
 the creature, or fall into mere trifling. Shun 
 that as you would poison. 
 
 Carefully avoid every discussion, every 
 useless , explanation, because you ought nei- 
 ther to lose your own time nor uselessly 
 take up that of the priest, which is so very 
 precious. Another reason is that what is use- 
 less is often dangerous and may easily be- 
 come culpable. It is rare, indeed, that vanity 
 or some research of self-love is not the 
 principle of it. 
 
 See Magdalen. By her position at the 
 feet of the Saviour, note how entirely she 
 is absorbed in her confession; and in her 
 contrition, by the tears of her heart.
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 531 
 
 Consider the poor publican humble and 
 humiliated in the lower part of the Temple. 
 He speaks only of his sins to the Divine 
 Mercy, paying no attention to what is going 
 on around him nor to the words of the 
 Pharisee. 
 
 Ah! if people thought seriously that the 
 confession they are about to make, or are 
 making at that very moment, may decide 
 their eternity, that it may be the last ab- 
 solution they shall receive, the last confession 
 before death, they would make it better 1 
 
 If we would seriously consider the malice 
 and the number of .our sins in presence 
 of- the sufferings and humiliations of the 
 Saviour dying on the Cross for us, our 
 heart would not be so hard and, above all, 
 so distracted. 
 
 If our love for Jesus Christ were more 
 heartfelt, more absorbing, how much more 
 refined it would be! 
 
 To confess all, it is necessary to examine 
 one's self well. Now, a good examen calls 
 for three conditions; 
 
 1. We should ask God for the grace to
 
 532 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 know ourseves such as we are in His eyes; 
 then we should invoke the help of the Most 
 Holy Virgin and of our good angel, the 
 witness of all our actions. 
 
 2. The search for our sins. The simplest 
 way to do this, is attentively to pass in 
 review the employments of the day from 
 the moment of awaking till evening, running 
 through successively each duty of the day, 
 and the way in which it was accomplished. 
 As for extraordinary faults, they leave, as 
 a rule, a sufficient impression so that one 
 will have no need to seek them with inquie- 
 tude. 
 
 It is neither a simple nor a fruitful means 
 to makes one's examen by seeking in what 
 we have failed in all our thoughts, words, 
 and actions, without following any daily 
 order. We lose ourselves in so vast a field, 
 and an effort of the memory, which fatigues 
 the mind to the detriment of compunction, 
 is necessary for it. 
 
 Do not make it in that way. First, examine 
 exterior sins. Interior ones may be supposed 
 from them. Examine them in yourself, recall-
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION o 533 
 
 ing your daily duties toward God, namely, 
 what you owe to piety, to the Sacraments, 
 to your vows, to the duties of your state; 
 relations of respect and obedience to Supe- 
 riors, of gentleness and charity toward the 
 neighbor, of humility and mortification to- 
 ward yourself. 
 
 As for temptations, do not judge them 
 by their impression, nor by the trouble into 
 which they throw you, nor by their duration. 
 Sin begins only at the light, or at J:he cry 
 of conscience warned and enlightened, and 
 not in sleep or in the distraction of the 
 will. 
 
 3. Give more time to contrition than to 
 the examen. The examen shows the wound, 
 contrition is the remedy. Excite yourself to 
 contrition not so much by considerations of 
 the mind as by affection of heart. After 
 that think of your obligations as a Chris- 
 tian, a religious, an adoratrice. As a Chrb- 
 tian, behold Jesus humiliated, sad, and suffer- 
 ing in you, owing to your venial sins; 
 God preserve you from crucifying and putting 
 Him to death in your body and soul
 
 534 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 by mortal sin! As a religious, see the pain 
 you have given by your infidelities of heart 
 to your Divine Spouse Jesus who loves you 
 with so much tenderness. As adoratrice, see 
 the weakness and malice of your soul, 
 which have had, the power to paralyze the 
 special graces, the very particular love that 
 Jesus testifies for you, and perhaps, td stifle 
 and destroy it. 
 
 See the Most Blessed Virgin holding in 
 her arms the Body of Jesus crucified and 
 bruised by your sins. Kiss those wounds of 
 love, weep upon His Heart, and then go 
 and kneel in humble penitence at the feet 
 of the priest. 
 
 Remember, also, that God pardons only 
 the contrite and humble heart, and that the 
 most powerful motive for contrition is that 
 of divine love, regret for having offended 
 Him who has loved us so much. It ought 
 to make the smallest offence the greatest 
 evil in our eyes, since it wounds a God 
 infinitely good and amiable. 
 
 In the act of confessing, observe three 
 duties :
 
 CONFERENCB ON CONFESSION 535 
 
 1. Tell your sins in all simplicity, confess- 
 ing them as you know them and are affected 
 by them at the moment. 
 
 2. Accuse yourself with propriety, in be- 
 coming words, through respect for the priest 
 and for yourself. Enter into no detail upon 
 the way in which you committed the sin. 
 The way falls not under the law of accusa- 
 tion. It is even prohibited when there is 
 question of sins against chastity. Tell the 
 nature of sins of thought without recounting 
 them in detail, without explaining them, 
 which is never obligatory. Mention your sins 
 of words, but without repeating thei words. 
 Be satisfied with mentioning their species, 
 namely, against charity, or authority, or 
 chastity. As to sins of act, tell the nature 
 of the sin, its gricvousness. In sins of 
 omission, state what duty you have omitted. 
 
 3. Accuse yourself with humility, as .a 
 guilty man who tells his fault to Him who 
 already knows it better than he does him- 
 self, but who wishes by making him repeat 
 it to test his sincerity and repentance. Let 
 your humility consist in seeing and telling
 
 536 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 your faults truthfully, and not exaggerating 
 them. Exaggeration is oft^n the fruit either 
 of sloth which does not want the trouble 
 of examining, or of tepidity which clothes 
 itself with false contrition. 
 
 Carefully distinguish sin from imperfection. 
 Sin is a positive act of the will; imper- 
 fection is the product of our misery, of our 
 weakness. It is more an act of the imagina- 
 tion than of reason, more a foolish and 
 air>' vapor of the mind than malice of the 
 heart, rather sloth of the senses than refusal 
 of the will. 
 
 Again, in accusing yourself, shun inquietude 
 and eagerness, which diminish the attention 
 and confidence of the soul, by enclosing 
 its liberty of action in the nets and fetter? 
 of fear and doubt. When, therefore, you 
 are disquieted and uncertain about some 
 fault, you should lay it before the con- 
 fessor to get counsel, and not confess as 
 a real fault that which is often no fault 
 at all. He will tell you that it would be 
 better sometimes to pass entirely over certain 
 troubles than to tell them through fear
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 537 
 
 Otherwise they fill the soul with those vain 
 apprehensions which produce scruples and 
 <iistress. 
 
 Again, you are not obliged, and you 
 ought not, in accusing yourself of a sin 
 of which your confessor personally may 
 have been the cause or the object, mention 
 that personal circumstance to him. Propriety, 
 as well as prudence, demands its suppression, 
 and the law of integrity of accusation does 
 not oblige to it. 
 
 Vou should know distinctly that the ac- 
 cusation of venial sins is not like that of 
 mortal sins. Mortal sins ought to be declared 
 in confession with number, kind, and the 
 circumstances tha«- change theijr species or 
 notably 'aggravate them. With venial sins, 
 It IS not so. A pious soul who will in 
 good faith declare only three or four, but 
 with regret that implicitly extends to .all 
 the others, and with a firm purpose- of 
 amendment, will receive the remission of all, 
 although she has accused herself of only 
 some. This means that mortal, sins are par- 
 doned only individually, consequently they
 
 538 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 have to be declared formally, but venial 
 sins collectively with general and implicit 
 contrition. It is like a bundle of weeds, of 
 which we see only those on the surface, 
 and which we throw into the fire to be 
 burned altogether, those we do not see, as 
 well as those we do see. 
 
 It is, however, as says the Council of 
 Trent, a laudable and salutary custom to 
 confess all the venial sins that we remember. 
 But what I wish is that you do not go 
 too much into detail, be not too punctilious 
 ill your accusations. God does not exact 
 so rigorous an examen. It is that rigor which 
 exposes you to the loss of liberty and^peace 
 of mind, of sweet and gentle piety of heart. 
 
 We remark that those who give them- 
 selves much trouble in preparing and con 
 fessing, do not ordinarily amend their faults. 
 They follow their own ideas and their old 
 routine, in spite of all that is said to them. 
 One might say that they confess only to 
 relieve th^ir own disordered ' mind, which 
 has formed this need of pouring itself out. 
 They would do far better to believe their
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 539 
 
 confessor,, to speak less, and to amend their 
 ways. 
 
 Shun a second defect, namely lay aside 
 all those general and prolix accusations which 
 determine nothing. They are useless, since 
 they submit no definite sm to the judgment 
 of the confessor. Confession is like the 
 prayer ol" which Our Lord speaks, — the short 
 er It is, the more frequently the better. 
 
 Lastly, when you have finished your ac- 
 cusation, do not seek for more sins, as 
 if you had forgotten something. Even if one 
 should present itself with doubt and trouble, 
 but uncertain, discard it. You have already 
 said what your conscientious examen has 
 shown you. Now is the moment to listen 
 in silence and with docility to what the priest, 
 in the name of Jesus Christ, says to you 
 
 In leaving the confessional, im.ag.ne yourself 
 going out from holy Baptism, entirely cleans 
 ed and adorned with the Blood of Our 
 Lord- Take care not to think over your 
 accusation. If it recurs to your memory, 
 banish it as a dangerous temptation. All 
 is pardoned. Magdalen did not rehearse her
 
 540 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 
 
 sins in detail, for she had accused herself 
 of them all in her penitent love. All were 
 truly forgiven her. 
 
 Joyfully thank Our Lord tor having par 
 doned you, for having given you new life. 
 Share the joy of a man drawn from an 
 abyss, whose wounds have been closed, and 
 who now walks on full of health and vigor 
 
 Recall the good advice you have received, 
 and renew the resolutions of amendment tha^ 
 you have formed. Ask God through the help 
 of Mary, to be faiihfuL and perform the 
 penance that has been imposed on you. 
 
 Still another word of advice. As purity 
 of conscience is the nuptial robs necessary 
 for the service of the Heivenly Spouse, in 
 order to keep it unsullied, approach the 
 tribunal of penance every eight days. 
 
 In order to supply for the accusations 
 made without true contrition, also to humble 
 self and know self better, it as good to 
 make a monthly review, and every year an 
 annual review of all one's faults. 
 
 To prepare for confession, to examine one's 
 self and make acts of contrition, a quarter
 
 CONFERENCE ON CONFESSION 541 
 
 of an hour is not too much to devote to 
 this exercise. Give the same t.me after con- 
 fession to renew contrition, to insist upon 
 the firm purpose of amendment, and to 
 make acts of sorrow based upon that infinite 
 love, that unlimited mercy, wh.ch has again 
 pardoned and restored hfe, honor, and joy 
 of heart 
 
 When one confesses very frequently, con 
 fession ought to be surrounded by serious 
 guarantees, above all, by those that assure 
 contrition. Without that, one falls into rou- 
 tme, which annuls the good effects of this 
 Sacrament of mercy and salvatioa 
 
 m
 
 ^i2.*^^!&*^!&i&5afe!i&«&5a&«&5SaJ&a^s£»;&5a&&^ 
 
 PERSONALITY to JESUS. 
 
 ^ The GIFT of one's ^ 
 
 Y the religious profession, you have 
 given to God what belongs to you 
 but you have not given, at least m an 
 expressed manner, your own being, your 
 personality. 
 
 Personality is the being itself, the principle 
 of life, of action. It is what consfitutes you 
 a human and individual person, that which 
 distinguishes you from every other person, 
 and establishes you in the highest perfection 
 of nature. It is the personality which pos- 
 sesses in you the soul and the body, the 
 faculties and the senses; which makes them 
 act and which is responsible for their acts, 
 which imparts to them their quality of hu- 
 m.m acts. It is that wh.ch receives, also, 
 all that is referred to you, as affection, 
 praise, and every quality of body and mind, 
 for It IS not your body nor your mind 
 precisely that people want to love and praise, 
 but yoii, the person who is clothed with
 
 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY . 543 
 
 these gifts and who, indeed, makes good use 
 of them. 
 
 Now, tlie rehgious profession, does not ex 
 plicitly emit the gift of personality. By the 
 vow of poverty, you give your goods, by 
 that of virginity, your heart; and your wilL, 
 by the vow of obedience. Without doubt, if 
 taken m their full extent, even interior and 
 spiritual, these vows embrace you completely, 
 and, consecrate you entirely to God; for 
 Saint Thomas teaches that the religious pro 
 fession is m itself a holocaust of the whole 
 man, and consequently, of his being and 
 personality itself 
 
 But in order to give you an easier means 
 to practise your vows in this spirit of ho 
 locaust, which <is true adoration, I propose 
 to you now to make to Our Lord a formal 
 and explicit gift of yourself and your per- 
 sonality. This gift will add no exterior obli- 
 gation to those of your three vows. But it 
 will strengthen them more perfectly, and 
 make you practise them according to the true 
 spirit of your vocation, for the Eucharist is 
 the Gift
 
 544 THE GIFT OF ONE S PERSONALITY 
 
 You are not only spouses, but adoratrices 
 and servants of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The 
 property of the servant is to lose his name, 
 and the slave formerly lost even all propriety 
 over himself, his actions, his labors, h;s life. 
 Your name of servants signifies slaves of 
 love. By this act, you will become nothing 
 to yourselves, and Jesus Christ will enter into 
 possession of you. 
 
 But to do that, would be self-annihilation 
 you say. I should appear senseless. — Yes, 
 m the eyes of men, but in the eyes of God 
 you would be only generous in love. 
 
 The virtue of this gift is that you give 
 yourself to Our Lord through love for Him, 
 in total forgetfulness of self, in order to 
 acknowledge and adore His sovereign do- 
 minion over you. It is He, His rights, His 
 love, His glory that you look at in it, before 
 and above all else, and not His gifts nor 
 His personal interests. His gifts of grace, 
 you demand humbly, tor without them you 
 can do nothing; and far from renouncing 
 the recompense, you know that this gift of 
 love is already an immense merit for heaven
 
 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 545 
 
 But above all these motives, rises that of the 
 love that God deserves for Himself, (and 
 of the rights His infinite love creates for Hinr; 
 over every creature, and over you in partic- 
 ular. This view absorbs you, is sufficient 
 for you. You give yourself in order to re- 
 turn love for love, and the first reward thai 
 you desire is that God may be served, loved, 
 and adored, and that He may reign entirely 
 over you by your own annihilation. 
 
 I do not say that you will be able to 
 establish yourself in a state of pure love, 
 so that you will never leave it, or that you 
 ought to renounce acts of the other virtues 
 No, far from me this thought, condemnable 
 and condemned, because it is fahc and 
 impossible to realize here below I But you 
 ought to aim at practising, as far as possible, 
 all the virtues in this spirit of gift, of love, 
 for it is, above all, a direction of the in- 
 tention, and not a multiplication of new 
 works and duties. 
 
 The religious life is a gift, jt is true, 
 and it is, after all, for God, that one vpws 
 himself to it; but it offers for heaven and
 
 546 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 
 
 for the present moment such returns that 
 they alone should be a sufficient attraction 
 You renounce family joys, but religion returns 
 you a hundredfold, father, mother, brothers, 
 sisters. You renounce temporal goods, but 
 religion gives you spiritual ones. You re- 
 nounce the con4uct of yourself, but you find a 
 sure way already traced out and devout 
 guides. 
 
 Certainly, these are profits that compensate 
 tor some sacrifices; and to become a relig- 
 ious for these gains alone, which follow 
 on the gain of heaven, is very legitimate. 
 
 But without rejecting such advantages, do 
 you wish to sanctify your vows by making 
 them a true holocaust.^ Do you wish to elevate 
 their intention even to the perfection of the 
 purest love? Join thereto the gift of self 
 Here you give only to give,, without desir 
 mg even to think of return, simply beciuse 
 the life of love is to give, to live vowed, given, 
 devoted. 
 
 And then, each vow cuts off only one 
 branch ot your being, ^ves only one part 
 of your life, but love desires to surrender
 
 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 547 
 
 die trunk, the being itself Ah, well! by the 
 gift of self you go eveu to the root of 
 your being, you totally renounce self, you 
 no. longer morally exist in your own eyes, 
 and you should cease to exist ia the eyes 
 of others, by never making self the end 
 either of yourself or of them. You sever 
 every relation of friendship and affection 
 of which you might be the end, either with 
 your Sisters or with those whom you love 
 in God. Our Lord, whom you have chosen 
 to replace your Ego, becomes the chief end 
 and the absolute possessor of your works, 
 your sufferings, and your merits. Henceforth, 
 He alone must live and rule ,in you. He 
 is the Master, He your Ego, He your 
 Person. 
 
 No longer must you receive anything for 
 yourself personally, neither praise nor affec- 
 tion. You are no longer mistress in your 
 own house, and whatever you might receive 
 would be stolen from Our .Lord, since you 
 have bound yourself entirely to Him. 
 
 When people visit a house, they ask to 
 see the master, and not the domestics. It
 
 548 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 
 
 they make a mistake and salute the servant, 
 oughl she not to say: "You mistake. I 
 am nobody here. I shall call my master"? 
 in the same way you will be no longer 
 anything, you will receive nothing, you will 
 act no longer for yourself, but for Our 
 Lord. In everything there shall be only He. 
 
