THE PRIEST’S WAY
TO GOD
BY

FATHER M. EUGENE BOYLAN O.C.S.O.
Abbot of Mount St. Joseph, Roscrea
AUTHOR OF

This Tremendous Lover
AND

Difficulties in Mental Prayer

THE NEWMAN PRESS
WESTMINSTER, MARYLAND

*Bib Pffitheca,
~ imitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Tetri

First impression June 1962
Second impression October 1962

Library of Congress Card Number: 62-17187

© SCEPTER PUBLISHERS LIMITED,

DUBLIN

1962

PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND
BY O’GORMAN LTD., GALWAY.
NIHIL OBSTATI THOMAS F. O’REILLY, CENSOR THEOL.
IMPRIMI POTEST:
JOANNES CAROLUS, ARCHIEP.
DUBLINEN., HIBERNIAE PRIMAS. DUBL1NI DIE 1 1 OCT.

1962

CONTENTS

i
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
io
ii
i2
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21

Foreword
Perfection in the priesthood
Reading and reflection
Starting to pray
The priest and the Mass
Life of prayer
Difficulties in prayer
Purity of intention
Progress in prayer
Union with Christ
The virtue of humility
Progress in humility
Spiritual childhood
Reciting the divine office
With our Lady
The teaching of St. Pius X
Charity, a priestly virtue
Living in Christ
The Holy Ghost in our soul
Christ the life of the soul
The Sacred Heart
Loving our Lord

7
II

25
37
48

54
62
70
80
90
IOI
II2

I23
I33
I44

ISS
164
I74
184
I95
2O7
217

FOREWORD

The life of the diocesan priest is so difficult—it is per­
haps the most difficult of all lives in the Church—that
any attempt to help him, no matter how inadequate,
needs no justification. So I make no apology for pub­
lishing a second collection of notes on a subject which
I have already discussed in The Spiritual Life of the
Priest. The matter of these notes is not new to the
readers of Pagan Missions, and it is due to the kindness
of the Editor of that journal that I am able to compile
these pages. It is not the only kindness for which I have
to thank him.
Despite the high holiness to which a priest is called
and the eminent sanctity of the office which he fulfills,
his life has to be lived amidst all the difficulties of the
world without the protection and the preparation that
is usually given to religious who, as such, are merely
bound to tend to perfection. The diocesan priest there­
fore deserves every help that can be given to him to live
that life of perfection which his office demands from
him. Where is he to look for help?
To anticipate the final answer to this question, we
may remind him of God’s assurance to the great
apostle: ‘Paul, my grace is sufficient for thee’. ‘The
spirit of holiness’, conferred on him in ordination by the
very words of the Sacrament, assures him of this con­
tinual grace of God. And, in passing, let us remember
that the word grace implies something given beyond
merit, or even without merit. It is gratuitous. One could

8

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

truly rewrite the text: ‘Paul, my mercy is sufficient for
thee. My goodness is sufficient for thee!’ And it might
be well to repeat it with a new accent: ‘Paul, My good­
ness is sufficient for thee—do not worry about your
own lack of goodness!’ This seems too good to be true.
But that is the great truth—that no man has even con­
ceived the things God has prepared for those who love
him. We are dealing with infinite Goodness, and only
infinite Truth can give it adequate expression.
We can find in our Mass a reminder of these infinities
with which we are dealing. The Mass is a sacrifice, and
every sacrifice involves the offering of a gift to God by
which the offerer signifies the interior gift which he
makes of himself to God. At the offertory of each Mass,
—without claiming that this is the theological or litur­
gical interpretation of that ceremony—we can imagine
the Church attempting to offer herself to God by the
offering of the bread and the wine. It must be realised
however that here we are trying to conceive the Church
without Christ, but including everyone else—the souls
in purgatory, the whole Church on earth, all the Saints
in heaven, and the Queen of Saints as well. We can
imagine that Christ looks at this offering, and says: ‘It
is good—but it is not good enough for my Father’.
And so he changes the bread and wine into his own
sacrifice, and comes down from the Altar to change
the members of the Church into himself by Holy Com­
munion. This is obviously not the theological interpre­
tation of the liturgy, but it corresponds to a most
important truth which seems to underlie all God’s deal­
ings with the world which he created, and of which we
can remind ourselves at every Mass,—the truth that
‘only Christ is good enough for God’.
This seems to be in harmony with the fact that, in

FOREWORD

9

the very moment when God created man, he raised him
up to a participation in his own divine nature by super­
natural grace. It seems to be the reason why, when the
sin of Adam upset his plan, he decided to restore all
things in Christ. It seems to be the reason why Christ
became man, why he instituted the sacraments by which
he could reach out throughout time and space to enter
into and to live in every human soul, sharing every law­
ful human activity. For that is obviously the plan of
God; and it is in the carrying out of this plan that we
priests are called to co-operate. St. Pius X was quite
definite in stating that this is our work; he was equally
definite in stating that the first step in this work is to
form Christ in ourselves. The reason is obvious. Not
merely is it true that only Christ is good enough for
God; it is also true that only Christ is good enough for
God’s work. ‘Without me’, he said, ‘you can do nothing’.
We priests fail completely in our vocation if we fail to
put on Christ, if we attempt to do the work of Christ
by human strength alone.
On the other hand, in Christ we have an adequate
means of giving God his due. All statements in human
words about God are under-statements. But perhaps
the greatest understatement is that made by God him­
self: ‘This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased’.
We are here given a glimpse of the ineffable joy and
complete satisfaction which the Father finds in his Son,
who is all that God can desire for himself since the Son,
too, is God. Even after becoming man, he is still God
and perfectly pleasing to the Father. Even when as a
man, he has associated himself with us, taking on him­
self the burden of all our sins and exposing himself to
the Divine Justice, he is still infinitely pleasing to God,
especially in his supreme Sacrifice on the Cross.

10

THE priest’s way to god

It is this same sacrifice which we offer in every Mass.
It is the prayer of this same ‘well-pleasing’ son which
we offer every time we recite our breviary. It is the power
of this same Son which is always with us in his work,
and it is the merits of this same Son, and the infinite
mercy of his Father, which give us reason for unlimited
confidence.
It is in the hope that what we have written will help
priests to remove the obstacles to union with Christ,
and to develop that union as Christ wishes it to be
developed, that we publish these pages. May Mary, the
Mother of Christ, who is so powerful to unite men with
Christ, make us one with him, as he has prayed and
suffered and died to make us one.
Fr. M. Eugene Boylan O.C.S.O.

Mount St. Joseph Abbey,
Roscrea, Ireland.
24 th October 1961

CHAPTER ONE

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

Before we discuss the spiritual life of a priest—and
particularly his life of prayer—we must first get rid of
any misunderstanding about the perfection to which he
is called. There is such a close connection between
prayer and perfection that any error about the latter
will lead to a wrong standard for the former. St.
Thomas did not regard the priesthood as a state of
perfection; he did, however, describe the episcopate
and the religious life as states of perfection. As a result
there is a vague feeling, which may unconsciously lower
one’s standards, that a priest, as a priest, is not called
to the same perfection of life as, say, a religious. This
is completely wrong.
There is no need to discuss the question whether
changes subsequent to the time of St. Thomas would
have caused him to alter his view of the priesthood as
a state of life. The obligation of a priest to be perfect has
other sources. It arises from his very office, and by that
office he is placed under an obligation that is not only
different from, but much superior to, that of a religious.
A religious is bound to tend to perfection, and his state
of life is excellently designed to help him to do so.
But a priest, as Cardinal Manning says, is ordained to
exercise perfection. He must be holy before ordination.

12

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

His obligation as a priest is to be holy; the obligation
to acquire holiness only arises through a lack of the
holiness that is demanded by his office.
Since St. Thomas is quoted in this discussion, let us
hear his views on the perfection of the priest in com­
parison with that of a religious. He deals with the
objection that one should be perfect before under­
taking the obligations of the religious just as the walls
of a building should be dried before the weight of the
roof is laid upon them, and he replies: ‘Sicut supra
dictum est, ordines sacri praexigunt sanctitatem; sed
status religionis est exercitium quoddam ad sanctitatem
assequendum. Unde pondus ordinum imponendum est
parietibus jam per sanctitatem desiccatis sed pondus
religionis dessicat parietes, id est homines ab humore
vitiorum.’1 And the previous statement to which he
refers is quite definitive for our purpose, for he writes:
‘Per sacrum ordinem aliquis deputatur ad dignissima
ministeria, quibus ipsi Christo servitur in sacramento
altaris, ad quod requiritur major sanctitas interior,
quam requirat etiam religionis status.’2
This is quite conclusive. The misunderstanding arises
from the fact that St. Thomas was rather considering
the question of the priesthood as a stable state; and,
as he knew it, the state of religion was more stable.
Readers will find an excellent discussion of the question
in Dr. Mahoney’s book, The Secular Priesthood.
It is unfortunate that many manuals of moral
theology are quite inadequate and sometimes inaccurate
on the point. It is not for the present writer to quarrel
with the standard works of theologians, but the follow­
ing phrase in Ferreres’ Compendium Theologiae Moralis
seems unfortunate. In the introduction to Tract X, de
Statu religioso, the learned author writes: ‘Status

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

13

sacerdotalis, licet dignitate omnium praestantissimum
sit, ratione tamen perfectionis longe vitae religiosae
cedit.’ If the author is speaking of the priesthood as a
state, he is, no doubt, technically correct.3 If he means
to suggest that a ‘secular’ priest is called to a lesser
degree of perfection than a religious, as such (e.g. a lay
brother), the best comment is that of Cardinal Manning:
‘In my belief that proposition is erroneous and offensive
to pious ears and injurious to our Divine Master and
to the Holy Ghost.’4
Whatever about his state, his office demands personal
holiness in the priest. It is not merely a question of
dignity, or of external holiness (if there be such a thing!).
The text of St. Thomas is quite clear; he speaks of
interior holiness. That such is required is evident from
the fact that a priest’s primary function is to offer
sacrifice. This sacrifice, in so far as it is a personal act,
is a lie if his heart is not in accord with his actions.
To avoid further discussion here, let it suffice to quote
Pius X, whose Letter to Catholic Priests should be
read and re-read by every priest and student.
The Holy Father writes: ‘If such sanctity was de­
manded in the Old Law from a priesthood which was
but a type and a figure, what shall be demanded from
us, the victim of whose sacrifice is Christ? . . . There
are some who think and teach that the whole value of a
priest consists in the fact that he devotes himself to
the needs of others. How fallacious and disastrous is
such a doctrine. Personal sanctity alone will make us
the kind of men demanded by our divine vocation—
men crucified to the world, men to whom the things of
the world are dead, men walking in newness of life.’5
One cannot too often turn to the extraordinary
words addressed by our Lord to his Apostles, on the

14

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

eve of his death, when he was ordaining them priests.
‘I am the true vine . . . Abide in me: and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide
in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me.
I am the vine; you the branches: he that abideth in me
and I in him, the same beareth much fruit : for without
me you can do nothing.’8 Thus, on an occasion when
his words must be taken as specially significant, in a
matter that was intimately connected with his life-work
and with the purpose of his death, our Lord laid it down
that not only was union with him the way to fruitfulness
in the ministry, but that there was no other way. In
fact, he stated that ‘if any one abide not in me: he shall
be cast forth as a branch, and shall wither.’’ No priest,
then, can set aside union with our Lord—intimate
and complete union with our Lord—as something
outside his vocation, something peculiarly the vocation
of religious. Absit! A priest, as a priest, is called to the
highest perfection. He is in a class apart. While the
religious must tend to holiness, the priest must be holy.
This should be a source of great confidence to every
priest. No one will deny that the life many priests have
to live presents not a few difficulties and obstacles to
holiness. Yet, since it is obligatory, holiness must be
possible. Since holiness is an essential duty of his office,
the priest can be certain that all the necessary graces are
available. The character of the priesthood received in
Holy Orders—that mysterious participation in the
priesthood of Jesus Christ—is the promise and the
pledge of all graces needed for our priesthood. St.
Thomas would even call the character a ‘cause’ of
grace.8 By ordination a special relation is set up between
the soul and the Holy Ghost; on him, who is God
himself and who is our sanctifier, we can rely for all

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

15

that our priesthood entails. Our Lord himself has
exhorted us: ‘Have confidence, I have overcome the
world.’9 So that even if our lives in the world are
fraught with difficulty, we can be absolutely certain of
his omnipotent aid. In all these things we can overcome
‘because of him that hath loved us’; in all things we
are made rich in him, so that nothing can be wanting
to us in any grace. With St. Peter let each of us launch
out into the deep at the word of the Master, confident
of a full draught; with St. Paul let each of us say: ‘I
know whom I have believed and I am certain that he is
able to keep that which I have committed unto him.’19
The first difficulty about a priest’s prayer—namely
the feeling that he is not called to a high spirituality,
that this is something reserved for religious, to which he
need not, or even should not, aspire—is thereby re­
moved. A priest must sum up in himself all the different
types of the spiritual life, ‘eminently’ of course. He
must be a contemplative, if his activity is to be fruitful.
There is no other way for him. His vocation demands
all the holiness of any religious order, even though it
does not provide the same means to achieve it, and even
though it may not—perhaps—have the same stability
of organization that would make it technically a ‘state.’11
Readers will forgive us for stressing this. It is true
that many workers in the mission fields are religious.
Even for these, we would stress the obligation to
holiness which arises out of their priesthood. The
reason is that in the missions regular religious life has
often to be modified considerably, if not at times almost
completely abandoned, so that the religious is no better
off in respect of safeguards and assistance than the
diocesan priest. He may, therefore, be tempted to feel
that he is no longer obliged to acquire and to possess

16

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

that holiness that would be his aim and his vocation
in a more sheltered and regular observance. This would
be a fatal error. As if St. Peter and St. Paul were saints
only in spite of their apostolic vocation! Such religious
are, as priests, called to the highest holiness, and as
priests, in the exercise of their priesthood, can and
must find the means to achieve it. They must school
themselves from the very beginning to seek such means
even in walks of life which render regular religious
observance impossible. They have by ordination at
least a title to, if not the actual possession of, all the
graces necessary for holiness. But they must use those
graces. That is where a religious can fail. He may
have come to rely on his rule and regular life to bring
him to perfection. Once the rule has to be modified by
the needs of the mission-fields, and regular life becomes
a dream never to be realized, there is a danger that he
may give up hope of perfection, fail to take things
energetically into his own hands and use the grace that
is in him to be holy.
Our primary purpose in these pages is to discuss
mental prayer for priests. But it is necessary to discuss
these other matters to get things into their true per­
spective. Prayer is, of course, only a part of the spiritual
life, yet it is a part that depends on, and gives expression
to, the whole spiritual life. If any part of our spiritual
life is defective, our prayer will be influenced by that
defect—especially by a mistaken view of our vocation
to holiness.
Another point which we should like to stress is this.
Union with God is frequently put forward as the goal
of prayer—a goal to which a man may attain after
long years of prayer, penance and faithful service.
Divine union would, then, be the end of a life of prayer

