^Tpius^

ALL FOR JESUS
OR, THE EAST WAVS
OF DI FINE LOVE

FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER

BURNS iff OATES, Ltd.
28 ORCHARD STREET
LONDON, W.

BENZIGER BROS.
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI
CHICAGO

J

Î,«1STI!Ü 1B

EMLînd

TO THE FREQUENTERS
OF THK

ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI.

My dear Friends

and

Benefactors,—I venture to

dedicate this little Book to you for more reasons than
one.

I would have it stand as a memorial of my

gratitude for all the affectionate intercourse which you
have permitted to exist between the sons of St. Philip

and yourselves ; an intercourse which has been bound

up with the dearest, because the most sacred, interests
of your lives.

For four years and more you have

made our cause your own, and have rejoiced in our
successes, and been anxious in our anxieties, as if they

had been yours ; while on our side your griefs and

cares, your sorrows and trials, you well know, have
been taken upon ourselves, according to the poor

measure of our love, and lightened, so far as heart can

lighten heart in Christ»

DEDICA TION.
Sacraments and prayer, and the daily word of God,
have formed the triple cord which

has bound us

together, until we have almost come to think and feel,

to sorrow and rejoice, to hope and fear alike, in the
one heavenly heart of our common father, St. Philip.
We have all along known that this could bo only for

a season.

Like the apostle of the Gentiles at Rome,

we were but as prisoners in a hired house, and our

blessed Lord in His great Sacrament humbled not
beyond the depth of His condescension, but beyond
the patience of our love.

But the circumstances of

this immense city do not leave to Catholic com­
munities full liberty to select their own abode or His.

Many efforts wore made for as much as two years to
find a home for our Saint near the field of his first

labours ; and when, after repeated failure and inquiry,

they seemed all but successful, they came to nought,
we must believe by the Will of God : and we have

been borne away to another region of this peopled

wilderness.
Thus there is another motive for my dedicating
this little book to you.

It is, so far as many of you

are concerned, a leave-taking; and I would have it,

not merely a token of our mutual love, but also the
odour of Christ and the virtue of His blessing.

You

will find in its pages many things which have been

said to you so often, that you have smiled at their
repetition.

You will read here the sweet thoughts

DEDICA TION.

vii

and words about Jesus and Mary, which we have

stolen from the saints, and meditated on together.

There is many a line will be as old to you as the

burden of a favourite song, or the tune of an Oratory
hymn.

In aftertimes, if these things are worth re­

membering, they will bring back to you the home­
like, familiar aspect of the work-worn chapel, with its

crowded altar, and its rampart of confessionals round
about our Lord and His little Sion, with its gay

shrine of our Immaculate Mother, its pale-faced St.
Philip with the

Infant Saviour, and its life-like

Crucifix, that was hardly ever without a kneeler at its

feet.

Words and expressions, anecdotes and texts,

will one day have a value both to you and me, because
of the remembrances they will awaken in our souls :
and God perhaps may mercifully allow the heat of

life and grace to linger about them, and touch us with

unworldly love.

I could say much more ; for gratitude

has a faithful memory and a fluent tongue : yet more
might seem but like self-praise, and to you who know
us it is not needed.

We have learned to love Jesus together.
taught each other, helped each other.

We have

Every month

that went by, every feast, novena, octave, triduo, with

its lectures, prayers, and

hymns, little

quickened our love of our sweet Lord.

by little,
So let ua

pray for each other now, that through all changes and

all separations we may keep fast to Him: and that

DEDICATION.

what we have tried to be in the dear old Oratory, we
may become, here and hereafter, more and more com­
pletely,—All for Jeans, who is Himself our All !

Fred. W. Faber,
Cong. Obat.

Fntl of St. Antony of p,1(iwx
'853-

PREFACE.

In offering thia little treatise to the public, two things

alone seem to call for explanation.

I. I speak con­

tinually of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood
This is because the work was intended as a sort of

spiritual manual for the members, not because it is not
equally suited for all devout Catholics.

2. While I

trust to the charity of my readers to interpret me in
all doubtful or obscure passages, as meaning only what

approved writers mean, I would

especially guard

myself against one misapprehension.

It may be said,

“ All these practices and devotions have to do with

mere Affective Love, not Effective ; ” and it may

therefore be supposed that I would have people stop
at the one without going on to the other.

Of course

love cannot stop short of being effective, and effective
love lies in mortification, from the self-denial which
is required from all Christians to avoid mortal sin, up
to the self-abnegation of the saints, in matters which

are only of counsel, and sometimes seem to our less

PREFACE.

spiritual apprehension to border upon extravagance.
There is no high sanctity short of a degree of selfdenial which goes far beyond what precept requires,

and what the mere avoidance of sin, its occasions and

preludes, peremptorily exacts from every one.
is not the subject I am treating of.

But it

I ain not putting

forward what is perfect, but what is easy.

I am not

trying to guide souls in high spirituality ; God forbid
I should be so foolish or so vain !

As a son of St.

Philip I have especially to do with the world, and
with people living in the world and trying to be good

there, and to sanctify themselves in ordinary vocations.
It is to such I speak : and I am putting before them,
not high things, but things which are at once attrac­

tive as devotions, and also tend to raise their fervour
to quicken their love, and to increase their sensible

sweetness in practical religion and its duties.

I want

to make piety bright and happy to those who need

such helps, as I do myself.
aim higher.

I have not ventured to

If it causes one heart to love our dearest

Lord a trifle more warmly, God will have blessed both
the work and its writer far above their deservings.
St. Mary’s, Sydenham Hill,

St. Philip Neri’s Dav. 1853.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A large edition of the book having sold off in about

a month from its first publication, I have taken con­
siderable pains in preparing this second edition, and I
have endeavoured to guide myself in doing so by the

valuable criticisms with which I have been favoured.
In thanking both friends and strangers for them, I wish
most particularly to acknowledge my obligations to the

Bishop of Birmingham for his great kindness to me

in this respect.

May I venture to use this opportunity

to thank him for the same considerate kindness, I had
better say indulgence, on other occasions also, when he

has turned from his multifarious apostolic toils, to

mingle with discerning criticism and wise suggestion
such words of affectionate encouragement as he well

knew a convert author might require, and whose full

value to cheer him, as well as to keep him humble, a
convert, more than others, would sensitively appreciate ?

In again trusting my little work to the Catholica of
England and Ireland, I wiah I could say how much I

ni

PREFACE.

have been affected by the reception it haa met with,
not as if it reflected credit on myself, but because it

has shown that the name of Jesus could not be uttered
without the echo coming, and that to speak of Him,

however poorly, was to rouse, to soothe, and to win
the heart ; and it was more grateful to me than any
praise, to feel that my subject was my success.
Thk Oratory, Kino William Strbrt,

Ftatl of the Holy Name of Mary, 1853.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

In this edition I have broken up the long chapters into

shorter sections, at the desire of several of my readers.
I have also made various alterations, for which I gladly
offer my acknowledgment to the Bishops of Birmingham

and Southwark, the Very Rev. Mgr. Newsham, Father
Cardella, of the Collegio Romano, and to an undeservedly
kind article in the Dublin Review, which contained a very

just stricture on the wording of a particular passage.

I

have also altered three passages of the book at the
request of several superioresses of religious houses, who

have laid me under such obligations as I never can
repay in the publication of the Lives of the Modern

Saints.
With regard to the subject of mortification I have

received several objections, which I have only met by
guarding my language in one or two places, and by in­
troducing one paragraph, which appeared in the third
edition.

Readers have kindly taken my book for more

than it was meant.

It was never intended for a dis-

PREFACE.

liv

sertation on th© whole spiritual life ; but it is a treatise

on one. section of it, namely, the easy ways of Divine
Love.

The hard ways of love obviously do not fall

within its scope.

I cannot consider that a person who

practised all my book would be living a high life, or
walking in what are technically called the paths of per­
fection.

Far from it.

But I would venture to say that,

under spiritual direction and with honest souls, the book

would lead persons to the practice of austerities, and
would not make them comfortable in a lawless life or a

self-indulgenced devotion.

After long consideration,

and after weighing the objections, I decided not to add

a chapter on mortification, as it would destroy the unity

of the book, and possibly defeat its object.

My work

lies in the largest, and probably the most luxurious city
in the world, and in an age of fearful effeminacy and

self-indulgence ; and I wrote for a want which I found
existing for invalid souls whom light nourishment might
save from chronic disease, and so prepare for the strong

meat of hearty and generous mortification.

To some,

therefore, of my dear friends and brothers in the priest­
hood and in religion, who have made this objection, and
to whose experience and holiness I gladly defer, I would

say, There are thousands of hopeful souls who cannot

reach you where you stand ; let me entice them nearer ;
it is all I am good for ; when they come within arms’

length of you, take them through my book, out of it,
and beyond it, as quickly as you can ; it is what I most

PREFACE.

wish, and cannot do rayself.

Or to use another figure,

Do you go bravely out, and fish for fine fish in the deep
sea ; you must let me be content with humbly shrimping
in the shallows and the sand.
Thb Oratory, Brommon,

Ftmt of St. Vincent Ferrer, 1854.

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

CHAPTER I.
THE INTERESTS OF y ESUS.
mob

Jesus all for uh, and all for love—His interests the object of the
Confraternity of the Precious Blood — Men’s interests — The
devil’s interests—The interests of Jesus in, I. The Church
triumphant ; 2. The Church suffering; 3. The Church militant.—
The four chief ones : I. The glory of His Father ; 2. The fruit
of His Passion ; 3. The honour of His Mother ; 4. The esteem
of grace.—Do not follow the same rule as the interests of the
world—Not to look for visible results —Prayer the chief way of
forwarding them...................................................................... J

CHAPTER II.

SYMPATHY WITH yESUS.
Service of love—Sympathy with Jesus the mark of a saint—Three
instincts of saints : I. Eagerness for the glory of God ; 2.
Touchiness about the interests of Jesus ; 3. Anxiety for the
salvation of souls.—Story of St. Giacinta Mariscotti—Example
of the three instincts in a Spanish Jesuit—The six advantages
of giving away our indulgences to the souls in purgatory .
28

CHAPTER III

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.
God our Father as well as our Creator—This brings us to love of
complacency, and so to love of condolence—Sorrow for other

ι8

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

men's eins—Varions revelations to the saints about this—Special
office of nuns—Examples of the saints—Methods of practising
this sorrow : I. Meditation on God's glory ; 2. St. Bernard’s
way > 3· Way of Balthasar Alvarez and St. Alphonso.—How the
three instincts are satisfied in this devotion—St. Paphnutius and
the piper—Lancisius on the Carnival—St. Gertrude's vision The plain English of the lives of most Catholics—God's home
less glory......................................................................
54

CHAPTER IV.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
What goes to the saving of a soul—What is involved in a soul
being saved—The mystery of prayer—St. Gertrude's vision of
the Ave Maria—The three instincts applied to the practice of
intercessory prayer—For whom we should intercede : 1. For
those in mortal sin ; 2. For the lukewarm ; 3. For the saints on
earth ; 4. For those in tribulation ; 5. For our benefactors ; 6.
For those aiming at perfection ; 7. For the increase of the ac­
cidental glory of the blessed ; 8. For the rich and noble.—The
time, place, and method of intercession—Joy and freedom from
vain-glory the fruits of intercessory prayer
. .
.
. 92

CHAPTER V.

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.
Our distress because we love God so little—The ways in which He
helps us to love Him—More especially in the way of intercession
—The riches He gives us to offer to Him : 1. The Sacred
Humanity of Jesus; 2. The intercessory use of the Passion—
Various examples of the Saints ; 3. Our B. Lady—Nature of
devotion to her—Devotion to her Seven Joys ; 4. The Angels ;
5. All things that are or have been on earth ; 6. God's own Per­
fections. —Fitness of intercession as a devotion for invalids
. 128

CHAPTER VI.

MINTING MONEY.
God the centre of everything—So-called pillars of the Church—
Nature and grace—Oblation of our actions in union with those

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

»9

of Christ—Minting money—The spirit of oblation: I. The
oblation of our ordinary actions—Methods and practices—Dif­
ference between canonised and uncanonised writers—St. Ger­
trude's oblations ; 2. Oblation of recreations—Hints to valetu­
dinarians -St Charles's game of chess—Noe’s ark ; 3. Oblation
of solitude ; 4 Rising to God by common sights and sounds—
Examples and practices—Peter Faber’s three methods of prayer
— Multiplicity of mental devotions—Vocal prayer—Dry devotion
not solid ; 5. Ejaculatory prayer—Father Baker—How to say
office ; 6. Oblation of sufferings—What is it to be allowed to
please God—God begging glory of His own creatures
.
. 160

CHAPTER VIL
TH-ANKSGIVING.
Neglect of thanksgiving —Spirit of the Eucharist—Faults of good
people—Dry people ordinarily self-righteous—Fatherly provi­
dence—A spirit of thanksgiving the characteristic of the saints
—Devotion to the Eternal Word—Practices—Jewish tradition
from Philo—Heads of thanksgiving : I. Common blessings ; 2.
Personal blessings ; 3. Afflictions ; 4. Trifling blessings ; 5. Mis­
cellaneous blessings ; 6. For irrational creatures ; 7. Blessings
of our enemies—The French Apostolate of prayer; 8. For
Angels and Saints ; 9. For the supernaturalness of the Church,
and the gift of faith—St. Jane Frances de Chantal; 10. For
Mass—Materials for thanksgiving after Mass and Communion
—Our own practice hitherto.—Spiritual oenefits of thanksgiving
—Application of it to the three instincts................................ 207

CHAPTER VIII.
PRAISE AND DESIRE.
Science and grace—Tarry-at-Home travelling—What praise and
desire are—Loves of Complacency and Benevolence—Value of
interior acts—Description of God—Meditation on the atti butes
of God—Application of Praise and Desire to the three instincts
—How we get at the love of complacency—Saints made up of
six things—The holy middle olabb of the Church—Examples;
I. From the Raccolta ; 2. Lancisius’ devotions to Jesus Risen ;

20

CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS.

3. St Mary Magdalene of Pazzi's Preparation for Whitsuntide ;
4. Renewal of vows and heroic desires.—Regimental holiness Liberty of spirit—St. Gertrude and the old Benedictine ascetics
—The great wonder that God loves men—The greater that He
lets men love Him—The greatest that they will not do so—The
spirit of reparation—Mary the Christian's Benedicite—The
praise of the Sacred Heart—God's praise of Himself

CHAPTER IX.
PURGATORY.
Thoughts on Hell—Rosignoli—The world of sense and the world
of spirit—Communion of the Saints—Two views of Puragatory—
Synopsis of the treatise of St. Catherine of Genoa -What the
two views agree in—Lessons learned for our own good and for
the good of the Holy Souls—Pleas for this devotion : 1. All
devotions centre in it ; 2. It implies all the works of mercy ; 3.
It is an exercise of the three theological virtues ; 4. Its effects
upon the spiritual life—The ways of practising it.—Story of
Marie Denise de Martignat—The sorrows of kind hearts—God’s
description of Himself as a poor invalid—The doctrinal character
and fulness of their devotion—Sweet song of the Sacred Heart 337

Letter to the Confraternity ..»
···.
*

391

CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS.

CHAPTER I.
THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

iKCTIOK
I.—Jesus all for us, and all for Love
.
.... I
II.—What the Interests of Jesus are...................................... 7
III. —The Four Chief Interests of Jesus: the Glory of His Father 14
IV. —The Fruit of His Passion......................................................16
V.—The Honour of His Mother..............................................18
VI.—The Esteem of Grace...................................................... 20
VII.—How we can forward the Interests of Jesus
.
.
.22
VIII.—Prayer the chief means of doing this
.
.
.25

CHAPTER II.
SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.
I.—Sympathy with Jesus the mark of a Saint
.
.
.28
II,—The Instincts of the Saints. Eagerness for the Glory of
God................................................................................ 34
HI.—Touchiness about the Interests of Jesus .
.
-37
IV.—Anxiety for the Salvation of Souls..................................... 39
V.—The Six Advantages of giving our Indulgences to the Souls
in Purgatory............................................................. 45

CHAPTER III.
LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.
I.—God is our most dear Father............................................. 54
II.—The Loves of Complacency and Condolence
.
· 60

22

CONTENTS OF THE SECTIONS.

.«CTTON
III. — Instances of Love of Condolence.........................................6$
IV. —Ways of Practising the Love of Condolence
.
· 75
V.—There is no real Sorrow for other men’s sins without a
real heart-searching Sorrow for our own. Spiritual Fruits
of the Love of Condolence....................................

CHAPTER IV.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
I,—The Saving of a Soul....................................................... 92
IL—The Mystery of Prayer ....... 97
III. —The Three Instincts exercised in Intercessory Prayer
. 104
IV. —Those for whom we ought to Intercede .
.
.112
V. —The Hiddenness and Joy of Intercession . .
.
.123

CHAPTER V.

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.
I.—How God helps us to Love Him
.
.
.
.128
Π.—The Sacred Humanity
.
.
.
.
.
.
.136
HI.—The Passion............................................................................. ’3^
IV.—Devotion to our Blessed Lady...............................................146
V. —The Holy Angels.................................................................. *53
VI. —The Things of Earth
.
.
.
.
.
.
· *54
VII.—The Divine Attributes.......................................................

CHAPTER VI.
MINTING MONEY.
I.—The Helplessness of Worldly Wisdom .
.
.
.160
II.—The Doctrine of Intention devotionally Considered .
·
HI.—The Practises of the Saints............................................. .168
IV.—Spiritual Writers............................................................... I72
V.—The Spirit of St. Gertrude..................................... ......... 17^
VL—Recreations, Amusements, and Common Things
.
· *8*
VII. —Variety in Devotion....................................................... · *9*
VIII. —Ejaculations and Attention..................................... · *9

CONTENTS OP THE SECTIONS.

•3

CHAPTER VII.

THANKSGIVING.
run

ntcnoK

I. —Neglect of Thanksgiving................................................... κη
II. —The Spirit of the Saints a Spirit of Thanksgiving
. 219
III. —Various Subjects for Thanksgiving.................................. 223
IV. —Thanksgiving for the Gift of Faith.................................235
V. —Thanksgiving after Mass and Communion
.
.
. 242
VI. —Practical Reflections on the Subject................................. 260

CHAPTER VIII.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.
I.—Science and Grace.......................................................... 273
II. —What is meant by Praise and Desire
.... 277
III. —Interior Acts .
........................................................... 281
IV. —Knowledge and Love of the Divine Perfection»
.
· 284
V.—The Love of Complacency..........................................292
VI. —Saints and the Middle Class of Devout Christiana .
. 300
VII. —Practices of Praise and Desire......................................... 3°5
VIIL—The Benedictine Spirit.................................................. 317
IX.—Mary, Jesus, God
.
...... 329

CHAPTER IX.
PURGATORY.
I.—Thoughts on Hell........................................................... 337
II.—Devotion for sinful Souls and Holy Souls .... 341
III. —Double view of Purgatory.........................................
. 347
IV. —St. Catherine of Genoa on Purgatory
.... 353
V. —Union of the two Views . .......................................... 302
VI.—The Eminence and Prerogatives of this Devotion
. 369
VII.—Examples of the Saints .
................................. 3fA>

ALL FOR JESUS.
CHAPTER L

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.
Jeune all for ua, and all for lore—His interests the object of the Confra­
ternity of the Precious Blood—Men's interests—The devil's interests
—The interests of Jesus in, r. the Church triumphant ; 2. the
Church suffering ; 3. the Church militant.—The four chief ones : 1.
the glory of His Father ; a. the fruit of His Passion ; 3. the honour
of His Mother ; 4. the esteem of grace—Do not follow the same rule
as the interests of the world—Not to look for visible results—Prayer
the chief way of forwarding them.
SECTION I.
JE8U8 ALL FOR US, AND ALL FOR LOVB.

Jesus belongs to us. He vouchsafes to put Himself at our
disposal. He communicates to us everything of His which
we are capable of receiving. He loves us with a love
which no words can tell, nay, above all our thought and
imagination ; and He condescends to desire, with a longing
which is equally indescribable, that we should love Him,
with a fervent and entire love. His merits may be called
ours as well as His. His satisfactions are not so much
His treasures as they are ours. His Sacraments are but
so many ways which His love has designed to communicate
Him to our souls. Wherever we turn in the Church of

3

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

God, there is Jesus. He is the beginning, middle, and end
of everything to us. He is our help in penance, our con­
solation in grief, our support in trial. There is nothing
good, nothing holy, nothing beautiful, nothing joyous,
which He is not to His servants. No one need be poor,
because, if he chooses, ho can have Jesus for his own
property and possession. No one need bo downcast, for
Jesus is the joy of heaven, and it is Bis joy to enter
into sorrowful hearts. Wo can exaggerate about many
things; but we can never exaggerate our obligations to
Jesus, or the compassionate abundance of the love of Jesus
to us. All our lives long wo might talk of Jesus, and yet
we should never come to an end of the sweet things that
are to bo said about Him. Eternity will not be long
enough to learn all He is, or to praise Him for all He has
done ; but then that matters not ; for we shall bo always
with Him, and wo desire nothing more.
He has kept nothing back from us. There is not a
faculty of His Human Soul which has not had to do with
our salvation. There is not a limb of His Sacred Body
which has not suffered for us. There is not a pain, a
shame, an indignity, which Ho has not drained to its last
dreg of bitterness on our behalf. There is not one drop of
His most Precious Blood which He has not shed for us ;
nor is there one beating of His Sacred Heart which is not
an act of love to us. We road wonderful things in the
Lives of the Saints about their love of God, wonderful
things which we dare not think of imitating. They
practised fearful austerities, or they spent years in un­
broken silence, or they were ever in ecstasies or raptures,
or they were passionately in love with contempt and suffer­
ing, or they pined and wasted away in holy impatience for
death, or they courted death, and expired in the long
tortures of au excruciating martyrdom. Each one of these

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

3

things separately fills us with wonder. Yet, put them all
together, conceive all the love of Peter, Paul, and John, of
Joseph, and of Magdalen, of all the apostles and martyrs,
the confessors and virgins of the Church in all ages, thrown
into one heart, made, by miracle, strong enough to hold
such love J then add to it all the burning love which the
nine choirs of multitudinous angels have for God, and
crown it all with the amazing love of the Immaculate
Heart of our dear Mother; and still it comes not near to,
nay, it is but a poor imitation of, the love which Jesus has
for each one of us, however lowly and unworthy and sinful
we may be. We know our own unworthiness. We hate
ourselves for our own past sins. We are impatient with
our own secret meanness, irritability, and wretchedness.
We are tired with our own badness and littleness. Yet,
for all that, He loves us with this unutterable love, and is
ready, if need be, as Ho revealed to one of His servants,
to come down from heaven to be crucified over again for
each one of us.
The wonder is not merely that He should love us so
much, but that He should love us at all. Considering who
He is, and what we are, have we any one single claim to
His love, except the excess and, without Him, the hope­
lessness of our misery ? We have no claims upon Him, but
those which He Himself in His compassion has invented
for us. What can be more unlovely than we are, what
more ungenerous, what more ungrateful? Yet He loves
us with this excess of love 1 How is it we can ever turn
ourselves away from this one idea ? How is it we can take
an interest in anything but this surpassing love of God for
His fallen creatures Î It is almost surprising how we can
bear to go through our ordinary duties, or how it is that,
like men in love with created loves, we do not forget to eat
and drink, and sleep, feeling ourselves every hour of the

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

day and night the object of the most profuse tenderness
and the most unutterable abundance of the love of God, the
Almighty, the All-Wise, the All-Holy, the All-Beautiful,
the Everlasting ! Most incredible of startling wonders I
Blessings are heaped upon us till we are almost out of
breath with them, Graces are multiplied upon graces till
they get beyond our power of reckoning. His compassions
are new every morning. Then, after all, there is yet to
come the recompense which eye has never seen, nor ear
heard, nor heart conceived I This is His side of the
question.
Alas ! for our dearest Lord I Up to this day, what have
we done for Him ? Yet see what He has done for us ; and
the end of His doing it all was to gain our love 1 We look
upon a crucifix, and it hardly moves us. Wo hear of His
bitter Passion, hut our eyes are dry, and our hearts in­
different. We kneel down to pray, but we can hardly
keep our thoughts fixed upon Him for a quarter of an hour
together. We go into His own most holy presence, and we
hardly bend the knee before the Tabernacle, lest it should
spoil our clothes. We see others sin, and what matter is
it to us that Jesus is offended, so long as it is not we who
are risking our souls by offending Him Î These are strange
signs of love ! Surely Jesus cannot be much to us, if this
is the way we feel about Him. Yet so it is. We go our
own way, and do our own will The great thing is to
please ourselves, and to make things easy to us. Life
must be taught to run smooth. As to penance, it must
be kept at arm’s length. Wo must have bodily comforts
and worldly conveniences, and our spiritual life must be
nothing but a sufficiency of those inward consolations,
without which our souls give us pain, because they are not
at l'est. If we worship God, it is for self ; if we do good
to others, it is self we aro seeking, even in our charity.

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

$

Poor Jesus Christ I as St. Alphonse used to say, poor
Jesus Christ ! Who thinks of Him 1 Who weds His
interests Î
Yet this is the very object of our Confraternity of the
Precious Blood,—to look after the interests of Jesus, and
to forward them in every way wo can. There is hardly
any worldly object of importance which has not got some
association to defend its rights and to forward its interests ;
why should not the interests of Jesus have one also!
Science has its meetings, and its corresponding societies.
Men band together in order to gain the victory for some
favourite political opinions. They make companies for
railways, and for steam-packets, and for coal-mines. Why
should not we open an office to transact the affairs of
Jesus, to protect His rights, and advance His interests 1
Now remember 1 this is just the business of the Confra­
ternity of the Precious Blood. When we join it, we
must leave self at the door. There is no self in it
It is all for Jesus. It is the office of the interests of
Jesus.
Now, let us try to get an idea of the interests of Jesus ;
else, how shall we be able to do anything to advance them Î
Men cannot work in the dark ; they must know what they
are about. You know what it is to have an interest. If
you look over the world, you will see that everybody has
some interest at heart, and is working hard for it There
are almost as many interests in the world as there are
men. Every one you meet in the streets is going after
something. You see it in his face, his quick eye, and
his rapid walk. Either it is political, or literary, or mer­
cantile, or scientific, or fashionable, or simply ambitious,
or dishonest. Still, whatever it is, every man has wedded
the interest of his choice, and is doing his duty to it He
works hard for it all day ; he goes to bed with the thought

6

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

of it, and he wakes with it in the morning. Evon on
Sunday, it is rather his hand that is resting, than his head
or his heart, they are full of his interest. Tz>ok what men
will do, singly or banded, to put down slavery, or to get
free trade, or to compete for a large order, or to carry the
mails, or to make new railroads. It is plain men have
interests enough in the world, that they love them dearly,
and work for them manfully. Would that it were all
for God, the good, the merciful, the eternal God.
The deni also has his interests in the world. He has
been allowed to set up a kingdom in opposition to God,
and, like all sovereigns, he has a multitude of interests.
Thus he has agents everywhere, active, diligent, unseen
spirits, swarming in the streets of the cities, to push on
his interests. They canvass the labourers in the field.
They see what they can do with the monk in his cloister,
and the hermit in his cell. Even in the churches, during
Mass or Benediction, they are hard at work, plying their
unholy trade. Our fellow-men also, by thousands, let
themselves out to him as agents ; nay, numbers work in
his interests for nothing ; and, what is more shocking still,
many do his work, and almost fancy it is God’s work they
are doing, it looks so good and blameless in their eyes.
How many Catholics oppose good things, or criticise good
persons; yet they would never consent to be the devil's
agents, if they really knew what they were about. These
interests of the deni are very various. To cause mortal
sin, to persuade to venial sin, to hinder grace, to prevent
contrition, to keep back from Sacraments, to promote luke­
warmness, to bring holy people and bishops and religious
orders into disrepute, and to stand in the way of vocations,
to spread gossip, to distract people at prayer, to make mon
fall in love with the frivolities and fashions of the world,
to get mon to spend money on comforts, furniture, jewels,

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

7

nicknacks, parrots, old china, fine dress, instead of on the
poor of Jesus Christ, to induco Catholics to worship great
people and put thoir trust in princes, and fawn upon
political parties in power, to make them full of criticism
of each other, and quick as children or as Pharisees to take
scandal, to diminish devotion to our Blessed Lady, and to
make people fancy divine love is an enthusiasm and an
indiscretion :—these are the chief interests of the devil
It is amazing with what energy he works at them, and
with what consummate craft and dreadful ability he ad­
vances them in the world. It would be a thing to admire,
if it did not make us afraid for our own souls, and if all
things which are against God were not simply abominable,
and to be hated. The dark enemy of the Creator is
mysteriously allowed a marvellous share of success in that
creation which the ΛΙΙ-Holy once looked down upon, and
blessed in His unspeakable complacency. Men’s interests
put the interests of Jesus on one side, partly as trouble­
some, more often as insignificant. The devil’s interests
are directly opposed to those of Jesus, and where they
are successful, either debase them, or kill them alto­
gether.
SECTION II.
WHAT THE INTERESTS OF JESUS ARE.

Now, let us look at the interests of Jesus. Let us take
a view of the whole Church, which is His Spouse. Look
first into heaven, the Church triumphant.
It is the
interest of Jesus that the glory of the Most Holy Trinity
should be increased in every possible manner, and at every
hour of night and day : and this glory, which is called
God’s accidental glory, is increased by every good work,
word, and thought, every correspondence to grace, every

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

resistance to temptation, every act of worship, every Sacra­
ment rightly administered or humbly received, every act of
homage and love to Mary, every invocation of the Saints,
every bead of the Rosary, every sign of the Cross, every
drop of holy water, every pain patiently endured, every
harsh judgment meekly borne, every good wish, though it
end only with the wishing, and never sees fulfilment,—
provided there be a devout intention along with all these
things, and they are done in union with the merits of our
sweet Lord. Every hour, at least so we trust, a new soul
lands in heaven from Purgatory, or from earth, and begins
its eternity of rapture and of praise. Each soul that
swells the throng of worshippers, each silent voice added
to the angelic choirs, is an increase to the glory of God ;
and so it is the interest of Jesus to make these arrivals
more frequent, and that they should bring more merits
and higher degrees of love with them when they come.
Even in heaven the Confraternity has work to do, and
power to do it. Heaven is one of our offices, and there is
much business to be despatched in its beautiful courts,
business for the interests of Jesus, business which He has
at heart, and, therefore, which it behoves us to have in
hand.
Next, look at that vast kingdom of Purgatory, with its
empress mother, Mary. All those countless throngs of
souls are the dear and faithful spouses of Jesus. Yet in
what a strange abandonment of supernatural suffering
has His love left them 1 He longs for their deliverance ;
He yearns for them to be transferred from that land,
perpetually overclouded with pain, to the bright sunshine
of their heavenly home. Nevertheless He has tied His
own hands, or nearly so. He gives them no more grace ;
He allows them no more time for penance ; He prevents
them from meriting; nay, some have thought they could

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

·)

not pray. How then stands the case with the souls in the
suffering Church Î Why, it is a thing to be meditated on
when we have said it—they depend almost more on earth
than they do on heaven, almost more on us than on Him ;
so He has willed it on whom all depend, and without
whom there is no dependence. It is clear then that Jesus
has His interests there. He wants His captives released.
Those whom He has redeemed lie now bids us redeem, us
whom, if there be life at all in us, He has already Himself
redeemed. Every satisfaction offered up to God for these
suffering souls, every oblation of the Precious Blood to the
Eternal Father, every Mass heard, every Communion re
ceived, every voluntary penance undergone; the scourge;
the hair shirt ; the prickly chain ; every indulgence gained,
every jubilee whose conditions we have fulfilled, every De
Profundis whispered, every little alms doled out to the
poor who are poorer than ourselves, all these things are
part of the glory of Jesus ; and if they be offered for the
intention of these dear prisoners, the interests of Jesus are
hourly forwarded in Mary’s kingdom of Purgatory. This
is another office of the Confraternity, and there is no fear
of overworking the glorious secretary of that wide realm,
the Blessed Michael, Mary’s subject See how men work
at the pumps on board a ship when they are fighting for
their lives with an ugly leak ; oh, that we had the charity
so to work, with the sweet instrumentality of indulgences,
for the holy souls in Purgatory I The infinite satisfactions
of Jesus are at our command, and Mary's sorrows, and
the Martyrs' pangs, and the Confessors’ weary persever­
ance in well-doing. Jesus will not help Himself here;
because He loves to see us helping Him, and because He
thinks our love will rejoice that He still leaves us some­
thing we can do for Him. There have been saints who
have devoted their whole lives to this one work, mining it

ro

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

Purgatory : and to those who reflect in faith, it does not
seem, after all, so strange. It is a foolish comparison,
simply because it is so much below the mark, but on all
principles of reckoning, it is a much less work to have won
the battle of Waterloo, or to have invented the steamengine, than to have freed one soul from Purgatory ; and
I should be slow to think there was a single member of
the Confraternity who had not done more than that
already.
Now look at the Church militant on earth.
The
interests of Jesus are rich and plentiful enough here.
There are things to be done, and things to be left undone
Hearts to be persuaded, and hearts to be dissuaded. There
is so much to do, the puzzle is where to begin, and what to
do first. Men who do not love Jesus are to be made to
love Him, and men who love Him to love Him a great
deni more. Each of us might take one department, and
we should find more work to be done in it than we can get
through in our best of times. There are so many people
in their agony, and dying every minute all over the world.
In what danger the very dearest interests of Jesus are at
their dying beds I Satan is hard at work ; temptations
drive in thicker than flakes in a snowstorm ; and whoso
wins this battle, Jesus or the devil, is so far conqueror for
ever; for there is no fighting it over again. There are
Catholics who have not been near the Sacraments for
years, and there are saints whose half-century of merits
and heroic love is positively in peril of being lost; they
only want one thing, and let them suffer ever so much
they cannot merit it, and that is, final perseverance.
There are heretics who never suspected they were in
heresy, and heretics in bad faith, who have told falsehoods
about the Church, and blasphemed the Mother of God.
There are Jews descended from those who crucified our

TUB INTERESTS OF JESUS.

π

Lord, and there nro Mahometans who are the masters of
Jerusalem. There are Hottentots who worship loathsome
images, and there are American Indians, who have no
higher thought than to hunt for all eternity, their merite
proportioned to the number of their murders. There are
men whom the unthawing snows whiten, and men whom
the fierce heats of the south scorch, on the mountain tops,
in the deep valleys, in the city and in the wilderness, on
the land and on the sea, in the dungeon and in the palace;
all dying, many each minute in the most frightful unpre­
paredness that can be conceived ; and Jesus died for ever)
one of them, as exclusively as if there had been nobody
else to die for, and He is ready this moment to come down
and die for each one again, if it were needed. Go all
through His long Passion, mark His steps, His tears, His
drops of blood ; count the thorns, the blows, the spittings,
the falls; fathom the interior depths of the shame and
shrinking, the torture and the sickness of His Sacred
Heart; and it was all for that poor Indian, dying far
away this hour beneath the shadow of the Andes; and if
he dies and is not saved, it will have been in vain. This
is but one department of the interests of Jesus, men in
their last agony ; and St. Camillus was raised up to found
an order expressly for them. What might we not say of
souls in mortal sin, of heretics and infidels, of criminals in
prison, of persons under calumny, of others in scruples or
temptations ? We should never have done if we described
all the interests of Jesus upon earth.
As, however, we have mentioned the dying, and the
dangers of the deathbed, as the object of a special devotion,
it will not be out of place to remind you that Pius VII.
attached indulgences to the recital of three Paters and
Aves for the dying, in honour of the Agony of Jesus,
which will be found in the Baccolta. Many saints and

12

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

holy persons have had this special devotion for souls in
their agony. In the life of one of the first mothers of the
Visitation we read that, as she was watching before the
Blessed Sacrament during the night of Holy Thursday,
1644, she saw a vision of our Lord in His agony, and with
this vision there was given her a light and an efficacious
grace to pray for the intentions of persons in their agony.
“Alas!” she said, “the agonies of poor creatures are
strange hours,” and, in truth, that moment, decisive of
eternity, is the only important affair we have to transact.
From the hour she received this admirable grace, she often
seemed to hear the sighs of dying persons ; and the effect
this had upon her was so great, that ever afterwards she
said, night and morning, the prayers of the Church for
those in their agony. She often meditated on the words
which our Lord said of Himself a little before His death :
“The prince of this world is come, and finds nothing in
Me,” as if all life was to be so directed as to enable us to
make these words in some measure our own when we come
to die. Of the same religious we are told, in another
place, that when the Bishop of Geneva came, on St.
Jerome’s day, to consecrate the church of the order at
Annecy, and the superioress wished one of the six chapels
to be dedicated to St. Joseph, this good sister begged her
to let it be dedicated to St. Joseph dying in the arms of
Jesus and Mary. “Ah! my good mother!” she cried,
“ God has made known to me that, by this devotion to St.
Joseph Dying, His goodness wills to give many graces to
persons in their agony, and that, as St. Joseph did not go
to heaven at once, Jesus not having yet opened it, but
that he descended to the limbus of the fathers, it is a most
efficacious devotion for the agonising, and for the souls in
Purgatory, to offer to God the resignation of the great St.
Joseph in dying and leaving Jesus and Mary, and to

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

n

honour the holy patience of his tranquil expectation, till
the dawn of Easter, when the Risen Jesus set him free."
So much for this devotion : but, as was said before, we
should never have done if we described all the interests of
Jesus upon earth.
There is not a public-house, or a gin-palace, not a theatre
or a casino, not a ball-room or a concert, not a public
meeting or a parliament, not a shop or a wharf, not a fair,
a race-course, or a market, not a carriage or a ship, not a
school or a church, where His interests are not in danger
at all hours, and where He is not calling on us to help Him.
The Church on earth is the fighting part of the Church :
no wonder there is so much to do, and so little time to do
it in. There is not a thing which has not two sides, and
one side belongs to Jesus, and the other side is against
Him. The devil has other interests besides sheer sin. He
can fight against Jesus with low views almost as success­
fully as with mortal sins. The slow poison of souls some­
times does his work better than the quick. See, then, the
multiplicity, the ubiquity, the urgency, of the interests of
Jesus ; and it is to meet all this that we are members of
the Confraternity.
Yet, although it is impossible to go through all the
interests of Jesus on earth Avith anything like minuteness,
it is necessary to have somewhat more of a clear and
definite view about them ; in order that we may understand
our office and work as members of the Confraternity. If
we study the Sacred Heart of Jesus, as He has revealed it
to us in the Gospel, in the histoiy of the Church, in the
lives of His saints, and as we have found it ourselves in
prayer, we shall see that the multitudinous and manifold
interests of oui· most dear Lord may be gathered up into
four classes ; and a short sketch of these classes will put
us in possession of that clear view of our work which we

14

TUB INTERESTS OP JP.SUS.

seeking after. Tbo first interests of Jesus are, of
course, in our own souls. The kingdom of heaven is within
us. Yet, all important as it is, the question of our own
holiness is not, at least directly, the ono wo are concerned
with just at present. Without personal holiness we shall
do nothing ; but this is not the time or place to speak of
that. The four great interests of Jesus to which we are
now alluding are, i. The glory of Ilis Father; 2. The fruit
of His passion; 3. The honour of His Mother; and 4. The
esteem of grace. Let me say a word on each of these.
rfo

SECTION III.
THE FOUR CHIEF INTERESTS OF JESUS :

THE GLORY OF

RIO

FATHER.

i. The glory of His Father. When we study our
Blessed Lord as He is represented to us in the Gospels,
nothing, if we may venture to use such an expression,
seems so like a ruling passion in Him as His longing for
His Father’s glory. From the time when at the age of
twelve He left Mary, and stayed behind in Jerusalem, to
His very last word upon the Cross, this devotion to the
glory of God comes up at every turn. As it is said of Him
on one occasion that the zeal for God’s house ate Him up,
so may we say that He was eaten up continually with
hungering and thirsting after His Father’s glory. It was
as if God’s glory had been lost upon the earth, and He was
come to seek it and to find it, and how was His Sacred
Heart straitened until He did find it 1 Thus was He our
example ; for this end does He give us grace, that we may
glorify our Father who is in Heaven. Now, who can look
into the world, and not see how God’s glory is lost upon
the earth 1 It is the interest of Jesus thub we should seek

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

Mid find it. Apart from clear acts of great and gnevoui
sin, how is God forgotten, clean forgotten, by the greatest
part of mankind I They live as if there were no God. It
is not as if they openly rebelled against Him. They pass
Him over and ignore Him. He is an inconvenience in
His own world, an impertinence in His own creation. So
He has been quietly set on one side, as if He were an idol
out of fashion, and in the way. Men of science, and poli­
ticians, have agreed on this, and men of business and
wealth think it altogether the most decent thing to be
silent about God ; for it is difficult to speak of Him, or
have a view of Him, without allowing too much to Him.
Here is a desperate, if it were not for grace we should say
altogether desperate, obstacle to the interests of Jesus, thh
great huge impenetrable mass of forgetfulness of God, of
ignoring of God. Tt turns our hearts sick, and makes us
long for death ; for what can we do in so hopeless an affair
as this ? Yet we must try. A string of beads and a
blessed medal ! There is no saying what they cannot do !
A single Mass, is its power far short of infinite ?
Then, unfortunately, there are a great many religious
people who by no means give God’s glory its fitting place ;
there are many, called spiritual, who give Him but the
second best of everything. They want light to know God's
glory when they see it. They want discernment to detect
the world and the devil under the show of reason and
moderation, whereby they would defraud Him of His glory.
They want bravery to set the world’s opinion at defiance,
and consistency to make their lives all of a piece with their
religion. Good souls 1 they are the very pestilence of the
Church, and yet they never for one moment suspect it;
and it is very much for the interests of Jesus that they
should see themselves, and other things as well, in their
true light. So here also we have some work to do, to pray

16

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

that aD good men, and men trying to be good, should be
able to see what is for God's glory, and what is not. Alas I
what ground we lose every day for the want of this dis­
cernment Î
Then, there are religious orders, set apart, with the
blessing of the Church, each in its own particular way, to
work out this glory of God. There are bishops and priests,
all supposed to be toiling with a single aim and an exclusive
perfection for this one thing. There are guilds and con­
fraternities without number, and is not this their end Î
Calamities have to be endured, dangers faced, scandals
exposed, the Church has to knock under to the world
to-day, and to roughride it to-morrow; and Jesus has
interests in all these things : and it is our work to help
Him. Half-a-dozen men, going about God’s world, seeing
nothing but God’s glory—they would remove mountains.
This was promised to faith : why should not wo be the men
to do it 'I
SECTION IV.
THB FHUIT OF HIS PASSION.

2. The fruit of His Passion. This is the second great
interest of Jesus. Every sin we can prevent, no matter
how venial, is a great thing for the interests of Jesus. We
can see how groat a thing it is, if we remember that if we
could shut hell for ever, save all the souls that are in it,
empty Purgatory, and make all the men and women on
earth persevering saints, equal to St. Peter and St. Paul,
by telling one little, and such a little lie I we might not
do so on any account ; for God’s glory would suffer more
by that little lie, than it would gain by all the rest. What
a work then will it bo for the interests of Jesus to prevent
one mortal sin I Yet how easy 1 If every night, before

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

«7

wo go to sleep, we begged our dear Lady to offer up to
God the Blessed Passion and Precious Blood of her dear
Son for grace to hinder one mortal sin, somewhere in the
world, during that night, and then renewed the same offer­
ing in the morning for the hours of daylight, surely such
an offering, and by such hands, could not fail to win the
grace desired; and then each one of us might probably
hinder seven hundred and thirty mortal sins every year;
and if a thousand of us made these offerings, and persevered
in them for twenty years, it would give none of us any
trouble, and to say nothing of the merit we should gain,
here would be more than fourteen million mortal sins
prevented, and if all the members of the Confraternity did
it, you would have to multiply it again by thirty ; and the
prevention of four hundred and twenty millions of mortal
sins would be the annual offering of our Confraternity to the
Passion of our dearest Lord. At this rate, the interests of
Jesus would prosper, and how happy, how immensely happy,
should we be I
So, again, every time we get anyone to go to confession,
who stands in need of it, even though it be only to confess
venial sins, wo increase the fruit of our beloved Redeemer’s
Passion. Every act of contrition we persuade men to
make, or by prayer obtain them the grace to make, increases
the same blessed fruit. Every additional strictness or
trifling penance, of which we are the promoters, answers
the same good end, and so do all our efforts to advance
frequent Communion. When we get people to join in
devotions to our Lord’s Passion, or to read about it, and
meditate upon it, we are forwarding the interests of Jesus.
Some one said, if my memory does not fail me it was
Albertus Magnus, that one tear shed over the sufferings
of our dear Lord was worth more than a year’s fast on
bread and water ; what then if we get others to weep with
3

l8

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

us in our tenderness for the Passion of Jesus I What a
great deal a little prayer will do I Sweet Jesus I why are
we so hard and cold Î Kindle in us tho sweet fire which
Thou earnest to kindle on the earth I

SECTION V.
TUB HONOUR OF HIS MOTHER.

3. The honour of His Mother. This is another chief
interest of Jesus, and the whole history of the Church
shows how near it lies to His Sacred Heart. It was the
love of her that specially drew Ilim down from heaven,
and it was she who merited tho time of tho Incarnation.
She was tho chosen one of the Most Holy and Undivided
Trinity, the elected daughter of the Father, the predesti­
nated Mother of the Son, and the chosen Spouse of the
Holy Ghost. The right doctrine of Jesus has in all ages
been wrapped up with tho true devotion to Mary ; and the
Mother can be wounded only through tho Son. Thus
Mary is the heritage of humble and obedient Catholics. As
devotion to her increases, so does hob'ness increase. The
saints are moulded on the love of her. Sin has no greater
enemy than Mary ; for tho thought of her is a charm
against it, and the devils tremble at her name. No one
can love the Son but the love of the Mother grows in him
also : no one can love the Mother without his heart melting
with tenderness towards tho Son. Thus has Jesus put her
in the front of His Church, that she should be the token
of all good, and the stumbling-block of His enemies.
What wonder then that His interests are deeply concerned
with her honour. Every heretical blasphemy against her
dignity, for which you make reparation by an act of love,
or an act of thanksgiving for her Immaculate Conception

TUB INTERESTS OP JESUS.

19

and her Perpetual Virginity, gives you an opportunity of
advancing the interests of Jesus. Everything you can do
to spread devotion to her, and especially to make Catholics
feel more tenderly towards her, is a distinct work for
Jesus, and one which He will most lovingly repay. To get
people to go to Communion on her feasts, to be enrolled in
her Confraternities, to have a picture of her, to gain indul­
gences for the souls in Purgatory that in lifetime were
most devoted to her, to pray for the speedy definition of
her Immaculate Conception,
*
to say one-third of the
Rosary every day—everybody has an opportunity of doing
one or the other of these things, and they are all for the
interests of Jesus I But there is one devotion to be especi­
ally mentioned. Would we were all inspired with it. We
should do well then for the interests of Jesus, and our dear
Lord would get such abundance of new love all the world
over I It is—to have more confidence in our Blessed
Mother’s prayers, more undoubting trust, more bold peti­
tion, more real faith in her. There would be more love
for Mary, if there were more faith in Mary. But we are
in an heretical country ; and it is hard to live among the
icebergs, and not be cold. 0 Jesus I animate our confi­
dence in Mary, not only that we may work more for Thy
sweet interests, but that we may work in the way Thou
wouldst have us work, letting no creature be dearer to
us than the one who was dearer to Thee than all other
creatures put together 1
* Now, blessed be God! thia devotion should be changed into tharkigivings for that most dear mystery. Seventh Edition.

»0

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

SECTION VI.
THE ESTEEM OF GRACE.

4. The esteem of grace. This is another of the chief
interests of Jesus. Tho world would be quite a different
place if men only valued grace at its proper value. What
is there in the world worth anything except grace Î How
childishly we let ourselves be run away with by all manner
of follies, which have nothing to do with the interests of
Jesus. How stupid it is of us I What time we waste I
What harm we do I What good we leave undone 1 And
how sweetly patient Jesus is with us all through it ! If
people esteemed grace rightly, every one of the other
interests of Jesus would go right. When they go wrong,
it is just for the want of this esteem. Graces keep coming,
merits keep multiplying, almost as fast as the blessed
beatings of the Sacred Heart.
Meanwhile, all the time
that Heait is yearning over us with enraptured love, we
are. saying, I am not obliged to do this ; I need not forego
this pleasure ; 1 must keep down religious enthusiasm.
God help us I I wish we could get a peep of any enthusiasm
there is to keep down! Poor Jesus Christ! Poor Jesus
Christ I And all this is for want of a true esteem of grace.
Better die than forfeit one increase of grace : do we all
believe this Î No I but we say we believe it. If the funds
were to fall to fifty to-morrow, it would be of less conse­
quence than that a sick Irishman in an obscure court should
by impatience forfeit one degree of grace. To receive (this
is what theologians tell us) all the natural gifts and orna­
ments of St. Michael, his power, strength, wisdom, beauty,
and all the rest, would be nothing compared with one
additional degree of grace, such as we get a score of if we

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

21

resist an angry feeling for a quarter of an hour; for grace
is a participation of the Divine Nature. But do we carry
this out in our own lives, while we are going to persuade
others to carry it out ? Fix upon any evil or calamity of
the Church you please, and you will see it would never
have happened, if her children had had a true esteem of
grace; and moreover, that it would be set right by to­
morrow morning, if they all took up with a true esteem of
grace. To gain the whole world will be no profit to a man
if ho suffer detriment, any detriment, to his immortal soul.
Go and persuade people of this : show them what store
they should set by grace, and how one grace brings another
along with it, and how all these things are merits, and how
all merits turn to glories, glories which are eternal in the
heavens. You will indeed forward our dear Lord’s interests
if you do this : you will forward them far more than you
have any idea of. Only pray that men may have a truer
esteem of grace, and you will be a secret apostle of Jesus.
All graces are in Him ; He is the fountain and the fulness
of them all ; He longs to pour them out over dear souls,
souls that He died for ; and they will not let Him, because
they must esteem the graces they have in order to gain
new ones. Go and help Jesus. Why should a single soul
l>e lost for which He died 1 Yes, why should one be lost i
It is a horrible thing to think of a lost soul, most horrible.
And why should they be lost ? why ? There is Precious
Blood to be had for the asking ; and what it gives is grace.
But men do not care about grace. St Paul spent his
whole life teaching people about grace, and praying for
grace for them, and that they might use grace rightly
when they had got it. When the Fountain of all grace is
springing up like a living well of joy in the heart after
Communion, ask Him to open all men’s eyes to the beauty
of His grace, and so will you cause His grace to multiply,

33

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

and with the multiplication of grace His interests to
prosper; for thus stands the case with our dear Lord, that
the more He gives away the richer He becomes. Dear King
of souls I how is it we. can think of anything but Him Î
To think that we should be allowed to take His interests in
hand ; it is amazing I it is a wonder it does not send us
into an ecstasy. But we do not know our own privileges ;
and why not Î Because we do not study our dearest Lord
enough. Why not begin in time what we shall be delighted
to do for all eternity? Study Jesus. Heaven is only
heaven, because Jesus is there ; and it is not easy to under­
stand why earth has not become heaven already, since
Jesus is on earth also. It is, alas I because we have the
wretched power to offend Him left us. Take that away,
and there is heaven at once, or Purgatory, which is the
porch of heaven. Will the day really come when we can
sin no more, no more wound the Heart of Jesus Î 0
Blessed Lord I let the sun rise soon that is not to set till
that dear privilege is ours. Why fret and question if it
is to be heaven at once, or Purgatory first Î what matter Î
The great thing is not to be able, for we should be sure to
do it if we were able, ever to offend our dearest Lord and
Love again I

SECTION VII.
HOW WE OAN FORWARD THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

These are the interests of Jesus, to forward which is
the great work of our Confraternity. Or rather, these are
samples and specimens of those interests. It may seem
strange that our Blessed Lord should make use of such
poor and vile instruments as we are for so great a work ;
hut it is the same Lord who called simple fishermen from

THE INTERESTS OP JESUS.

»3

mending their nets to bo His apostles, and to convert the
world. True it is that wo have sins enough of our own to
look after, that we have imperfections enough to turn away
the heart of our heavenly Spouse from us, and that there
is no place in the whole world that we know of, where the
interests of Jesus are in so much danger as they are in our
own souls. Yet even we must be apostles ; woe unto us if
we are not apostles I We must be serving the souls of
others, even while we have so much to do for our own.
The Gospel is a law of love, and the Christian life is a life
of prayer. As the apostle tells us, we must make inter­
cession for all sorts of men. Indeed, we shall never prosper
with the work in our own souls, if we do not strive to
advance the interests of Jesus in the souls of others.
Many persons complain that they make no way in religion,
and that they do not get on with the mortification of their
evil passions, their sinful infirmities, and their tiresome
self-love. They are just where they were a year ago, and
that is disheartening. This often comes to pass, because
they are selfish, because they only care to stand by them­
selves. They do not think they have anything to do with
the souls of others, or with the interests of Jesus, or with
intercessory prayer ; and so they keep on a low level, be­
cause they do nothing to merit higher graces. The Con­
fraternity expects other things of us, and teaches us very
differently.
But it is important to remember that the interests of
Jesus do not follow the same rule as the interests of the
world. If we were not to remember this, we should soon be
disheartened at the little good we seem to be doing. The
interests of Jesus aie for the most part invisible interests.
We must take the power of prayer on faith. We shall
never know till the last day all the answers there have
been to our prayers, nor how they have told upon the

24

TUB INTERESTS OB JESUS

Church for hundreds and hundreds of years. I>ook, for
example, at St Stephen’s prayer, when ho was stoned to
death. It obtained the conversion of St. Paul, who was
holding the clothes of Stephen’s murderers. Only think
of all St. Paul has done, and continues to do daily, and
will go on doing till the end of the world ; and all he does
St. Stephen does also, for it is all St. Stephen’s prayer.
So, perhaps somebody asks the prayers of the Confraternity
that obstacles to his vocation to the religious life or the
ecclesiastical state may be removed, and it is granted some
Sunday evening to our prayers. He becomes a priest; he
saves hundreds of souls ; these souls save others, some by
becoming priests themselves, some by becoming nuns, some
by becoming holy fathers and mothers in the world ; and
so the prayer goes on spreading and spreading, and may
very likely be found actually at work in the dead of that
night when all the earth will bo awakened to see our Lord
coming in the east.
Thus you must not look too much to visible fruits and
to public results. What the world calls misfortunes often
turn out to be the good fortune of Jesus. For instance,
a man is suffering a great injustice because he happens to
be a Catholic. You pray for him. The injustice goes on ;
the Protestants outwardly have the best of it, and are as
cruel and triumphant as ever. You fancy your prayer has
not been answered. · There could not be a greater mistake.
Jesus wants to make that man a saint. It is better for
him to be the helpless victim of that injustice. Mean­
while, because of your prayers, Jesus has granted him
additional grace, which he has corresponded to. So that,
actually, for your Pater and Ave he will be higher in
heaven to all eternity than he would have been. There
will be a gem sparkling in his crown that would not else
have been there ; you will see it and admir e it in heaven,

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

15

and you will know it was your Pater and Ave that put it
there. So it is with tho Pope and the Church, and religious
orders, and in fact everything that has to do with Jesus.
His interests do not follow the rules of the world, but the
rules of grace. We must measure them by different mea­
sures, and not use the measures of the world. Our mea­
sures, weights, and coinage must all be of the sanctuary.
Jesus was never so triumphant as when He let Himself
be nailed to the Cross ; yet the silly world thought it had
it all its own way then, and had carried the day com­
pletely. It is of importance that you should bear thia
in mind. It is of faith that God always answers right
prayers, and in a way and to a degree beyond our most
enthusiastic expectations ; but He does not yet let us see
how. We must take it on faith. We are quite sure that
in the long run we shall not be disappointed.

SECTION Vin.
PRAYER ΤΠΕ CHIEF MEANS OF DOING THIS.

We must still say a few words on the way in which it
belongs to us to advance the interests of Jesus. There are
many ways of doing this ; good example, preaching, writing
books, lending good books, arguing gently with people and
persuading them, using your influence where you have any,
and exercising your authority as parents and teachers and
masters. All these ways are good ; and if we truly love
Jesus, we shall never neglect any one of them, according
as opportunity presents, and in keeping with the modest
propriety of our condition and place in life. Members of
the Confraternity may and should use these means as they
can. But the way, the real way, of the Confraternity is
one way, and only one. It is prayer.

26

THE INTERESTS OF JESUS.

People pray very little now-a-days. Indeed it is Bad
to see how little faith men put in prayer. They think
they are to do everything by their own cleverness,
or by bustle, fidget, and activity. They think the same
things which made England a great proud country will
suit the interests of Jesus, and advance His kingdom
upon earth. Everything in these days goes by sight,
not by faith. If Catholics undertake anything, and little
seems to come of it, they are cast down and think it has
come to nought. A mission is given, one soul is saved, or
one sin prevented ; it was a fortnight’s work, and it cost
five pounds one way or another. What a failure 1 Yet
to hinder that one sin from soiling His Father’s glory,
Jesus is ready to come down and be crucified again I If
we cannot publish figures, and show great results, if wo
cannot satisfy the world, or what is called the English
public, that we are doing a great work even in its dis­
cerning eyes, we all set to work to criticise each other,
and sin ; we have public meetings, and sin ; wo gossip,
and sin ; we form angry committees, and sin ; we break
up the work, and sin ; and then everybody writes a letter
to the newspapers, and, as likely as not, sins again ; and
after that we go on as before. We have tried to do a good
work ; and because we tried on natural principles, it has
ended in a number of additional sins. All this is for want
of prayer, and for want of faith in the power of prayer·
So remember—the Confraternity knows nothing of any
way but prayer. We may be sure that, in an unbelieving
age and country, simple-hearted prayer will have great
power with God, and an especial reward. They who
remembered Sion, when others were forgetting her, were
wonderfully remembered by the Lord ; so let us pray in
a nation that is forgetting prayer, and is trusting in itself,
and loaning on an arm of fiesh, and God will be with us

TUB INTERESTS OP JESUS.

r,

ftfi He has never been before, and tbe interests of Jesus
will prosper on tbe earth. The interests of Jesus 1 Would
to God they burned at our hearts all the day long I Life
is short, and we have much to do, but prayer is mighty,
and love stronger than death, and so let us all set to work,
with singing and with joy, angels and men, sinners and
saints, for the interests, the dear interests, the sole intereat·
of Jesus I

( if >

CHAPTER II.

SYMPATHY WITH yESUS.
service of love—Sympathy with Jesus the mark of a saint— Three instinct·,
of saints : i. Eagerness for the glory of God ; 2. Touchiness about
the interests of Jesus ; 3. Anxiety for the salvation of souls.—Story
of St. Giacinta Mariacotti—Example of the three instincts in a
Spanish Jesuit—The six advantages of giving away our indulgences
to the souls in Purgatory.
SECTION I.
SYMPATHY WITH JESUS THE MARK OF A SAINT.

When Jacob in his exile dwelt with Laban, he fell in love
with Rachel, Laban’s daughter, and ho said to her father,
“I will serve thee seven years for Rachel, thy younger
daughter;” and the Holy Scripture adds, “ So Jacob served
seven years for Rachel, and they seemed but a few days,
for the greatness of his love.” Now, do we not often find
life long, and our days to pass heavily Î Is not persever­
ance a weary thing, and does not duty many a time turn
out irksome and uninteresting ? There is such a thing as
wishing life over, because of a holy impatience whereby
we desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Sin, and
the power of sinning, and the chance of sinning, become
intolerable to us, and we pine to bo with God, as one
pines for his absent love. But this is not what I mean.
Life, and especially our spiritual life, often drags on

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

19

heavily for very different reasons It is weary work
to bo always fighting with our evil passions, and dis­
heartening work to make so little way. Temptations
tease us, and scruples worry us, and to be dead, buried,
and safe in Purgatory, seems the limit of our peevish
ambition. Why is this 1 Because we do not serve Jesus
for love. If we did, it would be with us as it was with
Jacob. Years would seem but days, for the greatness of
our love. Now let us see if it is, after all, so impossible
for us to serve our dear· Lord out of love.
We have laid it down as a rule, that the business of
our Confraternity is to further the interests of Jesus,
and that the especial way to further them is by prayer.
Now, the very fact that we have chosen prayer as our
especial way shows us something more. It is possible
to serve God, and so to do something for the interests of
Jesus, in a stiff, dry, awkward way; just as we can do
another a favour ungracefully, and as if it was an annoy­
ance, only we cannot very well help ourselves. But it
is not possible to serve God by prayer, or to advance
the interests of Jesus by prayer, in this dry and unaffcctionate way. Prayer with no heart in it is not prayer
at all ; it is either irreverence or distraction. Thus,
you see, the Confraternity binds us in a sort of way to
serve Jesus out of love, and as we are veiy fond of our
Confraternity, and wish it to prosper, this is another
reason why we should see whether· we cannot serve Jesus
out of love. If only one of you could be persuaded to
do this, what joy would there be in heaven, what delight
to Mary, what consolation to the Sacred Heart of Jesus !
One more soul in the world that is serving Him for
love !
Dear Lord I it is worth a thousand years of
penance to obtain for Him this consolation I The coloured
sunsets and the starry heavens, the beautiful mountains

JO

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

and the shining sens, the fragrant woods and the pain tai
flowers, they are not half so beautiful as a soul that is
serving Jesus out of love, in the wear and tear of common
unpoetic life.
Every one would wish to be a Saint. This surely is
true. They would wish to love God as much as the Saints
did, and to have always that abounding and overflowing
joy which the Saints had, and to go straight to heaven
without any delay in Purgatory; and to be high up in
heaven because of their exceeding love. We may know
that we are very far indeed from being Saints, and we
may fear there is very little chance of our ever becoming
Saints. We may have no heart for their great austerities
and bodily mortifications, no courage for their valiant
detachment from the world, no supernatural appetite for
crosses and sufferings such as they had. Still, for all this,
who would not wish to be a Saint, if he could ?
Now I am not going to bring before you any very hard
duties, much less any severe austerities. I do not want
to drive you beyond your grace, but I wish you to observe
this. Look at all the Saints in all ages, no matter what
their history may be, or their lot in life. You will find
when you compare them one with another, that it was not
their austerities that made them Saints. They differ very
much from one another ; yet after all they are very like.
Some have worked miracles all their lives long, like St.
Joseph of Cupertino, the Franciscan; and some hardly
worked any at all, as was the case with St. Vincent
of Paul ; and as to St. John the Baptist, of whom our
Lord said such maiwellous things, he never worked a
single miracle.
Some Saints have practised dreadful
austerities, like St. Rose of Lima ; others have contented
themselves with taking God’s will as it came in thoir
way, and mortified their wills; this was the case with St

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

3i

Francis of Sales. But whether they did miracles or not,
whether they practised bodily penances in excess or not,
still they have a peculiar character of their own. They
have certain tastes and inclinations, by which we could
always know them if we met them. The delightful thing
is, that their chief peculiarities as Saints lie close to our
own doors ; and we can make them our own without
wonderful miracles or frightening penances.
We do not mean to say we can easily be equal to the
Saints. No 1 no ! but what we say is, that the ways in
which they loved God and served the interests of Jesus,
and the tastes which made them so dear to the Sacred
Heart, are quite easily in our power, if we choose to
adopt them. Nay, they will be ours at once, if we are
only fervent members of the Confraternity. In a word,
whilst the Saints differ in almost everything else, there
are three things in which they all agree; and these are,
i. Eagerness for the glory of God; 2. Touchiness about
the interests of Jesus; and 3. Anxiety for the salvation
of souls.
But, before I say something about each of these three
things, I must prevent your misunderstanding me. I
should not wish anything I have said to make any one of
you despair of being Saints before you die. However little
the chance may be, I should not like to have hindered a
Saint ; it would be anything but advancing the dear
interests of Jesus, which is the sole object of this little
treatise. So you must let me tell you something of one
of the Saints, St. Giacinta Mariscotti, who was canonised
by Pius VII. in 1807. She was an Italian lady, and her
distinguishing characteristic as a girl was a great love of
fine clothes and gay ornaments. Her father and mother
sont her to a convent to be educated; but all the time
she was there she would occupy herself with nothing but

p

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

the foolish frivolities of the world.
All her girlhood
passed away in dissipation.
Then she wanted to get
married, and because her sister made a good match, and
she none, she was filled with spite and envy. Iler temper
was completely soured, and she became so disagreeable
that people could not bear to go near her.
Her father foolishly, or worse than foolishly, wished
her to become a nun ; and although sho felt no vocation
at all, she thought she might as well do that as anything
else; and so she entered a convent of the third order of
St. Francis in Viterbo. Neither her taste nor her character
changed ; the convent seems to have been as lax as lax
could be, and she did just what she pleased. Good St.
Alphonso used to say that it was easier for a soul to be
saved in the gaieties of the world than in a relaxed
religious order; and few men have had such experience
of those matters as he.
The first thing our Saint did was, out of her own money,
to build a grand room for herself. Sho furnished it in
first-rate style, and decorated it, her biographer says, quite
sumptuously. She neglected the rule, and such parts of
it as sho chose to keep, sho kept, as may be supposed, in
a very lukewarm and unsatisfactory way. She became
more and more eaten up with vanity, and thought of
nothing but herself all the day long. Queer training for
a saint I In this way she lived nearly ton years. God
then sent her a sovero illness. Sho called for the Fran­
ciscan monk who was the confessor of the convent; but
when he beheld the magnificent furniture of her room ho
refused to hear her confession, and told her paradise was
never meant for such as she was. “ What I ” she cried,
“ and shall I not be saved 1 ” He told her the only chance
was to beg pardon of God, to repair the scandal sho had
given, and to begin a new life. She burst into tears, and

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

33

descending to the refectory, where all the nuns were
assembled at the time, she prostrated herself before them,
and begged forgiveness for the scandal she had given.
Yet for all this, no great change, or, at least, no heroic
change, took place. She did not give up her fine things
to the Superioress; but she gradually, quite gradually,
improved in her way of life. Again and again it was
necessary for God to send her illnesses, that she might at
length give herself wholly up to grace ; and at last, remorse
of conscience succeeded in its work, by gentle pertinacity
sank deeper and deeper, till it lost itself in love, and she
became a Saint.
Now this is a consoling history. We are too apt to think
that Saints are people who have been extraordinary from
their cradle upwards, who, by special grace, have never
lost their baptismal innocence, and have hardly felt the
rebellion of evil passions, and certainly have not known
the worst of all struggles, the fight with old sinful habits.
Or, if this be not the case, then we think of them as
persons in whose behalf God has interfered in an extra­
ordinary way, as in the conversion of St. Paul and of St.
Ignatius. So we think it is out of all question our becom­
ing Saints. But this story of St. Giacinta gives us quite
a different view; years of lukewarmness, venial sin, and
unworthy vanity are succeeded by a half-and-half conversion,
followed up by some other little conversions afterwards,
just as it may have been with so many of us.
See how this history illustrates an excellent and consoling
remark of Father Baker’s (Sancta Sophia, i. 175): “How­
ever, as for souls that for external respects have embraced
a religious life, let them not, therefore, in a desperate
humour conclude that no good can come to them by it so
unworthily undertaken ; but rather hope that, by a special
providence of God, they were, even against their own in·
0

34

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

tentions and wills, brought into a course of life, to which
if, however, afterward they will duly correspond, it will
prove an infinite blessing unto them. For such ofttimes
have proved great Saints, after that God gave them light
to see their perverse intentions, and grace to rectify them ;
by which means they, beginning in the flesh, have ended in
the spirit.’’ In religious houses, or in the ecclesiastic.-il
state, or even in a devout life in the world, how many of
us may take heart from these words, and this example, to
make a fresh beginning, even though we may have begun
and begun a score of times already I All we want now is
the likeness of S. Giacinta's later years.
But how shall we reach to Giacinta’s later years quietly
and easily Î By cultivating the three characteristics of the
Saints mentioned before—eagerness for the glory of God,
touchiness about the interests of Jesus, and anxiety for the
salvation of souls ; for in these three things sympathy with
Jesus consists, and sympathy is at once the fruit and food
of love, and love is sanctity, and a Saint is simply one who
loves Jesus above the common run of pious men, and has
had unusual gifts given him in return.

SECTION II.
THE INSTINCTS OF THE SAINTS—EAGERNESS FOR THE

GLORY OF GOD.

i. Eagerness for the glory of God. It is the first and
fundamental truth of religion, that we are here in the
world for no other end than to glorify God by the salva­
tion of our souls. This is our single purpose, our one work ;
all else is beside the mark. All other creatures either
help us or hinder us in this one work, and must be dealt
with accordingly. From this first principle, and by the

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

35

two precepts of love of God and love of our neighbour, we
reach the duty of seeking the glory of God in the salvation
of our neighbour’s soul as well as of our own. Now, it is
plain that if we love God we shall be eager for His glory,
and the more we love Hirn the more eager we shall be.
What we have set our hearts upon we are sure to follow
out hotly and perseverin gly. When, then, a man comes
to love God devoutly, he becomes what we call a man of
one idea. He looks at everything from one point of view.
He considers trades and professions as so many necessary
evils, as distracting him from his one work. He is seeking
everywhere and in everything the glory of God. It is his
last thought at night, his first on waking. If he obtains
any power, authority, or influence, his first impulse is, How
shall I use this to the glory of God ? If a calamity befalls
him, this is the first question he asks of himself. If a sum
of money is left him, this is the first idea it suggests to
his mind. He interests himself about the Church and the
poor, about education and crime, because these matters are
full to overflowing of God’s glory. For instance, a man of
the world looks at the immense system of railways and
steam navigation, which now covers the earth as with a
net. He calculates its probable effect on governments,
popular rights, science, literature, commerce, civilisation.
The problem fascinates him. The man of God looks on the
same thing, and thinks how it will forward missionary
enterprise, how it will bring Catholics together, how it will
facilitate communication with the Holy See, which is the
freedom of the Church, and how in these, and many like
ways, God will have glory out of it all. When a man’s
mind is engrossed in politics, whether in the government
or the opposition, everything that happens comes before
him simply with reference to his one absorbing interest
The state of the crops, the chance of a bad harvest, our

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

foreign relations, internal discontent, strikes of workmen,
papal bulls—his view of them is, How will they affect the
political party with which I am acting I So it is with the
man who loves God. His one view of everything, however
unlikely, has to do with the glory of God. I do not mean
to say that he is always thinking of it with an actual and
present intention. That would be almost impossible, almost
beyond the condition of man. But I mean that it is his
most frequent thought, and that he recurs to it ever and
again, as a man does to something he loves affectionately
and desires intensely.
Now this is not very hard. There is no austerity in it
We can begin it quietly, take it easily at first, and then
let it grow upon us, just as habits will grow. We might
make a little prayer to God every morning for love to seek
His glory, and for light to find it all day long. We might
renew our intention twice a day to seek His glory. We
might ask it in Communion, and at the end of our rosaries,
and in our examination of conscience. If we often forget
it, never mind ; it will come by use ; and God Himself will
begin to help us wonderfully when we have persevered for
a few months in the practice. But not before, remember ;
for this is His way, to wait awhile, and see if we per­
severe, though He is really helping us all the time, or else
we never could persevere ; only He will help us in another
way later on. This is not hard ; yet it would bring us up
many miles nearer the saints, and what interests of Jesus
would it not advance by the time a year has gone round I

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

17

SECTION in.
TOUCHINESS ABOUT THE IN IEBE8TS OP JE8U8.

2. Touchiness about the interests of Jesus. I use this
word purposely, because it so exactly expresses my meaning,
and I do not know any other word which expresses it so
well. We know perfectly what it is to be touchy about
our own interests, or the interests of those who are near
and dear to us. We fire up at the hint or suspicion of an
attack. We are always on the look out with a watchful
jealousy, as if everybody we met had a design upon us.
We are quick to complain, and quick to discern. Some­
times, if we do not take care, we judge others censoriously,
or we lose our temper and speak rudely. Now, apply all
this to the interests of Jesus, and you will get a very fail
idea of what it is to be a Saint. Yet even good people do
not understand it, and condemn it as extravagance and
indiscretion, simply because they do not know what it is
to serve God with a service of love. A man who is thus
touchy about the interests of Jesus, hears of some scandal,
and it makes him perfectly miserable. He broods over it
day and night ; he talks querulously about it ; it takes the
sunshine out of his life for the time being. His friends
cannot conceive why he should make so much of it, or take
it so to heart. It is no affair of his, and there is no blame
attaching to him in the matter. They are ready to accuse
him of affectation ; but they do not see that all his love is
for Jesus, and that it is positive pain to him that his dear
Lord’s interests should be injured. They could fret for a
month over being vexatiously entangled in a spiteful and
unjust lawsuit; but what is that to the least hindrance
thrown in the way of the interests of Jesus Î Surely a

38

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

man who does not see this must have something the matter
with his Christian eyesight.
Another way in which this touchiness about the interests
of Jesus is shown, is in the delicate perception and keen
abomination of heresy and false doctrine. The purity of
the true faith is one of the very dearest interests of Jesus ;
and, consequently, one who truly loves his Lord and
Master is pained beyond the power of words by the
expression of false doctrine, especially among Catholics.
Opinions about our Lord’s ignorance, or in depreciation
of His grace, or in derogation of His Mother’s honour,
or lowering the Sacraments, or dishonouring ever so little
the prerogatives of His Vicar upon earth—these things,
merely in passing conversation, sting him so that he feels
even bodily suffering from them. Unreflecting people are
almost scandalised at this ; but it is only because they
cannot appreciate in spiritual things a delicacy and a
sensitiveness which would come almost natural to them
in worldly things. Thus you will not find a single Saint
who has not cherished this pain of love in his heart of
hearts, this inability to endure the sound of heresy or
false doctrine ; and where this is not, then, as sure as the
sun is in the heavens, the love of Jesus is but poor and
weak in the heart of man.
The same touchiness may be shown, as occasion requires,
about all the interests of Jesus mentioned in the last
chapter. One remark, however, must be made. It will
often happen when a man’s love of our Lord is beyond the
formed habits of virtue he may have at the moment, that he
is indiscreet, or impatient, or rude, or bitter. He suspects
where there is no ground for suspicion, and he does not
bear with the slowness or coldness of others, as he would
do if the habit of charity were more perfectly formed in
him. This often brings discredit on devotion ; for there

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

39

are no persons judged with more unfeeling rigour than
those who make profession of a devout life. But they
must have their faults and imperfections ; they must have
the less lovely stages of the spiritual life to pass through ;
and it must be their consolation that many a time when
men blame them, Jesus does not; and the very imper­
fections of their young love are dear to Him, while the
sago criticism and pompous moderation of their censors
are hateful in His eyes.
Now, it would not be hard to cultivate this touchiness
about the interests of Jesus ; and yet it is one of the
chief instincts of the Saints. Is it not worth while trying 1
Can there be a pleasure in life so great as loving Jesus
and serving Him for love 1 We may begin to-day : there
is no hardship in it ; no sudden or violent change which
we need to make in our lives ; we have only got to think
a little more about love, and to ask for more love, and then
we are fairly on the road. Without any tie or obligation,
the Confraternity enables us to start at once.

SECTION IV.
ANXIETY FOR THE SALVATION OF SOULS.

3. Anxiety for the salvation of souls. This is the third
and last instinct of the Saints which puts us in sympathy
with Jesus. The world, and the material interests of the
world, are all against us. They cairy us away. What we
see is so much more impressive than what we believe.
Yet Jesus came into the world for the saving of souls ;
Ho died for them ; He shed His Precious Blood for them.
In proportion as souls are saved, His interests prosper;
in proportion as they are lost, His interests as the Saviour
of souls are injured. The soul is the only thing worth

40

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

caring for. Only think what it is to be lost, lost eternally I
Who can fathom the horror of it? Who can rightly
picture to himself the utterness of the ruin, the breadth
of the wretchedness, the unendurableness of the torture,
the helpless wildness of the despair ? Yet St. Teresa saw
the souls of men flocking daily through the doors of hell,
like the showers of dry leaves which the wind drives about
in autumn. Jesus hung His three hours upon the Cross
for every one of those lost souls 1 They might all have
been now gleaming bright and beautiful in the courts of
heaven I They loved us, perhaps, and we loved them, and
there was much to love in them I Generous, kind, un­
selfish, they once were ; but they loved the world, and were
ruled by their own passions, and, though they hardly
thought of it, they crucified our Lord afresh ; and now they
are lost—lost eternally I
What wonder His servants should yearn for those over
whom Jesus yearned Himself ? Thus it is they are always
alert about missions, schools, religious orders, retreats,
indulgences, and jubilees. They are full of plans, or, if
not of plans, at least of prayers. They care for little else
but souls. They sacrifice all for souls. No matter· what
rebuffs they meet with, what disappointments they find,
or into what mistakes they fall at first, they are all for
souls. They begin afresh every day to plan and plot for
souls. They are not cast down because they do not see
clearly there will be money or men to go on with all the
good works they plan ; but their consolation is, that all
work for souls is complete work by itself, and for as long
as it lasts; because all dispensing of grace and of the
Precious Blood is a desirable and blessed thing in itself.
Hence the Church, the mother of souls, encourages the
temporary stimulants of retreats, missions, and jubilees;
because all these things are complete by themselves and

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

41

for the time. While some talk and take views, and criticise,
and despond, and weaken the hands and hearts of others,
those who love Jesus work on in simplicity, not thinking of
the morrow.
Volumes might be written about this passion for souls.
It must come where there is a true love of Jesus. It is
not the rule for Peter only, but for all who love ;—When
thou art converted, confirm thy brethren, and, Lovest
thou Me more than these? Feed my sheep. For have
not we, each of us, many little ways by which we can
help in the saving of souls? And, in intercession, at
least, is not the whole Church open to the genial and
immense influence of our prayers, as much as it is to the
Pope himself ?
The Saints, then, are made up chiefly of these three
thing :—eagerness for the glory of God—touchiness about
the interests of Jesus—and anxiety for the salvation of
souls. These three things make a most beautiful and
angelic character, and go further than anything else to
assure us of our predestination. They are the three things
which the Confraternity helps to form in us. Yet we
have seen how easy they are, if only we will learn to love
Jesus, and to serve Him for love. There is neither sex,
nor age, nor station, which is not equally convenient for
the practice of these three things. Yet what a difference
it would make in the world if a few people would take
them up seriously, and carry them out quietly, in daily
life and in daily prayer.
When a man dies in England, his friends often say of
him, in praise of his diligence, energy, and concentration :
—Well, he lived simply to carry through that important
line of railway ; or—his only object was to extort from
the government a more scientific education for the people ;
or—he devoted himself to the cause of Free-trade ; or—he

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

was a martyr to his exertions in hehalf of Protection. It
was his one idea; it grew with his growth ; he could think
of nothing else; he spared neither time nor expense to
advance ever so little his favourite cause, and the interest
which he had wedded ; it was his monomania. He did his
work in his day, and he did it well, because he was heart
and soul in it; and the world is in debt to him for it
Now, why should it not be said of us :—Well, he is gone ;
he was a man of one idea ; he cared for nothing but that
God’s kingdom should come, and His will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. He was eaten up with this ; waking
or sleeping it was always upon him ; nothing daunted him;
he spared neither time nor expense for his hobby ; and
when neither time nor money were at his disposal, he
besieged heaven with prayers. He took no interest in
anything else ; it was meat and drink to him, and it quite
mastered him ; and now he is gone. Yes I he is gone ; but
whereas the other man left behind him his railway and his
cheap bread, our friend has taken all his love, and pains,
and prayers away with him to the judgment-seat of Jesus;
and what they have done for him there eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, nor man’s heart conceived.
Now, do think of these three things, these easy instincts
of the Saints, this serving Jesus out of love. Would you
like to see how they work in a good man's heart even in
very little matters Î There was an old Spanish Jesuit, who
could not for the life of him make up his mind whether it
was better to gain an indulgence for the soul in Purgatory
that was most neglected and forgotten, or for the soul that
was nearest to its release and entrance into glory. There
was a puzzle ; both were sweet acts of charity, but which
was the sweetest Î which would Jesus most approve Î He
was such a kind-hearted man, that good Father, that he
inclined very much to the poor neglected soul, just because

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

4J

it was no neglected : it went to his heart to pass over that
forgotten soul. But at last he decided in favour of the
other; and now see the reasons. Although it seems the
greater mercy to offer it for the other soul, because it is
most in want, seeing that it is in greater misery ; notwith­
standing, charity is a greater virtue than mercy, and it is
a greater act of charity to offer the indulgence for the soul
that was most just and loved God most, looking simply to
the greater glory of the Divine Majesty as the Creator of
that soul ; for it is nearest to its entry into heaven, where
it will at once begin to glorify God immensely by its
praises and its bliss. Here was eagerness for the glory of
God. Again, the soul is not properly the full conquest of
Jesus till it is safely landed in heaven, and our dear
Redeemer presents it to the Eternal Father as a trophy of
His Sacred Passion ; and was it not better to keep the
poor neglected soul waiting in Purgatory than to keep
Jesus waiting in heaven ? Moreover, all this sadness about
passing over the forgotten soul, would it not influence
Jesus, and something would be done for that poor soul!
Here was touchiness about the interests of Jesus. Further­
more, thought our good old Jesuit, the sooner this soul,
that is so near heaven, gets into heaven, the sooner will
it begin to gain all manner of graces from God for my
soul, and for the souls of sinners upon earth. Here was
anxiety for the salvation of souls. So away went the
indulgence to the soul that was nearest its release, not
without a very fervent sigh, and a very wistful look to
Mary, and a comfortable suspicion that Jesus would do
something extra for the poor forgotten soul.
The decision of the good Father seems to have high
authority ; for among the revelations made to Sister
Francesca of the Blessed Sacrament, a Spanish Teresian
nun, it was told her that immense numbers of souls issued

44

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

from Purgatory on the evening of All Soule’ Day ; and
that they were mostly those who were near to glory, among
whom God distributed the suffrages of the Universal
Church on that day.
*
Yet on the other hand, we know
that St. Vincent of Paul’s special devotion was to the most
destitute soult But then, destitute souls were his line ;
he was their property and possession.
The Jesuit had been carefully taught that he was to
have a reason for everything he did. I do not say you are
bound to be so particular ; but, anyhow, it shows how our
three things can insinuate themselves into a pious mind, and
influence his minutest actions and most secret devotions.
This is the simple object of this treatise : I want to collect
for you from the lives of the Saints and the works of spiri­
tual writers a number of easy and interesting practices,
which will help you to form these three things in your
souls, so as to be advancing the interests of our deal· Lord
every hour of your lives, and yet all the while, in the
pleasantest manner possible, becoming something like
Saints yourselves.
You can take your choice of these practices. None of
them are of any obligation. All is free. You are not even
bound to choose, if you choose at all, the highest, best, and
most perfect ; for it is quite possible such would not be
best for you. Take what is most to your taste ; there is
no need to turn your devotions into mortifications. This
is one of the uncatholic notions converts should take pains
to drive out of their heads. It sounds fine, but it works
ill ; and it ends in carelessness and lax ways. I want to
beguile you into serving Jesus out of love, and so I want
you to enjoy yourselves and follow your bent in your
devotions. This is what Mother Juliana of Norwich is
always telling us in her exquisite Revelations.
• Vit. 171.