 The slave does not draw up acts of own- 
 ership, he has no signature. Well, you also 
 will no longer do anything of yourse vej, 
 u"hder your own personal inspiration, but 
 you wDl wait until Our Lord orders you 
 to act. You will remam in perfect dependence 
 on and in expectation of His grace and 
 of the sign of His will to accomplish it m 
 all things. You will do nothing if it orders 
 you to do nothing, even were you to see 
 the best chances of success and the most 
 encouraging inducements to labor for His 
 glory. Wait until He moves you just as 
 one's personality makes the faculties and the 
 members act. and the latter give movemem 
 to inanimate instruments. 
 
 You will never again say 'I want, I 
 do not want, " for the ego is no other thing
 
 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 549 
 
 than personality, and the will is its chief 
 organ. Let Our Lord alone will in you. If in 
 spoken language you cannot altogether re- 
 nounce this mode of speaking, do not le.t 
 the interior respond to it, and maintain your 
 self in the most complete submission before 
 Our Lord. 
 
 No more personal and human motives m 
 anything! You will love the servants of God 
 and your Sisters, because Our Lord love? 
 them, and because they, too, love Him. He 
 alone ought to be your determinant motive, 
 your pillar of support, and your end for 
 thinking, judging, willing, and acting 
 
 You will disappear. No longer wil there 
 be any interests for you, but' those ,of Jesus 
 Christ. He alone will live in you. 
 
 Here ;s your true grace, the grace of the 
 Eucharist Our Lord has said: ''As My 
 Father sends Me and as J. live hy Him 
 and for Him; that is, as the Word, I live 
 only of the life that the Father communicates 
 to Me eternally, an4, as Man, only of the 
 life that the Word gives Me in time by 
 the hypostatic union; so, too, he that eateth
 
 550 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 
 
 Me shall live by Me, that is, I will ,c(>m- 
 municate to him My life of grace and later 
 My life of glory. I will become in him all 
 things, for I will dwell in him and I w»ll 
 change him into Myself I will be his prin 
 ciple, as the Father is My principle. His 
 actions willed and directed by Me, perform- 
 ed by Me in him, will be elevated in Me 
 to the rank of holy and divine actions 
 Again, as I refer to My Father aJl the 
 fruits of merit, glory, and honor that the life 
 that He communicates to Me produces, so 
 he in whom I will abide and to whom 
 1 will give My life, shall faithfully return 
 :o Me the glory, the honor, and all the 
 fruits of his labors • He tvho eateth My. Fle-sh 
 and drinlceth My Blood abides in Me, and 
 I in him, in order to live there and reign. 
 Our Lord again says after the Last Supper 
 " As Thou art in Me, Father, and I in 
 Thee, so let them be one in Us. " This i*? 
 that magnificent unity which is commenced 
 in Baptism, which is continued by the state 
 of grace, but which finds in the Eucharist 
 Its aliment and perfeciton here below It
 
 THE GIFT OF ONE'S PERSONALITY 551 
 
 is the particular fruit of the Eucharist 
 May your whole life fully realize this 
 word of Saint Paul: "/ lice, now not I. 
 but it is Jesus who livcth in }ne ' " Behold 
 the perfect gift of self, the gift of one'= 
 persorialitv to Our Lord!
 
 ^^•i&«56 *^,a«^5&«»5fl&*fi^«3? iS •£•» !i£««-« S5S 3£*^ 
 
 ^ -\^ 
 
 ^ JESUS and MARY, ^ 
 
 MODELS of the GIFT of SELF. 
 
 E have said that our personality must 
 @ be consecrated to God by giving to 
 Him the ^go, that is the being, — the Egj, 
 that is, the centre of relations, which receives 
 praise and affection, — this Ego which is our 
 natural end. By the making of the vows 
 alone, i: is true, one gives one's self to 
 God; but I propose to you to make a 
 more explicit consecration of yourselves to 
 Jesus Christ, m virtue of which you will 
 practise your religious vows and all the 
 virtues in a spirit of love for God loved 
 for Himself, of total renunciation of your- 
 selves, and of offering, sacrifice, and holo 
 caust of your very being to Jesus Christ 
 living in you as your first principle, and 
 your only end of nature and grace. 
 
 But, you will say, it is rvery difficult to 
 reach the point of always loving Jesus Christ 
 for Himself, and of never seeking self in 
 anything. That is true, it is difficult to reach
 
 THE MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 553 
 
 the perfection of love, and it is impossible 
 always to act through actual love; but what 
 I propose to you is to give yourselves to 
 God by an act of love which embraces 
 your being and your entire life, and then 
 to act as much as possible ^n the spirit 
 of this gift of love. There is a great dif- 
 ference between these two things, the ;pos 
 sessing the habit of a virtue and acting 
 by its spirit, or the actual and constant 
 exercise of it by positive acts. 
 
 Thus, your vows of religion constitute you 
 religious. Even when you. are not making 
 formal acts of poverty or obedience, you 
 are still acting as religious, and you should 
 always act, at least according to the spirit 
 of those vows. Well, in the same way, by 
 giving your personality once for all to Our 
 Lord, you place yourself in His hands in 
 a state of abandonment, of personal an 
 nihilation. Henceforth, by virtue of this 
 gift, you consider yourself wholly dependent 
 on Jesus Christ, and you endeavor to alloA^ 
 Our Lord, instead of yourselves, to live. act. 
 command, and receive all in you 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 554 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 The perfection of this gift of self, whieh 
 will be the life and the perfect reign of 
 Jesus m you, is, without doubt, never at- 
 tained here below, but why not engage one's 
 self to aim at it mcessantly? And as one 
 IS not expected to be perfectly obedient 
 in order to make the vow of obedience; 
 as, on the contrary, jt is made at the 
 commencement of the religious life, because 
 the vow will give its own help and grace, 
 so I ask you to make to Our Lord this 
 gift of self. You will practise it at first 
 very imperfectly, then less so, then better. 
 It \vill bring you a particular grace, which 
 will increase by your faithful correspondence 
 and, little by little, you will acquire the 
 habit of no longer regarding self as your 
 principle and end; but you will act under 
 the will of Our Lord, in dependence on Him, 
 and only for Him; you will, as it were, 
 return the fruit of all things to Him who 
 has effected them in you. You will reach 
 the point of knowing how habitually to 
 renounce self completely and of living only 
 of Jesus Christ, by Jesus Christ, in Jesus
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 555 
 
 Christ, and for Jesus Christ. Now, this 
 is the gift of self, a consecration whose 
 spirit extends over all the acts of life, by 
 virtue of which .one looks upon himself 
 before God no longer as a person, but as 
 a member of the Body of Jesus Christ, 
 who is its Head, its Soul, its Person. At 
 this point, he aims at judging nothing, 
 undertaking nothing by himself. He is now 
 only an intermediary, an instrument of Our 
 Lord's will. He is no longer anything final 
 nor central for creatures, " and consequently, 
 he neither seeks nor accepts for himself 
 their esteem and affection, but delivers up, 
 faithfully passes over everything to the Divine 
 Person -.to whom he has given himself, in- 
 to whose hands he has made the entire re 
 mission of himself. The motive of this gift 
 is a generous and disinterested love for the 
 beauty, the amiability of Jesus Christ. It 
 is the acknowledgment of His rights, above 
 all, of those which Communion creates over 
 usi for by it He takes possession of our 
 being, therein to live and command as 
 Sovereign Master.
 
 556 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 You have a perfect model of this life in 
 which one gives himself entirely to God 
 for God Himself, first, in the Most Blessed 
 Virgin Mary. 
 
 The holy Gospel calls her full of grace. 
 The angel said to her: " The Lord is with 
 fJice." But in u^hat way? Fully, sovereign- 
 ly. The Holy Ghost reijns in her mind 
 and heart, directing therein all and every 
 one of her thoughts and affections. He is 
 the being of Mary and Mary is no longer 
 anything m herself, but all in the Spirit 
 of God, who covers her, envelops her. and 
 clothes every' one of her powers with the 
 rays of His grace and His love. 
 
 Mary manifests her correspondence to this 
 life of God in her by that blessed word, 
 one of the most beautiful the world has 
 ever heard : " Behold the handmaid of the 
 Lord ! " What does she mean to say ? " 1 
 abandon myself, I give myself all entire 
 to what my Lord and my God may wish to 
 do in me. I desire never to think, nor will, 
 nor act but as His servant, inspired, moved, 
 and conducted in everything by His will. "
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 557 
 
 " Behold- the handmaid of the Lord! 
 This is the formula of the gift of self 
 for the slave loses his name, his authority, 
 even his life, all which are made over to 
 him who owns him. And so Mary was ever 
 the loving slave of the Holy Spirit, and her 
 whole life was but one manifestation of her 
 submission, obedience, and total forgetfulness 
 of self. She did all this through love, and 
 so she is called' the Mother of beautiful 
 love, that is, of the love -which loves God 
 for Himself, because of His perfections and 
 beauties, because He is the principle and 
 the end 0;f all things. 
 
 See her during her whole lite, always the 
 victim of this pure love, loving her Divine 
 Son, not for herself, but for Himself, never 
 asking of Him any consolation for herself, 
 not trying to turn Him away from death 
 nor even t6 retard it one moment in order 
 to enjoy her dear Son a little longer; but 
 on the contrar>', accompanying Him to 
 Calvary there to suffer with Him, ready 
 to take His place had the Father so willed, 
 and even to immolate Him herself in obe
 
 558 JESUS AND MARV 
 
 dience to the orders of His divine justice. 
 Does she seek self in all this? Is this not 
 love for love? 
 
 Our Lord made her practise this love all 
 her life. He allowed her to be poor, aban- 
 doned, suffering in heart, even refusing her 
 those consolations that would have been so 
 legitimate during His public life. At Cana. 
 when they told Him that His Mother was 
 standing without seeking Him, Our Lord 
 treated His Mother with seenung harshness. 
 It was because He knew that she loved 
 Him purely, that she looked for nothing as 
 His natural Mother, but that she was much 
 more His handmaid, His disciple, His member 
 by supernatural faith and love. 
 
 The Blessed Virgin, who had received so 
 many graces, who performed all her actions 
 with such perfection, had to glorify God by 
 acknowledging herself nothing, by offeruig 
 to Him all their merit, by referring to Him 
 all their glory. Never has Our Lord lived, 
 never will He live so fully in any crea 
 ture, never will He reign m any other so 
 sovereignly. It was no longer Mary, but 
 
 I
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 559 
 
 [esus who thought, judged, willed. Mary 
 was satisfied to repeat by every pne ot 
 her thoughts, by each pulsation of her heart, 
 cind still more by every one of her actions 
 Behold the handmaid of the Lord — Fiat 
 niihi secundum verbum tunm ' " 
 
 Never any resistance, never any hesitation, 
 disagreement, nor delay with regard to the 
 will of Jesus Christ in her, but identity 
 of sentiments, views, and wills. She was 
 His throne and His couch of repose, His 
 tabernacle and His Paradise of delights, 
 and she will- be forever in glory what sht 
 was in labor and merit : " Deiis in medio 
 ejfAS non commovebitur. " 
 
 Behold your model, since you are the 
 servants of Jesus Sacramental! Hav^e ever 
 on your lips and realize by love that word 
 of Mary: " Behold the handmaid of (he 
 Lord ! " and live of love for your Master. 
 
 But this beautiful model is not sufficient. 
 There is one still more perfect; and when 
 I propose to give your, personality through 
 love, I am putting you in the way of doing 
 what Jesus Christ Himself was the first to
 
 560 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 do leaving us the example to follow. Yes. 
 Jesus Christ served His Father by the con- 
 stant sacrifice of His human Personality and 
 if you clearly comprehend this thought, you 
 will exclaim: "O my Lord Jesus Christ. 1 
 want to serve Thy Father as Thou didst ! ' 
 In fact, to give one's personality, to abstract 
 from self in everything, is to reproduce by 
 grace and as much as man's nature permits, 
 the mystery and the spirit of the Incarnation 
 of the Word. Grand thought, if well un- 
 derstood! — 
 
 In Our Lord there are two natures, the 
 human nature and the divine nature, but 
 there is only one smgle Person, the Person 
 of the Word. To understand this, you must 
 know that every nature aims essentially at 
 the attainment of its natural perfection, and 
 as soon as the body is united to the soul, 
 this union produces the human personality, 
 which forms man's highest perfection, mak 
 ing him exist, guiding and possessing the 
 soul and the body, and being the prmgiple 
 of all life. 
 
 B\it by an unprecedented action of God.
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 561 
 
 which will never again be renewed, at the 
 moment when the Body and the Soul of 
 Jesus were created in the womb .of Mary 
 by the operation of the Holy Ghost, the 
 Person of the Word, united Himself to 
 them, appropriated them and, by His pres- 
 ence, anticipated the human personality 
 which would have resulted from the uniori 
 oi a soul and a human body. This Divine 
 Person possessed Himself of it forever and 
 as th'i Divine Nature is from all eternity 
 ihe proper nature of the Word, so the 
 Sacred Humanity became from that moment 
 His second nature as well. One single Divine 
 Person possesses two natures and acts by the 
 faculties of both, the Divine and the human. 
 Such ]s the mystery of the Word made Man. 
 But why does not the Word admit the 
 human personality of the nature that He 
 assumed? It is because one being can have 
 only one person, since the person is the 
 last complement of the being, and renders 
 It incommunicable to every other bei.ag; so 
 that, if the Humanity of Jesus had had its 
 own human personality, it could not have
 
 562 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 been united te the Word in unity of Person 
 as was necessary for the accomphshment of 
 rhe Re-dernption 
 
 A heretic once said that, the Person of 
 the Word having united Himself to Jesus 
 Christ already a human person, from it 
 there resulted two persons in Jesus Christ, 
 and that there were in Him a man and a 
 God, thence it followed, that God the Fa- 
 ther was the principle of the Divine Per- 
 son, and Mary of the human person. But, 
 then, who has saved us in Jesus Christ? 
 The God? Not at all, for God cannot die. 
 The man? With still greater reason, no, 
 for, a man's death would not be of .sufficient 
 value to redeem other men 
 
 The Catholic Faith teaches, then, that hu- 
 man nature has no personality in Jesus 
 Christ, that it is directly umted to the 
 Person of the Word, who is its proper and 
 lonique Person; that Mary is the Mother 
 ?not of a man, but of a human nature 
 subsisting m the Person of the Word, and 
 •consequently, that she is the Mother of the 
 Word incarnate.
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 563 
 
 But in this privation, there is for Jesus 
 Christ as Man the source of an all special 
 life. He does not possess Himself, does not 
 direct Himself. He is not an individuality 
 a person, but He is vowed and dedicated 
 by a dependence not only of th-e will, but 
 of nature and of essence, to the Person 
 of the Word; whence it follows that, as 
 our person possesses us, commands and acts 
 by our faculties of soul and body, so m 
 Jesus Christ the Person of the Word pos- 
 sesses, acts, and commands alone as mistress 
 by all the spiritual and corix)ral faculties 
 of Jesus Christ. The Humanity of Jesus 
 Christ becomes, then, the servant and the 
 slave of the Word forever, for this state 
 of hypostatic union is to last eternally 
 
 Contemplate this adorable mystery of the 
 dependence of the Sacred Humanity on the 
 Person of the Word in the life of Our 
 Lord. It was the Person of the Word who 
 commanded the human nature and directed 
 it in all its interior and exterior operations. 
 It was to It that Our Lord referred the 
 honor, the affection, and in It that He placed
 
 564 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 the end of all things, and never in His 
 Humanity. When people addressed ihem- 
 selvej to Him as to a Man. He would 
 receive nothing from them, neither praise 
 nor affection, nor service. He even wanted 
 to do nothing as Man independently of His 
 Divine Person. In order to convince men 
 of this state, He was very severe, as we 
 see by Hb words to His divine Mother 
 to Saint Peter, and to the Pharisees. He 
 said: "The Son of Man can do nothing 
 of Himself, nor by Himself. He can speak, 
 act, will only in accordance with His Father 
 and by His Father, " that is, only according 
 to the judgment and will that His Father 
 comirunicates to the Word as God, and 
 that this W^ord manifests to the Hxmianity 
 which belongs to Him as His serV^ant and 
 created organ. 
 
 Jesus Christ, then, as Man in His human 
 nature, in His Sacred Humanity, was in 
 and for all things submissive to the Divine 
 Person of the Word, to whom He had been 
 given as sole possession. He labored only 
 for the Word, for, existmg not m Himself,
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 565 
 
 but only in the Person of the Word, He 
 could not think of being His own end. 
 But He was the active workman, the servant, 
 the submissive and faithful organ of Jh2 Di 
 vine Word. 
 