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

17

in a chronological sense as well as a philosophic one.
Such a view—while true in a way—could easily mislead
us. For in a very important sense, divine union is the
beginning of prayer—its ‘principle’, chronologically as
well as philosophically. It is true a sinner can pray, but
he must have at least that momentary union with God
that is the result of actual grace. Prayer is a super­
natural act, something superhuman, and therefore
utterly impossible without God. Therefore from the
very beginning we must see divine union as the found­
ation of our prayer. We pray not in order to achieve
divine union—we achieved that in Baptism—but to
develop it. Let us again refer to our Lord’s words at
the Last Supper; they must never be forgotten by the
priest. ‘Abide in me . . . without me you can do
nothing.’ That is the secret of how to pray; it is the
secret of how to preach; it is the secret of how to be
apostles; it is the secret of how to be saints. And there
is no other way!
The pattern set by the Church in the breviary is
highly significant. Each hour begins by a communing
with God. ‘Deus in adjutorium meum intende. Domine
ad adjuvandum me festina.’ That is the way we must
approach all prayer. We must stir up the grace that is
in us, by the imposition of hands. All we need is already
ours, by the title of five sacraments. And also, may we
add, by the title of our own poverty. ‘Modicae fidei';
why do we doubt? Let us pray in faith, nothing waver­
ing. ‘We know in whom we have confidence.’ We have
received the Holy Spirit, for our use. He it is who
prayeth in us. All we have to do is to unite ourselves to
him.
Before leaving this point, may we anticipate some
later discussions, and draw the reader’s attention to

18

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

the need for faith—especially for faith in the powers
given to our own souls by the sacraments we have
received ? We must believe in our power to pray, as we
believe in our power to consecrate and to absolve. In
fact we shall frequently be forced to believe in our
capacity for prayer, for neither the prayer nor the
power to pray will be at all in evidence. Yet we are
participators in the priesthood of Christ. That will
suffice—if we have faith in him.
Our spiritual life, then, from the very beginning is a
life of union with God, which we have to develop. One
of the principal ways of developing this life is prayer.
How are we to go about it? To answer this question,
it is again necessary to explain its perspective. There
are three important things upon which our whole
spiritual life depends, and which are so interconnected
that no one of them can be discussed properly without
reference to the others. These three are: spiritual read­
ing, reflection and prayer. When we speak of prayer in
these pages, we generally mean prayer in this sense,
something distinct from our reading or reflection, and
something which is of capital necessity for our advance
in the spiritual life. The best way to describe what we
mean is to make our own the words of St. Teresa:
‘Mental prayer, in my opinion, is nothing else than
being on terms of intimate friendship with God, fre­
quently conversing in secret with him, who, we know,
loves us.’12 It is an elevation to God of our heart and
soul, in which he is addressed, with or without words,
in the second person singular. Using the term prayer
in the sense which we have indicated, we do not con­
sider thinking about God to be in itself prayer. It is of
course often accompanied by a silent prayer of the
heart; and it is one of the best ways to lead us to pray.

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

19

But it does not suffice, in itself, to satisfy the third need
of the spiritual life we have indicated by the term
prayer. We shall return to that point in a moment.
Before we go any further in this discussion, we have
again to clear a way through the brambles and brush­
wood of misunderstanding. A distinction is made
between vocal prayer and mental prayer. It is not for
us to quarrel with traditional usage, but we may be
permitted to deplore the effects arising from a mis­
understanding of that distinction. Two particularly
harmful notions can arise from it, and, in fact, have
arisen. One is the idea that there is some type of vocal
prayer which is not ‘mental’; the other is that ‘mental’
prayer must never be made with words. It is hard to
imagine any misunderstanding that can be more baneful
to our spiritual life than these. There can obviously
be no true prayer in which the mind does not in some
way take part. And even the higher forms of contem­
plation may express themselves in words. Was St.
Francis, who spent the night repeating ‘My Lord and
my God’, not making ‘mental prayer’?
Generally, the term vocal prayer is applied to that
prayer wherein words are used and externally expressed,
at least by lip-articulation; in most cases some ready­
made formula is employed, for example the Pater
Noster or the Psalms. One might say that in vocal
prayer a person tries to conform his mind to a ready­
made formula externally expressed, while in mental
prayer, he starts with a ‘meaning’ and may try to ex­
press it in some way or other. Such a summing-up is
quite inadequate, but it may help to get rid of the
notion that the two things are mutually exclusive. One
thing we insist upon: prayer does not cease to be
mental prayer when one commences to use words, even

20

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

if those words are borrowed ones, such as common
aspirations or verses from the Psalms. The important
point is not whether we express our meaning in words
or acts, but whether we have a meaning to express,
and also, indeed, whether we mean that meaning. Here
we can certainly agree to a caveat. If you do use words
in your mental prayer, be sure you mean what you say.
It does not matter a whole lot whether you say what you
mean: often, in fact, you will be quite incapable of
saying it. Sometimes you can only ‘babble.’ These
things don’t matter; it is the ‘meaning’ that matters,
in other words, the movements of the heart.
We also insist upon another point. Meditation,
strictly so-called, in the sense of reflection, is not, as
such, mental prayer, at least that mental prayer which
we consider to be so essential for the spiritual life.
Readers will forgive us if we are almost agressive on
the point. We have met many souls who think and
who, it would seem, were taught to think, that mental
prayer consists essentially in ‘consideration.’ We do
not, indeed, deny the need for consideration or re­
flection for the formation of convictions in the spiritual
life. On the contrary, it is because we hold such to be so
necessary that we are going to insist upon the impor­
tance of reading and reflection. But we are convinced
that some more direct approach to God than that is
necessary, and we feel that prayer is the time for that
intimate approach. It is here that prayer can be defined
as an elevation of the mind to God. One could, perhaps,
argue that reflection is such an elevation and therefore a
prayer. Transeat! We are not writing a theoretical
treatise on the psychology and theologp of prayer;
we are trying to draw up a programme of the exercises
necessary for a priest who wishes to develop his spiritual

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

21

life. If such meditation be prayer, such ‘prayer’ is, to
our mind, not sufficient for a healthy spiritual life.
Something more is needed and we reserve the term
prayer for that something more.
However, we do not deny that there is a very common
type of prayer in which the discursive operation of the
intellect greatly predominates, leading, however, to
some affections and to those acts of choice which are
called resolutions. Indeed, it must be so for many
people, if the ‘meaning’ we refer to above is to come
into existence. But because of the misunderstanding
of that unfortunate adjective ‘mental’, too many
people consider that discursive meditation is the essen­
tial part of mental prayer. In fact, it is quite the other
way about! The real prayer, the elevation of the mind
and heart to God, is in the affections, in the movements
of the will to God; the reflections, in themselves, are
little more than a means to that end. It cannot be
denied that in many cases the will is acting—we may
say praying—even during the reflective part of the
exercise. That, however, is per accidens. But in stressing
the need for affections, what we wish to combat is the
notion—by no means unheard-of—that mental prayer,
properly so-called, ceases when the acts or affections
commence, especially if these are made in words. As
a matter of fact, it is only then that prayer in its fullness
really commences. The whole purpose of meditation,
in so far as it is connected with the exercise of prayer, is
to get those acts going.
We shall have to postpone to our next chapter what
we have to say about reading and reflection. The reader
is probably impatient now, and wishes for something
practical with regard to his mental prayer. To satisfy
him, let us anticipate by a summary statement, which

22

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

we shall develop and explain later. Once the current
misunderstandings have been put aside and the initial
novitiate completed, what one might call the ‘technique’
of prayer is comparatively simple. The whole thing
can be summed up in this way. There is an exercise of
private prayer, well-nigh essential for the spiritual life,
which consists in talking to God, in one’s own words,
with or without words, according to one’s inclination.
The paradox is deliberate and is best elucidated by
reminding the reader of the prayer to the Holy Ghost
which begins, ‘Deus cui omne cor patet, et omnis
voluntas loquitur . . . ’ Our wills can speak to God
without words, and yet in the way indicated by the
phrase, ‘in our own words.’ As a matter of practical
policy, the use of words has nothing whatever to do
with the nature of mental prayer. They are a means
to an end, to be used if they help, to be omitted if they
are a hindrance.
If it is as simple as all that, why do many men find
it so hard? In practice, one answer to that question is
another question, addressed to the individual priest
who says he cannot pray. ‘Do you do any regular
spiritual reading’? That, to our mind, is the practical
crux of the whole matter. In some ways we regard
regular spiritual reading as more important than men­
tal prayer itself, inasmuch as, if one looks after one’s
spiritual reading, mental prayer will look after itself.
To any priest who looks for guidance in the matter
of his mental prayer, our reply is this. First of all, he
must agree to a regular daily ration of spiritual reading.
Given this, and provided we are not dealing with a
beginner or with someone in unusual circumstances,
to the ordinary priest who is living a ‘good’ life, we would
say: Fix a time each day for your mental prayer.

PERFECTION IN THE PRIESTHOOD

23

Stand, sit or kneel as you find best. Start off by turning
to God. After that, it does not matter much what
happens, as long as you do not allow yourself to be
deliberately distracted. When you find yourself dis­
tracted, and that will be often, turn gently back. Use a
book if you wish, but don’t turn the exercise into
spiritual reading. Never strain yourself. All must be
done gently. Do not be disappointed if you achieve
nothing. Hold on. God will come in his own time.
This is a rather summary prescription which we
intend to discuss at greater length in later chapters.
But it provides, if not for the melius esse of prayer, at
least for the esse of prayer as we believe it to be neces­
sary. So essential do we consider some such effort at
private prayer for the spiritual life of the priest that
we would personally quite cheerfully take full re­
sponsibility for all the time that a priest prudently
spends in such an exercise no matter how fruitful the
time might actually have been if devoted to other good
works. The apparent failure and fruitlessness of our
effort must not lessen our determination to persevere
in it. Very often God allows the fruit of our efforts to
find him to appear only at some other moment of the
day. Sometimes he wishes us to learn that, even though
we must keep on making efforts, the result depends
completely on him and his bounty. Accordingly, he
withholds his graces for a time and then bestows them
in such abundance, and so clearly out of all proportion
to our own efforts, that they are unmistakably the
result of his mercy rather than of our own merits. If
we remember that in persevering in our attempts at
prayer we are continually offering and giving ourselves
to him, and if at the same time we regard everything
that he gives to us as the gift of his mercy rather than

24

THE priest’s way to god

as the reward of our merits, we shall enter into a new
relationship with him full of a peace and confidence
which no shortcomings on our own part can lessen.
And while we must not lose sight of those shortcomings
we must remember, too, that God has given us his Son
for our Saviour so that nothing is wanting to us in
any grace. Let us cast our burden on him . . . Ipse
faciet.
I
•
•
4
‘
•
’
8
•
10
II
12

Summa Theol. Π-IIae, q. 189 art. 1 ad 3
Ibid., q. 184 art. 8
Cf. Apost. Const. Provida Mater Ecclesia, Feb. 2nd 1947
Purcell, Life, II, p. 764
Haerenti Animo, Aug. 4th 1908: Cf. also A. A. S., IV. p. 1912
John XV, 1-5
Ibid.
Cf. Summa Theol. Ill, q. 69 art. 10
John XVI, 33
2 Tim. I, 12
Cf., however, Mahoney, op. cit.
Autobiography, Ch. VIII, 7

CHAPTER TWO

READING AND REFLECTION

In the last chapter we made an attempt to clear the
ground before discussing mental prayer and its place
in the life of a priest. We insisted that every priest
is called to high holiness and that, therefore, the graces
necessary to achieve such holiness must be available
despite the handicaps that may arise from the cir­
cumstances of a priest’s life. It is important to re­
member this vocation to holiness for there is a close
connection between the prayer of a priest and his
progress in the spiritual life; a duty to advance in
holiness almost necessarily implies a duty to advance
in mental prayer.
And yet, for more than a few priests, the whole
subject of mental prayer is a problem. Many a fervent
priest will tell you that his mental prayer is a burden,
and that he performs it just as a duty, almost even as a
penance. Some may question its usefulness; others find
it so difficult that they may be tempted to give it up
altogether. This is a state of things which calls for some
explanation. It is true, of course, that mental prayer,
like everything else worth while, is not altogether an
easy thing. It demands an effort. But the intrinsic
difficulties are by no means insuperable, and if so many
priests find mental prayer hard, it is natural to ask

26

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

whether there are extrinsic factors which contribute
in no small way to the problem.
Such a factor, for instance, might be a misunder­
standing of the techinque of prayer. In order to illus­
trate what we mean, let us take a somewhat unlikely
and extreme example. A clerical student makes his
first acquaintance with mental prayer in the seminary
exercise of meditation. Customs vary in regard to this
exercise, but in many seminaries meditation is made
in common on a subject which was read publicly the
previous evening. In the morning the ‘points’ are re­
peated at intervals during which the student is expected
first to apply himself to the consideration of what he
has heard, and then to produce suitable affections
and resolutions. In the beginning it is probable that
“considerations’ will predominate and that ‘affections’
or real prayer will play a comparatively minor part.
And this is as it should be—in the beginning. As a
sound foundation for a spiritual life, the student’s
knowledge of supernatural things must be developed,
strong convictions must be formed, and consideration of
divine truths is the natural means for these ends. But,
little by little, his familiarity with the things of God
grows; it grows through his attempts at prayer and
through his studies. In prayer, therefore, considerations
become less necessary, and should be replaced, to a very
large extent, by ‘acts’ of various kinds. Now if such a
student were to cling rigorously to the method of prayer
by which he began ; if, approaching his ordination and
afterwards as a priest, he were to give as much time
to considerations as in the beginning, he would be
acting in a manner calculated to retard his advance in
mental prayer. He would be like a grown or growing
boy trying to walk with the tiny steps of a child. And

READING AND REFLECTION

27

just as a boy would find the effort to walk in such a
manner irksome in the extreme, so it will be with a
priest who continues to use a method of mental prayer
no longer suited to his state.
This, of course, is an extreme case and is scarcely
fully applicable to any priest. But it is possible that
an individual priest might make this mistake in some
degree. Of the normal path of progress in prayer and of
the signs which indicate that one should leave a lower
plane for a higher, we shall have more to say in later
chapters.
Most priests, however, have a knowledge of the
ways of prayer that makes this mistake unlikely, and
will agree that this does not provide a solution for their
own personal problems. Where, then, are we to look
for the solution? To try to answer that question is our
purpose in all that follows.
It is easy, too easy, to look upon our mental prayer
as an isolated exercise, whose success depends on the
regularity with which we perform it and the amount
of effort we put into it. This, of course, is an error.
Our whole priestly life is a unit; our love of God, of
our neighbour, our growth in virtue and our progress
in prayer are things which will always bear a proportion
to each other. At the moment, however, we are con­
cerned only with what is commonly described as the
interior life of the priest and we shall concentrate on
that. But even in this limited sphere, mental prayer does
not stand apart by itself as something that can flourish
independently; it is but one of those three funda­
mental elements of a healthy spiritual life, the other
two being spiritual reading and reflection. What we
mean in the present context by prayer is best summed
up in the classic definition of St. Teresa: ‘Mental