+ Peint par sea Eorit·, p. 258.

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

«

SECTION V.

T88 BIX ADVANTAGES OF GIVING OUR INDULGENCES TO TUB
SOULS IN PURGATORY.

Before concluding this chapter, I am so anxious to get
your minds full of the principles I have been laying down,
that I will finish by illustrating them in a question
familiar to you all. Some people, you know, give all their
indulgences to the souls in Purgatory ; others keep them
all to themselves ; and one party has no right to interfere
with the other. What business has any one to say we are
not free to do what the Church says we are free to dol
Nevertheless, I am going to take a side in this matter for
the moment ; it will throw great light on the three things
I am advocating ; and I shall keep strictly to what theo­
logians and spiritual writers have said.
Grace is such a great thing that we ought to try to
increase it in all possible ways ; and there are few ways
in which we can increase it more rapidly than by turning
satisfaction into merit. This is done by gaining indul­
gences for the souls in Purgatory. By this devotion we
acquire great spiritual treasures, and it is acceptable to God
while it is profitable to ourselves. Let us run through
some of the fruits of this devotion, so as to animate our­
selves to be more liberal towards these daughters of God
and spouses of the Holy Ghost, to assist them with prayers,
and with the satisfaction of our good works, offering it all
for them without fearing that we shall thereby lose any of
it. In truth he will gain immensely who shall not reserve
to himself any part of his satisfaction, or any of his indul­
gences, but shall offer them all for the holy spouses of our
dear Redeemer who are detained in those terrible pains.

46

SYMPA THY WITH JESUS.

The first fruit of this devotion is the great increase of
our merits : for, of the three things which the good works
of the just include, merit, impétration, and satisfaction, the
greatest of all is merit; inasmuch as by it we become
more acceptable to God, and more His friends, receiving
greater grace, and so acquiring a new title to greater
glory. Doubtless, then, if a man could turn all the satis­
faction of his good works into so much fresh merit, over
and above the merit which was there before, he would be
a gainer by it, and for this reason :—the glory of the
Blessed is without comparison a greater good than the
pains of Purgatory are an evil ; and so the right to greater
glory is a better thing than the right to less pain. He
then who offers the satisfaction of his good works and his
indulgences for the soul in Purgatory, does just this :—he
converts his satisfaction into merit. In this charity there
is an heroic act of great virtue, through which he will
acquire eternal life by means of that satisfaction turned
into merits which is no help at all as simple satisfaction
towards eternal life. As satisfaction, it would not have
helped him one iota to that, but he makes it do so by
turning it into merit, and at the same time helping others.
Now this deserves reflection; for, besides the fact that
glory is a greater good than Purgatory is an evil, we must
remember that the increase of glory is a thing which if)
eternal, whereas the lightening of Purgatory is only tem­
poral, for Purgatory itself is merely temporal ; so that the
distance between the increase of glory and the lightening
of Purgatory is as good as infinite. Yet to enjoy eternal
goods, even in the very lowest degree, would be cheaply
purchased by the endurance of the greatest temporal evils.
We must add to this, that we ought in all things to do
that which is most pleasing in the sight of God, not seek­
ing our own interest or convenience, but His greater good­

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

47

pleasure. To please God is a better thing than to avoid
suffering; yet a man, who keeps his satisfaction and
indulgences to himself, does so from a desire of avoiding
suffering ; whereas, he who offers them all for the souls
in Purgatory thereby makes himself dearer to God, by
a refinement of love in this heroic exercise of mercy and
charity, which he was not bound to, but does out of the
sweet freedom of his own will.
The suffering of the holy souls is without any gain or
profit to themselves, whereby they can increase their
merits, and so long as they are detained in Purgatory, so
long is the heavenly Jerusalem deprived of her citizens,
and the Church upon earth of new protectors and advocates
with God. Hence comes another fruit of this devotion.
The soul that we release from Purgatory is laid under a
particular obligation to us, both because of the singular
benefit it receives from entering all the sooner into glory,
and also because of the tremendous sufferings from which
it is delivered. Thus it is bound to obtain for its bene­
factors perpetual graces and blessings from God. The
blessed know that the good they have received is infinite,
and, being most grateful, they strive to show gratitude
proportionate to the greatness of their enjoyment Thus
he who gives his indulgences to the holy souls will have so
many agents in the court of heaven to look after his eter­
nal interests ; and it is a greater good for a man to secure
his salvation in this life through the graces obtained for
him by this multitude of heavenly protectors, than to avoid
the risk of being somewhat longer in Purgatory, because
he has given away his satisfactions and indulgences. But
we gain more than the friendship of the souls we deliver;
we gain the love of their guardian angels, and of the Saints
to whom those souls were specially devoted ; and we become
also more dear to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, because of

4»

SYMPA THY WITH JESUS.

His pleasure at the release of His dear spouses, and their
entry into His celestial joy.
But there is a third fruit of this devotion which is very
much to our purpose. It is a great thing to have some one
in heaven who shall love, praise, and glorify God on our
behalf. He who loves God fervently and tenderly can
never rest without doing all he can that the infinite
Majesty of God should be exalted and glorified. Yet, with
all the miseries and sins of this life, we cannot magnify
and adore that mast dear Majesty, as the blessed can in
heaven. How great, then, the joy and consolation to think
that others, whom we have released from Purgatory, are
doing this great work for us in heaven, and that while
we are still here, they have begun their praise already !
Surely there can be no soul that has been fortunate
enough to reach Purgatory, which is not holier than ours,
and more fitted to glorify God. But if so, then have we
ourselves already put one in heaven who shall give God
greater glory than we should do if we were there ourselves.
While we are eating, drinking, sleeping, toiling, here on
earth,—there in heaven,—refreshing thought I most solid
consolation I—is the unsleeping soul, or, please God, the
many unsleeping souls, whom we have hastened thither,
worshipping and exalting the beautiful Majesty of the
Most High, unspeakably, incessantly.
This is not all : there is a fourth fruit of this generous
devotion. We not only gain invaluable treasures for our­
selves, but for others also ; for we cause great joy in the
Church, both militant and triumphant Great is the feast
in heaven as the number of its citizens is increased ; for, if
there is joy there over one sinner who does penance, and
yet he can return to his sin again, what must the joy be
over that new citizen who can sin no more Î Its guardian
angel, too, rejoices and receives a thousand congratulatione

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

49

from the celestial spirits at the successful issue of his
guardianship. There is joy also among the saints to whom
the soul was specially devoted, and among his relatives and
friends, and in the angelic choir to which he is aggregated.
Our Lady, too, rejoices at the success of her multiplied
intercessions ; while Jesus reaps the harvest of His Pre­
cious Blood with love and with rejoicing. The Holy Ghost
vouchsafes to joy over the triumph of His gifts and count­
less inspirations; and the Eternal Father vouchsafes to
take pleasure in the perfection of His chosen creature,
whom He has borne with so long and so compassionately.
Neither is the Church Militant less interested in this joy.
It has gained a new advocate. The relatives, friends,
family, community, country, of that soul have especial
reason to rejoice. Nay, all the predestinated, and indeed
all nature, have cause of joy that another creature has
entered into the joy of its Creator.
But there is a fifth fruit of this devotion. Love brooks
no delay. Shall a treasure that can do wonders for the
glory of God and the interests of Jesus stand idle, it may
be, for years Î At present we may be in no want of our
satisfactions and our indulgences. Indeed if they go into
the treasury of the Church, who knows how many years
may elapse before they are used, even if De Lugo’s theory
be true, that all the satisfactions of the Saints will cer­
tainly be used before the day of judgment!
*
Shall not
this tiilent then be used fox· God at once, by at onoe
releasing souls from Purgatory, who may begin, perhaps
this very night, their sweet sacrifice of everlasting
praise Î
• The doctrine of this passage, as it stood in the first edition, was based
on a doubtful passage of Nieremberg, “ Avarizia Santa," cap. 37. It has
now been corrected by the doctrine of De Lugo, De Sac. Pœnit. Disp.

S®

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

Nay, last of all, what we are giving away comes back to
us most abundantly, and this is the sixth fruit of this devo­
tion. First of all, in this very act of such great charity
and generosity, there is satisfaction for our sins; for, if
alms given to relieve bodily wants satisfy above most other
good works, what will not spiritual alms do ? Secondly, he
who loses anything for the glory of God receives at last an
hundredfold ; and He will either give us such grace as
that we shall need little Purgatory, or He will inspire
others to pray for us when we are there, so that if we had
kept our indulgences to ourselves, we might have been long
in those fires ; whereas, if God sets many to gain indul­
gences for us, we shall enter much sooner into glory. It is
an axiom that no one loses who loses for God. Also, when
we are in Purgatory, the Blessed, who by our means went
sooner into heaven, will look upon us as their benefactors,
and on our release as a debt of justice. Nay, it is not
they only who will acknowledge the debt, but our dear
Lord also.
Thus to give all our satisfactions and indulgences to the
souls in Purgatory is so far from being contrary to the right
order of charity, that it is our best interest to do so. It is
a devotion quite teeming with God’s glory, and the manifold
interests of Jesus, and the love of souls ; and it embraces at
once the Church Militant, the Church Suffering, and the
Church Triumphant. T^et us bless God that He has in His
mysterious liberality allowed us this inestimable favour of
doing what we will with our satisfactions and indulgences ;
so that, being our own, and at our free disposal, we may
rejoice our hearts in thus employing them to His greater
glory and sweeter praise.
See how far some have gone, whose praise is in all the
churches. Father Ferdinand de Monroy, a most apostolic
man, at the hour of death, made in writing a donation and

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

jt

transfer to the souls in Purgatory of all the masses that
should be said for him after he was dead, of all the penances
offered up foi' him, and all the indulgences gained for him.
He might well make the donation, for little need of such
things had one who loved God so tenderly, and had wedded
the interests of Jesus so utterly, as this very action shows
he must have done. “ Love is strong as death : many
waters cannot quench charity, neither can the floods drown
it ; if a man should give all the substance of his house for
love, he shall despise it as nothing.” *
Now you see exactly what it is I want of you. You must
serve Jesus in some way or other ; else you would not save
your souL You are absolutely dependent upon Him. You
cannot do without His Faith, His Life, His Death, His
Blood, His Church, His Sacraments. You cannot take a
step towards heaven but by Him. Nothing that you think,
or do, or say, is worth anything until His worth has touched
it. Dependence cannot be conceived more utter and abso­
lute, nor more incessant and indispensable, than is your
dependence upon Him. Thus, in some way or other, you
must serve Jesus. The question is whether it is not best
to serve Him out of love. But has your religion been a
service of love hitherto! Or have you doled out your
duties to Him, as a poor man pays a debt to a rich creditor,
looking him in the face between each shilling to see if he
really intends to forget his poverty, and take the full amount
of his debt! Has not the problem been to find out the
least which you must do to gain heaven! Weighing
commandments, clipping precepts, interpreting rules, beg
ging dispensations—is not this the kind of thing you
have called your religion, your worship of an Incarnate
• Cant. viii. 6. 7.—The “ Heroic Act ” of the Theatine· has been
approved by Pius IX., and all its indulgences confirmed. The form is to
be had in Bnglish at Messrs. Burns and Oates.

ja

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

God, beside Himself with love, and hanging bleeding on a
Cross I
Now, I maintain that to serve Jesus out of love is so
much easier than all this. Nothing is easy, which does not
make us happy while we are doing it. Have you been happy
in your religion Î Far from it 1 It has been a simple
burden to you. If it had not been for heaven and hell, you
would have made short work of it long since. But heaven
and hell are facts : there they are : and there is no help for
us. As, then, we must be religious, I am for a happy reli­
gion. I see no use in an unhappy one, if God gives me my
choice. But He has done more than that. He wishes me
to be happy in my religion. Nay, He wishes my religion
to be the happiness and sunshine of my life. Now a happy
religion means a religion of love. Everything comes easy
to love. Thus I am dependent for my happiness on no one
but Jesus. My religion makes me happy all the day long
If serving Jesus out of love were some prodigiously difficult
thing, like the contemplation of the Saints, or their austeri­
ties, then it would be another matter. But the fact is, it
is nothing of the kind. To serve God because you are afraid
of going to hell, and wish to go to heaven, is a great
blessing and a supernatural work ; but it is very difficult.
Whereas, to serve God because you love Him is so easy that
it is hard to account for so many men in the world neglect­
ing to do it. Stupid souls, so miraculously blind I
But it is a further blessing, that what makes you happy
makes our dearest Lord happy also; and the thought of
this again makes us so happy that we can hardly contain
ourselves, and then that again makes Him happier still
Thus religion grows sweeter and sweeter. Life is one long
joy, because the Will of God is always being done in it, and
the glory of God always being got from it. You become
identified with the interests of Jesus; you wed them as if

SYMPATHY WITH JESUS.

53

they were your own, as indeed they are. His Spirit steals
into you, and sets up a little throne in your heart, and
crowns itself, and then most sweetly proclaims itself king.
It gained the crown by a dear conspiracy; you never
suspected what divine love was about all the while. But so
it is. God's glory becomes dear to you ; you become quite
touchy about our Lord, for He is become the apple of your
eye ; and you are drawn to save souls, because it is what
He is always doing, and so you get an instinct and a taste
for it yourself. So it all goes on; and so you live; yet
not you, but Christ lives in you ; and so you die. You
never suspect you are a Saint, or anything approaching one
Your life is hid with Christ in God, and hid from no one
mono than from yourself. You a Saint indeed ! Your
humility would either laugh, or be frightened, at the bare
thought. But, oh the depth of the mercies of Jesus 1
What will be your surprise at His judgment-seat, to hear
the sweet sentence, to see the bright crown I You will
almost argue against your own salvation 1 Our Lord makes
the elect do so in the Gospel : Lord, when saw we Thee
hungry, and fed Thee ? When saw we Thee thirsty, and
gave Thee drink Î They cannot make it out. In all their
love for Jesus, they never dreamed it was so great a thing
as this. Only serve Jesus out of love 1 You cannot beat
God in the strife of love I Only serve Jesus out of love,
and while your eyes are yet unclosed, before the whiteness
of death is yet settled on your face, or those around you
are sure that that last gentle breathing was indeed your
last, what an unspeakable surprise will you have had at the
judgment-seat of your dearest Love, while the songs of
heaven are breaking on your ears, and the glory of God is
dawning on your eyes, to fade away no more for ever I

( 54 ‘

CHAPTER III.
LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.
God our Father m well as our Creator—This brings us to love of co··
placency, and so to love of condolence—Sorrow for other men's sins
—Various revelations to the saints about this—Special office of nuns
—Examples of the saints—Methods of practising this sorrow: i.
Meditation on God's glory ; 2. St. Bernard’s way ; 3. Way of
Balthasar Alvaraz and St. Alphonso.—How the three instincts are
satisfied in this devotion—St. Paphnutius and tho piper—Lancisius
on the Carnival—St. Gertrude’s vision—The plain English of the
lives of most Catholics—God’s homeless glory.
SECTION I.
GOD IB OUR MOST DEAR FATHER.

It is said of one of the first Fathers of the Oratory, the
companion of St. Philip, that he used to prefer those writers
on grace who made most of God’s sovereignty and least of
man’s free will. This remark reveals to us his whole char­
acter. It is not so much an expression of his being a faith­
ful disciple of St. Thomas in the particular theological
question alluded to, as a disclosure of his peculiar spiritual
life, and the bent of his devotion. He had a ruling pas­
sion which was more to him than the intrinsic merits of
the controversy. He had got a habit of taking God’s side
in everything, and of always looking at things from God’s
point of view : not that holy men who take the opposite
side in this great controversy do not equally take God's

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

$$

side in everything, an the saintly Lessius and dear St.
Alphonse, all for God if ever men were ; but what I mean
is, that it was instinct rather than intellect which actuated
this good father. He took that side in a mysterious ques­
tion, which seemed to him most honourable to God, because
that was his habitual instinct ; and this is exactly what I
am venturing to recommend to you.
A false doctrine is odious, because it is untrue; it is
odious also because it gives scandal, or blackens devotion,
or injures souls. On all these grounds good men hate it.
But those who love God with a very tender and delicate
love do not think of it so much in these respects, as because
God’s honour is wounded by it. God’s honour is their first
thought. They range themselves at once on God’s side.
So again, a good man is overwhelmed by an unjust per­
secution or a cruel calumny. These men are not without
the most tender sympathy and the most generous self­
sacrifice for the sufferer. But their first thought, their
strongest thought, their abiding thought, is the wound
inflicted on God’s honour by the persecution of His
servant, and of the sin almost necessarily committed by
the persecutors. So in cases of spiritual destitution, or of
great public sins, or of important political changes, or of
local calamities, or of Catholic triumphs, or of getting souls
out of Purgatory, these men by an instantaneous instinct
feel and find where God’s glory is touched, and are at once
so absorbed in it, that they often seem unaffectionate or
ungenerous, or uncordial in sorrowing and rejoicing with
others ; though it is not really so in their hearts.
Now this taking God’s side on every occasion may
easily be formed in us as a habit, by time, prayer,
and quiet assiduity in devotion ; and surely it is a con­
siderable help to us in loving and serving God. It is a
great thing gradually to grow in the conviction that there

0

LOVE WOUNDED DY SIN.

is no real sorrow in the world but sin ; that wo have no
real enemy but sin ; and that warfare with sin, in others
as well as in ourselves, in prayer as well as in action, is
just the one work we have to do, and is just the one work
which is worth doing. But it is this conviction which
comes of our always taking God’s side, and which, when
it has once come, causes us to persevere all the more
steadfastly in taking that side. As creatures, we are
in our proper place when we are taking the side of
our Creator, defending His interests, protecting His
majesty, advancing His glory. There is happiness in the
darkest lot, peace in the wildest trouble, when we are thus
engaged.
But God is not our Creator only ; He is our Father also.
Would that we all felt the importance of this I The man
who serves God as his Creator, is a very different char­
acter from the man who serves Him as his Father. We
do not serve God out of love, because we have not a loving
idea of God. We are dry, cold, grudging, with Him,
because we will persist in looking at him only as our
Lawgiver, or Master, or Sovereign, or Judge. Far more
persons would try to go on to perfection, far more would
persevere in it, there would be a far less wide gulf between
Saints and common Catholics, if only wo were all agreed to
serve God as our Father, and to look upon Him as our
Father. It is astonishing what an amount of jealous and
unkindly feeling there is even among good people towards
God, His sovereignty and His majesty. It is at the root
of all the unhappiness and want of comfort in religious
duties. It brings with it all sorts of temptations against
the faith, and starts all manner of scruples in the mind
which hamper the tenderness of devotion, and freeze the
gay spirit of loving mortification. On the contrary, it in
the very sunshine of life to believe and feel at every turn

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

;7

that Gori is our Father, and is acting to us out of a Father's
love and in a Father’s way.
See what pains God has been pleased to take to prevent
this unkindly view of Him on the part of His children.
He has committed all judgment to the Son. It is our dear
Lord, as man, who is to judge us at the last. Our very
last appeal is to His sacred Human Heart. When God
invites His rebellious people to return to Him, by the
mouth of Jeremias, He sums up all their sins, and then
pleads thus compassionately, rather for Himself than with
them : * “ Therefore, at the least, from this time call to me,
Thou art my Father.” The apostle sums up the whole
work of the Gospel in this very thing, that we have received
the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry Abba, Father; and
when our Lord teaches us to pray, it is by the name of
Father that He bids us call on God. Nay, He has pro­
vided one of the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost, that of
Piety, for the express purpose of enabling us to exercise,
even in an heroic degree, a really filial tenderness towards
God. This gift is defined to be an habitual disposition
which the Holy Ghost infuses into the soul to excite in us
a filial affection towards God, and St. Thomas tells us,t
that works done foi· God, as our Father, are more meri­
torious than works done for Him as our Creator, because
the motive is more excellent. Of what importance saintly
men considered this sweet filial feeling towards God, is
shown very remarkably by an observation which Cardinal
Bellarmine made when he visited France. He said he was
struck with the devout piety of the French, in this sense
of the word piety, and that the people seemed to him in
consequence better Catholics than the Italians. So at least
he is quoted by Lallemant.
St. Paul, not content with the passage already cited from
• Jer. iii. 4.
t *· ad»· o. m.

$8

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

the Epistle to the Romans,
*
repeats almost the same words
to the Galatians.! He speaks as if, under the old dispen­
sation, God had not, so to say, succeeded in persuading the
Jews to look upon Him as their Father, and that therefore,
“ when the fulness of time was come, God sent His Son,
made of a woman, made under the law, that He might
redeem them who were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons : and because you are sons,
God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
saying, Abba, Father. Therefore, now He is not a ser.
vant, but a son.” Yet even in the Old Testament, who
does not remember the pathetic language of Israel 1
“ Thou art our Father ; and Abraham hath not known us,
and Israel hath been ignorant of us; Thou, O Lord, art
our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting is thy
Name." J
Lancisius, in his treatise on the Presence of God,§ gives
a number of acts of love, addressing God as “ My most
holy Lord and dearest Father,” and at the end he puts
into the mouth of an objector this question, “ Why in these
interior acts of love do you add the name of Father ? ”
He replies that it is for four reasons. First, because it is
desirable that such acts of love should be elicited from the
soul, not merely by the affections of humility and religion
implied in the title of Lord, but by an affectionate filial
feeling towards Him. Secondly, because of the greater
merit thus acquired, according to the doctrine of St.
Thomas quoted above. “It is more excellent,” says the
angelic doctor, “to worship God as our Father, than to
worship Him as our Creator and Lord.” And as St. Leo ||
says, “ Great is the sacrament of this privilege, and this
• viii. 15.
J Igaiaa Ixiii. 16.
II Serm. vi. de Nativ.

+ Cap. It.
$ ii. 66.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN,

W

gift exceeds all gifts, that God should call man son, and
that man should call God Father.” Thirdly, because the
remembrance that God is our Father excites confidence in
us ; and it is on this account, says Tertullian, St. Cyprian,
and St. Chrysostom, that the Lord’s Prayer begins, Our
Father; for, to quote St. Thomas
*
again, “confidence is
chiefly excited in us by considering God's love towards us,
whereby He wishes us good things, and on which account
we call Him Father." Fourthly, “We call Him Father,”
says St. Augustine, “ that by the kind name of Father we
may win His favour, and by that appellation move Him to
grant what we are asking.”
There is a very beautiful passage in the revelations of
St. Gertrude,+ showing how acceptable with God are titles of
reverent yet familiar endearment. Our Lord told her that
as often as any one says to God, my Love, or my Sweetest,
or my best Beloved, and the like, with a devout intention,
he receives a pledge of his salvation, in virtue of which, if
he perseveres, ho shall receive in heaven a special privilege
of the same sort as the special grace which St. John the
Evangelist, the beloved disciple, had on earth.
Now, if we fully feel that God is our Father, if our daily
way of thinking of God, and of approaching Him, is as our
most dear Father, it must soon come to pass that there
will be nothing on earth half so dear to us as His majesty
and honour. We should feel as if they belonged to us,
and were really our own, and we should take up any
offence against them as warmly as we should now take up
an injustice towards ourselves. But it is sin which offends
Him ; and therefore it would be sin which we ought to feel
to be our one enemy, our only care, oux· single misery on
earth, whether it be in ourselves or in others. Yes ; other
men’s sins would cease to be matters of indifference to us,
• a. adœ. q. >

+ I. 3, o. 9.

6o

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

because they are offences against the majesty of God.
We should fully enter into that constant cry of St.
Philip,—Only let there be no sin I only let there be
no sin I
When we are full of this view of God, not a day goes by
without our detecting something fatherly in Him which we
never observed before. Prayer changes and Sacraments
accomplish greater things than heretofore. Everything
about us alters by degrees. Duties grow into privileges;
penances brighten up into pleasures; pains soften the
heart with a delicious humility, and sorrows are heavenly
presences. Work becomes rest, and weariness of limb and
brain almost touches on the sweet languor of contemplation.
It is as if earth were making itself into heaven ; and at
the commonest sights and sounds something tingles in our
hearts as if God were just on the point of speaking or
appearing. What a different thing is life when we have
found out our Father; and if we work it is beneath His
eye, and if we play it is in the light and encouragement of
His smile. Earth’s sunshine is heaven’s radiance, and the
stars of night are like the beginnings of the Beatific Vision ;
so soft, so sweet, so gentle, so reposeful, so almost infinite
have all things become, because we have found our Father
in our God.

SECTION IL

THE LOVES OF COMPLACENCY AND CONDOLENCE.

When we love God, we rejoice that He is God, that He
is so good and perfect as He is. We call this feeling the
love of complacency. We transfer His joy to ourselves;
we rejoice in it as if it were our own, simply because we
love Him Jacob would not believe in Joseph’s glory,

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

61

but seeing him he fell upon his neck, and embracing
*
him, he said, Now shall I die with joy, because I have
seen thy face, and leave thee alive. But this is not the only
office of love. If it makes us happy because the Object of
our love is happy, by transferring His happiness into our
hearts, and bo making His interests our own, the same
love will equally make us sorrowful, because the Object of
our love is wronged and oppressed, by transferring His
injury to ourselves, and placing His wrongs in our hearts,
as if they were rather ours than His. What I mean is
this, that to sorrow over the sins of others is no far-fetched
devotion, or subtle refinement of religious feeling, but that
it follows inevitably upon the love of God. Where there
is no such sorrow for sin, either in ourselves or others,
there is no love of God ; and in proportion to the amount
of love will the degree of sorrow be. What was it that
made our Blessed Lady’s dolours more intolerable than all
the tortures of the martyrs, but that her love exceeded all
the martyrs’ love ? Thus, if God is wronged and outraged
we take the wrong into our hearts, and it wounds us by
means of the love we have for Him.
Nay, as sympathy and compassion are feelings more
easily excited in us than those of complacency, it seems as
if God wished to cultivate what theologians call the love of
condolence, even more than that of complacency. This is
one reason why devotion to the Passion is the great popular
devotion of the whole Church. It may also be a reason
why our Lord was pleased to sutler so much more than He
need have donë, and with so many unnecessary touching
circumstances, that to condole with Him in His Passion
might be all the easier, and so He might have more of our
pool· love. Neither does it require any rare amount of
love to feel this sacred compassion. The women of Jeru-

6a

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

salem were no Saints, yet they wept over Him in the way
of the Cross. Job’s friends were the meanest hearted of
men, yet even compassion mastered their pompous dryness
and unamiable pedantry. What we want of all things is
the softening of our hearts, and sorrow softens them sooner
and more effectually than joy.
We cannot hope to get any further loves into our heart,
if we do not first domesticate this love of condolence there.
We do not find such great fault with a man who does not
joy in another’s joy, as we do with him who grieves not
with another’s grief. Sympathy belongs to our position
in the world, and there is hope for the most sinful heart,
if it only keeps its quick and affectionate sympathies. Out
of all evil comes good ; and so from sin and the Passion of
our dear Lord, as from two perennial fountains, flows this
blessed love of condolence in our hearts. See what this
love can do I Mary’s compassion is said, in a certain sense,
to have co-operated with our Blessed Redeemer’s Passion
in the saving of the world. How many instances we have
on record of God showing mercy to sinners, just because
they kept up some trifling tender memory of His loving
Passion ! We must grieve with Him now, if we would
rejoice with Him hereafter. I wish you would reflect on
this. I do not think you keep it in mind as you ought,
or appreciate its value. St. Francis of Sales says, that
the ardent desire of our Saviour to enter our souls by
this dolorous love is inexplicable. Here, then, is a sweet
way of loving Him, a sweet way of giving Him greater
glory. You will not refuse Him when it is so easy. I am
sure you love Him. I am sure you wish to love Him
more. I will not believe that it is not so. Dear Lord !
who can help loving Him! Is there such a thing as a
heart that does not love Him 1 But it is not our business
now to go in search of such strange tilings, or to see if

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

63

uuch dreadful wonders exist upon the earth. We love
Him ; blessed bo His grace for that I There was His old
Passion eighteen hundred years ago; there is His daily
Passion now, and His nightly Agony, because sin abounds.
Cruel sin 1 cruel sinners I But He shall take refuge with
us; only listen at your hearts, and hear what He says.
Is it not clear ? * Open to Me, My sister, My love, My
dove, My undefiled ; for My head is full of dew, and My
locks of the drops of the nights 1
But you may say : sorrowing for other men’s sins is all
very well for Saints; we know the Saints have done so;
but it is a thing rather to be admired than imitated ; it is
above us ; it would be an injudicious practice in us ; we do
not half sorrow for our own sins yet ; we must not go so
quick ; we must learn a little more of that first Alas 1
do not make such an objection as this. Let me take you
on your own ground. You have not, you say, half enough
sorrow for your own sins. There is nothing you regret so
much as this, nothing which seems to you more uncomfort­
able and unpromising in your spiritual life. But why
have you not more sorrow 7 Because you look more at
sin as it affects the interests of your own soul than as it
affects the interests of God. I do not mean to say you
are not to look at it in that way—God forbid I You must
do the one, but you must not leave the other undone.
Now, if you look at sin simply as it regards your own
reward and punishment, it is clear you will never get an
adequate hatred of sin ; for your punishment is far from
being the chief evil of sin. Its chief evil is its outrage of
the majesty of God ; and if you could see it in this light,
you would have a much keener sorrow for your own sins
than you have- But then, in order to see it in this light,
you must learn
look with an eye of sorrow on the sins
# Cant. v. 2>

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

of others ; for there you have no interest of your own,
there you are contemplating simply the injured glory of
our Heavenly Father. Thus, in order to sorrow more
deeply and more effectually for your own sins, you must
mourn, for God's dear sake, over the sins of others. This
is the practice which I wish now to recommend to you as
embodying the spirit of the Confraternity—son-owing for
the sins of others, and making reparation to God’s injured
glory for them.
I say this practice embodies the spirit of the Confra­
ternity because the reasons for grieving over other men’s
sins are the same reasons given before for belonging to the
Confraternity. We sorrow for other men's sins, because
God’s glory is injured by them, because the fruit of our
dear Lord’s Passion is spoiled or wasted, and because souls
are damaged and lost thereby. You see the same three
things come over and over again ; and you must not be
weary of my repeating them so often. But when 1 use
the word sorrow, you must not misunderstand me ; I am
not putting before you anything melancholy or disagree­
able. Far from it. The sorrow I speak of is one of the
greatest pleasures in life, enough to lighten a heavy heart,
rather than to depress a light one. Hear· how the Eternal
Father vouchsafed to explain this to His beloved daughter,
St. Catherine of Siena. After speaking to her
*
of the
five kinds of tears men shed, He speaks I' of a state of the
soul at once blessed and yet sorrowing. “ It is blessed,
indeed, from its sensible union with Me, wherein it tastes
the Divine Love. Its sorrow arises from its view of the
offences which are committed against Me, who am the
Eternal Goodness, whom it beholds and tastes in its
knowledge of itself and of Me. Neither does this hinder
its state of union with Me; for the tears which it sheds
• Dial. 88.

f Cap. 8»

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

65

are of great sweetness, proceeding from ita knowledge of
iteelf in its love of its neighbour. For it finds the plain­
tiveness of love in My mercy, and the sorrow of love in
the miseries of its neighbours. So it weeps with those
that weep, and joys with those that joy ; for the soul
rejoices when My servants pay honour and glory to My
name.” And again,
*
“ This unafflicting pain, arising from
My being offended, and from the misfortunes of its neigh­
bours, is founded on a most real charity, and fattens the
soul. Nay, a man rejoices and exults in this pain, because
it is a most convincing proof that I am in his soul by a
very special grace.”
Thus it has been that the Saints, who have received most
eminently the gift of tears, have also been inundated above
others with spiritual joy. The old biographer of St. John
Climacus tells us, that words cannot express the ravishing
effects which His gift of tears produced in his soul ; and
the Saiut himself, in the seventh step of his Ladder of
Perfection, says, that “they who have received the gift
of tears spend every day of their lives as a spiritual feast.”
Truly there is no bitterness in the tears of those who love ;
and what can there be but peace and joy in tears which
are a gift of Him who is the love and jubilee, as St
Augustine calls Him, of the Father and the Son I

SECTION ΙΠ.

INSTANCES OF LOVE OF CONDOLENCE.

But I shall make myself more clear by giving you
instances of this sorrow for all sins against the glory of
God from the Saints themselves; and you will thus see
how sweet and easy the practice is. God made the follow• cap. 95-

66

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

ing revelation to the same St. Catherine : * “ I am greatly
pleased, my dearest daughter, with this desire of enduring
every pain and toil, even till death, for the salvation of
souls. For the more a man endures, the more he shows
his love of Me : and, loving Me, ho knows more of My
truth ; and the more he knows of Me, the more he feels
the pain and intolerable grief of all sin against Me. You
asked to take the punishment of other people’s faults upon
yourself, and you did not perceive that in asking that,
you were all the while asking love, light, and knowledge
of the truth ; for, as I have already said, the greater the
love is, the greater is the pain ; so, as love grows, sorrow
will also grow." St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi went into
a rapture one day when she was meditating on the words
of the Gospel: “There came forth blood and water.”
“She saw,” says her confessor, “a great multitude of
souls in the side of Jesus, shining like gems on a royal
crown, and she said : ‘ So our souls, beautified by Blood,
become the crown of the Word, because of the manifesta­
tion of the Word which they make before the rest of
creation j and He glories in this as a king glories in
his royal crown.’ She saw the souls, who entered into
this loving cavern of the Wounded Side, expressing two
affections. First, they transformed themselves into blood
by love, and then into water by sorrow. ‘ But God takes
more pleasure in a soul which, in this life at least, trans­
forms itself by sorrow, than in ono that transforms itself
by love I Though I know, O Word I that the sorrow which
a soul feels at seeing Thee offended can only arise from the
love it bears to Thee, which in itself is more perfect than
sorrow ; yet by the way of sorrow the soul is better exercised
in the love of its neighbour, because thereby the zeal for
his salvation masters it in a more lively manner. There
• Dial c. 5.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN

67

is another reason, too, why in this life the exercise of
sorrow pleases God more than the exercise of love, because
the former is a sort of martyrdom by which souls resemble
Him hanging on the Cross, and their sorrow is compas­
sion for His great pains, and as it were tears of love for
His Passion ; and when this sorrow rises to the point
of affliction, it cleanses the soul from its sins. Love is
certainly more delectable; but, as we are in this world
to be cleansed, it is rather the time for sorrowing and
suffering for the love of our God ; and so it is that God
takes more complacency in sorrow than in love.” On
another occasion, after communion, our Lord told the
same Saint to mourn like a turtle-dove, and to compas­
sionate Him because He was so little known and loved by
His creatures.
Indeed this is the very office which nuns have to fill in
the Church of God. There are none of them, no matter
how they may be occupied with education or other external
work, who have not this burthen laid upon them by the
mere fact of their religious profession. A number of pious
and amiable ladies, living together in peace and harmony,
going through the daily routine of spiritual exercises pre­
scribed by the letter of their rule, and engaged in the
education of youth, without any recognition of a super­
natural end, or any practical feeling that they are pledged
to Jesus more than others are,—these are not nuns, how­
ever picturesque their habit may seem, and however respect­
able the individuals may be. It is pleasant, indeed, that
ladies should have such a retreat from the world, where
so much frivolity and temptation are kept at arms’ length.
But such retreats are not convents. Convents are quite
other sort of places; and a lady retired from the world
does not become simply on that account a mystical spouse
of Jesus Christ. There is necessarily, by the vow of

68

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

poverty, if by nothing else, an expiatory character in
nuns. They have to mourn as turtle-doves. It is not
they who are so much sheltered from the world, as Jesus,
who is sheltered by them from the wicked world, in the
cloister of their hearts. Their spirit must be one of
loving sorrow, of sweet reparation, of holy languishing
over the wrongs of their heavenly Spouse. They have
wedded His interests, and must grieve and be glad with
Him. He has given them His glory to nurse. The world
is their cross, and they must carry it They may not be
indifferent to its sins ; they are set apart to mourn over
them. Never, where this spirit is wanting, will be found
the royal heart of mortification, the blessed heights of
mental prayer, the awe-inspiring yet gladdening and
refreshing atmosphere of the really supernatural life.
Neither time, nor country, nor occupation, can dispense
the spouses of Jesus Christ from their office of turtle­
doves of the Sacred Heart. They must realise in a con­
stant spirit of reparation and oblation the sentiments
which were habitual to the Blessed Paul of the Cross.
He lamented and deplored, with bitter tears, the ingrati­
tude of men who corresponded so coldly to the unbounded
goodness of God, and he would repeat : “ What ! a God
made man 1 A God crucified I A God dead I A God
hidden under the sacramental species I Who Î A God 1 ”
Then he would be for some time silent in a sort of ecstatic
stupor, and afterwards again would exclaim, “ O burning
charity I 0 passionate love ! Who Î And for whom Î
0 ungrateful creatures I How is it that you love not
God ? I would that it were possible to set all the world
on fire with love. Ah for a little strength to go out
into the open fields preaching my dear crucified Jesus,
our good Father dying upon the Cross for us sinners I ”
If this be true of nuns, then it is so important that it

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.
should be always foremost in their thoughts. If they
have an expiatory character, it must obviously be the chief
thing about them. The success of their school must be
a very secondary affair, and so also must be the number of
their novices, and the architecture of their convents, and
their exemptions from episcopal rule. Their one view must
be how to please their heavenly Spouse, and how to mourn
over His outraged majesty. Self-love is odious in all people :
in religious it is almost sacrilege. The spirit of holy fear,
of beautiful, of bashful fear, sighing ever because to its
humility the heights of true vocation seem so far from
being attained,—this is the spirit of convents. If a good
soul were to see all at once what it has pledged itself to in
the way both of perfection and of suffering, by religious
profession, perhaps without a miracle it could not endure
the vision, and live. So it is in those delightful houses,
where all breathes of the supernatural, of abasement, of
tranquillity, of God, where the veiy air rebukes proud
thoughts, and from which we carry away a precious dis
esteem of self without the conceited bitterness of self
reproach.
Still more remarkable is the proof of the power over the
Sacred Heart of this practice of Borrowing for the sins of
others, which we find in the life of St. Mary Magdalene
of Pazzi. It is full of the most encouraging sweetness
and soothing consolation for ourselves, for, in our measure
and degree, how easy is it for us to follow her footsteps,
though far behind, in this holy practice 1 When she was
a little girl, only eight years old, she heard one person
revile another in such a way as to commit a sin thereby.
She was so shocked by this offence to God, that she could
not sleep all the night after, for weeping over the outrage
committed against the majesty of God. Sixteen years
elapsed· and the Saint had probably forgotten all about it ;

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

when God, in n revelation, told her that in conséquence of
that act of sorrow for another’s sin, there was prepared
for her a special glory which He represented to her under
the figure of a glorious flame-coloured garment. lie, who
forgetteth not the cup of cold water, can still loss forget
these interior acts of loving sorrow or of sorrowing love.
What a treasure is here for us, if our love would only be
wakeful and watch for the opportunities I
St. Bonaventure says of St. Francis, that he filled the
groves with his moanings, and everywhere shed tears and
beat his breast, as he murmured in his talk with God, or
at times called out with clamorous cries, begging mercy for
sin. “Nay,” says the seraphic doctor, “when he saw
souls, redeemed with the Precious Blood of Jesus Christ,
polluted by any stain of sin, he wept over them with such
tenderness of compassion, that it seemed as though, mother­
like, he was every day bringing them to the birth in
Christ.” The glory of God, the interests of Jesus, the
love of souls, so run and blend into one with the blessed
patriarch of Assisi, that the three motives do duty for
each other. He begins with one, and ends with another ;
for, in good truth, of them it may most reverently be said,
“ And these three are one.”
St. Lawrence Justinian, the Patriarch of Venice, says,
*
“He cannot help son-owing for other people’s sins, who
sorrows truly for his own. A healthy limb on the body,
that helps not the others when they are sick, occupies its
place in vain. Those members, likewise, of the Church,
who see their brethren’s sin and do not weep over it, or
compassionate the ruin of their souls, are useless memljei-s.
When our Redeemer wept over the city that was to perish,
He considered it the more to be deplored as it knew not
itself its deplorable condition. As many, therefore, as are
* Fnscio. Amor. cap. 14..

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

7«

get on fire by the torch of love, weep over other men's sins
as if they were their own. Yet no one worthily deplores
the sins of others, who by voluntary falls neglects his own.
We must at least cease to sin wilfully if we desire to mourn
over the falls of others.” St. Augustine says,
*
“We
mourn over the sins of others, we suffer violence, we are
tormented in our minds.” St. Chrysostom says, that
Moses was raised above the people because he habitually
deplored the sins of others. “ lie,” says the same holy
doctor, “ who sorrows for other men's sins, has the tender­
ness of an apostle, and is an imitator of that blessed one,
who said, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is
offended, and I burn not ? ’ ” “ Who,” says St. Austin,!
“is not angry when he sees men renouncing the world,
not in deeds, but in words ? who is not angry when he sees
the brethren plotting against each other, and breaking
faith with each other, faith which had been pledged in the
Sacraments of God ? Who can count up all the evils
whereby men provoke the Body of Christ, which liveth
inwardly in the Spirit of Christ, and which groans like the
grain upon the threshing-floor ? Scarcely do we see those
who thus groan, who are thus angry (with the sins of
others), for hardly do we see any grain when the threshingfloor is swept. It was because he saw none who were thus
angered, that he says, ‘ The zeal of Thine house hath eaten
me; ’ and again, when he saw many sinning, he said, ‘A
fainting hath taken hold of me, because of the wicked who
forsake Thy law ; ’ and again, ‘ I saw the fools and I wasted
away.’ ”
In a similar strain Lancisius quotes St Chromatius of
Aquileia, whom St Jerome calls most holy and moet
learned. “ Do you W1S^
know what the pious grief of
gaints is like ? Hear what is said of the prophet Samuel,
• Serm. 44·

t In Pualm xxx.

7*

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

who mourned for King Saul, even to the day of bin death.
Jeremias, also, when he bewailed the sins of the people,
says : ‘ My eyes have poured out floods of water over the
contrition of my people : ’ and again : ‘ Who will give water
to my head, and a fountain of tears to my eyes ? ’ Daniel
also was affected with sorrow and heaviness for the sins
of the people, as he himself testifies, saying : ‘ In those
days I, Daniel, mourned the days of three weeks. I ate
no desirable bread, and neither flesh nor wine entered into
my mouth, neither was I anointed with ointment.’ The
Apostle mourned with a like sorrow over some of the
Corinthians, saying : ‘ Lest when I come God humble me
among you, and I mourn many of them that have sinned
before, and have not done penance.’ This is the kind of
grief which the Lord recompenses with the consolation of
perpetual joy, as Isaias says,
*
‘That He will appoint to
the mourners of Sion a crown for ashes, the oil of joy
for mourning, and a garment of praise for the spirit of
grief.’” f
Now, have we thought sufficiently of this ? We live in
a land where we see God offended every day and every
hour. We see souls perishing for want of faith : we hear
blasphemies on all sides : “ truths are diminished among
the children of men.” Does all this grieve us? Have we
felt it as a personal calamity ? Or have we shut ourselves
selfishly up in our own hearts, thanking God with an unamiable gratitude, that we at least have the true faith and
the living Sacraments, and looking on all the rest as a
doomed multitude who are no concern to us one way or
another ? If you have no tie to the souls of all these, and
indeed you have, for Christ shed His Precious Blood for
them as well as you, at least you have a tie to the glory
of God ; and can you feel that you really love God, in your
• Ixi. 3.

+ Ap. Lancia il. aa.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

73

own sense of the word love, if you do not keenly feel His
dishonour Î But it is not to upbraid you that I write—
God forbid ! for, see how warmly you have corresponded
all along to the spirit of our Confraternity ; it is rather
to explain to you and urge upon you the practice which
will cultivate that sweet spirit more and more. Hear,
then, what God said to St. Catherine of Siena : * “ It is
with reason that you, My elect, are in bitter grief of heart
because of the offences I am continually receiving from
men, and out of compassion for their culpable ignorance,
by which they gravely sin against Me, to the damage, nay,
to the condemnation of their own souls. This I gratefully
accept from you, and it is My wish that you should act
so.” See also what was the experience of the B. Angela
of Foligno in this matter. Before her death she made a
sort of devout will, in which she bequeathed certain ad­
monitions to her spiritual children, and this is one : “ I
tell you that my soul has received more from God when
I mourned for the sins of others, than when I grieved for
my own. The world makes light of what I say, that a
man can deplore his neighbour’s sins as much as his own,
yea, more than his own, because it seems to be contrary
to nature ; but the charity which does so is not of this
world.”
When St. Ignatius was living in the house of John
Pascal, at Barcelona, and was spending the night in
prayer, he was seen raised to some height above the
ground, and the whole room illuminated with the bright­
ness which proceeded from his face, while he kept repeating
over and over again these words : “ O my Lord, my heart,
my beloved I O if men did but know Thee, they would
never sin I ” Thus it is said of Father Peter Faber, the
companion of St. Ignatius, that he had an abiding sadness
* Dial. o. aS.

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN

of mind because he was touched to the quick by the sight
of mon sinning. As St. Augustine says : * “ Tins is the
persecution which all suffer who desire to live piously in
Christ, according to the true and biting sentence of the
apostle. For what persecutes the life of the good more
sharply than the life of the wicked, not because it forces
the good to imitate what displeases them, but because it
compels them to grieve over the life they behold 1 For, in
the sight of a pious man an evil liver, though he does not
oblige him to consent to his sin, yet tortures him with the
sight and sorrow of it,” Thus it is said of the B. Clare
of Montefalco, in her life, that when she heard of any one
bi mortal sin, she turned at once to the crucifix, and weep­
ing inconsolably, and sighing from the bottom of her
heart, she said : “ Ah, then, and is all lost, so far as
this soul is concerned, which my Lord suffered for it 1 ”
Then unable to bear the thought, she prostrated herself
upon the ground, and prayed for the conversion of the
sinner.
Oh that there were suoh a heart in us that we could
make these dispositions oui· own,—that we felt sin to be
indeed the one solitary evil of the world,—that the hunger
and thirst after the glory of our most dear Lord were con­
suming us all the day long I Yet how soon these feelings
come, if only we set ourselves in earnest to seek them,
and to ask them of God I What does He want but to be
loved—loved always, loved everywhere; and how, then,
if we ask this love of Him, can He refuse it to us 1
Why not turn all our prayers into one, and pray early
and late for more love of God! But you may say, In
what ways are we to practise this sorrow for the sins
of others Î
Epiit. 141.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

75

SECTION IV.
WAYS OF PRACTISING THE LOVE OF CONDOLENCE.

i. We should strive in our meditations to see how God
ought to be served and glorified by His creatures. We
should put before ourselves His infinite perfections and
attributes, His beauty and loveliness in Himself. We
should picture to ourselves the perfect obedience with
which His will is done in heaven, and try to unite our­
selves with the interior dispositions of the Sacred Heart
of Jesus, of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, and all the
hierarchies and choirs of Angela We should count up
the benefits and blessings which in His infinite love He
has bestowed upon His creatures, and especially in the
four great wonders of mercy, Creation, the Incarnation,
the Holy Eucharist, and the Beatific Vision. Then, when
we have worked this well into our minds, we shall see
what sin really is, how terrible it is to offend so great a
majesty, how base, beyond words to tell, to wound so un­
utterable a love. We shall then hardly be able to leave
the house and follow our worldly occupations, without
finding food for this sorrow over sin. At every step
almost we shall be called upon to make acts of reparation
to the injured glory of God. The amount of the world’s
forgetfulness of God will strike us every day as more and
more astonishing. So far from getting used to it, the
more the beauty and the tenderness of God’s majesty grow
into us, the moi-e will the hatefulness of sin come upon us
with all the startling force of novelty. The sort of common
consent by which men ignore God, His rights, His claims,
and His interests, will seem to us almost more hideous
than overt acts of sin. life will become a burden, the

7t>

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

world feel as a strange and unhomelike place, and
a blessed weariness will come over us, which will find
no repose but in the sweet and satisfying thought of
God.
2. Another method of practising this sorrow for sin is
the one suggested by St. Bernard to Pope Eugenios : *
“ Lift up the eyes of your reflection, and behold the nations.
Are they not rather dry for the lire than white for the
harvest Î How much is there that looks like fruit, which
yet, on nearer inspection, is but briars? Nay, not even
briars, but old and knotted trees, bearing only such mast
and acorns as the swine can eat.” Take the map of the
world; look first at Asia, where our Lord was born and
suffered. Look at Turkey, Persia, Tartary, China, Japan,
and the vast continent of India : how few Christians are
to be found in the whole extent I Fearful systems of
idolatry, the foul creed of Mahomet, communities bearing
the name of Christ, yet in truth denying it in heresy and
schism—these exercise an almost unlimited sway over those
beautiful regions, and only here and there is there one to
be found who calls on the saving Name of Jesus, and wor­
ships His Precious Blood. Yet there was man created,
and Eden planted; there was the home of the chosen
people ; there the Son of God taught and suffered ; there
the apostles preached, and Athanasius, Basil, Gregory, and
Chrysostom upheld the faith, and trampled upon heresy.
As to Japan and China, their very soil is soaked with the
blood of our dear Lord’s martyrs. Yet how scanty the
harvest of His glory I
Look along the Mediterranean shores of Africa, where
once above four hundred bishops had their thrones, and
then into the vast regions of the Moors, the Hottentots,
and Caffres. Think of the upland plains of Central Africa,
* De Coneid. IL 6.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

77

where legions of tribes dwell, fainting under the yoke of
the most intolerable superstitions, and where their native
kings spill their blood more wastefully than any African
would spill water. On how many leagues of country the
sun shines where none call on Jesus, or know of His
blessed Cross. America is better, and so also is Australia ;
for thanks to the Spaniards and the Irish, there is the
knowledge of the Gospel there. Yet how many tribes are
still unconverted, and how many millions of heretics bear
the Christian name in vain ! Look, too, how heresy has
eaten into the fair fields of Europe 1 Russia, Sweden,
Denmark, Germany, Scotland, England, are all more or
less its prey ; and multitudes are daily passing into per­
dition within the sound of the true Gospel, and within
reach of the holy Sacraments ! This was the picture that
St. Lawrence Justinian looked upon when he wrote his
treatise on the Complaint of Christian Perfection. This
was the picture God Himself beheld when He complained
so bitterly to St Catherine of Siena that priests and pre­
lates cared not for His glory, and in their idleness and
self-seeking trod His dear interests under foot. What a
field is there here for acts of love! Think of the day
when the compassionate Creator looked over His own
beautiful creation, virgin and undefiled, and blessed it
because it was all so good. Think of the day when, to
bring back that primal benediction, nay, to give it a new
and better benediction, Jesus hung upon the Cross on
Calvary. Yet this is the result!—this is the sinner’s re­
compense to God I As oui· thoughts wander on, and our eyes
rest on tho coloured provinces of Mahometans, heathens,
and heretics, do we not feel drawn to offer to God all the
acts of adoration which the Angels have made this day in
heaven, in reparation for tho glory these poor outcasts have
not given Him 1 Another while we reaort to the merits at

78

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

Jesue Himself, to the heroic virtues of His ever-blessed
Mother, to the apostles, martyrs, virgins, doctors, and
confessors, that we may supply with loving intention the
praise that should arise to the Divine Majesty from all
these tribes and nations.
3, Another practice is suggested by F. Balthasar Alvarez,
St. Teresa’s confessor. It is to journey over the world in
spirit, and visit the many churches and tabernacles where
the Blessed Sacrament is reserved, and so few come in to
visit the Love of our souls. “The streets,” says ho, “are
full, but the churches are empty. Crowds are eagerly
intent on their own interests, and so few come to commune
with Jesus about His 1 ” St. Alphonso, also, with his
usual thoughtful sweetness, suggests to us how many
churches there are where Jesus is obliged to dwell in filth,
disorder, and neglect, and where from week’s end to week’s
end no one comes to visit Him. With what childlike acts
of love, ever varying, yet ever tender, may we not pour out
our hearts before Him in all these deserted sanctuaries 1
Can we not muse on Jesus thus abandoned till our hearts
grow hot, and the tears come into our eyes 1 and then how
acceptable to Him is this little offering of heartfelt sorrow I
He loves to be remembered, as all lovers do ; and nothing
is little in His sight which is done for the love of Him ; for
His love transmutes and magnifies it alL
I do not say that you should faint at the bare name
of sin as Saints have done : such things require a special
grace and great heights of love. But some little you can
do in reparation and in sorrow for the sins of the world,
and out of that little, be it ever so little, God will have
great glory, and we shall comfort one another’s hearts.

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN

79

SECTION V.
THERE IS NO REAL BORROW FOR OTHER MEN’S SINS WITHOUT A

REAL HEART-SEARCHING BORROW FOR OUR OWN—SPIRITUAL
FRUITS OF THE LOVE OF CONDOLENCE.

Yet, as I said before, we must not forget to sorrow for
our own sins also, and to sorrow for them chiefly as
offences against a God so infinitely good and loving. “ If
we grieve and sorrow for our sins,” says St. Chrysostom,
“we lessen their magnitude; what was great we make
small, nay, oftentimes we do away with it altogether.”
In like manner St Basil, commenting on those words,
“Thou hast turned my weeping into joy,” says: “It
is not every one into whose soul God infuses joy, but
into his who has deplored his sin with vehement grief,
and with assiduous lamentation, as if he wept for himself dead; for such weeping turns to joy at last." “We
ought to bear our sins in mind,” says St Chrysostom
again, “ for not only do we extinguish them by so doing,
but we become gentler and more indulgent towards others,
and we serve God with greater tenderness, having from
that memory of oui· sins a better insight into His in­
estimable goodness.” Scripture tells us, “Be not without
fear of a forgiven sin ; ” * and, indeed, such a fear will
be the best security against another fall Some Saints tell
us that if we know by divine revelation that our sins were
forgiven, we should still sorrow for them, as David did
when such a revelation was vouchsafed him, and St. Paul,
who was confirmed in grace; for such a sorrow is con­
tinually feeding our love of God. St. Udo mentions a
most interesting thing in his life of St. Gerard, who used
• Eoolus. r. 5.

8o

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

to fool after his conversion the greatest compunction for
the most trifling defecte, just as St. Jerome tells us of St.
Paula. Now God made known to St Gerard that the
grave sins of his past life were remitted to him, because of
his holy sorrow for venial faults committed since his con­
version. Yet in this sorrow we must not be excessive ; we
must consider our sins more in the general than in the
particular, and, above all, as was revealed to St. Catherine,
it should be rather a recollection of the Precious Blood,
and a pondering of the Divine Mercy, than a dry study of
our sins, according to the advice of St. Bernard : “ I advise
you, my friends, occasionally to draw back from the
annoying and anxious scrutiny of your ways, and to go
out upon the wider and serener paths of the divine
benefits. Sorrow for sin is indeed necessary, but it should
not be continual. We should interpolate it with the
more joyous thought of God’s compassion. Wo must
mingle honey with our wormwood, or else its bitterness
will not be healthy.”
Life is but a very little while compared with eternity ; and
throughout eternity we shall be infinitely happy, and yet
have but one occupation, to give glory to God. We shall
literally have nothing else to do. But this single task will
contain in itself such treasures of bliss, that there will be
nothing left that we can desire. Why not begin this work
on earth 1 Why not try even now to fall in love with
that deal· glory of God which will be our joy and worship
in the life to come 1 The character of God s goodness is
to be communicative. He is always communicating Him­
self tn His creatures, in nature, in grace, in glory. We
must copy this example. There is such a thing as a selfish
goodness, thinking only about our own selves and our own
souls. Indeed this does seem a great matter, when we see
so many thousands round about us who hardly realise that

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

3i

they have eoule nt all. Yet it w dangerous to dwell
exclusively on thia ; and who can have the Precious Blood,
and know what it is, and feel what it does, and yet not
long to pass it on to other souls 1 I would we could
always do all things for the sole glory of God ; but this can
hardly be. Yet we may all do, without effort, much more
than we have done, if we will only try to sorrow over sin,
over the sins of the whole world, because our Blessed Lord
God is so deeply offended by them.
Neither is this devotion without immense blessings to our
own souls. What hinders us most, when we have once set
to work to serve God in good earnest, is not so much sin,
as worldliness and self-love. Now see how both these
miseries, which so hang about us, keep us down, and
adulterate all the good we do ; see how both of them are
kept in check by this devotion. The characteristic of the
world is that it ignores sin. Things are right or wrong as
it pleases, and according to its own canons ; but as to a
secret stain upon the immortal soul because the invisible
God is offended, this it will not hear of for a moment. It
is reckoned a doctrine to unman people, an idle bugbear,
a priestly superstition. A man who sees everything as sin
or not sin, who seeks everywhere the secret glory of the
hidden Creator, who follows unearthly standards, and uses
unearthly weights and measures, who strives to do the
commonest actions from supernatural motives, and who
can love what he does not see, until he loses the power of
loving, or at least of loving vehemently, what he does see,
can hardly be possessed either by the spirit of worldliness
or of self-love. Ilis life is a protest against the world,
and also against himself. Yet this is only a description of
what a man would soon become who took up this devotion.
He who looks long and lovingly at God, will soon cease to
see any loveliness in himself : and thus this practice would

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

deliver him from the two greatest enemies he has in the
spiritual life.
We should find, also, that this devotion would give us
great power with God. Answers to prayer would begin to
come more thickly upon us than before. Our words would
have a weight beyond themselves, or beyond our talents,
reasoning, or eloquence. What is worth anything which
God has not blessed ? Spiritual power is the only real
power; and it follows different rules from other power.
When St. Vincent of Paul founded his Congregation of
the Mission, Father Condren, the superior of the French
Oratory, and one of the most spiritual men of his day,
said to him, “ Ah ! my father I I recognise that this is the
work of God, and that the spirit of Jesus is upon it, and
that it will succeed ; for all the men are of low birth, and
none of them men of learning. This is the sort of weapon
to which God gives power 1 ” See on what unworldly
principles his judgment was formed. St. Philip made out
that all power was in detachment from the world ; and the
work of St. Ignatius may be summed up in one word, that
he proved this to the world—this very thing, that detach­
ment is its master. So do you take up this devotion to
God’s offended glory, and you will see by many a sensible
proof that God is with you in other more abundant and
more effectual ways than He has been heretofore.
Lastly, if you wish to press on towards the prize of
Christian perfection, and to become a Saint, listen to this
story, listen to what happens to a man who has done no
more than this, hindered two mortal sins from being con­
summated in outward acts. St. Paphnutius had dwelt in
the desert for many a long year, and by weary penances
had toiled for his sanctification. At last a strange thought
came into his mind, and he ventured to express it in prayer
to God. He desired to know to whom on the earth he

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

8j

was equal in sanctity. He asked it in simplicity and tree
humility, and God vouchsafed to speak to him. He told
him he was now equal to a certain piper in an Egyptian
village that He named. At once the Saint set forth to
seek him. When he came to the village, he asked for the
piper, and was told he was piping in the tavern for the
amusement of those who were drinking there. Strange I
thought St. Paphnutius. However, he sought the piper
out, led him aside, and spoke to him of his spiritual state.
What good works had he done 1 Good works I rejoined the
piper, I know of nothing good that I have ever done ; but
once, when I was a robber, I saved from violence a virgin
consecrated to God ; and once also, I gave money to a
poor woman, who, out of poverty, was offering herself to
sin. Then Paphnutius understood how God had given to
that piper graces equal to his own, because for his Maker’s
glory he had in his rough robber-days hindered two mortal
sins.
But we cannot better illustrate how this sorrow for
other men’s sins may be effective, as well as affective,
that is, may be expressed in deeds as well as feelings, than
by giving the practices recommended by a spiritual writer *
for the days of the Carnival. He entitles them, Devotions
which are often performed by souls loving God, on the days
of the Carnival, and at other times when worldly men
usually sin against God more than usual
1. To abstain at that season with more than common
care from some particular fault which ordinarily besets us.
2. To increase our time of prayei· by adding at least halfan-hour to it.
3. To read longer than usual, say for an hour, some
spiritual book, not one which will feed curiosity, but one
which will excite pious affections towards God, such as the
• Lancia, da Praa. Dei 8r.

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

Confessions of St Augustine, the Imitation of Christ, and
the Lives of the Sainte.
4. To afflict our bodies with some new penance, or to
prolong some customary penance beyond its usual time.
5. To visit the Blessed Sacrament more frequently on
these days ; and when we have finished our usual devotions,
to excite in ourselves a feeling of compassion for our
offended God, just as we visit our friends to console them
and show our love to them in times of sorrow ; also to shed
teal’s, or at least to weep in our hearts, for the sins of this
season, especially for the sins of those who, either by reason
of their condition, or of the many benefits they have
received from God, ought the more scrupulously to abstain
from offending Him.
6. Every time the clock strikes to make a brief but
affectionate act of sorrow for the sins of the season : this
may be done in any way, walking, or at meals, or other
times.
7. At least three times in the day, with a most pro­
found genuflexion, and with great feeling, to adore tho
Divine Majesty towards the four quarters of the world in
which God is at this time being so grievously offended,
desiring in some sort of way to compensate by this loving
adoration for the sins which are then being committed in
those regions, grieving for them and asking for their re­
mission and for the conversion of sinners, and for that end
offering up the Precious Blood and merits of Jesus Christ,
which are most dear to God and most profitable to sinners.
It was thus St. Mary Magdalene of Paw obtained the con­
version of many sinners.
8. To do our ordinary good works on these days more
perfectly, diligently, and fervently, especially those which
relate to the immediate worship of God. For, as at these
seasons worldly men and the servants of the devil are more

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

diligent and fervent in offending God, it in but right that
souls loving God should be at least in the same proportion
more diligent and fervent in well-doing and in divine
worship.
9. To make an additional Communion in order to appease
God, and to worship Him by our loving reparation.
10. As God is especially offended on these days by ex­
cesses in eating and drinking, to mortify our appetite some­
what more than usual either in quantity or quality.
11. As God is also especially offended at such times by
immodest conversations, to agree with some pious friend to
meet and spend a short time daily in spiritual conference,
simply to give pleasure and consolation to our good God.
12. 2Ϊ8 men are especially guilty at such times of sinful
idleness, to take more than common care about the spend­
ing of our time, so that apart from innocent and proper
recreation, no part of it should pass in idleness and inutility,
but rather that we should be more industrious than usual.
13 Those who are under any vows should on these days
renew them with fresh acts of love to God, a devotion sug­
gested to us by our Lord’s fixing the Thursday before Quin­
quagesima for espousing St. Catherine of Siena.
In England the place of the Carnival would be of course
supplied by the days following the three feasts of Christmas,
Easter, and Pentecost. There are none whose work lies
among souls who do not know by painful experience the
horrors of these three seasons amongst us, and of the two
last especially; and it is so difficult to speak strongly
against cheap excursions, railway-trips, and such like
innocent miseries, that no remedy seems left but prayer
and reparation. To pray for rain on such days sounds illnatured, and perhaps is so, yet it may hinder multitudes of
sins. SI any a ruin of modesty and innocence dates from
a Christian festival, and many a soul has been shipwrecked

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on the harmless river between London Bridge and Rosher·
rille. Nevertheless it must be acknowledged that the want
of recreation in England is the cause of far more sin than
the excess of it. The carnal judaism of the Protestant
Sabbath is made to press chiefly on the poor, and almost
drives them to find in direct sin the only recreation with
which the police are not likely to interfere.
There are three very beautiful revelations by which God
has been pleased to make known how acceptable to His
Divine Majesty is this reparation at the Carnival. One is
to the Blessed Henry Suso, the Dominican ; the other two
to St. Gertrude. I will quote one of these last, as embody­
ing the spirit which I am anxious this treatise should con
vey. It is from the fourth book of her Insinuations of
Divine Piety.
At the time of the Carnival the Lord Jesus appeared to
her sitting upon the throne of His glory, and St. John the
Evangelist was sitting at our Lord's feet writing. The
Saint asked him what he was writing. Our Lord answered
for him. I am haring every one of the devotions your con­
gregation offered to Me yesterday, and all those they are
going to offer these next two days, carefully noted down in
this paper : and when I, to whom the Father has committed
all judgment, shall faithfully render to every one after his
death “ good ” measure for all the labours of his pious
works, and shall add moreover the measure “ pressed down ”
of My most salutary Passion and Death, whereby all man’s
merit is marvellously ennobled, I will take them with this
paper to the Father, that He also, out of the omnipotence
of His paternal kindness, may superadd to them His
measure “shaken together and running over,” for these
benefits kindly done to Me in this persecution by which
worldly men during these days harass Me. For, as none
are equal to Me in faithfulness, much loss can 1 omit to

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recompense My benefactors, seeing that even King David,
who all his life through never omitted to heap kindness on
his benefactors, yet, when he came to die, and committed
his kingdom to Solomon, said to him, “Thou shalt show
favour to the sons of Berzellai, the Galaadite, and they
shall eat at thy table, for they came to meet me when I
fled from the face of thy brother Absalom." A kindness
shown to men in the time of adversity is more acceptable
than in the time of prosperity ; so I the more gratefully
accept this fidelity which is shown to Me when the world
is especially persecuting Me with sin.
The Blessed John, sitting and writing, seemed sometimes
to dip his pen into an inkhorn which he held in his hand»
and out of it to write black letters, and sometimes he
dipped it into the loving Wound of the Side of Jesus,
which stood open before him, and out of that he wrote
red letters. Again, ho touched up the red letters, partly
with black and partly with gold. The Saint understood
that by the black letters were indicated those works which
the religious did from custom, as the fast which they com­
monly begin on this Monday. By the red letters were
expressed those works which were done in memory of the
Passion of Jesus Christ, with a special intention for the
necessities of the Church. As to the red letters partly
blackened and partly gilded, she understood that by those
partly blackened were meant works done in memory of our
Lord's Passion, to obtain for ourselves the grace of God,
and other gifts concerning our own salvation. Those works,
on the contrary, which were done purely for the glory of
God, in union with Christ’s Passion, and for the salvation
of all men, renouncing all merit, reward, and favour,
simply to give praise and show love to God, were expressed
by the red letters partially gilded. For although the
foregoing works obtain from God a copious remuneration.

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

those which are done purely for the love of God's praise
are of much greater merit and dignity, and confer upon
a man an infinitely greater augmentation of eternal
bliss.
She then perceived that after every two paragraphs
there was a vacant place, and she asked our Lord what
that denoted. He replied : “ As it is your custom to
serve Me at this season with devout desires and prayers in
memory of My Passion, I have first the thoughts and then
the words by which ye serve Me carefully written down,
every one of them. The vacant place means this, that the
works which you do, you are not accustomed to do, like the
thoughts and words in memory of My Passion.” The
Saint rejoined : “ And how, O most loving God ! can we
laudably do this?” Our Lord replied: “By keeping all
fasts, vigils, and other regular observances in union with
My Passion ; and whensoever you refrain yourself in see­
ing, hearing, speaking, and the like, always offer it to Me
in union with that love whereby 1 refrained all My senses
in My Passion. With one glance 1 could have terrified all
My adversaries, with one word I could have convicted of
falsehood all who contradicted Ale ; yet was I like a sheep
led to the slaughter, with My head humbly bowed down,
and My eyes fixed upon the ground ; and before My judge
I opened not My mouth for so much as one word of excuse
from the false charges laid against Me.”
The Saint
answered : “ Teach me, oh best of teachers, at least one
thing which I may do especially in memory of Thy Pas­
sion.” Our Lord replied: “Take, then, this practice, to
pray with your arms extended, thus expressing the form of
My Passion to God the Father, for the necessities of the
Universal Church, in union with that love wherewith
I stretched out My hands upon the Cross.” She said :
“ And as this is not a common devotion, should 1 seek out

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89

gecrot places to practise it in 1 ” Our Lord answered.
" This custom of seeking out secret places pleases Me well,
and is a frosh adornment to the work, as the gem adorns
the necklace. “ Yet,
**
He added, “if any one should bring
this devotion of praying with extended arms info common
use, he need fear no contradiction, and he will pay Me
the same honour as one pays a king who solemnly en­
thrones him.”
What is it, then, for which I am pleading! Only for
this, that you should not altogether cut yoursel ves off from
the glory of God, as if it was no concern of yours, and that
you and Ho were not in partnership 1 This is really all.
God is going to give you His glory for your own in heaven
to all eternity. Surely you cannot altogether disclaim con­
nection with it now : obviously its interests very much con­
cern you, its success must bo your success, and its failure
your failure too. You cannot stand aloof from the cause
of Jesus on earth, and even keep up a sort of armed
neutrality with God, when you desire, as soon as ever you
die, without so much as tasting the sharpness of Purgatory,
to be locked in His closest embrace of unutterable love for
evermore. Yet this is the plain English of the lives of
most Catholics. Can anything be more unreasonable, more
ungenerous, more mean 1 Yet you wonder we have not
converted England I Verily we do not look like a people
who have come to kindle a fire upon the earth, nor to be
pining because it is not kindled. Ah, Jesus I these are Thy
worst wounds. I think lightly of the ruddy scars of Thy
hands and feet, of the bruised knee and the galled shoulder,
of the thousand-wounded head and the wide-open heart
But these wounds!—the wounds of coldness, neglect, unpraying selfishness I—the wounds of the few that were
once fervent and now are tepid, of the multitudes that
never were fervent, and so cannot even claim the odious

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LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

honours of tepidity I—the wounds wherewith Thou wert
wounded in the house of Thy friends I these are the
wounds to be wiped with our tears, and softened with
the oil of our affectionate compassion. Blessed Lord I I
can hardly believe Thou art what I know Thou art, when
1 see Thy people wound Thee thus I But my own wretched
heart 1 It, too, lets me into sad secrets about man’s capa­
bility of coldness, and his infinity of ingratitude. Alas I
the concluding chapters of the four Gospels,—they read
like a bitter jest upon the faithful I
Moreover, we live as if we would petulantly say, “ Well,
we cannot help it. If Jesus chose to do and to be all this,
it is His own affair; we only wanted absolution; wo only
wanted a machine to be saved by, a locomotive into heaven,
the cheapest and roughest that would do the work, and
land us at the terminus. You devout people in reality
stand in the way of religion. It may be hard for us to
define enthusiasm ; but you surely are enthusiasts. What
we mean is, you are all heart and no head. Mere heat
will not do instead of talent Earnestness is not theology.
There are other things to be done in life beside going to
mass and confession. How can we have confidence in
people who let themselves be run away with by religious
fervour ? All this incarnation of a God, this romance of
a Gospel, these unnecessary sufferings, this prodigal blood­
shedding, this exuberance of humiliations, this service of
love, this condolence of amorous sorrow ;—to say the truth,
it is irksome to us : we are not at home in it at all ; the
thing might have been done otherwise; it was a matter
of debtor and creditor ; every one is not a poet ; every one
cannot take to the romantic. Really there must be a
mistake in the matter. God is very good, and His love
is very well in its way. Of course He loves us, and of
course we love Him.
But really, by a little practical

LOVE WOUNDED BY SIN.

gt

common aonse, and a few wholesome reasonable précepte,
and a strictly conscientious discharge of our relative duties,
might we not put this tremendous mythology of Christian
love, with all possible respect, a little on one side, and go
to heaven by a plain, beaten, sober, moderate path, more
accordant to our character as men, and to our dignity as
British subjects ? ” If “ the Anglo-Saxon race really fell
in Adam,” why obviously we must take the consequences·
Still, let the mistake be repaired in that quiet, orderly way,
and with that proper exhibition of sound sense, which are
so dear to Englishmen.
Well i if it must be so, I can only think of those bold
words of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi : “ O Jesus 1 Thou
hast made a fool of Thyself through love.”
Poor desolate glory of God I Thou art a foundling upon
the earth I No one will claim thee, or acknowledge
kindred with thee, or give thee a home. Cold as the
world is, and pitiless the pelting of incessant sin, thou
liest crying at our doors, and men heed thee not Poor
homeless glory I earth was meant for thee once as much
as heaven, but there have been robbers abroad, and it is
no safe travelling for thee along our roads now. But
there are some few of us still who have pledged ourselves
to Heaven, that from this hour we will take thee to our
own homes, as John took Mary; “hencefoith our sub­
stance is thy substance, and all that we have is thine.”

( 9»

)

CHAPTER IV.
INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
VThct goes to the saving oi a soul—What is involved in a eoul being
saved—The mystery of prayer—St. Gertrude’s vision of the Ave Maria
—The three instincts applied to the practice of intercessory prayer
—For whom we should intercede : i. For those in mortal sin ; a.
For the lukewarm ; 3. For the saints on earth ; 4. For those in
tribulation; 5. For our benefactors ; 6. For those aiming at perfec­
tion ; 7. For the increase of the accidental glory of the blessed ; 8.
For the rich and noble. —The time, place, and method of intercession
—.Toy and freedom from vain-glory the fruits of intercessory prayer.
SECTION I.
ΤΠΚ SAVING OF A SOUL·.

Let us see what goes to the saving of a soul, and what is
involved in its being saved. In the first place, it was
absolutely necessary that God should become man, in order
that that soul should be saved, according to the dispen­
sation of God. It was absolutely necessary that Jesus
should be boni, teach, act, pray, merit, satisfy, suffer,
bleed, die, for the saving of that single soul It was
necessary that there should be a Catholic Church, faith,
Sacraments, Saints, the Pope, and the Sacrifice of the
Mass, for that one soul. It was necessary that there
should be a supernatural gift, a marvellous participation
of the Divine Nature, called sanctifying grace, and that
on this should be accumulated loving acts and impulses of

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

93

the Divine Will, in the shape of manifold actual graces,
preventing, accompanying, following, and efficacious, else
that soul cannot be saved. Martyrs must die, doctors
must write, Popes and councils must expose and condemn
heresy, missionaries travel, priests be ordained, for the
safety of that single soul. When all these preparations
are completed, and by an act of mercifid omnipotence that
soul is created out of nothing, then there must be a
Guardian Angel appointed over it; all through its life
Jesus must bo occupied about it; Mary must have a great
deal to do with it; all the Angels and Saints must pray
and interest themselves about it. To every good thought,
pious word, and devout action, and, of course, they soon
come to be innumerable, a participation of the Divine
nature, grace, must concur. Unseen evil spirits have to
be warded off from it, and foiled in their attempts upon it.
Hourly temptations have to cause more or less emotion
among its advocates in heaven. Every attribute of God
vouchsafes to legislate for its advantage, so that it plays
upon them all like one who fingers the keys of a musical
instrument The Precious Blood has to be communicated
to it through extraordinary Sacraments, which are full of
mystery, and were invented both as to form and matter by
our Lord Himself. All sorts of things, water, oil, candles,
ashes, beads, medals, scapulars, have to be filled with a
strange undcfinable power by ecclesiastical benedictions in
its behalf. The Body, Soul, and Divinity of the Incarnate
Word have to be communicated to it over and over again
till it becomes quite a common occurrence, though each
time it is in reality a more stupendous action than the
creation of the world. It can speak up to heaven, and be
heard and obeyed there. It can spend the satisfactions of
Jesus as if they were its own, and can undo bolts and bars
in Purgatory, and choose by its own determinate will whom

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INTERCESSORY PRA YER.

it will liberate, and whom it will pans over. Moreover, all
the time it is so near to God, and its heart is a place so
sacred and so privileged, that none but God Himself can
communicate grace to it, not even the Angels, nor the
Mother of God herself, blessed throughout all ages.
All this goes to the salvation of a soul. To bo saved it
has to be God's child, God’s brother, and to participato in
God’s nature. Now see what is involved in its being saved.
Look at that soul yonder that has just been judged ; Jesus
has this instant spoken ; the sound of His sweet words
has hardly died away ; they that mourn have scarcely yet
closed the eyes of the deserted body. Yet tho judgment
has come and gone ; all is over ; it was swift but merciful ;
more than merciful ; there is no word to say what it was.
It must be imagined. One day, please God ! wo shall
experience it. That soul must be very strong to bear what
it is feeling now. God must support it, or it will fall back
into nothingness. Life is over. How short it has all been |
Death is done with. How easy was its passing sharpness !
How little the trials look, how puny the sorrows, how
childish the afflictions I Now something has happened to
it, which is to be for evermore. Jesus has said it. There
can be no doubt about it. What is that something!
Eye has not seen, nor ear heard. It sees God. There is
stretched before it an illimitable eternity. Darkness has
molted from before it. Weakness has fallen off from it.
Time has vanished, that cramped it so. There is no ignor­
ance. It sees the Eternal Its understanding is inundated
with unspeakable delights ; it is strengthened by unimagin­
able glory; it abounds in that Vision to which earthly
science is an illiterate stupidity. The will is flooded with
love; excessive happiness thrills through every affection.
As a sponge is filled with the sea, so it is filled with light,
beauty, bliss, ravishment, immortality, God. These are

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

95

foolish words, lighter than feathers, weaker than water.
They are not a shadow of what it feels. Eye has not seen,
ear has not heard, heart has not conceived. There it is on
the threshold of it all ; the same soul that hut a moment
ago was sobbing in pain, feeble as an unmanly child. There
can be no mistake about it.
But not only so. There is not the slightest risk of its
being forfeited. All is sure. All is its own, its very own,
inalienable, and for ever. Sin can never come nigh it,
neither therefore can insecurity. Imperfection cannot
breathe upon it. It knows no change, though its variety
is infinite. It knows no inequality, though its joys are
multitudinous and its delights innumerable. It is crowned
king, and for ever. Yet the empire of all this magnificence,
how cheaply has it been purchased I Those transient toils
and cares of life, which grace turned into contentments,
and love to real pleasures I And now, here is this come,
the light of glory, and the beauty of the Everlasting
Vision I It would appear but a dream ; only that the
marvellous calm of the soul tells of the power and the
depth of its new life. Its ability to bear its own conscious­
ness is the gauge of its freshness and its immortality.
All this is involved in the saving of a soul 1 How
wonderful is the world, if we remember how many of its
inhabitants die every moment of the day and night; and
there is probably never a moment in which there is not
some soul in this predicament, just judged, its sentence
favourable, and its eyes opened on the incommunicable
beauty and goodness of God. Oh dull and weary, weary
and dull I This is all we can say, when we turn our
thoughts back to our own petty cares, teasing tempta­
tions, vexatious self-love, annoying littleness, ungenerous
shabbiness with God I He has gone, is judged, it is
well with him 1 Oh how well I And we still here. Our

9«

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

great risk yet to be run I Oh dull and weary, weary and
dull I
Yet a few minutes ago, and that soul was not secure.
There was a desperate contest going on, a pitched battle
between heaven and hell, and heaven seemed at a disad­
vantage. The sufferer was patient enough to merit any­
thing that could be merited. But God put the last gift,
the ultimate grace, final perseverance, beyond the reach of
merit ; and so seemed almost to throw the victory into the
hands of the enemy. It was a terrific moment. All was
at stake. All that had gone to the saving of that soul,
from eternity up to that hour, was on the point of being
lost and frustrated for ever ; it is lost, it is frustrated, and
for ever, almost every minute, perhaps quite every minute,
all the world over. All, too, that was to be involved in
the saving of that soul ran the risk just then of never
being attained. Can risk, even in idea, go beyond this
risk Î Jesus stood by, watching the turnings of the battle,
how it would go. The beatings of His Sacred Heart might
have been heard in the silence of the moment. He had
suspended His own sweet and easy law, whereby, because
of His merits, we can merit also. Although He Himself
had merited for us the gift of final perseverance, and who­
soever receives that grace receives it for the sole merits of
our Lord, yet it seemed as if He had given that moment
up to the sheer sovereignty of the Divine Majesty. It
was thrown, so it appeared, on the great, overpowering,
limitless might of the mercy of tho Undivided Trinity.
One law alone is left unfettered. It is on purpose. The
law of prayer, intercessory prayer. You are of kith and
kin to that dying man, or you are his enemy ; you are his
priest, or his nurse, or his benefactor; you are his neigh­
bour, or you are a thousand miles away; you know him
well, or you never heard of his existence, or dreamed of

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

97

hie agony. It matters not. The victory has lieen left to
you. The matter is in your hands. His soul hangs on
your prayers. Jesus has decreed that you, not He (if I
may say so untrue a thing) are to save that souk You
are to put the crown on all that has gone to his salvation.
You are to put the crown on all that is involved in his
salvation. You may never know it, or at least not till
you are judged yourself. Yet in the communion of Saints,
and in the unity of Jesus, you are to be the saviour of
that uncertain soul, the victor of that unsettled strife I

SECTION Π.
THE MYSTERY OF PRAYER.