 Ah, well I if you wish to give your per- 
 sonality to Our Lord, you will imitate by 
 grace what He Himself did by His essential 
 state as much as by love, you will give 
 yourself totally; and as much as the power 
 of His grace will permit you, you will 
 discard you will separate from your own 
 personality, renouncing its rights, its views, 
 Us interests, and you will beg Our Lord 
 to take the place of all that. By means 
 of His grace, you will comport yourself 
 toward Him with submission as entire as 
 yoiir soul and its faculties, your body and 
 your members show forth in obeying your 
 personality; or rather, you should endeavor 
 to imitate the submission, the dependence 
 the state of absolute and loving servitude 
 that His Sacred Humanity manifested to 
 ward the Divine Person of the Word 
 
 To continue and to reproduce in our
 
 566 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 selves Jeisus Christ, — is this not the work 
 of works? To unite one's self to the spirit 
 of His mysteries in order to reproduce them 
 in one's self, — is this not the best means of 
 holiness? Well, by the gift of personality, 
 you unite yourself- to the state which is in 
 Jesus Christ the foundation, the root of all the 
 mysteries, of all the acts, of all the words, 
 of all the merits of His life on earth, for 
 it was not once in passing, not for one 
 act only of His life, but for His whole 
 life, that He was deprived of liuman per- 
 sonality. He came into this world by this 
 sacrifice and this gift. All His mysteries 
 followed afterward and, unfolding one after 
 another, according as the Holy Spirit led 
 Him, they showed forth this gift and this 
 sacrifice. They drew from this state, on the 
 one side, their infinite value, and on the other 
 their infinite humiliations, also. As God 
 equal to the Father, Jesus Christ performed 
 miracles; as Man, He prayed, annihilated 
 Himself before His Father, feared, suffered 
 and died. As the Man God. He satisfied 
 Divine Justice and redeemed us.
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 567 
 
 See what sublime dignity this Sacred Hu 
 manity received in exchange for its human 
 personality! United hypostatically, that is, 
 in a union of existence and subsistence to 
 the Word of God, it was the Humanity of 
 God. In seeing Jesus Christ, one saw God 
 It was the countenance, the word, the arm 
 of God Himself 
 
 Admirable union 1 Adorable unity! And 
 so the .Sacred Humanity, as a fa:thful 
 servant, referred everything to the Person 
 of the Word, His ruler, His prmciple, and 
 through It to the Holy Trinity 
 
 All Christians have the grace to imitate 
 Jesus Christ in that, for Jesus Christ desires 
 to live in them, to annihilate in them the 
 natural man and to take his place, so that, 
 according to the word of Saint Paul, it 
 would be He who would live in us and 
 not we ourselves. Why not embrace this 
 btate once for all? Why not enter, by a 
 formal act of donation to Jesus Christ, mto 
 this grace of true Christianity, of true interior 
 service as the greatest love the greatest 
 glory of God''
 
 568 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 The whole life afterward would be only 
 the renewal, the perfecting of this gift. All 
 the virtues, all the duties of your state you 
 would practise in the spirit of this gift. It 
 would be a continual sacrificial holocaust 
 of your life, giving to it a grace and a unity 
 that would augment your powers and double 
 your merits. 
 
 Is it not sovereignly just that, since there 
 can be in every being but one first prin 
 ciple, and in a man but one personality, 
 ours should give place to that of Jesus Christ? 
 If this gift were not implicitly contained 
 in the promises of our Baptism and in our 
 religious profession, would we belong fullv 
 to Jesus Christ? Hence, why not renew it 
 by a positive and formal intention, giving 
 ouisclves forever to His adorable Person 
 by renouncing our own? 
 
 To comprehend clearly the practice of this 
 gift, read the Gospel of Saint John. There 
 you will hear Our Lord affirming that He 
 ran do nothing of Himself whether as to 
 thinking, for He consults the thought of 
 His Father, that is. the Divinitv in Him.
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 569 
 
 for the father and the Ward are but one 
 same Divinity; or as to acting, for He asks 
 the Father what He wills; or as to judging, 
 for He first has to know the Father's 
 judgment. 
 
 You will see Him not permitting any one 
 to exalt Him as Man, if the praise given 
 Him is not referred to the Divinity in 
 Him: "Why do you call Me good? God 
 alone is good. " ^ 
 
 You will see Him never allowing any one 
 to love Him naturally, that is, with a love 
 which pauses on His Humanity, since it is 
 to the person love and affection are diirected, 
 and as Man He had annihilated His person. 
 Saint Peter, who wanted to deter Him from 
 suffermg, He repulsed as Satan. Even the 
 affection of His holy Mother He refused, 
 when she seemed to address herself to the 
 Man in Him; and so in the Temple He 
 replied to her tears and gentle rebuke by 
 these words: "And why did you seek Me? 
 Do you not know that I must be about 
 My Father's busmess? " And yet He loved 
 His tender Mother, and He had no greater 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. -ij
 
 570 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 joy than to be loved by her. Bujt He did 
 not want us to deceive ourselves as to the 
 character of that love, which should never 
 fix itself on Him as Man and the Son of 
 Mary, but should go even to His Divine 
 Person, Which was in Him the only end 
 of every action, as well as the term of all 
 affection. 
 
 Well, now, do the same. Jesus Christ is 
 in you. He abides therein, He dwells therein. 
 Let Him live there in liberty, with authority, 
 and as your first principle. Form with Him 
 by denying your own cjo, one person, di- 
 vine and human. Let Him be your person. 
 Be but His nature, in order to serve Him 
 by your soul and your senses. Refer all 
 affection, honor, and glory to Him. Vou 
 belong to Him, you live and subsist in Him. 
 Vou are His member, His organ. It is very 
 just that He should be the end. as He 
 is the principle. 
 
 The sovereign end of Communion is to 
 form unity of life and person between Jesus 
 Christ and us. It is not perfect if we do 
 not arrive at that,— for it is not our works
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 571 
 
 alane that He desires when descending" into 
 us, but ourselves. It seems to me that Our 
 Lord, on quitting the tabernacle to come 
 to us, says : "I am going to be incarnated 
 in this person. I am going to unite Myself 
 sacramentally to her. m order t^t My Per- 
 sonality may take the place of hers. I want 
 to be her principle, and to elevate her being 
 and her actions to the divine Unity. I shall 
 think and will in her soul. I shall live m 
 her body, love in her heart, glonfy My 
 Father in her as I glorified Him on earth 
 in My Sacred Humanity I am going to 
 continue for the glory of My Father, for 
 His love, and for the honor of this creature. 
 My meriting and suffering life. I shall giVe 
 to her actions a supernatural and divine 
 value, and I shall be the centre of her 
 affections and the principle of a new. life, 
 which will be the reproduction of My own 
 life. " 
 
 Oh I enter into this way I Become the 
 true servants of the Divilie Person of Jesus 
 Christ in you. Still more, become His vic- 
 tims, for God is a consuming fire. And
 
 572 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 as the Word ininiolated and consumed 
 His Humanity by a life of constant suffer- 
 ing in soul and body, and by the death 
 of the Cross, so, once given to Jesus Christ, 
 He will immolate you entirely. 
 
 Behold the practice: first, never to seek 
 anything for self; to refuse the esteem and 
 affection of creatures; to see them despising 
 and persecuting you, not only without utter- 
 ing a complaint, but recognizing that nothing 
 is more just. That costs, certainly, but one 
 kills himself in order to live! 
 
 To accept humiliation, to immolate one's 
 body and its sensuality in everything, is 
 painful, one feels resistance; but do you 
 not think that Our Lord, also, felt the 
 suffering of His sacrifice? Listen to Him 
 in the Garden of Olives : " My Father, if 
 it be possible, let this chalice pass from 
 Me!" It is the cry of His Humanity. But 
 immediately He subjects it to His Divine 
 Person and stretches it on the funereal pile: 
 "But not My will, but Thine be done!" 
 
 You will feel the conflict:, also, temptation 
 and humiliation. But if you fail in your
 
 MODELS OF THE GIFT OF SELF 573 
 
 promises by retaking yourself in something, 
 grace will be ever present to raise you up. 
 You will renew your gift, and thus you 
 will persevere in your dependence, and you 
 will be always the servant and the victim 
 of the glory and the will of God. 
 
 Come, then, give yourselves most gener- 
 ously and without counting the cost • " To 
 Thee, Divine Persoil in me, honor, love, and 
 glory I — To myself humiliation and con- 
 tempt ! " 
 
 Yes, without counting the cost! Our Lord 
 will recompense you well if you give your- 
 self in this way. First, even by giving to 
 Jesus the honor and glory of your works, 
 they take on an inherent, essential merit 
 that will be yours, that you will keep for 
 heaven. You receive, also, the increase of 
 grace that every meritorious work produces. 
 Then Jesus Christ ascends te heaven by 
 His own right, but He bears with Him all 
 that belongs to Him and you make one 
 with Him. Can He forget His own Flesh? 
 No, He will take care of its glory and 
 happiness As for you, from this moment.
 
 574 
 
 JESUS AND MARY 
 
 place all your delight in giving yourself to 
 Him by a love always purer, more generous 
 
 and more faithful. 
 
 *
 
 ^^^^i&i&^^iS&g&^^^^Si^^ 
 
 The INTERIOR EDUCATION 
 
 of an ADORATRIGE. 
 
 TSS^^VSS^'y^WW^^^^'^^^'^^^^i 
 
 HE interior education of an adoratnce 
 consists in learning' to live interiorly 
 and to think, speak, and converse with 
 Our Lord. Children are taught to think 
 rightly and then to speak well. There should 
 be a choice, a certain refinement in language 
 Everybody does not know how to talk, and 
 there must be a certain education to enable 
 one to follow a conversation. This is still 
 more true in the mterior life, in the life 
 with Our Lord. 
 
 When a person has not a well marked 
 vocation, when he is ignorant of his domi- 
 nant attraction and his grace of life, he 
 thinks Httle and sometimes not at all. He 
 has a vague, an entirely exterior piety, which 
 consists only in practices. It frequently 
 happens that we meet devout persons who 
 ordinarily are not inspired by one super- 
 natural, religious, divine thought. Their life 
 is a circle out of which they never pass.
 
 576 THC INTERIOR EDUCATION 
 
 They are accustomed to it. they follow the 
 movement of their pious exercises, but their 
 heart has no expansive Hfe. They have 
 not that life of the soul which burns, which 
 is ever rising toward new sacrifices, borne 
 along by new motives. Their interior knowl- 
 edge goes no farther than the practices in 
 which they live. 
 
 It would be very unfortunate it professional 
 .idoratriccs were among their number. A 
 religious soul ought incessantly to aspire to 
 j^reater perfection. She is making progress 
 only when she is learning better to con- 
 verse with God, and is ever receiving interior 
 nourishment sufficient to renew and increase 
 her supernatural energies. 
 
 A soul that thinks, that knows how to 
 reflect — put her in any situation whatever, 
 — has nothing to fear. Now, your vocation 
 obliges you to this interior life, to this inner 
 life in which without outward help you can 
 converse with Our Lord in your soul. 
 
 Unhappily, we can habituate ourselves, 
 also, to our state. \Ve limit ourselves to 
 materially performing holy practices, and we 
 
 1
 
 OF AN ADORATRICE 577 
 
 have the sad talent of leading a life exterior 
 and personal in the midst of the graces of 
 the Eucharistic life. What a misfortune! 
 What treasures of grace lost I 
 
 In order to avoid this, accustom your- 
 selves to think seriously. Lei your thoughts 
 and intentions be very clear, very definite. 
 
 Renew them often and lef them be, indeed, 
 for Our Lord, by Our. Lord, and with Our 
 Lord in the Most Blessed Sacrament. You 
 must reach the point of thinking in all things 
 by the Holy Eucharist. Let all your thoughts 
 turn that way, springing from and ending 
 there You have the grace for it, it is your 
 interior service, it is a necessity for you. 
 Without that, how adore in spirit and truth? 
 You would be only a body, a mechanical 
 adorer, moved only by the force of the 
 exterior Rule. Our Lord wishes the actual 
 and continual service of your whole being, 
 and He loves the interior far better than 
 the exterior service which is, as it were, 
 only the bark. 
 
 You must lyiake the idea of unity pre- 
 dominate throughout your whole life by. the
 
 578 THE INTERIOR EDUCATION 
 
 thought of the Eucharist. Unity comprises 
 Our Lord entirely: His past life, which pre- 
 pared the Eucharist; His present life, which 
 is passed under your eyes and of which you 
 behold the virtues; His future life, which 
 will be only the extension, glorified and 
 unveiled, of the Eucharistic Sacrifice. See, 
 then, Our Lord living His life of love in 
 the Blessed Sacrament, applying therein the 
 love of all His virtues, of all His mysteries. 
 The Eucharist belongs to every feast and 
 lo every day in the year. We can recall 
 nothing of which It is not the living me- 
 morial. We celebrate in the Eucharist the 
 enduring love of Our Lord, His love actual 
 and living until the end of the world. All 
 religion, with its mysteries and feasts, its 
 virtues and graces, as well as its duties, 
 is vivified by the love of the Eucharist, draw- 
 ing from It both life and grace. 
 
 You should love nothing but in the Eu- 
 charist and on account of its relations to 
 the Eucharist. Jesus Eucharistic ought to be' 
 your final love in all things. Vou ought 
 to love only on account of Him.
 
 OF AN ADORATRICE 579 
 
 We think as we love. If you love Our 
 Lord, yoii will think of Him spontaneously 
 and without effort. You will find Him every- 
 where and in every thing. You wlill see 
 only Him, and this knowledgfe is betjter than 
 all books, it takes the place of them all. 
 But for this one must have Him very really 
 in his heart. The habitual thought follows 
 the affection, and quite naturally attaches 
 itself to it. 
 
 It would be sad were you of the number 
 of those souls that think of Our Lord only 
 when He scourges them. Oh, do not force 
 Our Lord to send you trials and temptations, 
 m order to oblige you to think of Him J 
 Let it not be the demon who forces you 
 to recur to God, but the promptings of 
 your own heart of a child and an adoratnce, 
 
 See the Apostles on the Lake of Tiberias. 
 They had left Our Lord in a corner of 
 the boat, and they were, no doubt, chattmg 
 together about their nets and their fishing, 
 forgetful of their Divine Master. Our Lord 
 then stirred up a tempest, and the Apostles 
 affrighted ran to Him: " Save us, we perish I "
 
 580 THE INTERIOR EDUCATION 
 
 Do not act in that way. Do not wait until 
 interest or chastisement drives you to Our- 
 Lord, but live in habitual converse with 
 Him. If we love Him, we shall know how 
 to think of Him. 
 
 Let us make our romance divine I But no! 
 Such a comparison, although well expressing- 
 what I want to say, is too human. But let 
 us passionately love, and we shall continually 
 think upon the object of our love. We shall 
 see Him everywhere we shall labor only 
 to give Him pleasure \Vc must lose our- 
 selves in Jesus! 
 
 Learn, then, to think of Our Lord, but 
 find Him where He is for you, not in 
 heaven, but in the Blessed Sacrament. Let 
 Him be the sun that enlightens your whole 
 life. Live always under Its rays, and let 
 none of Its light and beneficent warmth 
 escape; for He shares with us all His rays 
 and, while the material sun abandons us 
 when it enlightens the opposite hemisphere, 
 the Eucharist condenses in Itself all Its 
 divine beams and uninterruptedly showers 
 them upon us. To the east, we have His
 
 OF AN ADORATRICE 581 
 
 Birth, to the south, Nazareth; to the north, 
 Calvary; and in the west, the Tomb. Fol- 
 low Him in all the states in which He places 
 you, go where He sends you, you will find 
 Him everywhere. "lYec est qui se abscondat 
 a colore ejus — And there is no one that 
 can hide himself from His heat. " 
 
 Let your love be your science of adoration. 
 When you go to adore, do not begin with 
 books, think for yourselves. Ask the Di- 
 vine Master to instruct you. Be certain that 
 an Adoration made by your own weakness, 
 with all your miseries, is of more value 
 than all you can borrow from books, be* 
 cause it is yours. 
 
 Books are excellent helps when the mind 
 is so distracted or so powerless that one 
 can draw nothing from it But in the 
 ordinary state of your life, do not have 
 easy recourse to such means. In reality, we 
 take a book more frequently because w« 
 have not the courage to support dryness and 
 disgust. 
 
 Adore simply with your heart, and know 
 that, love is the true science of adoration
 
 582 THE INTERIOR EDUCATION 
 
 We notice that God often renders the 
 mind incapable of reasoning^ and reflecting. 
 Why? Because we are by nature great 
 prattlers. We always want to talk to Him. 
 The good God shuts up our mind and seems 
 to say to us: "Go into thy own heart. " 
 
 If then, instead of reasoning, instead of 
 seeking means and explanations in our own 
 mind, we say simply: "My God, I offer 
 Thee my misery, my dryness, all that I 
 am, an abyss of misery, " oh! wc toucli 
 the Heart of God, and He can say: "Be- 
 hold a soul that loves Me more than her 
 own pleasure and the sweetness of My 
 graces. 
 
 Love, then, and think. This is the whole 
 interior life. If you learn to think, if you 
 have the courage to think persoveringly on 
 Our Lord and to conv^erse with Him, not 
 only at the prie-Dieu, but during your oc- 
 cupations, in your cell, oh, you will never 
 have tasted anything like it I Then one 
 dreams of God, one loves Him everywhere 
 and in all things. The soul then rises to 
 God peacefully and without effort, because
 
 OF AN ADORATRICE 583 
 
 her thoughts are ever fixed on Him. She 
 appears to float, and the flapping- of her 
 wings is no longer seen. 
 
 It is an established principle that the proper 
 word to express the thought is always found 
 when the latter is clear and well understood 
 in the mind. It is said, also, that what is 
 well comprehended, is well retained. You 
 will then say to the good. God the sentiment 
 of your soul, and you will well know how 
 to say it, if you love. Then your Adorations 
 will always be new, because love is a flame 
 always new. You must reach that degree. 
 That is life. All else is a languishing in self. 
 Then one spends good and beautiful mo- 
 ments; then one loves the good God as He 
 should be loved in order to live the interior 
 life by truth and charity, by union of thought, 
 heart, and life with Him.
 
 
 The SPIRIT of the VOWS 
 
 and the GIFT of SELF. 
 
 I. 
 
 HE first gift of love thai a Servam 
 of the Most Blessed Sacrament ought 
 to bring to her Divine Master is obedience. 
 Obedience is the virtue that constitutes her 
 condition of servant. The name expresses 
 it plainly enough. 
 
 Then, you will love the obedience which 
 makes you true religious of Jesus. You will 
 fear nothing so much as being deprived in 
 your actions of the grace, as well as of 
 the merit, of obedience. If you are asked 
 what you are doing, you must be able to 
 answer: 1 am obeying through love. 
 
 Your vow obliges you faitlifully to ac- 
 complish wliatever obedience may prescribe 
 to you, namely: the Constitutions in what- 
 ever they mark out for the whole Community 
 or for each individual in her particular em 
 ployment; the regulation of the common
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 585 
 
 exercises, the positive orders, general or 
 partrcular, given by Superiors. 
 
