Front matter
Book_JD-^:
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COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.
Chapter i. — The Words Monk and Nun . . i
Chapter ii. — The Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious Consists in a Truly Spiritual Life 4
Chapter hi. — The Name Religious — Self-Renunciation — Mortification — The Terms Religion, Religious, the Convent, Laura, Ascetae, Monk, Nun, Religious Orders 9
Chapter iv. — The Grace of Vocation to the Religious State 34
Chapter v. — Means of Salvation in the Religious State 37
Chapter vi. — Advantages of the Religious State 43
Chapter vii. — The Religious Truly a Bride of Christ — The Religious Profession the Nuptials with Our Lord . . . . . . .47
Chapter viii. — State of Perfection : How to Recognize Vocation to the Religious Life . 55
Chapter ix. — The Question of a Vocation to the Religious State 61
Chapter x. — The Love of God .... 72
X Contents.
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Chapter xi. — The Vows — The Rules — Divinely Appointed Means for Helping the Soul Onwards, Day by Day, to Its Life of Perfect Charity 8o
Chapter xii. — The Religious Promise . . 86
Chapter xiii. — General Principles of the Religious Life • • 95
Chapter xiv. — The Renewal of Vows . . loi
Chapter xv. — Christian Asceticism and Common Sense . . io8
Chapter xvi. — Was Christ an Ascetic? . .117
Chapter xvii. — The Duties of a Religious Toward God — A Religious Should Belong Entirely to God 127
Chapter xviii. — The Essence of Perfection — The Union of All Virtues in Charity . .138
Chapter xix. — The Love of a Religious for Jesus Christ 158
Chapter xx. — Conformity with the Divine Will — Abandonment 164
Chapter xxi. — The Exercise of the Presence of God an Aid to the Practice of Perfect Conformity with the Divine Will — Of Recalling the Presence of God by Means of the Understanding — ^Of Recalling the Presence of God by Means of the Will ....... 183
Chapter xxii. — The Presence of God Considered in the Hidden Life 194
Chapter xxiit. — Humility and Its Advantages 198
Chapter xxiv. — Humility of the Understanding 206
Contents. xi
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Chapter xxv. — Humility of the Will . . .214
Chapter xxvi. — Purity of Intention . . . 237
Chapter xxvii. — The Necessity of a Spiritual • Father, or Director, and of Obedience to Him 250
Chapter xxviii. — On the Duties of Religious Toward Their Superiors and Spiritual Directors — On the Importance of Candor and Sincerity Toward Superiors 263
Chapter xxix. — Counsels and Reflections for Superiors 274
Chapter xxx. — The Contemplative Life — The Contemplative Vocation — The Contemplative Apostolate 287
Chapter xxxi. — Prayer — Vocal Prayer in Particular .... 308
Chapter xxxii. — Mental Prayer or Meditation 323
Chapter xxxiii. — The Importance of Meditation—Books and Methods of Meditation . 334
Chapter xxxiv. — On Continual Prayer . . 350
Chapter xxxv. — The Breviary — The Divine Office 361
Chapter xxxvi. — The Spirit of the Divine Office 382
Chapter xxxvii. — Mortification — The Necessity of Mortification and in What It Consists 392
Chapter xxxviii. — Interior and Exterior Mortification 396
Chapter xxxix. — Mortification of the Senses and Human Suffering — Human Suffering as a Source of Merit and Blessings . . . 414 xii Contents,
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Chapter xl. — Silence ....... 432
Chapter xli. — Fraternal Charity — Of the Ne- . cessity of Mutual Love and Union . . . 441
Chapter xlii. — Faith and Humor .... 458
Chapter xliii. — Cheerfulness 465
Chapter xliv.- — The Apostleship of Kindness 481
Chapter xlv. — Reflections on Happiness . 486
Chapter xlvi. — The Sweetness of the Heart of Jesus in His Manner of Teaching . . 491
Chapter xlvii. — The Perfection of the Religious Teacher 497 part irir*
THOUGHTS ON CERTAIN DEVOTIONS AND PIOUS PRACTICES PERTAIN- ING TO THE SPIRITUAL LIFE.