But what is prayer? The mystery of prayer? We
have need to ask the question if it involves so great a
responsibility, and can do so great a work, and if it be in
truth a precept that we must pray for others as well as
for ourselves. There are many things which go to make
up a true account of prayer. First, we must consider who
we are who pray. None could have a more ignoble origin.
We were created out of nothing, and we came into the
world with the guilt and shame of sin already on our souls,
and the burden of a hideous penalty which eternal lamen­
tation never could remit. To this our original disgrace
we have added all manner of guilt and shame, of treason
and rebellion, of irritability and disrespect of our own.
There are no words which would exaggerate our malice, no
description which could convey a fair idea of our helpless
ignorance. Everything about us was little to begin with,
and we have made it immeasurably less. It is hard to
conceive ourselves worse than we are; so much so that it
is necessary to make it a duty to be patient and forbearing
G

9«

INTERCESSORY PRAYER

with ourselves quite as much as with others. Then, next
we must consider who it is to whom wo pray. The in­
finitely blessed Majesty of God, than which nothing can
be conceived more good, more holy, more pure, more
august, more adorable, more compassionate, more incom­
prehensible, or more unutterable. The very thought of
God takes away our breath. He is Three living Persons.
We live, and move, and breathe in Ifim. He can do what
He wills with us. He is no further bound to us than He
has graciously and piteously chosen to bind Himself. He
knows everything without our telling Him or asking Him.
Yet it is to Him we pray. Next, let us think where it is
we pray. Whether it be a consecrated place or not, it is
in God Himself. We are in the midst of Him, as fishes
are in the sea. His immensity is our temple. His ear
lies close upon our lips. It touches them. We do not
feel it; if we did we should die. It is always listening.
Thoughts speak to it as loudly as words ; sufferings even
louder than words. His ear is never taken away. We
sigh into it even while we sleep and dream.
Next, let us ask, whence comes the value of our prayers 1
They are fleeting words ; fugitive petitions.
There is
nought in us to give ground for a hearing, except the very
excess of our unworthiness, and, therefore, the extremity
of our need. Else, why should our prayers be in the
Creator’s ear more than the roaring of a lion, or the
querulous complaining of the plover, or the cry of the
suffering beast run down by the hunters? Their value
comes principally from this—that God Himself has vouch­
safed to become man, has lain out upon the inclement
mountains, and spent the night in prayer. He mixes us
up with Himself ; makes our cause His, His interests ours,
and we become one with Him. So by a mysterious com­
munion the worth of His prayers runs into our prayers,

|

j

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the wealth of His enriches the poverty of our·, the infinity
of His touches, raises, and magnifies the wretchedness of
ours. So that when we pray, it is not we who pray, but
He who prays. We speak into our Heavenly Father’s ear,
and it is not our voice, but the voice of Jesus, like His
Mother's voice, that God vouchsafes to hear. Or rather,
the Eternal vouchsafes to be like Isaac in his blind old
age. His younger son kneels before Him for His blessing,
with licence to play his elder brother’s part. “ The voice
indeed is the voice of Jacob,” and it is not he whom I will
bless, “ but the hands are the hands of Esau,” roughened
with the toil of the world’s redemption. He says with
Isaac : “ Come near Me, and give Me a kiss, My son ; ”
and immediately, as He smells the fragrant smell of His
garments, for it is of a truth the stole of Christ, “ blessing
him, He says : Behold the smell of My son is as the
smell of a plentiful field ; " and so He ti Heth Him with
blessings.
Neither is this an end of the inventions of His paternal
love. For, we must next inquire with whom it is we pray.
Never alone; of this we are sure, whenever we rightly
pray. There is One dwelling in us who is co-equal, coeteimal God, proceeding from the Father and the Son. He
forms the word in our hearts, and then puts music in our
cry, when we exclaim, “ Abba, Father I ” He is our “ access
to the Father.” He “ strengthens us with might unto the
inward man.” He makes us “ speak to ourselves in psalms,
and hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing and making
melody in our hearts to the Lord, giving thanks always for
all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, to God
and the Father;” He is the Spirit in whom “we pray at
all times, by all prayer and supplication, and watch in the
same, with all instance and supplication for all the Sainte. ”
He is the Spir it “ who helpeth our infirmities ; for we know

IOO

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

not what wo should pray for as we ought; but the Spirit
Himself asketh for us with unspeakable groanings ; and
He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the Spirit
desireth.” Does not the mystery of prayer deepen and
deepen upon us ?
Next, look at the incredible ease of prayer. Every time,
place, posture is fitting; for there is no time, place, or
posture, in and by which we cannot reverently confess the
Presence of God. Talent is not needed. Eloquence is out
of place. Dignity is no recommendation. Our want is
our eloquence, our misery our recommendation. Thought
is quick as lightning, and quick as lightning can it multiply
effectual prayer. Actions can pray ; sufferings can pray.
There need no ceremonies ; there are no rubrics to keep.
The whole function is expressed in a word ; it is simply
this,—the child at his father’s knee, his words stumbling
over each other from very earnestness, and his wistful face
pleading better than his hardly intelligible prayer.
Then consider the efficacy of prayer. We have only to
pray for lawful things, to pray for them often and perseveringly, and to believe we shall receive them, and receive
them too, not according to the poverty of our foolish inten­
tions, but according to the riches, and wisdom, and munifi­
cence of God ; and it is an infallible truth that we shall
receive them. God is at our disposal He allows us this
almost unbounded influence over Him, not once or twice,
not merely on feasts or great occasions, but all our lives
long. Are there any of the mysteries of grace sweeter
than this! We read of one of the Saints, that, so availing
were her prayers supposed to be, people came from all
quarters to beg her to recommend their necessities to God.
She, meanwhile, heard them and forgot them. She was
immersed in contemplation, saw only the Divine Attributes,
and had no thought but for the Lover of her soul. She was

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

ιοί

amazed, then, when crowds came continually to thank her
for the answers that had come to her prayers on their
behalf, and in an ecstasy she spoke her wonder in the ear
of Jesus. “Daughter,” replied our dearest Lord, “your
will is always and only to do My will, and I will never let
you vanquish Me in love ; and, therefore, My will is to do
your will, even when you have forgotten that you ever
willed it.” See what manner of Lord He is with whom we
have to do I
Then, last of all, it is not for ourselves alone He lets us
pray, but for others also. Nay, He expressly commands
us to make intercessory prayer. Through his apostle He
speaks with that positive and unusual form, “ I desire first
of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanks­
givings, be made by men.” * And in the passage quoted
above from the eighth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans,
when the apostle says, “ He that searcheth the hearts
knoweth what the Spirit desireth ; ” he adds, “ because he
asketh for the Saints according to God.” Thus the inestim­
able privilege, the mysterious gift of prayer, is given to us
not merely for our own necessities, but that we may use it
for the temporal and spiritual good of others. How strict
an account shall we have to render for so great a favour,
and how careful we should be that this power should not
be entrusted to us in vain I Whatever other talents God
may not have given to us, this one, without doubt, He has
given to us. There is no distinction of persons. Young
and old, rich and poor, learned and simple, priest and lay,
religious and secular, we are all of us bound to the practice
of intercessory prayer. Woe unto us if we hide our talent,
or venture to return it to our Judge at the last unfruitful
Let each one examine himself and see what time he has
given hitherto to this devotion, and whether the past is in
• i Tim. U. i.

K»

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

this respect altogether what he would have it be. To pray
always is a hard precept, and one we can only come to by
time and habit, as well as by gift and grace. But the
thing is to find that the older we grow the more we pray,
and that the more we pray the more our prayer takes the
line of intercession for the souls of others.
Perhaps, never while we are on earth shall we realise the
heavenly might of prayer, nor the exceeding riches of that
treasure, which now, alas I we make so light of, seeing not
how thereby God’s glory is so much within our power.
What might we not do by prayer ! What might we not
do in every remotest corner of the earth, in the cells of
Purgatory, and in the open courts of heaven I Yet the
times are against prayer : the spirit of the age is against
it ; the habits of our countrymen are against it. Oh, for
faith in prayer ! for only faith in prayer I for faith in
simple prayer! and the interests of Jesus shall spread like
a beneficent conquest all over the world, and the glory of
God shall beautifully cover the earth as the abounding
waters cover the bed of the sea, and the choirs of redeemed
souls shall multiply and multiply, till th© Good Shepherd
should be, were it any other than He, overladen with the
sheaves of His prolific Passion !
Heaven opens sometimes, and gives us a glimpse of
this potency of prayer.
See how it opened on St.
*
Gertrude.
She was divinely instructed that as often
as the angelic salutation is devoutly recited by the
faithful on earth, three efficacious streamlets proceed
from the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, most
sweetly penetrating the Blessed Virgin’s heart. Then
from her heart again with efficacious impetuosity, they
seek their fountains, and break at the foot of God’s
throne, as a sunny wave breaks upon a rock, leaving
• Rev. L iv. o. ia.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

103

her most powerful after the Father, most wise after the
Son, anti most benignant after the Holy Spirit. These
streams, while the Ave Maria is being said, flow around
the Blessed Virgin superabundantly, and with potent
impetus, and on the other hand flow back again upon
her most holy heart. So with marvellous delectation, I
nm using St. Gertrude’s words, they seek their fountain
first, and then redounding back, bright drops of joy,
and bliss, and eternal salvation, are sprinkled over all
the persons of the Saints and Angels, nay, more, over
those who on earth are then commemorating that same
salutation, whereby is renewed in every one all the good
which he has ever up to this time received through the
most salutary incarnation. Yet, what more easy than to
say a devout Hail Mary! If this be true of the Ave,
what also of the Pater, and the Credo, and the Missal
pi ayers, and ejaculations from the Gospel Î Do we know
what we are doing, and where we are living, and what is
all around us, and how far our influence goes, and where
our responsibilities end 1 Have we measured our privi­
leges, and taken the height of our dignity, and fathomed
the depths of grace Î We are beset by our own greatness.
We work miracles, and know it not. We move the
heavens, yet we ourselves are in thoughtless rest on
earth. The mystery is too much for us; the problem
too hard; the supernatural quite oppressive. But the
comfort is, we shall do all things well, use all powers,
satisfy all duties, be equal to all dignities, exhaust all
blessings, if only we will serve Jesus with pure intention
and out of love. Once go forth upon the earth, and live,
and move, and breathe, speak, act, and think, joy and
sorrow, toil and rest, welcome and suffer, all for Jesus;
and we need have no other thought, no other rule. No
atom of what we are, or of what we have received, or of

KM

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

what we Buffer, or of what we can effect, will thon ba
lost; all things conscious will bo for Jesus; all things
unconscious for Jesus too; nil things possible for Jesus;
and if there were aught impossible for one in Christ, the
very impossible would be all for Jesus too I

SECTION ΙΠ.

THE THREE INSTINCTS EXERCISED IN INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

But let us apply our three instincts of the devout life
to the practice of intercessory prayer. If we love our
Heavenly Father, there is a gentle constraint upon us to
hunger for His glory ; and souls are His honour, and sin
His dishonour. Now we may not be able to preach or
to write books, or to traverse distant lands as missioners,
or to give money to send others there. It may be little
indeed that of ourselves and by our actions we can do
directly for God’s glory or the conversion of souls. But
intercession reaches everywhere. Neither time nor place
bound it. Ignorance cannot keep it out, nor superstition
silence it, nor sin refuse to stay within its infl .ence.
Wherever grace can come, prayer can reach, and that is
wheresoever God’s omnipotence extends, save and except
that one place whence hope has been commanded to with­
draw. Not that God is not glorified there also ; but it is
a glory we worship with silence, panic, and a trembling
hush of heart. It is not that glory of His which we are
His fellow-workers in promoting. We hear of some land
where God’s glory is endangered. There is some country,
perhaps, where the civil power is at variance with the
Holy Bee, than which nothing is more adverse to God’s
glory, more injurious to the interests of Jesus, or more
fatal to the cause of souls. Or, again, we read with burn­

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

105

ing eyes and heart of the spiritual destitution of the
slaves or the aborigines in certain countries. Or rumours
come to us of the persecutions and tiring vexations of the
Catholic clergy undor heretical dominion, or of the impene­
trable provinces of China and Japan, or of Catholic cities
of scandalous profligacy, or of the wily plots of an antiecclesiastical diplomacy, or of the depression of the reli­
gious orders, or of idle, extravagant bishops, or of indolent
secular-minded parish priests, or of jealousy of missions
and retreats, or of disedifying controversies and foolish
parties and silly questions. There is no saying to what
an extent God’s glory is compromised by any one of these
things. We may be the weakest and most obscure among
the Church’s children ; yet we can reach all this by inter­
cession, and reach it too with efficacy and power. We
may work for it without interruption ; our ordinary actions
may go to it ; we may do more than all the ambassadors
and legates that ever were, and yet not for an hour be
distracted from our profession or our trade. We shall
never know, till it meets us at the judgment, a goodly
show, a beautiful vision, how much glory we have thus
gained for God, without cost, without toil, almost with­
out advertence, yet with such infinite and eternal re­
compense.
In like manner also shall we by intercession advance
the interests of Jesus. There is something very touching
to our affections to see how our dear Lord has vouchsafed,
if I may say it, to leave His work unfinished in order that
our love of Him may have the joy of finishing it St
Paul might well say
*
that he rejoiced in his sufferings
for the Colossians, because thus he “ filled up those things
that are wanting of <ihe sufferings of Christ, in His flesh,
for the Lord’s body, which is His Church.” It is a great

106

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

artifice of our Saviour's love that He has chosen to be so
dependent upon us for the harvest of His Cross and
Passion; and we must have cold hearts indeed if it does
not move us. Take any one temptation from which you
suffer yourself. How wearisomely it dogs you, how miser­
ably it entraps you; how it is always wakeful, always
firing itself on every good work, devotion, penance, prayer I
How tired you get of resisting, how often you unhappily
consent, how still more often you are teased and disquieted
because you cannot make out whether you have consented
or not I Yet every moment of resistance is a supernatural
act, a victoiy of grace, an interest of Jesus. Nay, so also
is every sigh of sorrow over a fall, every ejaculation sent
up, arrow-like, to heaven, every naming of Jesus or Mary,
on the confines and in the risk of sin. Now, how many
thousands are there all the world over who are wearily
fighting with the same temptation, and possibly under
more disadvantageous circumstances than yourself Î See
then how many interests of Jesus you can reach by
intercession in this single respect ; and I am purposely
selecting a very trifling matter, trifling, that is, in com­
parison of other things where our Blessed Lord is yet
more concerned. Do at least as much as this ; intercede
for those who are being tempted with the same tempta­
tion as yourself. Intercession can shut up casinos, take
away licences of taverns, discountenance races, make it
rain in Easter or in Whitsun-week, draw betting offices
down to bankruptcy, and ruin unspeakable haunts of
sin. If we can do such an immense work for Jesus,
with scarcely any trouble to ourselves, can we think we
love Him if we are not doing it 1 The flesh may tremble
at the knots of the scourge, and the temper chafe at the
prickling of the hair-shirt, and the tired and imprisoned
limbs rebel even against our sleeping a night in our clothes ;

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

Io7

all this is intelligible; there may be love of .Teens with
it all ; it is only the old story of Peter's drowsiness,
the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak. But
how we can love Jesus, and not practise intercession, is
unintelligible. The wonder is how, prayer being what
it is, those who really believe, can ever leave off praying,
can ever do anything else but pray. This is the real
wonder if we only come to think of it. This is a greater
mystery than prayer itself.
Then, again, if we have the saving of souls at heart,
how can we be lukewarm in intercession! Here, too, so
much can be done, done infallibly, and all with so much
ease. How few preachers are holy men, and yet without
unction what will their sermons be worth ! Besides, if the
world is, as St. Paul says, to be brought into subjection to
Christ by the foolishness of preaching, what is to be done,
if by intercession we do not impetrate either earnestness
for the preacher, or an unction with his words for the
hearer’s sake! Eloquence, a plague upon the word when
we are talking of Jesus and of souls 1 has no gift or bene­
diction. Its harvest is but the preacher’s praise and the
wasted time of the silly gaping audience. God’s blessing
is the thing. It is easy to be the popular preacher of a
season, the fashionable lion of the Sundays, when the more
interesting lions of the week-days are not shown. But—to
preach Jesus Christ and Him Crucified,—that is another
thing. Do you remember the story of that religious, a
Jesuit, I think, who was a famous preacher, and whose
sermons converted men by scores! It was revealed to
him that not one of the conversions was owing to his
talents or eloquence, but all to the prayers of an illiterate
lay brother who sat on the pulpit steps saying Hail Maries
all the time for the success of the sermon. There is
another story, a very strange one. I will not vouch for

ro8

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

its being true, but I will quote it for the sake of the wise
teaching it contains. A certain religious, a very popular
preacher, was expected one day in a convent of his order,
where he was a stranger. In the afternoon he arrived, or
rather an evil spirit who personated him arrived, to see
what mischief he could do. It so happened that there
was to be a sermon on hell preached that day by one of
the monks ; but he was ill and unable to preach. So they
asked this devil to preach on hell, which he did ; and, as
may be supposed from his experience, a most wonderful
sermon it was. However, on the arrival of the real
preacher, the evil one was discovered, and was obliged by
the sign of the cross to disclose himself and his malicious
designs. Among other things he was asked, if it was
not against his interests to preach such a frightening
sermon about hell, as it would keep people from sin.
“ Not at all 1 ” he replied ; “ there was no unction with it,
so it could do no harm 1 ”
Preaching is but one way by which intercession can
reach souls. I merely give it as a sample. In many a
convent, among porters and lay brothers, there may turn
out, when Jesus makes all things straight at the last, to
have been many a Francis Xavier, many a Father Claver,
many a St. Charles for reforming the clergy, a St. Thomas
for writing books, and a St. Vincent of Paul for working
the interests of Jesus in the towns and amidst the country
poor.
One of the most divine and striking characteristics of
the Catholic religion is the communion of Saints, the way
in which everything belongs to everybody, and nobody has
any spiritual property of his own. The merits and satis­
factions of our dear Lord, the joys and woes of Mary, the
patience of the martyrs, the perseverance of confessors,
and the purity of virgins, they all belong to all of us.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

10g

Just as the blood circulates from and to the heart all over
the body, ho in the Church there is no division or separa­
tion. Heaven, Purgatory, and earth, it is all one body.
We interchange our merits, we circulate our prayers, we
pass on our joys, we infect with our troubles, we use each
other's satisfactions as they come to hand. We have all
sorts of relations with heaven, and we know exactly how
to manage them. As to Purgatory, we have a regular
science, and endless practical methods for it, and we are
quite at home in them : while on earth kith and kin, blood
and country, Jew, Greek, Scythian, bond and free, it is all
one. This is what strikes heretics as so very portentous
about us; there is no other word than portentous for
it. We talk of the other world, as if it was a city we
were familiar with from long residence ; just as we might
talk of Paris, Brussels, or Berlin. We are not stopped by
death. Sight is nothing to us ; we go beyond it as calmly
as possible. We are not separated from our dead. We
know the Saints a great deal better than if we had lived
with them upon earth. We talk to the Angels in their
different choirs, as if they were, as they are, our brothers
in Christ. We use beads, medals, crucifixes, holy water,
indulgences, sacraments, sacrifices, for all this, as naturally
as pen, ink, and paper, or axe and saw, or spade and rake,
for our earthly work. We have no sort of distrust about
the matter. We are all one household, and there is an
end of it. The Blessed Lord God is our Father; His
dear majesty is our affair ; our Elder Brother created us,
and has our own nature ; Mary is our Mother ; the Angels
and the Saints are all the kindest and most familiar of
brothers ; so we go up and down stairs, in and out, and to
each other’s rooms, just as it may be; there is no con­
straint about it at all ; the air of the place is simply an
intense filial love of the Father whom we all adore: sc

no

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

that our reverence is a children’s reverence, and our fear
a children's fear.
How can they understand this, who live outside the
household Î Must it not necessarily seem to them a system
of human mysteries, an unscriptural fabrication 1 They
are “strangers and foreigners;” how can they divine the
ways, the feelings, the sympathies of the “ fellow-citizens
of the Saints and the domestics of God 1 ” They can read
the words, but they can know nothing of the heat and
life, the strength and the perception, the health and love
which are in them; so that a veil is over their hearts,
truly their hearts rather than their understandings, when
Paul is read ; for they who would understand the edifying
of the body of Christ, must first “ all meet into the unity
of faith,” and so needful is this right faith, that it is the
“ truth,” that we “ must do the truth in chanty in order
that we may in all things grow up in Him who is the head,
even Christ ; from whom the whole body, being compactly
and fitly joined together by what every joint supplieth,
according to the operation of the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body, unto the edifying of itself in
charity.”* Thus it is that intercessory prayer, practised
as a system, persevered in and resorted to by a kind of
instinct, has always been almost a note of the true Church,
and is even charged upon her by her opponents as part
and parcel of pharisaical proselytism. Notre Dame des
Victoires at Paris is at least a phenomenon which the
history of heresy and schism has not up to this time
exhibited. Our own Confraternity is by no means an in­
significant instance of the same phenomenon. They who
do not possess Christ cannot master the idea of the
vicarious function of His Church. Where there is no
Sacrifice, there will hardly be much intercession. This is
* Ephea. ίτ.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

m

(mother motive for our diligent and affectionate exercise of
this immeasurable privilege of love.
Orlandini says of Father Peter Faber, that he embraced
in the bosom of his charity the whole human race, without
any exception, and had his hands full of business for every­
body with God. The more lost and profligate a man was,
the more his pity kindled towards him ; and that he might
put greater vehemence into his prayers, he excited and
elevated them with the deepest reflections. When he
prayed for people, he put them before himself, as redeemed
with the Precious Blood of Christ, as Christ’s heirs, as
Christ’s kingdom, so that he stirred up his own affectionate
zeal by thus realising their dignity and price, while at the
same time he offered to God the merits of Christ and His
Saints the more nobly and feelingly ; until at length by
this simple practice he accustomed himself to entertain
quite a magnificent opinion (opinionem magnificam) of
everybody. St. Catherine of Siena tells us that God said
to her, “ You ought with the utmost anxiety to pour forth
prayers for all rational creatures, and for the mystical Body
of Holy Mother Church, and for those whom I have given
over to you to love with a singular affection.” St. Gertrude
also was told, “ Whosoever says at least one Pater and Ave,
or any collect or psalm, on behalf, and in the name of, the
universal Church, the Son of God presently accepts it with the
deepest gratitude as the fruit of Plis most perfect Humanity,
and giving thanks to God the Father for it, He blesses it ;
anti, multiplied by that benediction, He distributes it to the
universal Church for its profit to eternal salvation."
But let us now see for whom especially these inter­
cessions should be offered. Spiritual writers give us
different recommendations : I shall follow here, as so often
before, the Jesuit Lancisius.
*
• IL 39.

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

SECTION IV.
THOSE FOR WHOM WE OUGHT TO INTERCEDE.

I. We should intercede for those who are in mortal sin, or
out of the true Church. Thus the Eternal Father said to
St. Catherine of Siena, “ I affectionately entreat you to
pray assiduously for the salvation of sinners, for whom I
ask of you wrestlings and tearful prayers, that I may satisfy
My longing to show them grace and mercy.” When she
heard these words she was greatly inflamed with Divine
Love, and being as it were intoxicated and unable to contain
herself, she cried out, “ 0 Divine Mercy and Eternal Good­
ness I it is no wonder to me that Thou sayest to converted
sinners returning unto Thee, ‘ I will remember no more
the injuries you have done unto Me ; ’ but that Thou
shouldest say so to the stiff-necked who persecute Thee
daily with their iniquities, that Thou shouldest say, ‘ I will
that you should affectionately pray for them, I long to
show them mercy,’ this is indeed a wonder.” Again, God
said to her, “ You shall delight in the Cross, eating there,
and ruminating by yourself the food of souls, to the
glory and praise of My Holy Name, continually moaning
with anxious heart over the death of the human race,
because you see it brought down to such misery as your
tongue cannot express. For it is by this moaning and
wailing of my friends that I make dispositions for showing
mercy to the world; and this is what I am continually
asking of you, and of My other friends ; and this will be
the sign that you love Me truly, and I on My side promise
never to neglect your holy desires.” Again, God com­
plained to her thus : “ See, My daughter, with what sins
thoy strike Me, especially with self-love, whence every evil

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

’ «3

proceeds. Self-love has infected the world, as if it had
drunk poison ; it comes from pride, and holds every sort of
evil in itself. Do you, therefore, My servants, prepare
yourselves with mercy, supplications, and anxious desires,
grieving over the offences committed against Me, and also
over the damnation of the sinners themselves, and so you
will mitigato the wrath of My divine judgment.” Here,
you see, is another practice hinted to us, prayer against
self-love in all souls throughout the world. If you suffer
from it yourself, pray for the deliverance of others from it.
This is an artifice of the spiritual life which never fails.
We read in the life of St. Clare of Monte Falco, that
she once prayed for a certain person who was laden with
the guilt of great crimes, and had delayed his conversion
now to the last years of his life. Once and again, when
she began to pray, she felt herself repelled from prayer by
a hidden violence, and she heard an interior voice telling
her not to pray for that wretch, as she would not be heard.
She returned, however, a third time to her prayer, and
obtained his conversion in the following manner. She
placed herself before Christ the Judge, as if she herself
were laden with all this man’s sins, and, as so laden, she
obliged herself to make satisfaction for him, and to bear
all the punishment which the order of Divine Justice
should desire and exact, until the Divine Goodness should
deign to convert that soul. This act so pleased our Lord,
that the obstinate sinner was suddenly converted, and led
a good life from that time forth.
St. Teresa gives as a reason for founding her convents,
that, as there are so many who offend God, nuns ought to
pray for their conversion, and for that end to intercede
with especial assiduity for the defendere of the Church,
and particularly for preachers, and other learned men who
maintain its truth. Yepez tells us in his life of her, that
H

ÎI4

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

she spent whole nights praying and weeping for the con
version of souls, especially those infected with heresy, and
that she would have given a thousand lives to convert one
soul.
The whole forty years, during which she thus
exercised herself in prayer, she asked nothing so much of
God as the spread of His glory, and the augmentation of
the Church ; and she was willing to remain ever so long
in Purgatory, if only she could make God better known and
loved by men. In a like spirit St. Mary Magdalene of
Pazzi earnestly recommended her nuns to pray ardently
for the salvation of souls and the conversion of sinners ;
and she told them that this exercise was very pleasing to
God, as well as profitable to their own salvation. When
St. Ignatius was sent by our Blessed Lady to the same St.
Mary Magdalene to instruct her in the practice of humility,
he ended his instruction with these words : “ As the
Incarnate Word constituted His apostles fishers of men,
so·has He appointed His spouses, that is, nuns, to make a
prey of souls.” We learn also from the case of Father
Giulio Mancinelli, the Jesuit, that God will have no
narrowness in this matter ; for, when he was accustomed
to pray very often for the conversion of heathen and
heretics, he had a vision of Angels, wherein he learned
that God would have him pray also for the conversion of
the Jews.
2. We should pray also for those who are in lukewarm­
ness and tepidity. For these souls are on the very verge
of great sins, and yet they are in a state of grace at
present. Their necessity is great ; and so they claim our
charity. Their renewal to favour, if they fall, is very
difficult, more so than the conversion of sinners, and so it
is a great glory of God. Jesus has given them the first
grace; He has converted them, and now He is on the
point of losing them; His interests are in danger. As

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

n$

God has been pleased to reveal to us His special distaste for
the lukewarm, so would it be very acceptable to Him if we
made prayer and penance for the lukewarm one of our
special devotions. Next to the devotion for the souls in
Purgatory, I should almost venture to rank this devotion
for the renewal of the lukewarm. Our dear Lord I how
He seems to suffer in them I Moreover, if they be lost,
what graces will have been in vain, what Sacraments
wasted, what a triumph for our Lord’s enemy 1 I beg of
you to think of this, and when you think of it, to think
of me. It is a devotion of much love, and of many
graces; and perhaps you may not have thought of it
before.
3. The multiplication of saints and their final persever­
ance should be another object of our intercession. The
glory of God, the good of souls, and the interests of Jesus,
are all implicated here ; and that in so many and in such
great ways, that I need hardly stop to point them out, they
are so obvious. One saint is worth a million of common
Catholics. Our Lord said even a stronger thing to St.
Teresa, namely—that one soul, not a saint, but seeking
perfection, was more precious to Him than thousands
living common lives. It is astonishing how unsupernatural
we are, even in our devotions; and how we let natural
principles and natural activity carry us away even in
spiritual things, and when we are doing God’s work. I
remember a good religious telling me some years ago
that in a town in the East of England he and his people
had picked out certain influential Protestants, of publie
notoriety, and prayed to God most earnestly for their
conversion. Of course this was all right. However, no
answer came. At last it struck him that there might be
a little too much forcing of man’s will upon God in the
matter. He proposed, therefore, that they should change

Ii6

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

their prayers, and pray for those whom God saw fittest for
grace : and all at once the blessed epidemic broke out in
their own very town, and it was our Lord’s sweet will
to swell the mission there, where it had least been looked
for, and by souls which had never been suspected as the
likely objects of the divine favour and predilection. Thus,
who can doubt that the keen commiseration for England,
which some feel, is from God Î Hence, if the general and
wide object of their intercession, and the unlikely look of
the ugly mass of heresy, immorality, and superstition,
tempt them to weary in their charity, why not pray God
to send England or Ireland a Saint, a real Saint, and then
the battle would be more than half won ? What I mean
is, that prayers often seem to get their answer quickest
when they embody some supernatural principle. It looks
as if God, here and now, set especial store by such acts of
unworldliness and faith.
4. We must pray, too, for all those the world over who
are in various necessities and tribulations, whether spiritual
or temporal. Hear what Orlandini says of Father Peter
Faber, whom St. Francis Xavier used to put into the litany
of the Saints, and St. Francis of Sales to revere as if he
were canonised. It increased the grief and sorrow of this
tender-hearted man that the majority of people do not
know how to refer their affairs and miseries to God, but
rely upon human helps while they neglect divine ones.
This vehemently stimulated his compassion, so that he
himself laid before God the cares and calamities of all men,
and became a suppliant for them in all their straits,
troubles, misfortunes, and necessities, till at last he
passionately desired, like another Moses, to have his hands
always lifted up on high, to carry help and consolation to
so many who were battling with suffering and sorrow,
whether dead or living; he had pictured to himself the

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

n7

various vexations, calamities, diseases, pains, hunger,
despair, want, and all the countless evils to which men
are subject, and as a good and sedulous priest, to borrow
the simile of St. Chrysostom, he pleaded all their causes
with God, as if he had been appointed in some special way
the common father of the whole world. It is quite in­
credible with what zeal he burned to be the minister of
our dear Redeemer, and by Him to aid every one in all His
griefs ; nay, if it may be said, he yearned, in spite of his
humility, to do miracles to relieve those evils the cure of
which is beyond the bounds of nature.
5. We must be sedulous to intercede for the necessities
of our benefactors, among whom are to be reckoned our
enemies, because they give us occasions of merit, and help
us on the road to heaven. St. Agnes said to St. Bridget,
“ Nothing is more lovely, or more acceptable with God,
than to love those who injure us, and to pray for our per­
secutors.” St. Chrysostom, speaking of David and Saul,
tells us that “it is reckoned to us as martyrdom, if we
count our enemy our benefactor, and do not cease to pray
for him.” It was revealed to Father Giulio Mancinelli,
who was especially devoted to intercessory prayer, that he
was one of seven, then (about 1603, a.d.) in the Church
Militant, who, above others, so as to be thus distinguished
in the signt of God, prayed for all men. It was once given
him in a vision to see the glory of St. Lawrence, the
martyr, and among other lights which he then received,
this was one—that we ought earnestly to pray for oui
benefactors, not only because of the gifts and temporal
goods conferred upon us, but because of the affection of
charity with which they wore given, and which is of greater
esteem than the gifts themselves. Both are to be repaid,
the gifts by labour and assiduity in prayer, the affection of
charity by loving our»benefactors, and getting them grace

Ii8

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

from God. We must also in our gratitude respond to their
intention for the Divine honour and love, for our bene­
factors bestowed their favours upon us with a view to God.
So we in like manner to recompense this their reverence,
love, and tenderness towards God in the giving of alms,
must wish well to them, and beg of God that they may
be promoted to serve God more and more by works of
charity.
6. We must pray likewise for all those who are seriously
occupied in the pursuit of Christian perfection, and for
whatever they desire in order to that end, though it may
involve pain and suffering.
For this is the common
appetite of the Saints, and it is lawful to ask it for them
if they are rightly asking it for themselves ; because it is
good for God’s glory, for the interests of Jesus, and for the
bringing to penance multitudes of souls. Thus St. Francis
Xavier, when St. Jerome showed him in a vision at Bologna
all he was to suffer, cried out to God, “ More, O Lord,
more I ” Thus St. Teresa said, “ Either to suffer or to die; ”
and St Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, “Neither to suffer as
now, nor yet to die, but to suffer more.” Thus David
*exclaimed, “Prove me, 0 Lord, and try me; bum my
reins and my heart : ” and Jeremias + prays with natural
shrinking, yet with supernatural trust, “ Correct me, 0
Lord, but yet with judgment, and not in Thy fury, lest
Thou bring me to nothing;” and Saint Paul,J “I please
myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in
persecutions, in distresses, for Christ.” But how unap­
proachably beautiful is that of Job,§ “Can an unsavoury
thing be eaten that is not seasoned with salt? or can a
man taste that which when tasted bringeth death Î The
things which before my soul would not touch, now, through
• P». XXV. 2.
Î 2 Cor. xii. io.

+ X. 24·

vx s

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

n$

anguish, are my meats. Who will grant that my request
may come, and that God may give me what I look fori
And that He that hath begun may destroy me, that He
may let loose His hand and cut me off] And that this
may be my comfort, that, afflicting me with sorrow, He
spare not, nor I contradict the words of the Holy One. In
what is my strength that I can hold out? or what is my
end that I should keep patience 1 My strength is not the
strength of stones, nor is my flesh of brass."
7. It may be added here that some writers recommend
prayer for the increase of the accidental glory of the blessed
in heaven. For instance, when a religious prays that those
of his order may live holily, or that some of them may
come to be canonised, the founder (seeing it in God, or God
making it known to him), gains an increase of accidental
glory ; it is in this sense priests pray in the Mass, that the
sacrifice may profit the Saints to their honour. Thus
Innocent *
III. says, “ Many, or rather most, think it not
unworthy that the glory of the Saints should be capable of
increase up to the day of judgment, and, therefore, that
the Church may lawfully desire for them this increase of
their glorification.” Bellarmine, Suarez, Vasquez, and
John Sanchez teach the same. Sotus gives the joy of the
Angels in heaven over the sinner doing penance as an
instance of it. Our Lady is said to have revealed to St.
Thomas of Canterbury that her glory is always receiving
new increments in heaven, that is, from the good works
of her clients. So also men may pray for the increase of
devotion to particular Saints ; and it was revealed to St
Gertrude that the blessed receive fresh accidental glory
every time Communion is received on earth. I merely
mention this practice to show how far the power and pre
rogatives of intercessory prayer extend.
• Do Coleb. Miss.

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INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

8. There is another intercessory devotion of such great
beauty, that the simple statement of it will be its sufficient
recommendation. This is to be found in the life of Marie
Denise de Martignat, one of the first mothers of the Visita­
tion. She spent almost the first fifty years of her life in
the courts of France and Savoy, but the spirit of the world
never passed upon her heart, any more than the smell of
fire upon the garments of the three children in the fiery
furnace. The way in which she fenced off the spirit of the
world was as follows : she took a text of Scripture for each
of the seven days of the week, in order to occupy her mind
continually with the words of truth. Her choice of texts
was remarkable. On Sunday she took the words,—I am
come into the world to bring light, that he who believeth
in Me may not abide in the darkness. On Monday :—He
was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the
world knew Him not. On Tuesday :—It is as hard for a
rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, as to pass
a cable through the eye of a needle ; nothing, however, is
impossible Avith God. On Wednesday :—My kingdom is
not of this world, and the passage in which the devil is
called by Jesus the prince of this world. On Thursday :—
I pray not for the world, but for those whom Thou hast
given Me. On Friday :—Now is the judgment of the
world ; and I, if I am lifted up, shall draw all things unto
Me. On Saturday :—If you love Me, My Father will give
you another Paraclete, to abide with you eternally, the
Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it
seeth Him not neither knoweth Him. From these seven
fountains of truth, her soul was visited by such abundant
lights as to the misery of this world, and the unsatisfac­
toriness of its honours and pleasures, that she had con­
tinually in her mouth the words of Solomon :—Vanity of
vanities, all things unde)· the sun are vanity 1 She used

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121

to say, that if a hennit had uttered these words, they
would have been taken for the exaggeration of a contem­
plative, but that, God having put them into the mouth of
one of the greatest, richest, and most peaceable of kings,
they caused in her such a profound compassion for great
people, because of the risk of their salvation, that she took
the rich, high-born, and prosperous as the matter for a
special devotion, and desired to communicate the same
devotion to every one she met “ Ah I ” she exclaimed,
“ they are hemmed round with no common misery ; they
go down to hell without thinking of it, because their stair­
case thither is of gold and porphyry. Great in this world,
they let themselves have no leisure to reflect that soon they
will be very little ; having the habit of commanding others,
they presume upon themselves, and live as if God, heaven,
and the Angels, were under their obedience, as well as
earth and men. How will they be disenchanted, when, in
a moment, they shall discover themselves to have been, and
now to be for ever, slaves of the devil ; or, if God shows
them mercy, what a surprise it will be to them to find them
selves in the kingdom of heaven far below the poor and vile
whom on earth they would not allow to come near them ! ”
Hence, during her whole life, she possessed this en­
lightened compassion for the rich, and made special inter­
cession for them. She said it was a greater charity to pray
for them than for those who were languishing in hospitals
and prisons. She celebrated the feasts of the canonised
kings, queens, princes, and princesses, with a particular
reverence, and an unusual devotion. She declared that
nothing ought at once to humble and encourage Christians
more than the heroic sanctity of great people who have
kept humility in the midst of glory, and have used this
world as though they used it not. She was accustomed
to fast on the vigils of these feasts, and all her prayers on

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INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

those days were for the salvation of great people. I do
not know if it will aeein so to others, but to me there is
something extremely touching in this devotion, so truly
spiritual, considerate, and heavenly.
It is in harmony with this her special devotion that we
read towards the conclusion of her life, that one day, when
the Superioress asked her if it was worth while to ask a
certain favour of a person of very high rank, she replied :
“ Yes, my dear mother, do it. I assure you it is a very
great charity to princes and great people to make them
do good works. The world, the flesh, and the devil, make
them do so many bad ones, that they will one day return
more thanks to us who have been the cause of their giving
alms, than we gave them for the alms we procured from
them." Another time, when she saw the Superioress
writing to a princess, she said : “ My dear mother, please
always put something in your letters to great people about
the holy fear of God, or the sovereignty of the divine
majesty, or the greatness of eternity, and the shortness of
this life. For there are always so many to flatter these
poor great ones, and a day will come when they will wish
it had not been so." When she heard of the death of
Louis XIII. she said : “ Alas I I saw that monarch born,
I saw him baptized, I saw him crowned, I saw him married,
I saw him reigning, and now he is no more 1 ’’ Somebody
asked her if she would pray much for him, she said ;
“Yes I more than people would believe ; for, however well
he lived, and however well he died, he may possibly have
something still to satisfy for to the equitable justice of the
King of kings. He is gone into a kingdom which is only
conquered by the humble of heart. No one goes in there
sceptre in hand.” She also said the office of the dead every
Monday for the souls of princes and princesses ; and every
Friday for the knights of Malta, and those who died in

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

I2j

battle for the Church ; and she often recited the Gradual
Psalms for those in the army, lest they should acquire
habits of vice in that which is not the best of schools for
holy living, though it is far from having been unfruitful
of Saints.

SECTION V.

THE HIDDENNES8 AND JOY OF INTERCESSION.

A word must be said on the time, place, and method of
intercession. These may be loft to every one’s choice ;
the following are suggestions, i. To have particular days
in the week for particular objects, as, I. For the Pope.
2. For the clergy and religious orders. 3. For all in
mortal sin. 4. For all in their agony. 5. For the luke­
warm. 6. For those in sorrow. 7. For those whom God
wishes us specially to pray for. Or to have a scheme of
thirty objects for the days of the month. 2. To note
down objects in writing and keep it in our missal or prayer­
book, or on our priedieu. 3. To visit the Blessed Sacra­
ment, and go through this paper, meditatively, exciting
affections of zeal for the divine honour, and of loving
solicitude for the interests of Jesus. 4. To agree with
our Lord to take some word, or ejaculation, or offering,
which shall stand for all our objects, and use it at Mass
and Communion, in our thanksgiving, before and after
■meditation, rosary, and examen, and the like. 5. If we
are sleepless at night, or from any cause have short
intervals of unexpected leisure in our ordinary occupations,
to have recourse to intercession. Thue practices might be
multiplied almost infinitely. The best will be those which
aie the most simple, come naturally, and rise out of our
usual devotional exercises ; only remember that one of the

ίί4

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

objecte for which we came into this world was to make
intercessory prayer.
Oh the unfathomable sweetness of this mystery of prayer!
Do let me say it again. One of the ends for which we
came into the world was to make intercession. One of the
ends for which our Blessed Saviour shed His Precious
Blood was that we might make acceptable and efficacious
intercession. One of the things that God is waiting for
us to do now is intercession. Yet how much time do we
habitually spend in the delightful exercise of this great
privilege I How we talk of Popes and cardinals, of
bishops, priests, and religious orders. How we overflow
with the prattle of devotional or ecclesiastical gossip. We
have a criticism for everybody’s conduct in everything.
We could teach them better. We could show them the
right way. We take higher views, and burn with hotter
zeal We get an easy character for piety by talking much
and fluently about God, and by making ourselves very
tiresome to others by our fidgets about ecclesiastical
plans and the interests of Catholicism. Conversational
fidgets they are, for the most part, and stopping there wo
are not to the fore, when doing, tedious doing, is required.
Truly we have all of us got a psalm, and a prophecy, and
a doctrine : the Corinthians could not come near us in the
variety of our wisdoms and our gifts ; we could beat them
down; we could surprise St. Paul; so exuberant, so
oracular, so necessary to God, His Pope, and His Church,
does our talk show us to be, or at least show that we think
ourselves to be I Now, I wonder how much we pray. I
wonder what proportion our secret intercession bears to
our open criticism. I should fear it was very little ; for I
cannot help fancying that if we prayed more we should
feel that we prayed so little, that we should not dare, for
shame’s sake, to talk at all. T have a great notion of the

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.

”5

spirit of concealment being something like two-thirds of
practical Christianity. I will be bound our praying people
lie hid among those who never tell us how deeply they are
interested in Catholic affairs. The eye that is quick to see
a fault, and the ear that loves to listen to criticism, and
the tongue that brags,—these will be the signs of a praying
soul,—when the rainbow comes to be the emblem of despair,
and not before !
The whole duty of intercessory prayer, and our own dis­
charge of it, may help us to one of those occasional revela­
tions which are so profitable to our souls. Our spiritual
life seems to be going on all safely and smoothly. We do
not imagine ourselves to be Saints. But we feel we are
taking pains. We manage to keep ourselves in a state of
grace. Nay, we have made distinct sacrifices for God, either
in being converted to the faith, or in entering religion, or
in embracing the ecclesiastical state, or in some way or
other; and although we do not actually rest upon the
meritoriousness of these sacrifices as though our predesti­
nation were finally and happily fulfilled by them, yet we
never forget them, and the thought of them is a continual
support to us. These are beginnings of something very
bad. But our Lord comes to our rescue, and without any
apparent cause a supernatural light is poured into our
souls, illuminating every corner and hiding-place, and
revealing to us, in a most startling way, how very little after
all we have deme for God, and how very sdfseekingly we have
done that little / It is like the light of the Particular
Judgment, which lays all our life with its actions and
motives clearly before us in one moment, so that God may
be justified, and we pass a fair sentence on ourselves. How
blessed are these little revelations I For out of them comes
humility, and freshness, and strength, and joy in Jesus,
and abandonment of self in the arms of God. We could

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INTERCESSORY PR A YER.

not believe we did so little for God, if thia gracious light
did not flash it upon us in such a way that wo cannot
refuse to see, or doubt that we have seen it. Think of
intercession, and see whether it may not bring you now
another of these affectionate revelations.
It is difficult to have the better of our Lord in the strife
of liberality and love. Of all the fruits of the Holy Ghost
none seems more desirable, because none is less earthly οι·
more heavenly, than joy; and it is just this fruit which
our Blessed Lord bestows on such as devote themselves to
intercession. This is very observable. There is a certain
sunniness and light-heartedness about them for which there
seems no ordinary cause, except that it is like the sweet
lightening of the spirit which comes after a kind and un­
selfish action. This may partly be the reason. But there
is another also. We see not the fruit of our intercession ;
the spirit of prayer escapes out upon the earth, and is
everywhere like the hidden omnipresence of God. It is
out of our sight. Nay, it is not like a series of distinguish­
able works. We hardly remember how much intercession
we have made. Who can count the sighs he has sent up
to God, or the wishes without words which the tongue of
his heart has told into the ear of Jesus 1 So from the fruit
being hidden, vain-glory attaches to it less than to almost
any other devotion. However this may be, sweetness and
consolation, submissively desired, are beyond all doubt great
helps to holiness ; and whosoever desires to joy in God, and
to abound in all joy and consolation in the Lord, to be gay
and prompt in serving Jesus, to be patient with life because
of the desire of death, and to be equable in all things which
is not far from being holy in all things, let him throw away
himself and his own ends, and, wedding the dear interests
of Jesus and of souls, betaice himself to intercession, as if
it were his trade, or he had as much to do with it as his

INTERCESSORY PRAYER.
Guardian Angel has to do with him. Joy in the especial
recoin pense of intercession. It is part of His joy, who rejoices
in the harvest of His Passion. What stirs in our hearts
has come to us from His. It was first in His, before it
was in ours, and an Angel's presente would be less desirable
than is that little taste of the Redeemer’s joy.

CHAPTER V
THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.
Our distress because we love God so little—The ways in which He help
*
us to love Him—More especially in the way of intercession—The
riches He gives us to offer to Him : i. The Sacred Humanity of Jesus ;
3. The intercessory uso of the Passion—Various examples of the
Saints ; 3. Our B. Lady—Nature of devotion to her—Devotion to her
Seven Joys ; 4. The Angels ; 5. All things that are or have been on
earth ; 6. God’s own perfections—Fitness of intercession as a devotion
for invalids.

SECTION I.
HOW GOD HELPS US TO LOVE HIM.

If we are in earnest about our souls, with a quiet fidelity
to those duties, practices, and devotions, which obedience
sanctions to us, our love of God increases without our know­
ing or feeling it. It is only now and then, in certain temp­
tations, or on great feasts, 01· sometimes without apparent
cause, that God allows us to perceive that we have really
made some progress, and that we care more for Him and
less for anything else but Him, than we used to do. One
sign to us of this increase of love is the growing sense of
our own unworthiness, and of the extreme littleness of
everything we do. It becomes a pain to us that we have
so little to offer to God, and that our service of Him is
after all so wretched and ungenerous. The more we know
Him, and the more we approach to thoughts at least a lit Lie

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129

more worthy of His blessed majesty, the more this feeling
increases upon us, and, as I say, becomes a pain. It is
this which drives the Saints to yearn for suffering and to
pray for crosses. The common cares, the ordinary weari­
ness of life, are not enough to satisfy them, because they
do not give them room for their heroic love. They want,
a vain yet loving strife I to keep pace with the generosity
of Jesus. Why should they do so little for Him Î Why
should they be thus imprisoned and kept in by the little­
ness of everything round about them 1 If sin was once a
misery to them, now their inability to love God royally and
magnificently, to spend themselves and to be spent for Him
in glorious sacrifices—this has become a greater misery to
them. Like Areuna, they would give to their King as
kings give, with full hands and prodigal expenditure.
When God himself gives them quiet times, and multiplies
their joy and peace, they turn against Him, so to speak,
with amorous complaint, “Nay, but I will buy it of thee
at a price, and I will not offer to the Lord my God holo­
causts free-cost.”* Then they say strange things, that
sound undoctrinal, about their being ready to endure all
the pains of hell to all eternity, if only they can thereby
promote God’s glory one little degree; and they talk of
disinterested love until they almost seem to incur the cen­
sures of condemned propositions.
These thoughts are not for us. They would be unreal
in us. But we too, in our measure, feel this pain. We
want to do more for Jesus, and our own cowardice when
we come to the point is a keen misery and a sensible
shame to us. “Copious redemption,” says the Psalmist,
« there is with God ; ” and it is this copiousness of our
redemption which at once stimulates our love, and makes
it discontented with itself. All that Jesus has done for us
• ii. Kings xxiv. 34.

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THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

has been done with such unnecessary abundance, with
such outpouring of affection, with such supernatural pro­
fuseness of mercy and compassion, that it is plain at every
step, in each separate mystery of th a Incarnation, that
what He wants is, not our salvation only, but our love
also. The same longing and luxury (deliciæ) to be with
the children of men, His creatures, which would have led
Him, if man had never fallen, to come to us in an impas­
sible body, and of the same Virgin Mother, now that we
have fallen and He has had to come to us as a passible
Redeemer, seems only to run riot all the more in the
depths of its own tenderness and love. He cannot pardon,
but He must at the same time adopt as sons. He cannot
cleanse us from sin without making us heirs of heaven.
He cannot absolve from the past, but at the same time lie
stores us with grace for the future. Every gift He gives
is double, treble, or a hundred-fold. One drop of blood
would have done, and He shed every drop. Grace would
have sufficed for His Sacrament of love, but He must
needs give Himself, Body, Soul, and Divinity. The Blessed
Sacrament is a superfluous mercy, an unnecessary love ;
only that to show most love and to get most love—this
was what was intended. This is His way; and as we
get to know Him and to love Him more, we want it to bo
our way also. For the little we can do seems so little,
so very little 1
Now, from what we know of Him we may be sure He
would never leave us in this predicament. He desires
nothing so much as our love ; He would never leave us with­
out adequate means of loving Him. If an earthly father
knew that his child was longing to make him a present,
but had not the means, with what prompt hand and over­
sowing heart would he furnish him with the means I Will
Jesus do less! That at least is not His way. Look at

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

tjj

what He did to His Mother at the Presentation. No
creature, nor all creatures put together up to that time,
ever loved God as she did at that hour. Never yet had that
ever-blessed and most dear Majesty been worshipped with
an adequate act of worship. The Angels, with all the
varied powers and faculties and manifold affections of their
nine choirs, had been casting their gifts before the throne
with fiery love and burning songs of praise these thousands
of years, and the Divine Complacency had mercifully
stooped to feed itself upon them. Mary herself, the lowly
and the chaste, was a more sweet act of worship to the
Most High ; and all the everlasting praise of the heavenly
hierarchies would fill up but a little corner in her Immacu­
late Heart. Yet even she fell short, and how far short 1
Sweet Mother 1 she knew this well ; none knew it better ;
and if ever love could have run wild in the blessed and
worshipful calmness of her immense virtue, as it did with
her children the Saints, and their weaker grace, she might
have wished to be annihilated, if so only she could have
worshipped God with a sufficient love. But Jesus came to
the rescue of her love. He put Himself into her arms,
and said to her, “ Offer Me ! I am equal to My Father !
I am a gift, not worthy only, but of the selfsame price
and value, infinite, unutterable as Himself I ” Now for
the first time shall the Most Holy Trinity have an act of
fitting worship. Every attribute shall be glorified, every
perfection crowned with a crown of love and adoration,
every mercy be recompensed ; every debt and duty of
every creature shall be satisfied ; nay, the love and worship
of all possible creatures shall be by one act outrun and
overpassed for ever 1 Oh joy, exceeding joy, yea to those
who love our most dear God, a joy beyond all other joys I
Heaven was silent, and the Angels with spirits gushing
with love looked down adoringly ; and on this earth of

rp

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

ours in Sion’s temple, Mary took her Babe into her arms,
and held Him up, and gave Him with all the might and
impetus of self-sacrifice to the Eternal Father. Thus it
was that she, the first of all creatures who did so,
worshipped God aright, and gave due glory to the eternal.
But now, 0 mysterious love, whereby our dear Lord will
persist in making Himself so common I there is not a
moment, day or night, on this round globe of earth, that
the same Child, the Living Host, is not being elevated by
mortal hands between earth and heaven, here and all
round the world I
Thus, also, does He come to the rescue of our love as
well. He can do so in two ways. First of all, by giving
to the littleness of our actions an immensity of value by
uniting them to His own, and letting the worth of His
own flow into them. Of this hereafter. Secondly, He
can do so by treating us as He treated Mary, giving us
Himself and all that belongs to Him to do what we will
with, and to offer to God, as and when we please ; and it
is of these riches of ouï’ poverty that I am going to speak
at present.
It is really very difficult to believe our own greatness
and nobility in Christ. The catalogue of our privileges
always seems to be only a sort of devout exaggeration.
Take yourself at any given moment, whether of pain and
weariness, or of satisfaction and sensible devotion, and
you will see how difficult it is, not so much to hope, as to
believe, that some day you will really be saved, dead
judged, crowned, in heaven, and eternity before you. It
is not so much that you fear the opposite, as that the
greatness of the reward, the infinity of the bliss, and the
contrast with your present misery and lowness, are more
than you can take in. You meditate on heaven, and then
you think, Will there be a moment, or an hour, while men

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133

on earth are going on an usual, and I shall be thus, in the
fixed possession and enjoyment of all thia! Then yon
smile, not exactly with incredulity, but as Sara smiled
when she heard the Angel say that she should have a son.
So in its measure is it with the inheritance we have in
Christ even when on earth. It seems too much. Yet St
Paul says to the Corinthians,
*
“All things are yours,
whether it be the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come ; for all are yours, and you are Christ’s,
and Christ is God’s.” Again to the Hebrews,! he says,
not you shall hereafter, but you are already, “come to
Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly
Jerusalem, and to the company of many thousands of
Angels, and to the Church of the first-born who are
written in the heavens, and to God the judge of all, and
to the spirits of the just made perfect, and to Jesus the
Mediator of the new Testament, and to the sprinkling of
Blood, which speaketh better than that of Abel. ” When
Mary rules with her sweet sceptre of ever-granted prayer
over the empire of the Sacred Heart, it is our kingdom
over which she is the queen. All it is, and all it has is
ours, for “ all things are ours, and we are Christ's, and
Christ is God’s.” For these are our treasures, which He
has given us, having won them for us with His Blood :
His own Sacred Humanity, Body and Soul, His Childhood,
Hidden Life, Ministry, Passion, Blessed Sacrament, and
Session at the Father’s Right Hand ; His Mother, all she
is or has ; His countless Angels beautiful and strong ; all
the good works and penances of earth ; all the Masses
that are said; and the countless sufferings of those in
Purgatory; the graces which the lost had and did not
correspond to ; the sanctity of the Saints, Joseph, the
Baptist, the Apostles, and the rest ; all the praise of birds
’ x Cor. Hi.

f ill. as.

IJ4

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

and boasts and the orderly elements ; all that possible
creatures could do; God’s past mercies, through the Old
Testament History downwards ; and the love which the
Three Divine Persons bear to each other, and the incom­
municable love wherewith God loves Himself eternally.
These things are ours in Christ. Surely it is a fair and
magnificent domain I These things He puts into our
hands, just as He put Himself into Mary’s hands at the
Presentation, that we may be able to satisfy our love.
What blessed occupation for our time I what heaven begun
on earth I Every one of these things we can use, as freely
as if it were our own, for three distinct purposes ; and wo
can merit by them all, as by our own actions, for the
oblation of them is our own. He gives us them to be
offered. First, we may use them to make acts of love,
and secondly, to make acts of thanksgiving. Of these two
uses I shall speak hereafter. Thirdly, we may use them
for intercession, and this is what we have to do with at
present If we have laid well to heart the lessons of the
last Chapter, we shall feel so drawn to the blessed practice
of intercession, that we shall be discontented with our
own means of interceding. We shall feel that our dry,
bald petitions, our cold words, our slovenly devotions,
what with the distractions of our employments, and what
with the hardness of our hearts, can never satisfy the
loving desires we feel to promote by intercession the glory
of God, the interests of Jesus, and the good of souls. See
then I Jesus puts all these things into our hands as
weapons of intercession. He fills our quiver full of these
arrows, dipped in potent balms, to wound His Sacred
Heart, which He uncovers to us for our aim. If aimed
with devout intention, they must reach the mark, and, if
thoy reach it, they must wound infallibly. As there are
no bounds to His love of us, so does He seem bent that

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135

there shall be almost no bounds to our possibilities of
loving Him.
Love would not be love, if having these treasures it did
not use them. When, therefore, we desire to intercede
with God for something which is to His greater glory, we
can offer to Him any of these things, presenting to Him
the actions themselves, that they may appease His anger
and stir His compassion towards us. The mere offering,
with a devout intention, is a great thing, and avails much,
just as the silent presence in heaven of the Five Wounds
wliich our Lord deigned to keep after His resurrection, is
said by theologians to be our Lord’s intercession, contin­
ually pleading with the Father, though our Lord no longer
prays for us as He did on earth. But we ought not to
stop here with the actions only. We should endeavour to
unite ourselves with the dispositions in which Jesus, Mary,
the Angels or the Saints, did the particular action in
question. This will make our intercession still more
efficacious and still more meritorious. We may also, if
we please, wish the action could be multiplied a thousand
times, so that God should have more and more accidental
glory thereby. It is astonishing how the conversions of
sinners will come in upon us, how quickly scandals will
be abated, how the dews of grace will become heavy rains,
and fructify in the Church, if we devote ourselves to this
practice I Then we shall not be, as in past years we have
so often been, like Gedeon’s fleece, dry, almost miracu­
lously dry, when all was wet around 1

|J6

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

SECTION Π.

ΤΠΕ RACKED HUMANITY.

I. Take the Sacred Humanity of our dearest Lord.
We may offer to God the perfections and powers of His
Human Soul, the abysses of grace, science, and glory,
which are in it ; the love with which it loves God at this
moment, and all the love with which it will ever love Him,
to all eternity. We may ask for the conversion of a sinstained soul, by the beauty and brightness of His Soul
which at this hour is so lighting up the heavenly Jeru­
salem, that it needs “ neither sun nor moon to lighten it,
for the Lamb is the light thereof.” We may ask health
and strength for the preachers and missioners of oui· Lord
by all the perfections of His glorified Body at this hour.
Or, leaving heaven, we may come down to earth, and offer
to the Father all the unspeakable worship which our
Lord's mystical life in the Blessed Sacrament is offering
Him from a thousand thousand tabernacles the poverty,
the humiliation, the obedience to His priests, the zeal
for souls, the refraining of His senses, the endurance
of sacrileges, the patient love, the miraculous manifesta­
tions of that Hidden Life. Or, again, we may draw upon
the past. There is the act of love in the moment of the
Incarnation, the imprisonment for nine long months in
Mary’s Bosom, the virtues practised there, and the world
governed from it. There is the Nativity, together with
the mysteries of the first twelve years, Bethlehem, Egypt,
Nazareth, and Jerusalem, all they mean and contain of
the unfathomable humiliations of the Incarnate Word,
and of His inexpressible love for Mary and for men.
There is the Hidden Life at Nazareth, the hiddenness of

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

137

the Omnipresent, the obedience of the Omnipotent, the
poverty of the All-rich, the fatigue of the Great Creator,
the prayer of God, the love for Joseph, the sanctification
of Mary, the merits and the satisfactions of the Boy and
Man, and the complacency of Angels, Mary, and of God
in the wonders and virtues of those eighteen years. There
is the Three Years' Ministry, the baptism by John, and
the fasting in the wilderness, His way with His disciples,
and His way with sinners, the contradictions He en­
countered, the sermons He preached, the miracles He
wrought, the weariness He endured. Then we come to
the shore of the illimitable sea of His most dear Passion,
the seven journeys, the five trials, the seven words, and
beyond that we have the Risen Life, the various appari­
tions, especially that first one to His Mother, the forty
days of secret legislation for the matter and form of the
Sacraments and for the ways and customs of the Church,
all the beauty, charity, and hiddenness of those days, the
words spoken, the wonders done, the graces given, the
blessings imparted, and then the admirable pomp of His
Ascension. When will this fountain have run dry 1 When,
if we never repeated the same thing twice over, shall we
have exhausted these marvellous infinite acts, infinite not
in themselves, but by their union with His Divine Person,
and which have such unlimited power with God 1 All
these are at our disposal for intercession ; and we may
well believe they will have especial efficacy when suited to
the sacred seasons of the year, all except the Passion which
has all seasons for its own.

>3«

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

SECTION ID.

THE

PASSION.

2. But let us now speak of the intercessory use we may
make of the Passion. We should naturally expect to find
that, as the work of our redemption was principally
achieved through the mysteries of our Blessed Lord’s
Passion, He should desire those mysteries to be especially
in our remembrance, and should allow them to prevail with
His Sacret Heart over all others, when offered to Him in
love, thanksgiving, or intercession. St. Bernard declares
that the mere thought of our Lord’s Passion is a spiritual
communion. Father Balthazar Alvarez not only made it
the ordinary subject of his meditations, but he used to say
to his novices, “ We must not think we have done any­
thing until we have reached this point, that we never in
our hearts forget Christ crucified.” F. Benedict, of Canfield, declares that souls in the highest mystical union with
God still retain meditation on the Passion ; though F.
Baker and others deny it in the sense of express medita­
tion. Our Lord Himself said to St. Mary Magdalene of
Pazzi, “ If, every Friday, you will pay attention to the
hour at which I expired upon the cross, you will at once
receive particular graces from My spirit, which I then
returned to the Eternal Father ; and although you do not
feel this grace, it shall always rest upon you.” The great
bell of the Duomo still calls the faithful of Florence to
this sacred remembrance. The Blessed Clare of MonteFalco had the Passion so perpetually in her thoughts,
that everything she saw became instantly an ingenious
memorial of something connected with our Blessed Saviour’s
sufferings. Our Lord said to the Blessed Veronica, the

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

139

Augustinianess, " T wish nil mon to do their best to sorrow
in their hearts through veneration for My Passion, as if
compassionating Me. If they shed one little tear over it,
they may be sure they have done a great thing ; for the
tongue of man cannot tell what joy and satisfaction that
one little tear causes me.” The Angels revealed to the
Blessed Joanna of the Cross, that the Divine Majesty took
such complacency in sorrow for the Passion of Christ, and
that such sorrow was so grateful a sacrifice, that it was
reckoned equal to the shedding of our blood, or the en­
durance of great afflictions. St. Theodori Studita cautions
us that though Easter is come, we must on no account let
the memory of the Passion fade away, but keep the life­
giving wounds, the cross, and sepulture always before our
eyes. Orlandini tells us of a saying of Father Peter Faber,
that as the Passion was Christ's road to glory, so compas­
sion for the Passion is ours.
Our Lord said to St. Gertrude, “ Every one, even though
he should feel himself weighed to the ground with great
sins, may breathe freely with the hope of pardon, if he
will only offer to God the Father My most innocent Passion
and Death : let him be sure that by this he shall receive
the saving fruit of indulgence ; for there is no remedy on
earth so efficacious against sin, as a devout recollection of
My Passion, joined with a true repentance and a right
faith.” The Blessed Albertus Magnus used to say that a
single tear shed over our Lord's Passion, was better than
a year’s fast on bread and water, with watchings and
disciplines. St Mary Magdalene revealed to a certain holy
Dominican, that when she retired into the wilderness to do
penance, after our Lord’s Ascension, she desired to know
from Jesus how she was to occupy herself, and our Lord
sent St. Michael to her with a most beautiful cross which
he planted at the door of her cell, that she might spend her

140

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

days in incessant meditation on the Passion. Once, when
St Gertrude was meditating on the Passion, she under­
stood by a light from heaven that to ruminate on the suf­
ferings of Christ is an exercise of infinitely greater efficacy
than all others. Lastly, St. Augustine says,
*
“ What
kindles, urges, inflames and drives me to love Thee more
than anything else, and to make Thee lovely above every­
thing else, is the most ignominious and bitter death, which
Thou, 0 good Jesus, didst endure for the work of our re­
demption. This alone, this altogether, easily claims for
itself all our life, all our labour, all our devotion, and,
finally, all our love. This, I say, best excites, most sweetly
solicits, most amply multiplies our devotion.”
With what exquisite artifices of love our Lord can repay
this devotion is most beautifully shown in the life of St
Gertrude. One Friday, when it was now near evening,
she cast her eyes upon a crucifix, and, moved with com­
punction, she cried out, “ Ah, my sweetest Creator and
Lover I what and how great things didst Thou bear for my
salvation to-day I and I, oh so unfaithful 1 have made no
account of them, and the day has gone by while I have
been occupied with other things. Alas I I have not
devoutly called to mind hour after hour that Thou, dear
Life that giveth life to all, for the love of my love, hast
died I ” The Lord from the crucfix answered her : “ What
you neglected I have supplied for you ; for every hour I
gathered into My heart what you ought to have collected
in yours ; and this has made My heart swell with such an
excessive fulness, that I have waited for this hour with
great desire that this intention might be made to Me on
your part : and now with this intention which you have
just made, I will offer to God My Father all that I through
the day have supplied for you, because without your own
• Oonf. 11, 16.

THH RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

»4«

intention it could not be so salutary for yon I ” “ In this
we may remark,” says St. Gertrude, “ the most faithful
love of Jesus for man, which, solely on account of that
intention by which He grieves over what he has neglected,
amends it all with God the Father, and supplies for all
deficiency in such a most lofty way.” Once, also, when
the Saint was handling a crucifix very devoutly, she under­
stood by a supernatural light, that when any one looked
with devotion on a crucifix, he was looked upon by God
with such benignant mercy, that his soul, like a shining
mirror, received into itself from divine love such an ex­
ceedingly delectable image, that all the heavenly hosts are
delighted with it ; and for as often as he shall have done
this on earth, he shall have these images for so many
increases of eternal glory in heaven.
Neither is this a mere devotion of feeling. “ Ah I ” said
St Gertrude once, “ Ah I my only hope, and the salvation
of my soul I tell me how I can do Thee at least a little
good, then, for this Thy Passion, to Thee so bitter, to me
so salutary.” This was our Lord’s answer: “When a
man follows another’s interests in preference to his own,
he repays Me the captivity which I endured in the morn­
ing, when I was taken, pinioned, and grievously tormented
for men’s salvation. When he humbly acknowledges
himself to be in fault about anything, he recompenses Me
for the judgment which I underwent at the first hour,
when I was accused by false witnesses, and sentenced to
death. When he refrains his senses from things which
delight him, he repays Me for the scourging which I
endured at the third hour. When he obeys an ill-natured
superior, he relieves the pain of My crown of thorns.
When he is the injured party, but asks pardon first, he
compensates for My carrying of the cross. When he
almost goes beyond what he can do in extending charity to

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

others, he repays Me for that extension which I so sharply
endured when distended on the cross at the sixth hour.
When, to hinder a sin, he does not mind sorrow or
reproach, ho pays Me for My death, which I suffered for
the salvation of the world at the ninth hour. When he is
reproached and answers humbly, ho, as it were, takes Me
down from the cross. When he prefers his neighbour
to himself, and thinks him more worthy of honour, or
any other good thing, than himself, ho pays Me for My
burial”
On another occasion a similar revelation was made to
the same Saint. She said to our Lord, “ Ah ! Lord, tell
me how I can laudably venerate Thy Passion.” He replied,
“ By more frequently revolving in your mind that anxiety
by which I, your Creator and Lord, when in My agony,
prayed the more intensely, and through the excessive
vehemence of My solicitude, desire, and love, I moistened
the ground with My Bloody Sweat. Then you must com
mend to Me all you do, and all that has to be done about
you, in union with that subjection wherewith I, for the
same reason, said to the Father, ‘ Not My will, but Thine,
be done.’ So you must receive all prosperous or adverse
things with the same love with which I send them all to
you for your salvation. You must receive prosperous
things with gratitude, in union with that love by which I
am your lover, and condescending to your frailty, I pro­
cure them for you, that by them you may learn to hope
for eternal prosperity. You must receive adverse things
in union with that love with which, out of the affection of
My paternal fidelity, I send them to you, that by them
you may earn for yourself an everlasting good.”
Our· Lord said to St. Bridget, “ I counsel you to have
always two thoughts in your heart ; first, the remembrance
of what I have done for you in suffering and dying ; this

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

»♦3

thought will create love of Go<l ; secondly, the considera­
tion of My justice, and the future judgment; this will
strike fear into your soul.” When He speaks to her of
the praises of good Christians, He counts, as one, that the
whole of their thoughts go to His Passion. This, too, was
the great devotion of our Blessed Lady, as she herself
revealed to St. Bridget, “ My thoughts and my heart were
always in tho sepulchre of my Son ; ” and again, she hade
the Saint always to be considering His Passion. So
successfully did St. Bridget train her daughter Catherine
in this devotion, that we read in Catherine’s Life that every
night, before going to bed, she spent four continuous hours
milking genuflections, and beating her breast, with many
tears, because of the remembrance of Christ's Passion, and
that all the while she offered herself as a holocaust to God.
When the Blessed Angela of Folignio asked God what she
could do to please Him more, He vouchsafed to appear to
her several times, both sleeping and waking, always as
crucified on the cross, and He told her to look at His
wounds, and then showed her, in a marvellous manner,
how Ho had endured all these things for her ; and lastly,
He said, “ What then can you do for Me which would be
enough 1 ” Another time, as the Bollandists relate, He
appeared to her, and said, “ Whosoever wishes to find
grace, let him never take his eyes from the cross, whether
My providence be visiting him with sorrow or with joy.”
No wonder, then, that the same Angela should have
heard from our Lord that these were the benedictions
which He would multiply upon those who were devoted
to His Passion, and upon those who imitate it, and upon
those who compassionate it. “Blessed are you of My
Father, who compassionate Me, and who are sorrowing
with Me, and who, walking My road, have merited to wash
your stoles in My Blood. Blessed are you who compa»

144

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY

eionate Me crucified for you, and afflicted with immense
griefs, that I might satisfy for you, and redeem you from
immense and eternal pains ; for, compassionating Me in
My poverty, sorrow, and contempt borne for yourselves,
you have been found worthy. Blessed are you who shall be
mindfully and devoutly compassionate towards My Passion,
which is the miracle of all ages, the salvation and life of
the lost, and the sole refuge of sinners ; for you shall bo
truly partakers with Me of the kingdom, and glory, and
resurrection which I have acquired by it, and co-heirs with
Me for ever and ever. Blessed are you of My Father, and
of the Holy Ghost, and truly blessed with the benediction
which I shall give in the last judgment, because, when I
came unto My own, you have not repulsed Me, as My
persecutors did; but, by your compassion, have received
Me, a desolate stranger, into the home and hospitality of
your heart. You have compassionated Me, stretched naked
on the cross, hungering, thirsting, weak, nailed, and dying.
You have willed to be My companions, and in this you
have truly fulfilled the works of mercy. Therefore shall
you hear in that terrible hour, ‘ Como, you blessed of My
Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you
before the foundation of the world.’ For I was hungry on
the cross, and, at least by compassion, you gave Me to eat.
Oh, happy you, truly happy, and blessed altogether 1 for if
upon the cross I prayed to My Father with tears and
weeping for My crucifiera and torturers, and excused them
saying, ‘ Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do,’ what shall I say for you who have compassionated
Me, and been my devout partners, when, not upon the
cross but all blissful in My glory, I shall judge the
world 1 ”
Now, what do all these examples and revelations show,
except that our Lord has been pleased to give us over Hie

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

i4î

Passion, as if it were really more utterly and completely
our own, to do with it what we willed, than the pains we
ourselves suffer, or the afflictions we have to bear, which
are rather debts we have to pay, necessities from which
we cannot escape, or punishments we must endure! But
to come to the use of the Passion in intercession, which is
our immediate subject. Lancisius tells us,
*
“That the
offering of the Blood of Christ, or of His Passion and
Death, to the Eternal Father, or to Christ Himself, in
order to appease Him for the sins of the world, is of
boundless efficacy.” This practice was taught by God to
St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi, when He vouchsafed to
complain to her that there were so few in the world who
made any effort to apj'ease His anger against sinners. In
consequence of this, ma^y times in the day she offered up
the Blood of Christ for sinners of all classes, and her ordi­
nary practice was daily to offer it fifty times for the living
and the dead. She did this with so much fervour, that
God repeatedly showed her multitudes of souls whose
conversion she had thus obtained, as well as multitudes
released from Purgatory. Once, in a rapture, she cried
out, “ As often as the creature offers this Blood, by which
it is redeemed, it offers a gift which has no price, whereby
it can be paid back. Nay, the gift is so great, that the
Eternal Father reckons Himself under obligation to His
creature ; for Ho sees it in its misery, which His infinite
goodness desires to compassionate, and, compassionating,
to communicate Himself to it; and thus this offering is
the cause of His communicating now, and for ever con­
tinuing to communicate, His goodness to IIis creature.”
“ This devotion,” says Lancisius, “ glorifies and recreates
God with the most excellent and noble of all offerings. It
asks, or rather in a certain sense exacts, for our past sins
• li. i8.

r46

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

remission, preservation from sin in time to come, the con­
version of sinners and heretics, and freedom from the
temporal pains due to sin. It avails, also, as a thanks­
giving for all public and personal blessings, and is efficacious
for the impétration of the divine assistance, and for tho
relief of the numberless necessities both of the living and
the dead.”

SECTION IV.
DEVOTION TO OUR BLESSED LADY.