 But the best obedience is that inspired 
 by love and accomplished by cheerful virtue. 
 The perfection of obedience lies in the 
 simplicity of love; this is the obedience of 
 the child. Look, then, for only one thing 
 to urge you to obey, the will of God. or 
 His good pleasure, because all that God 
 wills IS good, all that He loves is holy, 
 all that He vi^ishes is for our greater good. 
 Behold the vv^hole science of the true children 
 of God. 
 
 Do not obey your Superiors because they 
 are good, or pious, or learned. That would 
 be to obey the creature, a natural obedience 
 worthless for heaven. 
 
 Never obey through human fear of the 
 person or of the reprimand. That would 
 be to obey as a beast deprived of reason 
 That would be humiliating obedience worthy 
 only of a slave. 
 
 But obey God who commands you through 
 a creature whom He has invested, with His 
 own authority, and who is only a speak- 
 
 The Divine Eucharist, 38
 
 586 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 ingf-trumpet, a divine representative. To try 
 your faith and humble your self-love, God 
 does not Himself command you; never- 
 theless, the order comes direct from Him 
 
 Obey for love of Jesus, for His glory, 
 in order to honor the obedience of His 
 life and Passion, and lastly and aboVe all, 
 to glorify His Eucharistic obedience, which' 
 is greater still. 
 
 How admirable is that obedience of Jesus 
 Christ in the Blessed Sacrament! it is un- 
 attended by glory, its perfection is not seen. 
 It is almost always without honor. Who in 
 the world reflects on it, even the Christian 
 even the pious soul.-* It is humiliated, since 
 He obeys even the sacrilegious, the apostate, 
 the soul in abominable sin. Thus has the 
 law of His love willed. It is perpetual. By 
 His sacramental state, He is dependent upon 
 and subject to man. He has become his 
 Prisoner of love. Behold your Master. To 
 lead you to love obedience, He obeys even 
 in His state of glory ancj royalty! 
 
 Then let your obedience be prompt as 
 that of the angel when God calls him, as
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 587 
 
 that: of Jesus when the priest consecrates 
 Him. Let it be joyous as the gift of gen- 
 erous love. 
 
 To command you in the name of God 
 is to do you great honor; it is also to 
 wish you much good, since it is to put 
 you in the very virtue of Jesus sacramental. 
 It is to enrich you, since it is to make of 
 your life a continual victory, as says the 
 Holy Ghost. Obey, then, through love, with 
 all your heart and mind and will 
 
 H. 
 
 In consecrating yourself to God by the 
 vow of chastity, you pledge yourself to 
 have no other spouse than the King of puri- 
 ty, in order to be more perfectly at His 
 divine service. By that vow you declare 
 eternal divorce from the world, its vanities 
 and pleasures, and you wish henceforth to 
 please Jesus Christ alone and to love Him 
 sovereignly. 
 
 It is a beautiful virtue, a glorious crown. 
 And yet, love not holy purity only because
 
 588 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 it renders you the sister of the angels, beauti- 
 ful and adorned before God. Love that 
 beautiful flower, because it is pleasing to 
 the great King, because it charms His love 
 and honors Him in His very essence, for 
 He is the thrice-holy Gnd, and holiness is 
 purity. 
 
 Be also for His love thrice-pure, pure in 
 your body, because it is the living temple 
 of the Holy Trinity; pure in your mind 
 because it is the mirror m which God desires 
 to reflect His truth, as well as His good- 
 ness; pure in your heart, because it is the 
 sanctuary in which your Spouse abides. You 
 are God's heaven! Then, let nothing sullied 
 enter and remain therein. 
 
 Holy purity is the only dowry that the 
 Heavenly Spouse demands of you. It is the 
 auptial robe. Your vow is the divine ring 
 of your alliance with Jesus. 
 
 Be, then, holily jealous of the honor of 
 your vocation, as well as of your service. 
 It is comprised entirely in virginity. But 
 holy purity, like the lily of the desert, grow5 
 in the midst of thorns. Guard it well by
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 589 
 
 surrounding yourself with the thorns of mod- 
 esty and moderation. Like the lily turn- 
 ing toward heaven its spotless chalice, never 
 look down upon earth, but up to God 
 So delicate is this queen of flowers that, 
 to touch it is to blight it. Its whiteness 
 is unequalled, sunlight only makes it appear 
 in all its splendor. Its stalk is dark and 
 without beauty, which is all centred in its 
 brilliant crown. And so, let all your virtues 
 be the humble servants of that which attracts 
 the eyes and the love of the great King. 
 May He alone receive the first and the 
 last glance of your heart as of your whole 
 life! 
 
 Daughters of the Queen of virgins, be like 
 unto your Mother. She trembles with re- 
 serve and holy modesty at the sight of an 
 angel in human form. She loves more than 
 all else what she knows to be loved by 
 God in her above all else. 
 
 Remember that you bear in your purity 
 the honor of your vocation, the duty of 
 your state, the life of the Congregation your 
 mother, and the reign of God in you!
 
 590 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 ill. 
 
 A Servant of the Blessed Sacrament ought 
 to possess nothing as her own, but to live the 
 common h'fe, content with everything", and 
 happy when, by the privation of something 
 useful or even necessary-, she can say to 
 Our Lord: "I am the poor one of Thy 
 love! " 
 
 On entering the Congregation, the first 
 duty and the first act of love is to despoil 
 ourselves of all that we have, keeping for 
 our use only what holy obedience determines 
 that we may be free from all earthly cares and 
 become the children of Divine Providence 
 
 By poverty, you ought to consider your 
 selves dead to the world, to live hidden 
 in God with Jesus Christ. You can, conse 
 quently, retain nothing for your future needs, 
 nor take upon yourself the supporting ol 
 good works, whether of charity or almsgiving. 
 The world is dead to you, and you are 
 dead to it. 
 
 Love the holy poverty of Jesus as a good 
 mother, who will take good care of you
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 591 
 
 and allow you to want for nothing-, provided 
 you cheerfully abandon yourself to Divine 
 Providence. The peace and joy of the Holy 
 Spirit are delicious fruits of poverty. It gives 
 to love its wings, to virtue its aliment, to 
 your whole life its merit and glory. Under 
 its reign, what is little becomes great, what 
 is distasteful becomes delightful. 
 
 Such is the secret of the poor of Jesus 
 Christ. He has, in effect, said to them: 
 " Ye are blessed, because yours is the king- 
 dom of God. " 
 
 In espousing Jesus, you espouse His state 
 of poverty. The bride assumes the rank of 
 the bridegroom. Now, Jesus is poor in His 
 clothing, in His nourishment, in His abode, 
 in His labor. Vou will live, then, as He 
 does, as His Blessed Mother, as dear Saint 
 Joseph, His loving foster-father. They were 
 happy in their poverty, and Heaven looked 
 down in admiration on a God become poor 
 for love af man, and to teach him the price 
 of poverty. 
 
 But you will, above all, admire and imitate 
 the poverty that He practises in the Blessed
 
 592 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 Sacrament. In spite of His state of glory 
 and power, He still desires to honor and 
 practise lovely pKDverty, that we may always 
 have its grace and model before our eyes. 
 
 Material poverty suffices, it is true, for 
 satisfying the rigor of the vow; but it is 
 to spiritual poverty, poverty of spirit, that 
 we must aim, as to the highest point of 
 virtue, and even to the extreme limit of 
 sanctity 
 
 Poverty of spirit is nothing else than the 
 soul of true humility. It is perfect love. 
 It is the sovereign means of God s glory, 
 for the more the- poor in spirit abase them 
 selves in their lowliness, the more they honor 
 God, their Creator, for they thus acknowl- 
 edge that their being, their life, their gifts 
 and graces, all proceed from Him and belong 
 absolutely to Him. 
 
 Should it please God to make you feel 
 your poverty and His absolute dominion over 
 you by paralyzing your intelligence, by wither- 
 ing up your heart, by taking away from 
 you the sweetness of His grace and the peace 
 of His service, by delivering you thus despoil- 
 
 I 
 
 I
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 593 
 
 ed to the tempest of the passions, to the 
 fury of demons, isolating- you from all created 
 help, even hiding Himself from you, oh? 
 then, thank Him, confessing that you do not 
 yet suffer all you deserve. Fall down and 
 adore God in naked and absolute poverty. 
 You will thereby glorify Him more than by 
 all the most magnificent works. 
 
 IV. 
 
 To these three vows, you must join the 
 Eucharistic consecration of your personality, 
 or the gift of self, which is the end and 
 the perfection of your vocation. 
 
 The soul of this gift is the entire and 
 unreserved donation of your whole being to 
 the service and the glory of the God of 
 the Eucharist, as His true and happy servant, 
 who desires to love Him for Himself, and 
 WHO seeks no other gain than Himself, His 
 better service, no other happiness than to 
 behold Him known, loved, and served by 
 everyone. 
 
 Love this Eucharistic gift as a man loves
 
 594 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 his life; for if you are a religious by the 
 vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, this 
 Eucharistic gift makes you practise them in 
 the spirit proper to your holy vocation of 
 Servant of the Most Blessed Sacrament. It 
 is the sap and the form of your vovvs. This 
 gift offers and sacrifices to your only Master 
 the merit and the glory of all their acts. 
 It is the holocaustal fire which consumes 
 the victim entirely in God. It is the blessed 
 chain which attaches you, binds you interior- 
 ly to the throne of the Divine Lamb. It 
 makes you His property. His member. His 
 organ. By it Jesus alone becomes the prin- 
 ciple that moA'es your thought, will, and action 
 He alone becomes the end of your aciions. 
 your merits, and your sufferings. WTiat an 
 admirable union! How near it brings you 
 to Jesus-Hostia! What do I say? Through 
 grace, it makes of Him and of you but 
 one same victim, one mystical being. 
 
 But remember, also, that it obliges you 
 to a more perfect service, a greater love, 
 a more generous devotedness. JS'oblesse oblige ! 
 You must return to the Lord all the interest 
 
 I
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 595 
 
 of the rich capital that He has entrusted 
 to you. 
 
 But how shall you recognize in yourself 
 the true service of Jesus? By ever ready 
 good-will, by holy joy of soul, by peace in 
 your vocation, by desiring nothing excepting 
 to love more and serve better your Lord and 
 your God, and by spiritual hunger and thirst 
 for His greater glory. 
 
 Your service is the service of adoration 
 toward the Divine Person of Our Lord. It 
 is, consequently, whatever there is in itself 
 thp most perfect. It is a life and a service 
 of immolation to God. You must perpetual- 
 ly immolate self. Be attentive to the small- 
 est service. It is God everywhere. Every- 
 where He is to be served with the same 
 dependence, the same devotedness. What 
 makes the perfection of an action is not what 
 it appears, but the love with which it is 
 done. Serve Him, then, with your whole 
 self. 
 
 Jesus in His tabernacle is our Friend; upon 
 the altar, He is our Victim; but upon His 
 throne, Hejs the King of heaven and earth.
 
 596 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 Vour graces, your virtues, your good works 
 — all belong not to you. All that you do 
 here is for your Master. Labor not for self. 
 Destroy, sacrifice your personality of Adam, 
 and put Our Lord in its place. Then say 
 " It is no longer I who live. It is Jesus 
 Christ who lives in me. " If you serve Our 
 Lord for yourselves, you pervert grace, you 
 blight it. The grace of God is God's. Noth- 
 ing belongs to you. All is His, the heart, 
 the mind, the body, and time itself. He 
 wants all. You have resolved to be faithful 
 to Him, then do not rob Him of anything. 
 And when you fulfil that resolution, still 
 say: "I am a useless servant!" 
 
 But it is not enough to live for Jesus, to 
 give and consecrate to Him all that we 
 have, all that we are. We must live of 
 Jesus, of His Eucharistic life, for Jesus is 
 living in His sacramental state, there He 
 leads a life proper to the Eucharist. What 
 is this life? 
 
 It is a life of death. Behold Jesus is 
 dead to everything in this world, its goods, its 
 pleasures. He no longer has any natural
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 597 
 
 relations with anyone. He no longer speaks 
 the language of men. He allows us no longer 
 to gaze on His beautiful countenance of 
 Saviour, on His gentle, fatherly eyes. He 
 wills that His Person should no longer come 
 under the action of our senses, although 
 He is there perfect Man, living wit;h all 
 His members and human organs. He wills 
 to live, but in a state of death. 
 
 Be like your good Master, dead to the 
 world. For the future, desire only one thing, 
 to be known, to be loved tut by God alone. 
 For that, live of His sacramental grace. 
 Reproduce it; in yourselves by veiling your 
 good works, by veiling your virtues, -by 
 veiling your natural qualities, as well as your 
 supernatural gifts. 
 
 See in Jesus sacramental the virtues you 
 ought to practise. Appropriate them to your- 
 selves and complete them in yourselves. Yes, 
 the Eucharistic virtues are incomplete in this 
 sense, that Jesus can no longer perform their 
 meritorious acts, and that He takes but their 
 state. Thus, His Body can no longer give 
 to the virtue of mortification the life of
 
 598 THE SPIRIT OF THE VOWS 
 
 suffering which is its aliment, since He is 
 glorified and impassible. Humiliation can no 
 longer abase Him and make Him practise 
 meritorious humility. Real sacrifice can no 
 longer immolate His life and shed His Blood. 
 His Heart loves, but no longer feels the 
 sorrows of love, as in the Garden of Olives. 
 His charity opens the bosom of mercy to 
 all the miserable; but it is necessary to lead 
 the sinner to Him for He can no longer 
 run after Him as He once did. He sup 
 plicates the Father for us by showing Him 
 His sacred Wounds, but they are now lumin- 
 ous and glorified, nor do they any longer 
 pour out that Blood which goes up to God 
 as the cry and the mcense of repairing 
 love. 
 
 What, then, is wanting to Jesus? May you 
 complete Him, may you give Him a heart 
 which can be sad, a body that suffers! To 
 save and to repair, He has need of your 
 sorrows, of your passion, of your; blood! 
 
 Saint Paul m crucifying himself, said: " I 
 till up in my flesh those things that arc 
 wanting of the sufferings of Christ " Ah! in
 
 AND THE GIFT OF SELF 599 
 
 what way? By suffering and sacrifice, which 
 associate me and unite me to the infinite 
 merits of the Saviour's sufferings. 
 
 Behold to what the gift of personality- 
 engages you: to be the members, the merit 
 ing, obedient, and suffering nature of Jesus 
 who will offer it to His Father in sacrifice 
 for His glory, for the salvation of souls, 
 and for the interests of His Church 
 
 Live, then, of Jesus, for Jesus, not as 
 the day-laborer who looks for his wageis at 
 the close of each day's work, not as the 
 hired servant who serves for a time, in order 
 to have an independent position later on. No, 
 sei-ve Jesus without wages, without free days 
 without days of rest, without consolation 
 without glory. Serve Him for Himself, as 
 the candle that burns and consumes itself 
 without noise, without interruption before the 
 Sacred Host, leaving not even some ashes 
 after it I 
 
 *^^
 
 ^Jj£3flfe5^^2&Sa2S£^»Si^ig.!aSs£^^^^Sfc^S56 
 
 The VIRTUE of the GIFT 
 
 of SELF : 
 
 THE HUMILITY of LOVE. 
 
 n 
 
 s adoratnces, what, in practice, should 
 be your special and characteristic vir- 
 tue? It should be the humility of the love of 
 Our Lord. It is only by this virtue that you 
 will please your good Master, only by it that 
 you will be good adoratrices, and happy in 
 vour vocation. By the gift of self, you pledge 
 yourselves to be nothing, either in yourselves 
 or in others. Humility alone wUl mamtain you 
 in this nothingness, which is the all in all of 
 Our Lord. And then, it is the virtue of love, 
 its proper virtue. In the Eucharist, Our Lord 
 loves us even to excess, and that is the 
 reason He gives Himself in It m the excess 
 of annihilation. He must fmd in us a heart 
 that loves what He loves, for He has said. 
 " Learn of Me that I am meek and humble 
 of Heart. " 
 
 If you do not possess humility, you will 
 not long remain pure, because pride sullies
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE j 601 
 
 the soul. You may be charitable as much 
 as one can be with pride; you may have 
 the virtues of purity, mortification, and zeal, 
 but if they are not all guarded and nourished 
 by humihty, they are lost. Pride dissipates 
 all and prevents your virtues from having 
 consistency. 
 
 You will remain in Eucharistic grace only 
 by humility. This virtue is the dmvry of 
 love. You must possess it in order to go 
 to Our Lord. With every other virtue you 
 may be able to impersonate self and rest 
 iji self; but by humility, you disappear in 
 order to allow Our Lord alone to appear 
 
 Our Lord commuricates Himself to us only 
 by the way of humility. He would be glad 
 to bestow on us His gifts of tenderness, of 
 contemplation, and even of ecstasy; but on 
 account of our want of humility, we could 
 not bear them. 
 
 As Saint Paul says of Our Lord, that, Ke 
 was exalted, only because He had been 
 humbled and annihilated, if you want Him to 
 draw you to His Heart and to load you 
 with His favors, be truly humble. 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 39
 
 602 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 
 
 If you labor at humility, you labor at 
 true sanctity. The more humble you are 
 the more holy you will be. Humility is the 
 exact measure, and it never deceives. 
 
 Humility is the mother, the root, and the 
 flower of all the Wrtues. It is the mistress 
 of God's power, the guardian of His treasures 
 and of all His graces. 
 