28

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

prayer, in my opinion, is nothing else than being on
terms of intimate friendship with God, frequently con­
versing in secret with him, who, we know, loves us.’
What we mean by reading and reflection we shall
strive to explain in the course of this chapter.
Meditation, as it is commonly understood, is a con­
densation of these three actions into one exercise. Our
suggestion is to divide them into at least two exercises.
One of these is to be, principally, spiritual reading;
the other is to be, principally, mental prayer as we have
described it. Reflection, the third element, can be
associated with either or both or may be done in an
informal way at some other hour of the day.
Within the limits of the present chapter, only a sum­
mary discussion of spiritual reading is possible; those
interested in a fuller treatment we would refer to what
we have written on the subject elsewhere.1 It has two
main purposes; the first is to instruct us: the second is
to keep us in contact with the supernatural world, above
all in contact with the centre of that world, the Person
of our Saviour.
Spiritual reading is necessary for our instruction.
At first sight it might appear that a priest has little or
no need of such ‘educative’ spiritual reading. Every
priest has studied theology and scripture, and some, at
least, have acquired a profound knowledge of these
sacred matters. But it is well to remember that, even
in these subjects, there can be two distinct lines of app­
roach, the purely speculative on the one hand, and on
the other an approach which seeks to apply the truths
learned to one’s own life. Once again, for the sake of
clarity, let us take an extreme example. A student, let
us say, studies his theology solely with a view to pre­
eminence in examinations. If he has ability and diligence

READING AND REFLECTION

29

he will succeed ; when he finishes his studies he will have
a good but purely speculative knowledge of theology.
To put it in a popular phrase, he knows all the answers.
But that knowledge could remain superficial in the
sense that what he has learned has no effect on his
outlook, his attitude, his life; he has more knowledge
but he keeps it sealed off in the purely speculative
department of his mind. It does not sink in and become
part of himself, an active factor in his life. This case,
where there is no point of contact between the sacred
knowledge and the student’s life, is, of course, next
to impossible, but the hypothesis suggests a danger
against which we priests must be on our guard. In our
ministry, for instance, we must teach, preach and direct
souls. For this we need knowledge, very considerable
knowledge, which we can acquire only through reading
and study. And there is always at least the possibility
that the priest should make an unconscious distinction
between his professional mind, so to speak, and his
personal outlook.
To take another unlikely example, one could con­
ceive the case of a man who studies ascetical and
mystical theology in order to guide saintly souls, but
who fails altogether to apply the principles he has
learned to his own life. To put it in a word, the fact
that a priest knows, speculatively, every proposition
of theology is, in itself, no guarantee that his know­
ledge is of such a kind as will influence his life. That is
why it may sometimes be necessary even for learned
priests to take a ‘refresher’ course in theology and
scripture with a view to applying the eternal truths to
themselves.
But there is another and even more important reason
for the necessity of spiritual reading. The world which

30

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

we know by our senses and our intellect is ever palpably
with us, proclaiming its presence with a thousand
voices; the world of the supernatural we know only in
the obscurity of Faith. As we have said elsewhere:2
‘We read to keep the supernatural before our minds,
to develop and maintain the sense of reality of the
things we know by Faith, to keep our attention on the
eternal life of our soul rather than our own interests and
above all to keep alive within us the memory of the
presence of our Lord so that we may live in touch and
in union with him, talking to him, working with him,
resting with him, always praying to him and in him.’
Pius X, in reminding priests that they are the friends
of Christ, tells them in what their friendship must
consist. ‘To desire and to abhor the same things, that
is the essence of friendship. Being friends of Christ, we
are bound to have the mind of Christ.’ ‘To have the
mind of Christ’, to see all things through the eyes of
Christ, that, in a word, is the second great purpose of
spiritual reading. Spiritual reading alone will not,
indeed, give us the mind of Christ; reflection and prayer
must play their part, but as we see it, daily reading is
the foundation for the other two exercises.
Regular spiritual reading is an excellent, even an
essential, preparation for prayer. If our minds, through
reading, are steeped in a knowledge of God, of Christ
and of ourselves, if the whole world of the super­
natural is a vivid reality to us, prayer becomes com­
paratively easy. St. Francis de Sales wrote that ‘if
prayer is the flame of the sanctuary lamp, reading is
the oil which feeds it.’ A priest who neglects spiritual
reading and seeks to pray is trying to have flame
without oil and cannot succeed. In some ways we
regard daily spiritual reading as more important than

READING AND REFLECTION

31

prayer itself. Sometimes, of course, it cannot be done,
but under ordinary circumstances a priest who neglects
regular spiritual reading relinquishes all hope of pro­
gress in prayer.
Two questions may be asked in regard to spiritual
reading ; what are we to read and how are we to read.
The answer to the first question depends upon so many
variable factors that we can make little or no attempt
to give a positive answer here. Individual needs and
tastes must be taken into consideration. If a man, for
instance, were fighting against discouragement, books
which stress the difficulty of salvation or of persever­
ance would certainly be inadvisable, though they might
be a healthy corrective for an individual takings things
too casually. Tastes, too, should be considered; it does
not serve any good purpose to read books which are
completely uncongenial. To do so consistently might
lead in time to a disgust for and even the abandonment
of the exercise. Caution, however, is necessary in
estimating the unsuitability of a book. There may be
things which we are not always ready to have pointed
out to us, and a consequent tendency to regard as
unsuitable or uncongenial books which remind us of
these things. We must be on our guard against self­
deception and, as a precaution, the opinion of a com­
petent friend who is willing and able to see things from
our point of view is well worth having.
Pride of place, of course, must be given to the sacred
scriptures, especially to the Gospels. There, above all,
we meet and learn to know the historical Christ, and
there is no need to emphasize how supremely important
this is for every priest. We might give, in fact, a general
principle for our guidance in spiritual reading: that
we should concentrate especially on such books as are

32

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

calculated to build up in our minds a living idea of
Christ and our relations with him. If this purpose
dominates the general tendency of our choice of books,
they will be well chosen.
There are certain classics that should be read at one
time or another. It would be pointless to turn this
chapter into a bibliography and so we shall refer to only
one of these—to the Imitation. It can tell us a lot
about ourselves in an amazingly short time and men
who read it for a few minutes daily will never regret
the practice. Attention should be paid, too, to books
which apply the truths of dogmatic theology to our
spiritual lives. The theology of grace and the divine
indwelling in particular is especially a section that
should be read and re-read with a personal purpose in
view. In fact we would regard this as the basis of all
sound spirituality, and, for a most helpful summary
of this doctrine, we cannot recommend too highly the
book of Fr. de Jaegher S.J., One With Jesus.3 Finally,
in this matter of the application of dogma to our
spiritual lives, the works of Dom Marmion are unex­
celled.
Reading, of course, should be begun with a short
prayer. We are going to listen to God and prayer is
the proper approach to him. The practice of kneeling
down for a moment is well worth while. We should
read with care and attention; it will help us to form
a right idea of how to read if we visualize a man examin­
ing the specifications of a new car or studying the
details of an insurance policy. We shall discuss the
question of reflection separately in a moment, but, as
we have already said, it can easily be associated with
spiritual reading—so, indeed, can prayer. During our
reading, therefore, we should never be unwilling to

READING AND REFLECTION

33

pause and think when something strikes us, and, of
course, any movement to pray by aspirations or silent
looks at our Lord should always be given full play.
Mere reading, of course, is not enough; knowledge
must be digested. This is the purpose of reflection, the
second element in our interior life. It is very desirable
that this reflection should be associated as closely as
possible with our reading, but we should prefer to see
it done quite informally and, if possible, quite spontane­
ously. Much, however, depends on individual tempera­
ment. Some men are reflective by nature and, if their
reading interests them, they cannot help thinking it
over in their spare moments. Much will depend too on
a man’s interest in divine things—an interest which
itself will be the outcome of reading, reflection and
prayer, for all these things are so closely connected and
influence each other so intimately that it is only in
theory that we can altogether separate them. Some
priests, however, may find that the process of re­
flection is not, for them, at all spontaneous; these should
apply themselves deliberately to the consideration of
what they have read. This could be done while out for
a walk, while smoking before a fire or in any other
circumstances that lend themselves to thought. We
find it hard to agree with the idea that reflection is
something which must be done in the early morning,
before breakfast, in the most uncomfortable circum­
stances. Perhaps we are biassed by our own total in­
ability to think anything out at such a time. But we are
so convinced of the need of reflection for a healthy
spiritual life that we should prefer to see each priest
choose for himself the time and place that is most
congenial. The main thing is to think daily. When or
where is of secondary importance. Reflection, or

34

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

reflective reading, if carried out daily, takes the place
of‘meditation,’ We do not at all wish to do away with
this exercise. Rather do we want to make it more
elastic and more tolerable so that it can be suited to
each man’s circumstances and may come in time to
dominate all his waking hours.
This thinking things out can easily develop into
prayer. Some men think things out by talking them over
with a friend. It should be possible for us, priests, to
talk things over with him who has called us his friends.
Our success in doing so will, indeed, depend on our
habitual degree of intimacy with him, but we can at
least do our best and very often we shall succeed in
establishing with Christ a contact that is an excellent
prayer. If we remember that it was by the companion­
ship of Christ that the apostles were ‘formed’ spiritually,
we shall realize how valuable is any exercise which
puts us in touch with our Saviour. It does not seem that
the apostles stood upon any ceremony with him. St.
Peter even rebuked him. It is true, of course, that we
are not in the same position as the apostles. To them
Christ was physically and sensibly present, while we can
make contact with him only through Faith. Our point
of view is also quite different, for, unlike the apostles,
we know the whole of the story which they were only
gradually learning. But we have need of him no less
than they and anything that brings us into his company
is well worth while. Indeed our very need of him is our
reason for being certain that he is seeking us. Did he
not tell us that he is the Good Shepherd, come to seek
that which was lost?
Our attempts, then, to turn our reflections into a
discussion with Christ can be the beginning of a life
of close union with him. And it is not at all necessary

READING AND REFLECTION

35

that we should always be talking to him of high and
holy things. He who created everything is surely inter­
ested in all that he has made and we may therefore
comment to him on all that comes under our obser­
vation. The conversation of two friends may be of
quite trivial things, yet it serves as an expression of
friendship and helps to develop it. Our Lord himself
insisted that we are his friends. We can surely pay
him the compliment of taking him at his word.
The development, however, of this type of informal
conversation with our Divine Lord depends greatly on
the sincerity of our friendship. If we insist on following
our own will in opposition to his, we cannot feel at our
ease with him. But there is something else which can
interfere with the comradeship of which we have been
speaking. We may have formed a wrong picture of him
or we may have an exaggerated notion of what he ex­
pects from us. We must be careful to see that such is
not the case. He is our Saviour, not yet our Judge; he
‘receiveth sinners’, and is not surprised to find that we
are not saints. He never expects us to do more than is
prudent, nor does he demand that we should attack
all our imperfections at once. This is why a sound
grasp of the principles of the spiritual life is so important
for us. There are enough real obstacles to the divine
union without our adding imaginary ones, of our own
making, to the list. Anything savouring of Jansenism
or rigorism would be disastrous. If, for example, a
priest imagines that a life of intimacy with Christ
precludes all human pleasures, he will not persevere
long in such intimacy. Our Lord does not break bruised
reeds or extinguish smoking flax.
Our discussion on reflection has brought us far afield,
has brought us, in fact, into the realm of mental prayer

36

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

itself. This is not surprising, for just as reading gives rise
to reflection, so reflection merges almost naturally into
prayer. The relations of these three elements of our
interior life, one to another, are many, subtle and
delicate; reading and reflection will have their effect on
our prayer and prayer, in its turn, will have a profound
influence on the spirit in which we read and reflect.
But the fundamental connection between them can,
perhaps, be best made clear by a metaphor. If reading
is regarded as a root, then reflection is the stalk which
springs up from the root; prayer is the flower which,
while depending on root and stalk, is the crowning and
the glory of both. And so, if priests sometimes find
mental prayer almost impossible, we think that, instead
of longing vainly for the petals of prayer which fail to
appear, they should concentrate rather on the root and
the stalk. If we take care of reading and reflection,
mental prayer will, broadly speaking, take care of itself.
But the great test is the test of practice, and if priests
do as we suggest, we have little doubt that they will
soon experience the truth of what we say for themselves.
Of mental prayer itself we shall speak in our next
chapter.
1 Cf. This Tremendous Lover (Mercier Press) and Difficulties in Mental
Prayer (Gill)
2 This Tremendous Lover
3 Burns, Oates & Washbourne

CHAPTER THREE

STARTING TO PRAY

In the previous chapters we have suggested that three
things are fundamental for the interior life, namely:
spiritual reading, reflection and private prayer. These
three must find their place in each day’s programme.
As a rule, it will be sufficient to set aside a time for
reading and a time for prayer. Reflection, in many
cases, will spring spontaneously from these two exer­
cises; if not, then, of course, some provision should be
made for it, but it need not be done formally; in fact
it is often better to make our reflections while walking
or sitting down or, say, working in the garden. Some
men find they think better in noisy surroundings, on
the top of a tram, or in a busy street, but, as a rule, a
certain degree of quiet is helpful. In our last chapter
we tried to discuss reading and reflection, but found that
we were continually recurring to prayer. The three are
inseparably connected and cannot be adequately treated
apart. In this chapter we propose to pay closer attention
to the exercise of prayer.
One important point about prayer—we are now
speaking of what is usually called mental prayer—is
that it is not just one more exercise added to a number
of others in the spiritual life. It is a summing-up of all
those exercises. It is an expression of our attitude to

38

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

God, and it depends very closely upon how that attitude
affects the rest of our life. We cannot pray sincerely
unless our attitude to God is sincere. And our attitude
to God is not sincere, if we deliberately prevent it from
affecting our actions, especially when such prevention
is habitual. That is why, to our mind, discussion of the
‘technique’ of prayer is more theoretical than practical
unless one takes into consideration as well the whole
of our spiritual life. That is why, in discussing our
daily short period of prayer, we shall frequently have to
digress to discuss many other aspects of our lives. For
the real difficulty of praying has its roots outside
prayer. If the ‘remote’ preparation for prayer is sound,
little else is required to succeed in prayer; but that
remote preparation is very far-reaching; it includes
everything that we do. Yet, on the other hand, the way
we do everything else depends on our prayer, so that
while prayer in practice is quite simple, its discussion
may be very involved.
The usual prescription for the beginning of mental
prayer is to put ourselves in the presence of God. One
might, perhaps, prefer to express it differently, but the
idea is excellent. If we are going to speak to God, we
must get in touch with him. That, however, is not so
much a question of putting ourselves in his presence as of
making him present to us by adverting to his presence,
for in many ways he is always with us. Different men
will do that in different ways. When prayer is made in
the church the Real Presence in the Blessed Sacrament
is often the focus of our attention. Despite the excellence
of such a practice there are many great advantages to
be gained by attending rather to the divine presence in
our own souls, where that is found helpful. If there is
difficulty in doing this, one way of overcoming it is to