3. Persons often wish to know how much devotion they
ought to have to our Blessed Lady, and where their love
ought to stop. They are dissatisfied if they are told that
they can never have enough devotion to her, that so far as
degree is concerned there is no possibility of excess, and
that there is no limit at which their love need stop. True
as this is, it does not content them. They think it a sort
of pious exaggeration, which is true in a sense, but no real
answer to their question, or solution to their difficulty.
But they could hardly object, if it was said to them, You
are to love Mary as much as Jesus loved her, and you are
to have as great a devotion to her as Jesus wishes you to
have, and you can have no scruple in praying to Jesus for
this devotion according to His will It is impossible to
know Jesus, much more to love Him, if we have not a
warm devotion to His ever-blessed Mother. Neither can
we conceive of any devotion to her more sure to move the
heart of Jesus to listen to our intercessions than the offer­
ing to Him those graces which He Himself bestowed upon
her, those acts of love by which the Three Persons of the
Most Holy Trinity adorned her as their choice trophy of
compassion, and those mysteries in which she corresponded

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

»47

to these graces, and merited so unspeakably. She La so
mixed up with the glory of God, that every act of homage
to her is a plain act of love of God. She is herself so
completely the choice interest of Jesus, that He has none
on earth to compare with tho defence and propagation of
her honour. For, if His Sacred Heart be mercifully bent
upon the salvation of souls, He has chosen Mary as the
refuge of sinners and the advocate of souls. If all Gori’s
works praise Him, and if when He looked upon the earth
that He had made He was moved to bless it and to pro­
nounce it very good, while the morning stars sang together,
and the Angels shouted for joy, how much more do His
own works and gifts in Mary praise Him everlastingly,
while she furnishes an unending theme for the songs of
Angels and of men ! For the sake of Jesus we must lean»
to increase in our love of Mary. It must be a devotion
growing in us like a grace, strengthening like a habit of
virtue, and waxing more and more fervent and tender until
the hour when she shall come to help us to dio well, and to
pass safely through the risk of doom.
Do we think sufficiently of this—that devotion to our
Blessed Lady is not a thing which, like the possession of a
book or a rosary, we have once for all, final and complete 1
It would be no less untrue to say that when we have
received from God the grace of humility, we have simply to
hold fast what we have got, and never dream of getting
more, than to say that devotion to Mary is an ungrowing
thing. I repeat, it must grow like a virtue, and strengthen
like a habit, or it is worth nothing at all Nay, it is
worse than worth nothing, as a little thought will show
you. Love of Mary is but another form, and a divinely
appointed one, of love of Jesus : and, therefore, if love of
Him must grow, so also must love of her. If a person
were to say, “ You must not mingle prayer to Mary with

14«

THE RJCHES OF OUR POVERTY.

prayer to Jesus,” he would show that he had no true idea
of this devotion, and that he was already on the brink of
a very dangerous error Yet people sometimes thought­
lessly speak as if devotion to the Mother was a little trifle
allowably cut off from devotion to the Son, that it was
something surrendered by Jesus to Mary ; that Jesus was
one thing, and Mary was another, and that devotion to the
two was to be divided between them proportionably to
their respective dignities, nearly all to Him, and then what
is left after that to her. If such persons really saw what
they mean, which they do not, they would perceive that
they were talking impiety. Love of Mary is an intrinsic
part of love of Jesus, and to imagine that the interests of
the two can be opposed, is to show that we do not under­
stand Jesus, or the devotion due to Him. If devotion to
Mary is not already, and in itself, devotion to Jesus, then
when we show devotion to her we are consciously subtract­
ing something from Him, and thus actually robbing God,
which is sacrilege. So that when people tell us to keep
within bounds, to moderate our devotion, and not to go too
far, or to do too much for Mary, they are not, as they
fancy, securing to Jesus His rightful honour, but they are
making the horrible confession that they therfiselves do
take something from Jesus to give to Mary, though they
are careful it should not be very much. How dreadful this
sounds when put in plain words. Devotion to Mary can
get wrong in kind ; it can never err in degree. If love of
Mary be not love of Jesus, if devotion to Mary be not one
of His own appointed devotions to Himself, aye, and the
chief one too, then my theology as well as my love tells me,
I can have no room for Mary at all, for my heart cannot
adequately hold Jesus as it is. Dearest Mother I how
little I should know of you, if I could think of you so dis­
honourably 1 What a poor, low notion should I have of

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

»49

God Himself ! I might as well think grace kept me from
God, or Sacraments enabled me to do without Jesus, as
imagine that you did aught else but gloriously magnify
His love of me, and wonderfully intensify my love of Him I
Now see what materials the life of our blessed Lady
presents to us, that we may offer them again to God I Is
there any disclosure of His love to a simple creature, or to
all creatures together, equal to the grace of her Immaculate
Conception, or of her election to the Divine Maternity!
Whether we go through her life by the sixty-three mysteries
of which it is composed, or sum it up in what theologians
call her three sanctifications, at her Immaculate Conception,
the moment of the Incarnation, and the descent of the
Holy Ghost at Pentecost, it furnishes us with innumerable
motives most dear and persuasive to the Heart of Jesus.
Every act is full of His grace and of her heroic love ; each
one is more pleasing to Him than all the heroism of His
saints ; and out of every one of them, because of the sup­
reme love that was in her sold, God gains more glory than
out of all the services of the three hierarchies of heaven.
The two devotions, to her Dolours and her Joys, might
furnish illustrations of this. Passing over the devotion to
her dolours as better known, and hoping to treat of it in
another work,
*
I will speak only of the devotion to her
joys, which may be called the Franciscan devotion. It was
the practice of our own St. Thomas of Canterbury to say
the Ave Maria seven times in the day, in honour of our
Lady’s seven earthly joys, the Annunciation, the Visitation,
the Nativity, the Epiphany, the Finding in the Temple, the
Resurrection, and the Ascension. One day our Blessed
Mother appeared to him, and said, “ Thomae, your devotion
is most acceptable to me ; but why do you only call to mind
the joys which I had on earth ? Henceforth remember those
• The Foot of the Crow, or the Sorrow· of Mary, published In 1857.

rjo

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

also which I now enjoy in heaven ; for every one who
honours both these I will console, exhilarate, and present
to my most dear Son at the hour of death.” St. Thomas
felt his heart filled with a marvellous exultation, and he
cried out, “And how, my sweetest Lady, can I do this,
when I do not so much as know what these joys are Î ”
Our Blessed Lady then told him, that he was to honour
with seven Hail Maries the following joys : her joy, first,
because the Most Holy Trinity honours her above all
creatures ; secondly, because her virginity has set her above
all Angels and Saints ; thirdly, because the great light of
her glory illuminates the heavens; fourthly, been use all
the blessed worship her as the Mother of God ; fifthly,
because her Son grants her whatever she asks ; sixthly,
because of the grace given her on earth and tho glory pre­
pared for her clients in heaven ; and lastly, because her
accidental glory goes on increasing to the day of doom.
St. Thomas is said to have composed a sequence, “ Gaude,
flore virginali,” on these joys, which was sung in some
churches, and which is quoted in the Parnassus Marianus.
*
In the life of St. Catherine of Bologna, we read that she
had a great devotion to St. Thomas, and used to practice
this devotion. Br. Francis of the Cross relates also of the
Blessed Banulph, that, while he was commemorating our
Lady’s seven earthly joys, she appeared to him, and revealed
to him her heavenly joys, the same, but in different order,
as those revealed to St. Thomas.
There is another revelation, to the Blessed Joseph
Herman, the Premonstratensian, which shows how dear to
our Blessed Lady is this devotion to her joys. There were
at that time constant instances of the sacrilegious plunder
of churches, and it often fell to the lot of the Blessed Joseph
to act as sentinel in the church. This caused him occa
• P. so/, ap. Liinoia. il. 51,

TUB RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

151

sionally to intermit one of his usual devotions, which con­
sisted in reciting certain Hail Maries in honour of Mary’s
joys. She appeared to him, and not as usual, in youth and
beauty, but old and wrinkled. He ventured to enquire the
reason of the change, and she replied, “ I am become old to
you ; where is now the representation of my joys 1 Where
those Hail Maries Î Where those exercises of piety, by which
I was made young to you and you to me Î Do not intermit
my service under the pretext of guarding the monastery,
for I am its best guardian.” Whereupon the Blessed Joseph
returned to his usual exercises, much consoled at finding how
much his Blessed Mother rejoiced in this devotion to her joys.
St. Peter Damian, also, in his Epistles,
*
mentions a similar
incident. There was a certain monk, who, every day as
he passed in front of our Lady’s altar, used to salute her
with the following antiphon, “ Rejoice, 0 Mother of God,
immaculate Virgin, rejoice with the joy thou receivedst
from the Angel ; rejoice thou who didst bring forth the
brightness of eternal light : rejoice, 0 Mother, rejoice
Virgin Mother of God, rejoice thou the sole Virgin Mother ;
all creation praises thee; Mother of Light, intercede for
us.” One day as he was crossing the church, he heard a
voice from the altar saying, “ Thou announcest joy to me,
and joy shall happen to thyself.”
But it is not only to our Blessed Lord that we may
offer the sorrows, and the joys, the gifts, graces, and great­
ness of His Mother, but to herself also. One day, when
St. Gertrude was invoking her with those words of the
Church in the Salve Regina, “ Ah I then, our advocate,”
she saw our dear Mother, as if drawn by ropes, incline
towards her. By this she understood that as often as any
one names Mary his advocate with devotion, her motherly
tenderness is so much moved by the name, that she is a#
• Lib. 3, Ep. io.

153

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

it wore unable to prevent herself from granting his prayers.
At these words, “Those thine eyes of mercy,” our Lady
gently touched her Son, and turned Him towards the earth,
Baying to St. Gertrude, “ These (meaning the eyes of Jesus)
are those most merciful eyes of mine, which I can incline
to the salvation of all who invoke me, from which they re­
ceive the most rich fruit of eternal salvation. Hence she
learned from our Lord at least once a day to invoke that
most kind Mother with these words : “ Eja ergo, advocata
nostra, illos tuos misericordes oculos ad nos converte ; ”
and she was assured by Him, that she would thus secure
for herself no little consolation in the hour of death.
*
St. Bernard tells us to offer all our offerings to God
through the hands of Mary ; and, though the passage is
so well known, I must not omit it hero, t “ Whatever
you are going to offer, remember to commend it to Maiy,
that, grace may return to the Giver of grace through the
same channel whereby it flowed into you. Not that God
was unable to infuse grace as He willed, without this
aqueduct, but He chose to provide a channel for you.
For your hands, perhaps, are filled with blood, or soiled
with gifts, which you have not altogether shaken off from
them : therefore that little which you are going to offer,
take care, if you do not wish to be repulsed, to give it to
Mary to offer with those most worthy and acceptable hands
of hers. For those hands are as whitest lilies, and the
lover of lilies will never reprove as not found among the
lilies what is found in Mary’s hands.” Lancisius says we
should do this for two reasons : first, because as God has
willed that we should receive His gifts through Mary, so
we should offer our gifts to Him through her ; and secondly,
because oblation through her implies the great esteem which
God has for her, which is the origin of all her honour.
• Be», lib. iv.

+ De Aquæductu.

THF. RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

«S3

SECTION V.

THE HOLY ANGELS.

4. In like manner the beautiful life of the Angels, God's
eldest-born, may also furnish us with most ample materials
for intercession ; and our Lord seems to call our attention
to it, when He bids us pray, Thy will be done on earth as
it is in heaven. Scripture teaches us a great deal about
the Angels, their worship of God, their ministries towards
other creatures, their individual characters, as in the case
of Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, their multitude, and their
nine choirs by name. Some theologians have thought that
each Angel is a species of himself, which would indeed open
out quite an overwhelming view of the magnificence of God.
Others, with more show of reason, make twenty-seven species,
three in each choir, as there are three choirs in each hier­
archy : and even this gives us amazing ideas of the court
of heaven, when we remember how hard it is for us to con­
ceive of any further specific division of reasonable creatures
than into those with bodies, and those purely spiritual.
Others, without entering into the question of species, tell
us that the grace of each Angel is something quite different
in beauty and excellence from the grace of his fellows ; and
if we follow out this thought also, it will be a joy to us to
think of all the perfection of sweet worship which God is
receiving in heaven while we are serving him so meanly
upon earth. Thus, Sister Minima of Gesii Nazzareno, a
Carmelite nun of Vetralla, who lived at the time of the
French invasion of Italy, and spent a life of incessant and
wonderful intercession, used continually to offer to the
Divine Majesty the love of the first choir of Seraphim, in
reparation for all the outrages then going on in the world.

rj4

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

So also we are supplied with fresh materials for intercession
by the various magnificence of worship which the different
orders of Saints at this hour, and every hour, aro offering
to God in heaven, a worship and a glory which is increasing
constantly as fresh souls from earth or purgatory attain to
bliss. In all this we satisfy our own love, while wo are
with gentle efficacy influencing the Sacred Heart to grant
our prayers.

SECTION VI.
THE THINGS OF EARTH.

5. Then, again, if we descend to earth, even there we
find sweet bundles of fragrant incense wherewith to appease
the just anger of God, and to win a loving answer to our
prayers. All that the Saints have ever done in past cen­
turies, the wonders of Joseph’s hidden sanctity, the solitary
austeries of the Baptist, every weary step the apostles took
along the Roman roads, every pang the martyrs suffered ;
or farther back into the Old Testament times, the raptures
of the prophets, the fidelity of the Machabees, the marvels
of David’s godlike heart, the fights of Josue, the meekness
of Moses, the purity of Joseph, the simplicity of Jacob, the
meditations of Isaac, the faith of Abraham, the priesthood
of Melchisedech, the building of Noe, the blood of Abel,
and the long nights and toilsome days of Adam’s nine
hundred years of diligent, heroic, and accepted penance ; *
* Mother Juliana of Norwich, «peaking of Adam, in her Revelatione
of Divine Love, says, “The ruth and the pity of the Father was of the
falling of Adam, which is Bis most loved creature." Did Catholic England
ever contribute to the Church a more precious treasure than these Reve­
lations of Mother Juliana, the anchoret of Edward the Third's days?
Rhe may be compared with the B. Henry Suso, and even so carry of!
the palm.

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

155

all these we may offer humbly and confidently, as if the
sweetness and freshness of yesterday were upon them.
Neither can we have a method of prayer more in harmony
with the mind of the Church ; for it is almost the commonest
form of her collects to ask God for mercies now, because of
past mercies which He has vouchsafed to His Saints and
people.
But there is the present as well as the past. Earth
brings forth its glad harvest for God's glory at every hour.
Out upon its hills, and plains, and valleys this day, in the
convents and in the world, from the Pope in his palace to
the converted Indian in his hut, how many supernatural acts
are rising up to God, how many acts of faith, breathings of
hope, sighs of love and holy sorrow, how many penances,
how much conformity in pain to His most blessed Will !
How many Masses are being said, how many Communions
made, Absolutions given, Extreme Unctions received, and
each hour how many dear though silent victories are the
waters of Baptism achieving for the glory of the ever-blessed
Trinity ! All these belong to us ; all these may we gather
at our will and put them on the live coals of our devotion
in the thuribles of our hearts, and offer incense to the
Most High. Nay, the inferior creatures are all praising
God, by answering the end of their creation : the beasts of
the field, the birds of the air, and the fishes of the sea, the
woods and flowers, the winds and dews ; and these, as they
strike upon our eye or ear, we can offer in grateful love to
the majesty of God.
There are, too, God’s own works, from the creation of the
world to the present hour of His manifold Providence ; His
forbearance with sin, or His judgments on it ; His voices,
and visions, and revelations; His interpositions in behalf
of His Church : His visible protection of His ark in old
times, and of the Holy See in our own. By all these H<j

fj6

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

is willing to be entreated. All these He gives us as
weapons for the armoury of prayer. The inventive love of
the .Saints and holy men has gone even further than this.
They have offered to God in the fervour of their hearts all
the homage that all possible creatures could offer to Him;
that so they might come, or rather might seem to come, as
near to His infinity as possible. They have dared to con
ceive of those three abysses, the power of the Father, the
wisdom of the Son, and the love of the Holy Spirit, as
pouring forth in order and beauty all possible worlds, and
have offered up these countless systems as an act of love
and a plea of intercession. They have offered up, too, the
manifold and unknown sufferings of Purgatory, which they
one day expect themselves to feel, as beautiful in their per­
fections, holy in their dread functions, and further sancti­
fied by contact with the Holy Souls, and so as a sweet
oblation to the justice and purity of God.

SECTION VO.

THE DIVINE ATTRIBUTES.

6. But holy men have gone further even than this. “ All
things are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s.” They have felt
how unequal to the majesty of God are all the praises of
creatures ; and, therefore, when they have desired to
implore of God some more than common grace, they have
offered to Him His own infinite perfections, and the glory
He receives from those attributes which are Himself. They
have pleaded with the Father His own incommunicable
Paternity. They have pleaded by the Eternal Generation
of the Son, and by the Procession of the Holy Ghost from
the Father and the Son. They have offered to God the
knowledge and love whereby He knows and loves Himself,

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

157

and the incommunicable complacency of the Three Divine
Persons in Each Other : and they have found, not only an
answer to their prayers, but an increase of divine love in
their souls, which they would hardly have conceived to be
possible. They have found the technical terms of dogmas
and definitions to be, not mere words and sounds, but
flames from very heaven.
It is difficult to keep to our subject, that of intercession,
when we are quoting so many things which run away with
us and cause us to speak of love. But let us review all
these riches of our poverty, all these our possessions in
Christ, and see if we have not indeed an abundance of
sacrifices with which to approach God in continual and
fervent intercessions. Through what fields and fields of
delightful meditation do they not lead us all the while 1
What liberty of spirit they impart to us I How easy it is
to make this a service of love, where all so breathes of love
that it almost causes us to forget our intercession I
Take the case of invalids, of persons, not so much suffer­
ing from the pain of serious illness, as beneath the con­
tinual pressure of ailing health. They, too, desire to devote
themselves to the glory of God, to the interests of Jesus,
and to the saving of souls ; yet they can do nothing, so far
as external activity is concerned, neither perhaps have they
the means to help good works with alms. Direct interces­
sion, direct asking of God, in so many words, for grace for
such and such persons, is soon exhausted. There is nothing
in it to beguile the weariness of infirm health, or to lead
the spirit on. But to wander through these treasuries of
holy offerings, countless, various, and beautiful as they are,
is a placid occupation of the spirit. It recreates the flag­
ging devotion ; and thus enables us to keep up and per­
petuate our affectionate and reverential intercourse «nth
God, while we are in reality doing great and solid work for

158

THE RICHES OF OUR POVERTY.

His glory, and the advancement of His Church. Yet not
to invalids only, but to all, it is an easy, because interest­
ing, practice of the presence of God, interesting to the
affections as well as to the mind. The more our ideas
about God are multiplied, the more various our thoughts,
and images, and recollections of things which have to do
with Him, of course the more our minds and hearts are
engrossed with Him, and so it becomes easier to live all
day in His sensible presence : and is not the practice of the
presence of God one half of holiness 1
Neither should we omit to mention the unworldly
temper which this method of intercession would produce
in us. The world’s strong point fa its multiplicity. Its
objects of interest are so numerous. Its addresses so
many sides of our nature. It lays hold of us in such a
variety of ways. Whereas, religion is to many people so
intellectually uninteresting, so dry and barren, so uniform
and monotonous. They know so little about it ; and they
cannot always keep to one thing : and thus spirituality is
at a disadvantage. It fa true that there is a very lofty
and sublime state of the soul in contemplation where the
bare thought of God fa its perfection. But these things
are not for us. We, and such as we, need all the interest
which variety and beauty can give to devotion ; and even
then we tire of it before long. Thus the more interesting
and various is our religious knowledge, the more easy do
we find it to cast out of our souls the miserable spirit of
the world, and to become engrossed with tho interests of
Jesus.
What consolation also fa there not in these riches of our
poverty, when low spirits are upon us, or an over-depress­
ing sense of sin, or the thwartings of men, or the failure
of good works, or the unsatisfactoriness of life and of the
world 1 Downcast as we may be, after all, we want nothing

THE RICHES OP OUR POVERTY.

159

Ro much as that God should be loved, and Jesus have His
own : and so, weary with work or foiled with disappoint­
ment, when the dark night is closing in, bringing with
it to our sick spirits a sense of imprisonment, and when
the dismal rain curtains us round, and we fret to be at
liberty and at large, there is the very freedom of a sove­
reign to a soul traversing this boundless empire of God and
Jesus, of Mary, Angels, Saints, men, and the blameless
creatures, and rejoicing in that never-ceasing sacrifice of
praise which is rising up from every nook and corner of
creation to the dear Majesty of our most loving God and
Father I

CHAPTER VI.
MINTING MONEY.
God the centre of everything—So-called pillars of the Chnroh Natun
and grace—Oblation of our actions in union with those of Christ—
Minting money—The spirit of oblation : x. The oblation of our ordi­
nary actions—Methode and practices—Difference between canonised
and uncanonised writers—St. Gertrude’s oblations; a. Oblation of
recreations—Hints to valetudinarians—St. Charles's game of chess—
Noe's ark ; 3. Oblation of solitude ; 4. Rising to God by common
eights and sounds—Examples and practices—Peter Faber’s three
methods of prayer—Multiplicity of mental devotions—Vocal prayer—
Dry devotion not solid ; 5. Ejaculatory prayer—Father Baker—How
to say office ; 6. Oblation of sufferings—What it is to be allowed to
please God—God begging glory of His own creatures.

SECTION I.
THE HELPLESSNESS OF WORLDLY WISDOM.

God is the centre of everything, and the value of every­
thing. As everything comes from Him, so everything
returns to Him. Even the rebellious creature, which
refuses to repose in the embraces of His love, falls into
the hands of His justice. Nothing is worth anything,
except in so far as God chooses to have to do with it. The
enlightened mind or the loving heart can respect nothing,
except under its relation, true or supposed, to Almighty
God. There is but one view of things which is true, and
that is God’s view of them. It seems hardly worth while

MINTING MONEY.

161

to say each very obvious things. Yet the misery is that
even Catholics find a difficulty in getting these truths into
their minds, to say nothing of the farther difficulty of
acting upon them when received. Many men are shocked
at the external signs of oblivion of God, which are so
distressingly obvious in an heretical country : and yet
they themselves in their own subject-matter do not really
let God have His own. Look how Catholics act when
mixed up with a political party, or a scientific institute, or
aristocratical society, and you will see at once a conduct,
which, implicitly at least, supposes that God is very well
in His own place, but that He has limits, and that to
intrude Him, and religious considerations which have to do
with Him, into certain discussions, actions, or interests, is
either an impertinence or a narrow-mindedness, or at least
an impatiently tolerated idiosyncrasy. Many good people,
from the best of motives, fall into this, and they deem
they are going to win God some glory, and His Church
some prosperity, from thus playing the sycophant to the
world and its principles. Alas I they wake up one day
and find, that, while their own devotion has become dull,
and their prayers distracted, and their piety merely
exterior, and their principles insensibly lowered to the
level around them, they have not drawn to God one single
soul, or in any one nook of the world increased the love of
our dear Lord. With how many is this the case, who are
thought to be invaluable men and pillars of the Church,
not because they are supernatural men and in God’s
secrets, but because they have the world’s ear, and repre­
sent its influential classes I Their prudence is apparently
successful I But in what does it succeed 1 Does anybody
love Jesus better Î Is there a poor soul saved somewhere Î
Oh no 1 but the Ministry of the day have been got to
drop a condescending word about the Pope, or a neutral

r6a

MINTING MONEY.

member has asked a question about some little something
in the House of Commons ; which is first asked, then
noticed in the next day’s paper, and finally ends in nothing I
But, then, anything like unrespectability has been so com­
pletely avoided I Well, well ! God be praised, and these
kind patrons of God be praised also. Only sometimes we
want something more than to be respectable, just as God
may possibly want something more than patronage, and
perhaps especially not want that. Let us look to our
prudence. It will be the best thing about us, if it be
supernatural. But not else. In this country, and at this
time, men must have a very clear view of God, else they
are quite sure in a hundred ways not to let Him have His

It is very obvious to say, that if we always knew what
God wished, it would be a great help to us in serving Him.
We should not surely throw ourselves into open rebellion
against the express will of God. Yet practically, in by
far the greatest number of our actions, we do know this ;
and in all of them, if we do not know what He would
have us do, we know at least the motive from which He
would have us act, whenever we act at all. “ Whatever
you do, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do
all for the glory of God.” St. John tells us that God is
charity. Thus in the whole of the almost infinite and
complicated system in which we live, God has contrived
all things, quite wonderfully, for these two ends, if they
might not more properly be called one end than two ; He
has arranged eveiything, first, so that He may be loved;
and secondly, so as to enable us to love Him. If we may
dare thus to speak of the Almighty, He seems to have no
other end in view at all ; and He manages things by
artifices of almighty power, in order to bring this about.
This is His rule by which He has done everything. The

MINTING MONEY.

163

hearts of His creatures are the only treasures He will
condescend to accept from His own creation.
It is remarkable, when we come to think of it, that
neither Angels nor men were created in a state of nature,
but in a state of grace; and were thus able at once to
love God, and to merit eternal life, which is nothing else
than eternal society with Him. Grace was a better posi­
tion than nature for loving God. By grace He could
communicate Himself to us supernaturally. By it He at
once got more love from us, and made us more able to
love Him. Then came redemption, and the same end is
visible there. He could have forgiven sin without the
Incarnation; but it was the most loving way, and more
sweetly constrained us to love Him. When our dear
Lord came, one tear was enough to redeem countless
worlds ; but blood was more loving. Then one drop of
blood was enough, but to shed it all, and to shed it
variously, in the garden, at the pillar, during the way of
the cross, and on Calvary, was more loving, more likely
to call out men’s love. When Jesus went, and the work
of redemption was to go on operating through all ages,
common grace would have done; but that Jesus should
come back to us invisibly in the transcending wonder of
the Blessed Sacrament was more loving, more personal,
and more constraining to our affection. We might be
eternally happy in a sinless immortality, spent in a world
of beautified nature : but His delight is to be with the
children of mon, and that they should be with Him to all
eternity, and that nothing short of His own dear and
adorable Self should be their enjoyment. You see every­
thing our Heavenly Father does is for lova He vouch­
safes to long for our love. He makes us so that we car
only be happy in loving Him ; and then, looking compas
sionately on our intense desire to love Him more, He does

104

MINTING MONEY.

nil that we will let Him do to enable ue to love Him more
and more worthily and fervently. Thus all is love from
first to last ; there is no other measure : there is no other
principle.
Oh, that we had the hearts to take this in, and all that
it involves I If we are to come to weights and measures
with Infinite Goodness, surely His love of us should be
our measure of love of Him, a measure to which we must
never cease to aspire, though we shall never attain it.
If our hearts are not at once touched, melted, and carried
away by the very thought and name of God, reflection
must at least convince us that all religion is a matter of
love, and that without some love we can never see God.
All through, God takes the lower place in His own world ;
He stoops to plead when we should expect Him to com­
mand ; He makes as though we were laying Him under
an obligation who created us out of nothing, and from
whom alone all that is good proceeds. May I say it?
He makes love to us, and woos our souls with blandish­
ments which no churlishness of ours seems ever to repel.
Tie is continually giving way, continually waiving His
rights, putting Himself in our position and us in His.
The Incarnation is itself a figure of the whole conduct of
the Creator to His unworthy creatures. The mystery of
the Blessed Sacrament is simply in harmony with the way
and conduct of the Almighty in His own world. Yet,
alas 1 we are not touched I We are as hard, dry, un­
gracious, mean, as ever, as though it were some great
honour to us to show off the might of our free will, by
which, while God is contriving everything to get love from
us, we can manage, in spite of Him, to make religion as
nearly as possible a shopkeeper’s bargain, or a convict’s
grudging obedience. Yes 1 till we got to know our own
hearts, hell might have seemed a severity ; but truly a

MINTING MONEY.

,6$

little self knowledge shown that it is almost the chiefest,
because the most indispensable, of the Divine Mercies.
Well might St. Francis run about the woods in the
valley of Spoleto, exclaiming, “ Oh, God not known and
not loved I ” Well might St. Bruno cause the mountain
solitudes to echo with his one life-long cry, “ Oh, Good­
ness ! Goodness I Goodness ! ” Well might our dearest
Lord appear to St. Gertrude, pale, weary, bleeding, and
dirt-stained, and say, “ Open your heart, my daughter, for
I want to go in and lie down : I am weary of these days
of sin I ”

SECTION Π.

THE DOCTRINE OF INTENTION DEV0TI0NAIXT CONSIDERED.

But at last, as we grow in the knowledge of God, we
grow in His love also. We come at length to feel pain
and anguish because we do not love our blessed God more,
and because others do not love Him also. Here, too, He
is ready to meet us. He not only arranges all things so
as to get love, but with this He arranges so as to enable
us to love Him in all manner of supernatural ways. I
said in the last chapter that He did this in two ways
more especially; first, He gives us all that is His, and
lets us offer it to Him again as if it were all our own ;
these are the riches of our poverty which we then con­
sidered. Secondly, He magnifies our own poor actions,
and gives them an immense value by uniting them to His,
and enabling us to do them from supernatural motives,
and in union with Him. It is this last method of putting
it in our power to love Him more worthily that we are
to consider now. We are to meditate on the treasure of
our common actions, and on the Catholic devotion of

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MINTING MONEY.

perpetually offering them up to God united with the
actions of Jesus. This is the second manner in which
God mercifully rescues us from the littleness anil worth­
lessness of our own selves. There is not a single thing
wo do all the day long, which may not, and that quite
easily, be made to advance the glory of God, the interests
of Jesus, and the salvation of souls. No matter how
completely the world may have set its seal upon it, nor
how utterly it seems to be an affair of temporal business,
or a trivial concern belonging only to the misery of human
life. The heavenly motive enters into it; that moment
it is all filled with God, and becomes a jewel of almost
infinite price, with which the Divine Majesty condescends
to be well pleased. The hours pass, one following the
other; each one is filled with actions belonging to our
state. We write, or read, or keep accounts, or buy, or
sell, or speak, or think, or suffer; and all the while, if
we choose it, we are minting money, heavenly money
which can merit eternal life. There needs but the act or
intention of oblation, by which our actions touch those of
God made Man, to confer this value upon every single
thing we do.
This devotion of saying Mass, as it were, with our actions
all day long is peculiarly catholic. I suppose it strikes
converts as much as anything else in the devotional system
of the Church ; and it is surely another most touching
instance of the way in which God contrives everything for
love. Pious people sometimes complain of the distractions
of worldly occupations ; they think it will be the peculiar
business of heaven to worship God with an unintermitting
worship ; in fact, they complain that earth is not heaven.
Yet surely, in this respect at least, it need not be so very
unlike it. If ours is a service of love, every one of these
so-called distractions is in truth a precious oblation. Every

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action is Host and Incense and Song and Sacrifice all th»
day long, if we choose that it should be so ourselves. Now,
if we have really at heart God’s glory, the interests of
Jesus, and the saving of souls, if we would fain be occupied
in these things at all hours, we must not neglect to profit
by this treasure of our common actions.
The spirit of oblation, I have said, is essentially catholic.
It springs from the doctrine of the Mass, which is the
centre and fountain of all true devotion. It belongs to a
religion of sacrifice, such as the Gospel is in every way.
Our dear Lord redeemed us by the oblation and sacrifice
of himself ; and hence oblation and sacrifice enter into
every minutest detail of our religion. No wonder, then,
that they should give a shape and form, a genius and spirit,
to Catholic devotion. This is so obvious, it need not be
dwelt upon. But what I want you to observe is, that here
also is the same contrivance for love, the same sweet
paternal spirit, which God vouchsafes to show us every­
where. It would seem as if prayer was a privilege which
could not possibly be exceeded even by infinite compassion,
and that a creature could look for nothing more than the
privilege of making his wants known to his merciful
Creator. Yet oblation is something beyond prayer. In
prayer we receive from God ; in oblation it is He who
vouchsafes to receive, and we are allowed to giva To
make presents is not only a sign of love, but of some sort
of equality ; and thus from oblation there springs a more
familiar, tender, and affectionate familiarity with God
than could arise from petition only. The childlike freedom
of the Saints comes in great measure from this spirit of
oblation.

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SECTION m.

THE PRACTICES OF THE SAINTS.

I. Let us now see what the practices of the Saints have
been with regard to the oblation of their own daily actions
to God. We must remember throughout that our position
is this. Wo are longing for God’s glory, for the interests
of Jesus, and for the good of souls. We see an over­
whelming amount of work to be done, little time to do it
in, and small means to do it with. We must be covetous
of all we have, greedy of grace, and greedy of everything
which grace can make its own. Our dear Lord I it is for
Him we are working; so we must work hard, and work
always. We have something to do, and wo do it, and there
the action stops. But if we do the same thing with devout
attention, offering it to Jesus in union with something
similar which He condescended to do on earth, it becomes
a sweet sacrifice of immense power with God. What miser
but would be minting money all the day if he could Î Yet
this is just what we can do, and, through the stupendous
mystery of the Incarnation, in a most real way, effectual
to the obtaining of eternal life.
St. Thomas teaches that the work of a just man becomes
the more meritorious in proportion to the excellence of the
supernatural motive for which the work is done, and that
as love, the love of benevolence, as it is called, is more
excellent than any other, so works done for that motive
are the most meritorious of all. Furthermore he teaches,
as I mentioned in a previous chapter, that works done to
God as our Father, are more meritorious than those done
for Him as our Creator, because the motive is more
excellent. Rodriguez tells us that God revealed to St

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’69

Mechtildie that it was most pleasing to Him that we
should offer Uim all our actions in union with those of
Christ, and our Lord Himself taught the same to St.
Gertrude, and also to St Mary Magdalene of Pazzi. Thus
St Thomas says * that “ Christ is signified by the double
altar of holocausts and incense ; because by Him we ought
to offer to God all the works of virtue by which we afflict
our flesh ; and these are offered on the altar of holocausts ;
and that we should offer to Him also all those which we
do with a greater perfection of mind, by the spiritual
desires of the perfect ; and these are offered on the altar
of incense.” Thus, St. Ignatius in his rule says, “ that all
his children are to have a right intention not only as to
their state of life, but as to all details, always in all of
them seeking to act only so as to please the Divine Good­
ness for His own sake ; ” and St. Teresa says, “ That every
one will gain the desired end of his prayers more effica­
ciously, if he will but offer his actions to the Eternal
Father in union with the merits of our Lord.” Orlandini
tells us of Father Peter Faber, “ That he took upon him­
self the patronage of the dead so thoroughly, that he
wished all his brothers so to offer their ordinary actions
that, when hindered by so many cares, and distracted by
so many external occupations, they could not pray with
their voices, their very actions might rise up as silent
petitions for the Holy Souls. ” In order to avoid weariness
and the straining of the mind, Lancisius recommends that
this offering should be made by single words, either “ I will,
or I offer, or I do or say this,—for Thy sake, my heavenly
Father ! ” and that we may either keep to the same words
or vary them, according as we find our devotion is most
excited. This prayer of practical oblation is, he says, in
itself more excellent and meritorious even than the con·
• i. a, q. xoa-

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temptation of the prayer of quiet ; and for this reason : in
both, whether oblation or contemplation, the formal object
is the same, God loved simply for His own sake; but in
oblation a further matter is added, the work or word done
or said for God. Hence it is that theologians teach that
the mixed life is more perfect than that which is purely
*
contemplative.
The same spiritual writer recommends also that we
should offer to God the particular circumstances of our
actions, as well as the actions themselves. For example,
on rising in the morning, he would have us say, “ O most
holy and beloved Father, I now desire to rise because of
Thee, and in union with the merits, and all the works of
my dear Lord, without delay, so as promptly to obey tho
call of holy obedience, and to dress myself with all modesty,
and as quickly as I can, that I may begin all the sooner to
work for Thy glory.” He says that this variation of the
material circumstances of our actions at once increases
the merit of the offering, and prevents weariness and oppres­
sion of spirit. Yet this might act differently on different
persons, or on the same persons at different times.
He recommends also, as an act of greater love and merit,
that we should make the offering of our actions for several
supernatural ends subordinate to the great one of God
alone ; and he gives the following examples, not that we
should necessarily think of them all in all our actions, but
in order to furnish variety for different tastes and devotional
inclinations.
1. For the supernatural goodness which
there is in the act of virtue itself. 2. To fulfil the precepts
of God or the Church. 3. To obey our superiors. 4. To
overcome and mortify self. 5. To satisfy for the sins of
* The Benedictine and Cannelite schools of mystical theology would
hardly allow this Jesuit doctrine. But the merit of contemplation is a
very vexed question.

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171

Buch and such a person. For, in order to satisfy for onr
own sins, it is not necessary to make a distinct oblation of
our actions. For every supernatural work of a just man
satisfies for bis sins of itself, if it be not offered for others.
6. That by this work we may worship, glorify, and please
God in the highest degree. 7. That we may show Him
our gratitude for all His gifts to us and to others, to the
Sacred Humanity of our Blessed Lord, to our dear Lady,
the Angels, the Saints, and even the unhappy ones who
are lost. 8. That we may give good example and edifica­
tion. 9. That by this action or word we may increase the
habits of virtue which make us dear to God. 10. That we
may become more like God. 11. That we may thus adorn
our soul, and make it a more fitting temple for the Holy
Ghost, and a more chaste member of Jesus Christ. 12.
That we may so spread more widely the glory of Christ
and the efficacy of His Precious Blood by thus multiplying
supernatural actions in ourselves.
13. That we may
gladden the Church Triumphant 14. And adorn the
Church Militant. 15. And confound the evil spirits. r6.
That we may call down more grace upon all the Body of
Christ 17. That we may thus before men, Angels, and
devils, exhibit the efficacy of the Blessed Eucharist. 18.
That we may fulfil thereby our vows, or desires, or resolu­
tions. 19. That we mjiy be faithful to divine inspirations.
20. That we may imitate Christ and the Saints. 21. That
we may thereby do honour to our dear Lady, our guardian
Angel, or our patron Saint. All these intentions will
apply as well to the suffering of evil as to the doing of
good.
Thus, in the secret laboratory of intention, is the dross
of our commonest actions daily turned into the finest gold ;
and we may learn, to our great consolation, of what value
these actions become in our Lord’s sight, from His own

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revelation to St. Gertrude. “ As a covetous usurer,” said
He, “ would not willingly miss the opportunity of making
a single penny, much more unwillingly would I allow one
thought or one movement of your little finger made for My
sake to perish, without My turning it to My own great
praise and your eternal salvation.” On another occasion,
when she was suffering one night from weakness, she ate
some grapes, with the mental intention of refreshing our
Lord in herself. He on His part took this as a royal gift,
and said to her, '* In this I confess that you have recom­
pensed Me for the bitter potion which I for your sake took
upon the cross ; for now 1 suck unspeakable sweetness out
of your heart ; for with how much greater purity of inten­
tion you recreate your body for My glory, with so much
the more sweetness do I acknowledge Myself recreated in
your souL” Another time our Ix>rd said to her, “ My
tenderness will accept one step, or one lifting of a straw
from the ground, or one word, or one courteous gesture, or
one Requiem asternam for the dead, or one word for sinners,
or even for the just, if there be a pious intention along
with it.”

SECTION IV.
SPIRITUAL WRITERS.

It is consoling, and, perhaps, all things considered, not
surprising, that the spiritual writings of the Saints are
much more condescending towards our low attainments and
faint hearts, than the writings of good men who are not
Saints. How often is the poor timid yet aspiring spirit
wearied, and cruelly beaten back, by the hard, dry, theo­
retical system of some spiritual books I How full they are
of heights, so high that an Angel scarce could breathe upon

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173

them I They are ever putting before uh an almost impos­
sible detachment from creatures, a continual stress and
strain of mind, a complete death of all natural activity, or
else they tell us we are not in the right way, they do not
say not yet on the mountain tops, but not even on the
road. Again, they throw us almost into despair by showing
us how delusion is everywhere, and well nigh inevitable,
so that we abandon the pursuit of perfection altogether, as
a state where God entices us only to take us at a dis­
advantage.
How different are the writings of the Saints I Even St.
John of the Cross, the “doctor of nothingness,” as he has
been named, how sweet, encouraging, mild, hopeful, and
gradual he is to the lowest of us in his teaching! Of
St. Philip it used to be said, laughingly, in his lifetime,
that he drove men to heaven in a carriage and four. Wise
St. Ignatius said, that, if men in religious houses were not
fed well, they could never pray well ; and in the work Of
a Good Superior, we may see how he was always teasing the
Father ministers to get better food, and of a more expensive
quality. He drove one nearly wild by insisting that all the
community should have lampreys, one Friday when they
were very dear, so that only cardinals and ambassadors were
buying them. The Saints teach us even in their playful­
ness, and when they look as if they were perversely giving
scandal, it is often then that they are the most adroitly
insinuating wisdom. St. Francis of Sales complained to
the Bishop of Belley of the bad dinners he gave him, yet
he was the Saint of pure love. Would that pure spirit,
St. Alphonso, have been half so lax, if he had been but
half as holy 1 Spiritual books tell us that if we indulge,
for instance, our sense of smell in some fragrance, it is a
huge immortification ; yet St. Mary Magdalene of Par-gj
runs into the garden, plucks a flower, inhales the fragrance

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with delight, and cries out, “ O good, most good God I who
from all eternity destined this flower to give me, a sinner
this enjoyment.” So I know not how St. Gertrude and
her grapes would have fared with some spiritual writers,
most holy men, yet somehow sterner than Saints have for
the most part been. She would have been told that she
should remember our Lord’s thirst upon the cross, and that
she should not give way, unless, indeed, she felt that she
had not grace for the heights of perfection. All this would
have been very true, and to many souls the right advice ;
yet the revelation teaches us that the rule is not invariable,
and gives us a glimpse of another spirit. Thus, also, St.
Teresa, in her letter to Alonzo Velasquez, bishop of Osma,
speaking of herself in the third person, says, “ Besides what
I have just mentioned, then again, as far as regards her
body and health, I think she takes more care of it, and is
less mortified in eating; neither has she such desires of
doing penance as she used to have. But, in her opinion,
all tends to this object, namely, to be able to serve God the
more in other things ; for she often offers Him, as an agreeable sacrifice, this care she takes of the body.” *
I am not saying it is easy to be a Saint, but that Saints
deal more easily with those who are trying to be Saints
than uncanonised writers do. The Saints are the easiest
masters. It is because they are more like Jesus than the
rest of men, more common, more considerate, more con
descending, making allowances, calculating for character,
and entering into the circumstances, views, and feelings
of others. Whosoever is trying to attain Christian perfec­
tion, let him follow St. Philip’s rule of keeping to the books
of authors “ whose names begin with an S,” that is, the
Sainte. If he puts himself too completely into the hands
of other authors, the chances are ten to one that others,
* Dalton's Translation, vol. L p. 16.

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»75

far behind him now, will one day meet him walking down
the hill in dismay of soul, angry and disheartened, because
his authors have dragged him through the brambles, and
broken his knees upon the rocks, and given him many
an occasional roll down slippery steeps, while others have
been stealing on with modest stealth, picking their way
from one saintly footprint to another, as little urchins walk
along the sea sands, putting their tiny feet into the footprints which a big man leaves behind him, and, if the
strides are a little long and somewhat ludicrous, at least
the quicksands are avoided.
But I must guard against being misunderstood. I am
not saying that uncanonised spiritual writers are dangerous
guides, or that their works are not most valuable, and many
of them received with the applause of the Universal Church.
All I mean is that, speaking generally, there is a very per­
ceptible difference between the tone of writers who are
Saints and writers who are not Saints, and that the dif­
ference is that the Saints are more condescending, and
speak more indulgently ; and further, still speaking generally,
those persons, and they are not few, who are men of one
book, and trust themselves utterly to one book, are safest,
when that book is the work of a saint. I do not forget
that Thomas à Kempis is not a Saint, and that St. Francis
of Sales was a man of one book, and his author, Scupoli,
the Theatine, is uncanonised. You must not push my words
beyond a caution and a general proposition. The fact is,
spiritual books are a tremendous power, and can harm as
well as help, and, like steam, when they do harm, it is on
a terrific scale.
But it was not simply because Gertrude was a Saint that
our Lord took such pleasure in this oblation of her ordinary
actions. Once when the whole community were bowing
at the words, Verbum caro factum est, out of reverence

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for our Lord’s Incarnation, she understood our I>ord to
say, “ Whenever any one with devout gratitude bows at
these words, giving Me thanks because for the love of him
I deigned to become Man, so often, impelled by the spur
of My own tenderness, do I condescendingly bow to him
in return ; and with the most intimate affection of My
Heart, I make a double offering to God the Father of all
the fruit of My most Blessed Humanity, in augmentation
of that man’s eternal bliss.” See, also, how He speaks of
comforts : “ Whosoever,” said Ho to St. Gertrude, “ shall
study to take all his recreation and use his comforts, in
drinking, eating, sleeping, and the like, with this intention
in his heart or mouth, Lord, I take this food, or whatever
it may be, in union with that love wherewith Thou didst
sanctify Thyself, when, in Thy most Sacred Humanity,
Thou didst use like comforts, to the glory of the Father,
and the salvation of the whole human race, that in union
with Thy divine love it may increase the consolation of
those in heaven, on earth, and in Purgatory,—he, each
time he does so, is as it were a most firm shield in front of
Me, against the many vexations with which worldly people
persecute Me, and I look upon him as My protector and
defender.” Once, on the Thursday before the Carnival, after
matins, Gertrude heard some servants in a neighbouring
house making a noise in the kitchen, preparing their break­
fast. She sighed and exclaimed, “Alas, my Lord, how
early men rise in the morning to persecute Thee with their
feasting 1 ” But our Lord, smiling a little at her, replied,
“Nay, dearest daughter I here is no need for sighing. They
who are making the noise are not of the number who rage
against Me with their gluttony ; for by this breakfast they
are incited to their daily toil. Wherefore, I delight in their
feeding, as a man rejoices when he sees his beast feed heartily,
because it will serve him better.”

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>77

O gentle Lord I why do not our hearts melt when we
read these things of Theeî It is no taskmaster with whom
we have to do I Such little toils and such great rewards I
Such a profusion of mercies, such a prodigality of graces,
such a lavishing of caresses I If the dog loves his master,
and shows that he appreciates his kindness and intentions,
how much more should we serve, and all for love, so dear
a master as our compassionate Lord Î Yet, alas I we will
persist in having such hard notions of our wonderful God.
We will go on imitating the ungracious ways of the servant
who hid his one talent in a napkin for fear of his Lord’s
austerity, and we will not own God for what He is, our
almost incredibly indulgent Father. How keenly He feels
this rude perversity : “ Hear, 0 ye heavens ! and give ear,
0 earth ! I have brought up children, and exalted them ;
but they have despised Me. The ox knoweth his owner,
and the ass his master’s crib ; but Israel hath not known
Me, and My people hath not understood.”* Yet while
we will not show Him the gratitude of beasts, He still
covenants to be to us more than a mother to her child.
When Sion said, “Tho Lord hath forsaken mo, and the
Lord hath forgotten me,” He answered the cry, “Can a
woman forget her infant, so as not to have pity on the son
of her womb 1 and if she should forget, yet will not I forget
thee.” +
What is move necessary to true worship than a deep
and calm reverence 1 Nay, what is more sweet to hothearted love than to be hushed and awe-smitten in the.
presence of the refulgent attributes of God ? Familiarity
in religion would be a simple impertinence if reverence did
not mingle with it. What more familiar than the relation
between father and son, yet what love more reverent than
filial love ? Truly, while it was true reverence which made
• leuitm i. 3.

t Isaias xlix. 14.

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Peter tell his Master to depart, from him because he was a
sinful man, it was no true reverence which made the craven
men of Gadara beseech Jesus to withdraw His importunate
blessings from their coast. But it was reverence, perhaps
a deeper reverence than Peter’s, which made Magdalene
strive to hold the risen Jesus by His feet, though it was
not His will to suffer it. Too often, alas ! we mistake
coldness for reverence, and stiffness for respect. How
sweetly did Jesus reprove that spirit when St. Gertrude
complained to Him of one of her nuns who, out of rever­
ence, as she fancied, kept away from a community Com­
munion : “What would you have Me do?” said our
Blessed Lord, “ these good people tie the bandage of their
own unworthiness so tightly over their eyes that they can­
not see the tenderness of My Paternal Heart.” *

SECTION V.
THE SPIRIT OF ST. GERTRUDE.

The spirit of St. Gertrude was so eminently a spirit of
oblation and of familiarity, that when Lancisius wrote his
treatise on the Presence of God, he devoted an entire
chapter to the methods observed by her in the oblation of
her ordinary actions. Eusebius Amort, in his examination
of her revelations, notes the language of some of these
methods as new in the Church, and not according to the
language of the schools : though other grave authors quote
them with approval. Omitting these, I will now mention
some of her methods, t Sometimes she offered her actions
* Rev. iii. x. sub fine.
+ In a similar manner Schram, in his Mystical Theology, censures, so
almost heretical, ejaculations which St. Francis of Sales quotes with
tenderness and relish. Yet in doctrinal matters it may be safer for ue to
follow the colder and more cautious author. Resides, he wrote later.

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«79

in anion with the mutual love of the Three Divine Pentone
of the Adorable Trinity. Sometimes she offered the pains
and tears of Jesus for the negligences of her actions.
Sometimes she made her oblation in union with the effica­
cious prayer of Jesus, and in the virtue of the Holy Ghost,
for the emendation of her sins and the supply of her
omissions.
Sometimes in gratitude for blessings, she
offered with her thanks “that sweetness which in the
supercelestial treasury of the Divinity, beyond all sense,
and with infinite pleasure, the Divine Persons communi­
cate to each other.” Another of her offerings was all the
Passion of God’s dear Son from the hour when He first
wept as He was laid upon the straw in the manger, to the
hour when He bowed His head upon the cross, and with a
loud cry gave up the ghost. This was for her sins. Then
in reparation for her negligences, she offered to the Father
all the most holy conversation of His Son, which was
faultlessly perfect in all Hifl thoughts, words, and deeds,
from the hour when He was sent into the world, to the
hour when He presented to His Father the glory of His
victorious Flesh. In union with her thanksgiving she
offered back to God what He had given, and using the
Sacred Heart of Jesus as a sweet-thrilling organ, she
sounded it in the virtue of the Paraclete, and accompany­
ing it with her songs, she sang to God praises on behalf of
all the creatures in heaven, on earth, and beneath the
earth, which have been, are, or ever shall be. At other
times she made her offerings in union with the Divine
Perfections : and our Lord Himself taught her to offer
some actions to Him in union with the love by which God
was made man. Once when she was offering to the Father
the holy conversation of His Only-Begotten, it seemed to
her as if all the gems with which our Lord’s vestments
were adorned, moved in them, and gave out a most ravish­

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ing melody in praise of the Eternal Father ; by which sh·
knew how acceptable to God was this particular method of
oblation.
At other times she made her offering in this way: "0
Lord I I offer this work to Thee by Thine only Son, in the
virtue of the Holy Ghost, to Thine eternal praise.” It
was then given her to see that by this intention her works
were ennobled, and made magnificent beyond all human
estimation ; for, just as a thing looks green which is looked
at through a green glass, or red through a red glass, so is
everything most pleasing and acceptable to God the Father,
which is offered through His Only-Begotten Son. Some­
times she prayed our Lord that He would deign to offer
for her all the perfections which He had on the day of His
Ascension. At other times she offered her heart to God,
to His eternal praise, to fulfil both in her body and her
soul all His good pleasure. At this offering Jesus was
pleased to show Himself so touched, that with great joy,
and the utmost sweetness, Πο stooped from the cross, and
embracing her with unspeakable exultation, He gently
pressed her to the Wound of His most Holy Side, and
said, “ Welcome, My dearest daughter I you are the most
soothing ointment of My wounds, and the most sweet
alleviation of My pains.” Our Lord taught her also, by
saying Alleluia, to praise God in union with all the
heavenly citizens, who incessantly praise Him by that
word in heaven. Sometimes she offered to God all the
holy conversation of Jesus to supply for her deficiency
since the hour of her baptism, in not affording such a
Guest a worthy mansion in her soul ; or, at the elevation
of the Host, she made the same offering for all her want of
correspondence to the inspirations of the Holy Ghost. Or,
again, in union with the most spotless limbs of our Blessed
Lord, she commended to Him, as He Himself had taught

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181

her to do, all the limits of her body, with every movement
of them, that from that time they should never move
except for His love, and to Hie praise and glory. When
she did this, she beheld a golden belt issue from the Heart
of God, and clasp her soul, so as to unite it in indissoluble
love with our Lord.
These are given as specimens of St. Gertrude's method
and spirit, which may be suggestive to ourselves, not as
recommending any of them particularly, as fitting for
ourselves. What a different idea we should have of our
dearest Lord, if we practised anything of this sort I How
would all our thoughts, and loves, and wishes, be quickly
brought into subjection to Him ! Moreover, does not this
at least show us how the driest and most secular occupa­
tion may, with ease and sweetness, be turned into a
perpetual service of Divine Love Î

SECTION VI.
RECREATIONS, AMUSEMENTS, AND COMMON THINGS.

a. Besides these ordinary actions belonging to our state
and calling in life, our recreations and free time should
be filled with meritorious actions : so that Jesus may
always be reaping a harvest of glory and of love in our
hearts. Alas 1 how many in communities lose in recrea­
tion all they have gained in observance and in prayer ; so
that mortification is an easier duty in the religious life than
recreation.
Mariano Sozzini, a father of the Roman
Oratory, mentions that one of the fathers in his day used,
as he went daily from the refectory to the recreation-room,
to pray for the four first fruits of the Holy Ghost, charity,
joy, peace, and patience ; because, to make recreation at
once general and useful, these four gifts were required

ï8j

MINTING MONEY.

Some have attained to such a practice of the presence of
God, that when out walking, and engaged in conversation,
they have contrived to say to God in their hearts at nearly
every step they took, “ For Thy sake, for Thy sake;
Propter Te, propter Te;” and the same, while helping
themselves at table, and at nearly all their gestures during
meals. St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi told her novices to
offer to God’s glory, if it were possible, tho very winking
of their eyes, and the slightest motions of their limbs ;
and she promised them, if they would act in this way, that
they should go straight to heaven, after their death, with­
out the pains of Purgatory. In order to get this practice
more deeply rooted in them, she often asked, first one, and
then another, quite unexpectedly, and whatever they were
doing, with what intention they were acting. If some one
gave her no answer at once, she gathered that she had
begun her work without a previous intention, and reproved
her for losing an occasion of merit, and taking away a
pleasure from God. It is mentioned, of course as a marvel,
in the Life of Gregory Lopez, that for three whole years
he had said in his heart at every respiration, “ Thy will bo
done on earth as it is in heaven ; ” and the habit was so
formed in him, that if by chance he awoke during the
night, he began to do the same. We cannot do these
things, but it makes us love God more, to know that Ho
has raised up men who could. Blessed be the Most Holy
Trinity for all grace that has ever been in the spirits of
Angels, and the hearts of men I
There are many who desire to be all for God, and are
fain to practice some such bodily austerities as they read
of in the Lives of the Saints ; but either their health is
ailing and uncertain, or they have not the courage to do
penance, or which is most common of all, the health and
courage both are wanting. We need a treatise on per-

MINTING MONEY.

(8;

fcction for valetudinarians. People in ailing health can do
both more and less than those in a downright illness ; and
the more and the loss want distinguishing and explaining.
For valetudinarians, in the modern sense of the word,
spiritual books are almost silent, though in the third tract
of Father Baker’s Sancta Sophia there is much that is to
the purpose. Yet, St. Bernard is said to have purposely
chosen unhealthy sites for his monasteries, because he
considered weak health a great help to contemplation and
interior exercises. But now-a-days nervousness, rheu­
matism, and an effeminate bringing up, do the work quite
as effectually as the malaria of a woody swamp. Yet
will any one rule that a valetudinarian cannot be a Saint,
or practice heroic virtue 1
Now, if such persons are really honest with themselves,
they should look out for penances which neither give them
the bodily pain they cannot bear, nor interfere with their
infirmities. It is plain that to be scrupulous about the use
of our time, is just such a penance as this. We can promise
God that we will never willingly waste our time in occupa­
tions by which we cannot merit. This resolution is by no
means easy to keep in these days ; it will often be felt as
a yoke interfering with our natural liberty. Yet if we
keep it, we shall really be doing penance, and at the same
time reaping an immense harvest for the glory of God, the
interests of Jesus, and the good of souls. This does not
by any means forbid recreations. Every one remembers
the story of St. Charles Borromeo and his game of chess.
When others were saying what they would forthwith
begin to do if they knew they should die within an hour,
the Saint said he should go on with his chess ; for he had
began it simply for God’s glory, and he desired nothing
better than to be called away in the midst of an action
begun for the glory of God. It is easy to merit at play ;

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for almost all pastimes arc full of opportunities for the
practice of virtues. It ia quito possible to merit by reading
a trashy novel,
*
provided trashiness to its sole or worst
defect; both because it may be a duty to distract the mind,
which can only be distracted by an interesting occupation,
and also because the forcible contrast between the unreality
of the foolish tale, and those solemn realities of the faith
which generally engage us, draws forth from us many an
act of love, and many an act of thanksgiving, for the faith,
and for grace.
But it is not easy to merit by idling about, by purpose­
less lounging, by wishing the time away, and voting things
a bore, and by many kinds of frivolous, gossiping conversa­
tion. Religious people are, for the most part, not so
scrupulous about the use of their time as they should be :
yet, surely if, as we believe, St Charles is a degree higher
in heaven for his game of chess, it is a sad thing to miss so
many opportunities of meriting, and so many occasions of
advancing the interests of Jesus. Really, the exact use of
jut time might also be to many of us an index of the cool­
ness or the fervour of our love. If an active practical
Englishman was allowed a certain number of hours in a
rich gold-digging, where the dirt was cleared away, and
there was nothing to do but to pick out the pure ore, he
would think a man mad who would suggest to him to
suspend his toil, unless fatigue really compelled him to do
so. Yet this is just our case with the ordinary actions of
life, and even with our recreations. The real toil has been
done by our Blessed Lord ; the stones and the mud were
His share ; for us there is nothing left, if we choose, but
the precious ore ; and the hours for our gold digging are
* I am only speaking of what in pouibU, and so to illustrate what I am
saying. I should be sorry to be numbeied among the advocates of novel­
reading.

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185

numbered, and we know not how near the term we are I
Alaa 1 wo shall never know the value of time, till it has
slipped from us, and left ns in eternity. Eternity is the
only preceptor, that can rightly teach the science of using
time. Dearest Lord ! will it leave us then with Thee Î
St. Gertrude once told our Lord she wished to build Him
a spiritual ark, and she asked Him how she was to do it.
He answered lier as follows : “ It is commonly said among
you that the ark of Noe had three stories, and that the
birds were in the upper one, men in the middle, and the
beasts below. Now take this for your model, and divide
all your days upon this plan. From early morning, to the
hour of noon, you shall offer Me praises and thanks on
behalf of the whole Church, with the warmest affection, for
all the benefits I have ever conferred on men since creation,
and especially for that adorable compassion which causes
Me to let Myself bo sacrified on the altar· in the Holy Mass
from dawn till noon, to the Eternal Father for men’s salva­
tion. While mon make light of all this, and give them­
selves to pleasure and feasting, ungratefully forgetful of
Me, do you, in their stead, offer Me continual praises, and
so will you seem to catch the volatile birds, and shut them
up in the higher chamber of the ark. From noon to
evening be zealous daily to exercise yourself devoutly in
good works, in union with the most holy intention where­
with all the works of My Sacred Humanity were done, to
make up for the negligences of the rest of the world; and
this will be to congregate men in the middle chamber of
the ark. From evening to dawn, in the bitterness of your
heart, protest against men's impiety, whereby they not
only refuse Me gratitude for what I have done, but pro­
voke Me to anger by all manner of sins ; and do you offer
for their repentance the pain and bitterness of My most
innocent Passion and Death, and thus will you gather the

<86

MINTING MONEY.

boasts into the lower chamber of the ark." Yet, while our
dear Lord thus traced out for St. Gertrude the way in
which she was to spend her day, Ho knew of all her toils
and cares, and that, by obedience to her rule, she must,
with her spiritual daughters, take her daily recreations, as
well as discharge tho minute duties of monastic govern­
ment.
3. There is another and most profitable practice,—to do
for your solitude what you do for your occupations. When
you are alone, or awake in the night, offer up your solitude
in union with the solitude of Jesus in the sepulchre and in
the tabernacle ; and do this to impetrate for yourself and
for those you love, the grace of a good death :—1. That
you may die in the grace of God : 2. And with great merit,
so as to glorify God all the more in heaven : 3. And having
had great fruit in saving the souls for whom Christ died
and was buried : 4. That you may die without fame and
glory, as Jesus died without honour between two thieves :
5. And without any obligation of going to Purgatory :
6. And leaving behind you a great treasure of satisfactions
which yon do not need yourself, and so which can be added
to the treasures out of which the Church grants indul­
gences : and 7. That you may glorify God on earth even
when you are dead, by the memory of your good works, by
salutary advices given, or devout books written, or the
abiding fruit of your prayers.
4. Through the practice of oblation we can merit by the
commonest things, if we are in a state of grace. Every
time we merit we give God a distinct glory, the interests of
Jasus a distinct advancement, and the souls of men almost
innumerable benefits through the communion of Saints.
Now, here is another way of meriting by common things,
—rising to God by the sight of creatures. This, as you
know, has been one of the commonest and most fervent

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187

practices of the Sainte. Lancisius says, “ You go out of
your house and you see some people talking, pray that they
may say no idle words for which they will have to give
account. You hear the howling of the wind, pray for those
who are at sea. You pass by a tavern, and hear the noise
of those within, pray that they may not offend God, and that
those who have done so may go to confession." When St.
Athanasius sent for St. Pambo to leave the desert and
come to Alexandria, the holy abbot saw a gaily-dressed
actress in the streets ; whereupon he began to weep. When
he was asked why he did so, he answered, “ Two things
move me; one is the damnation of that woman; and
another is, that I do not take as much pains to please God
as she does to please wicked men." You see even sinful
things were steps to God for him. When you hear the
pattering of the rain, thank God for it, and desire to offer
Him as many good acts of faith, hope, charity, contrition,
thanksgiving, humility, adoration, and petition, as there are
drops in that shower ; ask for the continual influx of the
helps of grace in good measure, heaped up, shaken together,
and running over, by which you and others may always
act in the most perfect manner, and glorify God in the
greatest possible degree.
When you are walking out or travelling, and pass any
hamlet, village, or town, or the house of some great man,—
i, ask God, by the merits of those who dwell there, to have
mercy upon you : 2, give Him thanks for all His blessings,
past, present, and future, on the inhabitants ; 3, commend
to Him all their necessities, and beg Him to hear their
prayers ; 4, grieve for all the sins committed there ; 5, ask
for the remission of them ; 6, commend to God the souls of
those departed there. Surius tells us, in the life of St.
Fulgentius, that when the Saint went to Rome, and beheld
all the palaces of the nobility, he cried out, “ How beautiful

iM

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must bo the heavenly Jerusalem, if the earthly Rome
shines thus I If such dignity is given in this world to
those who love vanity, what must be the glory of the Saints
who contemplate the truth 1 ” We read of St. Martin of
Tours, when visiting his diocese, that he was deeply affected
by the sight of some cormorants fishing, because they
represented to him in so lively a manner the devil’s ways
in catching souls. St Bonaventure tells us that St Francis
earned the same practice to quite a remarkable extent;
and Ribadeneyra says of St Ignatius, “ We have often seen
him from the most trifling things rise to God, who is
mighty in the least things ; the sight of a little plant, a
single leaf or fruit, a worm or an insect, would raise him
in a moment above the heavens."
Monsignor Strambi gives the following account of the
Blessed Paul of the Cross, the Founder of the Passionists.
*
His holy intentions and desires were rewarded by the Lord
with great spiritual consolations; and in his journey to
make the visitation of his houses he fed his spirit with the
sweet food of recollection. Coming once to the Ritiro of
St Eutirio, he turned to his companion, and said, “ Whose
are these lands 1 ” His companion replied, “ The lands of
Gallese.” But Paul, in a louder voice, said, “ Whose are
these lands, I say 1 ” His companion not understanding
the drift of his question, after a few paces the holy Father
turned to him, with his countenance shining like the sun,
and cried out, “ Whose are these lands î Ah I you do not
understand me ; they belong to the great God I ” And
instantly the impetuosity of his love lifted him and carried
him some little distance along the road. Another time he
was going from Terracina to Ceccano, through the wood of
Fossanova, and after he had visited the monastery where
St. Thomas Aquinas died, and was come into a thicket, he
• Vita, p. 137.

MINTING MONEY.
began to cry out to his companion impetuously, “ Oh, do
you not hear how those trees and leaves are crying out,
Γλυθ God, Love God I ” Then kindling more and more
with divine love, his face began to dart out bright rays,
and he kept exclaiming, “ Oh, how is it you do not love
God Î IIow is it you do not love God 1 ” When they had
got back again into the Roman road, he said to every one
he met, “ My brother, love God, love God, who deserves it
so much I Do you not hear the very leaves of the trees
crying out to us to love God Î 0 love of God I Love of
God 1 ” Moreover he spoke with such unction, that the
passers-by burst into tears. We road of him in another
place that everything served to remind him of God, and he
used to imagine that all creatures cried out to entreat
the love of man for Him who made them. He was often
observed when walking in the fields, especially during the
spring season, to gaze earnestly at the flowers as he «ent
along, and to touch them with his stick, saying, “ Hold
your tongues, hold your tongues ! ” He used to tell his
religious that the flowers were always calling upon them
to lift up their hearts in love and adoration towards their
heavenly Creator.
As tastes in devotion are so various, my readers will
forgive the following long extract from the Life of Father
Peter Faber, the companion of St. Ignatius, by Orlandini.
He was particularly eminent for his gift of turning every­
thing to prayer. When he came near any city or town he
used to pour out prayers for the inhabitants, and beg of
God’s mercy that the Angel of the place, and the Guardian
Angels of the inhabitants, might guard it with a special
protection. He invoked also the patron Saints of the
place, and implored them to return thanks, or to beg
pardon, or to impetrate grace for the inhabitants, and to
supply for all their negligence and omission in these

IÇO

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respects, that God might not be defrauded of any of Hie
glory. In hiring a new house, or changing his lodgings,
it was his custom, when he first entered the house, to go
and kneel in all the rooms, corners, and cupboards that he
could, and pray God to drive away the evil spirits, and all
dangers and sorrows from the place ; and in his prayer he
remembered all those who had ever lived or over should
live there, and entreated that no injury might happen
there to their souls. So studiously did he seek in every­
thing materials for prayer, that when he went to the palace
of a certain prince to hear a sermon in the chapel, and was
repulsed by a porter who did not know him, he found in
this rudeness nothing but materials for prayer. What
wonder if he had prayer so much at heart when he was
well, that he should be assiduous in it when he was ill 1
When he was sick at Louvain, and unable to sleep, his
painful watching only furnished him with materials for
prayer. When his weakened head could hardly endure the
vehemence of his headaches, he did nothing but make
prayer out of our Lord’s crown of thorns, until he was so
inflamed with love, that he melted into sweet tears. This
perpetual pursuit of prayer he nourished and fed with
variety in devotion. The life of Christ was indeed the food
of his daily contemplation ; for, where can the mind enjoy
greater abundance as well as greater sweetness! Never­
theless, to foster his piety, he had invented manifold
methods of prayer, suggested either by his accurate read­
ing, or by doctrines, or by the impulse of the Holy Ghost.
But there were three especially which he found so useful
as well as so sweet, and yet so easy, that he used to
recommend confessors to teach them to their penitents.
First, he had a great devotion to litanies, used them
assiduously, and applied them to every occasion. He used
them not merely to ask for blessings, wliich is the common

MINTING MONEY.

«9«

use of litanies, but for the purpose of praise, thanksgiving,
congratulation, and other exercises of the virtue of religion.
One of his practices was to enter into the blessed court of
heaven, and there, at the throne of the Most Holy Trinity,
he would call on the Father to delight in the Son and the
Holy Spirit, the Son to do the same in the Father and the
Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit in the Father and the
Son ; and by this expression he meant the mutual gratulation of the Divine Persons, which is called in the schools
complacency. Then he besought the Queen of heaven to
adore, in his name, or the name of some other, living or
dead, the Most Holy Trinity, and then he implored the
Holy Trinity to bless our Lady for all the gifts which pass
to earth through her. Then he went to each choir of
Angels, and each order of the Blessed, begging of them to
offer thanks and praise for him or others to God, our Lady,
or particular Angels and Saints.
His second mode of prayer was to go through all the
mysteries of our Lord’s life and death, skilfully accommo­
dating them to the time and occasion, and then by each
one of them calling separately on the Persons of the Most
Holy Trinity, and the inhabitants of heaven.
His third manner of prayer he framed from the precepts
of God and the Church, the doctrines of the faith, the seven
mortal sins and the opposite virtues, the works of mercy,
the five senses of man, and the three faculties of the souL
These he recalled in order, one after the other. The veiy
variety of the things suggested various affections, some­
times petitions for pardon, sometimes for gifts, sometimes
thanksgivings, not for himself only, or the living, but for the
dead also, begging God to condone to them whatever they
might still owe Him on the score of the first commandment,
or the second, and so on, and the same with the sins, the
works of mercy, the senses, and the powers of the soul·

MINTING MONEY.

SECTION VII.

VARIETY IN DEVOTION.

These three methods of prayer were quite familiar tc
him. Neither must we omit to observe how much a know­
ledge of doctrine helped him, as Orlandini expressly says.
He also fell in with a book of St. Gertrude’s, out of which
he acknowledged that he had drawn ample materials for
prayer to his own great profit. The variety of the ecclesi­
astical times and seasons also supplied him with an admir­
able variety of devotions. This variety, this vicissitude of
successive devotions, he found so to sustain and whet hie
appetite at the banquet of prayer, that he never went to
any religious action out of habit or custom or mere rule,
whether it were to hie meditation or to Mass ; but he camo
daily new and fresh to his most habitual devotions; just
as Blessed Paul of the Cross confessed, that he never
remembered having once said Mass out of mere habitude,
which few priests so old could say.
There are others to whose fervour such a variety seems
fatal, so differently does it please God to lead souls that
are dear to Him : and all His ways are good, because they
are His. Few indeed are like Marie Denise of the Visi­
tation, whom God led by the way of multiplicity of
devotions; so that when one of the community saw her
manuscript book, with all her services and intentions noted
down, and said to her, “ Dear Sister Mary Denise, why do
you say such a multitude of prayers!” the sister replied,
“ Because God has shown me that Ho created me for this
end.”
There is a great difference between having a variety of
mental devotions, and loading ourselves with an indiscreet

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>93

number of vocal prayers ; and what spiritual writers say
of the one case does not always apply equally to the other.
Yet, there is no mistake more common than to confound
the two. Now, the loading of ourselves with an immense
number of vocal prayers is not always (for there is no
alwaya in spiritual science, except where sin is in question),
but almost always a simple eviL How many are there who
began their flight well, but soon grew weak and weary on
the wing, and at last fell to the earth, entangled in litanies,
overloaded with Memorares, encumbered with rosaries, or
helplessly pinioned by the obligations of a score of Third
Orders and Confraternities I They have ruined themselves
with holy things : and have done so, ten to one, without
anybody’s knowledge or permission.
Having a great variety of mental devotions may often
be an evil, but it is a different thing from this ; and the
unqualified censure which some rigorous authors pass upon
all such variety, is certainly not in keeping either with the
practice of the Saints, or with the milder teaching of their
works. There is nothing a man so soon becomes attached
to as a system of spiritual direction, and so completely does
his own one favourite way seem to him the sole safe way,
that he can hardly realise the diversity of God’s operations,
or give the Holy Ghost liberty in the hearts of those whom
He is training. We know well enough that solid mortifi­
cation and persevering self-abjection are the real roads to
the highest sanctity : but are persons to sit down weeping
by the low wayside of the most ordinary attainments,
unless they have the heart to scale the rugged heights I
Are there no other paths of love that lie higher on the
mountain breast, above the plain, though lower far than
those ambitious pinnacles î Ah I how many are sent low,
held low, and thrust lower, by being unwisely forced too
high I “ A good superior,” said St. Jane Frances de Chantal,

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" must learn to fly low as well as to fly high ; ” and the
first is a harder duty than the last; for, mark the words,
it is not to he low, or to rest low, but to fly low. Now,
it may be quite true that the shortest and directest road
to highest sanctity is found in keeping to one thing, one
subject of meditation, one examen, one exercise of devotion,
and that this painful unity should be kept up for some
years without a change, as a celebrated writer recommends.
Yet who is sufficient for these things 1 People living in
the world, without the helps of a religious house, with no
noviciate, no set penances in community, but with a thousand
necessary distracting duties, and the unavoidable diversions
of social intercourse—how are they to do these things 1
Yet they have a call to love ; they will not be kept down.
You must have a process for withering their souls, or you
must fill them with the dews of heaven. Hence it is we
so often see those spiritual anomalies of a devout life, half
filled with the practices of the demure cloister, and half
with the appurtenances of a London season. But what
comes of these fitful vagaries 1 Unhappiness, failure, and
vehement self-abandonment to worldly pleasures, as if in
revenge for past strictness, and then a lower lowness of the
Christian life, which I hardly like to think of. Anything
comes of these experiments, except high sanctity, or low
sanctity either. They result in no sanctity at all.
There are not a few who think that devotion to be solid
must be dry, forgetting that dryness is apt to be either
sand or dust. But does the dry system answer! We
hear people condemning unlucky devotees, because they
are fond of functions and benedictions, of warm devotions
and of pictures of the Madonna, of feasts and foreign
practices ; for with such men an Italian devotion is some­
thing next door to a heresy : I suppose because it has the
remarkable bad fortune to come from the Holy City !

MINTING MONET.

'9$

Now, does it follow, that because persons are fond of these
things, they have nothing else in their piety! Because
they have one characteristic of good Catholics, are they
therefore destitute of the others ! Because they like flowers,
do they reject fruit! Oh, but mortification is the thing,
and the conscientious discharge of our relative duties.
Very true: and pray, what mortifications do you practise,
honest disciple of dry devotion ! Are they exterior, the
hair-shirt, the discipine ! Or interior, loving to be spoken
ill of, and lightly esteemed ! Furthermore, how do you
discharge your relative duties ! Almsgiving, for example,
is one, and to keep yourself unspotted from the world is
another. How do these things fare with you Î Be honest
with yourselves, or, much more, be honest with God.
Whether we want mortifications or relative duties to edify
us, I suspect we must seek them with tho devotees, not
with you. If you would have enthusiasm added to the
number of mortal sins, to what post of honour are we to
assume tepidity ! It is just possible that enthusiasm may
not be quite the monster evil of the world : at least we
have not suffered much from its ravages here in England.
Anyhow, in spiritual matters, what we have most to dread
is the evil we are most likely to fall into : and you at least
have no danger to apprehend from hot-hearted enthusiasm
or ultra-piety.
On the other hand, it may not unfrequently happen that
souls, who want something beyond this dry solidity (if
anything dry can be solid in a religion which is all of
unction and of love), may, by being allowed scope for the
fervour of first beginnings in devotional variety, diversion,
interest, and even change, ultimately mount to higher
things, and climb with a more manly courage the rougher·
and director roads to holiness. But see how God is calling
souls, and loading them by the gentlest and most winning

rç6

minting money.

ways, unless there be a clear vocation to the hard and rough.
Many are lost because they are forced too high, and many
more, because they are made to fear sensible devotion, and
to believe that dryness is solidity. Oh, do anything, I
beseech you, rather than tire people of their good, compas­
sionate God I Rather interest them in Him, if you can,
and all you can. Souls are gravely warned, without regard
to time, or place, or person, or condition, to be detached
from the gifts of God, and to eschew sweet feelings, and
gushing fervours, when the danger is rather in their attach­
ment to their carriages and horses, their carpets and their
old china, the parks and the opera, and the dear bright
world. Why, if the poor Belgravians could get a little
attachment, were it only to an image or a holy water-stoup,
and I care not how inordinate, it would be a welcome
miracle of grace, considering all they have now to keep
them far from God, for they move in a sphere which seems
to lie outside His omnipresence. No I no ! the warnings
of St. Teresa to her Barefooted Carmelites are hardly fit
for such as those, and yet how gaily lax is St. Teresa com­
pared to these modern teachers of spiritual drill I Better
far to flutter like a moth round the candles of a gay bene­
diction, than to live without love in the proprieties of
sensual ease and worldly comfort, which seem, but perhaps
axe not, without actual sin.

SECTION vm.
EJACULATIONS AND ATTENTION.

5. Another method of glorifying God by little and
common things, is the practice of ejaculatory prayer. This
ia not the place to enter at length into this subject. Its
connection with the matter now before us is obvious. It

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197

was the chief practice of the Fathers of the Desert, by
which they raised themselves to such heights of sanctity.
St. Francis of Sales says, “ That the great fabric of devo­
tion leans upon this exercise, that it can supply the defects
of all other prayers, and that all other prayers cannot
supply the defect of it” The Abbot Isaac, in Cassian,
tells us wonderful things of that single ejaculation, “ Deus
in Adjutorium,” &c. When Father Brandano was going
into Portugal, he asked St. Ignatius in what devotions the
scholastics of the society were to be exercised. The Saint
replied, “ That, besides the usual formal devotions, they
were to exercise themselves in seeking our Lord’s presence
in all things, in talking, walking, looking about them,
listening, thinking, and everything, as it is certain that
the Divine Majesty is in all things in at least three ways,
by essence, presence, and power.” He said “that this
exercise of finding God in everything was less laborious
than meditations on abstract matters, and causes God to
visit us in wonderful ways, even for one brief ejaculation.
Thus we may sigh for God’s glory, send up to heaven
one arrow-like word about the interests of Jesus in the
streets of London, or breathe a little prayer for souls
wherever we are. Without any constraint we may make
scores of them in a day ; and each one is more to God than
a battle gained, or a scientific discovery, or a crystal palace,
or a change of ministry, or a political revolution. Many
of these ejaculations are indulgenced, and thus the same
little brief sentence will i. gain merit, 2. impetrate grace,
3. satisfy for sin, 4. glorify God, 5. honour Jesus and His
Mother, 6. convert sinners, and 7. soothe with substan­
tial indulgence the holy souls in Purgatory. Can we
do nothing more for Jesus in this respect than we have
done hitherto î O Love I Love I Thou thyself must tell
us, and teach us how, and remind us when we forget

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MINTING MONEY.

But, in order to attain all these ends, it is not enough
that our vocal ejaculations should be uttered in a slovenly
off-hand way, or without an inward attention, it is often
the fashion now-a-days to speak with discsteeni of vocal
prayer; yet it should not be forgotten that there have
been heresies on the subject in very modern times, and
that the censure of condemned propositions lies upon them.
It was by means of vocal prayer that the Fathers of the
Desert rose to such heights of sanctity ; in later times St.
Teresa has been the doctress of the powers, privileges, and
prerogatives of vocal prayer, even as an avenue to the
highest contemplation ; and Father Baker himself, who
would not have said so if he could have helped it, tolls us *
that God occasionally leads souls thereby to the heights of
contemplation and mystical union, though he considers
this effect of vocal prayer less frequent than it used to
be. He gives the following reasons for the effect of
vocal prayer being different on the ancients from what
it is on us. “ One reason was their incomparably more
abstraction of life, more rigorous solitude and almost per­
petual silence, of the practice of which, in these days, it is
believed we are not capable. A second was their fasts,
abstinences, and other austerities beyond the strength of
our infirm corporal complexions. A third was their
external employments out of the set times of prayer, the
which did far better dispose souls to recollection, to attend
ance on the Divine Inspirations, than those ordinarily
practised in these days." Yet St. Teresa hardly goes along
with Father Baker ; so here is a fresh instance of the
regular canonised Sainte teaching milder doctrine than
other holy men.
As Father Baker's work is so rare, my readers will
thank me for the clauses in which ho sums up his doctrine
* SancU Sophia, i. 202, and u. 8, et seq.

MINTING MONEY.

I99

concerning vocal prnyer. “Now, whereas to all manner
of prayer there is necessarily required an attention of the
mind, without which it is not prayer, we must know that
there are several kinds and degrees of attention; all of
them good, but yet one more perfect and profitable than
another. For. i. there is an attention or express reflection
on the words and sense of the sentence pronounced by the
tongue, or revolved in the mind. Now, this attention
being, in vocal prayer, necessarily to vary and change,
according as sentences in the Psalms, &c., do succeed one
another, it cannot so powerfully and efficaciously fix the
mind or affections on God ; because they are presently to
be recalled to new considerations or succeeding affections.
This is the lowest and most imperfect degree of attention ;
of which all souls are in some measure capable ; and the
more imperfect they are, the less difficulty there is in
yielding it ; for souls that have good and established affec­
tions to God, can hardly quit a good affection by which
they are united to God, and which they find gustful and
profitable for them, to exchange it for a new one succeed­
ing in the Office ; and if they should, it would be to their
prejudice.
“The second degree is that of souls indifferently well
practised in internal prayer, who coming to the reciting of
the Office, and neither bringing with them, or by occasion
of such reciting raising in themselves, an efficacious affec­
tion to God, do desire, without variation, to continue it
with as profound a recollectedness as they may, not at all
heeding whether it be suitable to the sense of the present
passage which they pronounce. This is an attention to
God, though not to the words, and is far more beneficial
than the former. And, therefore, to oblige any souls to
quit such an attention for the former, would be both pre­
judicial and unreasonable. For, since all vocal prayers, in

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MINTING MONEY.

Scripture and otherwise, were ordained only to this end,
to supply and furnish the soul that needs with good matter
of affection, by which it may be united to God, a soul that
hath already attained to that end, which is union, as long
as it lasts ought not to be separated therefrom, and be
obliged to seek a new means, till the virtue of the former
be spent.
“ A third and most sublime degree of attention to the
Divine Office is, that whereby vocal prayers do become
mental : that is, whereby souls most profoundly, and with
a perfect simplicity united to God, can yet, without any
prejudice to such union, attend also to the sense and spirit
of each passage that they pronounce; yea, thereby find
their affection, adhesion, and union increased, and more
simplified. This attention comes not till a soul be arrived
to perfect contemplation, by means of which the spirit is
so habitually united to God, and besides, the imagination
so subdued to the spirit, that it cannot rest upon anything
that will distract it.
“Happy are those souls, of which, God knows, the
□umber is very small that have attained to this third
degree ; the which must be ascended to by a careful
practice of the two former in their order, especially of the
second degree. And, therefore, in reciting of the Office,
even the more impeiiect souls may do well, whensoever
they find themselves in a good measure recollected, to
continue so long as they well can, preserving as much
stability in their imagination as may be. And the best
means to beget and increase such a recollected way of
saying the Divine Office is the practice of Internal Prayer,
either in meditation or immediate acts of the will ; the
only aim and end whereof is the procuring an immoveable
attention and adhesion of the spirit to God." *

MINTING MONEY.