 Be, then, very humble. And with what 
 kind of humility? With the perfect humility 
 of spirit. This consists in truly and sincerely 
 believing yourself the last of creatures and 
 the most miserable of all, deserving of hell 
 a thousand and a thousand times. Confess 
 this to God frequently and with conviction: 
 " Lord, I am not worthy of the least of 
 Thy graces, I deserve not the last of Thy 
 attention. Leave to me the trials of penance, 
 for compared with what I deserve, they 
 will be a favor. Leave me at the door 
 of the temple, striking my breast like the 
 publican, for that is my place. " 
 
 Then you ought to be content when some 
 humiliation comes to you, some cross, or 
 some trial of any kind. Be always satisfied
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 603 
 
 with everything, since you know that you 
 have deserved far more. In interior trials 
 and abandonment by God, above all, you 
 will say: "Lord, this is nothing! It is not 
 enough for what I deserve!" By this you 
 will become all-powerful over the Heart of 
 God. " 
 
 If God puts you on the dunghill of your sins 
 and miseries, and if all creatures pursue or 
 abandon you, learn how to say : " I am repair- 
 ing for my sin, and I have what is due 
 me. " Job glorified God on his dunghill more 
 than upon his throne and, in triumphing over 
 himself, he tiiumphed over God. 
 
 With this humility of spirit, you will always 
 be content, never troubled. Labor at ii 
 earnestly. 
 
 Humility of heart must also be acquired 
 and that is, to love God in trial and hu 
 miliation. A humble soul has peace in trial. 
 Her ■ heart suffers, it is true, but through 
 love she wishes what God wills, bhe loves 
 His crucifying will and, in spite of all her 
 sorrows, she sings: Fiat volimtas iua ! God 
 certainly does not ask us to Jove trials.
 
 604 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 
 
 dryness, and persecution for themselves, but 
 to love His w'll which sends them. And 
 if we love Him, we shall support them with 
 patience, in silence, and before Him alone. 
 This is sublime. We may weep, for He 
 oermits poor nature's tears to flow, but He 
 asks that patience should sanctify them. 
 
 Then the heart attached to the will of 
 God, loves it and prefers it to e\erj thing 
 else. The soul, become devoted to God who 
 is trying it, is sweet to\yard everyone. She 
 says; *' My soul, be not sad. Keep a smiling 
 countenance, be friendly toward those that 
 apparently do thee wrong; for it is not theu' 
 hand that touches thee, but the Hand cf 
 Him whom I desire to love, because He 
 is always lovable!" Be, then, humble cf 
 heart, affection, and will. I do not say to 
 seek humiliations or trials, but to receive them 
 well whenever they present themselves 
 
 Be humble exteriorly in word, in demeanor, 
 everywhere humbly modest; Be humble in 
 never seeking esteem, and in willingly seemg: 
 yourself deprived of it. The good God permits 
 that the saints should be calumniated, derided.
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 605 
 
 persecuted. The Master endured the same, 
 so it is an lienor for you if He makes you 
 pass along that way. Rejoice at it, I say 
 to you, for to be honored is to expose 
 glory that God has placed in you and 
 which He expects you to return to Him 
 faithfully. Rejoice, then, when you are for- 
 gotten, when they treat you with disdain, 
 when they despise you, even when ihiy 
 calumniate you. You are then in your royal 
 virtue, the humility of Our Lord. 
 
 Now, to acquire it, continued labor i; 
 necessary. No one reaches the perfe:tion of 
 this beautiful virtue, so never give yourselves 
 any rest, but always tend toward it with 
 all your strength. The good God will afford 
 you constant occasions for it and He will 
 give also the grace to use them well. 
 
 It is a duty ever to humble yourselves, for 
 this virtue like love may always be exercised. 
 It knows no obstacle. There is a lime for 
 penitential works and for works of charity 
 but there is none for the practice of humility 
 which, if it cannot always be practised 
 exteriorly, can be cultivated by the sentiment
 
 606 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 
 
 and the knowledge of what you are before 
 God. Place your soul in a state of humility. 
 and continually keep it there by interior acts 
 of personal abasement. 
 
 Behold your virtue! Without humility, you 
 will never be adora^rices. It must become 
 your dominant and characteristic virtue. There 
 is no piety without humility, no good prayer, 
 no adoration in spirit and truth, since hu 
 mility is the rule of all this. If some great 
 virtue were demanded of you, such as fortitude, 
 magnanimity, and penitence you might say 
 " I am not capable of mounting so high " 
 But here there is question of descending, 
 for humility is the nrtue of weakness, poverty, 
 and ignorance, and you cannot say that yoj 
 are incapable of descending. 
 
 You should, therefore, constantly have hu- 
 mility in view as the indispensable means 
 of your vocation. But to labor at it in view 
 of your own misery and humiliation is not 
 enough to acquire it well. There is a better 
 means, and that is, to love Our Lord ii His ■ 
 humiliations. If you love Him, you will live 
 in Him. Now, He summarizes Himself entire
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 607 
 
 ly in these words: "I am humble of Heart. " 
 If you love Our Lord, you will love what 
 He loves. He loves humility and humiliation. 
 His characteristic is humility. 
 
 We should honor Our Lord in the manner 
 and the virtue that He shows us in the 
 Blessed Sacrament. Now, which is the virtue 
 that He constantly practises there, constantly 
 and openly teaches there to all, even to 
 the most ignorant? Humility, annihilation. 
 He is more humiliated there than in His 
 birth, His life, even His death. His annihila- 
 tion there veils and buries all. His Divinity, 
 His Humanity, His words, and His actions. 
 If, then, you desire to honor Him, as is 
 the essential duty of your vocation, honor 
 Him in His state of humility, imitate Him 
 in what He actually is. He has descended 
 lower than man, lower than the slave, lower 
 than the least of animated beings, since He 
 is only a thing, an appearance of bread 
 destined to be eaten and destroyed. Descend, 
 then, in order to find Him where He is. 
 Vou must glorify Our Lord humble, make 
 for Him a throne of self, put self 'mder
 
 608 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 
 
 His feet. Oh, how low He is! Whatever 
 you may do, you will never be lower than 
 Our Lord. Descend, descend always, to honor 
 and love Him by your humility and "your 
 own annihilation. 
 
 Why is He so humbled? In order to 
 show us that He loves ns, in order to glorify 
 His Father, and to repair human pride. Ah, 
 well ! do you, also, glorify God by your humil- 
 ity, love Our Lord even so far as annihilating 
 self, and abase yourselves for so many souls 
 that wish not to humble themselves. Our 
 Lord bears in Himself the punishment of 
 their pride. You must come to His aid and 
 help Him by wearing with Him His mantle 
 of humiliation. 
 
 The Heavenly Father says to you: " I 
 have given you My Son in this state of 
 Eucharistic annihilation in order to show 
 you how much He loves you and abases 
 Himself for you. Return to Him what He 
 has done for you. Humble yourself. Es- 
 pouse His humility which He has not willed 
 to renounce even in His glorified state ! ' 
 
 Ask Our Lord earnestly for His spirit of
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE. 609 
 
 Eucharistic humility, of which you have the: 
 model always under your eyes. His Pres- 
 ence gives you the grace of it. Hold it 
 in love and practise it faithfully. May every 
 pulsation of your heart say to God : " Give 
 me humility 1 Make me humble I Make me 
 love humiliation! " 
 
 Exercise yourselves thcrem every day. la 
 the morning, in the examen of foresight, 
 determine upon some acts of it during the 
 day. Use up successively all the acts and 
 all the application of humility of heart, of 
 mind, of body. Here is work for a long- 
 time, and you will not be at a loss to know 
 what resolution to take. 
 
 1 have told you: "Will you please Our 
 Lord and enter into the very essence of your 
 vocation? — Give to Him your perionality. " 
 To-day, I add: "Will you perservere in this 
 gift? You can do so only by constant 
 humility. Humility must be the aliment of 
 this gift. If you are always humble, you 
 will go on always ^giving yourself, since by 
 humility you go" out of self, descend from 
 self, in order to give place Jo Our Lord.
 
 610 
 
 THE HUMILITY OF LOVE 
 
 The practical virtue of the gift of self is, 
 then, humility Undertake it with all your 
 heart.
 
 The SUPERNATURAL LIFE. ^ 
 
 [here is one capital question in the service 
 of God, in the work of your own 
 perfection, which 'takes the lead of all others, 
 and which is their life, and that is, do, you 
 know whether you liVe the supernatural life. 
 Whether you liv'e of the grace and of the 
 life itself of Our Lord. You understand that 
 it would be the greatest of misfortunes to 
 live naturally in a vocation so filled with 
 graces and love, and there find the means of 
 paralyzing the grace of God 
 
 Tbe question thus presents itself: We are 
 going from earth to heaven. God has created 
 us for this divine end. Earth is only a 
 preparation Where we receive the means 
 suited to our end, and which are, conse- 
 quently, divine. It is the grace of Our Lord 
 that really elevates the life of man to a 
 state supernatural and divine. We receive 
 the capability of living in a supernatural 
 state, of thinking, of loving, of acting super- 
 natarally. and of leading upon this earth 
 the life itself of God, the life of heaven.
 
 612 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 
 
 according to the word of Saint Paul: " Our 
 life is in heaven. " 
 
 " Our life is in heaven. " God un- 
 ceasingly gives us this grace. The Sacraments 
 of the Church are only to increase and 
 renew it. But do you know that, environed 
 by graces, living in a holy state, laboring 
 much, we may, notwithstanding, act only 
 naturally? In that case, we are doiag nothing 
 for the glory of God, and gaining nothing 
 for heaven. Oh! that is a frightful power 
 we possess of corrupting the grace of God 
 and of -performing the best works through 
 ourselves and in a natural manner, instead of 
 doing them through Him and through His 
 grace. 
 
 Those that live in the most pious sur- 
 roundings fall so much the more easily into 
 this defect, for they are blinded by appear- 
 ances. What deceives, what abuses, what 
 brings on the change, and keeps them in 
 the natural life, is that they taste more 
 joy in it, find more peace in the good 
 works that they perform ia the natural spirit, 
 by following their own inclination, than in
 
 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 613 
 
 those they do supernaturally. This satisfac- 
 tion deceives many souls. They look upon 
 it as an approval from God, but what a 
 deception! Do we not see many Christians 
 who are in a state of sin owing to the 
 omission of essential duties, who do not 
 confess, do not make their Easter, and yet 
 who are tranquil and happy? They have 
 preserved some Christian habits, they say 
 their prayers, go to Mass, fulfil very well 
 the duties of their state. They are in peace, 
 they are happy. But remorse? — They do not 
 feel it, and that is tbe reward for the natural 
 good they do, but a natural recommense, 
 also. It is the peace of the Jews, the hap- 
 piness of time. They are deceived by it, 
 and are astonished wheh some one speaks to 
 them of conversion. You are not in that state. 
 But only see how such persons' happiness in 
 what they do, is subject to illusion. When 
 after performing some act, you are carried 
 away by natural joy, very frequently you 
 may say: "Ohl this is my reward, for I 
 have nothing more to expect in heaven! " 
 To work from a natural motive, is to
 
 614 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 
 
 gather into a pierced sack that can hold 
 nothing. 
 
 But what, then, is it to live naturally? It 
 is to labor for self, to be the end of one's 
 actions, instead of doing them for God. It 
 is to act by the movement of one's own 
 inclination, of one's own self-love, to seek 
 self, our own rest, our own natural advantage 
 in what we do. 
 
 You are natural if you are sensual in 
 mind, seeking to satisfy its curiosity; in 
 your heart, if you seek to pour it out, to 
 rest in the affection of the creature, or 
 even it you allow yourself to be dejected 
 when God withdraws from you His con- 
 solations; in your body, if you allow yourself 
 to become indolent and to seek after repose. 
 You are natural if you do not accept the 
 states in which God places you, dryness, 
 temptations, sufferings; if instead of accept- 
 ing them patiently, you say with impatience: 
 "Oh. I wish I were happy!" 
 
 Fear this natural life!— What I you have 
 left the riches and pleasures of the world 
 to give yourself to God and now you would
 
 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 615 
 
 have the secret of losing all by laboring 
 for yourself alone? 
 
 Our poor Ego is the root of the natural 
 life. It is self-love that wants to be its 
 own end and to enjoy whatever it does. 
 No, follow Our Lord and bear His Cross. 
 He who bears his Cross does not enjoy. 
 
 Faith is necessary for the supernatural life; 
 but it alone does not suffice, for it may 
 be found even in the sinner, and whatever 
 the sinner does, counts not for heaven. His 
 works are wanting in the divine life, which 
 supposes, above all, the state of grace, 
 freedom from all mortal sin. 
 
 The supernatural life consists, first, in the 
 state of grace, in being a friend of God, 
 and in living in that state of active faith 
 which operates through charity. Did a per 
 son aim at but one thing in his life, name- 
 ly, the keeping of himself in the state 
 of grace, that would be perfection, because 
 that would suppose excessive care not to 
 offend God. The state of grace, then, 
 makes us practise all the virtues, for the 
 Holy Spirit, who would dwell in us, would
 
 610 THE SUPERNATURAL LrFI> 
 
 constantly excite our will, and make us in 
 ccssantly produce holy acts, as ground well 
 dug and sown faithfully yields its fruit. 
 The itate of grace \ ivifies everything. By 
 perfecting icseif. \t perfects everything Cer- 
 taia myst'.cs say 'It is sufficient that you 
 always preserve your state of grace, for all 
 that you do under us influence will be pure 
 and supernatural. The state sanctifies the 
 acts. " As m Our Lord :he union of .the 
 Person of :hc Word with His Humanity 
 elevates His least 'works, making of them 
 divine works, so, if you are in a state of 
 grace, and you act by virtue of this state, 
 all that you do is good and meritorious 
 before God. 
 
 Be ihac as it may, an intention is nec- 
 essary to supernaturalize our actions. Which 
 intention is necessary, for there are several? 
 
 Some wish to act by a supernatural and 
 actjal intention, so that before every action 
 they ought to say, at least interiorly.- ''My 
 God, I offer Thee this thought, this action, 
 for such or such a supernatural motive, " 
 for a motive of any virtue, it matters not
 
 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 617 
 
 which, suffices. If it be the motive of love, 
 it will be perfect. 
 
 Nevertheless, this actual intention is dif- 
 ficult to have always, and so, many declarei 
 that the virtual intention is sufficient. We 
 act by a virtual intention when the action 
 that we are performing proceeds from an 
 antecedent act of the will, which has once 
 been made and which still lasts in its in- 
 fluence and force. Thus if one offers to God 
 in the morning through love all the actions 
 of hb day, that would be sufficient to turn 
 all his actions into love provided he did 
 .not retract the first intention, and, that the 
 act be good in itself and pleasing to God; 
 and so of the other virtues. The virtual 
 intention may last more than a day in certain 
 cases in which the mind is powerfully affect- 
 ed, as in time of pain or trial. It may sanctify 
 all the sufferings of that cross without its be- 
 ing formulated again before each in particular. 
 
 Some are of opinion that the virtual in- 
 tention is all sufficient. It is that which 
 acts no longer on the action performed, 
 but which, having been made beforehand
 
 618 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 
 
 and not having been positively retracted, 
 is understood by that fact alone still to 
 last. In this case, the state of grace in itself 
 alone, without any need of other motives. 
 suffices to render meritorious and supernatural 
 all the actions performed by the just, all their 
 good and \artuous actions of whatever virtue 
 they may be. 
 
 W'ithout doubt, it is becter to aim at 
 having a supernatural intention either actual 
 or virtual. But the opinion just given is 
 very encouraging, and greatly mcreases the 
 power and nobility of the state of grace. 
 
 Great vigilance is, then, necessary to shun 
 voluntary sins. A sin of weakness does not 
 entirely destroy the intention. It interrupts 
 it, but it can be renewed- But those com- 
 mitted through bad will and affection to 
 sin paralyze the state of grace and lead to 
 its loss by mortal sin. 
 
 Keep yourselves pure, therefore, so that 
 all you do may, also, be pure. 
 
 I want nothing exaggerated but, on the 
 other hand, nothing relaxed. I say to you 
 also- Think as frequendy as you can about
 
 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 619 
 
 renewing- your supernatural intention. Do it, 
 above all, at the change. of action. You are 
 in a holy and supernatural state, I know, 
 but. it is safer to gather new strength repeat- 
 edly, and produce according to your occupa- 
 tion as many acts as possible. Without this, 
 the habitual intention, even the virtual in- 
 tention, languishes and becomes incapable 
 of supernaturaliiing our actions. Hence, how 
 many merits lost! Our actions may, indeed, 
 be relatively good, but they do not merit 
 eternal , recompense. 
 
 Again, act as much as you can according 
 to the perfection of your state of grace, 
 which is a state of charity and love for 
 God, and which entertains in the soul the Holy 
 Spirit who resides there. Is it not right to 
 act as frequently as possible through the 
 proper virtue of this state namely, through 
 love? Then the soul desires not only not 
 to displease God, but to please Him, to be 
 agreeable to Him by doing what she can 
 in the best possible way. She is always seek- 
 ing the most perfect, because she kno\vs 
 that is more pleasing to God. Such or such
 
 620 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE 
 
 a thing is neither necessary nor commanded, 
 but she will do it to please God. That is 
 sufficient for her. It is her word of command, 
 her inspiration. 
 
 The soul then fears sin, the least sin, 
 not so much on account of its deformity 
 as of the good of which" it deprives her, 
 because it displeases God, wounds His love 
 and offends the delicacy of friendship. 
 
 Heroism does not consist in not displeasing, 
 but in always pleasing. This is the point 
 at which you must arrive. It is the perfection 
 of the Christian life, of the life of grace. 
 
 Let us. then, live in this thought of pleasing 
 God in order never to displease Him, and 
 for that end let us walk ever in His pres- 
 ence. And this presence is not far from 
 us. It is our very selves, living, acting. 
 It IS the Real Presence of God, of the 
 Holy Spirit, of Jesus. Let us fi.x the gaze 
 of our heart upon It, permitting ourselves 
 to be distracted from It neither by persons 
 nor things. Wc shall then know what God 
 wills and wliat He wills not, and His known 
 good pleasure will be sufficient for us. 
 