STARTING TO PRAY

39

make a spiritual communion—a word or two will
suffice—and then to proceed as if one has just received
our Lord sacramentally.
But the point we regard as capital in all this is that
early on in prayer we must make sure to catch God’s
eye, to look him in the face, as it were, even though
it be only for a moment. To realize the importance of
this one has only to imagine the meeting of two friends
between whom there has been a tiny estrangement.
They can talk fluently and freely for a long time about
indifferent things and still part without any change in
their strained relations as long as they do not look
each other in the face. But the normal man cannot look
his friend in the face and maintain his estrangement.
He must either make it up or break it up. So it is when
we go to pray. We can ‘pray’ at great length with a
wealth of words and still retain a determination to say
‘no’ to God on some point, as long as we do not ‘catch
his eye.’ But if we stop talking and fooling ourselves
with our own words, and just for one tiny second look
our Lord in the face, then—like St. Peter—we cannot
continue in our cowardice and coldness, we must give
him what he wants.
If we achieved nothing else in half an hour’s prayer
than that one look into the face of Jesus, our time would
be well spent and its fruit immeasurable. Such an
experience, if it comes to us every day, will produce a
great effect on our spiritual life and have a considerable
influence on our prayer. Henceforth our prayer must
be sincere; we realize that we must mean what we say.
Fine words and fine ideas have nothing to do with our
prayer. It is not like composing a speech or writing an
essay. It is a question of being honest with God and
with oneself. Accordingly, our flow of words dries up

40

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

and we stammer; we start to say something and then,
realizing our own insincerity, we stop again. This is
an excellent development in prayer, and these stam­
mered words and phrases are far more valuable than
the most eloquent and illuminated colloquies which, by
the way, are very often more like soliloquies. ‘Affec­
tions’, of course, are what we are aiming at. But a
sincere doubt about the sincerity of our hesitant ‘My
God, I love thee!’ is often more in accordance with
truth than a long protestation of undying love.
We need never be afraid to draw our Lord’s attention
to the lack of complete sincerity in our protestations.
This is a point where many people make a mistake. For
a time they can ‘pray’, that is, they can keep on talking
to God. Then they begin to question the sincerity of
their statements and they come to realize how little
real truth is in them. Sometimes they become discour­
aged and give up prayer as something outside their
scope; they feel they are not sincere enough to talk to
God.
That brings us to a point that we consider to be of
the utmost importance in prayer as well as in the whole
spiritual life. We must have the correct notion of God’s
attitude to us. Now, the first Person of the Blessed
Trinity is our Father, and the authentic portrait of his
attitude to us is painted for us by the lips of Infinite
Truth in the parable of the prodigal son. And the third
Person of the Blessed Trinity is our Sanctifier, whom
the liturgy calls ‘the remission of our sins’, so that we
do not need to be saints to go to him; he knows that
we are sinners and that our sanctification must come
from him. So, then, even though we know ourselves to
be sinners, we have no real reason to be afraid to
approach the Father or the Holy Ghost.

STARTING TO PRAY

41

But it is through the second Person that we are to go
to God and his attitude to us is of the greatest impor­
tance. And his attitude is perfectly expressed by his
name, for he is called Jesus ‘ because he shall save his
people from their sins.’ He is, then, our Saviour. This
we must never forget. We must make it the foundation
of all our relations with him. He is always ready to
save us from our sins and from our shortcomings.
Thus, those very failings which tend to inhibit our
prayer can be made the reason for a very close bond
between us. They need not separate us from him or
drive us away. ‘This man receiveth sinners’, and we
need not be afraid to approach him. In fact, like St.
Paul, we should glory in our infirmities that the power
of Christ may dwell in us. Our very defects may lead
to a very close union with our Saviour. We must be
quite clear and definite about this point. Divine union
is not something reserved for spotless or angelic souls.
It is the essential foundation of even the lowest degree
of true Christian living, for a man cannot be in the
state of grace unless he is so closely united to God as
to share in the divine nature! Our Lord himself has
made it quite clear that he wants to be intimate with
us. If the institution of the Blessed Eucharist be not
proof enough, let us remember the text: ‘Behold, I
stand at the gate, and knock. If any man shall hear my
voice, and open to me the door, I will come in to him,
and will sup with him, and he with me.’1
We need not, then, be afraid to be intimate with
our Lord in our private prayers. The very fact that we
are sinners and need his saving power is sufficient
justification for our drawing close to him, and it is our
reason for asking for close union with him so that his
power may dwell in us.

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THE priest’s way to god

There is only one type of sinner who cannot be at
his ease with God, and that is the man who intends
to continue sinning. To glory in that infirmity, and to
hope that the power of Christ will dwell in a soul
deliberately defiant of the will of Christ, is worse than
presumption. The case, however, is quite different if a
man wants to give up sin, and yet experiences difficulty
in doing so. Such a man need have no fear of appealing
to our Lord’s saving grace. For it is precisely such a
man that our Lord wants to save.
These considerations will suggest that one of the
best starting-points for private prayer is a gentle act of
sorrow for sin and a desire not to sin again. Starting
from that, we can develop with our omnipotent Saviour
a colloquy which will be a perfect prayer. This, however,
is but one example. One can start from any other act—
adoration or faith, for example—and let the conver­
sation flow from that starting-point. The thing we wish
to emphasize here is that prayer is a conversation (it
may be a silent one) with Jesus, and we must be careful
that we regard him in the correct light lest a wrong
outlook should stifle our part in it. To our mind, the
fact that it is to our Lord that we are talking is far more
important than what we say to him. Talking to Christ
develops our friendship and intimacy with him and
that is what is so desirable.
If we recall the trivialities which serve as topics for
conversation between friends or lovers and remember
that the persons concerned are interested not so much in
these trivialities as in each other, we may be encouraged
to allow ourselves a little more liberty in our choice of
subject matter for conversation with him who called
us his friends. The fact that we have made provision
elsewhere in reading and reflection for the harvest that

STARTING TO PRAY

43

is usually expected from meditation may also ease our
mind on this point. The important thing in prayer is not
so much the choosing of the subject as keeping in touch
with our Lord. And for that reason we need not worry
too much about the subject of our prayer as long as we
can talk to God about it. Even distractions, therefore,
can be made a starting-point for a colloquy with him.
But what is of importance is to make sure that it is
really to our Lord that we are talking and not just to
ourselves or to some unfounded fantasy of our imagina­
tion. That is why it is so necessary to pause now and
then to catch God’s eye. Even in mental prayer we are
liable to harden our hearts and go on praying so that
we may not hear his voice!
We have commenced our discussion of mental
prayer by considering it as a conversation with God for
two reasons. The first is that we have already provided
for the other aspects of it by insistence on reading and
reflection; the second, that the conversational aspect
is not always given its proper place. Until one has
reached some degree of simplified prayer, conversation
with God is the really important part of prayer both
as an aim and as a practice. The rest, to some extent
at any rate, is rather an introduction to prayer, a
means to an end. But because the end is often unattain­
able—because there are so many occasions when we
can find nothing to say—then one must have recourse
to the means, one must meditate.
Before, however, discussing the use of such means,
let us note another way of sustaining prayerful contact
with God. We can make use of some favourite formula
of vocal prayer, reciting it slowly and deliberately with
plenty of pauses, and making the words our own by
dwelling on them. A gentle effort to mean each word

44

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

and to utter it sincerely will often produce the desired
result. The Psalms afford excellent material for this
way of praying; but one should not linger over obscure
or difficult texts, but be content with those verses
that say something which we want to say. Any formula
of prayer drawn from our memory or from a book can
be used in this way. One book which many will find
helpful is The Sufferings of Our Lord Jesus Christ by
Fr. Thomas of Jesus O.S.A. It is a translation of an
old Portuguese work in which every second chapter is
a prayer personally addressed to our Lord. Each one,
however, will have his own favourite, and old friends
are the best friends; we do not want a book which is
so new to us that we are continually tempted to go on
to see what comes next.
Even books which are not prayer-books can be used
to feed the flames—or perhaps we should say, kindle
the spark—of prayer. Some people find that they can
get on best by using a suitable spiritual book. They
read it sentence by sentence and pause in between to
make acts inspired by what they have just read. In
such a case, care must always be taken that the exercise
of prayer does not become mere spiritual reading.
The book used must, therefore, be carefully chosen.
It should be one which makes the reader pause and
think rather than one which tends to carry him on
further. Here, too, old friends are the best.
Reflection—however it may arise—can often be
turned into prayer; instead of talking to ourselves in
our thoughts, we can talk over the matter with our
Lord. This is a possibility which should be borne in
mind when there is question of approaching prayer by
the conventional way of methodical meditation. Of
methodical meditation it is hardly necessary to treat

STARTING TO PRAY

45

here at any length. There are many excellent books
on the subject; those written by Fr. Egan S.J. and by
Fr. Kearney C.S.Sp. will be of great help. (The chapter
on ‘The Prayer of Stupidity’ in Fr. Egan’s book, The
House of Peace, is invaluable and should be familiar
to every one who wants to pray). All we wish to say
here on the subject is that any priest who adds to his
theological studies the daily practice of spiritual reading
and reflection may allow himself considerable latitude in
following the more rigid and detailed prescriptions
laid down by some writers. He should never forget
that in regard to prayer the preludes and considerations
are means to an end; once the end, namely praying,
has been attained, the means may be set aside for the
moment.
However, a priest should not carry this emancipation
so far as to free himself from having some subject of
prayer ready at hand upon which he may fall back if
all else fails. This may be the subject of earlier spiritual
reading; it may be some point in the liturgy of the day;
it may be one of the mysteries of the Rosary or one
of the Stations of the Cross. These latter have the
advantage of being arranged in a familiar order so that
they are ready to hand. If care is not taken to provide
a prepared subject, prayer may become a mere series of
distractions or an idle reverie. We cannot, however,
exhaust the subject of prayer in this chapter, and as we
should prefer to link up further discussion with the
possibility of advance in prayer, we shall postpone it
to later on. Let us here advert to another point which
also calls for further treatment but is mentioned here
as it may help those who are looking for the cause of
difficulty in praying.
Success at prayer is not—primarily, at least— a

46

THE priest’s way to god

matter of technique or of method. Admittedly tech­
nique and methods have something to do with it, but
their role is quite secondary. What is of primary im­
portance is the fervour of one’s life and the degree of
one’s willingness to follow the example of our Lord.
For us priests it can all be summed up in one question :
how sincerely do we say our Mass? That, perhaps, is
rather summary; but the life of a priest should be an
unfolding of what he promises when he says Mass.
There are, of course, other springs of devotion, so that
a man’s fervour may outrun his appreciation of the
Mass, but in the long run it is the Mass that matters.
For in the Mass a priest acts in the name of Christ.
He is so closely associated with the priesthood of Christ
that he speaks in the first person when he consecrates.
He offers Christ’s sacrifice. But in Christ’s sacrifice,
Christ is victim as well as priest; he offers himself.
Do we imitate him? Do we realize that he also offers
us? Do we consent to that? Because if we do not, there
can hardly be any close and deep friendship between
us and our prayer will be rather a conventional greeting
between business partners, so to speak, than a heartto-heart talk between friends. Where there is a deliber­
ate intention to continue wounding him by a habit of
sin, friendship and prayer are extremely difficult. Even
a deliberate refusal to co-operate with the inspirations
of his grace, asking us for some sacrifice to which we
are not bound, will be a great obstacle to our success
at prayer. But even where there is no clear-cut purpose
contrary to his will, there are still attitudes of mind
which hinder prayer. We may, for example, be afraid
that generosity in his service is going to impose intoler­
able burdens upon us. We forget that he has assured us
that his yoke is easy and his burden light, and we priests

STARTING TO PRAY

47

should know him well enough by now to know that
he does not break the bruised reed.
An unconscious fear of some unwelcome demand
from him is very often at the root of our problems in
prayer. We either keep on talking empty words or
filling our imagination with empty pictures so as to
leave him no chance of speaking in our souls, or else
we erect some sort of a barrier between us so that we
cannot look each other in the face. That is why one
cannot discuss prayer without discussing the whole
spiritual life. Until a man wants—at least to some
extent—to give himself to our Lord, prayer will always
be penance rather than a pleasure, an embarrassment
rather than an embrace. After all, he himself warned
us that we cannot be his disciples unless we are willing
to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily and to
follow him. Unless we are willing to do that, we can­
not be his sincere friends. But prayer is the heartto-heart conversation of a friend of God with his
Divine Lover, so that without such friendship and all
it entails, prayer will always be difficult.
1 Apoc. Ill, 20

CHAPTER FOUR

THE PRIEST AND THE MASS

At the close of our last chapter we dwelt on the connec­
tion between mental prayer and the general tone of a
priest’s spiritual life. To one with any experience of
the spiritual life, this connection soon becomes quite
obvious. Without mental prayer in some form or other
the spiritual life will not flourish; but, on the other
hand, unless the spiritual life is healthy, mental prayer
soon becomes difficult. It becomes clear, then, that
mental prayer is not merely one particular exercise of
the spiritual life, tucked away in its own corner of the
day, for it is, in fact, both a source and a summary of
our relations with God. If we are not sincere in our
service of God, we cannot be sincere in our prayer,
we cannot talk to him or even meet him without
constraint and uneasiness. In actual fact the whole
spiritual life is a unity; all our actions should, in a wide
sense of the word, be a prayer, an expression of our
devotion to God. Consider but one example given by
our Lord’s life. Entering into the world he said to the
Father: ‘Behold I come to do thy will.’ And we know
that he never ceased to do that will and to fulfil that
prayer of consecration, for he was obedient unto death,
even to the death of the Cross. In fact, the very sacrifice
of Calvary which ended our Lord’s life in the eyes of

THE PRIEST AND THE MASS

49

the Jews was but a summing-up and a perfect expression
of the whole of his life.
Now, we priests offer that very same sacrifice every
time we say Mass. If we want to follow him, if we want
to live a spiritual life, we must endeavour to mean the
Mass, to be sincere in what we say when we offer
sacrifice to God. And we must also endeavour to see
that our day’s work and actions are in harmony with
our daily sacrifice. It is true that the theology of the
Mass is very deep and complicated. The immensity of
the sacrifice of Christ, as High Priest, of himself as
Victim is so overwhelming that we are apt to overlook
our personal association with him as Priest and as
Victim. It is this latter association that is especially
relevant here. In the encyclical on the Mystical Body
of Christ we are reminded that not only does Christ
offer himself in the Mass by the ministry of the priests,
but that he also offers each of his members. So that
when we priests are offering Mass, we cannot avoid
offering ourselves. Unfortunately, we tend to overlook
that fact. We feel, perhaps, in some vague way that
although sacrifice in the Old Law was an external
sign of an interior sacrifice, the offerer offering the
victim as evidence of his will to offer himself to God,
yet since Christ has replaced the sacrifice of the Old
by his unique sacrifice of the New Law, there is no
need to worry about our personal part in the matter.
Even if this were true—even if sacrifice had lost its
function as a visible sign of our invisible sacrifice—
yet, since Christ offers us in the Mass, we must be
prepared to take our place with him as victims. We
are his friends, not merely his servants. And the mark
of friendship in this connection is, as Pius X pointed
out to us priests, summed up in the phrase: idem velle,

