The little book of superiors

Front matter

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Mj sliccp hear mv voice, and I inowthiciii and Ihey follow me . f S. John. 1,27. )

Chapter I.— The Duties to be Fulfilled

First. To love your children 28

I. The motives and qualities of this love. 28

II. The practice of this love ... 31

Second. To edify your children 38

I. The motives of this edification 38

II. The practice of this edification 40

Third. To instruct your children 45

I. The motives of this instruction 45

II. By whom this instruction should be

given 47

a. By the preaching of a priest 47

b. By your own instructions 49

c. By good reading 52

d. By particular advice 55

III. The qualities of this instruction 63

Fourth. To correct your children 68

I. The motives of this correction.. 68

II. The practice of this correction ... 7 2

a. Of the sisters possessed of good-will 7 2 io Table of Contents.

b. Of the religious who are or seem

to be incorrigible 77

Chapter II. — The Virtues to be Practised

First. Prudence 85

I. The effects of prudence 85

II. The counsels of prudence .. . „ 86

Second. Vigilance 92

I. The effects of vigilance 9 2

II. The counsels of vigilance 9^

Third. Uprightness io7

I. The effects of uprightness 10'

II. The counsels of uprightness.. ... .... 108

Chapter III. — The Faults to be Avoided

First. Haughtiness 118

Second. Hardness of heart 121

Third. Avarice 127

Fourth. Partiality 132

Chapter IV. — The Obstacles to be Overcome

First. The Obstacles in the superior himself. 139

Second. The Obstacles arising from others... 14 1

I. Abuses 146

II. Cabals 148

Chapter V. — The Means to be Employed. First. Union with God 151 Table of Contents. 1 1

Second. The study of the obligations of your

office 165

I. Seek to acquire the knowledge your

position requires 165

II. Endeavor to learn the character of your

religious 169

Third. The practice of virtues. „-. ........ 174

I. Of being devoted to the sick. 175

II. Let there be no distinction between

you and your religious 182

III. Labor diligently 185

Chapter VI. — The Reivards to be Hoped /2?r

First. Upon what these rewards are founded. 194

Second. The Nature of these rewards 198

Appendix

First. The rule which a pious superior traced

for herself. 202

Second. List of the duties of a good superior. 207 Third. Thoughts ever present to a good superior 215

Fourth. Maxims for the use of superiors 217

I. Maxims of St. Ignatius .. 217

II. Maxims of St. Vincent de Paul 218

III. Maxims borrowed from different au-

thors 220

TO SUPERIORS.

These pages were written in the presence of God, and we humbly ask Him to make them a useful work. Our object is to assist you, upon whom the heavy burden of superiorship has been imposed, and to help you in the very difficult labor of directing your House.

We cannot lighten your burden, but we can increase your strength by teaching you to sanctify yourselves. Sanctity is to the soul what a soft and mild atmosphere is to exhausted or delicate lungs.

Before printing these pages, submitted to the examination of those in authority over us, we placed them before the tabernacle, the dwelling of Jesus, as formerly, in the ages of faith, they placed the seed of the harvest upon the altar. The seed blessed by God was more fruitful, and so it will be with this little book.

If some thought taken out of the con-

*3

14 To Superiors.

text excite trouble in your soul, the one which follows will re-assure you and subdue the apparent severity of the first ; moreover, let me repeat to you the words of a saint : // is always the delicate souls, that is the most faithful, who tremble at sight of their obligations.

We dedicate this little book to the Mother of Him who, being the Superior of superiors, willed to submit to a humble creature, and who, being the Master of masters, deigned to wash the feet of His Apostles, giving to them who were about to become the superiors of all the faithful this admirable precept : As I, your Master and Lord, have done to you, do you also to one another . . . . I came not to be ministered unto, but to minister.

August 15th, Feast of the Assumption.

I

Superiorship is a weary office. But the religious who accepts it through obedience, and who hears from the lips of those in authority over him these sweet words of Our Saviour to Peter: " Feed my lambs/' I confide them to thy care, does not bear the burden of his office alone.

And along the road which leads to eternity, during those sometimes very sorrowful stations of the first, second, third, tenth year, Jesus walks beside him, bearing a large part of his burden. And if he knows how to keep united to Jesus by means of prayer, purity of conscience, and almost daily Communion, his life, laborious doubtless like that of Jesus Christ, is nevertheless calm, resigned, even cheerful, and, above all, meritorious. How earnestly a good superior daily repeats the words Our Father who art in heaven. It is his prayer of predilection, and he feels that Jesus, who draws near to him in a special manner, answers this prayer by an increase of strength, resignation, confidence. How simply he asks for himself and his children the bread of each day !