 I
 
 The PURITY of LOVE. 
 
 ^ 
 
 loD has loved us with a love infinite, 
 perpetual, eternal. You know the proofs 
 of it, you have seen them, and the conclu- 
 sion is that you ought to love Him with 
 all your strength. 
 
 The first condition of this love is to be 
 pure and not to offend Him. We must 
 reach that degree of the love of the good 
 God at which one unhesitatingly avoids all 
 that displeases Him. If you do not possess 
 this refinement^ you do not love Him. It 
 is the commencement and the essential con- 
 dition of love. If you desire to love Him 
 perfectly, give yourself to Him and yoii 
 will attain the highest degree of love by 
 giving your personality, by renouncing for 
 the love of God all that you have and 
 all that you are, by reserving nothing for 
 self, by keeping nothing for self, and by 
 never considering self in anything. This is 
 to give one's self to, God for God. Desire 
 no other honor than that of serving Him. 
 no other consolation than that of loving Him.
 
 622 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 Reject all that others might want to give 
 you as to you, to you as a centre, and 
 refer all to Our Lord. You should exercise 
 yourself in this incessantly, and render glory 
 to God by your whole self. 
 
 By the gift of personality, you make an 
 exchange, you put the Person of Jesus Christ 
 in the place of your own. and you become 
 no longer anything but His member, His 
 organ. You have given yourselves thus to 
 Him. you no more belong to yourselves. 
 Oh! do not take self back through honor, 
 consolation, esteem, affection, and self-love. 
 For this a great grace of humility is needed, 
 you must possess this virtue in the very 
 depths of your being Humility — what is tha! 
 but a participation in the state of Our Lord, 
 who 13 always giving Himself and, for that 
 end, always humbling Himself, annihilating 
 Himself^ Hence, all that is humble is the 
 life of Our Lord m you, and all that comes 
 to you of humiliation, annihilation, is only 
 a little reflection of what Our Lord Has 
 suffered. If creatures and God Himself unite, 
 and everything goes against you — oh, what
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 623 
 
 a favor 1 The Heavenly Father is beginning 
 to treat you as He did His Divine Son. Thank 
 Him heartily, for it is a favor. God is 
 going to see whether you love Him, for 
 humiliation is the life of divine love 
 
 It is, then, necessary to be humble of 
 heart, mind, will, body, and life. This is 
 the only means of truly testifying your love 
 for Our Lord. It is His own life in Himself. 
 Since He is in you, allow Him to live His 
 own life, which is a life of humiliation 
 and annihilation. 
 
 To-day, I am come to ask another thing 
 of you. To be pure, to be humble, is a 
 groat deal; but there is need of something 
 that will give you strength, vigor, and that 
 is, the strength, the vigor of the love of 
 Our Lord Jesus Christ. Love is strength 
 itself. It .is stronger than death. 
 
 Now, love demands that we take no com- 
 placency outside of Our Lord. Jesus Christ 
 is the last word of love, its centre, its element, 
 its unique principle, and its sovereign end 
 alone. If you love Him as He deserves 
 to be loved, you must take no pleasure
 
 624 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 outside of Him. This appears easy, and yet 
 it costs most; it is perfection itself, because 
 it is love in action. 
 
 Will you take no satisfaction outside of 
 Our Lord, your Master? Be not, then, an 
 egoist in disguise. You would not commit an 
 act of infidelity, of indelicacy in His presence! 
 This holds good even in the natural order. 
 When two friends love each other Well, the 
 one cannot issue an imntation without includ- 
 ing his friend. The well-bred child never 
 receives anything without running at once 
 to show it to its mother. A wife cannot 
 accept a gift, nor even a compliment, with- 
 out sharing it with her spouse. A contrary 
 mode of acting, would insult him. In fine, 
 the first thought when one loves, is to share, 
 to make the beloved participate in all that 
 we have and in all that we esteem good 
 and beautiful. 
 
 Now. I ask you, if you love Our Lord, 
 if He is the law of your heart and of your 
 life, could you taste any pleasure \vithout 
 Him? Could you receive any delight, any 
 flower of love, of honor, or of esteem without
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 625 
 
 offering it to Him? That could not be! 
 You want to love Him very sincerely, do you 
 not? Ah! then, understand this well — nev- 
 er take any satisfaction of what kind soever, 
 apart from- Our Lord. Renounce every 
 pleasure in which He does not share. This 
 appears to be only justice and propriety, but 
 it is, also, the highest perfection. 
 
 Now, for the application of this principle. 
 Our Lord says to the soul that loves Him: 
 "'Give Me thy heart, " that is, all thy affec- 
 tion, all thy love. The spouse of the Can- 
 ticles says: "My Beloved is all mine, and 
 I am all His. " It is not a question of 
 merely soul and body, but of every thought, 
 every affection. Like the Apostles, we must 
 persevere with Our LorH in all things 
 
 If you desire to enjoy nothing outside 
 of Our Lord, you will commit but very 
 few sins, and very light ones. There may 
 be faults of surprise, of weakness, and of neg- 
 ligence; but where there is no satisfaction, 
 no resting of the heart, no will or sentiment, 
 there is no great malice. What makes the 
 malice and the gravity of sin, is 'the enjoy-
 
 626 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 ment that one finds in it, because then he 
 places his happiness and his end out of 
 God. 
 
 Thus, in pride, it is the satisfaction of the 
 mind that is sought. Pride rests in self and 
 in this sentiment : They are honoring" me ! 
 Voluptuousness finds its heart-satisfaction, or 
 that of the senses, in reciprocal testimonies of 
 love. It reposes therein and enjoys. This is 
 what forms the malice of those sins as of all 
 others. And that which is punished, that 
 which burns in hell and in purgatory, is the 
 satisfaction, the enjoyment that men have 
 sought to draw from contempt of the Supreme 
 Being, who is God. 
 
 If. then, you wish to enjoy nothing without 
 Our Lord, you will be very pure, you will 
 fly those personal satisfactions that create 
 natural sympathies, you will be on your guard 
 against sensuality of the heart, which is 
 nothing else than the satisfaction felt by 
 the heart in things natural and sensible, 
 or to put it in other words, in the creature. 
 
 Vo\L will, also, be very humble if you 
 renounce every satisfaction outside of Our
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 627 
 
 Lord, for the foundation of pride is only 
 the satisfaction of mind, its complacency in 
 its own self-esteem or in the esteem of others. 
 Be on your guard, also, to take no sensual 
 pleasure. The sensual man in you is always 
 seeking to enjoy. You must" reject every 
 temptation that he stirs up in you. You 
 must be very watchful to avoid everything 
 that can give evil or imperfect satisfaction, 
 as .well as all that might prove a temptation. 
 All that must be torn away from self, and 
 you must ever be on your guard, even 
 in things the most legitimate and necessary 
 in life, against every sensual idea and enjoy- 
 ment. Thus, for example, in eating, there is 
 danger of satisfying taste and sensuality 
 rather than of eating through the necessity 
 of supporting life. What is necessary must 
 be taken in obedience to God. It is not 
 possible not to perceive the flavor of food. 
 It has even been designed by God that 
 the food may have a taste which will con- 
 tribute to this animal action. But we must 
 not pause on it with complacency. This 
 pleasure must be restrained by. the mortifica-
 
 628 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 tion of sobriety. If we should overstep the 
 limits and allow our taste to satisfy itself, 
 there is a venial sin of gluttony. It is the 
 same with regard to the eyes, the ears, 
 and all the senses. We commit as many 
 sms of sensuality as we take satisfaction 
 in sensible things. 
 
 And yet we must not entertaio any 
 exaggerated fear on these pouits. Nothing 
 so holds back the soul and keeps her captive 
 as always to fear. Be delicate, but not 
 scrupulous. Go on simply and frankly. Do 
 not bind yourselves in the chain of perpetual 
 fear under pretext that temptation may 
 follow. Be only careful and vigilant in 
 rejecting it as soon as it presents itself 
 
 There are some souls too lax, too slow, 
 who allow temptation to enter their heart, 
 and they complain! But you have not been 
 vigilant and careful, since " you did not 
 perceive its approach. " And if you saw it 
 coming, why did you not at once banish 
 it? Because it was no great thing? — You 
 are very imprudent! You allowed the spark 
 to rest on your hand too long, and now
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 629 
 
 you complain of being burned. How foolish 
 you are! You should have shaken it off 
 yoar hand I There has been, at leasf, some 
 fault of negligence. You were not at your 
 post of vigilance and conscientiousness. 
 
 Behold the rule that must be followed 
 with the old man and his sensuality. We 
 shall be tormented, by him even to the end. 
 He has no faith, and he cares little for our 
 good desires. He wants only to enjoy and, in 
 union with the evil one, he is constantly 
 aiming at stealing something from us, and 
 getting his share of enjoyment. 
 
 When we have escaped him, he tries to 
 disquiet us, make us return upon self to 
 examine the temptation' and see how far 
 it went. But take carel That is a snare. 
 You have already been scorched, and you 
 are picking up the coal again! See how 
 under the pretext of examining, people 
 sully the imagination. They always find, some 
 satisfaction in reviewing their sins of sensual- 
 ity, even while humbling themselves for them. 
 Take care ! You are going to fill' your head 
 with them, and you will be persecuted by
 
 630 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 them! Do not waste your time. What need 
 have you to know what it was? Are you 
 sorry for having rejected it too soon the 
 first time, without enjoymg it? There was 
 nothing in it then, but now there is some 
 thing in it. No, no! Do not put yourself 
 m the fog and mud of your temptations 
 under pretext of humbling yourself. That is 
 the demon's humility! .Ascend the mountain, 
 enlighten yourself in the love of Our Lord, 
 and leave all to His mercy This is a good 
 way to shun temptations against sensuality. 
 
 Vou now know that the first degree of 
 the purity of love consists in desirmg outside 
 of God no natural and sensual satisfaction. 
 The second is to share every good and 
 lawful satisfaction witn Cur Lord. This is 
 more perfect 
 
 There arc some species of satisfaction that 
 we may very lawfully taste in the gifts of 
 God, but they have a natural side If we 
 share them witli Our Lord by offering them 
 to Him, we purify and sanctify them. The 
 purity of love calls for that. 
 
 Vou feel the warm rays of the sun in
 
 THE PUIIITY OF LOVE 631 
 
 the beautiful springtime, you admire its 
 brilliancy, and you are glad. That is well and 
 allowable, but offer that pleasure to God, say- 
 ing: "How good Thou art, O my God, who 
 dost make this beautiful sun shine for me!" 
 
 You see in a garden the beautiful flowers, 
 which unfold for you thfeir varied colors 
 mingled with such skill and grace, and which 
 waft you their perfume like the kiss of 
 friendship. To enjoy the sight, to breathe the 
 perfume is not at all wrong; but think of 
 your. Spouse, and point out to Him those 
 flowers, saying: "I thank Thee, my God I 
 Thou art a good and great artist!" You 
 eat some fruit, and you cannot help relishing 
 its exquisite freshness. It is God who has 
 placed It there for you, so bless Him at 
 once for it- "By my sins, I deserve only 
 gall and wormwood. But Thou art kmd, 
 and Thou givest me this sweetness. I thank 
 Thee, O my God!" In this way, you will 
 not enjoy natural goods naturally when you 
 enjoy them with Our Lord. 
 
 A man who lives by the senses, on the 
 contrary, takes pleasure in seeing. He in-
 
 632 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 hales perfumes, he tastes flavors, but he 
 never thinks of raising his eyes toward Him 
 who gives them to him. He makes him- 
 self his own end, he enjoys sensually. You, 
 also, would fall into the same way, if you^ 
 paused too long to enjoy the excellence 
 of things. A little is lawful, but too much 
 is sensual. We must always rest in God 
 more than in the thing He gives us. We 
 must enjoy the good in passing while- thank- 
 ing God who permits us these innocent 
 satisfactions, in order to render, life's exile 
 less painful for us. 
 
 There are some saints of more austere 
 mortification, who reject even the satisfaction 
 sanctified by the offering made to, God. 
 But there are others, like Saint Francis of 
 Assisi and Saint Francis de Sales, who taste 
 the gifts of God and God in His gifts. 
 Thus did David render thanks to God for 
 all His gifts in the beautiful canticle of the 
 Benedicite. They made use of everything to 
 go to God and to thank Him. In al His 
 gifts, they saw an ever new proof of His 
 goodness.
 
 THE- PURITY OF LOVE 633 
 
 Saint Francis of Assisi suffered much from 
 his eyes. Those around him used to bathe 
 them in. cold water to relieve the suffering, 
 and the dear saint praised God aloud for 
 having imparted to the water the power 
 to refresh his burning pupils^ 
 
 On another occasion when he was sick, 
 a good lady was inspired by God to pre- 
 pare for him a fish which she knew the 
 saint liked. At first, he had the thought 
 not to accept it, but to deprive himself 
 of it as did David offering to God the 
 cup of water that a soldier had brought 
 him at the peril of his own life. But .on 
 second thought, he said: "No, that would 
 wound our good daughter, " and he ate it, 
 giving thanks to God. 
 
 And so never to pause in created things, 
 but to find in them wherewith to praise 
 God and to share the pleasure of them 
 with Our Lord — such is the second degree 
 of the purity of love. Practise this even 
 in spiritual things. If the good God were 
 to send you an angel to console and help 
 you, and were you to dismiss Him, saying; 
 
 The Divine Eucharist. 4t
 
 634 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 "I prefer to suffer alone, I wish only to 
 be crucified, " that would be pride unadul- 
 terated. The angel should have no sooner 
 disappeared than you would begin to lament, 
 because the demon would have taken his 
 place. I mean by this that, if the good 
 God sent you the means of receiving some 
 good counsel, of asking for enlightenment. 
 It would be a help from His goodness 
 Make use of it simply and joyously, and 
 thank God for it. Then when this messenger 
 of divine grace shall have ended his mission 
 to you. allow him to depart without falling 
 into despondency. God remains to you! 
 Thus It was when the archangel Raphael, 
 having fulfilled his mission to the young 
 Tobias and his father, suddenly disappeared 
 from their sight. Instead of weeping and 
 lamenting and losing their time in regrets, 
 on account of the advantages they had found 
 m his presence, they fell on their knees 
 and. tor three hours, thanked the goodness 
 of God. 
 
 I permit you. tnen, to take all that the 
 good God sends you. not to enjoy it as
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 635 
 
 an egoist a»nd to place therein your end, 
 but to find in it matter to share with Our 
 Lord, and to prais? His infinite bounty, 
 which takes pleasure iu giving us what can 
 be of service to us, or even be agreeable to us. 
 
 Still more, a soul that loves the good 
 God well, and that gives to Him her per- 
 sonality, knows not how to taste ariy joy 
 apart from Qur Lord. She wishes to share 
 with Him not only her crosses — as we know 
 so well how to do in order to get rid of 
 them — but all her joys as well. She can 
 no longer be happy without Our Lord. I 
 am now speaking of the joys of the soul, 
 of those joys that God sheds into the soul 
 during prayer, Communion, and after some 
 sacrifice. She is pleased. She hastens to 
 tell it to her Spouse, for if He did not 
 share it, it would hold no happiness for her 
 
 Oh! it must be said to our shame, these 
 joys are so sweet to us, so good, that, 
 like certain birds of prey, we would wish 
 to hide them in a corner there to enjoy 
 them all alone. No, no, never enjoy them 
 alone 1 Without Our Lord, desire neither di-
 
 636 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 vine favors nor celestial consolations. Do 
 not rest in the goodness, sweetness, beauty 
 of such iavors as in your centre. If you 
 repose in them as in your end you dry 
 up their source. Instead of looking- at the 
 love of the Heart of Jesus, some pause 
 in its rays. They attend only to their con 
 solations. and not to Him who gives them 
 Our Lord then closes His hand, suspends 
 His favors, because such souls do not be- 
 have with sufficient refinement toward Him 
 We must not -want to enjoy God without 
 God, but to bless Him, to offer everything 
 to Him, and to behold Him, rather than all 
 the effects of His grace that we experience. 
 
 Lastly, the third degree of the punty ot 
 love IS indifference to the slates through 
 which God mshes to make us pass, whether 
 of joy or of desolation. In the case in 
 which we are free, in which we havx the 
 choice, It IS a generous will which always 
 takes the most painful, the most crucifying, 
 because it was thus chat JeiU5 Christ Him- 
 self did. 
 
 Oh! how a soul pleases God when she
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 637 
 
 says: "My God, I know that Thou art 
 goodness itself. I shall receive in the same 
 manner consolations and desolations, and 
 because, coming from Thee, the tiial can 
 be only a favor of Thy bounty, I shall 
 receive it with thanksgiving!" This is per- 
 fect indifference. One does not even look 
 at the thing. It comes, from God ! Then 
 desolation becomes consolation. " Thou dost 
 will that, O my God? That affords Thee 
 pleasure? And to me also! — That does not 
 please Thee, Thou dost not want it? Oh I 
 neither do I! For body as well as for soul, 
 nothing but what Thou dost will. I will 
 go where Thou dost wish, I will remain 
 wherever Thou placest me equally joyous 
 and contented with all I " 
 
 But there is something better still. It 
 is the soul that says: "My God, 1 know 
 that what pleases Thee most is renunciation 
 sacrifice, immolation in ihc natural and in 
 the supernatural order, and it is that that 
 I choose! Thou wilt not be displeased if 
 having before me satisfaction and sacrifice, 
 I leave tiic first and take the second. \
 
 638 THE PURITY OF LOVE 
 
 do SO because the latter having" more love^ 
 pleases Thee more. " The good God looks 
 down on tliese souls with complacency He 
 admires them. His law does not exact this 
 but love does, and God is happy when 
 you act thus. 
 