50

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

idem nolle, to have the mind of Christ, to share his
views, to share his devotion to the Father.
We cannot too earnestly urge the importance, for
every priest, of this personal participation in the
sacrifice of Christ. The point is so important that we
feel justified in citing some authorities. St. Thomas,
speaking of the priest’s Communion at Mass, writes:
‘Whoever offers a sacrifice ought to become a partaker
in it, because the external sacrifice which is offered is a
sign of the interior sacrifice by which one offers oneself
to God. Hence by the fact that he partakes in the
sacrifice (namely by Communion) the offerer shows that
he really shares in the interior sacrifice.’1 Pius XI was
most insistent on the need for such participation even
by the laity. One text from Miserentissimus Deus, the
encyclical on reparation, will suffice. ‘We must, then,
form together in the august sacrifice of the Blessed
Eucharist the act of immolation made by the priest
with that of the faithful so that they too may offer
themselves up as a “living sacrifice, holy and pleasing
unto God.” Therefore St. Cyprian dared to affirm that
“the sacrifice of our Lord is not complete as far as our
sanctification is concerned unless our offerings and
sacrifices correspond to his Passion”.’ The late Holy
Father Pius XII developed the point in his encyclical,
Mediator Dei. He desires ‘that all the faithful should be
aware that to participate in the Eucharistic sacrifice is
their chief duty and supreme dignity.' He continues by
quoting St. Paul: ‘Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus’, and exhorts the faithful: ‘Together
with him and through him let them make their oblation
and in union with him let them offer up themselves.’
Explaining the above text of St. Paul, the Holy Father
warns us that it ‘requires that all Christians should

THE PRIEST AND THE MASS

51

possess, as far as is humanly possible, the same dis­
positions as those which the Divine Redeemer had
when he offered himself in sacrifice: that is to say, they
should, in a humble attitude of mind, pay adoration,
honour, praise and thanksgiving to the supreme majesty
of God. Moreover, it means that they must assume to
some extent the character of a victim, that they deny
themselves as the Gospel commands, that freely and of
their own accord they do penance and that each de­
tests and satisfies for his sins. It means, in a word, that
we must all undergo with Christ a mystical death on the
Cross, so that we can apply to ourselves the words of
St. Paul: “With Christ I am nailed to the Cross”.’
This exhortation is addressed to the laity. If this is
their ‘chief duty and supreme privilege’, how much
more is it ours? If these are the dispositions appropriate
for those who assist at Mass, what must be expected of
us priests who such a special part fulfil in offering
it? At least, we too must apply to ourselves the
words of St. Paul : ‘With Christ, I am nailed to the Cross.’
Lest, however, a wrong emphasis on the necessity of
sacrifice should make our vocation appear too negative
or too gloomy, let us recall St. Augustine’s description
of true sacrifice: ‘Omne opus quod agitur ut sancta
societate inhaereamus Deo’, and be assured that the
ultimate purpose of sacrifice is not so much the desstruction of ourselves as the uniting of ourselves to God.
Many priests will get a new light on the Mass from the
translation of Canon Masure’s book, The Christian
Sacrifice. But whatever we do, we should leave nothing
undone to come to some proper appreciation of what
we are about when we offer Mass. A proper view and a
sincere celebration can and must be the centre and
source of a most holy spiritual life.

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

But our devotion and our dispositions must not be
confined merely to the time of Mass. If we offer our­
selves as victims, we do not cease to be victims when
we leave the altar. We must be prepared to have God
take us at our word. We have given ourselves to him
in the same way as Jesus Christ gave himself to his
Father; we cannot but expect that the Father will
treat us as he treated his Son. In fact, it is for that very
purpose that Jesus has called us to be his priests—
that by sharing in his life and death, we may share in
his joy and his glory. Patience, then, has a very special
significance for us priests; patience, especially in the
ordinary trials of the ordinary day’s routine, makes us
participators in the Passion of Christ. And indeed every
priest would do well to take patience as the subject of
his particular examen for, say, a month every year. Our
own spiritual lives would benefit from it and so too
would those with whom we have to work.
We must strive, then, to practise patience as a means
of carrying out our offering of ourselves in our daily
Mass. But there is another point to which we must give
particular attention, a weakness which we must be
careful to avoid. If we have truly given ourselves to
God, self-seeking must no longer be a principle of our
actions. Fr. Grou S.J., in his wonderful book, Manual
for Interior Souls, puts before us an ideal which may
seem too high but which contains the secret of peace
and holiness. He writes: ‘The first result of our devotion
to God (and, we may add, of our sacrifice of ourselves
in the Mass) should be the union of our hearts with
the adoration and annihilation of Jesus in his Mother’s
womb. When we give ourselves to God, it is unfortunately
too often with a view to becoming something great,
something distinguished, pride and self-love exercising

THE PRIEST AND THE MASS

53

a strong influence over our dedication to God. Let us now
give ourselves to him with no other view than to be
entirely consumed and destroyed, with no other desire
than to sacrifice for ever all self-esteem, all anxiety for
our spiritual exaltation, all personal interests, all views,
all considerations and reflections concerned with self.
Let us once and for all lose sight of ourselves and give
up our being to God alone.’
Some readers may feel that such an ideal is too high
for a diocesan priest. And indeed one cannot help
sympathizing with such an objection, for Fr. Grou is
asking for a very complete sacrifice of oneself. Yet the
matter may appear in a different light if we recall the
words of the bishop who ordained us: ‘Understand
what you do, imitate what you handle.’ We ‘handle’ the
sacrifice of Christ, we are asked to imitate it. Such
a high ideal will, perhaps, become more acceptable to
us if we read the encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei,
of our late Holy Father, Pius XII. He is writing for
all the faithful but time and time again he returns to
the need of their making an offering of themselves in
union with the Christian sacrifice. To them he writes:
‘In order that the oblation by which the faithful offer
the Divine Victim in this sacrifice to the Heavenly
Father may have its full effect, it is necessary that the
people add something else, namely the offering of them­
selves as a victim.’ If that is what the Holy Father
required from the laity, what did he ask from us, his
priests? Truly can we exhort each other: ‘Let that mind
be in you which was also in Christ Jesus!’ And it is no
impracticable ideal, for we have the power of Christ at
our disposal. By him and in him we have all fullness
so that nothing is wanting to us in any grace.
1 Summa Theôl. ΙΠ, 83-4

CHAPTER FIVE

LIFE OF PRAYER

It would be a great mistake for any priest to think that
the necessity for daily mental prayer arises merely from
Canon Law or Church discipline, for its importance is
intrinsic and is based on its essential connection with
the spiritual life. But it would also be a mistake to
regard it as an exercise at which success depends on
talents or application and can be measured, so to
speak, as we measure success in a sermon or some purely
intellectual exercise. For nowhere else in the spiritual
life can apparent failure so easily conceal real achieve­
ment. Let us review the position for a moment. The
normal approach to prayer is by reading and reflection.
Many writers include these in prayer itself and indeed
some seem to make the whole exercise consist in re­
membering and reflecting with a few minor acts added
by way of an accidental winding-up of the whole.
To emphasize the importance of the prayer element,
we have in these chapters suggested that reading and
reflection be made separate exercises and that they be
used at the time given to mental prayer only in so far as
they are necessary as a means to achieve prayer. Since,
however, prayer, as we have just admitted, is very
often achieved in apparent failure instead of by per­
ceptible success, many will wonder whether there is

LIFE OF PRAYER

55

anything left after reading and reflection have been
relinquished, and will decide that, since in their case
prayer seems so difficult to achieve, they had better
occupy themselves with reflection or even with reading
if reflection does not succeed.
This is a point on which we cannot compromise.
It is quite true that there can be no spiritual life without
reading and reflection. In some equivalent form or
other they are absolutely essential and it is by neglect of
them that so many of us allow our spiritual lives to
decline. A healthy spiritual life must be nourished; but
it must also be exercised, and prayer is one of its most
important exercises. Intellect and will have both their
part to play in the spiritual life. At prayer it is mainly
the will which is to be exercised. For prayer is not
merely an intellectual activity. It is a reaching-out of
the soul to God, not merely to know him but still more
to love him and to be united to him. It is true that there
is much prayer in the daily life of the priest. He fre­
quently, so to speak, meets God and acts in his name
in the course of his liturgical and apostolic activities.
But most of this is done in an official capacity. It is
quite possible for a man, speaking officially, to con­
demn roundly and resolutely things which in his private
life he condones. And there are many other official
activities which can be performed in an impersonal
way despite an external appearance of zeal and emotion.
In fact, one of the dangers to which a priest is exposed
is that of thinking that by denouncing vice and demand­
ing virtue he has thereby fulfilled all justice. This
possibility of divorce between one’s official and one’s
private life is also found in the matter of prayer, and
that is why no priest can be satisfied with the official
prayers of his daily duties unless he is also personally

56

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

and whole-heartedly involved in them. And if his own
personal feelings are involved in his public prayers,
he will long for the opportunity of pouring them out
in private. So that, in any event, private prayer becomes
of capital importance. For most of us unfortunately it
becomes of importance, not because we feel a need of
relieving a pent-up torrent of devotion and desire, but
because of our lack of such ardent supernatural aspir­
ations.
The seed for the growth of such aspirations is sown
by reading and cultivated by reflection but can be
brought to life only in prayer—in private, personal
prayer. In such a prayer a priest must go to meet God;
thinking about him is not enough. This meeting with
God is not a matter of eloquence or originality, of
depth of thought or extent of learning but of divine
grace and human correspondence. We cannot go to
God unless he, in his fatherliness, draws us. And we
can go no further towards him than his grace enables us
to do. What we can do is to ask for his grace and to
dispose ourselves for it; to count upon sufficient grace
to enable us to do that can hardly be presumptuous.
So that the first step of our ascent to God in prayer
must be to ask sincerely and humbly, in willing acknow­
ledgement and acceptance of our helplessness, for
grace to seek God and to go to him.
The second step is to dispose ourselves for the re­
ception of such grace and to prepare to co-operate
with it. Since our will plays such an important part in
this going to God, the detaching of our will from any
deliberate quest opposed to our purpose is a most im­
portant preparation for prayer. That, perhaps, is where
many of us fail. Our wills have attached themselves
to something opposed to our quest of God, something

LIFE OF PRAYER

57

he has forbidden, something he has asked us to sacrifice,
something which we are afraid of being asked to re­
nounce. We do not want God earnestly enough to
leave our nets and our nothings—for is not the whole
world and our own selves nothing without God?—to
go in search of him. Some, perhaps, may be discouraged
by this conclusion, but unnecessarily. Since it is only
by God’s grace that we can detach ourselves so thor­
oughly from all else, we need never be afraid to admit
to God our defects and our shortcomings. We need
never be afraid to tell him that even though the spirit
is willing, the flesh is weak. We need not even fear to
remind him that our spirit is far from being what it
should be. He is our Father. He is our Saviour. He is
our Sanctifier. It is he who is to pour love into our
hearts and to compel our rebellious wills to come to
his wedding feast. And very often he withholds his
assistance until we learn our own helplessness in aridity
and ‘failure’ at prayer. Yet such aridity, such failure,
is a very great advantage. For in the spiritual life there
is no one so weak as the man who does not suspect his
own weakness. The only men who are at all truly sure
of their power to go to God are those who are quite
convinced that all their sufficiency is from God; that
the only strength they have is God’s strength and grace.
For that reason a helpless, drowsy, distracted, sterile,
dreary ten minutes spent at mental prayer is—in so
far as it is a perfect expression of our own position
with regard to God—a very good prayer. It expresses
the truth far better than the most eloquent phrases or
the most ardent feelings. It leaves us nothing of which
to be proud but it offers God much to excite his com­
passion. And it is only when God has compassion on
us that we can succeed in finding him in prayer! By

58

THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

way of consolation the writer might add that, as far as
he can see, such ‘unsuccessful’ prayer is the normal ex­
perience of souls who are truly spiritual after the initial
stages of sensible fervour and devotional discovery
have been passed.
Perhaps the following quotation from such an
authority as Fr. M. Egan S.J. will help. In his excellent
book, The House of Peace,1 he has a chapter entitled
‘The Prayer of Stupidity’, which commences: ‘Mgr.
Ronald Knox, in one of two admirable articles on
prayer which he contributed to the Clergy Review (June
and July 1939), recommends what he quaintly calls the
Prayer of Stupidity, as a kind of prayer suitable to
souls of ordinary calibre who are in search of God.
It consists in a sort of general awareness of God, with
a vague and more or less indiscriminate movement of
the will towards him. The soul is in what we may call
a prayerful attitude, which may or may not receive a
specific direction or determination through particular
acts of the mind or will. It is a kind of prayer that is
familiar to many who, perhaps, have not recognized it
as prayer at all; they have thought of it either as a
failure to pray, for which they feel more or less blame­
worthy, or at best an inoffensive way of putting in the
time allotted to prayer by rule or custom. Nevertheless
it is really prayer. It may be very imperfect, full of
distractions, many of them ascribable to sloth or
negligence, barely worthy of the name of prayer; but
on the other hand it may, without losing its vagueness
and amorphous character, be very pleasing to God and
very sanctifying to the soul.’ Fr. Egan then goes on to
consider the progress in prayer of a Jesuit novice trained
in discursive prayer. ‘It is, I think’, he writes, ‘the ex­
perience of many Jesuits, perhaps of most, that the

LIFE OF PRAYER

power of meditating, of acquiring and turning over
spiritual ideas and using them to enkindle their wills,,
grew and increased in them for some time, but did not
continue to grow. On the contrary, after a longer or
shorter period, these spiritual ideas, “lights” about our
Lord’s life, or about eternal truths, came less and less
easily in the time of prayer. They might come at other
times .... But at times of prayer when one was alone
with God, the mind seemed to relapse into dullness,
into an uncouth and stupid silence broken by a few
half-formed acts and by a multitude of distractions.’
There are two points in the above quotation which
we wish to underline. The first is that this ‘failure’ at
prayer is really an advance in prayer. The second is the
nature of this prayer so well summed up in the last
phrase: ‘an uncouth and stupid silence, broken by a
few half-formed acts and by a multitude of distractions.’
A little thought will show us that if prayer is a meeting
with God, the very finding of God in prayer might be
expected to produce just such an attitude on our part.
As long as the person to whom we are praying is
vividly portrayed in our imagination, in our own
terms, so to speak, it is not surprising that we should
be able to talk freely and earnestly. But when all
creatures of our own imagination are removed and when
God really begins to manifest himself to our souls,
what adequate speech is left for us? Is not silence his
fitting praise? Indeed, one often suspects that much o
the fervour and facility which some souls experience
at prayer is the result of finding themselves rather than
of finding God. Such facile fervour decreases as one
progresses along the road which St. John the Baptist
summarized as decrease of self and increase of Christ.
On the other hand one must not overlook Fr. Egan’s

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

suggestion that in some cases such a performance at
prayer may be due to our own sloth and negligence.
To go to God we have to leave our nets. If we do not
dispose ourselves at the beginning of our prayer and
put aside all distracting preoccupations with creatures,
we need not be surprised at the result. The remedy lies
in our own hands. But the remedy is not to return to
meditation; it is to turn to God with our whole heart.
Obviously this whole-hearted turning to God greatly
depends on the general tenor of our spiritual lives.
Our prayer will often reflect the shortcomings of our
other activities. If we deliberately prefer creatures to
God, such a preference will certainly fetter our will
when we try to pursue God at prayer. Nevertheless it
is by praying, by asking, by knocking and by seeking
that we shall obtain the grace and the strength to break
our fetters and to seek God with all our heart.
If then a priest finds that his prayer is a failure, let
him not give in to the temptation to abandon prayer.
Provided there is not an obvious cause on his part,
provided that he daily reads and reflects, he need have
no scruple about continuing what seems such a futile
activity. It is only when one decides to omit prayer
because of such ‘failure’ that one learns by sad ex­
perience how valuable it was and how great an effect it
had, for all its apparent futility, in sanctifying us. It
is practically impossible to persevere in sincere attempts
at daily prayer, even though the attempt seems to fail,
while persevering in any deliberate infidelity to God.
But if one gives up the attempt at prayer infidelities
flourish unchecked. The proper prescription for a soul
whose prayer is ‘stupid’ is patience and abandonment.
We must be content to be beggars before God, to
realize that our spiritual poverty is our most valuable