How he loves to repeat at each hour of the divine Office the pious invocation, Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Do mine, ad adjuvandum mefestina I O God, come to my assistance ! O Lord, make haste to help me ! And he hears the ineffable answer of Jesus, I am with thee.

With what delight he goes before the Blessed Sacrament, where, filled with a holy boldness, he pours forth his plaints to his Master — he tells Him of his subjects who are a cause of grief to him — he asks counsel, — he humbles himself — he gives thanks ■ — yes, above all, he gives thanks.

Yes, if at times the burden of his office weighs heavily upon him, there are hours also when his heart overflows with joy at being chosen to be the companion and cooperator of Jesus Christ. What greater mark of love can God give one than to confide to him the care of religious, His most precious souls !

Happy the religious who regards his office only in this very elevating and consoling light !

II

Woe to the religious who aspires to a place to which God does not call him !

Woe to him who would resort to direct or indirect means to attain it !

Woe to him who, even when legitimately and canonically elected, gradually drives Jesus from him by praying less, by attributing to himself any success which he thinks he discovers, and fails to see that he is thus doing his own, not God's work.

It must be acknowledged that at present there are few religious who aspire to the office of superior.

The office is generally dreaded, and it is with true humility and a deep conviction of his own incapacity that every religious endeavors to escape the dignity.

Frequently it is accepted through obedience, with tears which are, no doubt, sincere ; its duties at first are performed with fear and trembling, but after a time we gradually yield to a certain confidence in ourselves ; then we become attached to our position, with a tenacity which is astonishing. Ah ! how well the fatal consequences of this attachment to her position were understood by that superior who daily prayed:

" My God, let me not become attached to my charge ; may I love it because Thou hast sent it to me, but let me feel no complacency in it ! "

In a human point of view, everything should lead us to avoid the yoke of the superior's office. That it is a yoke and a burden we cannot doubt when we reflect uporl the continual criticism to which the actions of a superior are subject ; — the dissatisfaction he inevitably excites in the majority of the community; — the difficult characters to be guided ; — the temporal anxieties and annoyances of the office, which destroy one's peace of mind and hardly leave one a moment's leisure or repose. . . . Sometimes we so truly appreciate these difficulties that we speak cf them to all comers, and upon all occasions. — But,

Introduction.

alas ! in spite of these complaints, even while exaggerating our troubles, we hold as tenaciously to our position, and regret it so keenly, that for long years, — sometimes a life-time, we fail to conquer an aversion for our successor or those who, we think, may have caused our removal.

O egotism! O pride! O sensuality! how blinding ye are, whatever the veil 'neath which ye conceal yourselves ! O poor, poor human nature !

III

Ah ! my dear religious, at the beginning of these pas>es let me give you a rule to which I ask you, in the name of Jesus Christ, to be ever faithful.

Each year, during your retreat, seriously prepare yourself to be deposed from your office } and to render an account of your administration. In the silence of your soul, at the foot of your crucifix, calmly study and weigh the meaning of the following commentary. It may appear to you severe, but have the courage to read it to the end, and if it awaken in you an interior shrinking and fear, raise your soul to God and, with all the sincerity of which you are capable, say to Him :

My God, on the day of my deposition let my soul be without trouble, remorse, or regret.

Deposed, that is losing all the authority over the religious whom you governed yesterday, and to whom you will henceforth be only a companion whom they will respect if you have known how to practise the virtues of a superior and parent, but whom they will set aside if you have made your authority too keenly felt — whom they will humble if you have been imperious — whom they will criticise, particularly if they perceive any trace of haughtiness in your manner, or hear from your lips any uncharitable criticism of your successor.

Deposed, that is, parting with all those little comforts with which you unconsciously surrounded yourself — those facilities for observing the Rule without too much inconvenience, — those thousand little indulgences which you permitted yourself — those attentions, sometimes hypocritical, or at least flattering, which you were wont to receive from your religious.

Deposed, that is, leaving suddenly a multitude of unfinished things, entangled accounts perhaps, carelessly kept books, which will give the impression that you have no prudence, method, or order.

Deposed, that is, no longer able to direct the affairs of the house which you managed with ability, it must be acknowledged, but too much, perhaps, as if it were personal property.

Another is about to do your work — his undertakings will be praised at the expense of yours. Another will profit by your labor, your pains, your expedients, to brilliantly continue what you had begun, — it will be forgotten that the first idea came from you, that it was you who took the first steps, and overcame all the obstacles.