 But this must spring from the spontaneit\- 
 of your love, for God leaves yo.u free. He 
 even hides Himself m order to allow you 
 to choose. No exterior sign shows you which 
 of two things He desires. Then one consults 
 his own heart, saying to himself " Our Lord 
 has testified to me His love by always 
 choosing sacrifice and suffering, so 1 am 
 going to do the same. I am going to show 
 the good God that I love Him more than 
 He rigorou ly demands of me. What have 
 I to fear? It is not I myself that I am 
 seeking, for what I am going to embrace 
 b the most humiliating, the most crucify- 
 ing. " Behold love's highest flight! 
 
 But in order to be wise and prudent in 
 all thai we are saying, keep this rule When 
 the good God positively places you in some 
 grace, do not look for another. Remain
 
 THE PURITY OF LOVE 639 
 
 in it as long as He manifests to you His 
 will. What He wills is the most perfect 
 for you, even if it be not the; most perfect 
 in itself. Perform it just as well as you 
 can. Be satisfied with following the attraction 
 of grace that He gives you for the moment. 
 Perfection is in the state God shows to 
 each one as his own. 
 
 It is true that the sublimity of love is 
 always to divine what is the most pleasing 
 to the good God. As long as you are not 
 guided by some law or some positive grace, 
 consult His love, follow His inspiration, and 
 thus you will always walk in love, and that 
 is necessary 1 
 
 But no pleasure, no satisfaction out of God. 
 That is the keen sense of justice. Secondly, 
 every satisfaction that He grants me, I shall 
 return to Him through gratitude. Lastly, 
 complete indifference between joy and pain 
 and, in the liberty of choice, I shall always 
 choose through love what He has chosen 
 for me, the most painful, the most crucify- 
 ing, and the most humiliating. Behold the 
 degrees and the laws of the purity of love!
 
 ^^^3:fe ss* ^5^226 ^3^3^ ^sss sa^!* "i&jK SJ&^ *i&.^ 
 
 ^ PATIENCE and HUMILITY. 
 
 ;f^Q;UR Lord bore ia Him two states, a 
 i^^l state of g]ory and a state of humilia- 
 tion Possessing in Himself glory and Di 
 vinlty, the beatitude of the soul. He kept 
 within Him the rays and the joys of that 
 state, and allowed His sensitive soul to be 
 enveloped by huniiliation, fear, suffering, and 
 all the weaknesses of humanity, sin on'y 
 excepted. 
 
 Something analogous takes place in us. 
 We have one side very beautiful, very noble 
 very admirable. God's grace, His virtues, 
 even His sanctity, are in us The Holy Spirit, 
 Jesus Christ, and the Holy Trinity dwell 
 in us. God is in us, and we are m Hini. 
 That is ver>' beautiful and, in the eyes of 
 the angels, it must be a ravishing spectacle. 
 We have our dignities, and they are the 
 foundation of our hope. But we cannot 
 enjoy them, for they arc veiled from us, 
 they are invisible. They are the spectacle 
 that God reserves for Himself in us. 
 
 But. on the contrary, we have a visible
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 641 
 
 side that He leaves to us. It is- the per- 
 sonal side, it is that which is from our- 
 selves in us. This vitiated nature of Adam, 
 our passions, our. infirmities, our defects, our 
 miseries, actual sin, is what Sauit Paul calls 
 in one word, the flesh of sin, caro peccali, 
 and again, simply peccatum, sin. that is, all 
 that comes from sin and disposes thereto, 
 though even that would not be sin of itself. 
 All that part of us is visible and very 
 sensible. It envelops us on all sides, and 
 is very humiliating. 
 
 Why has God thus invested us with the 
 humiliation of our nature, instead of allowing 
 the grandeur of His grace to appear in 
 us? Why does He will that we should feel 
 much more in ourselves the son of Adam, 
 the sinner, than the son of God regenerated 
 in Jesus Christ? 
 
 We answer in one single word, which 
 comprehends all — in order to keep us in 
 humility by humiliation. The good God 
 knows that we are so borne to pride, so 
 prone to be content with ourselves through 
 self-love, and to exhibit ourselves for the
 
 642 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 admiration of others that, in order to save 
 us and to safeguard His grace in us, He 
 15 obhged to leave us in the slime of hu 
 miMntion. and our own miseries, and not 
 in the glory and honor of His service 
 
 Hence, results something that we can 
 scarcely credit although it is very true, and 
 that IS. the more graces God bestows, the 
 more He abases. The more saintly a man 
 is, the more he is humbled; the more he is 
 elevated on one side, the deeper he is sunk 
 in the mire on the other. 
 
 Why? Because ihat keeps us in humility, 
 and humility is the characteristic of Our 
 Lord, which He loves to find in us, and 
 by which alone we can please Him. 
 
 And so we might say that a lit^de saint 
 IS little humbled, that a great saint is 
 greatly humbled, and that the very great 
 saint has to be the anathema of the world, 
 the object of all kinds of Jiumiliations and 
 maledictions. Who was ever humiliated 'as 
 was Our Lord Jesu=; Christ, the Holy of 
 Holies? 
 
 That is the condition Like Hun we musi:
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 643 
 
 climb up to Calvary by passing through the 
 Sanhedrim, through the prsetorium of all 
 those humiliations which reduced Him to 
 greater contempt than a worm of the earth, 
 and through the malediction of men. We 
 are affrighted when we read the Lives of the 
 great saints, at seeing through what they 
 have passed, how the world maltreated them, 
 how they were judged and calumniated. It 
 was necessary. The Cross is the way of 
 holiness; its characteristic, its nourishment, 
 its surety is humiliation. 
 
 If the saints were elevated, exalted, it 
 was but for some moments. By how many 
 years of humiliations did they pay for those 
 short moments of glory I We count their 
 miracles, their ecstasies, the consolations and 
 wonders of their ministry; but who can 
 number up their humiliations, as well on 
 the part of God as. on that of men? 
 
 If we knew our own merits, if we suc- 
 ceeded and could see our success, we should 
 rejoice in it. But this is not the time for 
 rest. In such enjoyment, pride finds its 
 contentment, and so the good God humbles
 
 644 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 US. He places under our eyes ordy our 
 sins, our defects, our failures, all that can 
 lower us in our own esteem, in order to 
 keep us little and poor. Then we acknowl- 
 edge our weakness, we pray, we have re- 
 course to God, recognizing tliat we are 
 nothing and that He is all, like Saint Paul 
 who. after having labored so much, feared 
 to see himself a castaway, and cried out : 
 "I have done nothing!" His love counted 
 as nothing all his labor compared with what 
 he would have wished to have done for Our 
 Lord. 
 
 Ah, Weill even if you have always been 
 pious, even if you hiive always served Our 
 Lord, 1 would say to you: You have done 
 nothing. See what you should have done! 
 
 Let us go down, then, into what we are, 
 into our weakness, in order to experience 
 the need we have of God. The more one 
 feels liis misery, the more he recurs to 
 God. He calls Jesus Christ to his aid, he 
 unites himself to Him, he comprehends that 
 if he is alone he will he lost. How struggle 
 against ihe demon, against the passions, how
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 645 
 
 above all rise from his falls without Jesu-; 
 Christ? He calls Him, and. He is there. 
 Then he is not discouraged. If you become 
 discouraged, it is because you are proud, 
 you support yourself on yourself. Seeing 
 that you will not be able to hold on, in- 
 stead of acknowledging it courageously and 
 humbling yourself simply, you prefer to give 
 up all in advance, and thus escape the 
 shame of having labored unsuccessfully. That 
 is pride. 
 
 However, Our Lord is there. He offers 
 you His grace and His strength, but on 
 one condition, and that is, that you rec- 
 ognize that you can do nothing without 
 it, and that you humbly and earnestly ask 
 for it. 
 
 The humble sentiment of our own weakness 
 produces conlidence. You are discouraged 
 only because you have not confidence m 
 Our Lord. You do not acknowledge that 
 without Him you can do nothing, and you 
 forget that you can do all things in Him 
 who strengthens you. 
 
 When you have done badly, say with
 
 646 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 certainty: "It is because I haye confided 
 in myself. '* Do not add pride to pride by 
 becoming discouraged. We are naturally 
 presumptuous. We constantly try to slip 
 away from the good God. But no, go with 
 Him; for you will fall if you walk alone 
 
 /ou commit few positive sins, I hope, 
 because you sincerely love Oiir Lord. But 
 how many negative sins, I- mean actions full 
 of self-love, deceit, jealousy, sensuality, sloth, 
 in fine, all the capital sins, though in a 
 degree venial or imperfect! And all this is 
 because you lean upon self You fall into 
 these faults only because you do not suffi- 
 ciently look up to God. 
 
 If you have the habitual sentiment of your 
 own weakness, you will never expose your- 
 self to temptation. In presence of a sacrifice 
 to be made, an occasion to flee, you %vill 
 turn instantly to God: "My God, give me 
 Thy grace, humility to support this humilia 
 tion, patience with that- character, Thy 
 strength and Thy grace for everything, for 
 I feel my weakness. 
 
 Oh. how God loves lo hear that from
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 647 
 
 lis! How quickly He flies to our aid! It 
 is a joy tor 'Him to help us! Our strength 
 lies in the fact that God sees us all the time, 
 in union with Him, and in the help of 
 the Lord. 
 
 Humility endues you with the strength of 
 God, and it is, moreover, the means of 
 your sanctity. There is no saint here below 
 who can rest, saying : " I have reached the 
 degree to which God calls me. " No, neither 
 in the virtues nor in love does that ever 
 come to pass. To possess a virtue in its 
 perfection? That is to resemble Jesus Christ 
 perfectly, and do you think yourself there? 
 If any one would say that to you, he would 
 be mocking you. You have only some shreds 
 of virtue, and do you think yourself perfect 
 in love? No! You are climbing the moun- 
 tain of perfection, but you are not yet at 
 its summit. 
 
 Where, then, is your sanctity, if it is neither 
 in your works, nor in your virtues, Yior 
 in yoiir love? In the patience to acquire 
 it, little by little; to labor incessantly and 
 perseveringly, humbly and patiently at cloth-
 
 648 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 mg- yourself with the Wrtucs of Our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. All the labor of sanctity lies 
 in pati-ence to acquire it. 
 
 To sanctify self is to form Jesus Christ 
 111 self. That shapeless block of rough, hard 
 stone, which is yourself, must be wrought 
 upon. To chisel it, polish it, bring it in 
 some degree to resemble the model, is not 
 the affair of a day. Observation, study, labor 
 are necessary. It has to be demolished, cut, 
 repaired, and reconstructed. It is the work 
 of a %vhole lifetime, and so patience is 
 needed. And what is this patience? It is 
 confidence in God and diffidence in self 
 
 We must confide in God in everything and 
 in spite of everything! Pic wills that you 
 should be iii humiliation, that you should 
 not succeed? Remain there. Advance as He 
 wills you to advance. Confide and abandon 
 yourself entirely to Him. Count no more 
 on yourself in iinything" whatsoever 
 
 You frequently blaze up and, taking a good 
 resolution, you say: '* I want to love God 
 well, " and you go on with the assurance 
 of walking a long time without pausing.
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 649 
 
 But whatl behold a frightful temptation 
 ag-ainst faith, charity, chastity assails you. 
 You repulse it, but it returns with greater 
 violence. What is to be done? Humble 
 yourself, and, be patient. If you cast yourself 
 into the thick of the fight you help to keep 
 it up, and you will become discouraged be- 
 fore - conquering. But turn away from self, 
 abandon yourself to God; acknowledge that, 
 in spite of your good desires, you are capable 
 of nothing, and you will triumph by patience. 
 Humble yourself and say to God: " My God, 
 Thou dost will that I should be humbled 
 by the evil one, ah, well, may Thy will 
 be done! But assist me if Thou wilt not 
 deliver me, that at least I may not offend 
 Thcc. I am willing to live in the midst 
 of demons, provided that, with Thy holy 
 grace, I do not offend Thee!" 
 
 Such a state is a martyrdom of the love 
 of God. See how God is magnified in the 
 patience of His. servants! Nothing renders 
 so much glory to God as the miserable 
 .man who offers to Him his misery and who 
 perseveres in loving Him in the midst of
 
 650 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 temptation. The more he lowers himself, the 
 more he elevates and glorifies God. God 
 IS elevated in proportion to the depths to 
 which man lowers himself. 
 
 Love patience in such states. When God 
 sends temptations, they will remain, whatever 
 you may do, until He withdraws them. 
 Patiently humble yourself, and you will spare 
 yourself much annoyance and headache! If 
 one so tempted merely struggles, resists vio- 
 lently, he forms the habit of becoming irrita- 
 ble, and the character and the heart grow 
 impatient and choleric. If he could tear out 
 his soul, he would do so in order to 
 irze himself from that fire which devours 
 him, from those thorns that pierce him. 
 What is he to do? Ah! remain on his 
 dunghill with the holy man Job as long 
 as the good God wills him to do so! 
 
 Oh! the beautiful moral lesson God gives 
 us in these words: " Remember to bring forth 
 fruit in patience " The Apostles would have 
 wished to conquer Judea and the whole 
 world in a day. They were so persuaded 
 of their Master's power that they could not
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 651 
 
 think any one would resist them. They 
 thought not of obstacles. Look at Peter! 
 Look at John himself! But Our Lord said 
 to them: "You will bring forth fruit in 
 patience. " He was the first to die without 
 His having been able to convert either Judea 
 or Jerusalem; and among the Apostles them- 
 selves, some converted very few infidels. 
 Witness Saint James, who gained to Jesus 
 Christ only seven pagans in Spain! 
 
 Ah! patience is nothing else than humiliiy 
 in practice. Patience consists in confidence 
 in God and the humbling of self. 
 
 I say to you, then, in your pains, in your 
 dryness, in your weakness, in all that springs 
 from the old man, and in all kinds ot tiials, 
 have patience even with God, have pity on 
 your own soul. 
 
 Is not God patience itself toward souls, 
 toward you? Does He bcconie infuriated 
 and violently dash things to pieces? No. 
 He awaits the fruit of His seed years 
 and years. He daily does the little that our 
 cooperation permits Him to do- He recom- 
 mences what our faults have demolished. He
 
 652 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 IS the grace itself of patience and our model. 
 
 Do not measure your advancement by the 
 progress you are able to notice m yourself, 
 oy your success in the virtues, but by pa- 
 tience greater, firmer, sweeter, and more 
 humble. You are not bound to know so 
 exactly your progress and your gains. 
 
 Our Lord never so much glorified His 
 Father as in His failures among men, and 
 by bearing with patience the imperfections, 
 the coarseness, and the weakness of His 
 Apostles; by His patience in awaiting the 
 will and the hour of His Father in order to 
 act; by His patience in succeeding only in 
 the measure that His Father willed during His 
 public life; and by His patience in His Pass- 
 ion, in which He consented to go through, what 
 would naturally annihilate His work forever. 
 
 Place all your virtue, then, in strengthenmg 
 yourself in patience. You will have m every- 
 thing the success that is necessary when you 
 shall have reached the point of being hu- 
 miliated. Your virtue is to be laid low, like 
 the manure, at the foot of the tree. Keep 
 yourself at the root and very low, and not
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 653 
 
 Upon the branches, for they might snap. 
 It is in humility that God wants .to draw, 
 you to Himself. That is why He has de- 
 scended so Icttv and annihilated Himself, that 
 we may never be elevated so near to Him 
 as when we shall have sunk lower in the 
 humiliations in which He maintains us and 
 awaits us. 
 
 The greatest saints are truly persuaded that 
 they are only great sinners, and they say 
 it as they think it. Some look upon this 
 expression as exaggerated. They cannot be- 
 lieve it, they say. And yet the saints are really 
 convinced that they are the greatest sinner 
 before God, because they have true humility 
 and patience, which are the means of know- 
 ing one's misery in its Very depths. 
 
 Again, we must have patience in prayer. 
 We pray, and we want to .be heard favorably 
 on the instant! We ask something, and that 
 alone we want. God, on the contrary, is 
 pleased to make us vvait, or to grant us 
 some other favor. He tries us in this way 
 continually. We ask for fervor, for love, and 
 He leaves us in stupidity of heart and deso-
 
 654 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 latiorL We ask for light, and He plunges 
 us in darkness. We ask for sentiment, and 
 He leaves us in aridity It seems to us 
 that it would be much better if we were 
 burning with the love of God and zeal for 
 His glory. The good God judges otherwise, 
 and esteems Himself more glorified by our 
 patience and humiliation. Think as He does. 
 He knows better than you the means that 
 will be for His glory, therefore accept what 
 He sends you. Then the soul is satisfied 
 in whatever state God keeps her. She is 
 always contented with the good God. 
 
 We ought to ask simply the grace and 
 the virtues that are necessary for us, and 
 mcessantly say to God : " Speak I What dost 
 Thou wish me to do to please Thee?" 
 Very frequently God will make no answer, 
 but leave us in doubt. That is to make us 
 mcrease in patience and humility, which are 
 far better than the most beautiful actions. 
 It is God's way, His method to lead to 
 holy love, to true sanctity. In patience, the 
 soul finds the exercise of all the virtues 
 Love God by patience and you will be meek.
 
 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 655 
 
 humble, and charitable. We cannot be pa- 
 tient with God without being so with per- 
 sons and events. 
 
 By patience, you will love God more than 
 His gifts, for He changes not. He is al- 
 ways as lovable when He tries as when 
 He consoles, and it is He whom we must 
 love above all His gifts. If you are not 
 patient, you will never be interior souls, holy 
 -souls, no, not even virtuous souls. 
 