Chapter xlviii. — The Holy Trinity — I. God the Father. 11. God the Son. HI. God the Holy Ghost 515
Chapter xlix. — The Holy Ghost and Religious Orders — Call to the Religious State a Special Grace of the Holy Ghost 523
Chapter l. — The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit — How to Live by the Spirit . . . 526
Chapter li. — Jesus Christ the Way, the Truth and the Life, Whom We Must Follow . . 536
Contents. xiii
PAGE
Chapter lii. — The Three Degrees of Humility the Way to Christian Perfection .... 553
Chapter liii. — The Blessed Sacrament — The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass — The Mysteries of Our Lord's Life and Passion Reproduced in the Mysteries of the Altar — Holy Sacrifice of the Altar — -Daily Visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament 559
Chapter liv. — Emmanuel 589
Chapter lv. — The Hour of Adoration before the Blessed Sacrament — The Method of Adoration by Means of the Four Ends of the Sacrifice 594
Chapter lvi. — The Relation of Devotion to the Sacred Heart and to the Blessed Sacrament 607
Chapter lvii. — The Love of the Sacred Heart for the Eternal Father — The Apostleship of Prayer — The Twofold Devotion to the Sacred Heart — The Apostleship of Prayer the Perpetuation of the Work of the Incarnation — Devotion to the Sacred Heart is Twofold, Reparatory and Apostolic 625
Chapter lviii. — Pious Practices in Honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus 641
Chapter lix. — The Promises of Our Divine Redeemer to Those Who Venerate His Sacred Heart — The Twelfth Promise in Particular 648
Chapter lx. — The Heart of Jesus in Prayer 656
Chapter lxi. — The Meekness of the Heart of Jesus 661 xiv Contents,
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Chapter lxii. — Pontifical Decrees Concerning Daily Communion — ''Why Art Thou Afraid?" 671
Chapter lxiii. — Communion for Religious . 692
Chapter lxiv. — Commentary on the Decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council Regarding Daily Communion . . . . . 701
Chapter lxv. — Sanctifying Grace .... 723
Chapter lxvi. — Devotion to the Passion of Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ . . 727
Chapter lxvii. — Observations Concerning the Meditations on the Passion of Christ — Reflections on the Passion of Our Lord . . 733
Chapter lxviii. — Devotion to the Blessed' Virgin — Mary's Love for Religious — Mary's Desire to Help Her Children . . . . . . 742
Chapter lxix. — Mary, Our Mother: How to Honor Her — The Most Holy Rosary: Other Devotions and Pious Practices — The Mass and the Rosary 750
Chapter lxx. — Mary, the Model of Holy Virginity 765
Chapter lxxi. — The Imitation of Mary in Her Obedience and in Her Poverty — The Obedience of Mary — The Poverty of Mary . . 774
Chapter lxxii. — Mary, the Holv Mother of God \ ... 781
Chapter lxxiii. — Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament 794
Chapter lxxiv. — ^^Mary Immaculate — The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin 804
Contents. xv
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Chapter lxxv. — Mater Dolorosa — Our Blessed Mother of Sorrows 8i8
Chapter lxxvi. — Our Lady's Day — Saturday Dedicated to the Immaculate Conception . 839
Chapter lxxvii. — The Blessed Sacrament and St. Joseph 843
Chapter lxxviii. — On Devotion to St. Joseph, the Spouse of the Most Blessed Virgin . 847
Appendix. — Maxims and Counsels of Saints and Spiritual Writers 853
Addenda 909
PART I. location to tbe IReUgious %lfc.
CHAPTER I.
QfouLS called to perfection can not fulfil their i^ vocation unless they understand the duties and obligations of that vocation. Although the meritorious works of a Religious must flow from the will, yet it is for the understanding, as its true guide, to direct the will in the choice of good and the avoidance of evil. The will, accordingly, chooses only after the understanding has shown it that an action is good or bad. The Royal Prophet prayed to know the divine law when he said : ''Give me understanding, and I will search Thy law ; and I will keep it with my whole hearf' (Ps. cxviii. 34). God's revelation of Himself on Mount Sinai (Ex. xxxiv. ) shows how necessary it is to know what He requires of us when calling us to His service and to the fulfilment of His holy will. All spiritual writers teach that, to attain perfection, besides setting high value on it, we must ardently desire it and spare no effort to attain it. But how can anything be valued at its real worth unless its worth is known? Precious stones are little prized by him who does not understand their value.