Another, — God may permit it, will refuse to consult you in anything, will purposely (so the Evil One will make you believe) obliterate all you have done, and pursue a course directly opposite to yours, until it will seem to you that he is seeking to efface every trace of you. Another, finally, will be vaunted even before you as the best superior ever elected. . . Ah ! if you have not labored purely for God, how you will suffer !

IV

After deposition comes the rendering an account of your administration. — Imagine that the hour of death has come and that you are before your God !

Ah! if God is good, infinitely good, to a superior who has co-operated with Him in the sanctification of souls, who has lent Him his hands to serve and care for His children ; — who has lent Him his intelligence to direct them ; — his heart to love them ; — his words to teach them ; — if God has infinite mercies, infinite pardon, for such a superior, how terrible He will be to one who has suffered Him to lose one of His children !

Let us reflect upon the judgment to which you will be subjected upon this point alone, the souls of your religious. There are some of your subjects who have died while you were superior. God confided their souls to you to be sanctified. They were not possessed of good dispositions. God knew it and sent you grace to bear with them and help them to conquer their temptations. They had grave faults ; God knew it and sent you grace to help them in their efforts to amend, efforts which their weakness never permitted them to continue. They were rebellious, obstinate, exacting, proud. . . God knew it, and it was for their correction and amendment that these unhappy souls were sent to you. What have you done for them ? What was the extent of the assiduous care and devotion which you bestowed upon their souls ? What were the prayers, the supplications, the mortifications you offered for them ? — Let us not push this examination too far, it is too alarming. What are we to conclude ? Must we be discouraged and fly from our responsibility, ask to be relieved of our charge? No, that is the resolution of a cowardly soul. Let us go before the Blessed Sacrament and meditate upon these words of Jesus Christ : " Without Me you can do nothing." — John xv. 5. Comprehend it well, nothing ! And upon these words of St. Paul : " 1 can do all things in Him whostrengtheneth me." — Phil. iv. 13. Weigh them well, all things ! The great watchwords of superiors should be courage and confidence.

A life of great peace, even in the midst of the most terrible agitations, is always possible to a superior who, with no other desire than to live in humble submission and devotion, is chosen by God from among his companions, and placed at the head of a community, even as God took David from his flocks and placed him as king over the people of Israel. He can say to himself, in all truth : God who wishes me to serve Him, is obliged to give me all that is necessary to succeed in a work which is //is, not mine. He is the workman, I am the instrument. The only end of all my efforts must be never to separate myself from Him. Behold the thought which must ever accompany him, the thought which will stimulate him to labor, to labor in spite of obstacles, to labor to the end of his strength, and to die exhausted with labor for his crood Master, happy to be able to say to Him : " I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course. . . . There is laid up for me a crown of justice. — II. Tim. iv. 7, 8. Then courage and confidence !

O religious superiors to whom, whether priests or nuns, the care of souls is in many respects confided, if God permits this book to reach you, read it attentively, — do not let a month pass without glancing over a few of its pages.

It will prove to you a trustworthy and faithful friend, who will gently lead you back to. God if you have wandered, from Him, or cause you to feel more sensibly the support God lends you if you have had the happiness of keeping ever near Him.

A true friend, who will speak to you with simplicity, and, disguising nothing, reveal to you your faults and the means you must adopt to diminish them.

A watchful friend^ who will show whither your trifling infractions of the rule and your little negligences may lead you.

A prudent friend^ who will in no way exaggerate your obligations, and will beware of frightening or discouraging you.

An affectionate friend^ finally, who will compassionate your weakness, whose heart will be ever open to you, whose arms will be ever extended to receive you, to help you, to restore you to the good Master of whom you have such great need, and who, in His turn, will say to you these consoling words: My child, I have need of thee I

The object of our little book is to show you in your position:

ist. The duties to be fulfilled. 2d. The virtues to be practised. 3d. The faults to be avoided. 4th. The means to be adopted. 5th. The rewards to be expected.

CHAPTER FIRST. The Duties to be Fulfilled

I.

Daily repeat to yourself at your morning meditation or during Mass the following thought :

" All the souls whom God confides to me, — all without exception, are sent me that I may fill to them the duties of & parent and guide. My duty as parent is to spare them all the pain I can and to soften that from which I cannot save them.

* k My mission as guide is to form them to virtue.

" If through any fault of mine a soul suffers or is left without consolation — if through my fault it practises no virtue, — God will punish me, because I shall not have fulfilled the duty He imposed upon me."