201

6. It is as well to repeat again, that we may thus offer,
in union with the merits of our dear Lord, and of all those
sublime supernatural treasures which we considered in
the last Chapter, not only our ordinary actions, but
everything also that happens to us. Our little sufferings,
pains, contradictions, and weariness, may thus every one
of them be made missioners, to speed the faith, apostles
to convert sinners, and Angels to praise the majesty of
God. Our diminutive mortifications too, few and cowardly
as they may be, with the stripes and thorns, the lance
and the nails, touching them, can draw the Heart of
Jesus towards us and others with tremendous power.
The grace we have received during the day may be re­
doubled by being offered up at night in union with His
grace from whom and out of whom our own grace comes.
Thus does Jesus help us to love Him ; thus does He make
us kings and priests already. If we truly mourn because
He is offended, if we truly thirst after the glory of our
merciful Father, if we are touched with pity for poor
graceless or tempted souls, see what marvels we can do
without so much as turning out of our way, or distracting
ourselves from our business, or even, so our dear Lord
has contrived, omitting our pastimes and recreations.
Verily all things are meant for Jesus; and when we see
what we can do, and, alas I what we have not done, we
may begin to think that there is no corner of earth where
the harvest of God’s glory is scantier or less thriving than
in our own poor hearts.
Is there not a nursery tale of some one who turned to
gold whatever he touched, and was soon embarrassed by
his marvellous gift T This is our case under the Gospel,
under the law of grace. All we touch turns to gold, by
intention and oblation. Yet our gift need never embarrass
U». We shall never fill God with glory, nor heaven with

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MINTING MONEY.

merits, But it will be a sad thing nt tho end of life to
look back upon the millions of wasted opportunities. But
how, some one may say, how are wo to note them, and to
remember them now, as they come before us in such
multitudes, and so incessantly! I answer, “Not by any
rule which can be given ; nor by any formal method which
can be devised. You must love. You must love. You
must love. There is no other way. There is no help for
it. Love will teach you everything, and tell you the
secrets of Jesus. Love will make things easy and sweet.
Love will be a new nature to you. There is nothing you
want which love will not do for you, or get for you, and
nothing else but love can do it. You must love.” And
is it hal'd to love Jesus Î Surely the difficulty is not in
loving Him; the difficulty rather is, to love Him little, if
we love at all I
I wish we could really see and feel what it is to be
allowed to please God. If we saved the life of the queen’s
child, we should not easily forget the grateful look of the
royal mother’s face ; it would be long before her burning
words of thanks died away in our oars ; a sovereign’s
tears, and those tears of joy, are not things to be readily
forgotten. But what a very unimportant thing this is
compared with being allowed, if it were but once in our
lives, to please God I The thought really grows upon us
till it overshadows our spirits. Think what we are, our
origin, our rebellion, our natural infirmities, our personal
vileness, our horrible guilt, our despicable unloveliness;
and then there is God, the Invisible, All-holy, Incompre­
hensible God, and He stoops to be pleased with us, and
He longs that we should try to please Him, and He con­
trives all nature so as that by grace we may please Him
more, and He gives us numerous supernatural ways and
powers of pleasing Him ! The immensity of this conde-

MINTING MONEY

»3

ecension in simply inexpressible. Oh that our dearest
Lord would enlarge our hearts, that we might take it in 1
But why talk of talcing in one of His condescensions 1
lie makes our hearts large enough to take Himself in,
Body, Soul, Divinity I Thus our thoughts run off to
another condescension, another love. This is always the
way ; one overtops another ; there is no end ; climb one
height, and there are higher heights ; and all is love I
love ! love 1 Dear God I dear God I St. Gertrude said
we might call Him so I and what else can we call Him 1
Why do we not love Him I Most dear God I So dear
beyond word or thought I
If we think of these three things, God, ourselves, and
the supernaturalness of the system in which we are, we
shall surely at length come to see that the capabilities we,
who are neither Saints, nor like Saints, nor in sight of
being Saints, have of glorifying God are positively awful
and frightening. First, if we unite our actions with those
of Jesus, they gain almost an infinite value. What we
have to offer to God is something like infinite. Nay, we
can offer Jesus who is infinite. We can offer God His
equal, and that in everything we do, or say, or think, or
suffer I Next, consider the multiplicity of our actions.
There is no reckoning them. They run ahead of our
figures almost at once. Two men are advised to get up
early in the morning to make half-an-hour’s meditation.
One does, and the other does not. The one who does,
merits, and so glorifies God more, unspeakably more, than
all physical science or art-unions have glorified Him since
the flood; i, by the mortification of rising early; 2, by
his modesty in dressing ; 3, by his act of the presence of
God; 4, by his sign of the cross; 5, by his preparatory
prayers ; 6, by his meditation ; 7, by the penance of his
posture, weariness, or distraction ; 8, by the resolutions at

a©4

MINTING MONEY.

the end; 9, by each ejaculation nil through it; and 10,
by the obedience of the whole duty. It would he more
correct to say that each of these ten merits were bundles
of many merits. But put them at ten. This one little
practice would give the following results. In each year
he would glorify God three thousand six hundred and
fifty times by that one action, and each of these times he
would please God, and to be allowed to do so once in all
eternity would be an unspeakable condescension; and,
besides that, each time he would glorify Him more than
all physical science has ever done, because he would glorify
Him supernaturally.
After the multiplicity of our actions, consider the ease
of this devotion of offering them up to God in union with
the merits of His Son. One glance at Jesus, and it is
done. There needs no word, no sign, no train of thought.
Love looks to Jesus, and all is accomplished. Then re­
member each merit implies a new degree of grace, and each
degree of grace a corresponding degree of eternal glory, if
we die with the gift of perseverance. Eye has not seen,
nor ear heard, nor heart conceived one single degree of
beatific glory; and then we have to multiply all these
millions and millions of times ; and if we fell into deadly
sin, and then had the grace to ask, just to ask contritely,
and in our Lord’s own easy way, for the Precious Blood,
Jesus thinks it nothing merely to forgive us, but He must
also put back to our account all this formidable sum total
of merits; so passionately does He long to have us with
Him in heaven for ever I Yet there are such things as
lukewarm Catholics I My Jesus I and how patiently Thou
bearest with them 1 Thou hast covered the whole earth
with a net of love, which Thou hast been busily devising
from all eternity I We break it all to pieces, and what
dost Thou do, sweetest, dearest, kindest Lord Î Thou

MINTING MONEY.

“S

settest to work with the most unconquerable love to net
a new one of merciful precept and cheerful fear, and
catcheat in that the foolish souls that would not be caught
by love 1
How sweet is it to be saved by Jesus ! it seems as if it
were better than if we had never fallen. It is such a joy
to owe everything to Jesus, such a joy not to be able to
do without Him for one moment. Such a joy to find Him
everywhere, and always to find Him laying us under new
obligations, and binding us with fresh chains of love!
Would that we were bound so fast to Him that we could
never get loose from Him 1 But this is the heavenliness
of Purgatory, that we are His, His own, His very own,
unalterably, for ever I Surely Adam’s nine hundred years
of penance among the brambles of the lonely world would
be worth living, if only we might be allowed to make one
heart love Jesus a single degree morel Yet here we are
in His blessed Church, where the beginning, middle, and
end of our whole religion is, that all things are ours, and
we are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s I
If there is one thing more inexpressibly touching than
another, it is God, the everlasting Holiness, begging glory
of His creatures on His own earth. The love it breeds is
sharp as a smart. It is like a father suffering martyrdom
for His guilty child. But then, to see Him, the suppliant
Creator, the Almighty Mendicant, refused the alms He
asks I Does it not make us wild 1 Wild with love 1 Yet
who refuses Him so often as ourselves Î Alas I who will
give to our eyes rivers of tears to weep day and night for
this Î Verily it is more inconceivable that men should not
love God, than that there should be Three Persons in One
God I For, what can be more winning than God, what
more fatherly than God Î He asks glory of us, asks glory
of us, such as we are I Why, why do we not love Him !

MINTING MONEY.
What can Ho do more I Ho asked that Himself ages ago :
What can I do that I have not done 1 Yes, what can He
do more Î Oh look, children of God, look I Ho is in His
own world, behaving and arranging all, blessed bo His
most dear Majesty I just as if we, not Ho, were the final
cause of all creation I

CHAPTER VIL

THANKSGIVING.
Neglect of thanksgiving—Spirit of the Eucharlit - Faults of good people
Dry people ordinarily self-righteous—Fatherly providence—A
spirit of thanksgiving the characteristic of tho Saints—Devotion to
tho Eternal Word—Practices—Jewish tradition from Philo—Heads
of thanksgiving: r. Common blessings; a. Personal blessings; 3.
Afflictions; 4. Trifling blessings ; 5. Miscellaneous blessings ; 6. For
Irrational creatures ; 7. Blessings of our enemies—The French Apostolato of prayer ; 8. For Angele and Saints ; 9. For the supernatural­
ness of the Church, and the gift of faith—St. Jane Frances de Chantal;
xo. For Mass.—Materials for thanksgiving after Mass and Com
munion—Our own practice hitherto—Spiritual benefits of thanks­
giving—Application of it to the three instincts.

SECTION I.
NEGLECT OP THANKSGIVING.

It is plain that what has been insisted upon in the fore­
going Chapters comes to this, that the Gospel being alto­
gether a law of love, it is not enough simply to save our
own souls, or, to be more accurate, it is very much against
our saving our own souls, if we do not try to do something
for the souls of others, whether by action or by prayer.
Furthermore, the Gospel being a law of love, our religion
must be as much as possible a service of love, and conse­
quently we run a great risk of being lost if we treat this
life as simply an opportunity of getting to heaven on the
easiest terms, and by the barest observance of neoessary

»08

THANKSGIVING.

precepts, putting aside as things which do not concern
ourselves, the glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and tho
saving of souls. I have not asked much of you ; I have
not put before you either bodily austerities or retirement
from the world ; I have not told you to aim at heights of
supernatural prayer, or at the love of suffering, or at any
difficult life-long strain after interior recollection and tho
sensible presence of God. I have done no more than put
before you practices and counsels of the Saints by which
you may occupy yourselves more with God, and do so easily
and lovingly. I have not even said, You shall at least do
so much as this, or, This you must certainly not omit ; I
have left it to yourselves, and to your own love. I am
not making rules : I would fain persuade some one, one
would be enough, to love God a little more for His own
dear sake. The order of my subject naturally leads me
now to the subject of thanksgiving. We have seen thai
in order to practise intercession, our Blessed Lord, in His
unspeakable love, first gives us all His own treasures that
we may offer them back to Him with amazing efficacy,
and then, besides that, allows us to make our own trivial
actions almost infinite by uniting them to His merits and
intentions.. But these two things are not available for
intercession only ; they serve equally for thanksgiving, and
for praise and desire. I will speak in this Chapter of thanks­
giving ; and then of praise and desire in the next.
If we had to name any one thing which seems unaccount­
ably to have fallen out of most men’s practical religion
altogether, it would be the duty of thanksgiving. It is
not easy to exaggerate the common neglect of this duty.
There is little enough of prayer; but there is still less
thanksgiving. For every million of Paters and Aves, which
rise up from the earth to avert evils or to ask graces,
how many do you suppose follow after in thanksgiving

THANKSGIVING.

209

for the evils averted or the graces given I Alas 1 it is not
hard to find the reason of this. Our own interests drive
us obviously to prayer ; but it is love alone which leads to
thanksgiving. A man, who only wants to avoid hell,
knows that he must pray ; he has no such strong instinct
impelling him to thanksgiving. It is the old story.
Never did prayer come more from the heart than the
piteous cry of those ten lepers who beheld Jesus entering
into a town. Their desire to be heard made them courteous
and considerate. They stood afar off, lest He should be
angry if they with their foul disease came too near Him.
Alas 1 they did not truly know that dear Lord, nor how
He had lowered Himself to be counted as a leper for the
sons of men. They lifted up their voice saying, “ Jesus,
Master, have mercy on us.” When the miracle was
wrought, the nine went on in selfish joy to show them­
selves to the priest ; but one, only one, and he an outcast
Samaritan, when he saw that he was made clean, went
back, with a loud voice glorifying God, and he fell on his
face before our Saviour’s feet, giving thanks. Even the
Sacred Heart of Jesus was distressed, and as it were
astonished, and He said, “Were not ten made clean!
and where are the nine Î There is no one found to return
and give glory to God, but this stranger I ” How many a
time have we not caused the same sad surprise to the
Sacred Heart 1
When the neglect of a duty is so shocking as is surely
the neglect of thanksgiving, it is desirable to show the
amount of obligation which rests upon us in the matter ;
and this can best be done by the authority of Scripture.
St. Paul tells the Ephesians * that we are to be “ giving
thanks always for all things, in the name of our Lord Jesus
Christ, to God and the Father.” Again, we are+ “to
• v. ao.

fa Cor. ix. 11.

0

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THANKSGIVING.

abound unto all simplicity, which worketh through ns
thanksgiving to God.” Tho Philippians
*
are admonished,
“Be nothing solicitous: but in everything by prayer and
supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions he made
known to God.” To tho C'olossians + the apostle says, “ As
ye have received Jesus Christ the Lord, walk ye in Him,
rooted and built up in Him, and confirmed in the faith, as
also you have learned, abounding in Him with thanks­
giving;” and again,! “Bo instant in prayer; watching in
it in thanksgiving. ” Creatures are said § to be created to
be received with thanksgiving by the faithful, and by them
that have known the truth ; “ for every creature of God is
good, and nothing to be rejected, that is received with
thanksgiving. ” It was the very characteristic of the
heathen,II that “when they knew God, they glorified Him
not as God, nor gave thanks.”
What is our life on earth but a preparation for our real
life in heaven Î and yet praise and thanksgiving are the
very occupations of our life in heaven. What is the
language of the Angels, ancients, and living creatures of
the Apocalypse, but, “ Amen I Benediction and glory, and
wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, and power, and strength,
to our God for ever and ever : Amen Î ” We are constantly
invoking our Blessed Lady, the Angels, and the Saints,
and we know and are sure that they are always praying
for us in heaven ; yet am I not right in saying, that when
we make pictures of heaven in our own minds, it is not so
often prayer we picture, as praise and thanksgiving 1 Nay,
sometimes when death has been at hand, the life of heaven
has cast its light forward over God’s servants, they have
seemed almost to forget prayer, and as if they were already
in hearing of the angelic songs, and had caught the note,
• iv. 6.
§ i Tim. iv. 3.

t ü. 7.

i iv. a.
|| Rom. i. si.

THANKSGIVING.

in

they occupy with thanksgiving those awful hours which
most of all in lifo seem to need tremulous petition and the
strife of prayer. Thus, when the Blessed Paul of the
Cross was lying dangerously ill, he passed his days in the
utterance of thanksgiving and praise, often repeating with
particular devotion those words from tho Gloria in Excelsis,
“We give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory I” This
had always been his favourite ejaculation, and he had
frequently exhorted his religious to use it whenever they
had any particular undertaking in hand, saying, with
peculiar earnestness, “For the great glory of God.” At
other times, prostrating himself in spirit before the throne
of the Most Blessed Trinity, he fervently exclaimed,
“ Sanctus, Sanctus,” or “ Benedictio et claritas,” Ac., which
he used to call the song of paradise.
Now, the Church on earth reflects the Church in heaven ;
the worship of the one is the echo of the worship of the
other. If the life in heaven is one of praise and thanks­
giving, so in its measure must be the life on earth. The
very centre of all our worship is the Eucharist ; that is, as
the word imports, a Sacrifice of thanksgiving. Everything
catches its tone from this. Everything in the Church
radiates out from the Blessed Sacrament. The Spirit of
the Eucharist must be found everywhere. Even the Jews
felt that all prayer must one day cease, except the prayer
of thanksgiving, as Wetstein tells us out of the Talmud.
But we have to do with it now as part of our service of
love. Let us suppose that the true idea of worship was
the one implied in the common practice of most men;—
that it was simply a matter of prayer to a superior Being.
What relation does this put us in with God i Ho is our
King, our Superior, a keeper of treasures, Himself infinite
wealth. Wo go to Him to ask for something. He is to
us what a rich man is to a beggar. Oui· own interest is

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THANKSGIVING.

the prominent part of the matter. Or we are afraid of
His justice. We desire to be let off our punishment, and
have our sins forgiven. He is pitiful, and will hear us if
we are importunate. Taking prayer only as the whole of
worship, we can rise no higher than this. It is all very
true and very necessary besides. Prayer can teach us to
depend on God, and answered prayer to trust in Him.
But Infinite Goodness will not let us rest on such terms
with Him. We are to be with Him to all eternity; He is
to be our everlasting joy ; to know Him and to love II im
is life ; and the love of Him is the joyful praise of Him for
ever. As the spirit of oblation, the permission to make
God presents, at once blings in a dearer and more familiar
relation with God, so also does the spirit of thanksgiving.
To thank a benefactor simply to get more from him, is not
thanksgiving, but a flattering form of petition. We thank
God because we love Him, because His love of us touches
us, surprises us, melts us, wins us. Indeed, so much is
thanksgiving a matter of love, that we shall thank Him
most of all in heaven, when He has given us His crowning
gift of the Beatific Vision, when He has given us all of
Himself we can contain, and so there is nothing left for us
to receive. Thanksgiving is, therefore, of the very essence
of Catholic worship ; and as the practice of it increases our
love, so does the neglect of it betoken how little love we
have.
Ah ! if we have reason to pity God, if we may dare so
to speak with St. Alphonso, because men sin against His
loving Majesty, still more reason have we to do so when
we see how scanty and how cold are the thanksgivings
offered up to Him. Nothing is so odious among men as
ingratitude ; yet it is the daily and hourly portion of
Almighty God. There is no telling what He has done
for men ; there is no exhausting the mines of His abundant

A

THANKSGIVING.

«3

mercy, implied by each one of His titles, Creator, King,
Redeemer, Father, Shepherd. He loves to be thanked,
because all He wants of us is love ; and that He should
please to want it is itself an infinite act of love. He had
chosen to put His glory upon our gratitude; and yet we
will not give it Him I
What is worst of all, this affront does not come, like
open sin, from those who are His enemies, and in whose
conversion His compassion can gain such glory among
mon ; but it comes from His own people, from those who
frequent the Sacraments, and make a profession of piety,
from those whom He is daily loading with the special and
intimate gifts of His Holy Spirit. Many of us are shocked
with sin and sacrilege ; we go sad and downcast in the days
of the world’s carnival ; scandal makes us smart ; heresy
is positive suffering, a pungent bitterness, like smoke in
oui· eyes. It is well. Yet we too go on refusing God His
glory by our neglect of thanksgiving. We could glorify
Him so cheaply : and yet it hardly comes into our thoughts.
Can we then be said to love Him truly and really 1 What
have we to do, how often shall I say it Î To love God, and
to get Him glory. God forbid we should so much as dream
that we had anything else to do. Let us then go about
the world seeking these neglected pearls of our heavenly
Father’s glory, and offering them to Him. How is it that
we have the heart to wish to do anything but this Î Some
of His servants have even desired not to die, that they
might stay on earth to glorify Him by more suffering.
Such wishes are not for us ; but they may do us good ; for
they help to show us how little love we have : and I must
think that to find this out is everything. I can believe
that men are deceived, and think they love God when they
do not love Him, or that they wish to love Him and do not
know how. But can any one know how little he loves God,

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THANKSGIVING.

and how easily he can love Him more, and yet not wish to
do so Î Jesus died to prevent the possibility of this ; and
can He have died in vain Î
You must bear with me if I repeat this once more. We
do not find fault with sinners who are living out of the
grace of God, and away from the Sacraments, because they
do not make thanksgiving. They have something else to
do. They have to do penance, and to reconcile themselves
with God, and wash their souls afresh in the Precious
Blood of Jesus. The neglect of thanksgiving is an ingrati­
tude which our dear Lord has to impute to His own for­
given children, who are living in His peace, and in the
enjoyment of all His privileges. Now this deserves to be
especially noted. I do not know if you will agree with me,
but to my mind the faults of good people, I do not mean
slips and infirmities, but cold, heartless faults, have some­
thing specially odious about them. A sin is not so shock­
ing a thing to look at, for all its instrinsic deadliness ; and
this may be the reason why, in the Apocalypse, God breaks
out with such unusual and vivid language about lukewarm­
ness and tepidity. When the angels asked our Lord as He
ascended, What are those wounds in Thy hands? how
much is insinuated in His reply, The wounds wherewith
I was wounded in the house of My friends 1
It would be worth while writing a treatise, entitled, On
the Sins of Good People ; for they are many and various,
and have a peculiar malice and hatefulness of their own.
Unthankfulness is one of the chief of them. At least,
then, bear this in mind while we are talking of thanks­
giving. Here is a matter which has to do entirely with
good Catholics, with men and women who pray and frequent
the Sacraments, and form the devout portion of our con­
gregations. If there be any reproach in the matter, it all
lies on them. Really, it is almost a comfort to l>e able to

THANKSGIVING.

»>5

say this. Dry people are ordinarily bo self-righteous, that it
is a positive coinfort to get them up into a comer, and to
be able to say to them, Now we have nothing to do with
sinners at present ; you cannot put the sharp things upon
them : you are the guilty people ; the reproof is all for
you ; here is something which, if you do not do, and do
well, for God, you are a wretch ; wretch, you know, is the
very word, the acknowledged epithet for the ungrateful;
well 1 and with all your prayers and Sacraments, you do
not do it. It is an ugly inference you will have to draw.
Yet why not take a good heart, both you and I, and say an
honest Confiteor, and arrange with God for a little more
grace, and then He shall see how different our future
practice is to bel From the particular faults of good
people, deliver us, 0 Lord 1 There are Sacraments for sin ;
for lukewarmness there are none ; nay, worse than none ;
for who does not know, that has ever ministered to souls,
how oven frequent Communion hardens tepid hearts Î
Have you ever known ten persons plunged in lukewarm­
ness who were cured ? and what was it that cured nine out
of the ten 1 The shame that followed falls into downright
sin I Alas I this is a desperate game to play, to expect the
prisons of hell to do the work of the medicines of heaven,
and shake eternity on the experiment I
The Bible is a revelation of love ; but it is not the only
one. There is to each one of us a special and personal
revelation of divine love in the retrospect of that fatherly
Providence which has watched over us through our lives.
Who can look back on the long chain of graces of which hii
life has been composed since the hour of his baptism, with­
out a feeling of surprise at the unweariedness and minute­
ness of God’s love 1 The way in which things have been
arranged for his happiness or his welfare, obstacles dis­
appearing as he drew nigh to them, and, just when they

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looked most insurmountable, temptations turning to his
good, and what seemed chastisements as he faced them,
changing to love when he looked back upon them. Every
sorrow has found its place in his life, and he would have
been a loser if he had been without it. Chance acquaint­
ances have had their meaning, and done their work ; and
somehow it seems as if foreseeing love itself could not have
woven his web of life differently from what it is, even if it
had woven it of love alone. He did not feel it at the time.
He did not know God was so much with him ; for what
more unostentatious than a father’s love 1 When Jacob
made his pillow of the cold stones, and lay down to sleep,
where he had his vision of the ladder, he saw nothing
uncommon in the place ; but when ho awoke out of sleep,
he said, “ Indeed, the Lord is in this place, and I knew it
not." When Moses desired to see God, the Lord set him
in a holo of the rock, and protected him with His right
hand while His intolerable glory was passing by, and He
said, “ I will take away My hand, and thou shalt see My
back; but My Face thou canst not see.” This is ever
God’s way. Ho is with us, tender, loving, considerate,
forgiving. Our hearts burn within us, as did the hearts of
the two disciples as they walked and talked with Jesue on
the road to Emmaus ; but it is not until He vanishes from
our sight that we know of a truth that it was our dear
Lord Himself.
Thus it is that we can only come to know God by medi­
tation. We must ponder things as Mary did. We must
muse and be pensive as Isaac was. We must treasure up
God’s mercies, and make much of them, and set store by
them, as did Jacob and David. Jacob was always looking
back on his adventurous life ; God was to him the God of
Bethel, the God of Abraham, the Fear of Isaac. What
was David’s reproach to his people, but that they forgot

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117

God who had done great things in Egypt, wondrous works
in the land of Cham, and terrible things in the Red Seal
The blessings that we know of are more than enough to
kindle the most fervent love. Yet we shall never know
the half until the day of judgment. Who are we that God
should have been thus legislating for us, and laying Him­
self out to please us Î Has He had no world to govern 1
Has Ho had no creatures but our own poor selves, or none
wiser, holier, lovelier? Yet we tease ourselves about pre­
destination and eternal punishment. We reason harshly
about what we cannot alter, and do not understand. I
must think this is most unreasonable. For look how the
case stands. We know an immense deal about God, yet
little or nothing beyond what He has been pleased Him­
self to reveal to us. Hence when we argue against Him,
our arguments are in reality founded, not so much upon
what we see, as upon what He has been so good as tell us
about Himself. Now, here we ought to observe, and people
for the most part do not observe it, that God has chiefly
illuminated for us His mercy and condescension. His
severity is not only the dark side of His most dread
majesty, because of its fearfulness, but also because He has
told us so little about it. When love is in question, He
has been copious, explicit, minute. He explains, He repeats,
He gives reasons, He argues, He persuades, He complains,
He invites, He allures, He magnifies. Of His rigour He
drops but a word now and then. He puts it out as a fact
and leaves it. He startles by an abrupt disclosure, but, as
He only startles out of love, He is at no pains to explain,
to soften, to harmonise.
Nay, the most startling expressions about His judgments
are rather outbursts from His astonished creatures, Job,
Isaias, Peter, or Paul, than revelations from Himself.
This very fact is itself a fresh instance of His love. Can

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THANKSGIVING.

we not take the hint which His merciful wisdom vouchsafes
to give us by this method of proceeding? As wo see but
one side of the moon, so we see but one side of God : and
what can we know of what wo do not see ? There is no
end to the variety of the disclosures of His goodness, the
inventions of His compassion, and the strangeness of His
yearning over His own creatures. He has striven to fix our
gaze upon these, but we will not have it so. We are busiest
with what He wishes us to think least of ; and we neglect to
ponder all those numberless signs of our Heavenly Father’s
love, which are personal things between Him and ourselves,
positive and sensible touches of His unutterable affection I
While God is turning everything to love, and contriving
everything for love, how perversely are we trying to thwart
His tenderness and longsuffering 1 Consider what it is to
be blessed by God. Put yourself into the scales, and weigh
yourself against Him ; and then see what it is to be thought
of by Him, to occupy His attention, to try His patience,
to call out His love 1 Truly, the very thought of God is a
bed on which we can lie down and rest whenever we choose.
The remembrance of His uncontrolled Sovereignty is a joy
to us greater than the vision of an Angel, brighter than
Mary’s face, even when it shall smile its “ Welcome to
Heaven” on oui· purified and forgiven souls. That He is
such a God as He is, is more, far more than rest ; it is joy
and bliss. That He has loved us with an eternal love, and
is our own dearest Father, is joy which has no name. It
is heaven begun already upon earth 1 Is it not then one of
the wonders of the world that there should be so little
thanksgiving, a greater wonder even than that there should
be so little prayer, and almost as great a wonder as that
God should love us so unutterably f

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219

HECTJON II.
THE SPIRIT OF THE SAINTS A SPIRIT OP THANKSGIVING.

A spirit of thanksgiving has been in all ages the charac­
teristic of the Saints. Thanksgiving has been their favourite
prayer ; and when their love has been grieved because men
were unthankful, they have called on the animals, and even
on inanimate creatures, to bless God for His goodness. St.
Lawrence Justinian has a beautiful passage on thanksgiving
in his Treatise on Obedience.
*
“ Whosoever should try to
lay open all God’s blessings to the full, would be like a man
trying to coniine in a little vase the mighty currents of the
wide ocean ; for that were an easier work than to publish
wuth human eloquence the innumerable gifts of God. Yet
though these are unspeakable, both from their multitude,
their magnitude, and their incomprehensibility, they are by
no means to be concealed in silence, or left without com­
memoration, though it be impossible to commemorate them
adequately. They are to bo confessed with the mouth,
revered in the heart, and religiously worshipped, as far as
tho littleness of man can do so. For though we cannot
explain them in words, we can make acknowledgment of
them in the pious and enlarged affection of our hearts.
Indeed, the immense mercy of our Eternal Creator con­
descends to approve not only what man can do, but what
he would desire to do; for the merits of the just are
counted up by the Most High, not only in the doing of the
work, but in the desire of the will."
In one of the revelations of St. Catherine of Siena, God the
Father tells her that thanksgiving makes the soul incessautly delight in Him, that it frees men from negligence and
• Cap. aS.

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THANKSGIVING.

lukewarmness altogether, and makes them anxious to
please Him more and more in all things. Our Lord gives
the increase of thanksgiving as a reason to St. Bridget for
the Sacrifice of the Mass. “ My Body," says He, “ is daily
immolated on the altar, that men may love Me so much
the more, and more frequently call to mind My blessings.”
“ Happy is he," says St. Bernard, “ who, at every grace he
receives, returns in thought to Him in whom is the fulness
of all graces ; for if we show ourselves not ungrateful for
what He has given us, we make room for still further
graces in ourselves. ” In another place he says, “ Speak to
God in thanksgiving, and you will get graces more and
more abundantly.” So St. Lawrence Justinian says,
“ Only let God see you are thankful for what He has given
you, and He will bestow more gifts upon you, and better
gifts.” St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi also received a
revelation, in which she was told that thanksgiving pre­
pared the soul for the boundless liberality of the Eternal
Word.
Now stop, dear reader, and meditate for a few minutes
on the Eternal Word : remember which of the Three
Divine Persons He is, the Second Person, the eternally
begotten Word of the Father, the splendour of His Majesty,
uncreated Wisdom, the same Person who was incarnato
and crucified for us, the same who sent us the Holy Ghost,
who gave us Mary, who gives us Himself in the Blessed
Sacrament, in whose mind revolves at this moment the
countless lustres of all possible creations ; then think what
His liberalities must be—no bound or measure to them.
We cannot count their number, nor exhaust their freshness
nor understand their excellence, nor hold their fulness, nor
give intelligible human names to their kinds, inventions,
varieties, and wonders.
Oh that we had more especial devotion to the Person of

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221

the Eternal Word, that we would read about Him the
wonders the Church can tell us, and then meditate and
make acts of love on what we read 1 This is the true way
to increase our devotion to His most dear Humanity, and
to learn how to watch at His crib, to weep over His cross,
to worship at His tabernacle, and to nestle in His Sacred
Heait. Ask St. Michael, St. John the Evangelist, and St.
Athanasius, to get you this devotion ; they have a specialty
for it ; and see how you will run the way of God, when its
heat has made a furnace of your heait. Remember also
that He Himself has told us, through this revelation to
His servant, that thanksgiving prepares the soul for His
amazing liberalities. You see you must begin this day and
hour quite a new and more royal sort of thanksgiving, than
those mere infrequent, formal, respectful civilities, by which
you have heretofore been content to acknowledge your accu­
mulated obligations to our dearest Lord. Now promise Him
this, and then, with a hotter heart read on.
St. Bonaventure, or rather the author of the meditations
on the life of Christ, tells us that our Blessed Lady gave
thanks to God without intermission, and lest in common
greetings she should be distracted from the praises of God,
she used to reply, when any one saluted her, “ Thanks be
to God 1 ” and from her example several Saints have
adopted the same practice. Father Didacus Martinez, the
Jesuit, who was called the apostle of Peru, because of his
zeal for souls, and his indefatigable labours in that pro­
vince, used to say daily four hundred times, and often six
hundred times, “ Deo gratias,” and he had some beads on
purpose to be accurate. He tried to induce others to
practise the same devotion, and he declared that he knew
there was no short prayer more acceptable to God, if only
it be uttered with a devout intention. It is also mentioned
of him in the summary of his Process, that his distinct

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THANKSGIVING.

act·, of divine love often amounted to several thousands in
the day.
There was a beautiful tradition among the Jews which
Lancisius quotes from Philo. It was to this effect When
God had created the world lie asked the Angels what they
thought of this work of His hands. One of them replied
that it was so vast and so perfect that only one thing was
wanting to it, namely, that there should be created a clear,
mighty, and harmonious voice, which should fill all the
quarters of the world incessantly with its sweet sound,
thus day and night to offer thanksgiving to its Maker for
His incomparable blessings. Ah I they knew not how
much more than that the Blessed Sacrament was one day
to be ! Thus our thanksgiving should not bo an exercise
of devotion practised now and then. It should be inces­
sant, the voice of a love which is ever living and fresh in
our hearts.
In several of the texts which I have already quoted, St.
Paul speaks of prayer with thanksgiving : as if there was
to be no prayer of which thanksgiving did not form a
part; and this also would illustrate what I said of the
spirit of the Eucharist being found in every part and act
of Catholic devotion. “ I think,’’ says St. Gregory Nyssen,
“ that if our whole life long we conversed with God with­
out distraction, and did nothing but give thanks, we should
really be just as far from adequately thanking our heavenly
Benefactor, as if he had never thought of thanking Him
at all. For time has three parts, the past, the present,
and the future. If you look at the present, it is by God
that you are now living ; if the future, He is the hope of
everything you expect ; if the past, you would never have
been if He had not created you. That you were bora, was
His blessing; and after you were born, your life and your
death were, as the Apostle says, equally His blessing.

THANKSGIVING.

Μ,

Whatever your future hopes may be, they hang also upon
His blessing. You are only master of the present; and,
therefore, if you never once intermitted thanksgiving
during your whole life, you would hardly do enough for
the grace that is always present; and your imagination
cannot conceive of any method possible, by which you
could do anything for the time past, or for the time to
come.”
In addition to these authorities, we must not forget to
add the number of thanksgivings which have been indulgenced by the Church, in order that she may the more
effectually lead her children to glorify God in this way.
Wo shall have occasion, afterwards, to revert to the fact,
that many of these devotions are thanksgivings to the
Most Holy Trinity for the gifts and graces bestowed upon
our Blessed Lady.
It will be a great practical help to us in thanksgiving to
classify the principal blessings for which we are bound
continually to thank God ; and I propose that we should
in this, as in so many other matters, follow the order and
method proposed by Father Lancisius.

SECTION m.
VARIOUS SUBJECTS FOR THANKSGIVING.

i. First of all, we should thank God for the blessings
which are common to the whole human race. St. Chry­
sostom is very strong upon this point; and our Lord
called the practice of thanksgiving for these blessings the
necklace of his spouse ; for, after he had been pleased to
espouse St. Bridget, and was instructing her how she
should spiritually adorn herself, He said, "The spouse
ought to have the signs of the Bridegroom upon her

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THANKSGIVING.

breast ; that is, the memory of tho favours I have shown
thee, namely, how nobly I have created thee, giving thee
both a body and a soul, how nobly I have endowed thee
with health and temporal blessings, how sweetly I have
brought thee back from thy wanderings, by dying for thee,
and, if thou wilt have it, restoring to thee thine inheri­
tance.” Orlandini mentions this as one of the charac­
teristics of Father Peter Faber. He was always gratefully
mindful, not only of God’s private blessings, but of those
common to all mankind. He never forgot that thanks
were due to the divine liberality, not less for these common
blessings, than for special ones; and it was a source of
grief to him that men generally paid no attention to them,
but took them as matters of course. He mourned because
men rarely blessed that sweet will and boundless charity
of God, by which He had first created the world, and then
redeemed it, and after that, prepared for us eternal glory,
and that in all this He had vouchsafed to think specially
and distinctly of each one of us.
Under this head of common blessings must be reckoned
all the graces of the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, tbe glorious
privileges of the Mother of God, and all the splendour of
the Angels and the Saints. Among other promises which
God made to St. Gertrude, this was one : “ Whenever any
one devoutly praises God, and gives Him thanks for the
blessings conferred upon Gertrude, the Almighty merci­
fully wills to enrich him with as many spiritual graces as
he offers thanksgivings, if not at the present time, at least
on some fitting occasion.” In like manner Orlandini tells
us that Peter Faber used to be continually congratulating
the Angels and the blessed on their gifts, assiduously
pondering the particular graces God had given them, and
then separately, for each of them, naming those he could,
with great emotion he gave God thanks for them on their

THANKSGIVING.

«5

behalf. He reckoned that this was in the highest degree
delightful to those inhabitants of heaven, as well as im­
measurably profitable to ourselves, as in heaven the blessed
see how the debt of gratitude they owe to God is simply
oppressive, and never can be paid. He practised this
devotion, until at last he came to feel as if there was not
a single token of the divine goodness shown to any one,
for which he was not personally a debtor. He made him­
self a kind of vicar for every one who had any sort of
happiness or success, and no sooner did he perceive it, than
he set to work to bless God, and to give thanks. There
was nothing joyous, nothing prosperous, that he saw or
heard of, but he at once became its voice of praise and
thanksgiving to the Lord. Nay, fair cities, fruitful fields,
beautiful olive grounds, delightful vineyards,—he looked
round upon them with exulting eye, and because they
could not speak for themselves, he spoke for them, and
thanked the Lord of all for their beauty, and in the name
of their owners and possessors, for the dominion which He
had given them thereof.
How wonderful must have been the interior of this holy
father’s soul, decked with such various and surpassing
gifts, enriched with such very peculiar, and, so to speak,
private graces, and above all, with a dower of interior
dispositions, which was his special characteristic treasure,
and wherein hardly any canonised Saint seems to surpass
him. No wonder St. Francis Xavier added him to the
litany of the saints, or that St. Francis of Sales speaks of
his joy and consolation at consecrating an altar in the
good father’s native village in Savoy. Yet, like Balthazar
Alvarez, whom St. Teresa saw in vision highex· in glory
than all his contemporaries, though there were many
canonised among them, so Peter Faber is not raised upon
the altars of the Chuich, but rests in God’s bosom as one

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THANKSGIVING.

of His bidden Sainte. Blessed be the Most Holy Trinity
for every gift and grace that ever beautified his soul, and
for all the treasures of grace which God has given to His
Saints, and now keeps hidden in Himself, so that we
cannot glorify Him for them I
2. The second class of the divine mercies, for which we
are bound to offer, continual thanksgivings, is obviously
the multitude of personal blessings which we ourselves
have received from the unmerited goodness of God. How
beautifully St Bernard expresses this in his first sermon on
the Canticles. “In the wars and conflicts,” says he,
“ which at no hour are wanting to those who live devoutly
in Christ, whether from the flesh, the world, or the devil,
for man’s life is a warfare on the earth, as you have all
experienced in yourselves,—in all these conflicts we must
daily renew our songs of gratitude for the victories already
obtained. As often as a temptation is overcome, or a vice
subdued, or an imminent danger avoided, or a snare of the
evil one discovered in time, or an old inveterate passion of
the soul healed, or a virtue long coveted and prayed for,
at length by the gift of God granted to us, what must we
do, but, according to the Prophet, utter the voice of praise
and thanksgiving, and bless God at each single blessing
for all His gifts 1 Else, when the last day comes, he will
be reckoned among the ungrateful, who cannot say, Thy
justifications were the subject of my song in the place of
my *
pilgrimage.
Nay, at every advance we make, accord­
ing to the ascensions which each has disposed in his heart,
so many separate songs must we sing to the praise and
glory of Him who has thus promoted us.”
Father Lancisius t says, “ I would urge all who serve
God fervently and faithfully, to return Him thanks with
peculiar affection and zealous gratitude, at least four times
* Pe. csviii. 54.

+ ii. 35·

THANKSGIVING.

327

in the day, for all the personal blessings He has been
please<l to confer upon us : first, in the morning, at medita­
tion ; secondly, in the middle of the day, or before dinner;
thirdly, in the examen of conscience; and fourthly, at bed­
time. The first rank among these personal blessings
should be held by the grace which has called us either
from heresy to the Catholic faith, or from neglecting the
Sacraments to a good life, or from relapses into sin to a
real conversion.” Our Lord said once to St. Bridget,
“ The Bride should be ready, with fair and clean adorn­
ments, when the Bridegroom comes to the nuptials, and
then are your ornaments clean when you think with grati­
tude about your sins, how I cleansed you in baptism from
the sin of Adam, and how, when you fell, I have so often
borne with you, and when else you would have fallen, have
held you up.”
Among our personal blessings we must thank God for
the continuance of health and life, whereby we can daily
amass huge treasures of merits, and glorify the dear majesty
of God by numerous acts of love. We must thank Him
also for past and present humiliations, for calumnies, unkind
interpretations of our words, unloving deeds, inconsiderate
omissions, or unfriendly intentions, the detractions we have
Buffered from, and everything which has ever happened to
mortify our self-love. For, if we consider the true interests
of our soul, it is a real blessing to be humbled and kept
down, not only because it helps us to advance in the way
of perfection, but also because of the innumerable oppor­
tunities it gives us of glorifying God and acquiring merit,
and of being so much higher in heaven. Indeed, there
is hardly anything by which we can glorify God more
effectually than by the exercise of virtues while we are
under humiliations. So, if we are in a condition er state
of life in which we do not attract the notice or the praise

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THANKSGIVING.

of men, we ought to thank God most warmly for it, con­
sidering the danger there would be to our souls in a more
elevated and honourable state.
The patience and long-suffering of God should be another
subject of continual thanksgiving. Is it not wonderful
how He has bom with us, and we so miserably perverse
the while Î How many absolutions have we not had, our
lost merits restored to us, fresh graces given us I What
a miracle of patience God has been I Can we not well enter
into the spirit of that Spanish lady of whom Father Rho
speaks, who said, “ That if she had to build a church in
honour of the attributes of God, she would dedicate it to
the Divine Patience ? ” How beautiful her soul must have
been, and how many deep and intimate things must have
passed between her and God I
Again, how many sins have we been in the way of com­
mitting, or near to committing, and by grace have not
done so? How many temptations have proved fatal to
others, which never so much as came in our way ? Even
the heathen Emperor Antoninus thanked God for the
occasions of sin to which he had never been exposed. This,
then, is another personal blessing for which wo must
always be giving thanks. Again, there are three blessings
which a Catholic ought to remember at every time ; the
Divine Election which made him a Catholic, and not a Jew,
Mahometan, or heretic ; the Divine Providence which has
been his shield and buckler ever since he was born ; and
the Divine Liberality which has loaded him with such a
profusion of gifts and graces, not absolutely necessary for
his salvation, but either to adorn his soul, or to increase
his joy in Christ.
St. Chrysostom, also, would have us remember with
special gratitude the hidden and unknown blessings which
God has heaped upon us. “ God,” he says, “ is an over­

THANKSGIVING

«9

running fountain of clemency, flowing upon us, and round
about us, even when we know it not.” Orlandinî telle ua
that in thia matter Father Peter Faber was remarkable.
He used to say there were hardly any blessings we ought
more scrupulously to thank God for, than those we never
asked, and those which come to us without our knowing it.
It is not unlikely, in the case of many of us, that these
hidden blessings may turn out at the last day to have
been the very hinges on which our lives turned, and that
through them our predestination has been worked out, and
our eternal rest secured.
3. Neither must we think that too much is being asked
of us, when spiritual writers tell us we ought to return
thanks to God for afflictions and tribulations, both those
which are passed and those which we may be suffering
from at the present time. This is of course not the place
to enter into the uses and merciful purposes of affliction.
But they will readily suggest themselves to every one.
John of Avila used to say that one Deo gratias in adver­
sity was worth six thousand in prosperity. But we must
again refer to Orlandini in his description of the special
gift of thanksgiving which Peter Faber possessed. He
thought it was not enough that men should humble them­
selves under the hand of God in the time of public calami­
ties, but that they should give God hearty thanks for them,
for famine and scarcity, for wars, floods, pestilences, and
all the other scourges of heaven : and it was a subject of
“ vehement ” sorrow to him that men did not openly
acknowledge God’s merciful intentions in these things.
When he grieved over the misfortunes of others, what
stirred his sorrow most was, that men did not see how
much of gentleness there was in the visitation ; for that is
not perfect gratitude which is fed by favours only. “ Nay,
we cannot tell,” says St Antiochus, “ who is really grateful,

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THANKSGIVING.

till we see whether he gives God hearty and sincere thanks
in the midst of calamities ; ” and St. Chrysostom, in his
Homilies on the Epistle to the Ephesians, says, Wo ought
to thnnk God for hell itself, and for all tho pains and
punishments that are there, because they are such an
effectual bridle to our inordinate passions.
4. It is also a very important devotion to thank God
for what we call trifling blessings. Not of course that any
goodness of God is trifling to such as wo are ; but mercies
may be little by comparison. St. Bernard applies to this
devotion our Lord’s injunction to His disciples to gather
up the fragments that nothing be lost. In the Lifo of the
Blessed Battista Varani, a Franciscaness, we read that our
dear Lord once said to her, “ If you were never to sin
again, and if you alone were to do more penances than all
the blessed in heaven have ever done, and if you wore to
shed as many tears as would fill all the seas, and suffer as
many pains as you are capable of suffering,—all that would
not be enough to thank Me for the very least blessing I
have ever bestowed upon you.” Another time Battista
said God had given her to understand that the glorious
Mother of God, and all men and angels with their perfec­
tions, could not adequately thank the Divine Love for the
creation of the least field-flower on the eaith, which He
had made for our use, in respect of the infinite gulf there
is between His excellence and our vileness. Orlandini
tells us that Peter Faber excelled in this devotion also ;
and that he used to say, that in every gift of God, no
matter how trifling, three things were to be considered,
the giver, the gift, and the affection with which it was
given ; and that, if we pondered these three points, we
should see that there could be no such things as little
mercies. Doubtless, this was the reason, says the bio­
grapher, why that blessed mind was always overflowing

THANKSGIVING.

with the abundance of divine gifts. For, as God is an
inexhaustible ocean of goodness, the fountain of His
liberality cannot be dried up where He meeta with a con­
siderate and thankful mind into which He can pour
Himself. So Thomas à Kempis observes, that if we look
at the dignity of the Giver, no gift is small which cornea
from God. Our Ix>rd taught St. Gertrude even to give
thanks for future blessings not yet received. So acceptable
is thanksgiving before God.
5. St. Ignatius used to say that there were very few,
perhaps not one person in the world, who thoroughly
understood what an impediment we are to God in Hie
desire to work great things in our souls ; for it is hardly
credible what God would do, if we would only let Him.
Hence holy people have made a special devotion of thank­
ing the Divine Majesty for all the blessings He would in
His munificence have conferred upon them, if they them­
selves had not hindered Him. Others, again, have been
touched with sensible gratitude for blessings for which they
were not thankful at the time they received them. Peter
Faber used to say Masses, or get them said, in expiation
of his own and others’ ungrateful inconsiderateness when
receiving blessings from God ; and whenever he saw a rich
or fortunate man, he used to make acts of reparation for
his possible forgetfulness of his Divine Benefactor. Others
have felt strongly about blessings, for which they thanked
God at the time, but it now seems to them, not so much as
they might have done, nor so affectionately. St. Lawrence
Justinian tells us that this feeling enters into the thanks­
givings of the blessed in heaven. Then there are blessings
which we have abused or made light of ; and St Bernard
tells us these should certainly be made the subject of special
thanksgiving. Othei-s, again, have exercised devotion in
thanking God for blessings which others were prejiariiig

»3»

THANKSGIVING.

for them, or which were growing, or which happened while
they themselves were asleep. This at least shows the in­
genious love of grateful hearts. But there is another prac­
tice recorded by Orlandini of Peter Faber, which must by no
means be omitted. It is well worthy the imitation of all
of us. It is—to give God special thanks for preventing innu­
merable of our words and deeds from giving scandal, when
in themselves they are calculated to do so. What can be
a sweeter mercy than this Î
6. Another practice of holy men has been to thank God
in behalf of the irrational creatures, a devotion most
acceptable to Him as the wise Creator of the world ; and
it has also the further advantage of being a most excellent
practice of the presence of God, enabling us everywhere,
and at all times, to rise to Him by means of His creatures.
But we must not in this think so much of the dominion or
use which God has given us out of His bounty over these
creatures, as of the love which He had towards us in
creating them, as He Himself said to St. Catherine of
Siena : “ The soul which has arrived at the state of perfect
love, when it receives gifts and graces from Me, does
not look so much at My gift, as at the affection of charity
which moved Me to confer the gift upon it.”
7. We shall also glorify God by thanking Him for all
the blessings conferred upon our enemies. This devotion
will be the more acceptable to Him because it is a great
exercise of brotherly love ; for it is impossible to practise
it long without all coldness and uncomfortable feeling giv­
ing way to gentleness and tenderness, even towards those
who have wronged us most, or who show the greatest
dislike of us. But, as my chief aim in this treatise is
nothing but to accumulate an abundance of affectionate
contrivances to get our dearest Lord a little more glory, as
it is the wrongs of God, the injured interests of Jesus, in

THANKSGIVING.

»33

behalf of which I want to move my readers, there are some
other methods of thanksgiving which are very mnch to my
purpose. Look at the lost souls I There is not one whom
God has not loaded with blessings, and pursued with
tenderest graces, and striven to win with the divine
caresses of His Holy Spirit. But there are no thanks
there. Justice has its harvest there, but not love. Hence
it is that Da Ponte, in the Preface to his Meditations,
recommends to us the practice of thanking God for all the
blessings of nature and grace which have been bestowed
on those who have lost themselves by their own wilfulness.
Nay, there have been some so jealous of God’s glory, so
afraid that some nook of His creation would not thank
Him for His goodness, that they have loved to praise Him
because even the lost are for His love’s sake punished
citra condignum, less than they deserved. How prodigal
has God been of His goodness I Could figures tell the
number of His gifts to the multitude of the reprobate!
Then add the Jews, infidels, and heretics now on earth,
who leave Him without thanksgiving, and bad Catholics
living in mortal sin and trampling the Sacraments beneath
their feet, crucifying our dearest Lord afresh, and putting
Him to an open shame I Blessed be God for every one of
the gifts of every one of these I May the Blessed Sacra­
ment praise Him this hour for them all in every tabernacle
throughout the world ; for sweeter a thousand times is the
cry of that Mystical Life of Jesus than could have been the
strong, clear, ubiquitous, and musical voice which the
Jewish tradition dreamed angelic love had craved.
If you ask for a practice for this, take the scheme of the
French Apostolats of Prayer. The prayer will be none the
less prayer because you turn it into thanksgiving. Nay,
it will be all the more availing. On Sunday, invoking the
Most Holy Trinity, return tbanks for the Church, the

j34

THANKSGIVING.

Pope, the priesthood, and all her members in a state of
grace. On Monday, in union with all the Saints, thank
God for all He has done, is doing, and graciously purposes
to do for the needs of catholicity in Europe. On Tuesday,
call on the Holy Angels to join you in thanking the Divine
Majesty for all His mercies to the thirty-six millions of
savages and negroes. On Wednesday, invoke St. Joseph,
and with him thank God for all the love He has lavished
on the three hundred and forty-five millions of unbelievers
in Eastern Asia. On Thursday, unite yourself with Jesus
in the Blessed Sacrament to supply for the ingratitude of
the two hundred and twenty millions of infidels in Western
Asia. On Friday, shelter yourself in the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, and spurred by the memory of His dear Passion,
supply for the ingratitude of the hundred and twenty
millions of heretics and schismatics. On Saturday, offer
to God the Immaculate Heart of our sweet Mother for all
the sinners of the world, in return for the numberless
benefits He has bestowed upon them. Oh that God might
have a little more glory, were it ever so little ! Oh that
the number of hearts might daily increase which should love
Jesus more, and should mourn that He is loved so little !
What is life, what is death, if God only be loved, and be
loved more, and more, and more Î Sweet Jesus, when shall
we burn Î When shall we burn Î Where is the fire Thou
earnest on earth to kindle Î Why is it not kindled in our
hearts 1 Dearest Lord 1 if we love Thee so little, we can
at least hate ourselves that we do not love Thee more I
8. Another practice of thanksgiving, and one which leads
us to the confines of the next Chapter, on Praise and
Desire, is to thank our Blessed Lord, with the utmost
fervour and simplicity of joy, for the immense multitude
of Angels and Saints who fill the choirs of heaven, adoring
Him as their Head, and thanking Him as the author of

THANKSGIVING.

»35

nil grace and the giver of all gifts. For, if we sincerely
love Him, it is our chif f sorrow that we cannot love Him
worthily, and, therefore, it is really a blessing bestowed
upon ourselves that He should have been pleased to create
creatures who can love Him so much more, so unspeakably
more, than we do. To this some have added thanksgivings
for all the worship and adoration He is receiving at this
moment throughout the earth, and in Purgatory, all the
sacrifices that are being offered, all the prayers that are
being made in churches, the vows by which fervent men
are binding themselves, and all the increases of divine love
which are going on in the hearts of those who are in a
state of grace. Others again have been drawn to continual
thanksgiving to Jesus for the glorious mysteries of His
life, as contrasted with the joyful and the sorrowful, thank­
ing Him for them daily, for the glory He Himself had in
them, and for the glory they gave His Father, as well as
the benefits which we derive from them. Thus those who
have had a special devotion to our Lord’s Resurrection
have almost always coupled it with an equally special
attraction to thanksgiving, as they have also mysteriously
coupled with it a peculiar drawing to the attribute of
sanctity in God.

SECTION IV.

THANKSGIVING FOR THE GIFT OF FAITH.

9. Others have been distinguished by a deep and life­
long feeling of gratitude for the gift of faith, and for all
the supernatural wonders of our holy religion. These form
two very distinct sources of devotion. By the latter, to
speak of that first, men are led to rejoice in the absolute
sovereignty of God and the unlimited supremacy of His

«y»

THANKSGIVING.

most dear Majesty, and in their own vileneee and nothing­
ness. They are drawn, like Peter Consolini, to the views
of grace which seem to make least of man’s freedom and
most of God’s election : or if, like Lessius, they take the
other view, it is for the same reason, because to such minds
that view is more glorious to God than the other. They
think they can never thank God sufficiently that they are so
completely and helplessly in His hands. They would not
for the world have it otherwise. They can hardly under­
stand those who do not feel as they do. They bless God
for His promises, but their habit of mind is to trust rather
to His love. They do not care about merit What they
care about is His glory. “ I cannot bear this talking
about merit,” said St. Francis of Sales, though it does not
follow that everybody else has a right to say what he said.
In low spirits it is the thought of God’s sovereignty,
rather than of His faithfulness, which is the bed of their
repose. These are the persons who are always so happy
in religion, except when God withdraws for a while this
blessed confidence, for their greater sanctification ; and
even then their language is that of Job, “ Though He slay
me, yet will I trust in Him.”
Men with this attraction seem to have a special gift of
unselfishness and unworldliness. They delight in the spiri­
tual plans and successes of other men, or of religious
orders which are rivals to their own. It is a joy to them
that all the arrangements about merit, satisfaction, remis­
sion, infused habits and indulgences, are so thoroughly
supernatural. They have a profound reverence for all the
benedictions of the Church, for her sacramentals, forms,
and manipulations, and for the rubrics of her ceremonies,
which seem to be rather gleams of heaven than the
marshalling of earthly pomps. They glory in the principles
of the Gospel and the vitality of the Church being opposed

THANKSGIVING.

W

to all the calculations and maxims of the world. They
revel in the strength of weakness, in the exaltation of holy
poverty, in the splendour of abasement, in the almightiness
of suffering, in the victory of defeat. These things are to
them like the odours of the spice islands wafted out to the
weary navigator. They are fragrant of heaven, and of
God.
It is a peculiar delight to them that men are converted
by unaccountable grace rather than by controversy, and
that God so often seems to take matters into His own
hands, and to work of Himself, without making use of us.
They have no heart-aching difficulties about God and
nature, because they do not look upon men, as Bridgewater
treatises and such like things teach, as the centre of the
system, or the reason of creation, or the mark God worked
to. They think this would narrow their spiritual views as
much as believing the earth to be the centre of the solar
system, or the solar system the centre of the universe,
would narrow a man’s views of nature. They look on
Jesus as the centre of all things, as the reason of creation,
as the mark God worked to, ns He vouchsafes to speak of
Himself as working, who is self-sufficient bliss and rest
The predestination of Jesus, in their view, explains every­
thing, harmonises everything, controls everything, is the
fountain of everything which lies outside the unity of the
Most Holy Trinity ; and Mary’s predestination is part of
His. They are only here in His train, and they have no
consequence or importance except the one dear dignity of
being loved by Him. As the little stars go out when the
great sun shines, so faith's hard facts, the permission of
evil, and the eternity of punishment, these men can scarcely
see because of the blessed and exhilarating splendour of the
Predestination of Jesus.
The practice of thanksgiving for the gift of faith is on·

»1«

THANKSGIVING

which cannot he too strongly recommended in our own
time and country. It was tho devotion of that most
beautiful soul, St. Jano Frances de Chantel ; and I quote
from her life at length with the loss scruple, because of all
the varieties of the spiritual life, of all tho manifestations
of the Spirit of holiness, none seem so fitted to ourselves
as the sweet and gentle spirit of the Visitation. It is,
perhaps, natural I should say this, because of its connection
with the Oratory. When St. Francis of Sales was in Rome
as a young man, he was much at tho Oratory, and ho called
its rule a “wonderful mode of life.” One of his bosom
friends was our Venerable Juvenal Ancina, in tho process
of whoso canonisation St. Francis was a witness. When
he wished to consolidato his work of conversion in the
Chablais, he established an Oratory of St. Philip at Thonon,
with seven Fathers, and was himself tho Father Superior.
Hence the Holy See has allowed some of our Congregations
to keep his feast, as the feast of a Saint of the Order. The
Rule of the Visitation has several striking points of
resemblance to St. Philip’s Rule. The title-page of the
Venetian edition of his works runs thus : “ The Spiritual
Works of St. Francis of Sales, Father Superior of the
Oratory of Thonon, and founder of the Visitation of St.
Mary ; ” and the translation of Charles Augustus de Sales’
Life of the Venerable M. Blonay, published at Naples, in
1694, professed on the title-page to be “ By one covetous
of the spirit of SS. Francis of Sales and Philip Neri."
But to return to St. Jane Frances.
We read of her as follows : * “ When, after her marriage,
she went to reside in the country, and again on becoming
a widow, she ordered those of her servants who had the
best voices, to learn the chant of the Credo, to assist in
singing it more solemnly at the parochial mass, in which
• Life, vol. U. p. 6, Orat. Edit.

THANKSGIVING.

»39

Mie took very great pleasure ; and afterwards, when a
religious, she occasionally sang it at recreation. She paid
a special devotion to the holy martyrs, because they had
shed their blood for the faith, and to the Saints of the
first ages, because they had defended that holy Faith by
their writings and their labours, so that it became quite a
proverb among her nuns on the festivals of these great
Saints of the first centuries, to say : ‘ It is one of our
mother’s Saints Γ She was not satisfied with hearing
these lives read in the refectory, and speaking of them at
recreation ; but she had the book occasionally taken to
her room, to read it again in private, and in the latter
years of her life she purchased the Lives of the Saints in
two volumes, and marked the lives of those great Saints
and first followers of the Church, which she read with
greatest devotion. She had an especial devotion to St.
Spiridion, who had captivated the reason of a subtle
philosopher with the Creed. She knew the hymn of St.
Thomas by heart, ‘ Adoro Te devote,’ and often recited it.
She taught it to some of the sisters, and told them that
she always repeated the following verse two or three
times :
‘Credo quidquid dixit Dei Filiue.’
I believe all tho Son of God has spoken.

“ At the commencement of her widowhood, so thoroughly
did she abandon herself to her devotion, that she had no
greater pleasure than in convincing her understanding
with the following words : * I see the juice of the grape,
and I believe it to be the Blood of the Lamb of God.
I taste broad and believe it to be the true Flesh of my
Saviour.’ But when sho placed herself under the guid­
ance of St. Francis, he taught hor to simplify her belief,
and to recite fervent and short acts of faith, thus showing

«40

THANKSGIVING.

her that the most simple and the most humble faith is
nlso the most loving and most solid. She daily repeated
at the end of the Gospel of the Mass, the Credo and the
Confiteor; and one day, while exhorting her nuns to do
likewise, she exclaimed, ' O God I what need have we to
humble ourselves, inasmuch as we are not deemed worthy
to confess our creed before all the tyrants of the earth I ’ ”
It was the same spirit which made St. Philip rise up in
agitation one night in the Oratory, fearing lest what the
preacher of the evening had said should give his hearers
a favourable idea of the Institute, and cry out, “There is
no need to boast : we are nothing ; no one of the Congrega­
tion has shed his blood for the faith yet”
St. Jane Frances had also certain sentences written on
the walls of her cell, which was afterwards made the
noviciate ; and she wrote on the wall beneath the crucifix
the following verse from the Canticles, “ I sat down under
the shadow of my Well-Beloved, and His fruit was sweet
to my palate.” A sister begged her to say why she put
the sentence in that place : “ In order,” she replied, “ to
be often making naked and simple acts of faith ; for the
faith though a light in itself, is a shadow to the human
reason ; and I wish my reason to sit down in repose under
the shadow of the faith which makes one believe that He,
who was placed on that cross with so much contempt, is
the true Son of God.” Another time she said that she
had always the intention, when looking at the crucifix,
that her more look should be an act of faith similar to
that of the centurion, who, striking his breast, said :
“Truly this man was the Son ot God.”
She told a person in confidence, that while she was yet
in the world, God had given her great lights regarding
the purity of faith, and showed her that the perfection of
our understanding in this life is its captivity and subjec-

THANKSGIVING.

24'

tion to obscuro matters of faith, and that the understand­
ing would bo enlightened in proportion as it should be
humbly submissive to these obscurities, and that she
always hated those sermons which attempted to prove by
natural reason the mystery of the holy and adorable
Trinity; and other articles of our faith; and that the
faithful soul must seek no other reason than that sole
sovereign universal reason, namely, that God has revealed
these things, as far as was needful, to His Church. She
never cared to hear of miracles in confirmation of the
faith, nor revelations, and occasionally she made them
pass them over while they were reading in the refectory
the Lives of the Saints, or sermons on the festivals and
mysteries of our Lord and our Lady. She resembled in
this the great St. Louis of France, who, once when he was
called into his private chapel to see some miraculous
appearance which had taken place at Mass, refused to go,
saying, that he thanked God he believed in the Blessed
Sacrament, and should not believe it more firmly for all
the miracles in the world, neither did he wish to see one,
lest he should thereby forfeit our Lord’s special blessing
on those who have not seen, and yet have believed. She
occasionally said to her nuns, “ What have we to do with
proofs, miracles, and revelations, unless it be to bless God
who has provided them for some who have need thereof?
God has revealed to us all that is necessary through His
Church.”
When she composed the meditations for the retreats,
extracted from the writings of St. Francis, she wished to
have one on the incomparable grace we have of being
children of Holy Church. She had it written on a separate
sheet of paper, and told her nuns that she had not got
beyond this meditation during the whole of the two first
days of her retreat. She read Holy Scripture by the
<ï

242

THANKSGIVING.

order of her superiors ; but, among all the books of thia
sacred volume, the Acts of the Apostles was her favourite ;
and it is impossible to say how often she read and re-read
it. She related to her community its contents with fresh
fervour; and it seemed that each time she spoke of this
primitive Church, she told them something which they
had never heard before. When she heard that her son
had been killed in fighting against the English in the
Isle of Rhé, she knelt down with clasped hands, and her
eyes lifted up to heaven, and said : “ Allow me, my Lord
and my God I allow me to speak, to give vent to my grief ;
and what shall I say, O my God, unless it be to thank
Thee for the honour Thou hast done me in taking my
only son while he was fighting for the Church of Rome Î ’’
She then took up a crucifix, which she kissed, and said :
“ I receive this blow, my Redeemer I with all submission,
and beseech Thee to receive this child into the arms of
Thy Divine Mercy.” After this, she thus addressed the
deceased : “ 0 my dear son I how happy art thou in
having sealed with thy blood the fidelity which thy an­
cestors have ever had for the Church of Rome ; in this I
esteem myself happy, and return thanks to God for having
been thy mother. ”

SECTION V.
THANKSGIVING AFTER MASS AND COMMUNION.

io. But there is one practice of thanksgiving which
must enter into all others and be joined to them, thanks­
giving, if it might be so, of tears rather than of words ;
gratitude for the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass, and the
Personal Presence of Jesus with His Church. It is not
only the inestimable blessing of the Sacrifice which must

THANKSGIVING.

«43

call out these incessant thanksgivings, neither is it the
unspeakable love and condescension involved in it But
it is the joy that now at least thanks are offered to God
which are equal to Himself. We need no longer sit by
the waysides of the world, downcast and weeping, because
His Blessed Majesty is not worshipped and praised, and
thanked, as it ought to be. One Mass is infinite praise,
and there are Masses nearly every moment of day and
night on this side the world and at our antipodes. There
is the Blessed Sacrament in crowded or neglected churches
all the earth over, and, wheresoever He is, there is infinite
praise, unspeakable worship, unfathomable thanksgiving I
Indeed the especial function of the Holy Mass is Eucharist,
the worship of thanksgiving I Nay, even the mere creature
by means of the Blessed Sacrament can himself attain to
a higher act of worship than he could ever else have
dreamed of ; for the creature can pay no higher homage
to his Creator than by receiving Him in the overwhelming
reality of the Blessed Sacrament. What repose there is
in the thought of all this ! How many inward complain­
ings can we hush by it I How much unhumble disquietude
with our own littleness, oui· own vile attainments, our
own impossibilities of loving God as we feel we ought to
love Him I Blessed Jesus ! He is all things to us.
Whatever wo want, it comes to us in the shape of Him,
in the strangest of places, and the most unaccountable of
ways 1 Shall we not say then that we love God worthily
and worship Him abundantly, for Jesus is our love and
our worship too ? How happy, with an abounding inex­
haustible happiness, this makes us 1 It is so much sweeter
to owe everything to Jesus, than to have it of ourselves,
even if that were possible I There is no pleasure on this
side the grave equal to the feeding of the multiplication
and reduplication of our obligations to our dear Lord.

344

THANKSGIVING.

The more we run into His debt, the more joy it is ; the
more inextricable our obligations are, the more lighthearted
is our liberty ; the knowledge that to all eternity we shall
be just as far off from satisfying His love, just in the same
impossibility of paying what we owe, is itself the joy of
joys. Meanwhile, thanks, a thousand times thanks, to
Jesus 1 God gets His praise, His worship, and His thanks,
deep, beautiful, infinite as Himself.
Now this perhaps will enable us to judge how far we
are truly grateful to our blessed Lord, and how fax we
have really discharged the duty of thanksgiving. What­
ever may be thought of particular methods of this devotion,
practised by the Saints or suggested by spiritual writers,
the whole Church is agreed on the duty and fitness of a
special thanksgiving after Holy Communion.
If ever
there is a time for thanks too deep for words, it is when
the Creator has been pleased to overwhelm His creatures
with this stupendous gift of Himself, and when Ho is
actually within us. Hence it is that spiritual writers
tell us, for a while at least, not to open a book, but to
commune with Jesus in our own hearts. We must surely
have something to say to Him thon, or at least Ho will
say something to us in the deep silence of our hearts, if
we will only listen. Yet how stands the case in reality Î
If we may take the fervour and regularity with which we
make our thanksgiving after Communion as an index of
our love of Jesus, nothing can well bo more disheartening.
To many of us there is hardly a quarter of an hour in our
lives, more tedious, idle, aimless, and unsatisfactory, than
what we call our thanksgiving. We have nothing to say.
Our hearts do not run over. We never can receive a
greater gift in this world. Each Communion it grows
more wonderful; so much does our lukewarmness and
ingratituuu make the continuance of His love a stranger

THANKSGIVING.

US

marvel. He has come who is to be our joy for all eternity ;
and wo liavo nothing to say to Him. We tire of Hie
company. It is a relief to us when we may believe that
He has gone. We have been civil to Him. We have
asked His blessing as our superior. But it has been
little more than civility : at the most, it was only respect.
Alas I alas I it is useless to ask men to adopt various
practices of thanksgiving, when our Lord’s own visit can
hardly force one upon them I It is as if thanksgiving had
but one fixed home left on earth, and that its tenure even
of that was continually becoming more and more pre­
carious. However, it will be something if these bad, lazy,
listless thanksgivings bring home to us how very, very
little in reality we care for Jesus ; and that if we could
only have His grace without Himself, it would be just the
religion to our mind. Ah I dearest Lord I and knowing
all this, Thou abidest in the tabernacle I
But you will say, “ It is hard to leave us in this way
with a few ill-humoured words. If our thanksgivings
are so bad, perhaps we might try to make them better, if
we had any hints given us how to do so.” Well I let us
see what our good books can tell us.
I suppose there are few difficulties more universally felt
than that of making a good thanksgiving after Communion.
Spiritual writers, as I just now said, tell us we ought not
to use books, at least not for some little time afterwards.
They assure us that if grace has any special and critical
moments in life, they are passing while Jesus remains in
our hearts by His sacramental presence.
The great teacher of Thanksgiving after Communion
is St. Teresa. The stress she lays upon it, the frequency
with which she returns to the subject, the practical
counsels she gives about it, make it quite one of the
salient points of her celestial teaching She was indeed,

î46

THANKSGIVING.

as a French writer calls her, a “ Mother of the Church ; ”
and tho whole matter of Thanksgiving after Communion
was one of her characteristic lessons. She seems also,
such at least has boon the experience of one of her most
enthusiastic clients, to have a special grace from God to
enable others to improve in this respect, which is of such
surpassing importance to the whole spiritual life. Good
and regular. Thanksgivings after Mass would be the
completest, the speediest, and the most successful reform
of the clergy, while they would also enable the laity either
to communicate more frequently, or to profit more by
their frequent Communion. If your thanksgivings are
poor and wretched, pray to St. Teresa, and she will get
you the grace to set them right. She will get you a
grace which you will feel quite sensibly in its work within
you. All eternity is too short to praise God adequately
for any one of His least compassions to us. It would
take many eternities to praise Him rightly for having
given to us and to His Church our “ Seraphic Mother,”
St Teresa.
St. Alphonso and others have left it on record that one
Communion rightly made is enough to fit a man for canon­
isation, and that the thanksgiving is the time when the
soul appropriates to itself the abundance of grace, and
drinks deepest of the fountains of light and life. St.
Philip’s advice was full of his usual gentle wisdom. He
recommends that if we have made our meditation before
Mass, we should not cast about for new thoughts after
Communion, but take up some train of thought which we
had found came with unction to us in our meditation.
This will prevent a great deal of time being lost in our
thanksgiving, from our being at sea for want of a subject,
and from having so many things to say to our Lord that
we do not know what to say first. It is of a piece with

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W

our Saint’s quiet ways in spiritual things. He would have
us so familiar with our Lord, that any unusual or busy
reception of Him would rather bespeak the less perfect
activity of Martha than the repose and union of Mary.
The same spirit made him wish that the fathers of bis
Congregation should not have a fixed hour for Mass, but
should go at once when the sacristan called them.
But many persons living in the world are not able to
make any regular meditation before Communion, and
many also practice mental prayer in a different way, spend­
ing their time in what is called Affective Prayer, with
their will rather than their understanding, and such are
sometimes puzzled to find thoughts which they can resume
from their prayer, when they have received Communion
Others, again, particularly those who have a very special
devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and yet cannot boast
of an habitual union with God, find St Philip’s recommen­
dation unsuited to them, and must think more immediately
of the Blessed Sacrament and of the Presence of Jesus
within them at that moment. Under these circumstances,
and considering at once the difficulty and the importance
of making a good thanksgiving after Communion, I shall
not seem tedious if I furnish my readers with materials
for this purpose. I will present them with an analysis
of the method of thanksgiving recommended by Father
Lancisius, and repeated by him in two different treatises.
I must not be understood to recommend it to any one as
he gives it. It is far· too long and minute, and I believe
would in most cases smother devotion by the multiplicity
of acts which it involves. The heart must have freer play,
and the whole exercise be much more simplified. I give it,
therefore, to furnish materials, to serve as a sort of mine,
out of which persons with different tastes, or the sums
persons at different times, may supply themselves with

*4$

THANKSGIVING.

food either for reflection or aspiration; ns many of the
thoughts are both deep and beautiful.
*
i. The acts, which Father Lanoisius suggested, ns beet
to follow immediately after Communion, are those of
humiliation.
We are to humble ourselves profoundly
before God for the coming of so great a Lord, recalling,
I. the sins of our past lives, 2. our present imperfections
and tepidity, 3. the vileness of our nature compared with
the Divinity of Christ, and 4. our Blessed Lord’s perfec­
tions both as God and Man.
2. Then follow acts of adoration. We are to adore, 1.
The Most Holy Trinity in the Blessed Eucharist 2. The
Sacred Humanity of Jesus existing within ourselves at
that time. 3. The same as existing in so many places
in the Church, wherever the Blessed Sacrament is reserved,
rejoicing over His worship and honour where the faithful
are ever crowding to Him, and mourning over His dis­
honour wheresoever He lies without due devotion being
paid to Him, or where He is perhaps actually blasphemed.
4. We are to adore with a special adoration the Soul of
Christ as filled with all the ornaments of sanctity, with all
merits, and with so ancient, constant, and fruitful a love
of ourselves. 5. We are also to adore the Body of Christ
as having suffered so many and such bitter and unworthy
things on our account, and as at length slain for us, and
we must imprint spiritual kisses on those parts of His
Body, which for our sakes were the most tormented with
wounds and agony.
3. We must give thanks also from the bottom of our
hearts, 1. for His coming to us in this Communion, 2.
for His advent in the Incarnation, 3. for all the merits
and examples of virtue during His life, which He left for
* Thin portion of the book was reprinted as a separate- tract by Bertram,
Earl of Shrewsbury : may he rest in peace.