God says by the mouth of the Royal Prophet : *'For I am the Lord, thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt; open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it'' (Ps. Ixxx. 11). The Psalmist signifies by these words that if the Israelites praise and serve
2 The Words Monk and Nun.
the Lord in thankful acknowledgment of His benefits, they will become worthy of new favors. They may also be applied to the Religious whom God has led out of Egypt — out of the snares of the world, so that she may devote herself wholly to Him who is to be her full inheritance.
A convent may very aptly be compared to the workshop of a goldsmith or jeweler. The Religious is a merchant in the business of the spiritual life. He, above all, must know the worth of his jewels. Ignorance would injure his business and reduce him to poverty. A man may be well-versed in rhetoric, physics, or any other branch of science ; but if he is ignorant of the technicalities of his own special calling, the world will call him a fool. This holds good in respect to the spiritual life. Ignorance of its duties must lead to dire results. Dorotheus insinuated this to his disciple Dositheus, who was priding himself on the well-arranged beds of the sick of whom he had charge. He even hinted that none other could do these as well as himself. '*Yes, brother," said Dorotheus, ''the beds are done in masterly style. In case of necessity you would make an admirable valet. But it takes more than that to make a good Religious.'' And so a nun may be a good worker, a brilliant teacher, a skilful cook, a discreet portress, though she has not yet mounted the first round of the ladder of perfection. But if she understands her duties she will aim at the simple observance of the Rules and customs of her Order. Her very name, monacha, or nun, imposes the obligation of treading the way of perfection.
The word monacha, or mm, is derived from monachus, or monk. . The ancients applied this term to a man who had forsaken all intercourse with the world in order to lead a solitary life. It became
The Words Monk and Nun. 3
customary among Christians, therefore, to designate as monachi, or monks, those that buried themselves in distant solitudes for undisturbed communion with God. Their abodes were called monasteria, that is, dwellings of solitaries. Although later these solitaries lived together in greater numbers and under the guidance of an abbot (which word, in Syriac, means father), they still retained the name of monachi, or monks, and their dwellings were called cenohia, places in which many dwell together in community, or monasteria, abodes for a solitary life. Philo says of the Egyptian monks that they led indeed a community life, but retired, mortified, and heavenly. Hence it follows that the name monacha, or nun, means a woman living retired from the world, which she has forsaken not only from love for the cloistered life, but also through the desire to live in community and devote herself entirely to God. The names of those who enter a cloister are changed, the hair is cut, and the religious habit is substituted for the secular dress — all of which symbolize absolute detachment from the world.
From the foregoing, a nun may readily understand the nature of her duties and the proper regulation of her life. If inclined to harbor distracting thoughts she should ask herself: ''How can you encourage thoughts of the world — you who have forsaken it to consecrate yourself to God ?" The words of St. Basil will form a fitting conclusion to this chapter : ''A nun must be like a slave after she has become the property of her purchaser. She must no longer allow her thoughts to dwell on past freedom ; all her efiforts must tend to the punctual fulfilment of her Master's will." Happy the nun who serves God in this way, for thus to serve is to reign !
CHAPTER 11.
Zbc iBBBcntM Cbaracter(0ttc ot a ©ertect IRellgioua Conaiata in a Zvnl^ Spiritual %itc.
IF even the word nun carries with it weighty obligations, that Religious is indeed foolish who imagines that the mere name and habit of Religion, without the discharge of the duties they impose, give her a right to eternal salvation.