Each evening, before going to rest, make it a duty to offer a decade of the beads or some special prayer for those among your 27 religious to whom you have given pain or whom you left in suffering — to ask pardon of God for the faults you have committed or allowed to be committed. — and see whether there is any reparation to be made the next day.

II.

Your mission as parent and guide imposes upon you four principal duties toward your religious, whom we shall henceforth call your children.

You should :

ist. Love them.

2d. Edify them.

3d. Instruct them.

4th. Correct them.

First. To Love your Children.

Z The Motives and Qualities of this Love.

1. You should love your religious because they have become your children, because you hold to them the place of those parents from whom they have parted, or whom God has taken from them, — because they come to the convent naturally hoping to find in you a parent. Ah ! those religious so repugnant to you, how tenderly their mother loved them ! How tenderly they are still loved, those among them who still possess a mother ; ask them of her love, particularly the younger ones.

Their mother ! How her memory moves them ! That mother who, despite their failings, their faults, their bad dispositions, protected them, cared for them, esteemed them !

A mother's love is strong : nothing can destroy it, nothing can weaken it ; it is a tender love, ever finding new means of manifesting itself; it is a generous love, which unceasingly labors with renewed devotion.

The difference between the love of a parent according to the flesh and yours, a parent in the order of grace, is that the first is instinctive, the latter is accepted, granted, and carefully preserved.

God puts it in the heart of every superior, if that heart be well disposed. If you possess it not, and you will recognize it in your treatment of your subjects, your heart has not attained the degree of sanctity God asks of you.

The foundress of the Capuchins of Aix, speaking to her sisters one day, said :

" When a mother gives her daughter in religion, she remits her into the hands of the superior as a sacred deposit, thus sacrificing her maternal solicitude and her own authority; therefore, my sisters, if I felt less tenderness for you, or was less eager than your mothers to supply your wants, my conscience would not be satisfied, and I should not feel I had attained the spirit of my mission."

2. You should love your religious because you hold the place of Jesus Christ to them. They have left their families, — sacrificed perhaps a promising future to give themselves to Jesus. If Our Saviour lived upon earth, they would have joyously gone to enroll themselves among His followers, to live in subjection to Him, to serve Him, to follow Him everywhere.

Jesus is no longer visibly present with us, but He has said to each of your children, " My child, this superior holds My place to you ; go to him; love him as you would Me/' And he has come, full of confidence, to abandon himself to your guidance as completely as he would to that of Jesus.

Imagine for a moment the affection Jesus would bear him !

My God, when I behold all that Thou didst for Thy apostles, for little children, and even for guilty souls! When I see Thee call them, draw near to them,, slowly and patiently instructing and encpuraging them! Have I not reason to picture to myself what Thou wouldst do for this subject, so full of good-will, and who has made so many sacrifices to come to Thee ? If Thou hadst seen him weary and sorrowful, how tenderly Thou wouldst have consoled him!

If Thou hadst seen him weep, how kindly Thou wouldst have asked the cause of his tears!

If Thou hadst seen him ill and suffering, how carefully Thou wouldst have cared for him ! If his trying disposition rendered him less amiable, how untiringly Thou wouldst have used every means to make him more gentle and affable !

II. The Practice of this Love.

The object of all true love is to secure the happiness of the person loved.

Now, to make another happy we must devote ourselves to his interest ; making him happy means continually seeking what will seriously benefit his soul, his intelligence, his heart.

This duty for a superior, then, consists in earnestly striving to overcome all prejudices against his religious, which the Evil One will sometimes create in his heart, prejudices inspired by their dispositions and faults, and which require constant vigilance to conceal and subdue.

It consists in bearing sweetly, without any visible effort, with each religious, with his eccentricities of character, his whims, his rudeness, and in receiving all with the same peaceful, kind, pleasant countenance.

It consists in not permitting oneself to be irritated by their faults, and, above all, in subduing any resentment excited against them by these faults.

It consists in receiving them kindly when they come to ask a permission, or a moment's interview; in always giving them a kind word when you can not accede to their request. A kind word is always possible,*

It consists in kindly and patiently hear-

* " Come to me day or night " Mother Emilie used to tell her sisters, " whether I am at my prayers or in meditation. I am alwa< s at your service ; do not fear to disturb me. A superior expects to be disturbed ! "

ing their complaints, which are sometimes without foundation, most frequently unjust or constantly repeated — in consoling them in their trials and anxieties, never peimitting any one to think he wearies you.