THANKSGIVING

»49

our good, 4. for the institution of this most Holy Sarta­
in ent, and all the other Sacraments, 5. for His death and
our redemption, 6 if we are priests, for His having raised
us to the priesthood, 7. for the blessing of creation, 8. for
our preservation, 9. for the gift of faith, 10. for our justi­
fication, it. if we be religious, for our vocation, 12. for
our perseverance in a state of grace or in a holy calling,
13. for Ilis patience in bearing with our sins and imper­
fections, and those of others, 14. for the holiness He has
granted to so many Saints, 15. for the trials and tribula­
tions which we have at any time had to undergo, 16. for
His assiduous care in leading us along the way of perfec­
tion, 17. for all the peculiar individual blessings which we
have received from Him, and of which everybody has
some to thank Him for, 18. for all the blessings He has
conferred on us through others, 19. for all the blessings,
general and particular, which God ever has granted, or
ever will grant to any creature, especially those which He
gave to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus, to His Blessed
Mother, and the rest of the Saints and elect, 20. for the
institution of the Order, Congregation, or Confraternity to
which we belong, 21. for its propagation, 22. for the perse­
cutions it has to endure, which strengthen and purify it,
23. for all the Saints and learned men it has produced, 24.
for all who have had such sweet and wonderful vocations
to it, 25. for all the fruit it has brought forth through­
out the world, 26. for all the good friends and benefactors
who love it so much, 27. for all its adversaries and perse­
cutors who give it so many opportunities of meriting.
4. Next comes oblation. Offer to the Most Holy Trinity
the Blessed Sacrament, which you have received, for all the
joy, honour, and complacency which the Divine Majesty
receives therefrom, because of all the blessings it confers
on you and others ; offer it for your sins and necessities,

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THANKSGIVING.

and those oi others, and of your friends and enemies,
living or dead. Offer to our dear Lord whom you have
received, in union with His merits and holy limbs, i, your
soul and body, with all your faculties, limbs, senses, actions,
and repose, desiring only tho sanctification of everything
about you, that you may be a sort of perpetual holocaust,
burning to the delight and honour of the Divine Majesty,
consuming yourself and reducing yourself to nothing,
purely for God ; 2, offer to Him your will to die, and to
endure anything rather than offend Him again by any
deliberate sin, whether mortal or venial ; 3, offer Him
your purpose always to choose the most perfect things,
and among them those rather which are most repugnant
to your senses, judgment, will, and honour, because you
hope thus to gain most glory for God, as well as become
more like Jesus Crucified ; 4, offer your resolution to per­
severe in the observance of the commandments and counsels
of God, and of your rules, and in a perfect life, however
full it may be of tribulations ; 5, offer your willingness to
suffer for Christ heavy things, which those around you will
esteem light, and so you will gain no credit for them ; 6,
and also your determination to seek no other end but God
alone in all your actions ; 7, as well as your burning desire
to convert all men to His pure love, and your pining for
this sweet conversion.
5. The next place is to be occupied by petition. Ask
fervently of Christ, 1, the remission of your sins, both as
to the guilt and punishment of them ; 2, perseverance in
His grace and holy living ; 3, if tho Holy Spirit so inspires
you, and you have your director's leave, ask for sufferings,
sharp, frequent, various, personal, little esteemed or
sympathised with by others, hidden, without cause on your
part, and without sin either of your own, or of those who
afflict you ; 4, ask for a continual augmentation of humility,

THANKSGIVING.

ap

poverty, chastity, obedience, faith, hope, charity, prudence,
justice, fortitude, temperance, patience, devotion, prayer,
discorning of spirits, mortification of the passions, the
greatest purity of heart and intention, and all the rest of
the virtues ; 5, ask to have a heart free from all actions
either formally or materially bad, un meritorious, or tepid,
from all vicious habits, inordinate movement» of the
passions, and from all debt of temporal punishment, either
now or at the hour of death ; 6, ask earnestly for grace in
all your actions to seek what nature, perfection, and
mortification require, and further, to be able to elicit all
your actions as intensely as the infused and acquired habits
of virtue exist in your interior, so that all your actions may
correspond adequately to your knowledge, and may most
perfectly fulfil in all respects the intentions of the Divine
Government; 7, ask to live a long life in great sanctity,
and with immense fruit of souls ; 8, beg for the grace to
treat your body roughly, without thereby injuring greater
goods, such as health ; ask to preach, talk, and hear confes­
sions usefully, and to have some pain sent you at fit times
whenever you have any debt of temporal punishment to
pay; 9, nay, go so far as to implore our dear Lord to
enable you, as far as may be, to direct all your faculties,
senses, limbs, and actions, as His Divinity directed the
same things in His Sacred Humanity.
Petition God the Father, 1, for the vigilance and exem­
plary life of the pastors of Holy Church for the conversion
of infidels, heretics, schismatics, sinners, and lukewarm
souls, and for the perpetual and persevering multiplication
of Saints, and their advancement in the ways of the Spirit ;
2, for the religion and love of iustice, of kings and temporal
rulers, for their mutual concord, their success in lawful
undertakings, and their profound submission to the Holy
See ; 3, for help and consolation to the afflicted in poverty

«5’

THANKSGIVING.

or sickness, for patience for the persecuted, and their
deliverance, if it he consistent with the greater glory of
God ,· 4, for abundant gifts of grace and glory for your
adversaries ; 5, for your Order or Congregation ask the
Eternal Father for the mortification of all passions, for
devotion, edifying life, zeal for souls, perpetual fruits of
virtue, progress in sacred sciences, protection in tribula
tions, a sufficiency of temporal revenue, and an abundance
of workmen for the vineyard of the Lord ; 6, pray to His
compassionate Majesty for all tho dead members of your
Congregation, those especially who have lately died, and
have been commended to the suffrages of the community ;
also for all your adversaries who are dead, for your
relations, friends, and others, especially those for whom
few or no prayers are offered, that they may be liberated
as Roon as possible from purgatory, and become your
peculiar patrons in heaven ; 7, pray for all the affairs
which superiors have recently commended to your prayers,
or if it be persons for whom you are told to pray, ask God
to assist them in the particular respect for which they have
desired or needed your prayers.
6. Our next duty is to make sundry acts of different
virtues respecting the Blessed Sacrament ; and 1, of adora­
tion. Adore with divine worship that sweet Sacrament
received into yourself and reserved in so many churches all
through the world. This act of loving adoration may be made
more intense by thinking of all those churches in which
the Blessed Sacrament is but little honoured, or where He
is as it were a prisoner in the hand of Greek schismatics or
of the countries in which grave sins are committed against
His worship ; 2, make acts of faith, considering Christ,
whom you have received, to be both true God and true
Man, and to whose Divinity and Humanity belong all
those things which Holy Church believes of them, or which

THANKSGIVING.
heretics have denied ; 3, make acte of hope, expecting from
Christ, as God and First Cause, many natural gifts, as well
as supernatural graces and glory, and expecting the same
also through His merits, as Man ; 4, make acts of charity,
first embracing Him fervently in your interior will as God
and Man ; secondly, rejoicing that His Divinity is so
perfect in itself, and in respect of us, that we cannot per­
fectly know it ; thirdly, exulting that His Divinity is so
worshipped and beloved in heaven by the Angels and
Saints and by just men on earth, and that His Body and
Soul are so unspeakably blessed in heaven, and adorned
with such incomparable gifts : fourthly, grieving deeply
that so many sins have been, are being, and will be com­
mitted against His dear love by ourselves or by others, and
grieving most of all that so many, for whom He has done
and suffered so much, are lost through their own wilful
perversity; and then, last of all, desiring with tenderest
love that all sins and imperfections might cease in the
world as soon as possible, that the just might be multiplied,
and the Saints advanced in perfection and perseverance;
that infidels and all out of the true Church might be
brought to the holy faith, and that God, and Christ as
Man, might be honoured and loved by men in that way,
and to that degree in which God desires that Himself and
the Sacred Humanity of Christ should be loved and
honoured.
7. We must contemplate in our dear Lord as God the
attributes of His Divinity and His other perfections, and
elicit different acts with respect to them. First, we must
think of His independence, or, as theologians call it, His
self-existence (aseitas), and ask Him to give us the grace
to depend on no one but on Him alone, and on superiors
only for His sake. Secondly, we must reflect on His
eternity, and ask Him for long life to serve Him and suffer

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greatly for Him. Then we must look at His omnipresence,
and desire that He may be known and loved in all places,
and we must make a most burning act of love and adora­
tion to recompense Him for all the sins which are being
committed this moment in the boundless temple of His
most pure and dread immensity. Next, we must think of
the infinite energy of our Blessed Lord in producing both
natural and supernatural effects, and ask Him to give us
natural and supernatural gifts of every kind, to the end we
may be as a bait or a net to allure all mon, and captivate
them to His love. Fifthly, we must consider His infinite
wisdom, and ask Him to make us wise in all that regards
the instruction of ourselves or others, and to pour out upon
us the gifts of counsel, prudence, and discernment of spirits,
and upon our whole Congregation growth in viitue, and
proficiency in theological studies, without which last we
shall do but little for tho saving of souls. Sixthly, we must
meditate upon His goodness, and pray that in our actions
God may see nothing that is not good ; but this will only
be the case when all our actions are done freely, without
imperfections, and for a supernatural end, which is God
Himself. In the next place, we must think of His Eternal
Generation and Person, by which He is constituted Son,
and beg of Him by His Divine Filiation to grant to us, as
far as is possible, liberally and copiously, according to the
measure of His ordinary power, all the natural and super­
natural perfections of grace and glory which are communi­
cable to His adopted sons, in the same sort as they were
communicated to Him then, when He united in Himself
the Person of the Eternal Word and Human Nature.
Last of all, we must ponder His actual concurrence to all
the actions of all creatures, and implore Him to give us
the grace, that as He in each act refers His concurrence in
and with us simply to Himself and His own glory as itg

THANKSGIVING.

end, bo we in all our actionh, without one exception, may
work for, and because of Him, and that so perfectly that
there may be nothing in us, direct or indirect, in which
God’s glory is not sought and found.
In the same way we may distinguish other perfections
in God, and elicit acts connected with them : as, for
example, of joy, rejoicing that God has these perfec­
tions in Himself, and of thanksgiving, because He has
manifested them to us, and has communicated to us effects
proportioned to them. In like manner we may distinguish
the perfections of our Lord’s Sacred Humanity, as well
those which have to do with the integrity of Human
nature, such as the body with its limbs, and the soul with
its powers, both rational and irrational, as those also which
are superadded to nature, such as habits and acts, whether
permanent, like the Beatific Vision, or transient, as talk­
ing, praying, working miracles, and the like. In consider­
ing the powers and habits of His Blessed Soul, we should
ask Him to make our powers as like as possible to His, to
adorn them with habits as His were adorned, and to excite
them to acts as He excited His own. When we look at
His Body hanging on the Cross, we must consider each
limb, and pray that as the Word in that Body directed
and moved that limb in the most perfect way, so He, the
same Word, who has now entered into us by Holy Com­
munion, may rule and direct not only our interior powers,
but all our limbs and outward actions, so that we may
be, as it were, an impression and image of the Sacred
Humanity, exhibiting all our inward and outward actions
in a manner the most resembling that wherein our Lord
acted both inwardly and outwardly ; for this is the trans­
formation, which the Saints and holy doctors enumerate
among the special fruits of Communion.
8. We are to conclude our thanksgiving by presenting

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THANKSGIVING.

our Blessed Lord, whom we have received in the Holy
Eucharist, to all the orders of the beatified spirits. To the
holy Angels we may say, Behold you His highest ministers,
who do His word, behold the First-born of the Eternal
Father whom at that heavenly Father’s bidding you did
adore when He entered into the world, and obtain for me
the grace to servo Him with the same spirit and truth
wherewith you served Him during your probation, and
serve Him now in your heavenly and blessed life. To the
patriarchs and prophets we may say, Behold, you ambas­
sadors of heaven, and partners of the marvellous secrets
of God, that Redeemer promised from the beginning of
the world, whom you desired and so long a time expected,
and make me with all the powers and affections of my
heart to pant after Him, and to sigh for my Beloved, day
and night. To the holy apostles we may say, Behold,
illustrious preachers of the gospel, your beloved Master
whom you did love so ardently with your whole hearts, and
make me to love Him fervently above all things, and with
my deepest affections. To the holy martyrs, Behold, brave
witnesses of the faith, Christ Crucified, for the love of
whom you did so willingly shed your blood ; oh gain for
me the grace always to be suffering pain for Him, and to
live ever on the cross, and that it may be a hard cross,
whether nature with her strength fastens me upon it, or
the hands of evil men, and then that I may pass straight
from the cross unto my Lord. To the confessor pontiffs,
Behold, you shepherds of the Lord’s flock, the Immaculate
Lamb, whom you were once wont to sacrifice to Almighty
God in the odour of sweetness on the holy altar, enable me
to occupy myself worthily in so great a sacrifice, to offer it
aright to God, and ever associating myself with that sacred
Oblation, to offer myself perpetually to Him by good works
in the odour of sweetness. To confessors religious, Behold,

THANKSGIVING.

»57

faithful servants of my Lord, your sweet and beloved Lord,
for whom in reality as well aa in desire, you did forsake all
the pleasures of this world ; enable me for His love to per­
severe till death in my state, however dishonourable or
poor, and to climb to the height of great holiness for the
pure love of God alone. To the saints of our own congrega­
tion, Behold, most dear brothers, your Leader, to whom in
word and work you were so truly conformed in thia life,
grant to me and all my brothers, still fighting for His
honour in the Church below, a plentiful prey of souls,
without detriment to our interior piety, and multiply our
numbers with crowds of excellent labourers called to the
same harvest, who shall pass with mighty sheaves of merits
to His blissful society and yours. To the holy virgins,
Behold, you spouses of the Immaculate Lamb, Him for
whom you did keep your virginity with so much exulta­
tion; make me to appear ever before the eyes of your
Beloved and mine, pure both in heart and work, and at
last, free from all stain of sin and all obligation of punish­
ment, to pass straight from this life to Him in heaven. To
all the saints, Behold, my dearest friends, who are the con­
solation of my poor soul, the Master, Author, and reward
of your sanctity ; get me grace to walk as you walked with
mighty strides of holiness, and conformably to the spirit of
my institute, so that the increasing series of my years may
never find me lingering where I was before, but ever
mounting upwards to the heights of holiness.
Then we may say to our dearest Lord, "Now, O my
Lord, I retire from Thee for a little while, yet not with­
out Thee ! No 1 for Thou art the consolation, felicity,
and every good of my soul I commend myself with all
vehemence to Thy most ample charity, with all my brothers,
friends, and enemies. Love us, 0 Lord, as much as Thou
canst, and inebriate us with Thy love, and transform ua
R

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into Thy likeness, 0 joy and exultation of our hearts; and
grant that we may live wholly in Thee, be wholly occupied
with Thee and for Thee, and that we may have no object
in any of our words and actions, within us or without, but
only Thee, our Love and our every good ; who livest and
reignest,” &c. Last of all we may say tho Respice, “ Look
down, we beseech Thee, 0 Lord, on this Thy family, for
which our Lord Jesus Christ did not hesitate to be delivered
into the hands of wicked men, and to suffer tho torment
of the cross ; who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the
Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.”
Now, I repeat that I am not advising any one to use
this thanksgiving just as it stands, but only that we should
draw from it, according as we require, streams of living
water to freshen our dry hearts, and to adorn them with
the variety of devotion. It deserves to be carefully studied ;
for it really is a treatise of holy living in itself, and
that of the most consistent description. It portrays, and
would help to form, a definite spiritual character. There
are in it wishes taken for granted, and petitions offered to
God, at which perhaps we start and tremble. Even these
are good for our souls. Lancisius gives them as if no
devout soul would dream of shrinking from them. We
must not use them out of our own heads ; but it is good
to be humbled ; and it must humble us to see how far off
we are from what we ought to be, and, perhaps, which is
more to the point, from what we thought ourselves to be.
We are humbled, but not discouraged. For if we were
discouraged, it would show that we had really no spiritu­
ality in us at all, and were but standing yet at tho start­
ing place, whereas we should by this time have been at
least in sight of the blessed goal.
There is also another thing in this form of thanksgiving,
which deserves to be dwelt upon. It brings out so very

THANKSGIVING.

2$q

much the devotion to the Person of the Eternal Word.
The want of this is the cause of much shallowness, and of
much dryness in prayer ; and especially to it may be traced
the absence of that deep spirit of adoration, which should
distinguish the devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, and
also the barrenness of soul which frequent Communion
seems sometimes rather to increase than to relieve. I^et
us only preach and teach the Divinity of Jesus, no matter
how uninviting may be the notion of theological sermons,
and we shall soon see how hearts will melt without elo­
quence of ours, and how Bethlehem and Calvary will give
out their rich depths of tenderness to the poorest and the
simplest of Christ’s humble poor. To how many has
meditation become a different thing, when they carried to
the Crib or the Cross the light of our dear Lord's Divinity
along with them 1 Though they were ordinarily in no
high state of prayer, nor in the practice of self-crucifying
austerities, their prayer, through the refulgence of this one
doctrine, has often ended, as if they were very contempla­
tives, in the bosom of the Most Holy Trinity. Many
have there been who could not put into words what hap­
pened to them ; but to whose state of mind, for a little
while at least, Dante's words * would not have been un­
suitable :—
Then ·’ Glory to the Father, to the Son,
And to the Holy Ghost,” rang aloud
Throughout all Paradise ; that with the song
My spirit reeled, so passing sweet the strain.
And what I saw was equal ecstasy ;
One universal smile it seemed of all things;
Joy past compare : gladness unutterable ;
Imperishable life and peace and love ;
Exhaustless riches, and immeasurable bliss.

Farad, xxvii.

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THANKSGIVING.

SECTION VI.
PRACTICAL REFLECTIONS ON THE SUBJECT.

But it is now time to ask ourselves the important ques­
tion, what has been our own practice hitherto with regard
to the duty of thanksgiving in general 1 What is our
habitual feeling about God’s numberless blessings to us !
How long a time have wo ever spent in summing up God’s
blessings to us, even when we have been in retreat ! St.
Ignatius wisely tells us to commence our examination of
conscience every day with counting up the mercies of God
and thanking Him for them. Have we so much as kept
faithfully to this little practice ! Many have regular times
in the day for different spiritual duties ; have we any time
especially set apart for thanksgiving 1 Many, again, keep
in their prayer-books a little note of the things and per­
sons to pray for; have we any similar memento of the
blessings for which we desire daily to thank our heavenly
Father ! How often have we besieged the throne of grace
for weeks and weeks with Paters, Aves, Misereres, Memo­
rares, Rosaries, Communions, and even penances, for some­
thing we desired ; and when at last oui· dear Lord con­
descended to our importunity, what proportion did our
thanksgiving bear to our supplication ! How long did it
last! In what did it consist! With what fervour and
increase of love was it accompanied ! Was it a single Te
Deum, a hurried Deo gratias, and we took with an un­
graceful eagerness what God held out to us, almost as if it
was our wages, and then, beyond a general vague feeling
of gratitude, thought nothing more about it ! Alas 1 we
have all great need to take shame to ourselves in this

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261

respect. So far from having an abiding spirit of thanks­
giving, or a keen life-long recollection of God's mercies, or
a loving regularity in the worship and sacrifice of thanks­
giving, we go on letting the Holy Spirit Himself touch our
hearts with an intimate sense of our obligations to God
and our dependence upon Him, waiting till He does do so,
and then feebly responding to His call; so that we let
Him, as it were, ask for our thanks rather than pay them
with a free heart, and out of an abounding love. Truly
we never can be beforehand with Him or with His grace
in so much as thinking a good thought. Where we fail is
that we do not correspond to His touch ; we need His pres­
sure. We should be quick enough to see the wretchedness
of all this, if a fellow-creature did it to ourselves. But
answer these questions honestly to your Guardian Angels,
and then say if you think 1 exaggerated when I said that
the dispropoition of thanksgiving to prayer is one of
the wonders of the world ; and one of its saddest won­
ders too.
But what is the cause of all this ? I do not care if I
write it again and again till you are weary of reading it, if
only that would ensure your remembering it It comes
from your perverse refusal to look at God as your Father.
Independent of open sin, there is scarcely a misery which
does not come from those hard, dry, churlish views of God.
That is the root of the evil. You must lay the axe there,
if you really desire to be other than you are. No schemes
for self-improvement will stand in the stead of it. You
may meditate, and examine your conscience, and tell your
beads, and little enough will come of it, as you have so
often found already. How wonderfully people can be
regular in making their daily meditation, without its ever
melting into them I Not a passion is subdued, not an
nnloveliness smoothed away I They have the custom of

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THANKSGIVING.

prayer, without the gift of it You may do penances, and
they will rather harden your heart in a delusion of vain
glorious humility, than melt into simple genuine love.
The very Sacraments will work only like machines out of
order. Whether it is stunted growth in the spiritual life
which you deplore, or the absence of all sensible devotion,
or incapacity to make and keep generous resolutions, or
teasing relapses into unworthy imperfections, or want of
reverence in prayer, or lack of sweetness with others, in
almost every case the mischief may be traced up to an
unaffectionate view of God. You must get clear of this.
You must cultivate a filial feeling towards Him. You
must pray to the Holy Spirit for His gift of piety, whose
special office it is to produce this feeling. Your most
promiuent idea of God must bo, as the God, “ of whom all
paternity is named in heaven and on earth.” You must
remember that the Spirit of Jesus is the one true Spirit ;
and that He is the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry,
Abba, Father I You will never be right until your view
of God as your Father swallows up all your other views of
Him, or at least till they are brought into harmonious
subordination to that view, which is the sweet soul of the
Gospel, and the life of our Blessed Saviour’s teaching. A
man could not do better than devote his whole life to be
the apostle of this one idea, the compassionate Paternity
of God.
In matters of spiritual progress our interests are
identical with God’s glory. This is another of His loving
contrivances. Hence we may still further persuade our­
selves to the practice of thanksgiving by reflecting on the
benefits which result from it to ourselves in a spiritual
point of view. Growth in holiness is nothing but the
continual descent upon us of those fresh graces, which
crown every act of correspondence on our part to graces

THANKSGIVING.

*3

already received ; and there ia nothing, as we know, which
so midtiplies graces upon us, or causes God to throw the
doors of His treasury so wide open, as the devotion of
thanksgiving. But it is not only in this way that it helps
us on in holiness. Its effects upon our mind must also be
taken into account. Many persons try to advance in
spirituality, and are held back, as it were, by some invisible
hand. The fact is, and they do not realise it, they have
never been thoroughly converted to God. They have
stayed too short a time in the purgative way of the
spiritual life, or they have bargained with God, and kept
back some attachment, or wished to loosen themselves
from unworthy habits gently and gradually, so as to be
spared the pain of conversion. Now thanksgiving swiftly
but imperceptibly turns our religion into a service of love ;
it draws us to take God’s views of things, to range our­
selves on llis side even against ourselves, and to identify
ourselves with His interests even when they seem to be in
opposition to our own. Hence we are led to break more
effectually with the world, and not to trail its clouds and
mists along with us on our road to heaven. Hence, also,
we come to root and ground ourselves more effectually in
the sense of our own vileness and worse than nothingness
before God : and what is all this but to make our conver­
sion more thorough and complete ?
Neither is the effect of thanksgiving less upon our
growth than it is upon our conversion. All growth comes
of love ; and love is at once both the cause and effect of
thanksgiving. What light and air are to plants, that is
the sense of God’s Presence to the virtues : and thanks­
giving makes this sensible Presence of God almost a habit
in our souls. For it leads us continually to see mercies
which we should not otherwise have perceived, and it
enables us far more worthily to appreciate their value, and

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THANKSGIVING.

in some degree to sound the abyss of divine condescension
out of which they come. Moreover, the practice of thanks­
giving in ourselves loads us to be distressed at the absence
of it in others ; and this keeps our love of God delicate
and sensitive, and breeds in us a spirit of reparation,
which is especially congenial to the growth of holiness.
Our hearts are enlarged while we are magnifying God ;
and when our hearts are enlarged we run the way of
His commandments, where we have only walked or
crept before. We feel a secret force in overcoming
obstacles and in despising fears, and altogether a liberty
in well-doing, which we used not to feel before; and fill
because thanksgiving has made us measure the height
of God’s goodness and the depth of our vileness ; and
so nothing looks too much or too hard where the glory
of God is concerned. Like Areuna in the time of the
pestilence, we give to the king as kings ourselves, and in
the spirit of kings. Our hearts are crowned with thanks­
giving.
It is a great mistake to think lightly of happiness in
religion, of enjoyment in religious services, of sweetness in
prayer, of gladness in mortification, and of sensible devo­
tion. True it is that when God subtracts them, it is not
necessarily in anger or as a chastisement ; and whatever
be the cause, our plain duty is to submit ourselves to His
sweet though inscrutable Will. But this does not hinder
all these things from being mighty aids in the spiritual
life, and therefore to be desired and coveted with earnest­
ness, though in a submissive spirit. Who does not know
cases where everything seems to go wrong because a
person has no happiness in religion Î Even at Mass and
Benediction a veil is over their hearts, which neither
music nor brightness, nor yet the Divine Presence, can
go through. God’s blessings are as dull to such people

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165

as Ilis chastisements are to the generality of men. Prayer
is a penance ; confession a torture ; C'ommnnion a very
rack. What God blesses for them, irritates like a sore.
What He fills with peace, troubles them with dis­
quietude. They have no light but the gloom of their
own perverse moodiness : and they have no song but
peevishness.
Inquire if such persons have ever had a spirit of thanks­
giving, and you will find you have hit exactly on the
characteristic omission of their lives. Perhaps they have
been converts to the holy faith. They have obeyed grace
grudgingly. When they were safe in the Church, they
would see difficulties everywhere, from the Pope and
Roman manners downwards. Imaginary evils surrounded
every step. There was temporal unhappiness; and was
the faith worth it Î There was the annoyance of learning a
new religion, and new ceremonies, and this made them
snappish. Then preachers said such strong things; and
they must complain to a score of people of this, as if every­
thing was to be suited to them. It was the Assumption,
and the dear good Irish wanted to hear of their Mother's
Coronation ; but then this important convert was at
church, and had brought an important Protestant friend
with him, and should have been consulted, or forewarned.
It was so unkind, so injurious, in his or her presence, to
say our Lady had twelve stars on her head. Were they
planète or fixed stars! The whole matter is full of diffi­
culties. Really, preachers should be more careful I Then
in the confessional it was all so uncomfortable, so coarse,
and vulgar, and matter of fact. There was so little smooth
talking, and yet much which was so dreadfully to the point.
Thus, from one cause or other, the poor convert has been
miserable ever since conversion ; and why 1 Immersed in
self, and magnifying self, seeking consolations, and hunger

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THANKSGIVING.

ing after sympathy, such persona have hardly once fallen
like children on their knees to thank God for the miracle
of love which brought them where they are. A thankful
heart would have taken joyously all the incipient diffi­
culties of its new position, as a penance for the hard­
heartedness which had given grace so much trouble and
cost it so many efforts in the process of conversion. But
these persons were not thankful, and so they are not
happy ; let us thank God that their numbers are so few.
This, however, is another point to be made much of, that
happiness in religion comes from the spirit of thanks­
giving.
Now for a few words to show how by this devotion of
thanksgiving we can do our three things, promote the
glory of God, advance the interests of Jesus, and help in
the saving of souls. First, as to the promotion of the
glory of God. Ho has chosen to rest His glory in great
measure on the praise and thanksgiving of His creatures.
Thanksgiving was one of the ends for which He created
us. Neither is there any matter in which He is so
defrauded of His glory as in this, and none consequently
in which He looks more for reparation from His faithful
servants. No one ever thanks Him with devout intention
who does not at once and thereby give Him glory. I said
that joy came of thanksgiving ; and the spirit of thanks­
giving seems, not only to accompany that joy which is a
special fruit of the Holy Ghost, but to be manifested in all
the special devotions which have to do with joy. Those
who have had a special devotion to St Raphael, the Angel
of joy, have generally had a more than usual gift of
thanksgiving. We see this even in the book of Tobias,
without coming to the examples of the Saints most devoted
to that dear spirit, as St. John of God, the Blessed Benveuuta, St. Giacinta Mai-iscotti, and others. “ Father i

THANKSGIVING.

267

he gave joy,” thia ia the character the young Tobias gives
St. Raphael. When he is about to make himself known,
he says to them, " Bless ye the God of heaven ; give glory
to Him in the sight of all that live, because He hath shown
His mercy to you. For it is good to hide the secret of a
king ; but honourable to reveal and confess the works of
God.” Again, “ When I was with you I was there by the
will of God ; bless ye Him and sing praises to Him.”
Again, “ It is time that I return to Him that sent me ;
but bless ye God, and publish all His wonderful works.”
Probably as he parted from them, he let them see a glimpse
of his angelic beauty, as they immediately went into an
ecstasy of three hours, and what it left behind was the
spirit of thanksgiving. “Then they lying prostrate for
three hours upon their face, blessed God ; and rising up,
they told all His wonderful works.” “Then Tobias the
elder, opening his mouth, said, Give glory to the Lord, ye
children of Israel. See what Ho hath done for us, and
with fear and trembling give ye glory to Him, and extol
the eternal King of worlds. Bless ye the Lord, all His
elect, keep days of joy, and give glory to Him. Jerusalem,
city of God, give glory to the Lord for thy good things.”
Then, how beautiful was his close, after the Angel had
left his mantle of joy and thanksgiving on the holy
old man 1 “ The rest of his life was in joy ; and with
great increase of the fear of God, he departed in peace."
Indeed the joy lived after him, and was instead of mourn­
ing for him ; for it is said, “ And after he had lived
ninety-nine years in the fear of the Lord, with joy they
buried him ; ” like the joy that is so often found in
religious houses, when God has called one of the com­
munity to Himself, and which is sometimes almost a
scandal to externe who know not the deep unearthly spirit
of the cloister.

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THANKSGIVING.

Secondly, this same devotion gives us great means of
furthering the interests of Jesus. What was there upon
earth which He sought more vehemently than ITis Father’s
glory Î Though it is said of Him that Ho knew what was
in men and would not trust Himself to them, yet Ho vouch­
safed to appear surprised that only one of the ton lepers re­
turned to give thanks to God. How full also of mystery is
that outburst of thanksgiving on His own part, when Ho
thanked His Father, and confessed before Him, because
He had hidden His mysteries from the wise and prudent,
and had revealed them to babes. But there is one way
especially which I would venture to suggest as a means of
promoting the interests of Jesus, and that in a most loving
manner and with little trouble to ourselves. It is by
assuming to ourselves a little apostolate to spread the
practice of thanksgiving. There are few of us who do not
influence some others, children, or servants, or friends.
Let us teach them to make more frequent, more systematic,
more fervent thanksgiving. Let us say a seasonable word
for this practice whenever we can. If each of the now
nearly ten thousand members of tho Confraternity of the
Precious Blood persuaded five people, in honour of our
dear Lord’s Five Wounds, to make daily thanksgiving,
these five would in turn spread it to others, as the ripples
spread on the surface of a pond ; and, anyhow, how much
would Jesus rejoice at this harvest of God's glory from
something like fifty thousand souls, making daily one act
of thanksgiving more than they otherwise would have
done, one Deo gratias, if it were nothing more.
*
Think
of all that is involved of grace, merit, glory, worship,
praise, acceptableness in one Deo gratias said with devout
intention; and yet with but a little exertion the Con­
• This ten must now be multiplied by five.

THANKSGIVING.

Ï69

fraternity could Bend up to the blessed but outraged
Majesty of God in each year eighteen millions, two
hundred and fifty thousand, of these supernatural acts!
Why do we let so much that we could do for God slip
by without a trial? What a homage of love to Jesus
would this easy apostolate of thanksgiving be I Let us
begin at once, this very day ; for time is flowing from
under us, and we have kept God's glory waiting long
enough.
Thus also in schools and seminaries, and in domestic
families, especially where there are many young children,
out of whose pure mouths God has ordained His praise,
little associations might be formed to say some ejaculation
of thanksgiving daily by themselves, and where it seems
feasible to make some little act of thanksgiving in common,
us well as to endeavour· to put more of a thoughtful inten­
tion into the grace before and after meals. The object of
these little associates might be to thank God generally
for all His goodness to His creatures, or especially for the
Incarnation, or again for His mercifully giving us Mary
to be our mother as well as His. An Irish school might
thus unite morning and afternoon in a little act of thanks­
giving for the gift of the most holy Roman faith : and
thus the children could at once bless God for the national
grace of their country, make reparation for apostasies, and
also themselves gain a habit which would be an effectual
protection to them in the temptations of after-life. These
associations might be connected, if it was thought well,
with devotion to the Holy Angels, whose life is one in­
cessant song of grateful praise, and thus the virtue of
purity, the attendant gift of this devotion, might at the
same time be fostered in the souls of the youthful members.
If we think aright of the glory of God,—in one word, if
we love Him, these things will not seem small, nor their

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blessings insignificant. We have much last time to make
up in this matter of thanksgiving.
Oh what glory cannot one man get for our dearest Lord,
if he only lays himself out to do it 1 St. Jerome, while he
lived in the East, often heard the oriental monks intoning
their doxology, Glory be to the Father, and to the Son,
and to the Holy Ghost. It took with him, and he asked
Pope Damasus to establish it in the Western Church,
where, humanly speaking, but for him it would never have
been used. Who can count the million millions of times
that doxology has been used in the West with loving and
devout intention Î Look how often it comes in the Divine
Ofiice. Now, every time St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi
said it, she accompanied it by a mental offering of herself
to the Most Holy Trinity, and bowed her head, as it were
to the block to be martyred for the faith. Whenever St.
Alphonso, in his old age, heard of some good news for the
glory of God or the welfare of Holy Church, he cried out
with heartfelt emotion, “ Gloria Patri, et Filio, et Spiritui
Sancto.” Great things are told us of the devotion of the
Blessed Paul of the Cross to this doxology, and he taught
the same spiritual devotion to his religious. The lives of
the Saints would doubtless furnish us with many other
devotions of heroic love, which have been connected with
this doxology. Yet, if St Jerome had not one day asked
Pope Damasus to introduce it into the Western Church,
all this glory would have been lost to God. When men do
anything for God, the very least thing, they never know
where it will end, nor what amount of work it will do for
Him. Love’s secret, therefore, is to be always doing
things for God, and not to mind because they are such
very little ones.
“ Cast thy bread upon the running
waters ; for after a long time thou shalt find it again. In
the morning sow thy seed ; and in the evening let not thy

THANKSGIVING.

*7’

band cease ! for thou knowest not which may rather spring
up, thia or that : and, if both together, it shall be the
better.” *
Thirdly, thia devotion would be of great help in aaving
many souls. We ourselves by the practice of it should
gain such favour with God as would enable us to impetrate
graces which are far above the feebleness of our present
prayers. We should see such things happen I Such a
throwing open of the treasures of God’s mercy, such inun­
dations of grace, such obstinate hearts overcome, such new
benedictions poured out over the whole Church I Then,
again, by making daily reparation to God for the ingrati­
tude and unmindfulness of sinners, we should appease His
anger against them, and thus avert from them many judg­
ments and chastisements, both spiritual and temporal. It
is astonishing in how many indirect ways God lovingly
allows us to co-operate in the salvation of souls. Would
that we were more ingenious in finding them out, and more
unwearying in the practice of them. Poor souls 1 we have
given you scandals enough, would we could at least equal
them now by prayers and by thanksgivings ! It does not
seem as if the Precious Blood were half our own, till it has
become yours also. May we never forget that there may
be souls on earth whose glory God has tied to our zeal and
prayer I There may be a dear soul, whom God has loved
from all eternity, and decreed to call it out of nothing in
preference to millions of souls He might have created
instead ; a dear soul whom Jesus thought of by name upon
the Cross, and offered for it with distinct oblation all His
sufferings ; a dear soul for whose company Mary yearns in
heaven ; and whether or no it shall see God, and be His
king and priest for ever, clothed with incomparable beauty,
• Evoles, xi. x, 6.

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THANKSGIVING

and crowned with inexpressible gifts, and plunged in nn
everlasting sea of joy, has been hung by an adorable
venture of Divine love, upon my unconscious prayer I
What an amazing, and also what a ravishing, possibility I
Ah Lord 1 when saw I Thee hungry and fed Theo not,
thirsty, and gave Thee not to drink? May His answer
never cease to sound in my love-frightened ear.
Inas­
much as thou hast not done it unto the least of theso My
brethren, thou hast not done it unto Me.

CHAPTER VIII.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.
Science and grace—Tarry-at-Home travelling—What praise and desire
are—Loves of Complacency and Benevolence—Value of interior acta
—Description of God—Meditation on tho attributes of God—Applica­
tion of Praise and Desire to the three instincts—How we get at the
love of complacency Saints made up of sii things—The HOLY middle
class of the Church—Examples : i. From the Raccolta; 2. Lancisius
*
devotions to Jesus Risen ; 3. St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi’s Prepara­
tion for Whitsuntide; 4. Renewal of vows and heroic desires.—
Regimental holiness—Liberty of spirit—St. Gertrude and the old
Benedictine ascetics—The great wonder that God loves men—The
greater that He lets men love Him—The greatest that they will not
do so The spirit of reparation—Mary the Christian’s Benedicite—
The praise of the Sacred Heart—God’s praise of Himself.

SECTION L
SCIENCE AND GRACE.

Men of science lead us into every nook and corner of the
world to show us, even in the case of the vilest insects and
the adaptation of their habits and instincts to their wants
and weaknesses, how full creation is, not only of the wisdom
and the power, but of the minute considei'ateness and
tender compassion of the Almighty. We have seen pre­
cisely the same thing in the spiritual world, and its
supernatural arrangements. All is for love, and that to
an extent which almost tries our faith. God loves us with
a surpassing love, and He longs to be loved by us, and He

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

lavishes upon us with an incredible profusion tho most
unthought-of means of loving Him and increasing His
glory. Theology is the counterpart of physical science.
It can tell us quite as wonderful things of the Angels
whom we have never seen, ns astronomy can of the stars
we can never reach. It can send light farther into the
invisible world of spirit, than the microscope can into the
invisible world of animal existence. The science of the
laws of grace is a parallel to the science of the laws of life.
The history and constitution of the Church is as startling
in its wonders as are the records of geology. With the
help of revelation, the Church, reason, and the light of tho
Holy Ghost, Catholic theologians have explored spirit with
at least quite as much certainty and success as modern
science has explored matter. Those who smile when we
speak so intimately of the different choirs of Angels, are
like those who smile when they are told the bulk of a
planet, or that it is made of some material as light as cork.
The unbelief of ignorance causes the smile in both. The
immense intellect of man was once directed upon the life
of God, His perfections, His incarnation, and His com­
munications of Himself. Revelation gave it countless
infallible axioms, and that greatest glory of the human
mind, Catholic theology, was the result. The same immense
power is now brought to bear upon the currents of the
ocean, and the circles of the winds, upon electrical pheno­
mena, and the chemistry of the stars, and the result is
wonderful enough in the system of modern science ; yet it
is hardly so wonderful, even as an exhibition of mental
power, as are the summas of scholastic theology.
It is our ignorance of our religion which more than
anything else prevents our discerning the extreme loving­
ness of God. To the savage, on whose unobservant mind
no phenomena are forced but those of power, such as the

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

375

storm, the flash, tho sun, tho sea, tho wind, the Creator
is simply a Spirit of might Could he see the affections
and instincts of animals, as science would put them before
him, then he would come to change his notion of the
Creator. So, when men are absorbed in worldly pursuits,
and do not occupy themselves in the things of God, it is
only the phenomena of power in religion, such as death,
mortal sin, judgment, hell, predestination, which engage
their attention. They must descend into the minute laws
of grace, the secrets of prayer, the arrangements of merit
and glory, the affectionateness of indulgences, the sweet
mysteries of Jesus and Mary, in order to get anything like
a true idea of the length and breadth of God’s amazing
love. The thunderclap can strike the inattentive ; but it
is only the listener that catches the sea-like whispers of the
summer-air in the pine tree tops.
We have seen how God enables us to love Him by giving
us all His own perfections, and the mysteries of His dear
Son, to offer as our very own to His blessed Majesty, and,
further, by teaching us how to unite our little services to
the intentions and actions of our Lord ; and how all these
things can be used alike for intercession, for thanksgiving,
or for praise. But we may now go a step farther, and say
that in His anxiety to be loved, and to give us the means
of loving Him, He raises even our ineffectual desires to the
dignity of effectual acts, and enables us to worship Him,
with a most heavenly and delightful worship, by the mere
passing wishes of our loving hearts. He does not call only
for blood, and pain, and sacrifice. He does not refuse to
feed His glory on anything short of heroic self-immolation.
The faintest heart in creation may love Him, and love Him
with an abundant love.
We can all perhaps remember, when we were young, the
books called the Tarry-at Home Traveller, and the objects

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

they put before us. We could sit at ease in our sunny
nursery, rocking on a rocking-chair, with tho scattered
toys and the dilapidated houses of wooden bricks around
us,—tokens of a play which had interested and tired us an
hour ago, and amid all these comforts we could cross the
sandy plains of Africa, or thread tho flowering forests of
Brazil, amuse ourselves with the mud volcanoes of Iceland,
or watch the Tartars from off tho Great Wall of China ;
and if when night camo on wo did look into our little beds
to see if a cobra di capello were lurking there, or wo were
mayhap shipwrecked in a dream, they were but tho vainest
of alarms, and even they could give a zest to the morrow.
Now, God’s love has realised in our devotions something
very like this Tarry-at-Home Travelling. Wo can go from
country to country on the earth, wishing God more glory,
and worshipping Jesus in neglected tabernacles. We can
brood over tho dim realms of Purgatory, and sigh and wish
for God’s glory and tho interests of Jesus. We can range
the courts of heaven with undazzled eye, and worship there
by inward wishes and by mental praises. Wo can pass
from attribute to attribute of the Divine Majesty with
congratulations, joys, desires, nay, even with impossible
wishes it were more perfect Yet all tho while this is no
mere amusement, no merely lawful occupation of our
minds with the dear and deep things of God. But it is
substantial worship, something with which the Eternal
Majesty is positively pleased, adoration impetrating actual
graces, and securing corresponding degrees of glory.
In truth, there is nothing in the world so substantial as
all these things. The rocky mountain is less real than true
worship. Suffering even is but an unreality compared
with that which has power to please the incomprehensible
God. Grace, being a participation of the Divine Nature, is
a thousand times more solid than all the natures of men

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

277

and animals ; an<l the law of gravity is less certain than
the unimaginable glory of the Blessed. Truly the ways of
God arc above our ways, and we soon get out of our depth
in His loving counsels I If we, with the little dim dis­
cernment we can have of spiritual things, can touch and
handle the amazing reality of everything which has to do
with God, what wonder that the Saints should have spoken
so lightly and so contemptuously of the things of earth, as
if pain and pleasure, life and death, were so indistinguishably small, that it mattered not whether the one or the
other befell a man. Verily there is no science like the
science of loving God.

SECTION Π.
WHAT IS MEANT BY PRAISE AND DFSIRE.

The subject then that I want to bring before you now is
that of Praise and Desire, with the devout practices of them
left on record for us by holy men. Praise is something
more than thanksgiving. It is blessing God for His good­
ness, His power, His purity, His beauty. It is congratu­
lating Him that He is what He is, and that there is none
like Him. It is calling on all His Angels and Saints to
praise and glorify Him with all their might ; and, rising
from them to Mary, we implore her to praise the Majesty
of God for us more worthily than we ourselves can do ; and
then, exhausting the treasures of her almost divine pre­
rogatives, we rise to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, which is
like a boundless sea, every one of whose waves gleams and
lightens with unutterable praise of God ; but even that has
limits, though the dear little French picture of the Angel
trying to fathom the Sacred Heart, and his lead not reach­
ing half way, may be true enough so far as the power of

»78

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

men or Angels to fathom it is conceived ; and by love, from
excess of love becoming unabashed ; we dare to throw our­
selves into the bosom of the Most High, and listen ecstati­
cally to His many-voiced praise and benediction of Himself.
This is a different spirit from that which measures the
necessities of obedience, investigates its claim on God,
ascertains the extent to which He has bound Himself by
covenant, and follows the probable opinion which is in
favour of the laxest practice. I am not saying this latter
spirit is wrong. I am neither criticising nor finding fault
with anything. I am only saying, what is clearly undeni­
able, that it is a very different spirit from the spirit of
Praise.
Moreover, the spirit of Praise is easier and
sweeter. It brings no suffering along with it ; it involves
no austerity; it implies no arduous heights of prayer.
There is not in devotion a more childlike spirit than it is.
But it is not only a different spirit ; it produces a different
character, a different kind of spirituality. It entices us to
serve God out of love. Hence it finds its proper place in
this treatise, which would not be complete without it.
By Desire, I do not mean what theologians call the love
of concupiscence, by which we all covet God as our own
ultimate end and sovereign good. That love of concupi­
scence does not enter into my subject. But by Desire I
mean the devotion which results in the heart from the two
loves of Complacency and Benevolence, to be afterwards
explained. It is wishing God more love, more obedience,
inore glory from men. It is desiring for Him, out of love,
the augmentation of everything in heaven, earth, hell and
purgatory, on which His accidental glory can feed and be
increased. It is wishing even impossible wishes, as that
He were more perfect and beautiful than He is, who is
simple perfection and absolute beauty. It is wishing we
eould be martyred for the faith, or convert hell, or empty

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purgatory. It is wishing even till sorrow and condolence
spring up in our hearts, that sins might cease, and scandals
disappear, and lukewarmness evaporate from the face of
the earth, and most of all that we ourselves could serve so
dear and dread a Majesty otherwise than we do, and could
have other hearts than those miserable icy stones, which,
so far as God is concerned, we carry about in our bosom all
our lives long. It is wishing that every grain of the seasands, and every leaf of the forests, had a seraph’s intellect
and voice to swell the chorus of God’s praise. This, again,
is a different spirit from wishing to escape hell-fire, from
desiring a short purgatory, or to evade it altogether, from
praying for a quiet life and an easy death-bed, from asking
temporal blessings, and seeking cures from the relics of
the Saints, from coveting after the peace, and joy, and
stability of heaven, merely or mainly because of the irk­
someness of earth’s contraries. Once more, let me not be
misunderstood. 1 am not saying that this last spirit is
wrong. Not at all. I wish all the children of men were
infected with it. But it is cognisably a different spirit
from the spirit of Desire ; and the spirit of Desire is easier
and sweeter, and gives God greater glory. Besides this, it
also, like the spirit of Praise, produces a different spiritu­
ality, and leads to the service of love.
These are the two things, Praise and Desire, which we
are now to consider. Henceforth I shall not speak of them
separately ; for they run in and out of each other so per­
petually, that for convenience’ sake we may very well regard
them as one thing. You see, to go back to my old story—
what I want of you is confidence in God. There is no
worship worth the name of worship which is not the voice
of confidence. There is no love which is not confidence.
But there can be no confidence without the filial feeling.
We always get back again to the same point—God is our

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Father I Look at the perfections of God, Hie power as
well as His love, His justice as well as His mercy. Consider
one as much as the other ; bo as fair to the one as the other.
So far as in our blindness we can at all est imate the char­
acter of God, or appreciate Him, we must acknowledge that
there can be no acceptable worship of Him which is not
based on confidence. This is the proper homage of the
creature to its Creator. From the dreadful fear which wor­
ships the spirit of power with human sacrifices and fana
tirai suicide, to the mixed impertinence and superstition of
fetishism, the absence of this filial feeling of confidence is
the characteristic of every modification of false worship.
The beautiful worship of God as our Father is distinguished
by this very thing, that its chief exercise of love is in putting
trust in those very perfections of God, which, to an unloving
mind, would produce fear. It is a great act of love to
trust, like a son, God’s tremendous power. It is a greater
still to remember what we are, and in spite of it to put all
our confidence in His justice, to repose, as in a mother’s
lap, upon that very attribute which haunts the unloving
like an unconquerable spectre, so long as they believe and
live. All for love, and love for us all. All for Jesus, and
Jesus for all. These are the two sides of religion. Every­
thing is here, all theology, earth, purgatory, heaven. Even
the Jews perceived how everything turned on men re­
membering that God was their Father. “ Nothing,” says
one of the Rabbinical books, “ proves ardour in the
worshipper more than the use of the words, Our Father.”
“ Thrice blessed is he,” says another, “ who does good
through love of God, over and above him who serves
through fear." Such were even the traditions of the
Jews. But now Jesus has come, softening and subduing
all things to Himself, veiling His eternal glory in the
sweet regards of human eyes, like unto His Mother’s,

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

a8i

pleasing not Himself, pouring love over the whole earth,
to change the face of things ; and yet,—alas for the
interests of Divine Love I alas for the Sacred Heart I—
how many Catholics contrive to make of this blessed faith
and service a dry, cold, formal, stingy, ungraceful worship,
which the very prostrations and ablutions of a Mahometan
might upbraid and put to shame I

SECTION ΤΠ.
INTERIOR ACTS.

I have said before, that perhaps nothing strikes con
verts in the devotional system of the Church so much as
the value and importance assigned to interior acts. They
are surprised at the duty, under pain of sin, of acta of
faith, hope, charity, and contrition, at recurring periods
or under given circumstances. They are startled at the
commentaries on our Lord’s doctrine about committing
sin in our hearts. They have to reconcile themselves to
the influence attributed to intention. Now all this, just
like the rest of the Catholic system, brings out God. God
is a Simple Act. Whatsoever is done stands in a certain
relation to God. All its meaning and reality is from this.
Words, therefore, are but accidents. Nay, overt acts
add but little, comparatively, to the malice of the interior
will. The thought has been assented to; the intention
has been formed ; tho temptation has been deliberately
admitted; the thing is irrevocable. It has touched God,
and is stereotyped. He needs no index of the voice nor
consummation of the hands. It is an act, and ranks as
such with Him, for good or evil, for reward or punishment.
Sins of thought, says the Council of Trent, have these
frightful characteristics : first, that they sometimes make

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

a greater wound in the soul than eins of deed ; and,
secondly, that they are sometimes more dangerous,—Nonnunquam animam gravius sauciant, et periculosiora sunt
iis quæ manifeste admittuntur.
They are also more
numerous, more easily committed, and their approaches
frighten us less.
Now the reality of the merit of devout desires, of mental
praise, and of all interior as well as spoken acts of devo­
tion, is the loving side of this question. They need be
nothing more than interior acts. Nothing more is neces­
sary. They have touched God as such, and so have received
their value and their merit. Thus, turning the tables on
sins of thought, we may say that these interior acts of
piety sometimes make a greater impression on the soul
than exterior ones ; while they have the further advan­
tages of being more numerous and more easily performed.
But is it not enough to vex our love, to go and stand by
the countless seas of men’s hearts, and to watch the
innumerable waves that stir and brighten in every one of
them every minute, and to think there is not one wave or
ripple that might not rival an Angel’s song for worth
before the dear Majesty of God ; and yet that this treasure
is so little used, that men take so little pains about it,
and that God is so defrauded of His glory Î He so loves
us, and He so longs for our love, that He has made it
almost as easy, by the merits of Jesus, for our hearts to
praise Him, as for the thurible to let the spires of sweet
smoke issue through its perforated cover ; and yet we will
not even do so much as that I
It is hard to appreciate at their true value these in­
terior acts. There was a nun in the convent of St. Mary
Magdalene of Pazzi, by name Sister Maria Benedetta
Vettori, whom the Saint saw five hours after her death in
a glory exceeding the beatitude of many other virgins of

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

i«3

the monastery, and fearlessly gazing on the Humanity
and Divinity of the Word. The Jesuit confessor then
proceeds, “ Wherefore, after having been a long time in
admiring rapturo, through joy at such a delightful sight,
the Saint began to exclaim at intervals, Oh, happy thou,
who knewest how to bear the hidden treasure 1 Oh, what
a great thing to be singular amongst the singular, and
yet be regarded as an ordinary one ! The Word, had He
merely regarded the works, would have had little to
reward; for short has been the time for working. But
oh the goodness of God I who rewards every thought, and
word, and wish ! Great and continual were Thy works,
and practised by few; for they were interior! Oh, the great­
ness of interior works, so little understood I One inward
work is worth a thousand years of outward exercises I ” *
Remember, then, this is what we start with. There is
nothing in the world so real and substantial as the love of
God. One act of divine love is a more finished thing than
a statue of Phidias or Praxiteles. It is more firm than
the foundations of the Alps. It is more enduring than
the round world which God hath made so strong. All
things are bubbles to it. They have nothing in them.
They mean little. They soon pass away. An act of love
is a complete work, and has greater power and greater
consequences than any other act The mere act of dying
is not equal to it. Yet this act of love can be made by a
mental glance, quick as lightning, and piercing heaven.
Such acts can be multiplied at will beyond our power of
reckoning, and in the midst of apparently the most dis­
tracting occupations. So far from being weakened by
repetition, they only grow more intense and more power­
ful. Yet they require no effort To elicit them is even
a pleasure to us. But when we put these facte alongside
• Orat. Life, p. 119.

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

of our practice, it looks as if there must be a fallacy
somewhere. All this can hardly be true, and yot we
remain as we are. How incredible is the hardness of our
own hearts I It is a fair match for the excess of God’s
love. Welcome then that beautiful spirit of reparation to
the majesty of God, which so many of the Saints have
had ! It is like making sweet honey out of bitter flowers.
The little love we have for God, by this dear right of
reparation, supplies us with another means of loving Him
still more. Who will say that all things are not con
trived for love I

SECTION IV.

KNOWLEDGE AND LOVE OF THE DIVINE PERFECTIONS.

In order to get a clear idea of Praise and Desire, it will
be necessary for us to enter somewhat into the question of
divine love, its different kinds and manifestations. This,
however, will be so far from leading us away from our sub­
ject, that it will throw great light upon many of the pre­
ceding chapters. Indeed, if All for Jesus be the same
thing as All for love, then divine love is the very subject
of the treatise. What is called by theologians the love of
concupiscence, is, I have said before, a holy longing after
God as our last end, our sovereign good, our exceeding
great reward ; as when St. Paul exclaimed, I desire to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ. This love we ought to
have all our lives long, though God may not always give
us the gift to feel it sensibly. There is a remarkable
passage in the Revelations of St. Gertrude which shows
how acceptable to God is this longing to see Him, while
it illustrates also the drawing which devout people mostly
have to gaze intensely on the Blessed Sacrament

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

J85

She was divinely instructed that as often as a man gazes
with desire and devotion on the Host where the Body of
Christ lies hid sacramentally, so often does he increase his
merit in heaven ; and that in the future Vision of God to
all eternity there shall be to him so many special and con­
gruous joys, as the times when on earth he gazed with
desire and devotion on the Body of our Lord, or, which is
greatly to our present purpose, when he so much as desired
to do so, and was reasonably hindered from doing it.
*
Hence Lancisius f gives it as one of his special devotions
for the octave of Corpus Christi to try to hear Mass where
you can see the Host lying on the corporal, or, if this be
impossible, to look intently at it in the monstrance. So
necessary in Christian things is familiarity in order to
reverence I Also, observe well that God is pleased to
attach the same promise to the desire to look on the
Blessed Sacrament as to the actually doing so ; and hence
the remarkable words of St. Lawrence Justinian J were no
devotional exaggeration when he said, “ Let us persist in
our prayers, that better gifts may be daily given to us.
For it very often happens that what merits cannot do, the
intercession of desires effects. Truly God rejoices so much
in the prayers of supplicants, that He grants their wishes,
if only they come from a simple heart, a humble mind,
and a faithful devotion. Only let these three conditions
be united in prayer, and whatever a man shall ask accord­
ing to God, he shall receive from the Father of lights, and
His Son Jesus Christ.
“ What is unknown,” says St. Austin, “ cannot be loved ;
‘ non enim diligitur nisi cognitum,’ for except as known it
is not loved ; ” and St. Thomas expands this axiom very
beautifully in the Secunda Secundæ. It is this knowledge
• L. iv. 0. aj.

_

; _ t ;îwSSSBS1
♦ Do Exalt. Cruoia.

>86

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

of God which leads us to those further kinds of love which
we need to illustrate our subject of Praise and Desire;
so I must try to do, what seems very foolish,—describe
God.
God is simple, without body or distinction of parts. De
is simple, because He has nothing borrowed. Ho is good
without qualities, great without quantity, Creator, yet
needing nothing, everywhere, yet without place, eternal,
without tenus, and changing all things, without change
Himself. He is good with an infinite goodness, and good
to all, but especially good to men. He is infinite in the
multitude of His perfections, in their intensity, and in
their magnificence. He is present everywhere, in dif­
ferent manners, yet nowhere contracting soil or stain.
He is immutable; His eternity defends Him from time,
His immensity from change of place, and His wisdom
from change of purpose. He is eternal without begin­
ning, as well as without end, and eternal with a life which
exists all at once and altogether, and with a perfect posses­
sion of it. He subsists by the incomparable unity of His
blessed nature, and it is the crowning interest of every
man in the world that God should be but One. He is
sovereign purity, unspeakable sanctity, and most resplen­
dent beauty. He is always in adorable tranquillity ; no
trouble can come nigh His Being. He is known to nature,
to faith, to glory, yet He is incomprehensible by all. His
name is the ineffable God. His science is beyond our
thought, and is the source of His ravishing joy. His
being is truth itself, and His life is the inexhaustible
fountain of life.
His will is worshipful, unblamable,
supreme ; and His liberty is without parallel and beyond
words. His love of His creatures is eternal, constant,
gratuitous, and singular ; and His mercy is an unfathom­
able abyss of the most beautiful compassions and condo-

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

&7

scensions, and no less alno of the most delicate judgment·
and the most tender retributione. His justice is as irre­
proachable ns His sanctity, and as benevolent as His
mercy. His power is illimitable, and full of love; and
His blessedness is inaccessible. Yet all these are not
separate perfections; but Ho is Himself all these ex­
cellences, and He is one : Three co-equal, co-eternal,
and consubstantial Persons, One only God. Such, in the
dry language of the schools, which yet is more sublime
than poetry, is the description of Him who is our loving
and indulgent Father, God over all, blessed for evermore I
Amen.
Can we road it and not see that no half-allegiance will
do for Him 1 He cannot reign over a divided heart, for
who is he that can share the throne with Him? What
but love can be our religion ? for with what else can we
worship Him ? When we have dared to trust Him, then
we have worshipped Him. Are not these attributes like
the circles of the whirlpool, drawing us into themselves
with the strong fascination of His beauty? What can we
do more than cry out with St. Francis of Sales, “ Oh, good
ness so infinite 1 oh, infinity so good ! ” Yet it is only in
proportion as these dry definitions breathe and burn with
the heat and light of the Holy Spirit, that they touch
our hearts with genuine love of God. But when they
are so touched, as yours have long since been, then they
lead us not only to long for God as our own Sove­
reign Good, but to long for something more. But let
us first see what comes of this sweet-flavoured know­
ledge of God, where the will tastes what the mind per­
ceives.
Now, if God cannot be loved, unless He is first known,
and if also He has arranged all creatures for the express
purpose of communicating Himself to them and being

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loved by them, then it must follow that it is for the glory
of God that His perfections should be known and His
goodness acknowledged. As our Lord said when He was
lifted up, He should draw all men unto Him, so when the
Divine Majesty is raised up before the eyes of men, the
hearts of multitudes will bo drawn towards it in adoration
and trembling love. Hence, as the glory of God is one of
the three objects we are putting before ourselves at present,
we see how much we can promote it, no matter what our
rank and condition may be, through making God better
known by those who come in oui· way.
It is remarkable how few persons meditate on the
attributes of God. They seem to imagine that little can
be known, said, or thought about them; or at best that
they are a subject for lofty contemplation, rather than
the humble meditation of beginners. If the mysteries of
Jesus, the actions of the Sacred Humanity, were to be
neglected for the divine attributes, there can be no question
it would be a delusion, and, as St. Teresa teaches us, a very
dangerous delusion. But it really seems almost necessary
to fruitful meditation on the Sacred Humanity of our dear
Lord, that meditation on the attributes of God should go
along with it : and it is observable that when Blessed Paul
of the Cross founded his Passionist nuns, their two objects
of prayer were to be the Passion and the attributes of God.
It is sadly true, however, that with all classes of men, the
perfections of God are infrequent subjects of thought.
People will often start at being told things about God, as
they would at some vision about the unrevealed actions of
our Blessed Lord and our dear Lady, or at some tremendous
announcement of modern science which upsets half our
previous knowledge, and for the time throws it all into
confusion. Surely this is the reason why God is so little
loved, and why we are all so dry and unamiable in our

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289

way of serving Him, and especially why there is such an
universal complaint that of all devotional practices, that of
the presence of God is the hardest and most tedious. Now
we are all of us having continual opportunities of saying a
word for God, of making others recognise His wisdom, or
acknowledge His goodness, of taking His side, and of con­
trasting what Πο would like with what men at large are
actually doing. We see pious and worthy people with their
instincts in the wrong direction; we are pained hy the
inconsistencies of those whose fervent self-denial we joy­
fully admire ; and it is all because God is not known, and
His true glory not discerned.
But even if opportunities of thus glorifying God by
teaching Him to others were wanting to us, we can always
glorify Him by learning Him ourselves, by reading about
Him and meditating upon Him, and by perpetually offering
to His Majesty reverential and affectionate acts of Praise
and Desire. We are dependent on nobody for this. We
do not so much as need to speak. Yet we continue to
glorify Him while we make acts of loving admiration of
Him, or congratulate Him that His perfections are unspeak­
able, or offer to Him with humble reparation the praise
due to Him from all those creatures that are this hour
forgetting Him. How much could we do by patient love,
by thoughtful love, by assiduous love I
Neither is it less for the interests of Jesus that the
knowledge of God should be spread upon the earth. He
came to save sinners not only by dying for them, but by
making His Father known to them. This is eternal life,
that we should know God and Jesus Christ whom He hath
sent. Our Lord is Himself the brightness of His Father’s
glory and the figure of His substance. As the Second
Person of the Holy Trinity, He is the Eternal Word, the
Father’s knowledge of Himself, whom He hath appointed

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

heir of nil things, and by whom also He made the world.
Thus to publish the perfections of God to others, or to
acknowledge them ourselves, is of all works the most
acceptable to our dearest Lord ; for it is the likeness of
His own work, nay, rather it is His own work with which
He allows us to co-operate. It is His own grandeur, they
are His own perfections, which we are thus publishing and
acknowledging. There is no fitter devotion to the Person
of the Eternal Word than to laud and magnify the splen
dours of the Most Holy Trinity.
The salvation of souls is equally concerned in the matter.
What has been the experience of converts to the Catholic
Church Î It is not so much knowledge and love of Mary
which they have acquired, as those they have left behind
so often fancy. It is not so much the efficacy of grace,
and the reality of the Sacraments, which they have come
to learn by their new religion ; though what they have
learned of these things, and especially of the doctrine of
grace, is indeed most wonderful. But the great, the pre­
eminent change in them since they became Catholics, has
been their knowledge of God. Tho thought of God has
been growing and expanding in them ever since, until
their whole minds have become overshadowed with it.
The chief fruit of an intense and enthusiastic devotion to
our dear Lady has been to teach them more and more of
God, and to magnify Him in their souls. When they look
back on the old days of error, it does not appear so much
as if their ignorance had consisted in a disesteem of Mary
or of the Blessed Eucharist, of penance or of purgatory,
as in having a low idea of God ; so that on the retrospect
a man is led involuntarily to exclaim, “ Why, I did not
believe in God I ” and the cry is hardly an exaggeration.
Then first they discover, for it is a real discovery, what
a solid thing religion is ; and how sweet has the know

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

’9’

ledge of God been, as well as a solid gain I It has put
another face on life, on tidal, pain, vicissitude, and suffer­
ing. It has been within them a fountain of refreshment
springing up continually, or, as the prophet says, “The
shadow of a great rock in a barren land.” It is not
only sweetness which has been in it, but power also, power
to do and power to endure.
Yes ! men little know how great and good a work it is
which they are doing when they increase by ever so little
another’s knowledge of the Most High. They have not
stopped one sin, but hundreds. They have not been the
channels of one grace, but of thousands. They have not
taught one devotion, but all, all devotions in that one
which comes of knowing one thing more of God than
we knew before. The knowledge of God is the establish­
ment of Christ’s kingdom in the soul. How many more
would be converted if they would only read and meditate
on God I How many would advance in the spiritual life
who now stand still, because the Divine Perfections are
not preached to them, or do not make part of their
spiritual reading 1 How many more Catholics would serve
God out of pure love if they would make His character
and attributes their study I I believe the bare perusal of
the treatise “ De Deo,” even with the dry harshness of its
technical language, would do more to convert souls than
any half-dozen of the most fervid and affecting spiritual
books that ever were written.
All glory be to God at least for those who have been
led out of heresy into the bosom of the true Church, and
have thus felt all that the growing knowledge of God
has done for them, especially through devotion to His
ever blessed Mother I For of their souls may it be most
truly said,
*
“ that the land that was desolate and impasalea. UXV.

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

able hath been glad ; and the wilderness hath rejoiced and
flourished like the lily. It hath budded forth and blossomed
and rejoiced with joy and praise. Tho glory of Libanus
hath been given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Saron :
they have seen the glory of the Lord, and the beauty of
our God : and so the feeble hands have been strengthened,
and the weak knees confirmed; and it has been said to
the faint-hearted, Take courage, and fear not; and the
eyes of the blind have been opened, and the ears of the
deaf been unstopped. The lame man has leaped as a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb been set free; for waters are
broken out in the desert and streams in the wilderness.
That which was dry land has become a pool, and the
thirsty land springs of water. In the dens where dragons
dwelt before now rise up the verdure of the reed and the
bulrush. A path and a way are there, and are called tho
Holy Way ; and no lion can be there, nor any mischievous
beast go up by it, or be found there ; but they walk there
that are delivered; and the redeemed of the Lord have
returned, and have come into Sion with praise, and ever­
lasting joy is upon their heads ; for they have obtained joy
and gladness, and sorrow and mourning have fled away.”

SECTION V.

THE LOVE OF COMPLACENCY.

Let us now see what comes of this knowledge of God
which we receive by faith. We perceive Him to be the
unspeakable fulness of all possible and incomprehensible
perfections. As He is then an object immensely beautiful,
He must therefore be immensely desirable, and is discerned
as such by the understanding using the light of faith. Now,
whenever the understanding beholds anything which is

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»93

desirable, there is an immediate feeling in the will, which
is not a free act, but the necessary result of the law of our
nature. This feeling is called complacency. But although
this is not itself a free act, it at once begins to act unless
the reason forbids it. It begins at once to exercise itself
freely in expressions or sentiments of joy, pleasure, praise,
and desire. It is thus we come to the second kind of divine
love, the love of complacency, rejoicing in God because He
is so good, because He is Himself, because He is God. We
congratulate Him on all this. Nay more, we wish an impos­
sibility which goes beyond complacency, that He could be
more good and more perfect ; and this wish is a real mode
of manifesting our love to Him. We desire also that as
we can do nothing to increase His glory in Himself, we
should at least increase His accidental glory, which comes
from the obedience and love of His creatures, whom He
has created for this end. This complacency comes, I say,
from the very knowledge of God which faith imparts to
us; and it is continually growing in us, unless sin and
lukewarmness hinder and kill it. The case between God
and the soul then stands thus, if we may venture to use
Scripture language for these mutual acts of love. The
soul, looking in delighted wonder over all this sea of
beautiful attributes and perfections, seems to hear a Voice
rising up from the surface of the many waters, and borne
to its inmost ear, “ I have loved thee with an everlasting
love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee;
and I will build thee again, and thou shalt be built, 0
virgin of Israel ’’ * Whereupon the soul murmurs, half
in thought, half in reply, “ Know ye that the Lord, He
is God. I have said to the Lord, Thou art my God—Thou
art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion
for ever.” t The Voice of the many waters comes again,
• Jer. xxxi. 3, 4.

t Pe. xcix. xv. Ixxii,

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

“ If any man ehall hear My voice, and open to Me the
gate, I will come in to him, and sup with him, and he
with Me.”* The soul, charmed out of herself, replies,
“ Let my Beloved come into His garden, and eat the fruit
of His apple-trees.” t Then, as if turning to Angels and
men, the Voice exclaims, “ Behold the smell of my son
is as the smell of a plentiful field, which the Lord hath
blessed ; ” J and the soul hears, yet knows that nothing of
its own is good, and so it too turns to angels and men,
and says, “ See how it is ; the King brought me into His
store-rooms, and His breasts are more than wine. God
forbid that I should glory but in the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ. I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me.
A cluster of cypress my love is to me, in the vineyards of
Engaddi.” §
How delightful is this complacency in God 1 there need
be no bounds to it ; it may be, if it could be, wide as God
Himself. There can be no talk here of limit or of modera­
tion. Moderation is baseness, fraud, and infidelity, where
God is concerned. All God is before us, infinitely perfect,
infinitely desirable, for us to rejoice in. What is earth î
What are the things of earth Î Shall we not be lifted
up far above ourselves, our own petty wretchedness and
misery, our own grovelling interests and low-born desires Î
God grows like a dawning splendour before us. We
become like that good man, mentioned in St. Philip's life,
who was seen retreating from the altar, stop by step, with
wonder and rapture depicted on his face, and who said
that he was meditating on the greatness of God, and it
was growing upon him like something in pursuit, and
thrusting him backwards. The more we know of God,
the more our complacency increases; because, to fill our
• Apoc. ill. 20.
t Cant. v. i.
$ Cant. 1. 3 ; Gal. vi. 14 ; Gal. U. ao

J Gen. xxvii. 27.
Cant. 1. 13·

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

’95

minds and engross ns, the simple thought of God must
be multiplied and repeated from a thousand objecte. It
is like the sun lighting up a mountain chain. He is not
multiplied himself, but as his golden magnificence lights
up peak after peak, we become more and more surrounded
by his effulgence. It is thus with God ; each attribute
to which we give a name, though His attributes in truth
are His simple Self, is to us as a separate height crowned
and glowing with His glory, and so reflecting Him upon
our souls; while the multitude of nameless perfections,
for which we have neither ideas, words, nor standards, are
to us like the consciousness of the glorious sea of mountain
tops which are beyond our ken, but which we know to be
resting in that furnace of golden light, and adding to the
burning splendour which is circumfused over earth, and
sea, and sky.
Who can think of self when he is thus with God Î Who
can have hard thoughts of His absolute empire and un­
controlled sovereignty, when he is lost, sweetly lost in this
complacency, joying over God that He is God, that He is
just what Ho is, and that nothing is wanting to Himl
He is the Lord ; let Him do what seemeth Him good.
What Eli said in sorrow, we may surely say still more in
joy. Dear Jesus 1 how is it we do not cultivate this blessed
complacency 1 It is so full of gladness and of pence, and
of self-forgetting, childlike love 1 Oh teach us to be ever
looking over the sea of Thine interminable magnificence,
and rejoicing that Thou art what Thou art, that Thou hast
been thus from unbeginning eternity, and shalt be thus,
adorably immutable, for never-ending ages I “ The soul,”
says St. Francis of Sales,
*
“that exercises the love of
complacency, cries perpetually in her sacred silence : It is
enough for me that God is God, that His goodness is
• Amour de Dieu, ». iii.

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

infinite, that His perfection is immense. Whether I die
or live, matters little to me, for my Well-beloved lives
eternally with a life all-triumphant. Death cannot sadden
a heart which knows that its Sovereign love is living.
It is enough for the soul that loves that He, whom it
loves more than itself, is heaped with eternal blessings ;
for such a soul lives more in Him whom it loves than in
the body that it animates ; for in truth it does not live
itself, but its Well-beloved lives in it.”
The love of complacency, strictly speaking, is tho joy we
feel in the infinite perfections of God, that Ho is what He
is. But just as the knowledge of God, by faith, cannot
stop at knowledge, but passes into a necessary complacency,
and that necessary complacency into free acts of Praise
and of Desire ; so also this free love of complacency cannot
terminate in itself. It passes on to another and a further
love, which is called the love of benevolence. Oui· love of
God is just the opposite of God’s love of us. He loves us
first with a love of benevolence, working in us all the good
we have, and then, when it is worked, loving us with a
love of complacency in His own work within us. But our
benevolence towards God is, as St. Francis of Sales points
out, merely the natural consequence of our complacency in
Him. We first rejoice that He is so good and perfect, and
then wish Him, if it wore possible, more goodness and perfec­
tion ; and this last act is the love of benevolence. To ex­
plain this I will use the words of St. Francis himself.
*
“ As it is not easy to understand how man can wish any
increase of happiness or perfection to God, let us examine
how far the love of benevolence which we bear Him is a
real and solid love. As God is the centre of all good, as
His perfections are infinite, and consequently beyond the
reach of our desires and thoughts, it is evident that we
• Amour do Dieu, lib. v. 6.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

197

cannot wish Him, at leant with an efficacious desire, any
perfection which could add to what He in in Himself.
Besides, the object of desire is some future blessing,
whereas in God all perfection is present, and so present
that it forma one and the same thing with the Divine
Essence, which exists from all eternity, and acquires no
increase. As we cannot form any real or absolute desire
with regard to God, we form imaginary or conditional
wishes. Thou art my God ; Thou art so rich in Thyself
that Thou needest not my possessions. But if it were
possible that there was anything Thou didst not already
possess, I should wish it to Thee, 0 my God 1 I should
long to procure it for Thee at the expense of my life. If,
being what Thou art, and what Thou canst not cease to be,
it were possible that some new perfection could be added
to those Thou hast already, with what ardour should I
desire it were Thine I I should wish that my heart were
transformed into desires, and that my life were consumed
in sighs. Yes, 0 Lord I I am far from desiring that we
could have room to wish Thee any increase of perfection.
My greatest happiness is to think that we cannot add to
Thy Sovereign Goodness even in desire. But, if Thou
couldst acquire any new advantage, if the desire of seeing
Thee more perfect or more happy, chimerical as it is,
could be realised, I should wish that my soul were totally
transformed into this desire, and that my ardour in wishing
Thee any perfection which Thou didst not already possess,
were as lively as the pleasure I now feel in not being able
to desire Thee anything Thou hast not. How sweet this
impotence becomes to me, O my God 1 when I reflect that
it is founded on Thy sovereign, immense, incomprehensible
riches, which would be capable of satiating an infinite
desire, could it exist, so as to be transformed from desire to
infinite enjoyment.

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PR A ISE AND DESIRE.

“ These desires, though founded on imaginary and im­
possible suppositions, are very pleasing to God, and are
usually formed amidst the transports and holy ecstasies of
charity. St. Augustine frequently experienced such feel­
ings, and the words in which he expressed them wore like
so many burning arrows impelled by the band of love.
‘Yes, Lord I ’ said he, ‘I am Augustine and Thou art
God ; but could it be possible that I were God, and Thou
Augustine, I should wish to change conditions with Theo,
that Thou mightest be God 1 ’ * We also testify love of
benevolence for the Almighty, when, reflecting that we
cannot add any degree to His perfections, which are His
infinite and essential immensity, we endeavour to increase
in ourselves His accidental greatness, which consists in the
complacency we derive from knowing that He is infinitely
perfect, and which increases in proportion as this com­
placency becomes more ardent. We do not thon exercise
the love of complacency on account of any pleasure we
derive from it, but because it is a source of delight to God.
We do not seek our happiness therein as our own hap­
piness, but as conformable to that of God, and thereby
calculated to unite us to Him, and procure us the enjoy­
ment of His infinite perfections. To render this union
and enjoyment more excellent, we desire to communicate,
if it were possible, an infinite strength and boundless ex­
tent to complacency. The ever-blessed Queen and Mother
of holy love gives us an example of this when she says,
‘ My soul doth magnify the Lord I ’ To leave no doubt
that the ardour of her gratitude derives its increase from
complacency, she immediately adds, ‘ My spirit hath re­
joiced in God my Saviour.’ ”
* Some writers, among whom is Schram, not only deny that St.
Auguetiue ever used these words, but object to them as unsound, and
running clone upon condemned proposition». Of. Schram, Myst. Theol.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

199

Those explanations are sufficient for my purpose. What
I want to bring you to is this ; just as I have urged you
to promote the glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and
the saving of souls, by what is called the love of condo­
lence, or sorrowing for other men’s sins, and also by the
use of intercessory prayers and thanksgivings, by offering
up your own actions to God in union with those of our
dear Lord, and also by offering up to Him His own per­
fections, and the mysteries of Jesus and Mary, the Angels
and the Saints ; so now I want you to glorify Him in like
manner by those acts of Praise and Desire, which come of
these two loves of Complacency and Benevolence. Such
are : 1. acts of joy that God is what He is; 2. acts of con­
gratulation with Him on His perfections, His works, and
the mysteries of His Sacred Humanity; 3. acts of desire,
wishing for Him impossible things, which St. Francis of
Sales has just told us are acts of real love, and very accept­
able to Him ; 4. acts of desire, wishing for Him that He
might have had more glory from the world in years gone
by, from the lost souls, and the like; 5. acts of desire,
which intercession may make efficacious, that he may be
more glorified than He is now, through the perfection of
the Saints and the conversion of sinners, and the more
rapid liberation of souls from purgatory ; 6. acts of praise,
wishing that every sand of the sea and leaf of the woods
had an Angel’s intelligence to praise Him, and offering
to Him again and again with loving ardour the actual
angelic praise of heaven ; and 7. sighs of loving sorrow,
condolence, and reparation over His slighted love, His
outraged Majesty, His forgotten goodness, and His de­
frauded glory. It is true that all these things sound like
the breathings of very Saints. Yet they need not the
austerities which repel us, nor the supernatural powers
from which we shrink as much in dismay as in humility.

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

As with all the other things recommended in tho previous
chapters, so with these, how much might wo do at such a
little cost I

SECTION VI.

8AINT8 AND THE MIDDLE CLASS OF DEVOUT CHRISTIANS.

If you look at any of the Saints, you will see that they
are made up of six things. First of all, obedience to tho
commandments of God and the precepts of tho Church ;
secondly, thirdly, and fourthly, strong and loving instincts
for the glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and the sal­
vation of souls ; fifthly, an intense love of suffering and
voluntary austerities, accompanied by terrific interior trials,
and, what mystics call, passive purgations of spirit ; and
sixthly, supernatural states of prayer, unusual gifts, and
miraculous powers. Now the first of these things we may
put aside, because we must all have it, or else we shall not
be saved. The fifth, most likely, we honestly confess we
do not feel, and we shrink from it, as well out of humility
as out of cowardice ; and as a consequence of this shrink­
ing, we are not quite so blinded by self-love as not to see
that the sixth point is far above us, and unsuited to our
present attainments. Thus, the second, third, and fourth
pointe remain, as something beyond the common necessary
practice of the faithful, and below the pinnacles of the
Saints. These three instincts seem open to us, inasmuch
as the austerities which frighten us, and the supernatural
heights of prayer which are out of our sight, are not
requisite for them. Moreover, which is a singular consola­
tion, the beauty of the Saints lies rather in the three
instincts that are open to us, than in the two heights to
which we dare not aspire.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

y>i

Now, devout people formed upon the three instincte for
the glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and the welfare
of souls, abound in Catholic countries in good times, and
seem to bo to the Church what the middle classes are to
the prosperity of the state,—not its heroes, but its life,
strength, muscle, and independence. They are the growth
of quiet times. Martyrs can be, and will be, made out
of them by scores, when troubles come. But Saints, the
spiritual creations of an interior life, belong to another
order of things. It is plain, then, that in uneventful times
it is our chief work to increase this middle class of the
faithful ; otherwise we shall be such dry and uninteresting
Christians, that we shall never convert those outside the
fold, and, what is even of more importance, we shall have
nobody to love our multitudinous poor, or to take any
generous, persevering pains about them. It is equally
obvious that it is the devil’s policy to lessen the number of
this class ; and this he does in two ways especially—first,
by giving devotion a bad name, inspiring men to call it
romantic, enthusiastic, pretty, youthful, the fervour of
converts, fanciful, novel, unpractical, and the like and
secondly, by leading people to aim too high, to attempt too
much, to affect mystical books, to run after miracles and
portents, to make rash vows, and to tempt God by burden­
ing themselves with a multiplicity of prayers; and then,
when their wax wings are melted off, in weariness and
disgust, they sink down to the merest observance of pre­
cepts, and, not seldom, even lower still.
The aim of this treatise is to draw a picture of this middle
class, to give a view of their life, to exhibit samples of their
devotion, and to make out a case for them. It was mainly
this sort of people St. Philip set himself to multiply in
Rome, and it is substantially the chief work he left his sons
to do. I do not say it ie^their exclusive work, else we

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

should lose our right to the crowds of dear sinners that are
ever gathering themselves to the odour of tho Saint’s name,
and to the lures of his little apostolate. If then you want
to be a Saint, like to one of tho canonised, this book is not
for you; it will go a great way with you, but you must
go beyond it. Nevertheless, I should never have dreamed
of writing it for you. You want to know secret things
which it does not contain. He that has climbed tho rocks
can alone tell you the secrets of the rough ascent. This is
a map of the easy ways of divine love, higher than the
plains, and above their dust, yet not so high as to bo
beyond the region of sweet flowers and shady trees, and
the coolness of bubbling springs. If you have ever read
the life of St. Philip, you may remember how some one
who wanted to be a Saint dreamed that the holy Father
was dragging him through rude and prickly briars. I wish
we all had the heart to face the briars ; but it is not so,
and it is of no use trying to be good by theories. Still, to
love God is a great thing, to love Him more and more a
greater, and to make others love Him is so great a thing
that it is a joyous surprise, ever fresh and new every day,
that God should let such as we are do so great a thing.
You must not suppose that I hold cheap the practices of
mortification, whether outward or inward, or that I think
affective love renders effective love unnecessary, or even
that I believe interior mortification can dispense from the
obligation of bodily penances and discomforts, in the case
of those who are aiming at perfection. My little book is
not a summa of ascetical theology. But because we can­
not rise high, there is no need surely to sink low. Some
severe spiritualists speak as if affective love were little
better than a delusion, or at best a mere service of hot
feelings. But surely this is hasty, peremptory, unkind,
not like the Church or God. I grant we must not stop

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

J®1

there, that we must go on to mortify our inordinate passion·,
and work and suffer. Yet surely merely affective love is
good as far as it goes ; neither can it be with Catholics
nothing more than a worship of feelings ; for I have shown
all along, and theology most amply bears me out, that the
practices of it may be made most solid, nay, almost inevi­
tably are so. Indeed it may be doubted if any love rests
in being merely affective ; and moreover affective love is the
way to effectiva Besides this, by aiming exclusively at
one only, we most commonly lose both. I know there are
many people who have made up their minds not to be
Saints. Well, if God was angry with them, and counted
their pusillanimity as sin, if Jasus turned away from them
and left them out of His reckoning, we need take no pains
for them. But He does not do so; and therefore we may
well affectionately ask them to think, if they will not be
Saints, whether they will not love our dearest Lord as far
as Calvary, without committing themselves to the cruci­
fixion. This will come home to us most feelingly when
our poor ashamed hearts tell us that we ourselves are at
least among the well-intentioned faint-hearted cowards of
the army of our generous and unselfish Lord.
It is not unfair, though I profess to be pleading for God’s
glory and a service of love, to assail you with arguments
drawn from your own interests. I am sure many of you
are not contented with yourselves You want to love God
more, and to make more of Jesus. You want to get out of
your cold, dry, unhandsome way with Him. You would
fain have more liberty of spirit, and feel your affections
more at large in religion, and be unaffectedly more familiar
with the instincts and interests of heaven. You see that
the service of love has common sense on its side, that these
half-and-half measures with God make you neither happy
nor holy ; and, moreover, something in your heart is draw·

PRAISE AND DESIRE.
ing you closer to God, and winning you to bettor t hings
Now look what these acta of Praise and Desire will do for
you. They will take the world out of your hearts, and
make its pleasures look small and dull to you. They will
draw you into quite a different set of ideas and associations,
of affections and sympathies. They will make the practice
of God’s presence as easy to you as it will be delightful.
They will settle a host of cases of conscience for you, by
raising you at once into a clearer atmosphere, where the
doubts and difficulties in question do not exist. They will
make idleness, frivolity, and dissipation intolerable to you,
because of the change which they will bring about in your
tastes. Beautiful Angels were dull to St. Mary Magdalene ;
for she was seeking Jesus that Easter morning.
What
were their celestial faces and their dazzling raiment to her Î
They had taken away her Lord, and she knew not where
they had laid Him. The gardener, too, as St. Francis
sweetly says, reminded her only of flowers, while her head
was full of nails, and thorns, and crosses ; yet, as he has
come in her way, she will out with her one thought, “ Sir,
if thou hast taken Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid
Him, and I will take Him away.” The throe kings hurried
through Jerusalem ; the court only made them fret ; they
could rest nowhere but with their star at the crib of Jesus
in the cave of Bethlehem. The spouse met the watchmen
of the city, and her heart also was on her lips, “ Have you
seen Him whom my soul loveth 1 ”
So these acts of Praise and Desire make new men of us.
We are all for heaven. Death even changes its aspect. All
things seem easy which are for Jesus, all things welcome
which are steps to Him. How differently people feel I
When some one told Father Dominic, the Passionist, whose
memory is dear to so many of us, that she feared the par­
ticular judgment, the tears started into his eyes, and he

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

PS

cried out in his natural way, “ Oh, but how sweet to see for
the first time the Sacred Humanity of Jesus I " This is
what Praise and Desire bring us to. We cannot be all we
wish on this side the grave ; but we can get on towards it
by means of love. We can bring matters to this comfort­
able simplicity of the Spouse, “ My beloved to me, and I to
Him, who feedeth among the lilies, till the day break and
the shadows retire.” * Yes, there it is I till the day break
and the shadows retire ; till the day break and the shadows
retire ; till the day break and the shadows retire I

SECTION VII.

PRACTICES OF PRAISE AND DESIRE.