St. Bernard says on this subject that many Christians glory in their name, and yet they will not be recognized by God as Catholic Christians, because their life does not correspond to the name they bear. If they do not fulfil the duties of Catholic Christians, their hope is vain. ''I fear,'' says the holy Doctor, ''that God will say to many Christians, 'You honor Me with your lips, but your heart is far from Me.' *' And he continues : "Follow the will of Jesus Christ, and He will number you among His own." Truly spiritual are those Religious who are not content with assuming the habit and the vows, but keep the promises they have made and live in accordance with their state. That person can not be called spiritual whose morals and manners are not in accord with the name and the habit of a Religious. Entrance into Religion is a change from an imperfect to a perfect state. This change must not be of external appearance only. Interior conversion must precede it, as God teaches by the Prophet : "Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and in mourning. And rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God" (Joel ii. 12, 13). St.
Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 5
Bernard remarks on these words : "God says not only, 'Be converted to Me, and change a silken robe for a rough habit, a costly girdle for a leathern or a hempen one, worldly titles for a modest religious name;' but He demands an interior change, a true conversion of heart/' The outward change is of little worth if not accompanied by the inward conversion.
Holy Scripture corroborates this statement, (i Kings X.) After Samuel had, with all the accustomed ceremonies, anointed Saul king over the Israelites, he reminded him that, although the crown and scepter were his, God did not yet dwell in him. That distinction was not yet his. "The Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee, and thou shalt be changed into another man,'' said Samuel to him. Neither the title nor the scepter nor the crown conferred the regal dignity, but only his own change of life and compliance with the inspirations of the Holy Spirit. So, too, neither by the habit nor by any ceremonies can a nun become a perfect Religious. Her perfection depends on her fidelity to the voice of the Holy Ghost and to her obligations. St. Augustine says : "The place does not make the saint, but an innocent life sanctifies both us and the place." What place is more holy than heaven? And yet many of the angels in heaven sinned and were cast into hell. Next to heaven, what place was holier than the earthly paradise in which so much happiness and so many blessings were prepared for our first parents? But despite the hoHness of the place, they disobeyed God's command and sinned. A nun must not think her salvation secure because she has been received into a religious house.
A fur-lined cloak, no matter how rich and elegant, will not keep out the cold unless the body is warmed
6 Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious.
by the natural heat of the wearer. Then it not only retains, but also increases that heat. No amount of clothing will warm a dead body, since its natural heat has departed with life. So the holiest religious habit will not help to salvation, unless she who wxars it is glowing with the fire of God's love.
Those Religious who are satisfied with the name and habit are a hindrance to others striving after perfection. It is impossible for them to long hide the love of the world which still lurks in their heart. The Spirit of God will not be overcome by that of the Avorld. As David could not move freely in the armor of Saul to which he was unaccustomed, neither can such Religious perform spiritual works, and their bad example disturbs the other Sisters. They are like the ape spoken of by Lucian. Some children had dressed it up in their own clothes, and taught it to dance so well that many did not know at first that it was a monkey. But when one of the children began to dance with it, and accidentally allowed it to see some nuts, pausing in the dance it seized upon them, thus manifesting its true character. And so it is with the Religious of whom we have spoken. They wear the religious habit, say the Office in choir, follow the conventual exercises like the others, and are sometimes considered to be as virtuous as they. But because they do not possess the religious spirit, their hypocritical piety is soon discovered. They violate the Rule on every occasion, they are sensitive and disobedient, and, being actuated by w^orldly thoughts and sentiments, they find more consolation everywhere than in divine things. Can such Religious expect eternal life merely because they wear the habit of St. Augustine, St. Clare, or St. Teresa? In the pure love of God, in the true spiritual life, and in the practice of the
Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious. 7
duties of her vocation, lies the essential character of a perfect nun. God is not blind. He can not be deceived. He will judge us according to our deeds. St. Lawrence Justinian says: ''The eternal Judge will judge every one, not according to his outward honors and distinctions, but according to his works. He will examine Religious on their fidelity to the Rules of their Order, and according to that He will pass sentence."