It consists in soothing them in their physical sufferings, even though you know they are imaginary or exaggerated ; — in giving them even more care than is necessary in their sickness or infirmities — in giving them all that you conscientiously can without disturbing the community 01 injuring their souls ; — in never permitting them to see that what you do for them requires a great effort, or is expensive \{ it is a remedy, or troublesome if it is something requiring extia care.

It consists in being eager to provide all the necessaries of food, clothing, health which your religious may require.

It consists in helping them to bear the burden of common life, which, in truth, has its miseries, either by rendering them some little service from time to time, or by procuring them some pleasure, than which nothing is easier if we are so disposed. *

* " Mother " said a sister to her superior one day, '' here ii a book which I prize very highly, because it contains

It consists in being affable with your religious — giving your orders kindly, and showing yourself pleased with their least efforts.

It consists not only in allowing them free access to you at all hours, but also in anticipating them when you see that they do not venture to expose their wants to you ; — in seeking them when they fly from you, despite the repugnance you may experience, until you conscientiously feel that you have exhausted the resources of your affection. Ah ! it is hard, very hard, to act against poor wounded nature ; it is hard to overcome such antipathies, to hear paternal promptings above a multitude of serious, grave reasons urging us to leave the rebellious, insolent religious to himself. But what a grand act of love it is in God's eyes !

Finally, making your children happy

pages which benefit me very much, and then, — it was given me by one who is very dear to me ; I pray } 7 ou, allow me to keep it." The superior smiled. " What about the spirit of poverty, my daughter? A gilt-edged book! and that wretched verb to possess, which we have stricken from our vocabulary ? . . . Listen, daughter ; I take the book, it is no longer yours, but, because of the good it does you, I lend it to you. Therefore keep it and make use of it, only bear in mind that it belongs to me, and be ever ready to return it to me.

consists in generously providing for the wants of their souls. The souls of your children ! Ah ! how you should love them ! It was specially for them that God confided to you a parent's mission.

The salvation of the souls of your children ! Behold the principal end of all your efforts, of all your care, of all your solicitude. The care of their bodies which we recommend to you should only be a means to their sanctification.

Therefore soften the interior trials which God may send your children by listening long and patiently to the details they confide to you — -pity them, and treat with devoted care such spiritual maladies as scruples, temptations, melancholy, discouragement, which are often so painful. Be zealous and at the same time prudent in affording souls thus afflicted opportunities of communicating with the confessor a little more frequently ; call in a strange confessor if you think best, just as you would call in another physician in cases of grave illness.

We shall speak later on of the prudence to be observed in calling any other than the ordinary confessor. It may lead to grave abuses, but, at the same time, never permit a poor soul whom you know to be pious and faithful, and tried by God in a special manner, to suffer for want of a few words which will restore it to calmness and peace. It is not by restricting, by denying souls, nor by continually refusing them succors which, after all, they have a right to ask, that you will establish the reign of God in their hearts. A very important thing is to expand souls, and only love will do this.

Give them every facility for observing all points of the Rule; special retreats, monthly retreats, visits to the Blessed Sacrament. There are occasions when pressing labors in the community require extra time, and God does not forbid us to take it from the hours usually devoted to Him, but then teach your children to labor more directly in His presence, — such work will be prayer.

The perfection of government consists, St. Francis of Assisi tells us, in the practice of five words : to love, to watch, to bear, to pardon, to nourish, and the word love could sum it all. Then love, love much !

Love is strong, it will prevent you from sinking under the burden of your charge.

Love is ingenious, it will inspire you with innumerable means of winning souls.

Love is alluring, it will end by attaching hearts to you.

" I do not say, my daughter/' St. Francis de Sales writes a superior, "that you must be flattering, coaxing, smiling, but sweet, gentle, amiable, affable. Love all your daughters with a cordial, strengthening, pastoral, motherly love, and you will do all that is required of you. This condition alone will suffice, and without it nothing will suffice."

Be father, mother, nurse, physician ; be all things to all ; and when you are embarrassed how to act ask yourself: Jf their mother were present, what would she do f If Jesus Christ were present, what would He tell me to do ?

Love, love ! " An affectionate word," says St. Vincent de Paul, " will suffice to calm grave disquiet, and render a subject content and happy."

This precept to love will echo through all the pages of this little book.

Second. To Edify your Children.

I. The Motives of this Edification.

a. The example of Jesus, who began by practising and then taught. — How will you give advice, or, above all, administer a reproof, if you feel that your religious could say : we follow your example.