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61

title to God’s bounty; and we must embrace such
poverty, gladly relying on the merciful compassion of
God, who himself is our Father, our Saviour and our
Sufficiency.
• Gill

CHAPTER SIX

DIFFICULTIES IN PRAYER

To avoid misunderstanding, let us here summarize our
view about the practice of meditation and prayer for
priests. We have insisted on the necessity for daily
reading, daily reflection and daily prayer. As a support
or scaffolding for these, we ask each priest to set apart
a period in his daily timetable for spiritual reading, and
also one for private prayer. The reading is to be done
reflectively; it may be interspersed with short periods
of silent reflection or of aspiratory prayer. We hope
that this will lead a priest to reflect informally during
the freer periods of the day, and we would suggest a
periodic checking-up to see that this is being done.
Meditation, in this sense of reflection fed by reading,
can never be deliberately dispensed with. It is to this
exercise we look for the formation and maintenance
of convictions, for their application to our daily life—
though this will call for some special examination of
conscience—and for the making real of those darklyseen truths of faith which are the mainspring of the
spiritual life.
Many writers condense all these things into one
exercise of ‘meditation’ or ‘mental prayer’. Our fear
is that by doing this the need for prayer in the real
sense of the word may be overlooked and receive too

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63

little attention. For that reason we make prayer a
separate exercise. We freely admit that, for many, such
a special period for prayer may have to be approached
immediately through reading and reflection, but we
insist that these should be used only in so far as they are
necessary as a means to an end, and that in this special
exercise of prayer they should be given no other
function than to put us in touch with God and to start
us praying to him.
Supposing then that all this has been done regularly,
and that there has been made a reasonable and sus­
tained effort to live a spiritual life in accordance with
the convictions acquired in reading and reflection and
with the promises made in prayer, what is going to
happen at prayer? Normally one may expect to find
prayer becoming more and more affective; one speaks
with an increasing facility to God; ‘acts’ come with a
fair fluency and our prayer, by analogy, resembles the
conversation of two good friends. This at least should
be the expectation of every priest, because Christ does
not call him his servant but his friend. This friendship
however is not a static thing. It should develop. On
our side there will be an advance in the knowledge and
understanding of our Friend’s mind and ways; in this
sense mutual understanding and sympathy will grow.
This progress will certainly affect our conversation with
him. Our words become charged with a new meaning;
in fact, single words begin to replace sentences. When
we do achieve sentences, they have a manifold signifi­
cance. Our whole utterance simplifies itself. We converse
with only a few words or even with none at all. A
glance, a smile, even a silence, can say all that we want
to say to one who knows us so well. We may even lose
the desire to say anything; all we want to do is to remain

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

quietly in his company. Such a change in our prayer
need not surprise us. It is similar to the development
of human friendship. Grace of course is at work, but
grace here seems to adapt itself to the ordinary ways of
human nature. Of course, this type of prayer depends
greatly on the sincerity of our friendship, not merely
when we are at prayer but at all other times. Even where
our friendship with our Lord is sincere, the nature of
our prayer will depend also on personal temperament.
This stage of prayer may last a long time for some souls ;
for others, it may not come at all or only for a time.
Other developments are possible which may either
succeed this pleasant phase or anticipate it altogether.
Much, as we have said, depends on temperament and
also on our knowledge of God.
Increasing knowledge of the Divine Person to whom
we are speaking, and especially increasing advertence
to his Divinity, may change the nature of our prayer.
We begin to suspect the inadequacy of it all. We may
even begin to feel that there is something of self-love
in our prayer, that we are more interested in the con­
solations of God than in the God of consolations.
We may perceive the lack of correspondence between
our promises and our performance. Apart from all
that, the limitations inherent in any human emotion,
however good or holy, may manifest themselves.
Pleasure cannot satisfy us. We were made for something
more, and our emotional reaction becomes less and
less. We may begin blindly to feel that the picture our
imagination forms of the Person to whom we are
speaking is quite inadequate, that there is a lot therein
of our own creation, a projection of human desires and
experiences. It is true that all we can desire or admire in
some way reflects God and can be found in God. Yet

DIFFICULTIES IN PRAYER

65

God himself is much more than his reflections and,
whether we know it or not, it is God himself that we
need and are seeking.
Considerations such as these may have a considerable
effect on our prayer and may even cause us to lose all
the facility and enjoyment we once found in it. We
arrive at a state which was described in the last chapter
as the Prayer of Stupidity; and there is a great temp­
tation to give up prayer as a waste of time that could
be better employed. This is a critical pons asinorum in
our advance to union with God. We have to remember
that it is with our will, aided of course by grace, that
we are to pray, and that although our will needs the
lead of the intellect to act, yet our intellect must rely
on the dim light of faith to feed it, so that we need
not be disturbed if everything seems dark and dreary.
It is very important to realize that at this stage we
have to be content with doing very little at prayer,
and to be convinced that we shall not improve things
by a violent effort to replace our apparently useless
attempts by some sort of discursive meditation. Our
principal difficulty is to deal with distractions. In a
more affective and devotional phase of prayer we can
manage distractions either by replacing them with
some pious thought, or else by leaving them there,
while looking over their shoulder, so to speak, at some­
thing which will hold our attention. Now there is
nothing with which to replace them and there is nothing
to look at which will occupy our minds.
Possibly the best policy is to fall back on those
fundamental acts which are at the basis of the whole
spiritual life. This we do by enunciating gently, very
gently, acts of faith, of hope and of charity, in a very
quiet and simple fashion, making no violent efforts to

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

‘feel’ what we say. To these we can add, explicitly or
implicitly, an act of adoration leading us to a willing
acceptance of our helpless position and circumstances.
Even if we achieve no more than this in our time of
prayer, we may be quite satisfied. As far as actual
praying goes there is little more that we can do.
Any remedy—if there be one—must be sought for
elsewhere. Obviously one must consider the possibility
that this ‘failure’ at prayer could be due to our own
infidelity. In practice one need not worry if examination
reveals nothing more definite than a general sense of
not doing enough for God or being fervent enough.
It is only when our examination reveals some definite
infidelity, some deliberate determination to persevere
in a habit which we know to be contrary to God’s
will, that special action is called for. Even here one
must be careful not to be misled by unreasonable
scruples or by an exaggerated notion of the physical
mortifications demanded for progress in spirituality.
The fourfold purity of heart, of conscience, of mind
and of action upon which prayer depends is a matter
we shall discuss later. Here we wish to point out some
considerations, too often overlooked, which may help
to encourage the man who has come up against a
stone wall in prayer, and who is tempted to abandon
all further efforts.
Before doing so, we should like to remind the reader
that we are considering progress in prayer from the
human side. All prayer, of course, is supernatural and
depends on grace, but the working of ordinary grace
does not do violence to natural development, and we
have refrained from discussing what special develop­
ments God may initiate by altering the manner in
which he treats the soul at prayer. We prefer to reserve

DIFFICULTIES IN PRAYER

67

that question—upon which there is a certain difference
of opinion—for separate treatment later. What we wish
to do now is to urge the priest to remember the doc­
trine of grace and of filial adoption, to remember what
he is by grace: a son of God, participating in the divine
nature, a man in whose soul the Blessed Trinity dwells
—for his enjoyment and for his use! If that seems too
strong, let us quote Hervé:1 ‘Deus, secundum donum
gratiae sanctificantis, praesens est in anima, modo novo
et omnino speciali, non solum quatenus infundit et
conservat in nobis dona supernaturalia, sed etiam
quatenus personaliter in nobis inhabitat, se praebens
nobis ut objectum intimum, quasi experimentaliter
cognoscibile, quo iam aliqualiter uti et frui possumus.’
St. Thomas uses a similar expression in the Summa:2
‘Illud solum habere dicimur quo libere possumus uti
vel frui . . . Sed in dono gratiae gratum facientis
Spiritus Sanctus habetur et inhabitat hominem.’ And if
one needs authority for connecting this doctrine with
prayer, let us quote St. Paul : ‘Likewise, the Spirit also
helpeth our infirmity. For we know not what we should
pray for as we ought; but the Spirit himself asketh for
us with unspeakable groanings.’3 And again: ‘You have
received the spirit of adoption of sons, whereby we cry :
Abba (Father). For the Spirit himself giveth testimony
to our spirit that we are sons of God.’1 We must make
use of this tremendous gift of God; we must have re­
course to the Holy Ghost, for ‘God hath sent the
Spirit of his Son into your hearts crying: Abba, Father.’5
Did not our Lord tell us: ‘Thus shall you pray, Our
Father’ ?
It would not seem unreasonable to suggest that the
providential reason for our paralysis at prayer is to
force us to pray not by nature but by grace, to pray not

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

as mere human beings but as sons of God, participating
in some mysterious and analogous way in his power of
knowing and loving himself. In fact, our Lord’s re­
peated instruction to pray in his name takes on a new
significance in our present circumstances; we begin to
glimpse some faint view of the depth of meaning in his
exhortation: ‘Abide in me: I am the vine; you the
branches . . . Without me you can do nothing.’6
The failure of our own prayer is a blessing, for it
forces us to fall back on the prayer of Christ; it forces
us to unite ourselves with him, to identify ourselves
with him, to offer up to the Father his prayer and his
love, to pray by his Spirit, the Holy Ghost. As priests
we never question the powers of consecrating and
absolving given to us by the sacrament of Holy Orders.
It would be well to take a similar view of the power of
prayer and worship given to us by the sacrament of
Baptism and by every other sacrament which we receive.
It is true that we cannot have the certainty of faith about
our being in the state of grace, but since we must be
morally certain of it to exercise various sacerdotal
functions, we can use the same conviction when we go
to pray. Even if we are sinners, we are still marked out
as sons of God, in whose regard he has revealed his
attitude and interest by the parable of the prodigal son.
We must, then, unite ourselves to Christ by faith,
by hope and by charity. All his merits and his Passion
have been communicated to us in Baptism as if they
were our very own.7 Therefore our past sins or our
present unworthiness need be no obstacle to our hope
and confidence. In fact, our Saviour has made our
weaknesses his own, and we should present them to the
heavenly Father in his Son’s name. Our own power­
lessness does not matter; our Saviour is praying, is

DIFFICULTIES IN PRAYER

69

adoring, is loving, in our name. All we have to do is to
abide in him, by faith, hope and charity. We must never
forget that the life of grace on earth is a foreshadowing
of the life of glory in heaven. And the life of glory is not
merely a passive beholding of the Blessed Trinity, but
an entry into, and a partaking in some extraordinary
and created way in their life. This participation should
begin by grace on earth.
This subject must wait for further discussion in a
later chapter, but by way of a practical hint, we would
suggest that priests should revise the grace tract, in a
modern text book, and develop its teaching in more
specialized works. Nothing better has been printed
on the divine indwelling in souls than the Rev. Fr.
Biowick’s articles in Pagan Missions in the years 1946
and 1947. (Would that they were reprinted in a com­
pact form!) A better understanding of this doctrine
will make us realize the force of St. Paul’s teaching that
the Holy Ghost prays for us and within us. For we have
received the spirit of adoption of sons whereby we cry:
Abba, Father.8 In our aridity we can still truly say,
‘We are saved by hope.’ And hoping for that which
we do not see, we shall wait for it in patience, which
has a perfect work. Then will the Spirit help our in­
firmity, for we know not what we should pray for as
we ought, but the Spirit himself asketh for us. That is
the beginning of the true life of prayer which should
be the life of every priest.
■
•
’
‘
s
•
’
8

Vol. m, n. 54
I, q. 43, art. 3
Rom. VIII, 26
Ibid. 15-16
Gal. IV, 6
John XV, 4-5
Cf. Summa q. 69, art. 2
Cf. Rom. VII, 15

CHAPTER SEVEN

PURITY OF INTENTION

We cannot carry our discussion on prayer much further
without considering how prayer depends upon the
general state of one’s spiritual life. Prayer is a meeting
with God, in which we give expression, in speech or in
silence, to our acceptance of his will, our intention to
carry out his desires and our own desire for union with
him. If there is not some degree of sincerity in our
dispositions, our prayer is little better than a delusion.
Obviously, then, our facility at prayer will depend to
some extent upon our general dispositions and upon
the degree to which those dispositions influence our
daily life. There is, in fact, a parallel between our
progress in prayer and our progress in what may be
summed up as the purity of our life. The two are
mutually dependent. An advance in one will generally
produce an advance in the other; and there are certain
stages when progress in prayer will become very difficult
unless there is also progress in purity of life. However,
lest the reader should be discouraged, let us hasten to
add that although there is a proportion between the
two the ratio varies much from one individual to
another. It depends much upon temperament, training,
circumstances, previous history and character; and of
course it is still more dependent upon the type of grace

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71

given by God to the particular soul. Every one has his
own special gift from God. One meets men of great
fervour of life, whose prayer, apparently at any rate, is
not of a high order. On the other hand, one also meets
souls who have advanced considerably upon the path
of prayer and who still have many failings, sometimes
of a surprising seriousness. All that can be said is that
no man should allow either the consciousness of his
own miseries or the sight of his neighbour’s fervour to
discourage him. Even though one feels oneself to be
far behind one’s fellow-priests in holiness it does not
follow that one may not aspire to advance in prayer.
In fact there is hardly any better way of making up for
lost time. Nor need it be thought that one must mortify
oneself to a heroic degree to achieve progress in prayer;
although it is true that any prudent effort to purify one’s
life will produce abundant fruit at prayer.
The purity of life of which there is question in regard
to prayer is generally considered under four heads:
purity of conscience, purity of heart, purity of mind
and purity of action.
Purity of conscience has reference to our intention
of avoiding deliberate sin. As it develops it will deter­
mine us to take measures to avoid being overcome by
weakness or by habit. However, it is capable of many
degrees, and in practice there is no use in gazing at the
apparently dizzy heights of purity to which the saints
have attained until one is completely discouraged at
the prospect of having to accomplish such an appalling
ascent. All that is required is that we decide to take that
particular step upwards which lies immediately before
us. The rest is God’s business and will be provided for
by his grace when the time comes. This work of purifi­
cation of one’s conscience is one in which grace plays

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

an ever-increasing part, and there is no use in consider­
ing tomorrow’s difficulties in the light of today’s grace.
In fact it is dangerous and discouraging. Common
sense, the Psalmist, the first Pope and even God him­
self all insistently remind us : ‘Cast your burden on the
Lord . . . Ipse faciet'
Purity of heart has a somewhat wider scope. It refers
to our attachments and our interests and, to some
extent, to our joys and sorrows. Obviously a deliberately
willed attachment, which we know to be opposed to
God’s will and which we know will lead us to act against
it, is incompatible with sincere friendship with our
Lord. To have our own natural tastes and interests is
however quite another matter, and although they will
often provide matter for mortification, yet if they can
be subordinated to our love of God, they can play
a very useful part in our spiritual life. In fact, to our
mind, it could be a very serious mistake for a priest
to reject and oppose all such congenial ‘attractions.’
There are times of temptation when it is very helpful,
even for the fervent, to have a harmless interest or
recreation to which they can turn, relying upon their
attraction for it to draw them out of their difficulty and
to give them a breathing space. And in Ireland there
is a widespread liability to periodic depression which
can be an occasion of serious lapses for a priest who
has no ‘attractions’ which can take him out of himself
at such times. In practice one must distinguish sharply
between inordinate attractions and those which are
under proper control. The former, of course, must be
opposed; the latter, however, have to be handled
prudently and in many cases they are better left alone,
at least until one has made further progress in union
with our Lord.