Her name, her religious habit, the very walls of the cloister will cry to heaven for vengeance against that nun who has not lived in conformity with her vocation. Surely a sick man whose evil condition the best remedies and the most skilful physicians only aggravate would be pronounced incurable. Now, every Order approved by the Holy See may be likened to a pharmacy filled with spiritual remedies, not only for the cure of sick souls, but for the strengthening of healthy ones in the grace of God. Some of those spiritual remedies are: The frequent reception of the holy sacraments, the religious exercises, the innumerable opportunities for the practice of virtue, the watchful guidance of Superiors, the Rules and customs of the Order, and the good example of others. If, among all this abundance of remedies, a nun continues spiritually sick, gainmg from the religious life nothing but the name and garb, she may rest assured that these will procure her only greater anguish and more severe punishment.
St. Augustine declared after his conversion that he never knew more virtuous souls than those that served God in religion with their whole heart; but, on the contrary, none worse than they who sinned in the religious life. The truth of his remark is clear. The greater the obligation and the oppor-
8 Essential Characteristic of a Perfect Religious.
tunity to do good the graver the fault of omission.
What fear and confusion will seize the insincere and faithless Religious when Almighty God, at the moment of death, will call her to account for her reprehensible life!
Chapter III
Y^ HE name and title of Religious is given to one ^^ who is specially pledged to the practice of the virtue of religion. Religion, in the sense in which it is here used, may be regarded from two several points of view, that is to say, either in particular, as a virtue distinct from the other virtues, or in general, as a virtue comprising all other virtues.
Inasmuch as it is a particular virtue, it is thus defined by St. Thomas : Religion is an interior and supernatural habit of the soul which inclines us to render to God the worship due to Him. Regarded as a general virtue, it comprises the theological and at the same time the moral virtues. The teaching of the Angelic Doctor is expressed in these precise terms : '^Religion is a profession of faith, hope, and charity, by means of which man is brought primarily into relationship wath God ; and it calls into exercise all the other virtues, such as mercy and temperance." According to these words of St. James : *' Religion clean and undefiled before God and the Father is this : to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation, and to keep one's self unspotted from this world" (James i. 2^).
Religion, understood in this latter sense, takes in the whole Christian life, either because it directs the intention of all moral virtue to God, its rightful end ; or because the acts proper to religion, the worship of God in truth and verity, necessitate many fundamental virtues such as faith, hope, charity, humility, etc. Hence, it results, as a natural consequence, that every Christian really worthy of the name, that is to say, one who conscientiously keeps the Commandments, and who, therefore, practices the Christian virtues in the degree required of him, may justly be called a Religious. He has, in all truth and justice, every right to this title. It seems, however, more natural to apply this appellation exclusively to those persons who aim at the attainment of Christian perfection. As St. Thomas wisely remarks: "If anything may be predicated of many persons, those individuals have the principal claims to it who possess it in the highest degree, or who practice it in its perfection."
This remark clearly demonstrates how rightly the name of Religious is given to those persons who are so happy as to have consecrated themselves to God in an Order or Congregation approved by the Church ; it also explains why entering an Order or Congregation thus approved is termed "going into Religion.'' Thus we say of the member of an Order, he or she has been so many years in Religion, his or her name in Religion is this or that.
But if we keep to the strict sense of the word as denoting a special and distinct virtue, we shall find another reason, and a more weighty one, perhaps, for acknowledging that persons who are consecrated to God by vows may legitimately be entitled Religious.
Religion, as we have already said, is the virtue that induces us to pay to God the homage due to Him. Now^ there is one act which, as Father de Condren asserts, corresponds to all that God is ; and that is the act of sacrifice. Therefore sacrifice is preeminently the act appertaining to the virtue of religion. "By sacrifice," says the illustrious General of the
The Name Religious, ii
Oratorians, "we acknowledge God as the Supreme Being. We acknowledge Him, in His essential and incomprehensible grandeur and perfection, as being in very truth above all adoration, all love/' In this consists the sublimity, the perfection of the act of sacrifice ; consequently it comprises in itself all the duty man owes to God. For this reason Our Lord, when He came among us to be Our Redeemer, our pattern, was above all and before all a living sacrifice before His heavenly Father — that is to say, a victim and an eternal holocaust to His glory.