I. My first example of practices of Praise and Desire
shall be taken from no less authoritative a book than the
Raccolta of Indulgences. There is in it a chaplet of acts
of divine love, indulgenced by Pius VII. in 1818. I will
extract some of those which illustrate the present subject.
I desire, O my God, to see Thee loved by all Oh, happy
me I if I could give my blood to make all men love Thee.
Come, all creatures, and love my God. 0 my God I that I
had a thousand hearts to love Thee with, or that I had the
hearts of all men that I might love Thee with them. Oh,
that there were more worlds than there are, that all might
love Thee ! What a joy it would be 1 Happy he who could
love Thee with the hearts of all possible creatures. I
rejoice that the Angels and the Blessed love Thee in
heaven ; and I desire to love Thee with all the love where­
with the Saints most enamoured of Thee loved Thee, and St.
Joseph, and our Blessed Lady in each one of her mysteries,
and our dearest Lord in each one of His mysteries, and in
* Cant. ii. 16, 17.
u

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

all the tabernacles where He is now lying hid jn (ll0
Blessed Sacrament. I would fain love Thee with that very
love with which He loves Theo in heaven at this hour, and
will love Thee to all eternity ; and, last of all, I desire and
intend to love Thee with all that love wherewith, O my
God 1 Thou lovest Thyself I
2. The following congratulations are recommended by
Lancisius in his devotions to Jesus *
Risen.
1. To con­
gratulate Jesus Risen on the gifts of His glorified Body,
and on all He merited by His death, such as His trium­
phant ascension, royal dignity, and dominion over the
whole world, and plenitude of power in heaven and on
earth, the supreme headship of the Church, and His judicial
office, and other things which we do not know, and which
are not enumerated by theologians.
2. To congratulate
Him on the manifold fruit of His Life, Passion, and Death,
both among Angels and men, and especially all the grace
whereby the good Angels wore confirmed in grace, and all
the graces of all kinds innumerable and indescribable, which
men have had, to hinder sin, or to raise them out of sin, or
to lift them to perfection, all Sacraments and indulgences,
and finally, the resurrection of our bodies. It will not be
out of place here to mention the particular devotion of
Sister Marie Denise, of the Visitation, to her Guardian
Angel. It was to congratulate him on the one only fact of
his past history of which she had sure knowledge, the grace
he received to stand in grace when the Angels were falling
all around him. 3. To congratulate Him on the innumer­
able choirs of Angels and holy souls in heaven, who adore
Him as their supreme Head, the giver and cause of all their
graces and honours, and on the divine worship which is
paid to Him in heaven and out of heaven, on earth, in
Purgatory, by Masses, churches, images, vows, and all the

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

W

good works which will over be done up to the last day
4. To praise Him for that immense charity by which, as
St. Dionysius tells us, Ho revealed to St. Carpus that
He was ready to suffer death over again for the salva­
tion of the human race ; and by which also He revealed
the same to St. Bridget: “Oh, my friends,” said He,
“so tenderly do I love My sheep, that rather than be
without them, I would, if it were possible, die over
again by a special death, equal to the death upon the
cross, for each separate one of them 1 ” Another time
He said, “ Oh, if it were possible, I would, with most
eager love, die over again as many times as there are
souls in hell 1 ” These things, alas for our stony hearts I
help us, by our dearest Lord’s (may I say it Î) extravagant
love of us, to measure our miserable pretence of loving
Him I.
3. As the acts I am dwelling on are principally interior
ones, it will not be out of place to quote St. Mary Magda­
lene of Pazzi’s preparation for Whitsuntide. She uttered
it in a rapture on Ascension Day. “0 Holy Apostles,
when the Lord ascended into Heaven, He taught you what
to do before receiving the Holy Ghost : do you now teach
mo 1 0 pure John I 0 amiable Philip I you will not deny
me. Tell me what my upper chamber ought to be, and
what my interior and exterior operations in these few days.
It will be well to build my chamber on high. It shall be
the Side of the Word, in which I will dwell in the union of
love. What must be my spiritual meat and drink 1 I will
masticate it well, as if with every tooth, and it shall be
the consideration of all the operations, great or most hum­
ble, of the Incarnate Word while He abode with us. My
drink shall be the Blood which flowed from those four
fountains of His sacred Hands and Feet ; and sometimes I
will go to draw of that fountain of many rivulets, His

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

adorable Head. 0 enamoured Word I thirty-three years
Thou didst abide with us, and I ought to mako thirty-three
acts of self-annihilation between day and night. This will
be one of my interior operations. Eight days after Thy
Nativity Thou didst shed Thy Blood for us, and I ought to
make eight examens of conscience in tho day ; for if the
soul is not well examined and cleansed from its defects, it
is not fit to shed its blood for Thee, that is, to offer itself
to Thee in the act of martyrdom ; and, as often as I make
this examen of conscience, I will add a renewal of my
religious vows. Forty days didst Thou abide upon the
earth aftei' the resurrection, and forty times ought I to
elevate my mind to Thee between day and night. Seven
years wert Thou in Egypt, and seven times a day must I
offer to Thee those who lie in the darkness of sin. Forty
days didst Thou remain after Thy birth before Thou wert
offered in the Temple, and forty times a day must I offer
myself to Thee to execute Thy good pleasure. My spiritual
nourishment will be the daily meditation of Thy most holy
Passion, joining with it the meditation of that ardent love
wherewith Thou wert incarnate, of that humility where­
with Thou didst converse with men, of that gentleness
wherewith Thou didst preach, and of that joy wherewith
Thou didst listen to the Chananæan and Samaritan woman.
She did not ask Thee, but thou didst invite her to ask. 1
will meditate also on those words, ‘This is My beloved
Son, in whom I am well pleased; My meat is to do
the will of My Father ; Learn of Me, for I am meek
and humble of heart.’ Twelve yearn Thou didst delay,
before Thou didst show Thy wisdom ; I will make twelve
interior acts of love of my neighbour, and twelve more of
humility, also interior. Oh, how many occasions of these
interior acts offer· themselves to us, how many captivities
of the judgment and the will 1 Seven times will I adore

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309

the Blcesed Sacrament, in the place of those who do
not do so ; seven times, too, will I adore my Christ,
who bears His cross with His Head bowed down for
all tho elect. Thrice will I give particular praise to the
most holy Virgin, as Mother and special protectress of
all religious souls, that she may concur particularly with
her assistance to our observation of our religious vows.
As often as opportunity offers will I perform acta of
charity to my neighbour, with all possible love and gaiety
of mind. I will keep an unbroken watch over my senses,
and, not to be reputed singular, I will do this at proper
times and in proper ways ; for, if I never looked at any
one, they might think that I was angry with them, and,
if I never answered them, they would suspect something.
Thrice in the day I will remind my sisters of the dignity
of our vocation, saying something in praise of it, and I
will bear it in mind myself continually. As often as
occasion offers, I will console the afflicted, whether their
pains be interior or exterior; and at the end of each
action, I will endeavour to remain in a continual unbroken
act of chai-ity, and of custody of the heart”
This devotion, if it be not suitable for all, at least is
edifying and instructive for all. For what a real gain
it is to find out how little we love God, and how con­
temptibly we serve Him 1 This is one great good of
reading the Lives of the Saints. Because a Saint is not
imitable, it does not follow his life is not practical.
Nay, for the most part it is the admirable lives of Saints
which teach us most humility, and kindle in us greatest
love. This is what St. Teresa teaches us in her Castle of
the Soul
4. Under this head will come the custom which prevails
in some religious orders of renewing the vows of religion
at certain times. This will equally apply to the renewal

jto

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

of any vow by which a devout person mny have bound
himself to God, or any solemn purpose short of a vow.
It is another instance of the artifices of God’s love. Just
as He allows us to offer to Him the mysteries of Jesus,
as if they were our own, so does He allow us to offer
to Him our own vows again and again, and thus to
multiply His own glory and our merit many times by the
same action. We learn from St. Mary Magdalene of
Pazzi how acceptable this renewal of vows is to God. She
*
says,
" As often as promises made to God are renewed, a
renewal of union with God takes place, and the beloved
soul acquires more or less union with Him, according to
the state of perfection in which it is at the time, and to
the degree of charity it has. This renewal, made by the
soul interiorly, is a solace to the Holy Trinity, because
it is a renewal of the interior complacency with which
the soul made this oblation to God originally, and always
recalling the first pleasure of the first oblation with
new complacency and new delight; and it is as grateful
to Mary as if she herself renewed her vow of chastity.
It is the glory of the Angels, because it is the fulfilling
of the holy inspirations which have been sent us by their
ministry ; and it is also the exultation of the Saints,
because they see others following their Creator in the
same steps wherein they followed Him themselves. It is
a solace to the choir of virgins who repeat their new song,
seeing that that virtue is increased which they practised
with such special affection; and it increases their glory,
because as often as this renewal is made, it is as if a feast
of the virgins were being celebrated. The soul itself
acquires great fruit by it. For all graces are increased
in it, all its promises are strengthened, and a new peace
and union begin in it whose fruit is seen in its con• Vit. o. 118.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

Jft

versation and works. Oh, of how great dignity are thee®
vows and promises to God at our solemn profession, since
the mere renewal of them has such effects and produces
such fruit to the soul I It is not wonderful, therefore,
O Word I that they who have light, the Order of Thy
Most Holy Name (Jesuits), should celebrate this renewal
as a solemn feast, especially as worldly men make so much
of their birthday or the anniversary of some great dignity.
Ah I how much more ought we to celebrate with spiritual
feasts and jubilee the day on which we were united to
God by so strong a chain never to be snapped asunder ! ”
The Saint herself used to renew her vows daily, because
she regarded them as something divine, and a singular
privilege conferred by God on the soul whom He calls into
holy religion. She considered them as the “price and
treasures of Paradise,” and she loved them as the “ chains
of divine love.”
St. Francis Xavier used to renew bis vows frequently,
and said that whenever he did so, he felt his youth renewed
as an eagle’s ; and he often told his brother Jesuits that a
daily renewal of their vows was one of the best defences
against the attacks and snares of Satan. Lancisius tells
us that Father Cerruto, an Italian Jesuit, used to renew
his vows mentally three thousand times a day; and one
octave of the Epiphany he completed faithfully the twentyfour thousand times. So also in the life of the Blessed
Alphonso Rodriguez, a Jesuit lay-brother, we read that he
used to renew his vows every day, and that this renewal
kept him always in a state of fervour.
Our Lord signified to him that this devotion was accept­
able to Him, and showed him as well the profit that would
come of it to his soul, as the gifts with which He was
going to enrich him because of it. One day when he was
hearing Mass, renewing his vows, and thanking God for

Jia

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

his vocation to the Society with great fervour, he waa
visited with an extraordinary light, which seemed to him
to exceed all created light whatsoever. By this light he
perceived the magnitude of the blessings which ho had
received up to this time, his own indignity and misery, and
the impossibility of adequately thanking God for them.
Feeling his heart filled with a pious shame, ho did not dare
to look up towards his Benefactor, nor even to open his
mouth in thanksgiving, but recollected, and abased himself
in silence. But God, to whom the prayer of the humble
is always pleasing, showed Himself pleased by this new
kind of thanksgiving with the silence of the tongue, and
said to him with a voice heard by his outward ears,
“Alphonsol walk always before Me in this exorcise of
renewing thy vows, and all things shall turn out well to
thee 1 ” This favour throw the humble lay-brother into
still greater confusion, and, mindful of his own unworthi­
ness, he thought it was a delusion of the devil. But again
he heal'd God speaking, “ Alphonso 1 why dost thou fear f
Here is no cause for fear ; for there is no delusion in it ;
do what I bid you I ’’ At the same timo Ho gave him an
interior conviction that all this was from Himself.
Lancisius * relates an anecdote of a man of great prudence
and judgment who joined the Society. Everything in it
pleased him except the renewal of vows, which seemed to
him a frivolity and impertinence. When the day for the
renewal of vows came round, he felt the greatest repug­
nance in his mind ; but, mortifying his own judgment and
self-love, he made the renewal, though with such confusion
that he hardly knew where he was. God, however, re­
warded his obedience. When the priest, before whom he
had made the renewal, came to him with the Blessed
Sacrament to communicate him, he saw our Lord in the
•ilai.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

313

Host, and was Oiled with wonderful consolation, and a
light which disclosed to him how acceptable to God was
this renewal of vows. Bursting into tears, he perceived
his mistake, and the abundance of divine grace continued
pouring into him for a long time, so that he was not able
to speak.
All this will apply in its measure to the renewal of good
purposes and heroic desires. Thomas à Kempis tells us in
the Imitation to renew our good purposes every day, and
excite ourselves to fervour as if we had only been converted
to-day j and Lancisius recommends certain classes of heroic
acts and desires, which it would be well for us thus to
renew. 1. Acts of humiliation and our own nothingness.
Our Blessed Lord said to St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi,
“Whenever you make an act of your own nothingness,
remember, that as a creature cannot live without a heart,
so you cannot live without Me. As long as this knowledge
remains in you, you may be sure that you will remain
united with Me; and my peace shall be with you even
while you seem to be waging perpetual war against tempta­
tions, which, by My permission, shall assail you, but shall
not overcome you ; the more sharply they attack you, the
more shall my favourable assistance superabound in you,
though you shall not feel its presence or its sweetness.”
Another time He said to her, “ They who serve Me should
do so with such humility as plunges their souls into the
centre of the earth ; for just as a falling arrow does not
rest until it touches the ground, so My Spirit rests only
in the soul which it finds in the centre of its own nothing­
ness.” Elsewhere God the Father said to her, “The
ladder of the words of My Word is loftier than Jacob’s
ladder, for its foot is in the soul, which, by humility and
self-knowledge, is lower even than the abyss into which,
by lowly opinion of itself, it plunges, and by the true

jf4

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

knowledge of itself it comes even unto My inmost being.
This is the difference between tho two ladders, that Jacob's
ladder did not reach beyond heaven, nor descend lower
than the face of the earth ; but this ladder goes beyond
the stars, in proportion as tho soul humbles itself ; nay, it
is exalted even to My inmost being, for tho soul’s humility
is its exaltation.” a. Desires and purposes to avoid all
deliberate sin and even imperfection ; so that with St.
Augustine we would rather die than sin, with St. Chry­
sostom rather see tho face of hell than offend God, and,
with the heroic paradox of the Blessed Alphonso Rodriguez,
rather be thrust into hell for no fault at all, than offend
God by the very least conceivable venial sin. 3. Desires
and purposes to endure all sorts of things for the sake of
our dear Lord, such as St. Ignatius puts in tho contempla­
tion of the kingdom of Christ in the second week of the
Exercises, “ Behold, 0 supremo King and Lord of all, I,
though most unworthy, yet relying on Thy grace and help,
offer myself entirely to Theo, and submit all I have to Thy
will, declaring before Thine infinite goodness, and in the
sight of the glorious Virgin Thy Mother, and all the
heavenly court, that this is my mind, my desire, and my
decree, to follow Thee as nearly as I can, and to imitate
Thee in bearing insults and adversities with true patience,
both interior and exterior.” 4. Desires and purposes
about the love of our enemies. 5. Desires and purposes
to give up all our will and liberty to God, without ever
retracting them, and without excepting anything from the
sacrifice.
That these mere desires are, as sacrifices of love, most
acceptable to Almighty God may be seen also from the
fact of His so often inspiring His servants with pious
designs, which He never intends them to accomplish, as
in the case of Abraham’s sacrifice of Isaac, and St. Philip's

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

315

desire to go to the indies to preach the Gospel and to
shed his blood. The lives of the Saints furnish us with
repeated instances of this. Thus it comes to pass that
what St. Francis of Sales says is true, that even to wish
impossible wishes about God Himself and His perfections
is real worship and substantial love and acceptable obla­
tion to Him. This opens out to us many trains of thought,
and if our hearts were what they ought to be, it would
open out to us many fountains of loving tears.
While, for the good of our own souls as well as for the
glory of God, we take pains to cultivate the spirit of
praise in ourselves, we must not forget that in reality it
is not so much a virtue of our own as a gift of God, and
so to be sought from Him by special prayer. Neither
should wo omit to claim for this purpose the patronage
of St. Gertrude, who was eminent oven among the Saints
for her wonderful spirit of incessant praise. If we could
imitato her in this, we might come at length to a parti­
cipation in her equally wonderful liberty of spirit. How
much depends upon this liberty, and how intimately is it
connected with a spirit of praise I I wish men could be
persuaded to study St Gertrude more than they do; for
most certainly our great defect is the want of liberty of
spirit. This is the chief reason why the service of love
is comparatively so rare among Christians. Surely, if
persons living in the world and in society wish to lead a
devout life, they should not suppose that a conventual
life, diluted and lowered, can be the proper fashion of
spirituality for them.
From their position and their
duties they cannot command their own time, or break up
their day into halves or quarters of hours, as if they were
in a quiet cloister, and had nothing to do but to follow the
chimes of an abbey clock. Hence, in nine cases out of
ten, to tell such people that they must draw up a written

PRAISE AND DESIRE.
rule and keep to it, and that the captivity of set times for
spiritual drill is their only hope, is as good as telling them
that persons living in modem society must not attempt
to lead what is called a devout life. How many have
given devotion up altogether because they have tried a
rule and found they could not keep it I How many have
leaned their whole weight upon fixed hours and appointed
ways of doing things, upon clockwork and over-division,
and have broken down because weak health, or a change
of duties, or the interference of domestic vicissitudes have
made their fixed hours and stereotyped ways impossible Î
If spirituality is made dry it will never wear. It will
crack in a dozen places in a week, like the skin poncho
of a Patagonian. People living in the world are sure to
put it disdainfully on one side very shortly, and to make
themselves at home in a state of low attainments. They
have tried spirituality and it did not answer; it did not
last Therefore, because their own kind of spirituality
was a failure, they have no faith in any other kind. It
is incredible how soon people can make themselves com­
fortable in low things. It is as frightening, too, as it is
incredible. If it were not for this fatal facility of settling
down, common sense, honest shame, and reasonable discre­
tion might win the day at last. But this settling down
is like the hedgehog policy. Roughness does not hurt it ;
sweetness cannot win it ; and persuasion leaves it as it
found it, prickly and imperturbable.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

section

V7

vm.

THE BENEDICTINE SPIRIT.

Now, the failure of this regimental kind of holiness, as
well as the idea that no other kind is safe or solid, comes
entirely from the want of liberty of spirit. Where the
law of the Lord is, where the Spirit of Christ is, there is
liberty. No one can be at all acquainted with the oldfashioned Benedictine school of spiritual writers without
perceiving and admiring the beautiful liberty of spirit
which pervades and possesses their whole mind. It is
just what we should expect from an Order of such matured
traditions. It were well if we had more reprints and
translations of them. St Gertrude is a fair specimen of
them. She is thoroughly Benedictine. There are whole
treatises on the spiritual life which people living in the
world read through, and feel quite honestly that the
method proposed to them is a bondage which it would be
a simple indiscretion for them to attempt. Every young
gentleman must be a quasi-seminarist or give up devotion.
Every young lady must be a kind of half-nun without a
habit, or she may as well cease to attempt to be anything
better than all the other young ladies round about her.
It is easy to see how all this stands in the way of love,
of wise love, of such love as Jesus would have from every
one of us. To turn the world into a great lax convent is
not the way to further the cause of our dearest lord.
Spiritual postures may create self-righteousness. They
are but poor helps to real, unaffected, enduring piety.
A spirit of breadth, a spirit of liberty, that is the Catholic
spirit ; and it was eminently the badge of the old Bene­
dictine ascetics. Modern writers for the most part have

jig

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

tightened things, and have lost by it, instead of gain
ing. By frightening people they have lessened devotion
in extent, and by overstraining they have lowered it in
degree.
It is difficult to speak well of liberty of spirit without
seeming to recommend negligence, or to countenance un­
punctuality, slovenliness, and caprice. But we may safely
illustrate the matter from St. Gertrude herself.
The
following may be taken as specimens of her delightful
liberty of spirit. We are told
*
that she never stayed
away from Holy Communion through fear of the dangers
which her spiritual books told her were incurred by those
who communicated unworthily.
On the contrary, the
more keenly she felt her imperfections, tho more eagerly
she ran to our Blessed Lord, sustained by a lively hope
and a zealous love of God. She was excited thereto by a
sentiment of humility which caused her to regard as use­
less, and almost unworthy of consideration, all tho good
works she could do, and all the practices by which men
ordinarily prepare themselves for Communion. On this
account, also, she never abstained from Communion, as
many people do, when she happened not to have gone
through her ordinary exercises, esteeming all tho efforts
of human devotion in comparison of the free gift which is
given us in the Holy Eucharist as a single drop of water
to the vastness of the sea. Thus, without too great an
attachment to any of her particular preparations, she
leaned upon the infinite condescension of God, and cared
only to receive that august Sacrament into a loving heart
On one occasion, when she was travelling, she fell by
some accident from a dangerous height. Full of joy, she
cried out, “ Oh, my sweet Saviour, what a blessing it would
have been for me if this fall had shortened my road tc
• Vite i.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

M9

Thee I ” Some of her companions were a little scandalise»!
at this, and asked her if she was not afraid of dying with­
out the Sacraments. “ I should wish from the bottom of
my heart,” she answered, “to be fortified by the Sacra-·
menta before I die ; but I have the hardihood to prefer the
providence of my Lord and my God to all sacraments, and
I think this the worthiest preparation for death. It is a
matter of indifference to me whether my death be slow or
sudden, provided it be agreeable in the sight of Him to
whom I trust it will conduct me. For I hope, however I
dio, to find the mercy of God, without which I shall be lost
eternally, no matter how long a preparation I may have
made for death.”
A pious person had prayed for a long time for some
particular grace, and God had never answered her prayers,
at which she fell into a state of dangerous discouragement.
At last God said to her, “ I have delayed answering you,
because you have not sufficient confidence in the effects
which My mercy produces in you. You should imitate
My chosen virgin, Gertrude, who takes her stand so firmly
upon My providence, that there is nothing she does not
hope from the plenitude of My grace; and hence it is that
I can never refuse her anything she asks.”
Another characteristic exhibition of her spirit is to be
found in the following custom. She never would choose
her habits, or anything else in which choice was offered
her, but she shut her eyes, put out her hand, and took
what she first touched. Then when she had taken it, she
immediately became attached to it, as a present which
had come to her from God’s own hand, and she conceived
quite an affection for it, and was no longer indifferent
about it. Think a little of this. There is that in it which
may correct stiffness, and re-arrange our ideas of holy in­
difference.

3»

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

Here is a picture of Gertrude’s life. One day, when St.
Mectildis was singing in choir, she saw Jesus sitting upon
s lofty throne, and Gertrude walking up and down before
Him, without ever taking her eyes off His face, whichever
way she walked, and at the same time she seemed busily
occupied with a host of exterior duties. While Mectildis
was gazing in astonishment on the vision, she heard our
Lord say, “This is the image of the life which My dear
Gertrude leads before My eyes. She walks always in Aly
presence. She allows no rest to her desires, no truce to
her anxieties, to find out what is nearest and dearest to
Aly heart ; and as soon as she has discovered it, she exe­
cutes it with care and fidelity. But the great thing is,
that she does not rest upon it, but is off again, always
Reeking some new things in Aly will, in order to redouble
her zeal by new actions and fresh practices of virtue ; and
thus her whole life is nothing but a linked chain of praises
consecrated to My honour and glory.”
St. Mectildis
thought at once of the besetting infirmity of active and
zealous piety : for she had seen it, so she believed, in her
dear Gertrude ; and she ventured to say, “ But, Lord, if
Gertrude’s life is so perfect, how is it she cannot bear the
defects of others, and exaggerates them so much ? ” Our
Lord, with admirable sweetness, replied, “It is because she
cannot bear the least stain on her own heart that she
feels so keenly the failings of her neighbours I ” Nearly a
volume of spiritual commentary might be written upon
this.
Once more : let us listen to the testimony of God Him­
self. A holy man pressed God in prayer to reveal to him
what it was in which His Divine Majesty took so much
pleasure in His beloved Gertrude. God vouchsafed to
reply that it was her liberty of heart. The holy man,
having esteemed the excellence of this gift much less than

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

331

it deserved, answered in surprise : “ And I, Lord, thought
that what pleased Thee most in her soul, was her perfect
knowledge of herself, and the great love to which, by Thy
grace, she has attained.” “It is true," replied our Lord,
“ that those are two great perfections ; but this liberty of
heart implies both of them, and it is a precious gift, and a
good so perfect, that it is enough to raise a soul to the
summit of perfection. It is this which disposes the heart
of Gertrude to receive every moment of her life some new
favours ; and it is this which hinders her heart from attach­
ing itself to anything which can displease Me, or dispute
with Me the empire of her love.”
Such was the Saint, the special Saint of praise and of
devout desires ! Oh, that she could be in the Church once
more, as she was in ages past, the doctress and the pro­
phetess of the interior life, like Debbora, who sat beneath
her palm in Mount Ephraim, uttering her canticles and
judging Israel.
Having said so much of the failure of persons who live
in the world and aim at devotion, I cannot refrain, though
it is not necessarily connected with my subject, from
adding a few words more. Since God sealed up the garden
of Eden, and hid it from our curious approach, it is said
that there has been nothing so like a paradise on earth as
a Jesuit noviciate. The world, alas I cannot be turned
into this. In it men must try to lead angelic lives, but
still, not in the tranquil, saint-infected air of Sant' Andrea,
but with all the distractions of noisy life around them.
To make a cloister about us in the world, is to enclose the
world along with us in our cells, and not to see the sus­
picious companion we have got. Thus trying to lead the
lives of religious in the world, by a sort of spurious adapta­
tion of monasticism to the world’s circumstances, is one
reason why so many good people fail in trving to be better.

3«

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

But there is another reason too. The contemplative life
is one thing, and the active life another, and each has its
own retinue and appurtenances ; and consistency is the
secret of success. Now, except a few, a very few singular
vocations, devout people living in tho world are called, as
living in tho world, to an active life. Yet hero is a mis­
take into which they constantly fall. They make their
spirituality to be all interior, while the whole of their
active life is for the world and essentially worldly, just like
Methodists, who keep Sunday for religion, and the week
days for the world. These good people have no Christian
active life, and so the prayers and the church-goings will
not keep the peace with the parks and the parties, and at
last devotion gets the worst of it, and signs away its rights
in a base concordat. In other words, dear reader ! I sus­
pect,—I only say suspect, for I have no right to anything
beyond a suspicion in spiritual science,—I suspect that we
can have no devout lives in the world without some active
tending of the poor I Visiting the sick, looking after
schools, attending hospitals, having to do with penitents
and foundlings, emigrants and soup-kitchens, I suspect the
secret of perfection in the world, and of perseverance in
devotion in the world, lies in these things. To live interior
contemplative lives in the world for three hours a day, is a
glorious thing. But you see, unluckily, it hardly ever lasts.
What now if it really be that I am right, and that the
reason of the failure is, that to give all your interior life to
God, and all your exterior life to the world, is an unlawfid
division ; and that, if the rich are to be holy, they must
either strip themselves of their riches, and hide themselves
behind a convent grille, 01· in the ranks of the priesthood,
or they must labour with their own hands for those below
them, and make themselves companions of the poor 1
You see your Christian life is made up of Mass, Com­

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

3»3

munion, meditation, examen, some little austerities, and
the like. But all this is more or less contemplative, so
long as it stands by itself. It is all most excellent. But
you are called to something additional, to an active Chris­
tian life, to the apostolate of the rich, which consists in
assiduous and affectionate works of mercy for the poor.
Look abroad into Catholic countries, where the middle class
of holy people so abounds, and is so fruitful of good works
and so graceful in its spiritual beauty. It looks as if the
secret there was in this glorious activity for the poor.
When you come from prayer, or from church, you cannot
without singularity carry your outward recollection into
company, and somehow prayer is like a delicate bloom upon
the soul; the hot air of the world's rooms dissipates it
speedily. But if you come from the garret or the hospital,
the workhouse or the cellar, you have a charmed atmos­
phere around you, which is a sort of panoply of paradise,
from which the venomous arrows of the world glance off
blunted and innocuous. It wears well. It cannot be
smiled away, or talked off, or gossiped to pieces, like the
exotic bloom of prayer. Everywhere, where tho world is,
there is danger to the soul ; but the gaiety, the pleasure,
or the fashion, can hardly be named, which active mercy to
the poor· cannot disarm of all its perils, and even sanctify.
Depend upon it, with you who live in the world, mercy is
but another word for perseverance, and the touch of the
poor the Real Presence of your Lord.
What a wonder it is that God should love men. Intrin­
sically what is there in them to love 1 If we compare our
own natural gifts with those of an Angel, how miserable
we appear I If we consider how much more faithfully the
beasts answer the end of their creation than we do, of what
shall we be proud 1 Moreover, God has tried men over
and over again, and they have always failed Him, and

3l4

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

failed Him with every circumstance of unamiable selfish·
ness which can be conceived.
There was first of al),
Paradise and the Fall Every one knows what came of
it God was matched against an apple, and the apple
carried it. The Hood was an awful judgment, but mercy
went along with it. Yet we soon find tho knowledge of
God almost confined to one family, and one line of Patri­
archs. Then came the Jews. Job’s patience is hardly a
picture of God’s long-suffering with His people.
lie
rewarded, and they despised Him. He punished, and they
hardened their hearts. He sent them His Son, and they
crucified Him, and the Romans had to go and take away
their place and nation, and burn up their city and temple.
Then here is the world since the Crucifixion. To look at
it you would say that our dearest Lord’s Passion had been
a simple failure. So little is the face of the world, or the
tone of the world, or the ways of the world changed. The
results of the Gospel on the world seem to be, first, a
tinge of unusual romance in its history, and secondly, a
great number of new words brought into its various lan­
guages to express the phenomena and genius of the Incar­
nation. Can anybody say that much else has come of it,
looking at the world at large ? Then here are we Chris­
tians, a most unsatisfactory sight indeed I How do we
treat our Sacraments Î How many of us are serving our
crucified Lord generously and out of love 1 Verily, God’s
love of men is a simple wonder. Yet how He must love
them, seeing that He became not an Angel for Angels, but
He did become a man for men ! There is no other account
of the matter than the Scripture account of it. It is
simply one of the mysteries of the character of God, as the
Eternal Wisdom says of Himself.
*
“I was set up from
eternity, and of old before the earth was made. The
• Pro». vüL

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

3«5

depths were not as yet, and I was conceived ; neither had
the fountains of water as yet sprung out. The mountains
with their huge bulk had not as yet been established.
Before the hills I was brought forth. He had not yet
made the earth, nor the rivers, nor the poles of the world.
When He prepared the heavens I was present ; when with
a certain law and compass He enclosed the depths, when
He established the sky above, and poised the fountains of
the waters, when He balanced the foundations of the earth.
I was with Him forming all things and was delighted every
day, playing before Him at all times, playing in the world,
and My delights were to be with the children of men I ”
But it is a greater wonder still that He lets men love
Him. Where are the words to tell the privilege which it
is to love the incomprehensibly beautiful, infinitely good,
and immensely holy God ? One would have thought that
such love as ours would be but an insolent profanation ;
and that were we allowed to be before God with such in­
stinctive love as that of the patient cattle or the drinking
bird, it would have been honour enough for us. Yet if, by
permission of His inexhaustible compassions wo might
love Him, then surely it must be by blood, and pain, and
Buffering, and shame, and penance, and the costly offerings
of a terrific austerity and an appalling self-sacrifice. Ah I
dearest Lord God I and so, in truth, it is ; but the blood
and the pain, the suffering and the shame, are not ours,
but His own I He weeps that we may smile ; He bleeds
that we may be whole ; He is put to shame, that we may
be glad and joyful ; He is afraid, and anxious, and heavy,
and sweating blood, that we may be at ease about our past
sins, drinking in the sunshine of the earth, familiar with
God, and sweetly confident about eternity. So far does He
go, that not only may we love Him most earnestly, but He
has arranged all things to entice us into love. He coins

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our very desires into worship ; and Ho lots us love Him,
and glorify Him, and earn glory for ourselves by what
would almost provoke a smile from an unbeliever, it looks
so like a mere make-believe, the artifice of a good-natured
father, a very child’s-play of love. If Ho is all this on
earth, what will He be, what will He do in heaven Î
Isaias and St. Paul have both told us how useless the
inquiry is.We must have
other eyes to see it with, other
ears to heat· it with, and a far other range of thought to
compass it and take it in. But avili all this one day be
ours Î By the Bloodof our sweet Jesus, we trust undoubt·
ingly it will. Yet what have we done for it Î Where is
the proportion between it and our deserts ? There is none,
none, none. It is all because of Jesus. Jesus is the secret
of everything. Jesus is the interpretation of all the secrets
of God. What a religion is this I and what a God I Oh,
let it be told to every inhabitant of the earth that it is not
as he thought it must be. We may all love God as much
as ever we please, and in as many ways as we can think of.
Would that Angels might proclaim it every hour of the
day and night, with the sound of the trumpet, to all the
dwellings in the four quarters of the world ! Π, when
they hear it, men neglect their worldly interests, and
become like the men of Galilee, gazers into heaven, it is
only what we might expect. Infinite permission to love I
Infinite permission to love 1 There is the creature’s
charter. The Blood of a God bought it. What a religion 1
What a God I
Do wonders end here 1 No I there is a greater still.
It was passing wonder that God should love men. It was
more marvellous that He should let men love Him.
But man can outdo God ; for his is the greatest wonder
of all; it is that he does not love God when he may.
This is hardly to be believed, though we see it. Surely if

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317

we wore not hardened by custom to this fact, it would
breed in us some such horror as a cruel and savage par­
ricide would do. It would take our breath away. We
should not know whut to make of it. Belief in it would
only grow slowly into us, and would stupefy us as it grew.
But to forget God is the order of things, and we hardly
notice the phenomenon at all. Alas I if we could see it
altogether as faith would have us see it, we should long
for tears of blood to wash away our infamy. Yet what
can be said to make men love God, which is one half as
strong as what God has actually done for them Î His
mercy is so eloquent, His bounty so touching, His indul­
gence so persuasive, that if He has failed to win, why need
men trouble themselves to proclaim His love! This is
what St. Paul must have meant when he talked about
the foolishness of preaching. Christ crucified was Himself
the sermon and the preacher, what need of more 1 It was
foolishness. Only in His love again God let us do this ;
we are always meeting love and running against it at every
turn ; He allowed us to take the words of His covenant
into our mouths, and show our little love of Him by telling
others His great love of us. He showed His love again
by letting the conquest of the world depend upon this
foolishness of preaching. But you and I love Him ! Well I
and this is another wonder; for how come we to do so,
when so many more around us do not? It is simply
His own gift, simply grace. Here is Jesus again. He
taught us how to love, and seeing what unapt pupils we
were, He took some of His own love out of His Sacred
Heart, and put it into ours, that we might love God with
it. All our share in the matter is that we have left the
lamp untrimmed, and caused the fire to burn far duller
than it did before. It almost seems as if He purposely
chose those who were least capable of loving Him. You

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praise and desire.

and I must surely feel this. We could point to scores who
do not love Him, who yet are a thousand times nobler and
more generous of heart than we are, and would have made
far finer characters.
How miserable we are I Why did not God call other
souls out of nothing that would have loved Him gloriously,
and not been the mean things that we are 1 He loved us,
our souls, ourselves. He chose us with an eternal choice,
gave us an eternal preference, and loved us with an ever­
lasting love. Why Î There is no answering the question.
Simply, He loved us, and so He chose us. Then what are
we to do with this world, which will not love God î Ah I
there is the question. We may well have our heads and
hearts full of all manner of wild heroic schemes for His
love and honour. But it chafes us. What can we doî
What is the nearest thing to infinite which we can attempt Î
How can we be in all quarters of the world at once Î Here
is an answer ; not equal to the necessity, I admit : still it
is an answer. By love and the spirit of reparation.
Oh, for the love of Jesus, do something I Can you see
Divine Love begging from heart to heart, and not be
touched by the piteousness of His poverty Î There is no
mendicant on earth so spurned as He who made the earth
of old and supports it now. Make one heart give Him
an alms, in honour of the Father ; make reparation for
another heart’s denial, in honour of the Son ; and grow in
love yourself, in honour of the Holy Ghost. Do we not
see that a man hardly ever makes up his mind to a thing,
but somehow he does it Î Few men miss their end when
they are obstinately bent on gaining it. I wonder what
would take place if a few of us would do this, if we were
to say resolutely, I am determined to have God better
loved iu the world. I will not come into the world for
nothing. Somebody shall love God the more for my

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319

having been created. If it be ever so little, divine love
«ball have been increased in the world by me. Have we
ever made such a determination 1 Let us make it now.
I have huge faith in it. When do we begin! To-day.
Very well. Now we have a definite work before us, a
work which shall be done. Dear Majesty of God I By the
Heart of Jesus, we will do something great and generous
for Thee I

SECTION IX.
MARY, JESUS, GOD.

It would be a waste of words to show how the practice
of Praise and Desire would assist us here, both in increas­
ing our own love of God, and making reparation to Him
for others’ want of love. But when we have done all, it
seems so little, that we may well fall back upon our doc­
trine and practice of oblation, in order to supply for our
deficiency. Where do we naturally turn Î To Mary, the
Immaculate Mother of God, to her who was not only con­
ceived without sin, but was never so much as included in the
decree which concerned sin. We should never know God
as well as we do, if it were not for Mary. She reflects
upon us the magnificence of God. Her dignity is the
highest that can be, as St. Thomas tells us, even within
the compass of omnipotence. She is a trophy of divine
love, whereon the Three Blessed Persons have hung all
their gifts and prerogatives which a mere creature is
capable of receiving. She is clad from head to foot in the
surpassing beauty of God. He has communicated Himself
to her in a manner which we dare not put into words. The
Church calls her by names that startle us, as if she had
borrowed the titles of the Most High, and claimed common

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

property in His attributes. Wo aro bidden to speak of
her in words which seem to belong to the Eternal Uncreated
Wisdom of the Father. The Son has transferred to the
Mother what is His. She is more than all creation beside,
more worthy, more beautiful, more mighty, more loved of
God. Thus she is before God the unspeakable “ hymn
which befits Him in Sion.” She is all praise, all thanks­
giving. She is the repose of the Creator’s merciful com­
placency, the plenitude of His delighted benediction. With
her He is well pleased. Thus is Mary’s praise an almost
boundless worship which we can offer to Him. Tn old
times the servants of God made their benedicite of seas
and mountains, birds and fishes, heat and cold, wells and
green things, cattle and men. They called upon them all
to praise, exalt, and superexalt the glory of the good
Creator. But Mary is the Christian’s Benedicite. The
Church teaches us to thank in strains of ardent love the
Most Holy and Undivided Trinity for the gifts and graces
of Mary, and has indulgenced several devotions to this
effect. See what this implies. Enter into the spirit of the
Church. Remember, Mary is the Christian’s Benedicite.
Sweet praise of Mary I Can anything go beyond it 1
Dear Mother, what a joy to us to know thou art such
praise to God ! Sweet praise, beautiful praise, the praise
of the sinless 1 Can anything go beyond it 1 Yes I
Mother I and none knoweth this so well as thou dost !
“ There was * a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches, and
full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated
among the thick boughs. The waters nourished him, the
deep set him up on high ; the streams thereof ran round
about his roots, and it sent forth its rivulets to all the
trees of the country. Therefore was his height exalted
above all the trees of the country, and his branches were
* Kzekie.i lui,

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331

multiplied, and his boughs were elevated because of many
waters. And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the
fowls of the air made their nests in his boughs, and all the
beasts of the forest brought forth their young under his
branches, a,nd the assembly of many nations dwelt under
his shadow. And he was most beautiful for his greatness,
and for the spreading of his branches; for his root was
near great waters. The cedars in the paradise of God were
not higher than he ; the fir-trees did not equal his top,
neither wore the plane trees to be compared with him for
branches. No trees in the paradise of God were like him
in his beauty.” See how sweetly the prophet speaks of the
Sacred Humanity of Jesus. It is to Him incomparably
more than to our dearest Mother that the Father saith,
“ Show Me Thy face, let Thy voice sound in My ears ; for
Thy voice is sweet, and Thy face comely." * Yet in this
very thing there is a most dear glory of Mary. His voice
sounds like hers, and His face wears the lineaments of
hers I But who can tell the praise the voice of Jesus
utters to the Majesty of God 1 When an Angel sang but
a moment to St. Francis, the Saint felt he must have died
of sweetness, had the music been prolonged an instant
more; what then must be the voice of our Lord’s most
dear Humanity 1 Oh, what a joy it is to kneel in silent
praise, hushed with the sweet thought of all that divine,
unutterable praise which the voice of Jesus is uttering
to God 1 Oh, the consolation that God is now at least
receiving praise, the value of which is infinite, because
of the Blessed Union of the Woi-d with that Sacred
Humanity I
But Saints alone can rightly speak of these things. Let
it be St. Francis of Sales.t “ When we have listened to
the united praises which all creatures render their Creator,
* Caut. it 14.

f Awour do Dieu, v. xL

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

and then hear the homage and benediction of the Eternal
Son, we discover therein an infinite value and worth. We
wake as if from a profound sleep, and, enchanted by the
magical sounds of this heavenly music, wo exclaim, ‘ It is
the voice of the sovereign object of my love which strikes
my ears; in comparison of this one voice, the harmony
of all others is but a melancholy silence.’*
Behold,
He cometh leaping upon the mountains, skipping over
the hills; that is, elevating far above the benedictions of
all creatures the homage He renders His Eternal Father.
His all-seeing eye penetrates more deeply than any other
the infinite, uncreated beauty of the Divine Object He
desires to glorify. The features which mark His bound­
less love are thus described in the Canticles : ‘ Behold, He
standeth behind our wall, and clothes Himself with His
Sacred Humanity. He renders Himself visible through
His wounds and bleeding side, looking through these aper­
tures as through the windows and through the lattices.’
We may consider divine love residing in the heart of our
Redeemer as a sovereign seated on his throne. Through
His wounded side it beholds the hearts of the children
of men, never losing sight of them. As those who look
through a lattice see without being seen, so the love of this
Divine Heart, which may be called the Heart of divine
love, being in reality its centre, incessantly considers all
that passes in ours. As for us, we do not see Jesus Christ
distinctly ; we merely catch a glimpse of Him, for could we
behold Him as He is in Himself, mortal beings as we are,
we should expire for love of that infinite goodness which
prompted Him to die for love of us, and which would
induce Him to sacrifice His life for us again, if He were
still liable to mortality. Could we hear the canticle which
this Divine Heart sings in honour of the Father, we should
• Oant. ii. 8»

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333

endeavour to burst our ties and soar to heaven, that we
might listen to it for ever. This God of charity does not
deprive us of this advantage. He invites us to unite our­
selves to Him, saying, ‘ Arise, make haste to fly to Me,
My love, My dove, My beautiful one.' * Come to this
heavenly abode, where everything breathes super-eminent
bliss, where nothing is heard but canticles of benediction
and notes of joy. The melancholy turtledove here changes
her lamentations to the sweet strains of happiness. Come
then, My love, My beautiful one, behold Me through My
wounds; they are the lattices through which I see you.
My dove in the clefts of the rock, come and contemplate
My heart through the opening in My bleeding side, made
when My house was so piteously ruined on the cross.
Come and show thy face. Let thy voice sound in My ears.
Let it be united to Mine, and then thy voice will be sweet
and thy face comely. What transports of delight shall we
not experience when our voices, mingling with and made
one with our Saviour’s, shall share in the infinite sweetness
of those praises which the well-beloved Son renders to His
Eternal Father ! ”
Can the Majesty of God need more than this! Shall
not the aspirations of our wildest flights of love repose
delighted and contented here 1 No I not even here—not
even with the praise of our dearest Lord’s Sacred Hu­
manity. Love can still draw a distinction. The human
actions of Jesus, such as this sweet praise, have indeed
an infinite value, because of His Divine Person. But they
are not infinite in themselves. Here then is something in
the praise which falls short of the Majesty it praises.
We must mount higher still, until we rest in that per­
fect, infinite, sovereign praise, which the Divinity offers to
Himself. O my God J I bless Thee that Thou art so great
* Oaat. 11 io>

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

that neither Mary, nor even the Sacred Humanity of
Jesus, can praise Thee as Thou shouldst be praised ; and I
bless Thee too for that infinite, incessant, sufficient praise
of Thine own Self, the thought of which by Thy grace is
my greatest contentment upon earth.
But we must again call in a Saint to speak. Ho shall
sum up all 1 have tried to say of Praise and of Desire, of
Complacency and of Benevolence.
*
“Who can compre­
hend the sentiments of joy and complacency which animate
a soul when she sees that God is infinitely glorified by
the praise He gives Himself 1 But this complacency gives
birth to a new desire. We long to glorify God for the
power He possesses of worthily honouring H imself. We
wish to annihilate our whole being to return Him thanks
for it. We call anew to our assistance all creatures to
bless Him, because He gives Himself an infinite glory
which He can only receive from Himself. Thus, pleasure
at seeing God worthily praised, and an incessantly in­
creasing desire to glorify Him, keep the heart, as it were,
suspended between complacency and benevolence. It ia
continually wavering between these two sentiments, and
always penetrating more deeply into the exhaustless sweets
of love. It then reunites all its powers to praise God, and
to thank Him that He can only be adequately glorified by
Himself. For though the devout soul, in the first ardent
effusions of her love, aspired to nothing less than to offer
her God a homage worthy of His greatness, she afterwards
acknowledges that she had deceived herself, and declares
that she would regret possessing the power to praise Him
worthily. She prefers to all her desires the humble feel­
ing of complacency, which she derives from seeing that
God whom alone she loves, being infinitely worthy of
homage, must be extolled in an infinite manner, in order
* St. I'rauow, Amour de Dieu, v. cap. ult.

PRAISE AND DESIRE.

335

to be praised as He deserves, and that He can only bo
thus glorified by Himself. After this avowal, the heart,
unable to proceed, can only admire, and say with the
prophet, ‘ A hymn, 0 God, becometh Thee in Sion I ’
Isaias represents the Seraphim, singing over and over
again the same canticle, with their faces and feet veiled,
to show that they can neither know God perfectly, nor
serve Him worthily. Feet, which support man, mark
actions and services. However, notwithstanding their
impotence, which they unhesitatingly acknowledge, they
always fly by the help of two wings; that is, the senti­
ments of complacency and benevolence keep them in
continual motion. But this motion is not accompanied
with agitation or disquietude, and is perfectly consistent
with the calm and peaceful love by which they repose in
God.
“ The human heart is always agitated, when the move­
ment by which it is incessantly dilated and compressed
happens to be restrained ; and it is most tranquil when
this movement meets with no obstacle or resistance. In
other words, its peace and calm depend on its movement.
So it is with the Seraphim and all who love God. Their
love finds repose in the double and incessant movement of
complacency and benevolence. By the first they attract
and, if we may use the expression, restrain the Almighty
within the limits of their heart. By the second, they
dilate their hearts in God. In this state, a heart inflamed
with love, though perfectly tranquil, still experiences two
kinds of movement. It desires to see the wonderful effects
of God’s infinite goodness, and then it wishes to render
Him a worthy homage. But these two desires are the
two wings which the Seraphim cannot use. One they fold
on their face, as if to acknowledge that God is infinite and
beyond the reach of their comprehension. The other they

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PRAISE AND DESIRE.

fold on their feet, ns if to express that they can do nothing
worthy of the greatness and majesty of God. Love, then,
retains only the two wings of complacency and benevo­
lence, which it employe to soar to the bosom of God, to
absorb and engulf itself more and more deeply in the
fathomless abyss of His infinite perfections.”
Ah I dearest Lord 1 why is it we think of anything but
this ! Why is it the world does not always seem little to
us, as at this hour, and life a weariness, and death a gain 1
Why do our hearts leap up at other things beside the
thought of God ? Why art Thou not our only sweetness,
who art, as we have ever found Thee, so passing sweet!
Why art not Thou our only rest, our choicest recreation,
who art our Father, our Brother, and our God ? Why wilt
Thou not take pity on our helplessness, and touch us with
Thy fire, and make us serve Thee out of love Î Ah ! Jesus,
we shall have reason to complain of Thee for being so
lovely, if Thou wilt not give us love I

CHAPTER IX
PURGATORY.
Thoughts on Hell—Rogignoli—The world of sense and the world of spirit
—Communion of the Saints—Two views of Purgatory—Synopsi· of
the Treatise of St. Catherine of Genoa—What the two views agree
in—Lessons learned for our own good and for the good of the Holy
Souls—Pleas for this devotion : r. All devotions centre in it ; a. It
implies all the works of mercy; 3. It is an exercise of the three
theological virtues ; 4. Its effects upon the spiritual life.—The ways of
practising it—Story of Marie Denise de Martiguat—The sorrows of
kind hearts—God's description of Himself as a poor invalid-The
doctrinal character and fulness of their devotion—Sweet song of tbe
Sacred Heart.
SECTION I.

THOUGHTS ON HELI.

It is incredible how dear the glory of God becomes to
those who are continually on the look out for it The
very search gives them new senses whereby they can find
it, while daily increasing love is perpetually sharpening
their discernment “The earth is full of Thy glory.”
What a joy to a loving heart I But it is not enough that
heaven has overflowed, and that earth is filled with the
blessed inundation of His glory. We would fain there
should not be a nook of creation which is not full of it
Yet there is one place where that glory seems frustrated,
one place from which there lises neither plaint of prayer,
nor joy of praise, nor blessing of thanks, nor aspiration of

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PURGATORY.

desire. It is the home of those who have had their trial
and lost their cause, and with it have lost God for ever.
Here is grace which has not borne fruit, or whoso fruits
have rotted upon the tree. Here are sacraments which
have come to nought. The cross has been a failure, and
God’s loving purposes have been successfully resisted and
direfully overthrown. Yet it is of faith that God’s harvest
of glory out of that unutterable gloom is immense ; for
the lost soul is as much an unwilling worship of His
justice, as the converted soul is a willing worship of Ilis
love. Neither is Jesus without His own interests there;
for the pains, unspeakable as they are, nay, even in the
bare thought of them intolerable, are less than the merit
of sin, less than the righteous measure of punishment,
and are so because of Him. The Precious Blood, in some
sense, has reached even there. Neither is that horrible
place without a most blessed result on the salvation of
many souls, through the holy and salutary fear which it
breeds in them, and'the loose and low notions of God
which it corrects in the unthinking. When our Lord
shewed Sister Francesca of the Blessed Sacrament, a
Spanish Carmelitess, the loss of a soul, and several times
in a vision compelled her positively to study the separate
tortures of that place, He upbraided her for weeping :
“Francesca! why weepest thou?” She fell prostrate at
His sacred feet, and said, “ Lord ! for the damnation of
that soul, and the manner in which it has been damned. ”
He vouchsafed to reply, “ Daughter ! it hath chosen to
damn itself ; I have given it many helps of grace that it
might be saved, but it would not profit by them. I am
pleased with your compassion, but I would have you rather
love My justice.” Another time when she was compelled
to fix her gaze upon those pains the Angels said to her,
“ 0 Francesca ! strive hard after the holy fear of God I ’*

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339

Who cnn doubt that there are at this hour thousands and
tens of thousands in the bliss of heaven, who never would
have been there if there had been no hell. /Mas for the
reproach it is to the unloving hearts of men I but after
all the Cross of Christ has had no better help on earth
than the unbearable fire of hell.
Verily it is well, for our own sakes, to think sometimes
of that horrid place. As truly as fair France lies across
the Channel, as truly as the sun is shining on the white
walls, and gay bridges, and bright gardens, and manystoried palaces of its beautiful capital, as truly as that
thousands of men and women there are living real lives
and fulfilling various destinies, so truly is there such a
place as hell, all alive this hour with the multitudinous
life of countless agonies and innumerable gradations of
despair. Save the blessed in heaven, none live so keen
or conscious a life as those millions of ruined souls. It
is not impossible that we may go there too. It is not
impossible that we may have sent some there already.
When we pass along the streets, we must often see those
who will dwell there fox· ever. There are some there now,
who were not there an hour ago. There are some now in
the green fields, or in the busy towns, on comfortable beds,
or on the sunshiny seas, who in another hour perhaps will
have gone there. This is a dreadfully real truth.
But what if more than all this be true 1 What if there
was once a day when we should have gone thither if we
had died ? What if this hour it holds mere boys and girls,
who have sinned far less than we have done, nay, perhaps
have sinned but once, while we have sinned a thousand
times I Nay, we may humble ourselves still more. How
long should we persevere in serving God, if we were
certified there was no hell 1 Should we have left our sins,
if it had not been for bell Î What a thing it is to be upon

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PURGATORY.

this good earth, and surrounded by all this hopeful life,
when we have actually by our own hand and eye, word
and thought, and evil painstaking, worked out our right
and title to all this everlasting woe. Just as the mist
rises from the barren sea, where the corn grows not and
the vines can bear no fruit, and forms the clouds which
are to fall in fertilising showers over hill and dale, so
from those broad seas of fire and curse, the Divine Com­
passion rises like a cloud, to pour down streams of grace
upon the souls of living men. Let no one ever turn away
from the sight of hell, lest by little and by little and by
very little, a good opinion of himself should grow up
within his soul, and send him to that drear banishment
at last. Indeed it is good, very good, to think of hell,
and of that kind wonder that we are not already there
this hour. Nay, do not start,—what you see is indeed
the white light of earth’s sun ; fear not ; that sound,—it
is the wind that waves the branches of the wood; be
assured ; your eyes do not deceive you, those are the
village spires that are sleeping in the misty, quiet land­
scape ; all is right so far. We are here, and we are free ;
but we ought to have been,—there, and slaves I
But if we give ourselves up to seek and find God’s
glory, and to make this our one occupation upon earth,
must we go down to hell, and learn to rejoice with those
awful attributes of God which are satisfied with that
terrific sacrifice 1 No I God be praised I this is no part
of our devotion. We are creatures of hope and love. We
go where God’s glory is possible to us, where we can help
it and advance its interests : or if we rise into the impos­
sible, it is only that love has carried us away in the silent
eloquence of childlike extravagant desire. We have nothing
to do with hell. We have seen that of our three things
the glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and the salvation

PURGATORY.

34«

of Ronlfl, the two first may be found even there. But
they are not there in ways which concern us; so reflec­
tions upon hell are not necessary to my plan. Enough
for us that there is such a place, and that at this hour it
is full of souls, and that more and more are ever streaming
into it, and that its frightful occupations are what they
are, and that there is not one of us who is not running a
risk, or of whom it is not possible, that that place may be
his heritage and portion for ever. They who serve Jesus
out of love do not on that account forget these things.
Nay, they remember them the more, because they love
so much.

SECTION Π.

DEVOTION FOR SINFUL SOULS AND HOLY SOULS.

But although we are mercifully freed from the necessity
of descending into hell to seek and promote the interests
of Jesus, it is far from being so with purgatory. If
heaven and earth are full of the glory of God, so also is
that most melancholy, yet most interesting land, where the
prisoners of hope are detained by their Saviour’s loving
justice from the Beatific Vision ; and if we can advance
the interests of Jesus on earth and in heaven, I may
almost venture to say that we can do still more in
purgatory. What I am endeavouring to show you in
this treatise, is, how you may help God by prayer, and the
practices of devotion, whatever your occupation and call­
ing may be; and all these practices apply especially to
purgatory. For although some theologians say, that in
spite of the holy souls placing no obstacle in the way, still
the effect of prayer for them is not infallible, nevertheless
it is much more certain than the effect of prayer for the

34’

PURGATORY.

conversion of sinners upon earth, whore it is so often
frustrated by their perversity and ovil dispositions. Any­
how, what I have wanted to show has been this, that each
of us, without aiming beyond our grace, without austerities
for which we have not courage, without supernat ural gifts
to which we lay no claim, may by simple affectionateness
and the practices of sound Catholic devotion do great
things, things so great that they seem incredible for the
glory of God, the interests of Jesus, and the good of souls.
I should therefore be leaving my subject very incomplete
if I did not consider at some length devotion to the Holy
Souls in Purgatory ; and I mil treat, not so much of parti­
cular practices of it, which are to bo found in the ordinary
manuals, as of the spirit of the devotion itself.
Rosignoli, in his Wonders of God in Purgatory,
*
which
he wrote at the request of tho Blessed Sebastian Valfré, of
the Turin Oratory, relates from the Dominican annals an
interesting dispute between two good friars as to the
respective merits of devotion for the conversion of sinners
and devotion for the Holy Souls. Fra. Bertrando was the
great advocate of poor sinners, constantly said Mass for
them, and offered up all his prayers and penances to obtain
for them the grace of conversion. “ Sinners,” he said,
“without grace are in a state of perdition. Evil spirits
are continually laying snares for them, to deprive them of
the Beatific Vision, and to carry them off to eternal
torments. Our Blessed Lord came down from heaven,
and died a most painful death for them. What can be a
higher work than to imitate Him, and to co-operate with
Him in the salvation of souls Î When a soul is lost, the
price of its redemption is lost also. Now the souls in
purgatory are safe. They are sure of their eternal salva­
tion. It is most true that they are plunged into a sea of
• Opere, L 710.

PURGATORY.

M3

sorrows ; but they are sure to come out at last. They are
the friends of God ; whereas sinners are his enemies, and
to be God’s enemy is the greatest misery in creation."
Fra. Benedetto was an equally enthusiastic ad vocate of
the suffering souls. He offered all his free masses for
them, as well as his prayers and penances. “ Sinners," he
said, “were bound with the chains of their own will. They
could leave off sinning if they pleased. The yoke was of
their own choosing ; whereas the dead were tied hand and
foot against their own will in the most atrocious suffer­
ings. Now come, dear Fra. Bertrando, tell me—Suppose
there were two beggars, one well and strong, who could
use his hands, and work if he liked, but chose to suffer
poverty rather than part with the sweets of idleness : and
the other sick, and maimed, and helpless, who, in his
piteous condition, could do nothing but supplicate help with
cries and tears,—which of the two would deserve compas­
sion most, especially if the sick one was suffering the most
intolerable agonies? Now this is just the case between
sinners and the Holy Souls. These last are suffering an
excruciating martyrdom, and they have no means of help­
ing themselves. It is true they have deserved these pains
for their sins ; but they are now already cleansed from those
sins. They must have returned to the grace of God before
they died, else they would not have been saved. They are
now most dear, inexpressibly dear, to God; and surely
charity, well-ordered, must follow the wise love of the
Divine Will, and love most what He loves most.”
Fra. Bertrando, however, would not give way, though
he did not quite see a satisfactory answer to his friend’s
objection. But the night following he had an apparition
which it seems so convinced him, that from that time he
changed his practice, and offered up all his Masses,
prayers, and penances, for the Holy Souls. It would

344

PURGATORY.

appear as if the authority of St. Thomas might bo quoted
on the side of Fra. Benedetto, as he says,
*
“ Prayer for
the dead is more acceptable than prayer for the living ; for
the dead are in the greatest need of it, and cannot help
themselves as the living can.”
How acceptable this devotion is to Almighty God, and
how He vouchsafes to seem, as it were, impatient for the
deliverance of the souls, and yet to leave it to our charity,
is taught us on the unimpeachable authority of St. Teresa.
In the Book of her Foundations, she tells us that D.
Bernardino di Mendoza gave her a house, garden, and vine­
yard, for a convent at Valladolid. Two months after this,
and before the foundation was affected, he was suddenly
taken ill, and lost the power of speech, so that he could not
make a confession, though he gave many signs of contrition.
“ He died,” says St. Teresa, “ very shortly, and far from the
place where I then was. But our Lord spoke to me and
told me that he was saved, though he had run a great risk,
for that He had had mercy upon him because of the gift
he had given for the convent of His Blessed Mother ; but
that his soul would not be freed from purgatory until the
first Mass was said in the new house. I felt so deeply the
pains this soul was suffering, that although I was very
lesirous of accomplishing the foundation of Toledo, I left
it at once for Valladolid. Praying one day at Medina del
Campo, our Lord told me to make haste, for that soul was
suffering grievously. On this I started at once, though I
was not well prepared for it, and arrived at Valladolid on
St. Lawrence’s day.” She then goes on to relate that, as
she received Communion at the first Mass said in the
house, her benefactor’s soul appeared to her all glorious,
and afterwards entered heaven. She did not expect this,
for as she observes, “ although it had been revealed to me
* Sappl. 3, Part. q. 71, art. 5, ad. 3.

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345

that this would happen at the first Mass, I thought it
must mean the first Mass when the Blessed Sacrament
would be reserved there.” We might multiply almost
indefinitely the revelations of the Saints which go to prove
the special favour with which our Blessed Lord regards
this devotion wherein His interests are so nearly and
dearly engaged. But it is time now to get a clear view of
our subject.
There are, as we all know, two worlds, the world of
sense and the world of spirit. We live in the world of
sense, surrounded by the world of spirit, and as Christians
we have hourly and very real communications with that
world. Now, it is a mere fragment of the Church which
is the world of sense. In these days the Church Trium­
phant in heaven, collecting its fresh multitudes in every
age, and constantly beautifying itself with new Saints,
must necessarily far exceed the limits of the Church
Militant, which does not embrace even a majority of the
inhabitants of earth. Nor is it unlikely, but most likely,
that the Church Suffering in purgatory must far exceed
the Church Militant in extent, as it surpasses it in beauty.
Towards those countless hosts who are lost we have no
duties ; they have fallen away from us ; we hardly know
the name of one who is there, for many have thought that
Solomon was saved, some have gone so far as to regard the
words in the Acts of the Apostles about Judas as not
infallibly decisive, and there is not quite a consent even
against Saul. We are cut off from them ; all is blackness
and darkness about them ; we have no relations with
them.
But by the doctrine of the Communion of Saints, and of
the unity of Christ’s mystical body, we have most intimate
relations both of duty and affection with the Church
Triumphant and Suffering ; and Catholic devotion furnishes

34«

PURGATORY.

us with many appointed and approved ways of discharging
these duties towards them. Of these I shall speak here
after. For the present it is enough to say that God baa
given us such power over the dead that they seem, as I
have said before, to depend almost more on earth than on
heaven ; and surely that He has given us this power, and
supernatural methods of exercising it, is not tho least
touching proof that His Blessed Majesty has contrived
all things for love. Can we not conceive the joy of the
Blessed in heaven, looking down from the Bosom of God
and the calmness of their eternal repose upon this scene of
dimness, disquietude, doubt and fear, and rejoicing in the
plenitude of their charity, in their vast power with the
Sacred Heart of Jesus, to obtain grace and blessing day
and night for the poor dwellers upon earth ? It does not
distract them from God, it does not interfere with the
Vision, or make it waver and grow misty ; it does not
trouble their glory or their peace. On the contrary, it is
with them as with our Guardian Angels : the affectionate
ministries of their charity increase their own accidental
glory. The same joy in its measure may be ours even
upon earth. If we are fully possessed with this Catholic
devotion for the Holy Souls, we shall never be without the
grateful consciousness of the immense powers which Jesus
has given us on their behalf. We are never so like Him,
or so nearly imitate His tender offices, as when we are
devoutly exercising these powers. We are humbled ex­
cessively by becoming the benefactors of those beautiful
souls who are so immeasurably our superiors, as Joseph
was said to have learned humility by commanding Jesus.
While we are helping the Holy Souls, we love Jesus with
a love beyond words, a love that almost makes us afraid,
yet also with a. delightful fear, because in this devotion it
is His hands we are moving, as we would move the unskil-

PURGATORY.

347

fill hands of a child. Dearest Lord, is it not incredible
that De should let us do these things 1 That He should
let us do with His satisfactions what we will, and sprinkle
His Precious Blood as if it were so much water from the
nearest well 1 That we should limit the efficacy of His
unbloody sacrifice, and name souls to Him, and expect
Him to obey us, and that He should do sol Beautiful
was tho helplessness of His blessed Infancy ; beautiful
is His helplessness in His most dear Sacrament ; beautiful
is the helplessness in which for the love of us He mostly
wills to be with regard to His dear spouses in purgatory,
whose entrance into glory His Heart is so impatiently
awaiting 1 What thoughts, what feelings, what love
should be ours, as we, like choirs of terrestrial Angels, gaze
down on the wide, silent, sinless kingdom of suffering, and
then with our own venturous touch wave the sceptred
hand of Jesus over its broad regions, all richly dropping
with the balsam of His saving Blood I

SECTION m.

DOUBLE VIEW OF PURGATORY.

There have always been two views of purgatory prevail­
ing in the Church, not contradictory the one of the other,
but rather expressive of the mind and devotion of those
who have embraced them. One is the view met with in by
far the greater number of the lives and revelations of
Italian and Spanish saints, the works of the Germans of
the Middle Ages, and the popular delineations of purgatory
in Belgium, Portugal, Brazil, Mexico, and elsewhere. The
other is the view which has been made popular by St.
Francis of Sales, though he drew it originally from his
favourite treatise on purgatory by St. Catherine of Genoa,

34®

PURGA TORY.

and it is also borne out by many of tho revelations of
Sister Francesca of Pampoluna, a Teresian nun, published
with a long and able censura by Fra. Giuseppe Bonavontura
Ponze, a Dominican professor at Saragossa. Each of these
two views, though neither denies the other, has its own
peculiar spirit of devotion.
I. Tho first view is embodied in tho terrifying sermons
of Italian Quaresimali, and in those wayside pictures which
so often provoke the fastidiousness of tho English traveller.
It loves to represent purgatory simply as a hell which is
not eternal. Violence, confusion, wailing, horror, preside
over its descriptions. It dwells, and truly, on the terrible­
ness of the pain of sense which the soul is mysteriously
permitted to endure. The fire is the same fire as that of
hell, created for the single and express purpose of giving
torture. Our earthly fire is as painted fire compared to it.
Besides this, there is a special and indefinable horror to tho
unbodied soul in becoming the prey of this material agony.
The sense of impiisonment, close and intolerable, and the
intense palpable darkness, are additional features in the
horror of the scene, which prepare us for that sensible
neighbourhood to hell, which many Saints have spoken of
as belonging to purgatory. Angels are represented as
active executioners of God’s awful justice. Some have even
held that the demons were permitted to touch and harass
the spouses of Christ in those ardent fires. Then to this
terribleness of the pain of sense, is added the dreadfulness
of the pain of loss. The beauty of God remains in itself
the same immensely desirable object it ever was. But the
soul is changed. All that in life and in tho world of sense
dulled its desires after God is gone from it, so that it
seeks Him with an impetuosity which no imagination can
at all conceive. The very burning excess of its love
becomes the measure of its intolerable pain. What love

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149

can do even on earth we may learn from the example of
Father John Baptist Sanchez, who said he was sure
he should die of misery, if any morning when he
rose he should know that he was certain not to die
that day. To these horrors we might add many more
which depict purgatory simply as a hell which is not
eternal.
The spirit of this view is a holy fear of offending God,
a desire for bodily austerities, a great value put upon
indulgences, an extreme horror of sin, and an habitual
trembling before the judgments of God. Those who have
led lives of unusual penance, and the severer Orders in
religion, have always been impregnated with this view ;
and it seems to have been borne out in its minutest details
by the conclusions of scholastic theologians, as may be
seen at once by referring to Bellarmine, who, in each
section of his treatise on purgatory, compares the revela­
tions of the Saints with the conclusions of theology. It
is remarkable also that when the Blessed Henry Suso,
through increased familiarity and love of God, began to
think comparatively lightly of the pains of purgatory, our
Lord warned him that this was very displeasing to Him.
For what judgment can be light which God has prepared
for sin 1 Many theologians have said, not only that the
least pain of purgatory was greater than the greatest pain
of earth, but greater than all the pains of earth put to­
gether. This then is a true view of purgatory, but not
a complete one. Yet it is not one which we can safely
call coarse or grotesque. It is the view of many Saints
and servants of God ; and it is embodied in the popu­
lar celebrations of All Souls’ Day in several Catholic
countries.
2. The second view of purgatory does not deny any one
of the features of the preceding view, but it almost puts

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PU RO A TOR Y.

them out of sight by the other considerations which it
brings more prominently forward. It goes into purgatory
with its eyes fascinated and its spirit sweetly tranquillized,
by the face of Jesus, its first sight of the Sacred Humanity
at the Particular Judgment which it has undergone. That
vision abides with it still, and beautifies the uneven terrors
of its prison as if with perpetual silvery showers of moon­
light which seem to fall from our Saviour’s loving eyes.
In the sea of fire it holds fast by that image. The moment
that in His sight it perceives its own unfitness for heaven,
it wings its voluntary flight to purgatory, like a dove to
her proper nest in the shadows of the forest There need
no Angels to convey it thither. It is its own free worship
of the purity of God. This is beautifully expressed in a
revelation of St. Gertrude, related by Blosius. The Saint
saw in spirit the soul of a religious who had passed her
life in the exercise of the most lofty virtues. She was
standing before our Lord clothed and adorned with charity ;
but she did not dare to lift her eyes to look at Him. She
kept them cast down as if she was ashamed to stand in
His presence, and showed by some gesture her desire to
be further from Him. Gertrude marvelled at this, and
ventured to question Him : “ Most merciful God I why
dost Thou not receive this soul into the arms of Thine
infinite charity Î What are the strange gestures of diffi­
dence which I behold in her!” Then our Lord lovingly
stretched out His right arm, as if lie would draw the soul
nearer to Himself ; but she, with profound humility and
great modesty, retired from Him. The Saint, lost in still
greater· wonder, asked why she fled from the embraces of
a Spouse so worthy to be loved ; and the religious answered
her, “ Because I am not yet perfectly cleansed from the
stains which my sins have left behind them ; and even if
He were to giant me in this state a free entrance into

PURGATORY.

35«

heaven, I would not accept it; for all resplendent μ I
look to your eyes, I know that I am not yet a Ct sponse
for iny Lord.”
In that moment the soul loves God most tenderly, and
in return is most tenderly beloved by Him. To the eyes
of those who take this view, that soul seems most beauti­
ful. How should a dear spouse of God be anything but
beautiful Î The soul is in punishment, true ; but it is in
unbroken union with God. “It has no remembrance,"
says St, Catherine of Genoa most positively, “no remem­
brance at all of its past sins or of earth.” Its sweet prison,
its holy sepulchre, is in the adorable will of its heavenly
Father, and there it abides the tenu of its purification
with the most perfect contentment and the mast unutter­
able love. As it is not teased by any vision of self or sin,
so neither is it harassed by an atom of fear, or by a single
doubt of its own imperturbable security. It is impec­
cable ; and there was a time on earth when that gift alone
seemed as if it would contain all heaven in itself. It can­
not commit the slightest imperfection. It cannot have
tho least movement of impatience. It can do nothing
whatever which will in the least degree displease God. It
loves God above everything, and it loves Him with a pure
and disinterested love. It is constantly consoled by Angels,
and cannot but rejoice in the confirmed assurance of its
own salvation. Nay, its very bitterest agonies are accom­
panied by a profound unshaken peace, such as the language
of this world has no words to tell.
There are revelations which speak of some who are in
purgatory, but have no fire. They languish patiently
detained from God, and that is enough chastisement for
them. There are revelations, too, which tell of multitudes
who are in no local prison, but abide their purification in
the air, or by their graves, or near altars where the Blessed

35’

PURGATORY.

Sacrament is, or in the rooms of those who pray for them,
or amid the scenes of their former vanity and frivolity.
If silent suffering, sweetly, gracefully endured, is a thing
so venerable on earth, what must this region of the Church
be like Î Compared with earth, its trials, doubts, exciting
and depressing risks, how much more beautiful, how much
more desirable, that still, calm, patient realm over which
Mary is crowned as queen, and Michael is the perpetual
ambassador of her mercy.
The spirit of this view is love, an extreme desire that
God should not be offended, a yearning for the interests
of Jesus. It takes its tone from the soul’s first voluntary
flight into that heritage of suffering. As it took God’s
part against itself in that act, so is it throughout. This
view of purgatory turns on the worship of God’s purity
and sanctity. It looks at things from God’s point of view,
and merges its own interests in His. It is just the view
we might expect to come from St. Francis of Sales, or the
loving St. Catherine of Genoa, It is the helplessness
rather than the wretchedness of the souls detained there,
which moves those who take this view to compassion and
devotion ; but it is God’s glory and the interests of Jesus,
which influence them most of all.
How solemn and subduing is the thought of that holy
kingdom, that realm of pain. There is no cry, no murmur ;
all is silent, silent as Jesus before His enemies. We shall
never know how we really love Mary, till we look up to
her out of those deeps, those vales of dread mysterious fire.
Beautiful region of the Church of God ! Lovely troop of
the flock of Mary Î What a scene is presented to our eyes
when we gaze upon that consecrated empire of sinlessness,
and yet of keenest suffering 1 There is the beauty of those
immaculate souls, and then the loveliness, yea, the worshipfulness of their patience, the majesty of their gifts, the

PURGATORY.

353

dignity of their solemn and chaste sufferings, the eloquence
of their silence ; the moonlight of Mary’s throne lighting
up their land of pain and unspeechful expectation; the
silver-winged Angels voyaging through the deeps of that
mysterious realm ; and above all, that unseen Face of
Jesus, which is so well remembered that it seems to be
almost seen 1 What a sinless purity of worship is here in
this liturgy of hallowed pain I Oh world, oh weary,
clamorous, sinful world 1 who would not break away if he
could, like an uncaged dove, from thy perilous toils and
unsafe pilgrimage, and fly with joy to the lowest place in
that most pure, most safe, most holy land of suffering and
of sinless love 1

SECTION IV.
ST. CATHERINE OF GENOA ON PURGATORY.

The publication of St. Catherine's treatise is so remark­
able a feature in the history of the doctrine and devotion
connected with purgatory, that it may be well to give my
readers a brief account of it. Mgr. Hardouin Pèrefix,
archbishop of Paris, had it examined by the doctors of the
Sorbonne in 1666, and in their approval, they call it “a
rare effusion of the Spirit of God upon a pure and loving
soul, and a marvellous token of His solicitude for His
Church, and His care in enlightening her and assisting
her according to her needs ; ” and the approbation goes on
to say that the examiners consider it a providential pro­
vision for Catholics just when the heresies of Luther and
Calvin were about, among their other impieties, to make
war upon the dead. In 1675, Martin d'Esparza, a Jesuit,
presented his censura of the treatise to Cardinal Azolini,
who was ponente in the cause of the Saint’s beatification.

,54

PURGATORY.

In t his be says that the doctrine of her treatise is “ incon­
taminate, mast salutary, and altogether seraphic,” that it
has been “impressed upon her soul by the Holy Spirit
with a very special and secret illumination,” and that its
doctrine, together with that of her dialogue between the
Soul and the Body, is “ of itself a most eflicacious proof of
the heroic sanctity of the servant of God.” It is remarked
by Maineri in his Life of the Saint, as a curious coinci­
dence, that the name of purgatory was first authoritatively
given to the Intermediate State in 1254, by Innocent
IV., who was of the house of Fieschi, the family of our
Saint.
The following is an epitome of the doctrine of her
treatise. No sooner has a soul, with the guilt of no
mortal sin upon it, but owing to God a debt of temporal
punishment, issued from the world, and been judged, than
it perceives itself to be confirmed in grace and charity.
It is incapable either of sinning or of meriting any more ;
and it is destined by an eternal and immutable decree to
enter one day as a queen into the kingdom of the blessed,
to see, to love, and to enjoy God, the perpetual fountain
of all felicity.
In that instant all the sins of its past life are repre­
sented to the soul, whether mortal or venial, even though
they have been remitted in lifetime by contrition and the
Sacrament of penance.
But after this transitory and
instantaneous view of them, the soul remembers nothing
more about them. The Saint’s words are : “ The cause of
purgatory, which these souls have in themselves, they see
once for all, in passing out of this life, and never after­
wards." The reason of this exhibition of sins is, she
teaches us, to enable the soul in that moment, by an act,
no longer indeed meritorious, but nevertheless a real act
of the will, to detest all its sins afresh, and especially

PURGA TORY.

«5

those venial sins for which it had no contrition in lifetime,
either through the weakness of an imperfect heart, or
through the accident of a sudden death, that so it may be
strictly true, that no sin whatever is pardoned unless the
sinner make an act of detestation of it.
After this momentary view of sins and formal detestar
tion of them, the soul perceives in itself their evil conse­
quences and “ malignant legacies,” and these form what
the Saint calls “the impediment to seeing God.” “The
rust of sin,” she says, “ is the impediment, and the fire
keeps consuming the rust ; and as a thing which is covered
cannot correspond to the reverberation of the sun's rays,
so, if the covering be consumed, the thing is at length
laid open to the sun.” It is thus that purgatory wear.»
away from the soul the obligation (reatus) of venial sin, and
also the obligation of temporal punishment for remitted
mortal sin. This last statement, my readers will per­
ceive, is not really, as some have thought, at variance
with the teaching of Suarez, and other scholastics, who
maintain that there is no stain in the soul left by sin,
and requiring the cleansing action of those penal fires.
The Saint speaks throughout as if purgatory was not so
much a cleansing from stain as a quitting oneself of an
obligation.
As soon as the soul perceives itself to be acceptable to
God, and constituted heir of paradise, but unable, because
of this impediment, to take immediate possession of its
inheritance, it conceives an intense desire to be rid of this
hindrance, this double obligation of guilt and punishment.
But knowing that purgatory alone can consume these two
obligations, and that it is for that very end God condemns
the soul to the fire, it desires itself to endure the punish­
ment. “ The soul separated from the body, (these are the
Rairf’s own words), not finding in itself all the requisite

35«

PURGATORY.

purity, and seeing in itself this impediment which cannot
be taken away except by purgatory, at once throws itself
into it with right good will. Nay, if it did not find this
onlinance of purgatory aptly contrived for the removal of
this hindrance, there would instantaneously bo generated
in it a hell far worse than purgatory, inasmuch as it would
see that because of this impediment it could not get along­
side of God who is its end. Wherefore, if the soul could
find another purgatory fiercer than this, in which it could
the sooner get rid of this impediment, it would speedily
plunge itself therein, through the impetuosity of the love
it bears to God.”
But this is not all. In the following chapter the Saint
goes on to teach that if the soul, labouring under this
impediment, were free to choose between ascending at
once, and as it is, to paradise, and descending to suffer in
purgatory, it would choose to suffer, although the sufferings
be almost as dreadful as those of hell. These are her
words : “ Of how much importance purgatory is no tongue
can tell, no mind conceive. So much I see, that its pain
is almost as if it were that of hell ; and yet I see also that
the soul which perceives in itself the slightest flaw or mote
of imperfection, would rather throw itself into a thousand
hells, than find itself in the presence of the Divine Majesty
with that defect upon it ; and, therefore, seeing purgatory
to be ordained for the very taking away of these flaws,
forthwith it plunges into it, and it seems by its bearing, as
I see, to conceive that it finds there an invention of no
little mercy, simply in the being able to get quit of this
impediment.”
When the righteous soul has thus arrived in purgatory
*
losing sight of everything else, it sees before it only two
objects, the extremity of suffering, and the extremity of
joy. A most tremendous pain is caused by knowing that

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357

God loves it with an infinite love, that He is the Chief
Good, that He regards the soul as His daughter, and that
He has predestinated it to enjoy Him for ever in company
with the Blessed : and hence the soul loves Him with a
pure and most perfect charity. At the same time it per­
ceives that it cannot see Him or enjoy Him yet, though it
so intensely yearns to do so ; and this afflicts it so much
the more, as it is quite uncertan when the term of its penal
exile, away from its Lord and paradise, will be fulfilled.
'Phis is the pain of loss in purgatory, of which the Saint
says that it is “ a pain so extreme, that no tongue can tell
it, no understanding grasp the least portion of it. Though
God in His favour showed me a little spark thereof, yet
can I not in any way express it with my tongue." This
pain of loss she likens to the longing for a loaf of bread.
“ If in all the world there were but one loaf, which wae
able to satisfy the hunger of all creatures, who would be
satiated by simply beholding it, what would be the feelings
of a man who possesses by nature an instinct to eat, when
he is in health ; what, I say, would be his feelings, if he
were neither able to eat, nor yet to bo ill or to die ? His
hunger would be always increasing, and knowing there
was but that one loaf to satisfy him, and yet not being
able to get at it, he would remain in unbearable torture.”
This similitude, however, puts before us but a shadow of
what the soul really suffers. It is continually borne with
an imperceptible loving violence towards God, who alone
can perfectly satisfy it. This violence is always on the
increase, the longer the hungry soul is deprived of its
Divine Object, for which it is unspeakably ravenous ; and
its torture would thus keep increasing %lso, were it not
daily mitigated by hope, yea, rather by the certainty that
it is approaching nearer and nearer to its eternal bliss.
In the words of the prophet, the sufferer knows that

J5S

PURGATORY.