 Nature is slow. They who cultivate it 
 know how to wait. God is slower still. He 
 goes slowly about all that He does, in 
 order to conquer our pride, the confidence 
 and assurance we have in ourselves and in 
 our own way of doing things, also to render 
 us dependent on His grace, His guidance, 
 and Himself. Sanctity consists not in the 
 fervor of love, but in patience to labor 
 without fervor and to bear with the delays 
 of God. 
 
 He wills to grant to some the grace of 
 prayer, of contemplation. He begins by 
 plunging the soul into a great temptation 
 to terror, either at the sight of her own
 
 656 PATIENCE AND HUMILITY 
 
 sins, or by that of the hell which she de- 
 serves, and this in order to increase her 
 patience, humility, and trust in God. If wc 
 wfere attentive, we should hear Our Lord 
 continually saying to us : " Wait, wait, and 
 pray!" Always patience! Patience renders 
 every work perfect. 
 
 During this life, wc cultivate the seed of 
 the glory of God, of oiir own sanctity 
 and eternal happiness. All these heavenly 
 plants, instead of germinating and rising 
 above the ground, ought to strike downward 
 It is low down that are found the atmosphere 
 and the sunbeams necessary for then^. If 
 they push up by our side, the air and the 
 sun of the world weaken them and make 
 them die. Then, labor low down in patience, 
 humility, and poverty These virtues arc the 
 throne of God in us, and they assure to 
 us His throne of glory in heaven 
 
 c^^-X]>^-^$>4.
 
 
 CONFIDENCE and REPOSE 
 
 in GOD ALONE. 
 
 
 Kf 
 
 OUR heart ought to be satisfied with 
 the good God, for He has been so 
 good to you during thig Retreat, He has 
 granted you so many precious graces. He 
 has shown you not only the truth of holiness, 
 but also the truth of His love for you. It 
 is much to know the truth of God, His 
 grace and His rights, but to know His love 
 for us, that He does love us and how much 
 He loves us, i? the knowledge of rapture! 
 At this sight, you have said: "I, too, will 
 love God, greatly, generously, purely. His 
 love shall be my life and my law. It shall 
 be my law of mortification and purity. Still 
 more, that love shall be the law of my 
 transformation into God in the deification 
 of my love, for I no longer wish to live 
 of myself Jesus will live in me. I shall 
 be His human nature, a member of His 
 Body, and He shall be my personality, my 
 living principle.
 
 658 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 \ : 
 
 You are aspiring very high! But that is 
 right. God predestines- us not only to be 
 called, but to be in very truth His children, 
 sons of God, according to the words of 
 Saint John. This is the grace given to all. 
 With how much greater reason to you whom 
 He has called to this contemplative voca- 
 tion which among all others holds the first 
 rank, which is the better part, as Our Lord 
 Himself saidl 
 
 You are, moreover, contemplatives and ado- 
 ratrices, that is, you live in more constant 
 relation, a relation closer, more intimate with 
 Our Lord. Your life is passed under His 
 eyes, in His sanctuary. It is entirely made 
 up of family relations with Him. It is a 
 domestic service toward His Divine Person. 
 Ah, if you love Him only as do the people 
 in the world, how unworthy you will be of 
 this sublime vocationl You ough^ to be like 
 the candle that burns, but without diminish- 
 ing, and burns ever more purely. 
 
 Love, then, live of love and of the gift 
 of yourselves. If you receive much, He will 
 <lemand much of you. Expect a severe
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 659 
 
 judgment at the end of your life. Our Lord 
 will ask an account of so many graces; not 
 one must remain sterile. Arid if to the so 
 great love that He has for you, you have 
 not responded; if His graces, sown in you 
 with such profusion, have not produced fruit, 
 they will cry for vengeance. Expect a ter- 
 rible purgatory. If you do not love Our 
 Lord purely, you will be cruelly punished 
 since He has loved you so much. Behold 
 your graces, also^ but see at the same time 
 the responsibility they impose upon you. You 
 say: "I want to do well, but I am afraid. 
 I dare not promise myself to persevere, I dare 
 not trust in myself, knowing my own weak- 
 ness. " 
 
 Oh! do not let that arrest you! It is very 
 happy for you that you do not dare to confide 
 in yourself; but upon what will you rest in 
 order to be very faithful? Here it is. It 
 is the subject of this meditation. Lay firmly 
 the foundation, the reason of your hope, 
 your support, your strength, your confidence 
 in God alone, and not in se f nor in creatures, 
 even did you think them saints and human
 
 660 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 angels. In your Superiors even, and, in all 
 whom God has given you for your guidance 
 seek only Our Lord, and make Him the 
 absolute foundation of your trust in them. 
 If you depend on any creature whatsoever 
 you depend upon a reed, a straw. 
 
 Look not for the proof of your virtue 
 in the esteem of the creature, not even, 
 perhaps, in that of a confess'or, of a Superior. 
 That is, at any rate, subject to illusion, to 
 self-seeking, and to self-love. 
 
 The greatest temptation that can obscure 
 the . purity of love, is the appearance of 
 holiness. People love saints, men and wornen 
 They want to see them, to speak to them 
 to receive from them some mark of sanctity 
 They think they have it ready-made, since 
 ihey rouse their esteem 
 
 God places you in relation with one of 
 His saints. It is a grace. Use it fauhfully 
 as long as He permits you, but do not 
 rest m it. On the contrary, make use of 
 that saint in order to place more confidence 
 m God .alone. If you should place too much 
 confidence in him. your confidence in God
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 661 
 
 diminishes. It will no longer be so refined 
 but shared between God and the creature. 
 God is the loser there, for you are preferring 
 a creature to Him! Whenever you put your 
 trust in a creature, were he an angel on 
 earth, you lose sight of the Creator. I do 
 not say it is a sin, but it may tarnish the 
 gold of charity. 
 
 The good God makes use for souls, for 
 the souls of His children, of tutors, of 
 angels-Raphael. They are meant to sustain 
 you in your weakness to lead you by the 
 right road of obedience. Draw great profit 
 from their help. Love and cherish them 
 but love still more the God who gives them 
 to you, place your trust in Him alone, and 
 let Him be your end. 
 
 God alone judges souls, and it would be 
 an error to think yourself holy, because you 
 may be favorably considered by His saints. 
 Never say: "The good God loves me, I 
 am sure of. it, and I may be at peace since 
 His saints love me. " To build upon anything 
 like that, is to expose yourself to self 
 deception. It is to rest in the creature, and
 
 662 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 you will see that God will be jealous of it. 
 He desires to possess all alone our whole 
 confidence. He desires that nothing should 
 come between your heart and Him, for that 
 would paralyze His action and His glory. 
 
 "But he is a sainl, an angel!" — Doubtless, 
 but he is a creature still. He is a vase 
 that may be shattered. He is subject to 
 misery God will, perhaps, permit you no long- 
 er to find in him what you seek too eagerly. 
 He will have no more light for your soul, 
 his devotedness will diminish, he will change; 
 lastly, he will become for you a trial, perhaps 
 a temptation, and a very painful one. 
 
 What, then, is to be done? Place youi 
 confidence in God alone, above all men, 
 all saints, all angels, and say: "What; I find 
 not in them, God wants to give me Himself. ' 
 
 When we really make use of a saint only 
 to go to God, when our confidence, our eyes, 
 and heart are steadily fixed on God alone, 
 nothing could be more just. We walk freely 
 and independently But when we repose in. 
 the creature, we are disquieted and troubled. 
 It is a mixture that casts a mist over the
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 663 
 
 eyes, mud under the feet. All is spoiled. 
 
 Like every one else, you have experienced 
 it. There is nothing that causes so much 
 suffering as to see a good, pious person not 
 sufficiently supernatural. 
 
 You glory in being the friend of a saint, 
 in being directed by a man. who passes for 
 such, and you put all your confidence in 
 that But suddenly, u'hether it is that he 
 reprimands you or abandons you, you think 
 all lost, you torment yourself, you despair. 
 All that comes not from God. 
 
 Let it not be so with you who live in 
 so intimate relations with Our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. Accustom yourself in presence of the 
 sun to forget the stars, and ever to place 
 the Master before the servants. 
 
 Our Lord attaches much importance to 
 this, that the blossom, the first movement 
 of your confidence should be for Him. 
 When you h^ave been too natural, even in 
 the smallest trouble, instead of recurring 
 to Him, you have run to His servants, asking 
 from creatures what they have not and 
 cannot give. But should He give it to them
 
 664 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 for you, wait till your next Adoration to 
 seek and call Our Lord in vain He will 
 answer: "Since I do not deserve your con 
 fidence, go, find your saint. I have nothing 
 to say to you. " Divine Love is susceptible 
 jealous, and avenges your indelicate forget 
 fulness by silence Our Lord is jealous of 
 the heart that has given itself to Him and 
 that He has accepted, giving Himself in 
 return. Why offer this injury to your Spouse, 
 by having more confidence in His servants 
 than in Him? 
 
 You have certainly experienced it When, 
 at the feet of Our Lord, your soul is power 
 less to say anything to Him, when in glacial 
 coldness, say unhesitatingly. "1 am expiating 
 my thoughtless conduct. I have gone too 
 quickly and too naturally to those whom Our 
 Lord has given me for my guidance. I have 
 put the servant before the Master I" 
 
 Place your confidence, then, in Our Lord 
 alone. Go to Him for grace. Why expect 
 grace from a creature who gives it not -* 
 Grace comes from Our Lord alone, who 
 imparts it only to those that address them
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 665 
 
 selves to Him with confidence, and who 
 receive it in the state of innocence. 
 
 Be, then, refined on this point. Give your 
 whole heart to your Master. Why have you 
 not absolute confidence ? Since He has called 
 you to this vocation of adoratrices, it is 
 in order to live with Him; hence, you have 
 a particular grace, the grace of state, as 
 it were, to approach Him freely and to live 
 with Him. Be, then, all to Our Lord for Hi? 
 own sake, and to Jesus for Jesus with Mary, 
 Go to His saints, but in order that they 
 may lead you to Him. Go to the saints 
 of Jesus for Jesus. 
 
 He confides you to a direction which you 
 ought to obey, but there remains a life of 
 the soul, of prayer, and of love. Our Lord 
 wants to be the Master Himself. Your soul 
 is in the care of Jesus. No one knows as 
 well as He the secret of what is best for it. 
 In virtue of your vocation, you give to 
 Jesus your personality. It is that, in all 
 things, He may guide and direct you Him- 
 self; and if you have entered into your 
 grace, you will know how to go to Him 
 
 The Divine Eucharist.
 
 666 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 and to be contented only in Him, for every 
 vocation renders the duty it imposes easy 
 and sympathetic. Have confidence in your 
 grace, and be sure that Our Lord has pre- 
 pared it in advance, and that it is waiting 
 for you before Adoration, before the duty, 
 before the sacrifice. It is your right founded 
 on His love and His call. Know, then, that 
 He is in you, ready to hear you and to 
 guide you. But ask it of Him. Address 
 yourself to Him and confide in Him. 
 
 Have confidence in His love. Our Lord 
 loves you with an unchanging love, an infinite 
 love, a Eucharistic love, with a love of 
 vocation, and m all that appertains to this 
 love He can refuse you nothing. 
 
 If ^ou love purely, as is your duty and 
 your grace, and address yourself to Our Lord 
 in all your needs, saying: " Aly God, my 
 Lord, I ask for Thy love, for this grace, 
 only to serve Thee better, not for myself, 
 but for Thee, O my only Master, " Our 
 Lord, touched at seeing that you desire 
 Him alone and His best; service, can refuse 
 you nothing.
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 667 
 
 You give Him pleasure by praying in this 
 manner. You glorify Him, and you please 
 the Heavenly Father, who has said: "This is 
 My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. 
 Hear HimI " 
 
 And the greater your love, the greater your 
 confidence, and the greater your power over 
 the Heart of God. Our Lord is there. He 
 is going to knock before entering. Do not 
 wait for that. Go on before Him. Forestall 
 Him by your confidence. These are the 
 true relations of love! 
 
 Accustom yourselves to act in this way. 
 The more you practise confidence, the more 
 your confidence will increase, for every 
 habit is increased and rendered easy by its 
 acts. The more sacrifices you make, the 
 more pleasing does sacrifice become to you. 
 You add a grace to the grace that you 
 alteady possess. Graces thus joined one to 
 another form' a chain that nothing can break, 
 a bond of love that can never be severed. 
 
 Then with Saint Paul say : " I can do 
 all in Him who strengtheneth me. " Then 
 you will love to do great things by love.
 
 668 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 
 
 for Saint Paul says elsewhere: " The love of 
 God presses me, torments me,, sets me on 
 fire. '* He seems to say that love is a 
 press. Ah, yes! for understand it well, love 
 tries us, presses us all entire in order to 
 make us enter into Jesus, as the millstone 
 crushes and mingles together several kinds 
 of grain, and expresses from them but one 
 liquor. 
 
 Have confidence in Jesus even in your 
 discouragement, when your body or mind 
 is reduced to weakness, and refuses to serve 
 you. Then say: "I confide not in myself, 
 but in Thee, O my God! I can do all in 
 Thee if Thou wilt help me. I have nothing, 
 I can do almost nothing, but I am going 
 to begin, and Thou wilt finish 1 " Then begin. 
 Do the little that you can. The good God 
 will take upon Himself the rest. 
 
 The good God is pleased to multiply dif- 
 ficulties. He brings to a halt. He nails 
 down in impotence. Souls wish to act, but 
 they cannot. It is agony. " No, never can 
 I mount up to God! " But you are makinkg 
 a step by praying, by calling. God comes
 
 CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE 669 
 
 then. He gives you the wings of love, and 
 soon you are astonished at your flight into 
 liberty and grace. 
 
 Go on, Our Lord is yours I Go to Him 
 with confidence. Exercise yourself in con- 
 fidence. Always have confidence in Him and 
 diffidence in self. This is what I desire for 
 you now and ever.
 
 
 ^ 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Br 
 
 Letter of the Archbishop of Chambery ... iv 
 Approbation of His Eminence James Cardinal 
 
 Gibbons vi 
 
 Preface to the French Edition viii 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 PREACHED TO THE MEMBER^ 0«3:HE CONGREGATION 
 OF THE BROTHERS OF ST. VINCENT DE PAUL. 
 
 Foreword 2 
 
 The Grace of a Retreat for Religious .... 5 
 
 The Service of God 18 
 
 The Religious State 25 
 
 Prayer, Its Necessity and Character .... 33 
 
 Prayer, the Gift of Our Intellect ..... 44 
 
 Prayer, the Gift of Our Heart 56 
 
 Prayer, the Gift of the Will 62 
 
 Does God Love Me ? 77 
 
 Do I Love God ? . 87 
 
 Pardoning Love 93 
 
 The Eucharist, the Principle of the Sanctifica- 
 
 tion of the Religious 103 
 
 Jesus in the Eucharist, the Model of the Three 
 
 Vows . . . .• 112 
 
 Humility li5 
 
 Meekness . 136 
 
 The Rule, the Sanctification of the' Religious . T46 
 
 Sermon on the Profession of the Vows . . . 159
 
 CONTENTS 671 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 PREACHED TO THE RELIGIOUS OF THE SOCIETY OF 
 THE MOST BLESSED SACRAMENT- 
 
 Foreword 173 
 
 End of the Rfetreat, Self-purification .... 178 
 
 Benefits of the Religious Life 195 
 
 The Eucharistic Vocation . 205 
 
 The Renunciation of All Ownership .... 226 
 
 Sin, the Injury Done to God ...... 239 
 
 The Effects of Venial Sin 251 
 
 Our Lord's Expiation of Sin 264 
 
 Hell 281 
 
 The Mercy of Jesus. . 291 
 
 The Family of the Most Blessed Sacrament . 304 
 
 Love, the Principle of the Spiritual Combat . 321 
 
 The Spirit of Penance 333 
 
 The Mortification of the Senses 342 
 
 The Gift of Self. 359 
 
 Everything Ought to be Done Well .... 374 
 
 Sanctity by the Rule 382 
 
 Prayer, the Means of Our Sanctification . . . 394 
 
 Fraternal Charity 405 
 
 Simplicity 416 
 
 The Earnestness of Life 426 
 
 Fruits and Resolutions of the Retreat . . . 437
 
 672 CONTENTS 
 
 RETREAT 
 
 PREACHED TO THE SERVANTS OF THE MOST 
 BLESSED SACRAMENT. 
 
 Foreword 451 
 
 Conversion Is Always Necessary 456 
 
 "the Eternal Love of God 462 
 
 Conference on Direction 467 
 
 God Has Created Us for Heaven ..... 477 
 
 Heaven Is Given Only to Purity of Heart . . 486 
 
 Conference on the Examens 495 
 
 We Must Live of the Mercy of God .... 508 
 
 The Virginal Love of Jesus ....... 516 
 
 Conference on Confession . . • 528 
 
 The Gift of One' s Personality to Jesus . . . 542 
 
 Jesus and Mary, Models of the Gift of Self . . 552 
 
 The Interior Education of an Adoratrice . . 575 
 
 The Spirit of the Vows and of the Gift of Self . 584 
 The Virtue of the Gift of Self : The Humility of 
 
 Love 600 
 
 The Supernatural Life ........ 61 1 
 
 The Purity of Love .......'. 621 
 
 Patience and Humility . 640 
 
 Confidence and Repose in God Alone . . . 657
 
 THE LAST SUPPER 
 TaJce ye and eat; this is my body. Take ye 
 this is my blood." 
 (St. Matthew xxvi, 26, ?7) 
 
 and drink;
 
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 THE DISCIPLES OF EMMAUS 
 
 "He took bread, blessed it. brake it and gave 
 
 it unto them. Then only were their 
 
 eyes opened and th ey knew Him. 
 
 - (St. Luke xxiv, 30)