Now, every soul consecrated to God is also, in union with Our Lord, a victim, a holocaust before God. '*You are now," St. Francis de Sales said to a young nun, after her profession in the Visitation, ''you are now laid upon the sacred altar to be consumed as a whole burnt-ofifering."
Consequently, in this state, and by the dispositions befitting this state, the soul consecrated to God by vows truly fulfils, in so far as in her lies, all the duties of the virtue of religion. Thus her rightful name, the title that best answers to her state and vocation, is the name, the title of Religious.
It may perchance strike the young novice that we are somewhat premature in dealing with a subject which in itself seems to imply a certain degree of perfection. In one sense, it is true, self-renunciation is peculiarly a characteristic of the perfect; it may almost be said that in one respect it actually is perfection. But this virtue, like every other, is only acquired by degrees, little by little, and it will be so with us. And since Our Lord said to all men — as St. Luke expressly states : ''Dicebat autem ad omnes/' ''He said to all" — "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself" (Luke ix. 23), thus specifying renunciation and self-denial as the first condition of walking in His steps, it is only natural that we should treat of it in the commencement of the instructions we address to novices,''' who have every right to be regarded as those happy disciples of Our Lord,who,having abandoned the world, walk con amove in the footsteps of their divine Master.
Here there are three things that must be attentively considered and thoroughly apprehended in order to form a correct idea of the virtue of self-renunciation. First of all, it is essential to know what is understood by this self, this ego, which has to be renounced ; in the second place, to ascertain accurately what are the distinctive characteristics by which it makes its presence manifest within us ; finally, to learn the way whereby to give it its deathblow, and that is by the practice of the virtue of self-denial.
Let the young novice, therefore, pay close attention to this subject; it is one of very great importance. It is utterly impossible to advance a single step in the spiritual life without the knowledge of w^hat we are about to expound, without love for the means which we are about to point out for the acquisition of so indispensable a virtue. In fact, without self-renunciation what would be the meaning of that title of victim which we bear in virtue of our oblation? It would only be a great, a grievous mockery.
*Father Surin, writing to the Mistress of Novices, says: ''They must be early accustomed to give up their own will, to die to their passions, to raise their hearts above creatures, and made to feel ashamed of all the instincts of nature. This renunciation will lead direct to charity, and render them obedient to the impulses of grace, for there is no shorter route whereby to arrive at the love of Our Lord than the mortification of all our natural propensities, our desires, our tastes, our pleasures."
I. What is the self which we are bound to renounce? The word self signifies a certain Hfe within us which is, to some extent, a part of ourselves, and which we ought to exterminate. Let us explain this.
In every man and woman there are three several lives : the natural life, the supernatural life, the life of self. The natural life is the life of the senses, by which we come and go, we see the objects around us, etc. ; it is also the life of the intellect, inasmuch as its faculties (such as the understanding, will, judgment, resolution, etc.) are employed in a wholly natural manner, apart from the supernatural succor of grace. It is called the natural life because it performs the acts proper to it by the natural means wherewith God has endowed us, i, ^., the organs of sense and the faculties of the mind. We possess this life when we are born into the world. It is needless to say that our natural life is not that which we are bound to destroy, for to do so would be to commit the grievous crime of suicide.
There is within us a second life as real and actual as the first, but the existence of which can not be verified by the testimony of the senses ; it is the supernatural life, which w^e received at our baptism and which is also called sanctifying grace, or the life of Christ in our souls. Our Lord referred to this life when He said : 'T am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly'' (John X. 10). St. Paul speaks of it frequently to the faithful in his epistles ; we can not attempt to quote the numerous passages. Of himself he says : *T live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii. 20). This divine life, which St. Peter designates as ^'fellowship with God," is, therefore, really within us, if we have preserved our baptismal grace, or if, having lost it by mortal sin, we have recovered it by the Sacrament of Penance. And as life of every kind makes its existence known by inward movements and outward acts, so the life of grace, the life of Jesus Christ within us, manifests itself by inward desires, an attraction for matters of faith, the maxims of the Gospel, Christian virtues, and outward supernatural acts in keeping with those inward inclinations.
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