“ because his soul hath laboured, he shall see and be
filled.”*
The soul undergoing the pain of sense the saint likens
to gold in the crucible. “ Look at the gold ; the more you
melt it the better it becomes, and you melt it until every
imperfection is annihilated. This is the effect of fire upon
material things. But the soul cannot annihilate itself in
God, but it can in its own self; and the more it is purified,
the more it is annihilated in itself, until at last it rests
itself in God quite pure Gold, when, as their phrase is, it
is purified to twenty-four carats, will not waste away any
more, no matter how much fire you apply to it, because in
reality nothing is consumed but imperfection. The divine
fire acts in like manner upon the souL God holds it in
the tire till every imperfection is consumed, and until He
reduces it to the purity of twenty-four carats ; every soul,
however, according to its own degree. When the soul is
purified, it rests altogether in God, without retaining any­
thing in itself. God is its life ; and when He has brought
the soul to Himself thus purified, it becomes impassible,
for there is nothing left in it to consume away ; and if it
were still held in the fire when it is thus purified, the fin
would give it no pain, nay, it would be then the fire of
Divine Love, itself eternal life, wherein the soul could
experience no more contradictions.”
Such is the first object before the eyes of the soul, the
extremity of suffering. Now let us examine the other
object, the extremity of joy. As it loves God with the
purest affection, and knows its sufferings to be the will of
God in order to its purification, it conforms itself perfectly
to the divine decree. While in purgatory, it sees nothing
but that this pleases God ; it takes in no idea but that of
His will ; it apprehends nothing so clearly as the suitable* leaiim liii. IX.

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359

neas of thia purification, in order to present it all fair and
lovely to so great a majesty. Thus the Saint says : “ If a
soul, having still something left to be cleansed away, were
presented to the Vision of God, it would consider itself
grievously injured, and its suffering would be worse than
that of ten purgatories ; for it would be quite unable to
endure that excessive goodness and that exquisite justice.”
Hence it is that the suffering soul is entirely resigned to
the will of its Creator. It loves its very pains, and rejoices
in them, because they are a holy ordinance of God. Thus
in the midst of the ardent heats it enjoys a contentment so
complete, that it exceeds the grasp of human intelligence
to comprehend it “ I do not believe,” says the Saint,
“ that it is possible to find a contentment to compare with
that of the souls in purgatory, unless it lie the contentment
of the Saints in paradise. This contentment increases
daily through the influx of God into those souls, and this
influx increases in proportion as the impediment is con­
sumed and worn away. Indeed, so far as the will is con­
cerned, we can hardly say that the pains are pains at all,
so contentedly do the souls rest in the ordinance of God, to
whose will pure love unites them.”
In another place she says that this inexplicable jubilee
of the soul, while it is undergoing purgatory, springs from
the strength and purity of its love of God. “ This love
gives to the soul such a contentment as cannot be expressed.
But this contentment does not take away one iota of the
pain ; nay, it is the retarding of love from the possession
of its object which causes the pain ; and the pain is greater
according to the greater perfection of love of which God
has made the soul capable. Thus the souls in purgatory
have at once the greatest contentment and the greatest
suffering ; and the one in no way hinders the other.” As
to prayers, alms, and Masses, she asserts that the souls

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PURGA TORY.

experience great consolation from them ; but that ir these,
as in other matters, their principal solicitude is that every­
thing should be “ weighed in the most equitable scales of
the Divine Will, leaving God to take His own course in
everything, and to pay Himself and His justice in the way
His own infinite goodness chooses to select.”
She concludes her treatise by casting one glance upon
her neighbour and one upon herself. To her neighbour,
she says, “Oh that I could cry so loud that I might
frighten all the men who dwell upon the earth, and say
to them, 0 miserable mon ; why have you let yourselves
be so blinded by this world, as not to make any provision
for that imperious necessity, which you shall find at the
moment of death 1 You all of you shelter yourselves
under the hope of God’s mercy. But do you not see that
the very goodness of God will rise up in judgment against
you, for having rebelled against the will of so good a
Lord Î Do not lull yourselves into a false confidence by
saying, When I come to die I will make a good confession,
and then I will take the plenary indulgence, and thus in
that last moment I shall be cleansed from all my sins,
and so I shall be saved. Think a little. Confession and
contrition are necessary for a plenary indulgence ; and
contrition is such a hard think to get, that if you knew
how hard it was, you would tremble for very fear, and you
would be much more likely to believe that such a grace
would never be given you, than to expect it with such
confidence as you do now.”
When she looked at herself with the light of super­
natural illumination, she saw that God had set her up in
the Church as an express and living image of purgatory.
She says, “This form of purification, which I behold in
the souls in purgatory, I perceive in my own soul now.
I see that my soul dwells in its body as in a purgatory

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ΐβι

altogether conformable to the true purgatory, only in such
measure ns my body can bear without dying. Nevertheless,
it is always increasing by little and little, until it reaches
the point when it will really die." Her death was indeed
most wonderful, and has always been considered as a
martyrdom of Divine Love. So truly from the first has
her position been appreciated, as the great doctress of
purgatory, that in the old life of her, the “ vita antica,”
examined by theologians in 1670, and approved in the
Roman process of her canonisation, and which was com­
posed by Marabotto her confessor, and Vernazza her
spiritual son, it is said, “Verily it seems that God set up
this His creature as a mirror and an example of the pains
of the other life, which souls suffer in purgatory. It is
just as if He had placed her upon a high wall, dividing
this life from the life to come; so that, seeing what is
suffered in that life beyond, she might manifest to us,
even in this life, what we are to expect when we have
passed the boundary.” This is a mere epitome of her
wonderful and exquisitely beautiful treatise, which has
given St. Catherine a rank among the theologians of the
Church.
The same view of purgatory as that taken by St. Catherine
is very briefly but touchingly embodied by Dante, in that
beautiful scene where he and Virgil are wandering on the
outskirts of purgatory. The poet is dazzled all at once
by the bright light of an Angel coming across the sea,
and impelling a bark filled with new souls for purgatory ;
and he describes the boat as driving towards the shore so
lightly, that it drew no wake upon the water, while the
souls that had left life, and earth, and judgment but a few
minutes since, pensively yet cheerily sang, “In exitu
Israel de Egypto.” Surely it was a beautiful thought of
his ; and as he was a theologian as well as a poet, it seems

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PURGA TORY.

to deserve mention here, ns n proof of the view of pur­
gatory which recommended itself to intellectual men in
Dante’s day.
SECTION V.
UNION OF THB TWO VIEWS.

3. But let us now see what is common to both these
views of purgatory. This is a more practical considera­
tion. I suppose there are none of us who expect to be
lost. We know and feel, with more or less of alarm, the
greatness of the risk we are running ; but to expect to be
lost would be the sin of despair. Hell is only practical to
us as a motive of greater diligence, greater strictness,
greater circumspectness, greater fear. But it is not so
with purgatory. I suppose we all expect, or think our­
selves sure, to go there. If we do not think much of the
matter at all, then we may have some vague notion of
going straight to heaven as soon as we are judged. But
if we seriously reflect upon it, upon our own lives, upon
God’s sanctity, upon what we read in books of devotion
and the lives of the Saints, I can hardly conceive any one
of us expecting to escape purgatory, and not rather feeling
that it must be almost a stretch of the divine mercy which
will get us even there. It would more likely be vain pre­
sumption than heroic hope, if we thought otherwise.
Now, if we really expect that our road to heaven will be
through the punishments of purgatory, for surely its
purification is penal, it very much concerns us to know
what is common to both the views of purgatory, which it
appears prevail in the Church.
First, both these views agree that the pains are ex­
tremely severe, as well because of the office which God
intends them to fulfil, as because of the disembodied soul

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Ü3

being the subject of them. Both agree also in the length
of the suffering. This requires to be dwelt upon, as it is
hard to convince people of it, and a great deal comes of
the conviction, both to ourselves and others. This duration
may bo understood in two ways, first, as of actual length
of time, and secondly, as of seeming length from the excess
of pain. With regard to the first, if we look into the
revelations of Sister Francesca of Pampeluna, we shall
find among some hundreds of cases, that by far the greater
majority suffered thirty, forty, or sixty years. Here are
some of the examples : a holy bishop, for some negligence
in his high office, had been in purgatory fifty-nine years,
before he appeared to the servant of God ; another bishop,
so generous of his revenues that he was named the almsgiver, had been there five years because he had wished for
the dignity ; another bishop had been forty ; a priest forty
years, because through his negligence some sick persons
had died without the Sacraments ; another forty-five years
for inconsiderateness in his ministerial functions ; a gentle­
man fifty-nine years for worldliness ; another, sixty-four for
fondness for playing at cards for money ; another, thirtyfive years for worldliness. Bishops seem upon the whole,
according to her revelations, to remain longest there, and
to be visited with the extreme of rigour.
Without multiplying instances, which it would be easy
to do, these disclosures may teach us greater watchfulness
over ourselves, and more unwearied perseverance in pray­
ing for the departed. The old foundations for perpetual
masses embody the same sentiment. We are apt to leave
off too soon, imagining with a foolish and unenlightened
fondness that our friends are freed from purgatory much
sooner than they really are. If Sister Francesca beheld
the souls of many fervent Carmelites, some of whom had
wrought miracles in lifetime, still in purgatory ten, twenty,

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PURGATORY.

thirty, sixty years after their death, and still not near
their deliverance, as many told her, what must become of
us and oursî Then as to seeming length from the ex­
tremity of pain, there are many instances on record in tho
Chronicles of the Franciscans, the life of St. Francis
Jerome, and elsewhere, of souls appearing an hour or two
after death, and thinking they had been many years in
purgatory. Such may be the purgatory of those who are
caught up to meet the Lord at the Last Day.
Both views agree again in holding that, what wo in the
world call very trivial faults, are most severely visited in
purgatory. St. Peter Damian gives us many instances of
this, and others are collected and quoted by Bellarmine.
Slight feelings of self-complacency, trifling inattentions in
the recital of tho Divine Office, and the like, occur fre­
quently among them. Sister Francesca mentions the case
of a girl of fourteen in purgatory, because she was not
quite conformed to the will of God in dying so young ; and
one soul said to her, “ Ah I men little think in the world
how dearly they are going to pay here for faults they
hardly note there.” She even saw souls that were im­
mensely punished only for having been scrupulous in this
life ; either, I suppose, because there is mostly self-will in
scruples, or because they did not lay them down when
obedience commanded. Wrong notions about small faults
may thus lead us to neglect the dead, or leave off our
prayers too soon, as well as lose a lesson for ourselves.
Then again both views agree as to the helplessness of
the Holy Souls. They lie like the paralytic at tho pool.
It would seem as if even the coming of the angel were not
an effectual blessing to them, unless there be some one of
us to help them. Some have even thought they cannot
pray. Anyhow, they have no means of making themselves
heard by us on whose charity they depend. Some writers

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3«$

have said, that our Blessed Lord will not help them
without our co operation ; and that our Blessed Lady
cannot help them, except in indirect ways, because she is
no longer able to make satisfaction ; though I never like
to hear of anything our dearest Mother cannot do, and I
regard such statements with suspicion. Whatever may
come of these opinions, they at least illustrate the strong
way in which theologians apprehend the helplessness of
the Holy Souls. Then another feature in their helpless­
ness is the forgetfulness of the living, or the cruel flattery
of relations who will always have it that those near or dear
to them die tho death of Saints. They would surely have
a scruple, if they knew of how many Masses and prayers
they rob the souls, by the selfish exaggeration of their
goodness. I call it selfish, for it is nothing more than a
miserable device to console themselves in their sorrow.
The very state of the Holy Souls is one of the most
unbounded helplessness. They cannot do penance; they
cannot merit; they cannot satisfy; they cannot gain
indulgences ; they have no Sacraments ; they are not
under the jurisdiction of God’s Vicar, overflowing with
the plenitude of means of grace and manifold benedictions.
They are a portion of the Church without either priesthood
or altar at their own command.
These are the points common to both views of purga­
tory ; and how manifold are the lessons we learn from
them, on our own behalf as well as on behalf of the Holy
Souls. For ourselves, what light does all this throw on
slovenliness, lukewarmness, and love of ease 1 What does
it make us think of performing our devotions out of a
mere spirit of formality, or a trick of habit? What a
change should it not work in our lives I What diligence
in our examens, confessions, Communions, and prayers I
It seems as if the grace of all graces, for which we should

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PURGATORY.

ever be importuning our dear Lord, would be to hate sin
with something of the hatred wherewith lie hated it in
the garden of Gethsemane. Oh, is not the purity of God
something awful, unspeakable, adorable 1 He, who is
Himself a simple act, has gone on acting, multiplying acta
since creation, yet He has incurred no stain I He is ever
mingling with a most unutterable condescension with what
is beneath Him,—yet no stain I He loves His creatures
with a love immeasurably more intense than the wildest
passions of earth,—yet no stain I He is omnipotent, yet
it is beyond the limits of His power to receive a stain.
He is so pure that the very vision of Him causes eternal
purity and blessedness. Mary’s purity is but a fair thin
shadow of it. Nay, the Sacred Humanity itself cannot
adequately worship the purity of the Most High : and we,
even we, are to dwell in His arms for ever, we are to dwell
amid the everlasting burnings of that uncreated purity I
Yet, let us look at our lives ; let us trace our hearts faith­
fully through but one day, and see of what mixed inten­
tions, human respects, self-love, and pusillanimous temper
our actions, nay even our devotions, are made up j and
does not purgatory, heated seven-fold, and endured to the
day of doom, seem but a gentle novitiate for the Vision of
the All-holy ?
But some persons turn in anger from the thought
of purgatory, as if it were not to be endured, that after
trying all our lives long to serve God, we should accomplish
the tremendous feat of a good death, only to pass from
the agonies of the death-bed into fire, long, keen, searching,
triumphant, incomparable fire. Alas I my dear friends,
your anger will not help you nor alter facts. But have
you thought sufficiently about God? Have you tried to
realise His holiness and purity in assiduous meditation I
Is there a real divorce between you and the world, which

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3®7

you know in God’s enemy 1 Do you take God’s sidel
Have you wedded His interests'! Do you long for His
glory 1 Have you put sin alongside of our dear Savour’s
Passion, and measured the one by the other 1 Surely, if
you had, purgatory would but seem to you the last,
unexpected, and inexpressibly tender invention of an
obstinate love, which was mercifully determined to save
you in spito of yourself. It would be a perpetual wonder
to you, a joyous wonder, fresh every morning, a wonder
that would be meat and drink to your soul, that you, being
what you are, what you know yourself to be, what you
may conceive God knows you to be, should be saved eter­
nally. Remember what the suffering soul said so simply,
yet with such force, to Sister Francesca, “ Ah ! those on
that side the grave little reckon how dearly they will pay
on this side for the lives they live I ” To be angry because
you are told you will go to purgatory I Silly, silly people I
most likely it is a great false flattery, and that you will
never be good enough to go there at all Why, positively,
you do not recognise your own good fortune, when you
are told of it. And none but the humble go there. I
remember Maria Crocifissa was told, that although many
of the Saints while on earth loved God more than some do
even in heaven, yet that the greatest Saint on earth was
not so humble as are the souls in purgatory. I do not
think I ever read anything in the Lives of the Saints
which struck me so much as that. You see it is not well
to be angry ; for those only are lucky enough to get into
purgatory, who sincerely believe themselves to be worthy
of hell.
But we not only learn lessons for our own good, but
for the good of the Holy Souls. We see that our charit­
able attentions towards them must be far more vigorous
and persevering than they have been ; for that men go

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PUHGA TORY.

to purgatory for very little matters, and remain there
an unexpectedly long time. But their most touching
appeal to us lies in their helplessness ; and our dear
Lord, with His usual loving arrangement, has made the
extent of our power to help them more than commensurate
with their inability to help themselves. Some theologians
have said that prayer for the Holy Souls is not infallibly
answered. I confess their arguments on this head do not
convince me; but, conceding the point, how wonderful
still is the power which we can exercise in favour of the
departed 1 St. Thomas has at least taught us that prayer
for the dead is more readily accepted with God than prayer
for the living. We can offer and apply for them all the
satisfactions of our blessed Lord. We can do vicarious
penance for them. We can give to them all the satis­
factions of our ordinary actions, and of our sufferings.
We can make over to them, by way of suffrage, the
indulgences we gain, provided the Church has made them
applicable to the dead. We can limit and direct upon
them, or any one of them, the intention of the Adorable
Sacrifice. The Church, which has no jurisdiction over them,
can yet make indulgences applicable or inapplicable to them
by way of suffrage; and by means of liturgy, commemoration,
incense, holy water, and the like, can reach efficaciously to
them, and most of all by her device of privileged altars
The communion of Saints furnishes the veins and channels
by which all these things reach them in Christ. Heaven
itself condescends to act upon them through earth. Their
Queen helps them by setting us to work for them, and
the Angels and the Saints bestow their gifts through us,
whom they persuade to be their almoners; nay, we are
often their almoners without knowing that we are so.
Our Blessed Lord vouchsafes to look to us, as if He would
say, Here are My weapons, work for Me I just as a father

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369

will let his child do a portion of his work, in spite of the
risk ho rune of having it spoiled. To possess such powers,
and not to use them, would be the height of irreverence
towards God, as well as of want of charity to men. There
is nothing so irreverent, because nothing so unfilial, as to
shrink from God’s gifts simply because of their exuberance.
Men have a feeling of safety in not meddling with the
supernatural ; but the truth is, we cannot stand aloof on one
side and be safe. Naturalism is the unsafe thing. If we
do not enter the system, and humbly take our place in it,
it will draw us in, only to tear us to pieces when it has
done so. The dread of the supernatural is the unsafest
of feelings. The jealousy of it is a prophecy of eternal
loss, which far too often comes true.
All that I have said hitherto has been, indirectly at
least, a plea for this devotion ; but I must come now to a
more direct recommendation of it.

SECTION VI.
THE EMINENCE AND PREROGATIVES OF THIS DEVOTION.

I. It is not saying too much to call devotion to the
Holy Souls a kind of centre in which all Catholic devotions
meet, and which satisfies more than any other single
devotion our duties in that way ; because it is a devotion
all of love, and of disinterested love. If we cast an eye
over the chief Catholic devotions, we shall see the truth of
this. Take the devotion of St. Ignatius to the glory of God.
This, if we may dare to use such an expression of Him,
was the special and favourite devotion of Jesus. Now,
purgatory is simply a field white for the haiwest of God’s
glory. Not a prayer can be said for the Holy Souls, but
God is at once glorified, both by the faith and the charity

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PURGATORY.

of the mere prayer. Not an alleviation, however trifling,
can befall any one of the souls, but He is forthwith glorified
by the honour of His Son’s Precious Blood, and the approach
of the souls to bliss. Nota soul is delivered from its trial,
but God is immensely glorified. He crowns His own gifts
in that dear soul The cross of Christ has triumphed.
The decree of predestination is victoriously accomplished ;
and there is a new worshipper in the courts of heaven.
Moreover, God's glory, His sweetest glory, the glory of
His love, is sooner 01· later infallible in purgatory ; because
there is no sin there, nor possibility of sin. It is only a
question of time. All that is gained is real gain. All
that is reaped is true wheat, without chaff or stubble, or
any such thing.
Again, what devotion is justly more dear to Christians
than the devotion to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus? It
is rather a family of various and beautiful devotions, than
a devotion by itself. Yet see how they are all, as it were,
fulfilled, affectionately fulfilled, in devotion to the Holy
Souls. The quicker the souls are liberated from purgatory,
the more is the bountiful harvest of His Blessed Passion
multiplied and accelerated. An early harvest is a blessing,
as well as a plentiful one ; for all delay of a soul’s ingress
into the praise of heaven is an eternal and irremediable loss
of honour and glory to the Sacred Humanity of Jesus.
How strangely things sound in the language of the sanc­
tuary I yet so it is. Can the Sacred Humanity be honoured
more than by the adorable sacrifice of the Mass? But
here is our chief action upon purgatory. Faith in His
Sacraments as used for the dead is a pleasing homage to
Jesus ; and the same may be said of faith in indulgences
and privileged altara and the like. The powers of the
Church all flow from His Sacred Humanity, and are a
perpetual praise and thank-offering to iu So, again, thin

PURGATORY.

37«

devotion honours Him by imitating His teal for souls.
For this zeal is a badge of His people, and an inheritance
from Him.
Devotion to our dearest Mother is equally comprehended
in this devotion to the Holy Souls, whether we look at
her as the Mother of Jesus, and so sharing the honours
of His Sacred Humanity, or as Mother of Mercy, and
so specially worshipped
*
by works of mercy, or, lastly,
whether we regard her, as in a particular sense, the queen
of purgatory, and so having all manner of dear interests
to be promoted in the welfare and deliverance of those
suffering souls.
Next to this we may rank devotion to the holy Angels,
and this also is satisfied in devotion to the Holy Souls.
For it keeps filling the vacant thrones in the angelic choirs,
those unsightly gaps which the fall of Lucifer and onethird of the heavenly host occasioned. It multiplies the
companions of the blessed spirits. They may be supposed
also to look with an especial interest on that part of the
Church which lies in purgatory, because it is already
crowned with their own dear gift and ornament of final
perseverance, and yet it has not entered at once into its
inheritance as they did. Many of them also have a tender
personal interest in purgatory. Thousands, perhaps millions
of them, are guardians to those souls, and their office is not
over yet. Thousands have clients there who were specially
devoted to them in life. Will St. Raphael, who was so
faithful to Tobias, be less faithful to his clients there}
Whole choirs are interested about others, either because
they are finally to be aggregated to that choir, or because
* I do not refrain from the use of this word as the English translation
of cultus ; weary experience shows that objectors obstinately repeat their
objections, whatever we do to abate them, and they rather triumph over
the show of weakness, than appreciate the charity, of such like condescen·
sions. We lose by them ourselves, without gaining our opponente.

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PURGA TORY.

in lifetime they had a special devotion to it
Marie
Denise, of the Visitation, used to congratulate hor Angel
every day on the grace he had received to enable him to
stand when so many around him were falling. It was, as
I have said before, the only thing she could know for
certain of his past life. Could he neglect her, if by the
will of God she went to purgatory? Again, St. Michael,
as prince of purgatory, and our Lady’s regent, in fulfilment
of the dear office attributed to him by tho Church in the
Mass for the dead, takes as homage to himself all charity
to the Holy Souls ; and if it be true that a zealous heart
is always a proof of a grateful one, that bold and magnifi­
cent spirit will recompense us one day in his own princely
style, and perhaps within the limits of that special juris­
diction.
Neither is devotion to the Saints without its interests in
this devotion for the dead. It fills them with the delights
of charity, as it swells their numbers, and beautifies their
ranks and orders. Numberless patron Saints are person­
ally interested in multitudes of souls. The affectionate
relation between their clients and themselves not only
subsists, but a deeper tenderness has entered into it,
because of the fearful suffering, and a livelier interest
because of the accomplished victory. They see in the
Holy Souls their own handiwork, the fruit of their example,
the answer to their prayers, the success of their patronage,
the beautiful and finished crown of their affectionate inter­
cession. All this applies with peculiar force to the founders
of orders and congregations. Those Saints, those founders,
are the children of the Sacred Heart ; they have been con­
ceived in its inmost cavities ; they have been suckled with
its choicest Blood, softer than milk, and more cheering
than the wine of Engaddi’s peerless grape ; their charity
has caught the trick of its compression and dilatation ;

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57J

who then can tell how Founders yearn over their children
in tho cleansing fires 1 Those souls honoured them through
life ; they lived in their Father’s and Founder’s house ; his
voice was ever in their ears ; his feasts there were days of
song and joy and spiritual sunshine ; his relics were their
shield ; his rule their second gospel ; his sayings and
doings were ever on their lips ; his drees and livery were
dear to them as the garment of a king to his eastern
favourite; he was with them all day long; they loved him
with a venturous love ; they praised him till men smiled at
their family pride ; they feared him as one, the darkening
of whose eye upon their souls was a worse calamity than
fire, or sword, or pestilence : and when they came to die,
his name, and no other, except the names of Jesus and
Mary, could so well soothe the troubled mind, so drive
away the besetting demons, and so calm the starts, and
frets, and catchings, which, if they impair not the perfec­
tion of our patience, taire away at least from death its joyinspiring gracefulness. What wonder their Founder should
love them, as he beholds them bounding, immaculate and
beautiful, the gems of his order, the glory of hie rule, in
the chastening fires of God I
2. But there is another peculiarity in this devotion for
the dead. It does not rest in words and feelings, nor does
it merely lead to action indirectly and at last It is
action in itself, and thus it is a substantial devotion. It
speaks and a deed is done ; it loves and a pain is lessened ;
it sacrifices and a soul is delivered. Nothing can be more
solid. We might almost dare to compare it, in its pure
measure, to the efficacious voice of God, which works what
it says, and effects what it utters and wills, and a creation
comes. The royal devotion of the Church is the works of
mercy ; and see how they are all satisfied in this devotion
for the dead I It feeds the hungry souls with Jesus, the

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PURGATORY.

Bread of Angola. It gives thorn to drink in their incom­
parable thirst His Precious Blood. It clothes the naked
with a robe of glory. It visits the sick with mighty powers
jo heal, and at the least consoles them by the visit. It
frees the captives with a heavenly and eternal freedom,
from a bondage dreader far than death. It takes in the
strangers, and heaven is the hospice into which it receives
them. It buries the dead in tho Bosom of Jesus in everlast­
ing rest. When the last doom shall come, and our dearest
Lord shall ask those seven questions of His judicial pro­
cess, those interrogatories of the works of mercy, how
happy will that man be, and it may be the poorest beggar
amongst us who never gave an alms because he has had
to live on alms himself, who shall hear his own defence
sweetly and eloquently taken up by crowds of blessed
souls, to whom he has done all these things while they
waited in their prison-house of hope I Three times a day
St. Francis of Sales put himself in the presence of God as
before his judge, and tried to judge himself in his Saviour’s
way. Let us but do that, and we shall become so many
servitors of Michael, so many guardian angels of that
beautiful but melancholy land of suffering and expectant
souls.
3. Another point of view, from which we may look at
this devotion for the dead, is as a specially complete and
beautiful exercise of the three theological virtues, of faith,
hope, and charity, which are the supernatural fountains of
our whole spiritual life. It exercises faith, because it leads
men not only to dwell in the unseen world, but to work
for it with as much energy and conviction as if it was
before their very eyes. Unthoughtful or ill-read persons
almost start sometimes at the minuteness, familiarity, and
assurance with which men talk of the unseen world, as if
it were the banks of the Rhine, or the oliveyards of

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375

Provence, the campagne of Rome, or the crescent shore» of
Naples, some place which they have seen in their travels,
and whose geographical features are ever in their memory
as vividly as if before their eyes. It all comes of faith, of
prayer, of spiritual reading, of knowledge of the lives of
the Saints, and of the study of theology. It would be
strange and sad if it were not so. For, what to ue, either
in interest or importance, is the world we see, to the world
we do not see 1 This devotion exercises our faith also in
tho effects of the Sacrifice and Sacraments, which are
things we do not see, but which we daily talk of in refer­
ence to the dead as undoubted and accomplished facts.
It exercises our faith in the communion of Saints to a
degree which would make it seem impossible to a heretic
that he ever could believe so wild and extravagant a creed.
It acts with regard to indulgences as if they were the
most inevitable material transactions of this world. It
knows of the unseen treasure out of which they come, of
tho unseen keys which open the treasury, of the indefinite
jurisdiction which places them infallibly at its disposal,
of God’s nnrevealed acceptance of them, and of the invisible
work they do, just as it knows of trees and clouds, of
streets and churches, that is, just as certainly and undoubtingly ; though it often can give others no proof of these
things, nor account for them to itself. The difficult doc­
trine of satisfaction is no difficulty to the faith of this
devotion. It moves about in it with the greatest ease, makes
its own arrangements, transfers its satisfactions hither and
thither, turns one in one direction, another in another,
making quite sure of God’s fatherly consent to it all.
The details of daily household life are not ordered with
more calmness and self-possession than are these hidden
things, which at every turn are starting questions almost
the most difficult which the understanding can find to

37(>

PURGATORY.

grapple with, or break itself upon. It exhibits the some
quiet faith in all those Catholic Devotions, mentioned
before as centering themselves in this devotion for the
dead. As the prophet and apostle say, “ My just man
liveth by faith; but if he withdraw himself, ho shall not
please my soul;” and what is faith but “the substance
of things to be hoped for, the evidence of things that
appear not! ” *
Neither is this devotion a less heroic exercise of the
theological virtue of hope, the virtue so sadly wanting in
the spiritual life of these times. For, look what a mighty
edifice this devotion raises ; lofty, intricate, and of magni­
ficent proportions, into which somehow or other all crea­
tion is drawn, from the little headache we suffer up to the
Sacred Humanity of Jesus, and which has to do even with
God Himself. Yet upon what does all this rest, except on
a simple, childlike trust in God’s fidelity, which is the
supernatural motive of hope ? We hope for the souls we
help, and unbounded are the benedictions which we hope
for in their regard. We hope to find mercy ourselves,
because of our mercy ; and this hope quickens our efforts
without detracting from the merit of our charity. If we
give away our own satisfactions, and the indulgences we
gain, to the souls in purgatory, instead of keeping them
for ourselves, what is this but an heroic exercise of hope Î
We throw ourselves upon God. We hardly face the thought
that we ourselves are thus sentencing ourselves, it may be,
to abide years and years longer in that unconquerable fire.
We shut our eyes, we quell the rising thought, we give our
alms, and throw ourselves on God. Wo shall not be
defrauded of our hope. Who ever trusted Him, and Ilis
trust failed Î No I No 1 All is right when it is left to
God. Then, again, this devotion has to do altogether with
* Heb. x. and xi.

PURGATORY.

yn

things beyond the grave, and there is the region of hope.
Its dwelling-place is behind the veil. “ For we are saved
by hope. But hope that is seen, is not hope. For, what
a man seoth, why doth he hope for 1 But if we hope for
that which we see not, we wait for it with patience.”*
For the state of the dead is no dream, nor our power to
help them a drcam, any more than the purity of God is a
dream, or the Precious Blood a dream. Thus though there
be consolations many, yet it is we who have “ the strongest
comfort, who have fled for refuge to hold fast the hope set
before us, which we have as an anchor of the soul, sure and
firm, and which entereth in even within the veil, where the
forerunner Jesus is entered for us, made a high priest for
ever after the order of Melchisedech.” f
As to the charity of this devotion, it dares to imitate
even the charity of God Himself. What is there in heaven
or on earth which it does not embrace, and with so much
facility, with so much gracefulness, as if there were scarcely
an effort in it, or as if self was charmed away, and might
not mingle to distract it Î It is an exercise of the love of
God ; for it is loving those whom He loves, and loving them
because He loves them, and to augment His glory, and
multiply His praise. There are a hundred loves of God in
this one love, as we should see if we reflected on those Holy
Souls, and realised all that was implied in the final entry
of a soul into everlasting bliss. It is love towards the
Sacred Humanity, because it magnifies the copious redemp­
tion of Jesus. It honours His merits, satisfactions, ordi­
nances, and mysteries. It peoples His heaven, and it
glorifies His Blood. It is filled with Jesus, with His spirit,
with His work, with His power, with His victories. No
less is it an exercise of love to our dearest Lady, as I have
shown before; and to the Angels and the Saints. How

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PURGATORY.

abundant is its charity to the souls themselves, who cun
exaggerate, whether we give them the good measure of all
the Church tells us to do, and some spontaneous alms
besides; or the full measure of all our satisfactions during
lifetime, which are not by justice due elsewhere, as St.
Gertrude gave them ; or the measure shaken together,
which adds all that shall be done for us when we are dead,
like Father Monroy's heroic act of self-renunciation ; or
the measure running over, which heaps upon all the rest
special works of love, such as promoting this devotion by
conversations, sermons, and books, and by getting Masses,
Communions, penances, indulgences, from others for them.
All men living on the earth, even unconverted sinners, are
included in it, because it swells tho Church Triumphant,
and so multiplies intercessors for us who are still warring
upon earth. To ourselves also it is an exercise of charity,
for it gains us friends in heaven ; it earns mercy for us
when we ourselves shall be in purgatory, tranquil victims,
yet, oh, in what distress 1 and it augments our merits in
the sight of God, and so, if only we persevere, our eternal
recompense hereafter. Now, if this tenderness for the
dead is such an exercise of these three theological virtues,
and if again even heroic sanctity consist principally in their
exercise, what store ought we not to set upon this touching
and beautiful devotion I
4. But a further excellence in this devotion is to bo
found in its effects upon the spiritual life. It would seem
as if it were a devotion specially intended for interior souls.
But the fact is, that it is so full of doctrine, and embodies
so much that is supernatural, that we need not be surprised
at the influence it exercises over the spiritual life. In the
first place, it is a hidden work from first to last. We do
not see the results, so that there is little food for vain­
glory ; neither is it a devotion the exercise of which appears

PURGATORY.

J7S

in any way before the eyes of others. It implies, more­
over, an utter ignoring of self, by making away with our
own satisfactions and indulgences, and keeping up a tender
interest in an object which does not directly concern ourcelves. It is not only for the glory of God, but it is for
His greater glory, and for His sole glory. It leads us to
think purely of souls, which it is very difficult to do in this
material world, and to think of them too, simply as spouses
of Jesus. We thus gain a habit of mind which is fatal to
the spirit of tho world and to the tyranny of human respect,
while it goes far to counteract the poison of self-love. The
incessant thought of tbe Holy Souls keeps before us a con­
tinual image of suffering ; and not of merely passive suffer­
ing, but of a joyful conformity to the will of God under it.
Yet this is the very genius of the Gospel, the very atmo­
sphere of holiness.
Furthermore, it communicatee to us as it were by sym­
pathy the feelings of those Holy Souls, and so increases
our trembling yet trustful devotion to the adorable purity
of God ; and as, except in the case of indulgences applied
to the dead, it requires a state of grace to make satisfac­
tion for the sins of others, it is a special act of the laypriesthood of the members of Christ. The spirit of the
devotion is one of pensiveness ; and this is an antidote to
frivolity and hardness, and tells wonderfully upon the
affectionate character which belongs to high sanctity.
Who can tell what will come after patient year's of thus
keeping constantly before our eyes a model of eagerness,
unspeakable, patient eagerness, to be with our dearest
Lord Î What a wonderful thing is the life of a fervent
Catholic 1 It is almost omnipotent, almost omnipresent ;
because it is not so much he who lives as Christ who liveth
in him ! What is it we are touching and handling every
day of our lives, all so full of supernatural vigour, of secret

,8o

PURGATORY.

unction, of divine force, and yet we consider it not, but
waste intentions and trifle time away in the midst of this
stupendous supernatural system of grace, as unreflecting
almost as a stone embedded in the earth and borne round
unconsciously in its impetuous revolutions, day by day.
It seems useless to enumerate the various ways in which
we may practise this devotion. They are sufficient ly known
to Catholics, and to enter upon them at any length would
require a volume by itself. The adorable Sacrifice and
indulgences will of course always be the principal means of
extending our charity to the Departed ; and of indulgenced
devotions I propose to speak at length elsewhere. It were
to be wished that the beautiful devotion of setting apart the
month of November for the Holy Souls, in the same way
as we consecrate the month of Mary to our dearest Lady,
could become naturalised among us, and of universal
observance. There are hardly any devotions in the Church
which so suit our character and feelings in this country, as
those for the souls in purgatory. Only in all our practices
let us remember, i, what little faults good men will have
to expiate, and 2, how long the process is, where there
can be no merit to abridge it or enhance the value of
sufferings.
SECTION Vn,
EXAMPLES OF THE SAINTS.

But while the selection of particular practices may
safely be left to the devotion of each one, something .should
be said of the examples of the Saints. On this subject
they are, as might be expected, almost inexhaustible ;
neither am T going to burden you with many; but I
should wish to illustrate and confirm the foregoing doctrine
with the examples of holy persons. The Dialogues of St

PURGATORY.

,β!

Gregory the Great may be considered as the chief fountain
of the devotion to the Holy Soule in all succeeding ages,
and Father Peter Faber used to say that although St.
Gregory was a Saint who should be loved and honoured on
many accounts, yet on none more than this, because (I use
his own words) he had so lucidly and transparently handed
down to us the doctrine of the purgatorial fire. For he
thought that if St. Gregory had not told us so many things
of the Holy Souls, the devotion of subsequent ages would
have been much colder in their behalf ; and so, when he
preached this devotion himself, he used to propagate along
with it a special devotion to St. Gregory.
While devotions for the dead have characterised most of
the Saints in a very special manner ; for St. Thomas tells
us that charity is incomplete until it includes the dead as
well as the living; nevertheless, there have been several
holy persons whose lives seem almost to have been set aside
by God, in sacrifices of the most supernatural kind for the
souls in purgatory. Sister Josefa de Santa Inez, Augustinianess of Beniganim, was one of these, and Sister Fran­
cesca of Pampeluna, a Teresian nun, was another. They
both seemed to live for that one object They had con­
tinual communications with the departed souls. Their
cells were often filled with them. That of Sister Inez was
almost always set apart as the place of purgation for
several.
In other respects also, the character of the
sanctity of these two religious was exceedingly similar.
In the subject-matter of purgatory we may with the less
scruple make use of such revelations, from the example of
so grave an authority as Cardinal Bcllarniine himself, who,
in his treatise on purgatory, as I have already said, adds
always some private revelations as a distinct head of proof.
For many reasons, I have preferred to take my example
from the life of Sister Alaria Denise de Alaitignat, of the

PURGATORY.
Visitation, who died in tho convent at Annecy, in 1654;
and I will not apologise for the length of niy narrative,
because one example exhibited at length will illustrate the
subject better than scores of shorter anecdotes.
At the time when Madlle. de Martignat left the French
court for that of Charles Emmanuel at Turin, there was a
lady living in that capital who went by the name of the
Mère Antée. She had received a special attraction from
the Holy Ghost to devote herself to the service of the souls
in purgatory. She had now spent many years in this way,
and, forming an acquaintance with Madlle. de Martignat,
she had obtained from God by her prayers, that Marie
Denise should succeed her in her high office ; and in fact
her soul was the iirst which Maria Denise ever saw, coming
out of purgatory after a detention of five hours there for
not following inspirations she had had about certain good
works. The Mère Antée had told her she was ultimately
to be a nun, as St. Francis of Sales had also hinted to her
at Paris years before, and in due time it was arranged that
she should join the convent of tho Visitation at Annecy.
She was accompanied on her journey by a multitude of the
Holy Souls, whose presence was so sensible to her that sho
never perceived the passage of the Mont Cenis, so absorbed
was she in her intercourse with them. At the prayers of
tho Mère Antée, Marie Denise had received a powerful and
mysterious grace while praying before the Holy Winding
Sheet at Turin, by which sho had immense power over tho
souls in purgatory ; and all her first years in Annecy were
filled with practices on their behalf. They disclosed many
things to her ; as, for example, when she was infirmarian
they told her there was no place where there were so many
devils, or where they were so active, as in an infirmary,
because it is there that the soul fights its last battle for
eternity.

PURGATORY.

383

She was continually accompanied by them, and their
presence was sensible to her. She told the superioress
that so far from being afraid, she was as much at her ease
amid a troop of these souls as when with her sisters in
community ; and that she found more profit for her soul
in conversation with them than with the living. She
obtained as many indulgenced medals as she could, and at
recreation she was always eloquently preaching this her
favourite devotion. Her superioress once expressed a
wish to be visited by a soul from purgatory, if the visit
would make her more humble and more acceptable to God.
Marie Denise replied, “ Truly, my dear mother, if such is
your courage and your desire, let us pray our Lord to
grant it you.” The superioress having consented, she was
astonished that same evening at receiving a mysterious
sign from a suffering soul, who from that moment became
her frequent visitor. Several of the community slept in
the superioress’s room, and were eye and ear witnesses of
these visits ; and these continued for several months. At
the end of this time, Marie Denise told the superioress
that the continuance in the pains of purgatory, of such a
soul as the one who had visited her, would teach her how
much longer souls are detained in that suffering than she
had supposed before ; and this for four reasons : first,
because of the inconceivable purity which the soul must
have befoiO it can present itself before Him whois essential
sanctity and purity, and who receives no one into His
glorious city who is not as pure as the city itself ; secondly,
because of the innumerable multitude of venial faults which
we commit in this life, and the little penance which we do
for the mortal sins we have confessed: thirdly, because of
the inability of these souls to help themselves; and,
fourthly, because of the lukewarmness and negligence of
the greater part of Christians in praying and doing good

3g4

PURGATORY.

workfl for these souls, as the dead fade from the memory
of the living almost as soon as they have vanished from
their eyes; while true charity will follow those it loves,
through the flames of purgatory to the joys of paradise.
The feast of our Lady of Angels was a day on which
Marie Denise generally obtained the liberation of many
souls from purgatory. Once after Communion on that
day, she felt a strong interior movement, as if our Lord
was taking her soul out of her body, and leading her to the
shore of purgatory. There He pointed out to her the soul
of a powerful prince who had been killed in a duel, but to
whom God had given the grace to make an act of con­
trition before he breathed his last; and she was ordered
to pray for him especially. She did this for nine years
and three months, and even gave her life in sacrifice for
his soul, and yet he was not freed. She was so overcome
by this vision of his soul, that the superioress perceived
that something extraordinary had happened to her. She
related the vision, and added, “ Yes, my dear mother I
I have seen that soul in purgatory ; but alas I who shall
deliver it 1 Perhaps it will not come out till the day of
judgment. Oh, my mother 1 ” she continued, weeping,
“ how good is God in His justice I How has this prince
followed the spirit of the world and the lights of the
flesh I How little anxiety has he had for his soul, and
how little devotion in the use of the Sacraments 1 ” The
effect of this vision, and of her penances for this soul, had
such an effect on her bodily health, that the superioress
remonstrated with her on the subject ; but she replied,
that she must now suffer incessantly, as she had offered
herself to God in order to procure some alleviation of pain
for that poor soul. “ And yet, my dear mother, T am not
so much moved at the lamentable state of suffering in
which I have seen his soul, as I am struck with wonder at

PURGATORY.

î®5

the blessed moment of grace which accomplished hia
salvation. That happy instant seems to me an outflow of
the infinity of God's goodness, sweetness, and love. The
action in which he died deserved hell. It was no attention
to God on his own part which won from heaven that
precious moment of grace. It was an effect of the com­
munion of Saints, by the participation which he had in the
prayers that were made for him. The divine omnipotence
lovingly allowed itself to be turned by some good soul, and
in that grace acted beyond its wont. Ah ! my dear
mother 1 henceforth we must teach all the world to beg of
God, our Blessed Lady, and the Saints, that final instant
of grace and mercy for the hour of death, and also to pave
tho way for it by good works ; because though our Lord
may sometimes derogate from His ordinary providence, we
must never presume on that privilege in our own case.
There were many fights in Israel, but the sun never stood
still except for Josue, nor went back except for Ezekias.
A million souls have been lost in the very action, in which
the prince was saved. He had but one instant of life in
the free possession of his mind, in order to co-operate with
the precious moment of grace; that moment inspired him
with a real contrition, which enabled him to make an act
of true final repentance.”
The superioress objecting to this view, the good sister
answered, “ My dear mother I as the prince had not lost
the faith, he was like a match ready to take fire; so that
when the spark of merciful grace touched the Christian
centre of his soul, the fire of charity was kindled, and
brought forth a saving act. God made use of the instinct
which we naturally have to invoke our First Cause, when
we are in urgent peril of losing the life which we hold
from Him ; and thus He touched the prince, and drew him
to have recourse to efficacious grace. Divine grace is more
2 B

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PURGATORY.

active than we can even conceive. We cannot wink our
eyes as quickly as God can do His work in tho soul where
He seeks co-operation ; and the moment, in which the soul
makes its act of co-operation with grace, is almost as brief
ns the one in which it receives it; and in this the soul
experiences how admirably it has been created in the
image and likeness of God.” The superioress seeing into
what mysterious depths Marie Denise was about to plunge,
interrupted her by remarking, that God had busied Him­
self forty years with the children of Israel, and even then
they were not converted from their evil ways. “ True,
my dear mother,” replied the sister, “ but then He swore
in His wrath that His hardened people should not enter
into His rest. Victorious grace only required a moment
to strike down St. Paul, and to triumph over his heart.
The judgments and conduct of God are abysses, which it
does not belong to us to fathom ; but of one thing I can
assure you, that if it had not been for that one blessed
moment of grace, the soul of the prince would have
descended into the lowest hell ; and since the devil has
been a devil, he has, perhaps, never been more disap­
pointed in his expectation than in losing that prey. For
he had known nothing of the interior occupation of his
victim in those few seconds which the divine goodness
accorded him after his mortal wound.”
Language almost fails to describe the sufferings both of
mind and body which Marie Denise went through for the
alleviation of this soul. Mère de Chaugy devotes a whole
chapter to them, and they are quite equal to those which
are read of any of the Saints. After a long martyrdom
of this kind, it pleased God that she should see in a vision
the suffering soul of the prince, slightly raised above the
bottom of the burning abyss, and in a capacity of being
delivered somewhat before the day of judgment, and also

PURGA TORY.

387

that an abbreviation of some few hours of hia purgatory
had been granted. She begged Mother do Châtel to pray
for him ; and that good mother consenting to do so, coaid
not refrain from expressing her surprise that Marie Denise
had only spoken of an abridgment of a few hours ; but the
sister replied, “ Ah ! my mother, it is a great thing that
the divine mercy has begun to allow itself to be influenced ;
time has not the same measure in the other life which it
has in this ; years of sadness, weariness, poverty, and
severe illnesses in this world are not to be compared with
the one single hour of the sufferings of the poor souls in
purgatory 1 ”
It would take me too long to relate all the communica­
tions our Lord vouchsafed to make to her about the state
of that soul It came at last to this, that she offered her
life for his simple alleviation, not deliverance, and it was
accepted. Not long before her death, when the supe­
rioress was expressing herself to the effect that surely by
this time the soul was free : Marie Denise said, with great
warmth, “ O mother I many years and many suffrages
are needed yet ; ” and at last she died, and yet there was
no word that the prince was delivered even by that heroic
sacrifice crowning upwards of nine years of suffering,
prayers, Masses, Communions, and indulgences, not on
her part only, but through her on the part of many others
also. What a long commentary might be written upon
all this. But hearts that love God will comment on it for
themselves. Blessed be His most glorious majesty for its
insatiable purity I
One word more. Among the sorrows of kind hearts
there is one which seems as if it grew greater in each
succeeding generation of the world. It is the enormous
growth of poverty and wretchedness, and our own inability
to relieve it. There is hardly one among us who has not

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PURGATORY.

felt this. So overwhelming is the misery, that those who
have little to give, feel the pain as much as those who
have nothing, and those who have much to give almost
more. For, giving opens a man’s heart, and makes him
love to give, and those who have more to give know best
how little it is compared with the necessity. Yet, this
yearning to give alms comes from the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, and it must be satisfied ; and how can we better
satisfy it than by giving alms to those who need it most,
the Holy Souls in purgatory 1 We can all do this ; and
how much might we do, even for our dear poor on earth,
if we commended their cause to the souls whom God allows
us to liberate, and made a sweet bargain with them that
when once in the free air of heaven, their first homage
and salutation over, they should pray for an abundant
outpouring of grace upon rich men, that their hearts might
be opened like the hearts of the first Christians, to deny
themselves, and to feast the poor of Christ 1
This doctrine of purgatory, and the marvellous powers
put into the bands of devotion for the Holy Souls, prove
more than anything else how God has contrived all things
for love, all things to show love of us, all things to win
for Himself His creature’s love. Nc less does the neglect
of this devotion illustrate the ingratitude and waywardness
with which we repay God’s love, and which is as wonder­
ful as that love itself. How touching beautiful was tho
description which God vouchsafed to give of Himself, and
His pursuit of souls, to St. Gertrude. “ Just as a poor
invalid,” said He, “ who cannot walk, having with difficulty
got himself carried into the sunshine, to be a little cheered
by the warmth, sees a storm come on suddenly, and has
to wait, patient but disappointed, for bright skies again,—
so am I. My love for you conquers Me, and compels Me
to choose to dwell with you amid the violent tempest of

PURGATORY.

389

your sins, hoping for the calm of your amendment, and
for the quiet harbour of your humility at last." Well
may we cry out with St. Catherine of Genoa, “ 0 Lord I
if I could but know the cause of Thy so great and pure
love of rational creatures I ” But our Lord answered her,
“ My love is infinite, and I cannot help loving what I
have created. The cause of My love is nothing but love
itself ; and seeing you cannot understand it, be at peace ;
and do not seek what you will never find I ” Whereupon
the Saint exclaimed, “ O Love I he who feels you, under­
stands you not, and he who wishes to understand you
cannot know you I
I should only be repeating what I have already said
elsewhere, if I were to draw out in detail the various ways
in which this devotion promotes our three ends, the glory
of God, the interests of Jesus, and the salvation of souls.
In fact, the peculiarity of this devotion is its fulness. It
is all quickened with supernatural life and power. It
teems with doctrine. It reaches everywhere and has to
do with everything. We are always touching some hidden
spring in it, which goes further than we intended, and
effects more than we hoped. It is as if all the threads of
God’s glory were gathered up into it and fastened there,
and that when one is touched all vibrate, and make melody
to God, part of that sweet song which the Sacred Human
Heart of Jesus is singing ever, in the bosom of the most
compassionate Trinity.

A LETTER
TO

THE MEMBERS OF THE CONFRATERNITY
OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.

A LETTER, &C.
My Dear Friends,—i. The Confraternity of the Mort
Precious Blood of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
established in the Chapel of the London Oratory, now
numbers not far from seven thousand members.
*
The
time, therefore, is passed, when the Director of the Con­
fraternity could meet the few hundreds who then composed
it, at the Friday evening gatherings at the Oratory ; though
it will not be easy to forget the fervour and joy which
reigned at those unions, or tho manner in which the whole
assembly joined aloud in the prayers for the intentions of
the Confraternity. It seems then natural, that I should
now address a few words to the Members in a way which
may reach them all, lest as we extend more widely, we
should forget tho first spirit of our institute, and lose in
zeal what we gain in numbers. Our simple object is to
make our dearest Lord better known and better loved ; to
have His Precious Blood worshipped with a more tender,
affectionate, and thankful adoration ; and to imite our­
selves to the intentions of His Sacred Heart, the Fountain
of that Blood, for the conversion of perishing sinners.
Allow me, then, my dear friends and fellow-labourers, to
say a few words to you in all love, to quicken your zeal
* In 1853.

594

A LETTER TO THE CONFRATERNITY

and fervour, and to keep you true to one idea with which
we were nil unanimously possessed in the beginning of our
undertaking.
2. The original idea of the Confraternity was, that it
should Im) exclusively an association of prayer. No money
collections were to be made in connection with it. No
committees, or sub-committees, or collectors were to be
necessary or oven possible in it. No external work of
charity or benevolence was to be grafted upon it. For all
these good ends there are already societies and confra­
ternities, all of which may God abundantly bless and
prosperi But we were to keep to prayer; we were to
have an exclusively spiritual end, and we were jealously
to exclude all other ends lest they should at last come to
swallow up our one solitary but dearly cherished practice
of Intercessory Prayer. To introduce other practices into
the Confraternity, will be, not to extend its usefulness, but
to destroy its primitive idea. I beg of you to keep close
to this. Value nothing in the Confraternity so much as
its simplicity, its undivided attention to the spirit of inter­
cession and prayer. Thus you will avoid trespassing on
the ground already well occupied by other holy Confra­
ternities; you will keep clear of the little troubles and
disquiets which the collecting of money even for pious
purposes is sure to bring about ; and you will be free also
of the distractions which external works of active charity
must necessarily gather around you.
Confraternities
established for these ends have their special benediction,
that these things should not harm them. We, remember,
are blessed simply as an association of Intercessory Prayer.
This is our work, our life, our specialty, our power.
3. The first practice which we took upon ourselves in
our Friday meetings in London, was an engagement to
choose three souls; first and foremost, some bad non-

OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.

395

practising Catholic; secondly, some heretic or unbeliever;
and thirdly, some soul in purgatory : and to let the mercy
of God have no rest from our importunity until He had
answered our prayers, brought our bad Catholic to the
Sacraments, and converted our unbeliever. We add to
these two some soul in purgatory, in order that we might
not lose heart, and intermit our prayers, if, for our sins
or in His secret judgments, the Most High delayed or
refused our petitions in the other cases : for we knew that
our prayers for the Holy Souls, delayed from the vision of
God, would, if not infallibly, yet more readily be heard ;
for they, true spouses of Jesus, could themselves put no
obstacle in the way. This was our first practice, and it
embodied the whole spirit of our Confraternity.
4. Why should we so greatly value and esteem this spirit
and this practice! Because, dear brethren, God has so
remarkably blessed them. It is a very solemn thing to
receive a special blessing from Almighty God. It is
almost a frightening thing when He opens heaven and
lets the light of His loving-kindness shine visibly upon
ourselves ; it is frightening, from the very greatness of
the consolation, and from the opposite consideration of
our own unspeakable unworthiness. I assure you I have
sometimes felt quite nervous, as week after week we were
called upon to read at the Friday meetings, the numerous
letters recording the wonderful and speedy answers which
God had vouchsafed to our prayers. They who have been
in the habit of attending those meetings know well how
seldom it is that a week passes over without some letter
of this sort; and more often they range from six to a
dozen. A Protestant lady who has been kind to Catholics
in these unkind days, but who never exhibited any other
leaning towards our holy religion, is prayed for at the
Confraternity at the request of one whom she has benefited.

396

A LETTER TO THE CONFRATERNITY

This is on the Friday evening ; on the Sunday afternoon
she sends for a priest to her sick bed, and is reconciled to
God. Again—a niece requests the prayers of the Confra­
ternity for a sick aunt, who is lying insensible at the time.
Shortly she awakens from her insensibility, asks for a priest,
and has no sooner received the Sacraments than she becomes
insensible again. These are but specimens of a large class
of graces acccorded to the prayers of the Confraternity ;
and it is observable, as if in sanction of the spirit with
which we started, that by far the greater proportion of
them are cases of the conversion of bad Catholics. Surely
we ought to lay these things up in our hearts, and show
our gratitude to God by increased diligence in a more
joyful perseverance in prayer. Again I say, Let us be
true to our first idea, and who shall say where the out­
pourings of God's mercies may end 1 Let us ask more and
we shall receive more. Let us be bold in prayer, knowing
assuredly that what we ask is nothing else than the
burning desire of the loving Heart of Jesus Himself, the
conversion of sinners for whom He shed His Precious
Blood.
5. Some Branch Associations of our Confraternity have
been established by several parish priests in their parishes.
Nothing is necessary, in order that the members of these
should enjoy the indulgences granted to our Confraternity,
but that the names of the members should be sent here for
enrolment. It is very much to be desired that the members
of such associations should keep true to the end of the
institute, and so not in any way interfere with the opera­
tions of other Confraternities in their parish, that they
may rather be a bond of peace than even a possible and
innocent occasion of disunion. It need hardly be said that
in such associations all the good works of the parish, and
the intentions of the pastor, should be always included in

OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.

397

the intentions of the prayers, as well as local scandals, if
there be any. Neither should members of the Confra­
ternity meet together at all without the knowledge and
sanction of their pastors ; but they should be not only
ready but anxious, to receive his suggestions, to put away
their own lights for his, and go his road rather than their
own. The prayers of the self-willed can have no benedic­
tion, except when grace moves such men to pray for their
own conversion.
6. As some inquiries have been made as to the prayers
used at the Friday meetings in London, it may be well to
mention them here, not of course as a rule to others, but
as a suggestion. We begin our meetings with the hymn
“Daily, daily,” p. 85 of the Oratory Hymn Book; then
follow the indulgenced offerings of the Precious Blood,
p. 27 of the Confraternity Book; the notices, letters,
requests for prayers and thanksgivings are then read, and
these occupy sometimes a quarter of an hour. After this,
seven Our Fathers and seven Hail Maries are said by the
whole assembly for the intentions just read, each Our
Father and Hail Mary being prefaced by the words,
“In honour of the (First, Second, &o.,) Blood shedding.”
Another hymn is then sung; St. Philip’s Converts, p. 95,
or Hail Holy Joseph, p. 35 of our Hymn Book. Then
follows the sermon, on some subject connected with the
Precious Blood, the mysteries of Jesus and Mary, the con­
version of sinners, or an account of some famous confra­
ternity or work of charity in Catholic countries, or some
intelligence about the labours of missionaries, and the
propagation of the faith. At the conclusion of the Sermon,
the Hymn of the Precious Blood, p. i8, is sung, and the
meeting concludes with one Our Father and Hail Mary
for the sick, sorrowing, and absent members of the Con­
fraternity. These meetings have been found, not only to

398

A LETTER TO THE CONFRATERNITY

keep up the spirit and fervour of the members, but to
have been greatly blessed to their own sanctification and
more frequent attendance at the Sacraments. We have
learned to value them very greatly as seasons of more than
common grace.
7. And now having pointed out, to you especially who
reside at a distance, what was the spirit and idea of our
Confraternity at first, I may be allowed, dear brethren,
to recommend an object to your notice, and for your future
prayers, which I have long had greatly at heart. The
Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass is the life of the Catholic
Church, and the benediction of the Blessed Sacrament is
the earthly paradise of all her loving Children. Yet whose
heart, if He but loves God, does not bleed over the sad
ingratitude of men in these respects! What multitudes
of poor Catholics are there among us who do not hear
Mass even on days of obligation I What multitudes that
hear it inattentively and indevoutly I What multitudes
that on the least pretext stay away from Benediction,
because it is not of precept I Now, let us suppose that
the seven thousand members of the Confraternity give
themselves up to this work ; let them besiege heaven with
their prayers; let them remember it at Mass, at Com­
munion, at rosary, at Benediction, at examen of conscience,
always and everywhere. Oh my dear friends 1 from what
we know of God, and have experienced of His boundless
compassion, is it an extravagance to believe that each
member of the Confraternity may, by his prayers, at least
win seven who now neglect to come to Mass, and that
within a year! And if so, what a work is this,—seven
times seven thousand worshippers brought back to the
foot of the altars of the Church I it is impossible to over­
rate the importance of this work. Those whose toil lies in
the deep places of the Church, the crowded haunts of the

OF THE MOST PRECIOUS BLOOD.

399

English and Irish poor, know well that in the Adorable
Sacrifice is their only power ; and that, if the people could
be brought within the blessed sound of the mass-bell, the
great work of conversion would be as good as done. Once
more—why should not you, children and worshippers of
the Precious Blood I take this object upon yourselves as
a great end of your prayers Î You will pray ; and God
will touch the hearts of the neglectful, or He will raise
up Confraternities and bands of visitors to go out and
compel the people with an affectionate compulsion to come
to this Blessed Sacrifice, or lie will send missions here
and there that shall do the work. You have simply to
give yourselves to prayer. Meditate on this and see if it
be not an object worthy of your chief attention as members
of the Confraternity. The Saints of God would have wept
tears of holy bitterness over the multitudes who now
neglect the Adorable Sacrifice of the Mass.
8. But if we are to pray for others we must first sanctify
ourselves. If we are to make Jesus better known, and
better loved among men, we must know Him well, and
love Him ardently ourselves. If we are to spread devotion
to the Precious Blood, and bring many souls into its heal­
ing streams, it must be with our own souls ever glistening
with the fresh drops of constantly frequented Sacraments.
My dear Brothers and Sisters I If you think what we
are, and what God is, you will see that it is a solemn thing
that has happened to you in the wonderful, and still more,
(for it is not God’s common way,) the quick answers to
your prayers. God has not made use of you for nothing.
He has but blessed you to-day that He may more abun­
dantly bless you to-morrow. We have found a vein of
gold in the Church of God ; these early benedictions are,
depend upon it, but the first fruits of what is yet to come,
if we continue but to toil, with the utmost humility, and

too A LETTER TO THE CONFRATERNITY, ETC.
the lowliest opinion of ourselves, yet, with such bold con
fidence as humility alone can give, in this little vineyard
of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood.

F. W. Faber,
Priest of the Oratory and Director of the
Confraternity.

Thb London Oratobt,
Feast of St. Ursula,

iSsa,

INDEX.
A<tioN8,

common, minister to the Att ributes of our Lord, 353 ; medita­
glory of God, 165, t66 ; methode
tion on the, 288
of offering, t7o
Augustine, St., 65, 71, 74, ,ψ,
Acte, value of interior, 281, 282
. 3,4
Adam, penance of, 154, 205
Austerities of the saints, 2, 30
Adoration, acts of, 252
Austin, St., 285
Adoro Te devote, 239
Ave Maria, 103
Agnes, St., n7
Azolini, Cardinal, 353
Agony, devotion for souls in their,
ii ; vision of our Lord in His, 12
Albertus Magnus, saying of, 17, 139) Baker, Father, 33, 183; on vocal
Alms, 50
prayer, 198, 199
Alphonse, St., 55, 78, 173, 212; on1 Basil, St., 76, 79
relaxed orders, 32 ; on the valuei I Belgravians, the, 196
of one communion rightly made, i1 Bell of the Duomo at Florence, 138
246; his use of the doxology, 1 Bellannine, Card., on French piety,
270
) 57 ; on the accidental glory of the
Alvares, F. Balthasar, 78, 138, 225
saints, 119; on Purgatory, 364,
Amort, Eusebius, 178
I 381
Ancina, the Venerable Juvenal, 238 j> Benedict, F., of Canfield, 138
Angel, Guardian, 93
! Benedictines, spirit of the, 317
Angela of Foligno, B., 73, 143
Benvenuta, B., 266
Angela, magnificence of the,
vuv, 153 ; ! Benevolence, love of, 278
created in a state of grace, 163 ; Bernard, St., 76, 80, 13Θ, 152, 183,
----- 234 ; devo.
thanksgiving for them,
j 220,226,230,231
I Bishops remain longest in Purgatory,
tion to, 269, 371
Antiochus, St., 229
I 3^3
Blonay,
M.,, the Venerable, 238
Antoninus, Emperor, 228
_____
_____
Antée, Mère, her devotion to the 1 Blosius, 350
i Bonaventure, St., 70, 188, 221
dead, 382
Anxiety for the salvation of souls, Brandano, F., 197
43. MO· a33>
39; characteristic of the saints, Bridget, St., 117, i-P. *
227, 307
4a
Application of indulgences most pro­ Bruno, St., 165
fitable, 47 ; not contrary to the
right order of charity, 50
Calumnies, » subject of thank
*
Apostolats of prayer, 233
Ascetics, the Benedictine, 31·»
giving, 237
Athanasius. St., 187, 221
Calvin, 353

2ο

INDEX.
Csmillus. St., order of, ri
Carnival, devotion» for the, 83
Carpus. St., 307
Catherine of Bologna, St., 15°
Catherine of Genoa. St., 3.17, 34θ>
35b 35® ! Book of, on Purgatory,

Catherine of Siena, St·., 64, 66, 73,
77, 80. 85, in, na, 219, 232
Catherine, of Sweden, St., 143
Cerruto, F., 311
Charity greater than mercy, 43
Charles Borromeo, St., 183, 184
ChAtel, de, Mother, 387
Ohaugy, do, Mère, 386
Chromatics of Aquiloia, St., 71
Chrysostom, St., 59, 71, 76, 79, 1x7,
223, 228, 230, 314
Clare, of Montefalco, B., 74, 113,
138
Classes, the middle, of the Church,
300
Comforts, 176
Communion, thanksgivingafter, 245 ;
one of St. Teresa’s lessons, 246
Communion of Saints, 108
Compassion of our Lady, 62
Complacency, love of, 60, 61, 278,
292, 293 ; what it is, 296
Concealment, spirit of, 125
Concupiscence, love of, 278, 284
Condolence, love of, 62 ; ways of
practising, 75
Confidence, the true worship of God,
280
Confraternity of the Precious Blood,
5, 22, 23, 110, 269; tbe one way
of doing the work of the, 26 ;
bindsits members to serve Jesus
out of love, 29 ; three things
formed by the, 41 ; spirit of, 64 ;
an association of prayer, 394 ; first
practice of, 394 ; order of its
public devotions, 397
Condren, Father, 82
Conscience, examination of, 260
Consolini, F. Peter, 236
Contentment of the holy souls, 359
Contrition, 360
Converts, peculiarities of some, 265 ;
what they had to learn in the
Church, 290
Convents, 67
Conversion to God, necessity of,
263

Criticism, 124
Crucifix, tho, 141
Cyprian, St., 59

Damazub, St., 270
Dante. 259, 361
Da Ponte, 233
Death, 94
Dead, devotion to the. 369 ; involves
devotion to the Sacred Humanity,
370; to our Blessed Lady, 371;
to the holy angels. 371 ; to' the
saints, 372; substantial end of all
the works of mercy, 373 ; an exer­
cise of the three theological vir­
tues, 374; intimates the charity
of God, 377 ; helps unconverted
sinners, 378 ; influences the spiri­
tual life, 378 ; an antidote to
frivolity, 379 ; illustration of, in
Sister Marie Denise, 382
De Lugo, on the satisfaction of the
saints, 49
Deo, de, treatise, 291
Desire, 278, 279
Detachment, 82
Devotion, how discredited, 38 ; need
not be mortification, 44 ; affected
by our notions of God, 56 ; to the
Passion, 61 ; to our Blessed Lady,
146; variety in, 192 ; Italian, 194 ;
of thanksgiving, 268 ; to the holy
souls in Purgatory, 369 ; to tho
holy angels, 371
Dignity of our Lady, 329
Dionysius, St., 307
Direction, systems of, 193
Discernment, 15, 16
Doctrine, a false, odious, 55
Dolours of our Lady, 61 ; devotion
to, 149
Dominio, 1·’., tho Passionist, 304
Doxology, the, 270
Dryness in devotion, 194 ; cause of,
259
Eagerness for the glory of God, 35
Ejaculations, 197, 198
Enthusiasm, 195
Esparza, d‘, Martin, 353
Esteem of grace, 20
Eternity, occupation of, 80; shows
the true value of time, 1Θ5

INDEX.
Eucharist, 343
Eugenius III-, 76
Excursions, 85
Expiation, the work of nuns, 68

403

Growth, not perceptible, 128, 129
Grudgingness in religion, jr. 52

Happiness in religion, 52
Health, subject of thanksgiving, 227
FABER, F., Potor, 73, tu, 116, 139, Heart, liberty of. 320
169, 189, 224, 229, 230, 231, 232, Hell. 337. 339; to be kept in mind
38«
340
Faith, thanksgiving for the gift of. Helplessness of tho Holy Souls, 47.
343. 365. 367. 368
Father, importance of looking upon Henry Suso, B., 86
God tin our, 56
Heresy, effects of, 20; hated by
Fathers of tho liesert, 197, 198
saints, 38
Forgetfulness of God, 15
Heretics, two kinds of, to, u
Founders of religious order·, 373
Holiness, secret, 53 ; helps to, 126 ;
Francesca of tho Blessed Sacrament,
growth in, 262
43. ?3®> 348, 363. 367. 381
Honour of God wounded by false
Francis, St., 70, 165, 188, 304, 331
doctrine, 55
Francis, Jerome, St., 364
Hope, the virtue of, 376
Francis of Sales, St., 31, 62, 173, 175, Humanity, the Sacred, the praise
of God, 333 ; devotion to, 370
*97. 225. 236, 238, 241, 287, 295,
Humiliations, subject of thanksgiv­
_3’5. 33«. 347. 352, 374. 382
Francis, Xavier, St., 116, 118, 225;
ing, 227
on the renewal of vows, 311
Humility of the Holy Souls in pur­
Francis of the Cross, B., 150
gatory, 367
Fruit of the Passion, x6
Fulgentius, St., 187
Ignatius. St., 73, 82, 169,173. 188.
197, 260, 314. 369
Gedeon, fleece of, 135
Impatience with self, 3
Impediments of the vision of God,
Generosity, 129
Gerard, St., 79
355
Gertrude, St., 59, 86, 102, 119, 139, Incarnation, time of, merited by
our Lady, 18; not dependent on
140, 141, 151, 165, 169, 174, 175,
176, 178, 181, 185, 224, 231, 284,
Adam's sin, 130
Indulgences, 11 ; application of, 45 ;
5>
*
_,3
3'7. 3
9.
*
320, 35o. 378, 388
advantage of applying them to the
Giacinta Mariscotti, St., 31, 266;
conversion of, 33
Holy Souls, 47
Glory of God, 14 ; unheeded by Inez, Sister Josefa de Santa, 381
good people, 15 ; eagerness for, Infirmaries, spiritual dangers in, 382
35 ; things that hinder it, 104, Ingratitude, 260, 261 ; of Christians,
105 ; all tilings may be made to
324
minister to it, 166 ; promoted by Innocent HI., 119
thanksgiving, 266 ; in hell, 340
Innocent IV., 354
God, a simple act, 281, 366 ; His Instincts of tbe Saints, 34. 3°°
love of men, 324 ; our love of, Intention, value of a devout, 8, 168,
326, 327
*70. *7
Intercession, 23 ; fruits of, 24 ; what
Gospel, the, a law of love, 207
Grace, esteem of, 20 ; value of, 20;
it can do, 106; subjecta of, 112;
subject of St. Paul's teaching, 21 ;
method of, 123 ; begets an un­
participation of the divine nature,
worldly temper, 158
93, 276 ; co-operation with, 386
Interests of Jesus, 5; in the Church
Gregory the Great, St., 381
Triumphant, 7 ; in Purgatory, 8 ;
Gregory Nyssen, St.. 222
in the Church Militant, 10 ; con-

404

INDEX.

tinning in danger, 13 ; four great.
14 : most endangered in our own
souls, 23 ; the chief means of ad▼ancingihcm. 25 ; touchiness about
them, 37 ; things that compromise
them ; 104
Invalids, 157
Isaac, Aobot, 197

contemplative·, 322; influence of
devotion to the dead on the spiri­
tual, 378
Light of the particular judgment
125
Limbus, 12
Litanies. 191
Lives of the Saints, 309
Loper., Gregory, 182
Loss, pain of, 357
Lost, punishment of the, 233
Love, service of, 28 ; what it will do,
202 ; act of, 283 ; affective, 302 ;
of God involved in devotion to the
Holy Souls, 377
Louis, St., 241
Louis XIII., 122
Lukewarmness, danger of, 114; diffi­
cult of cure, 215
Luther, 353

.Tank Frances de Chantal, St., 193,
238, 240 ; hated certain sermons,
241
Japan, martyrs of, 76
Jerome, St., 71, 80, 118, 270
Jesuit, doubts of a Spanish, 42
Jesus, love of, r, 3 ; sufferings of, 2,
ii ; interests of, 5
Jews, traditions of, 222, 280
Joanna of the Cross, B., 139
John of Avila, 229
John Climacus, St., 65
John of the Cross, St., 173
Maineri, 354
Mancinelli, Father Giulio, 114, 117
John of God, St., 266
Joseph, St., devotion to, dying, Maria Crocifissa, 367
Martignat, de. Marie Denise, 120 ;
12
Joseph of Cupertino, St., 30
devotion of, to vocal prayer, 192 ;
to her guardian angel, 306, 372 ; to
Joseph Herman, B., 150
the Holy Souls, 382, 383, 384, 386,
Joy, fruit of the Holy Ghost, 126;
special recompense of intercession,
387
Martin, St., of Tours, 188
127
Martinez, Didacus, 221
Joys of our Lady, 149
Mary, devotion to, 19, 146; immacu­
Juliana, of Norwich, 44,154 note
*
Judgment
of God, 217, 218
late Conception of, 19, 329 ; the
praise of God, 330; three sanctifi­
cations of, 149
Knowledge, religious, benefit of, Mary Magdalene, St., 139, 304
102 ; necessity of spreading, 289 ; Mary Magdalene, St., of I’azzi, 66,
of God, inspires the love of com­
84. 91, 114, 118, 138, 145. 169, 173.
182, 270, 313; her sorrow for
placency, 293
others' sins, 69; her preparation
for Whitsunday, 307 ; on the
Lallemant, 57
renewal of vows, 310
Lancisius, 58, 71, 83. 145, 152, 169, Mass, the, 167 ; thanksgiving after,
187, 222, 226, 258, 285, 306, 31 i,
246
312; his method of thanksgiving, Mechtildis, St., 169, 320
223 ; after communion, 248
Meditation, on the Passion, 140 ; the
Laurence, St., the martyr, 117
way to know God, 218 ; on the
Laurence Justinian, St., 70, 77,
attributes, 288
285; on thanksgiving, 219, 220, Mendoza, Bernardino di, 344
231
Mercies, no little, 230
Lessius, 55, 236
Mercy, works of, 373
Liberty, spirit of, 315
Merits, 21
Life of our Lord, 136
Michael, St. Prince of Purgatory,
Life, weariness of, 28, 29 ; active and
37»

INDEX.
Minima of Head Nazzmno, 153
Misfortunes, 24
Moderation, 294
Monroy, dr·, F. Ferdinand, Jr,
378

Naturalism, 369
Naturo, grnco, a participation of
the divine, 92
Natural principles, 26
Neutrality, 89
Notre Dame des Victoires, no
Novels. 184
November, the month of the Holy
Souls.
Nuns, office of, 67 ; the Passionist,
288
Oblation,

spirit of, 167, 212 ; in
thanksgiving, 249, 250
Oblations. 134
Obligation of thanksgiving, 209
Office, the divine, recitation of,
200
Opinions, unworthy, effect of on
saints, 38
Omnipresence of God, 98
Orlandini, in, 116, 139, 169, 189,
192, 229, 230

Pains of Purgatory, 362,

363
Pambo, St., 187
Paphnutius, St., and the piper,
83
Pascal, John of Barcelona, 73
Passion, the, 11 ; devotion to, 6r,
142 ; application of in intercessory
prayer, 138; meditation on, 140;
oblation of, 180
Paternity of God, 262
Paul of the Cross, B., 68. 188, 192,
211, 270, 288
Paula, St., 80
People, great, dangers of, n, xfl
Pèrefix Hardouin, 353
Perfection, 115; of God, 288
Perseverance, final, cannot be
merited, IX, 96 » »> good> 3°
Petition in prayer, 250
Pestilence of the Church, 15
Peter Damian, St., 151, 3“4
Philip. St., 302 i hated *1η· 601 I73,

4OS

174; on thanksgiving after com­
munion, 246, 247 ; his work in
Rome, 301
Philo Judseus, 222
Piety one of the seven gifts of th·
Holy Ghost, 57; earnestly to be
prayed for, 262
Pins VII., rr, 31, 305
Pleasing God, 202
Ponzo, Fra. Giuseppe Bonaventure,
« 3 ,8
Poor, the, ministering to, 323
Poverty, increase of, 387
Praise, 277 ; spirit of, 279
Prayer always answered, 25 ; power
of, 27; with arms extended, 88,89;
mystery of, 97 ; the voiceof Jesus,
99 ; ease and efficacy of, too ; in­
tercessory, roi ; ejaculatory, 196,
197 ; vocal, 198
Predestination, signs of, 41
Predestination of Jesus, 237
Presentation, the, 131
Preaching, ro3
Progress, not perceptible, 128
Providence, 215
Purgatory, 8,109 ; porch of heaven,
22 ; sufferings of. 46, 47 ; double
view of. 347 ; joyfully entered
into, 355; an invention of love,
366. S6?

Qüaresmali, Italian, description of
purgatory in, 348
Quiet, prayer of, 170

Raccolta of

Indulgences, 11 ςος
Ranulph, B.. 150
Raphael, St., Angel of joy, 366,
„37'
Recreation, r8r
Religion, happiness in, 52 ; a matter
of love, JO4
Renewal of vows, 310
Reparation for the sins of others 77
78 ; spirit of, 264
Respectability, 162
Revelations of Purgatory, 351 ,8.
Reverence, 177
*3 *
Rho, F., 228
Ribadeneyra, 188
Rodriguez, 168
Rodriguez, B. Alphonse, 3Μ|

406
Rose, St., of Lime, 30
Rosignoli on Purgatory, 34a

INDEX.
Surina, 187
Su so, B. Henry, 349

Sacrament, looking at the Blessed, TEARS, five kinds of, 64
284
Tarry-at-home traveller, 275
Sacraments, 93
Tepidity, 90; more hateful than sin,
Saints, marvels of the, 2; throe
214
things common to all the, 31 ; in­ Teresa, St., 115, 118, 169, 196. 225,
stincts of the, 34, 299 ; com­
309. 344 ! vision of, 40 ; why she
munion of, 108; accidental glory
founded convents, T13 ; the doo­
of, 119 ; tenderness of, 174, 175
tress of vocal prayer, 198 ; on
Salvation, what it means, 92 ; what
thanksgiving after Communion,
brings it about, 272
246
Sanches, John, 119, 349
Tertullian, 59
Sanctifications, three, of our Lady, Theodore Studita, St., 139
149
Thomas, St., 57, 168, 169, 285, 339;
Satan, interests of, 6, 14
on prayers for tho dead, 344, 368
Satisfaction, how it may become Thomas à Kempis, 175, 231, 313
merit, 46
Thomas of Canterbury, St., 119, 149
Schram, on a saying attributed to Time, use of, 184
St., Augustine, 298, note
Touchiness about the interests of
Science, natural, 273
Jesus, 37 ; one of the chief in­
Scupoli. «75
stincts of the Saints, 39 ; effect oi
Self seeking, 4, 5
love, 53
Self-love, 72, 73
Thanksgiving, 208; neglected, 212,
Sermons, 107
213; characteristic of the Saints,
Service of love, 28 ; effects of, 42,
219 ; method of, proposed by Lancisius, 223, 248 ; for future bless­
43! e«8y. 52 : why so rare, 315
ings, 231 ; after Communion, 244 ;
Senses of our Lord in the Eucharist.
turns our religion into a service of
136
Sense, pain of, in purgatory, 356
love, 266, 267
Sheet, the Holy winding, at Turin, Theology, 274
382
Thought, sins of, 281, 282
Simplicity of God, 281, 286
Treatises, tho Bridgewater, 237
Sin, importance of preventing, 17, Trent, Council of, 281
18 ; the only sorrow, 55, 59, 60 ·.
chief evil of, 63, 64
Sorrow for sin, 63 ; for the sins of Udo, St., 79
Unction in sermons, 107, 108
others, 67, 68
Unhappiness in religion, 265
Sotus, 119
Souls, the Holy, suffering of, in Pur­ Unthankfulness, a sin of good
people, 214
gatory, 47 ; devotion to, 45, 46>
342 ; fruits of this devotion, 46, Unworthiness, our, 132, 133
47 ; advantages of praying for,
K5 ; helplessness of. 365 ; keep
fort us a continual image of Valladolid, convent of, 344
Valfro, Blessed Sebastian, 342
suffering, 379
Variety in devotion, 192
Sozzini,Mariano, 181
Vasquez, 119,
Spiridion, St., 239
Varani, B. Battista, 230
Spirit, the Benedictine, 317
Velasquez, Alonzo, 174
Spirituality, dry. 315. 316
Veronica, B., the Augustiniauess,
Strambi, Monsignor, 188
Suarez, 119 ; on remitted sin, 355
Veiiori. sister Maria Benedetti, 282
Supernatural, 203

INDEX.

407

View», low, 14; one only that in true, World, the interest
*
of, 5 ; praise of,
42.43 ; characteristic’of, 3i ; effort»
160
Vincent of Paul, St., 30, 8a ; special
of on good people, r6i
Worldliness and devotion, 193,
devotion of, 44
Virtue», the three theological, exer­
'94
cised by devotion to the dead, 374 Worship, 376 ; use of the word,
Vision, the Beatific, 94
371 note
Wounds, the Five, 135
Vocal prayer, 198
Writings of Saints and good men
Vows, renewal of, 310
compared, 173, 183

Wetstptn, an
Word, the Eternal, most fitting wor­
ship of, 390

Yepkz,
113

THE BVB.

biographer of St. Teresa,