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73

Purity of mind has to do with the course of our
thoughts. It is, of course, closely connected with purity
of heart, for our mind tends to be occupied with that
to which our heart is attached. A man who wishes to
live in intimate friendship with our Lord cannot let
his thoughts and his fantasies run riot. Even apart
from avoiding sinful preoccupations, there is room for
a measure of prudent self-control in this matter. In fact,
it might be advisable for some of us to examine our­
selves in regard to the usual course of our thoughts
during the day. We may perhaps detect a tendency
to live in our imagination, which, by the way, is the
direct opposite of living a life of interior recollection
in the spiritual sense. In fact the imagination can be a
greater enemy to union with God than external dis­
traction. But even if we are extroverted, we may find
that certain things are constantly preoccupying our
mind. Such a discovery, by making us seek for the
cause of the preoccupation, may put us on the track
of a major obstacle to our progress in divine union.
Purity of action is not altogether distinct from the
other three divisions for it concerns the motives and
desires which animate and dictate our actions. A good
work done for a selfish motive is obviously not perfectly
pleasing to God. Yet there is a legalistic mind which
satisfies itself that it has fulfilled all justice in performing
the daily duties of a pastoral charge without any ad­
vertence to the interior ‘how’ and ‘why’ of their per­
formance. Prayer is not the only thing which God will
reject because the heart is far from him. The true
perspective in this matter can best be formed and
maintained by a frequent reading of our Lord’s address
to his apostles at the Last Supper.
In practice, we would suggest to any priest who

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THE priest’s way to god

desires to advance in his spiritual life a threefold attack
on this problem of purity of life. First would come the
question of habitual sin or of some habitual com­
promise in regard to one’s clear obligations. If a short
examination reveals the existence of some constant
lapse of this sort, then the situation calls for a deliberate
and definite decision in regard to the future—a decision
which must be energetic enough to initiate measures to
remedy the fault and firm enough to persevere in the
amendment of one’s shortcomings. Prudence of course
will avoid a too general assault on a number of failings
all at once. Where the enemy is manifold, the sound
policy is to divide and conquer. However, this particular
point is amply treated in ascetical literature.
The second suggestion is that we make a not-toocasual survey of the customary course of our thoughts.
First of all, one should look out for any constant
inordinate preoccupation of one’s mind, especially for
a habitual tendency to roam in forbidden fields or
along their borders. Even in imagination one must
always play the game according to the rules. Those
self-exalting day-dreams that are the refuge of an in­
feriority complex or the result of a self-centred ambition
may perhaps be excusable in the adolescent, but not
in the mind of the mature priest. Even where the
customary course of our thoughts runs on the works
by which we serve God, there is still room for a critical
enquiry lest concentration on the service of God should
exclude from our minds the God whom we serve.
The ideal to which we should tend is to have God—in
some way—habitually in our thoughts. To do this,
one might aim at the ideal of entertaining no deliberate
thought which we cannot share with our Lord. But
such an aim must be accompanied by a well-balanced

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75

outlook in which the will of God is not distorted. For
example, it would be fatal if we thought that we could
not share our recreations or our pleasures with him
who is our Friend. In this way an over strict, quasiJansenistic outlook can easily ruin our spiritual life.
We must never forget that our Lord insisted that his.
yoke is easy and his burden light. He understands our
needs and has compassion on our weakness. We must
not think of him as a prying policeman anxious to
catch us overlooking the letter of the law or as a dean
of discipline intent on keeping us from every distraction.
(It is extraordinary how much we transfer the memories
of these two personages to him!) No! Our Lord is first
of all our Saviour and we are his friends. He died to
make us happy—praying that his joy might be in us
and leaving us his peace.
The third suggestion we make is that each priest
should try to find out what are the motives which
habitually dominate his actions. This is, perhaps, the
most important of all, and its importance increases the
more exact a priest feels himself to be in the per­
formance of his apostolic duties. We must always be
on our guard lest the work which we commenced for
the sake of God should be continued primarily for its
own sake. When we examine the motives and zeal of
those pursuing a career in secular activities we cannot
deny the possibility that similar motives could assume
charge of some of our ministerial work. Living among
men whose fives are animated by the pursuit of power
or of place, of pleasure or of possession, we priests
should not too easily assume that we are immune
from any infection of that sort. And such infection
could, of course, have grave consequences. If a priest
allowed advancement or preferment to become the

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

main object of his work, he would no longer be serving
God, he would be simply serving himself. And this
could be done without departing externally from any
of the conventional standards of the zealous priest.
It might even produce a life of energetic activity which,
since it is not possible for those in charge to assess the
interior springs of such activity, might win official
approval. For that reason we must be censors of our
own motives and aims. Our Lord laid down the only
principle of fruitful activity in the apostolate: to abide
in him. If we do not abide in him, it is possible that
our ministry may appear fruitful, but it is certain that
the fruit is ours only in appearance. Its real author
is some hidden soul who abides in the Vine in poverty
of spirit, and who will be given the eternal credit for
the fruit of his abiding therein, even though it seems
to be the result of our labours. We are, of course, only
pointing out the dangerous rocks to be avoided, but
human nature is such that the avoiding of these hazards
is secured only by constant vigilance.
There are, then, many possibilities of subtle self­
seeking and merely human motives which can interfere
with our priesthood. If we make our priesthood consist
in the active work of the ministry, in preaching, in
administration, in organization, in direction, in hearing
confessions and guiding souls, there is a danger that
we welcome or at least permit such motives to animate
our work or to make it more energetic. Our very zeal
for souls may welcome such motives as allies. The
immediate effect of such a development is loss of
purity of intention and a corresponding decrease in
our union with Christ. That is serious enough, but still
more serious is the effect on our general lives as priests.
We become impatient with all those things that interfere

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77

with or lessen our success. Official orders or appoint­
ments that interfere with the development of our own
methods or limit their application are resented. Work
that does not suit our special talents may even be
despised. The hundred-and-one happenings which
should be accepted as manifestations of God’s will are
impatiently resented as enemies of our own ends.
Our own personal spiritual life suffers. The time
given to attempts at mental prayer comes to be regarded
as time wasted. Reading and reflection, if not com­
pletely given up, are used as a preparation for preaching
and direction. At best, our own spiritual life is regarded
as ancillary to the work of the ministry; at the worst,
it is viewed as an accidental ornament in the life of a
priest and eventually neglected as quite a useless one.
These, of course, are only possibilities and things may
never go so far. We may still regard trials and dis­
appointments as something to be tolerated and offered
up for souls. But we find it hard to embrace such things
by preference as the best way of saving souls and as the
real work of the priesthood. Yet—what is the lesson of
our Lord’s life?
For our Lord redeemed and saved the world on the
Cross. It was by his Passion and his Death that he
gave life to men; everything else centred on that. It was
by his sufferings rather than by his activities, by what
lie permitted men to do to him rather than what he
did externally to men, that his life-work was accom­
plished. If such a paradoxical mystery can be summed
up in a phrase, that phrase would be St. Paul’s assertion:
‘Christ delivered himself.’
That is our vocation. Pius X puts it clearly. ‘Est
igitur nobis persona Christi gerenda.’1 The same Holy
f ather insists on the need for a true interior repro­

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

duction of the life of Christ in our souls. ‘Unum est
quod hominem cum Deo conjungat .... vitae morumque sanctimonia .... Haec .... sacerdoti si desit,
desunt ei omnia .... Sanctitas una nos efficit quales
vocatio divina exposcit : homines videlicet mundo
crucifixos et quibus mundus ipse sit crucifixus, homines
in novitate vitae ambulantes, qui ut Paulus (2 Cor. vi.)
monet, in laboribus, in vigiliis, in ieiuniis, in castitate,
in scientia, in longanimitate, in suavitate, in Spiritu
Sancto, in caritate non ficta, seipsos exhibent ut minis­
tros Dei.’
We have, perhaps, drifted away from the direct
discussion of our original topic of purity of intention
and action. Yet the drift is not into irrelevancies. It is
only in light of the cardinal principle of all fruitfulness,
namely abiding in Christ, that we can see things in
their true perspective. And it is only when one reads
such authoritative statements of the need for sanctity
and ‘self-deliverance’ in a priest that our insistence
on the fourfold purity will not seem impractical
idealism.
It is therefore in the complete oblation of ourselves
at Mass in union with Christ, who delivered himself,
that we shall find the solution of all the problems of
our spititual life as well as those of our ministry. If we
may use a phrase, unsuitable, perhaps in such a context
but at least expressive in its brevity, we would say that
our main object in the service of souls should be, not
so much to ‘deliver the goods’ but rather, like our
Divine Master and Friend, to deliver ourselves.
The proper discussion of this question must be
reserved for further treatment. Here we only say that
in this delivering of ourselves, in this purification of
our motives and actions there must be prudence. If a

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79

man throws away all his natural motives and interests,
he may find that his physical organism suffers. There
is a physiological need for pleasure, for interest, for
enthusiasm, as there is for food. Extremes must be
avoided. One young priest, when told that if Christ
were his all there would be no need for any recreation,
made the quite logical retort that on the same basis of
argument there would be no need for any dinner! A
man will get the best out of himself only by adapting
his way of life to the complex nature which he has to
handle, but he must make sure that it is for God and
not for himself that he is doing so. And as his complex
nature changes through growth in grace, he may have
to change his policy accordingly. He must at all times
try to have a dominating supernatural motive. In
fact he must make God and union with God the prin­
cipal motive and aim of his whole activity. As we
have said before, a frequent re-reading of our Lord’s
address to his apostles at the Last Supper is an ex­
cellent way of maintaining a true perspective, but
sincerity in our offering when we say Mass is the
secret of living in true accord with the mind of Christ.
1 Letter to the Clergy, Aug. 4th 1908. Cf. I. E. R. 24 p. 527

CHAPTER EIGHT

PROGRESS IN PRAYER

In our last chapter, we have drawn attention to the
connection between progress in prayer and the general
fervour of a priest’s life. In particular we drew attention
to that fourfold purity of conscience, of heart, of mind
and of action upon which the sincerity of prayer de­
pends. Given some measure of this purity, prayer may
be expected to develop. It is true there are books which
leave one under the impression that there is no medium
between discursive meditation in which reasoning
plays the major part and a type of infused contem­
plation which is sometimes described as miraculous.
This opinion we reject completely, and confidently
assert that there is a progress and a development in
prayer. All that we have written here and elsewhere1
involves and explains this assertion. Meditation leads
to affective prayer. Affective prayer tends to simplify
itself as purity of life increases and friendship with our
Lord develops. Eventually it may become a sheer
loving attention to God’s presence, in which very few
words are used. This, however, may sooner or later be
replaced by a state of complete aridity for which we
borrowed the term ‘Prayer of Stupidity’.
About the nature of these simplified and arid states
of prayer and about their further development, there

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81

is room for considerable difference of opinion. Here we
are not concerned with the theoretical issues involved.
Our interest is in the practice of prayer by the priest
and in the progress which he should expect. But before
attempting to discuss this question, we must try to
decide what is the normal vocation of a priest, as such,
in regard to the spiritual life, since the whole question
of prayer is closely bound up with that of general
spiritual progress. Now it is true that the priesthood is
not, canonically speaking, a ‘state of perfection’. A
priest, in virtue of his state, is not bound to tend to
perfection as is a religious. But—again we must insist
—a priest is bound to tend to perfection in virtue of
his ordination and his office. As St. Thomas says:
‘By Holy Orders a man is dedicated to the most august
mysteries, wherein Christ himself is served in the
Sacrament of the Altar; for this there is required a
greater interior sanctity than is required for the religious
state’.2 ‘Holy Orders requires holiness: but the religious
state is a certain exercise to attain holiness; the load,
therefore, of Orders requires walls already dried by
holiness; but the burden of the religious state rather
drys the walls—namely men—by removing from them
the waters of their defects.’3 We do not intend here to
prove the thesis that a priest is called to holiness; we
only assert the obligation and indicate its origin. St.
Thomas is quite definite in tracing it back to the sacra­
ment of Holy Orders. This is of great importance,
because if the sacrament obliges us to become holy it
also assures us the grace to do so. The character im­
printed by ordination is considered to be a participation
in the priesthood of Christ. This participation demands
holiness. In the previous chapter we quoted Pius X:
‘Est igitur nobis persona Christi gerenda.’ May we

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again recall his insistence that ‘vitae morumque sancti­
monia’ are so necessary to the priest that if these are
wanting to him, ‘desunt ei omnia’ and further: ‘Sanctitas
una nos efficit quales vocatio divina exposcit: homines
videlicet mundo crucifixos et quibus mundus ipse sit
crucifixus, homines in novitate vitae ambulantes’?4
The very fact that a priest consecrates in the first person
singular and offers sacrifice—the sacrifice of Christ
himself in which he is both Priest and Victim—should
be sufficient to indicate to what holiness a priest is
called. Our Lord himself summed it all up when he
said: ‘You are the salt of the earth.’5 How can men be
called to be the salt of the earth, without at the same
time being called to holiness?
If we labour the point it is because there is in this
matter a lot of misunderstanding, arising from the
statements of some writers discussing the priesthood as
a state; and also because in comparison with the life
of a religious, the life of the priest seems so beset with
obstacles to progress that one might well despair of
advance.
Yet priests are the salt of the earth. And in this
connection may we digress to hint at the special im­
portance of the question at the present time. The most
essential need of the Church at the moment is the
development of a deep interior spiritual life among the
laity. They depend for this upon their priests. And it is
for the diocesan priest rather than for religious to
work out and teach the way to live a spiritual life in
the world. It is the secular priest who shares the lay­
man’s life and lives under similar conditions. The
difficulties are obvious but they are not insuperable.
And that is all the more evident since Pius XII recog­
nized the Secular Institutes of men living in the world

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83

and following their civil avocations as ‘states of per­
fection’.® Members of such institutes have far fewer aids
to holiness than a priest who says Mass and the Office,
and administers the sacraments. So that there can be
no doubt that it is both possible and of obligation for
every priest to tend towards perfection.
That being so, we make no apology for discussing
further advance in prayer as part of a practical pro­
gramme for priests. And we can assure readers that we
have seen ample evidence of God’s willingness to be, in
these critical times, more than usually generous with
his gifts of grace to those who make any reasonable
effort to prepare their souls for his mercy. And we
speak of those whose circumstances seemed almost
directly opposed to the development of spiritual fervour
and an interior life.
A priest then—and it is the diocesan priest out in
the world that we have particularly in view—has by
his ordination and office acquired an obligation to be
holy and a right to expect all the graces necessary to
reach that holiness in those very circumstances, however
unsuitable they may appear, in which he has to live
and work. He has therefore—it seems to us—no right
to say that progress in prayer is not for him, that it
is something for monks and nuns but not for secular
priests. Quite the contrary! No one, we believe, has as
much right as he to look with confidence for the graces
needed to live a life of prayer. No one needs it more
than he does and hardly anyone (with the exception
of the episcopate) is called by his state to higher per­
fection than that which a priest’s office requires. That
being so, let us face the question of progress in prayer.
In practice—whatever be the theory of the nature of
development—progress in prayer sooner or later means

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

aridity, aridity prolonged and plentiful. Such aridity
may, of course, be due to unfaithfulness ; it may be due
to a want of a sufficient degree of that fourfold purity
of which we have spoken. Bad health, too, may bring
it about for a time. Aridity does not necessarily mean
progress, but progress does definitely mean aridity.
(This, we may add, is written for your consolation!)
To decide what is to be done when one finds this
complete aridity at prayer, one must first investigate its
origins. An examination of conscience, aided perhaps
by consultation with a sympathetic, wise and ex­
perienced director, will either show us a cause for our
state in our infidelity or else reassure us that there is
no need to be anxious on that score. If we are at fault,
we must first remove the causes of our spiritual disease
and then return to our attempts to advance. If, however,
there is no obvious fault we may use the three tests
indicated by St. John of the Cross. The first is inability
to meditate. When we apply ourselves to prayer we can
produce no thoughts or ideas ; all our powers, otherwise
quite vigorous, seem paralysed. God seems far away
and so remote that we cannot make contact with him.
Secondly, not merely is our mind inert but our heart is
also quite dry. Not only does it find no attraction
leading to God, no sentiments of fervour or devotion,
but it even experiences a sense of aversion and disgust.
The third sign is that there is a general sense of our
need of God and no peace can be found elsewhere. In
fact, if we could but see our innermost dispositions
we would realize that what we want is not thoughts
about God but God himself; we are not satisfied with
talking to him, we realize our need of union with him.
But all that is hidden and we cannot see it; we only
sense our paralysis and feel like a dumb animal in the

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85

desert. This paralysis arises only in connection with
God. With regard to creatures we are by no means
powerless. In fact our imagination runs riot at prayer
and we may even be strongly tempted to intoxicate
ourselves with creatures or with work in order to escape
from this emptiness. But there is a deep drawing of the
will to God.
This is a roughly sketched picture of the state to
which progress leads. On the way thither, the three
symptoms may not be quite clearly present and the
condition not so definitely established. But to try to
return to meditation or affective prayer is not only
useless : it is quite harmful, for it means turning back
and refusing to co-operate with God’s gifts of grace.
For one thing, God’s grace is not using our imagin­
ation at all. This faculty is free to roam off on its own
with a hundred and one distractions. There is no use
in going after it to bring it back. To attend to it at all is
to give up praying. The proper thing to do is either,
so to speak, to look over the shoulders of the dis­
tractions as one does when a crowd is in the way at a
match, or else to realize that these distractions are on
the surface, as it were, while our prayer lies deeper.
Such distractions do not interfere with this obscure
type of prayer of faith; in fact, they are characteristic
of it in certain phases. Again, there is no use in trying
to think thoughts or ideas about God. Our mind is
blank, for God’s grace is directly concerned only with
our wills, and it is with our wills that we must pray.
I his we do, as Fr. Piny writes, ‘by willing to spend
all the time of prayer in loving God, and in loving him
more than ourselves; in willing to pray to God for the
piace of charity; in willing to remain abandoned to
(he Divine Will. One must clearly understand that if

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

we will to love God (abstracting from the part played
by grace), by that very action we actually do love him ;
if, by a real act of the will, we choose to unite ourselves
to the Will of him whom we love, or desire to love—
by that very act of the will we immediately effect this
union. Love is in truth nothing else but an act of the
will.’ Since all the grace that God is giving us in this
obscure prayer is directed to our will there is little
good in trying to use any other faculty. And what is
given is given in such an obscure fashion and works so
secretly that we can hardly perceive it even by reflection.
We feel quite foolish at prayer and are almost certain
that we are wasting our time. This is a feeling to which
we must never yield. We can do nothing else with
regard to prayer except to give up our attempt at prayer.
To do this would be fatal. We must grimly resolve never
to give up and still more grimly persevere in our attempt
at prayer, such as it is. We are out in the desert. To turn
back to the fleshpots is disastrous; we must keep on
until we see the Promised Land, and it has been pro­
mised. ‘Ask, and you shall receive; seek, and you shall
find; knock and it will be opened unto you.’
What then are we to do? First of all, we must be
reasonably sure that our failure at prayer is not due to
laziness, tepidity or psychological depression. Here our
confessor or our friends may help.
This precaution having been taken, we apply our­
selves to our prayer as best we can. At the beginning of
it a few fines of a book, a few familiar words, may help
to get us started. But it must be clearly understood
that, no matter how we start, we are not going to be
able to continue either thinking or talking. When we
have got to this stage where we cannot fix our thoughts
on any subject at prayer, or where we cannot attempt

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87

to understand our words without feeling that we are
ceasing to pray by doing so, then we are meant to cease
thinking and to pray by faith with our will. There is
no need to force acts. All must be done gently. Let acts
come if they will in their own way without any excite­
ment, strenuous effort or ‘fervour’. They will probably
be ‘calm, simple, unmeaning and unfelt.’ These are
Dom Chapman’s words7 and the last two are the key
words of the whole thing: ‘Unmeaning and unfelt.'
There are going to be no feelings, that day is done.
There is going to be little or no variety in our acts.
These will generally be some expression of our need of
God, even though God seems to mean nothing, to be
miles away and quite heedless of us. Still we believe in
him. And that is why we call it the prayer of faith.
Readers will get great help at this period from a book
by Fr. Ludoirc de Besse O.S.F.C., The Science of
Prayer. And the classical reference is to St. Francis de
Sales’ example of the statue in his Treatise on the Love
of God. We have to be content to remain like statues
before our Lord and Master, quite satisfied to do so as
long as we are pleasing to him.
Progress at this period is to be sought for in our
general spiritual lives rather than at our times of prayer.
Humility in particular is the virtue we require. As there
are many wrong notions of this virtue we would suggest
the reading of the chapter on humility in Dom Marmion’s book, Christ, the Ideal of the Monk. His treat­
ment of the subject is one of the best we know of, based
as it is on St. Benedict’s teaching which was adopted by
St. Thomas. St. Benedict divided progress in interior
humility into seven degrees, starting with obedience
to the will of God and developing by increasing accep­
tance of the will of God and ever-deepening reverence

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THE priest’s way to god

for him. The fourth degree is ‘to keep patience in the
exercise of obedience, and not to lose it or depart
from it, either because of the difficulty of the thing
commanded or the injuries to which one may be sub­
jected, according to what is said in the Scripture: He
that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved,8 and
again: Let thy heart take courage: and wait thou for
the Lord.’9 This, as we have mentioned above, has
has been called the Pons Asinorum for those seeking
God in the spiritual life.
It generally happens that at this period, when our
prayer seems to go all wrong, other things begin to
‘go wrong’ also. There come various trials: difficulties
with our neighbour, misunderstandings with our
superiors, failures in our work, opposition to our plans,
frustration of all our hopes. They may even be so
severe as to seem to amount to genuine injustice. Even
God seems to have let us down; at least we are no longer
conscious of that providential co-operation with our
plans and our progress that attached us so much to
him. And the result is we begin to rebel, or at least to
give up seeking him. We are not quite so enthusiastic
about his service when it appears to hold so little
hope for ourselves, so we let go and turn away instead
of following the ideal of St. Benedict: ‘In duris et
contrariis rebus, vel irrogatis injuriis, tacita conscientia
patientiam amplectans et sustinens.’
This is the critical point of the spiritual life. Our
Lord has warned us that our Father, the good husband­
man, will purge us that we may bear more fruit. He
himself has insisted that we must be ready to deny
ourselves and to take up our cross daily. And the Holy
Spirit has given us the story of Job, which, we must
realize, is full of meaning and significance for all who

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89

seek God. With Job, we who have joyfully received
good things from the hands of God must be prepared
to accept less pleasing dispensations of his fatherly
providence with no less joy and gratitude. With St. Paul,
we have to learn to abound and to be in poverty. For
our poverty of spirit is our title to the kingdom of
heaven. As a preparation for union with God we must
learn by experience that we can do nothing without
him. This is the reason of our paralysis at prayer.
We pray henceforth by accepting our powerlessness
to pray. We pray by glorying gladly in our infirmity and
hoping with a sure hope against all hope that the power
of Christ will dwell in us.
Daily we must offer ourselves in the Mass in union
with him who is our Victim and who offers us up with
himself. And we must try to accept every detail of our
daily lot in the spirit of a victim in union with Christ
on the Cross, hoping to receive all things—even the
power to pray—from our Father in heaven. All this
is to be done in obscurity, without any consciousness
of our own acts. Yet we must persevere to the end. In
a word, we must do as the Psalmist bids us: ‘Let thy
heart take courage: and wait thou for the Lord.’ He
himself will come to save us.
1
•
»
•
»
"
’
"
•

Cf. Difficulties in Mental Prayer
Summa II-IIac. q. 184 art. 8
Ibid. q. 189, 1 ad 3
Cf. Letter to the Clergy, Aug. 4th 1908
Matt. V, 13
Cf. Provida Mater Ecclesia, 1947
Cf. Appendix to his Spiritual Letters
Matt. XXIV, 13
Ps. XXVI, 14

CHAPTER NINE

UNION WITH CHRIST

More than once in these pages we have reminded our
readers that, although the priesthood is not a state
of perfection in the canonical sense, yet there is no
doubt whatever that a priest is bound to tend to per­
fection in virtue of his ordination and his office. St.
Thomas in the Summa1 is quite definite about this,
saying that in the priest, because of the most august
mysteries to which he is dedicated, ‘there is required
greater interior sanctity than is required for the religious
state.’ Pius X was insistent on this point. In his very
first Encyclical,2 he summed up his policy in the words
of St. Paul : ‘Instaurare omnia in Christo ... ut videlicet
sit omnia in omnibus Christus’.3 And, in order to
achieve this purpose, he exhorts the hierarchy to make
their first charge that of sanctifying the clergy: for
Christ must first be formed in those who are chosen for
the work of forming him in others. And the standard
of holiness he sets for priests is significant. ‘Qui tamen
explere munus queant, nisi priores ipsi Christum in­
duerint? Atque ita induerint, ut illud Apostoli eiusdem
usurpare possint. “Vivo ego, iam non ego, vivit vero in
me Christus ... Mihi vivere Christus est.”1 ’ He even
quotes the exhortation of St. Paul :s ‘Ut occurramus in
virum perfectum, in mensuram aetatis plenitudinis

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91

Christi’, which, although addressed to all men, es­
pecially applies to the priest who, he writes, ‘idcirco
dicitur alter Christus, non una sane potestatis com­
municatione sed etiam imitatione factorum, qua ex­
pressam in se Christi imaginem praeferat.’
Let us note this double aspect of our union with
Christ. It is the priest’s great privilege to be an 'alter
Christus' by a share in his power. His work is our work;
his strength is our strength. We sacrifice in his name,
we absolve in his name, we preach and minister in his
name. In all these works, it is his grace that gives us the
power to perform our priestly functions. At times,
perhaps, our humility is not deep enough to prevent us
ascribing some of our priestly work to ourselves, but
few of us are so mad as to forget that the principal
part is played by God himself. The very magnitude of
the task imposed upon us by our ministry of itself
recalls to us the fact that we share in the power of
Christ. But we are not so mindful of the other facet
of the identification which makes each of us an 'alter
Christus': namely, that to which the Pope refers when
he writes, ‘sed etiam imitatione factorum.’ Elsewhere
he has expressed his teaching in a lapidary formula:
‘Est igitur nobis persona Christi gerenda.’ We must
in fact put on the mind of Christ and share his interior
dispositions as much as, if not more than, his exterior
deeds. And while the circumstances of our appointed
work will limit the extent to which we can exercise our
share in Christ’s powers and actions, little except our
own lack of good will and generosity can limit the
degree to which he can reproduce in us his interior
dispositions by his grace.
And this is what he requires of us. He has not called
us servants; he has chosen us to be his friends. And the

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

friendship he looks for is that which, according to
Pius X, is characterized by a union of mind and heart, a
sharing of sentiment and outlook, a community of
purpose and effort. As the Pope writes: ‘Quoniam vero
idem velle idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia est;
tenemur ut amici, hoc sentire in nobis quod et in Christo
Jesu, qui est sanctus, innocens, impollutus .... At
maxime, ut ministri eius in praecellentissimo sacrificio,
quod perenni virtute pro mundi vita innovatur, de­
bemus ea animi conformatione uti, qua ille ad aram
crucis seipsum obtulit hostiam immaculatam Deo.’ In
other words we have to unite ourselves to Christ our
Victim as well as to Christ our High-Priest. Friendship
with Christ will not be very deep or very sincere if it
excludes a sharing of his sentiments in regard to suffer­
ing. But we need not be afraid of being generous with
him, for he has assured us that his yoke is easy and his
burden light.
We have quoted Pius X, not in order to convince
the priest of his obligation to be holy, but to show him
that it is both possible and practical for him to be holy,
and that holiness for a priest consists in loving friend­
ship with the Sacred Heart. In fact, it is part of a
priest’s vocation.
If we priests fail our Lord, this, I think, is the point
at which we fail him. There is a tendency to feel that
the most important thing we do for our Lord is the
work of our ministry or rather the apparent success of
that work. Friendship and love tend to be regarded as
the ornament of a priestly life rather than as its essential
purpose. Yet this is just the opposite of the truth. When
our Lord was ordaining the apostles and giving them
his last testament before his death, all his words were
of love and union rather than of works and fruit­

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93

bearing. It is true they were being made apostles; it is
true they were being sent forth to bear fruit. But their
apostolate and their fruitfulness were to be the result
of their union with Jesus. We priests cannot ponder too
often or too deeply those mysterious words of our
Lord at the last supper: ‘Abide in me: and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it
abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide
in me. I am the Vine: you the branches. He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit:
for without me you can do nothing.’8 Any fruit we
bear in the ministry is the result of union with Christ,
if not our own union, then someone else’s. That in
fact is where we priests can delude ourselves very
seriously. Our ministry may be quite fruitful for souls,
but the major part of the reward may go to someone
else whose union with Christ brought down the grace
that made our work fruitful. We should not forget the
teaching of Pius XI with regard to the value of con­
templative monasteries in the mission fields. Approving
the Constitutions of the Carthusians, he wrote: ‘It
is easy to understand how they who arduously fulfil
the duty of prayer and penance contribute more to the
increase of the Church and the welfare of mankind
than those who labour in the tilling of the Master’s
field. For unless the former drew down from heaven a
shower of divine graces to water the field that is being
tilled, the evangelical labourers would indeed reap
from their toil a more scanty crop.’7 The point about
this principle is not that it glorifies the contemplative
life at the expense of the diocesan clergy, but rather
that it warns the apostolic labourer that he too must
be a contemplative. If he does not make his interior
life of prayer and sacrifice the mainspring of his

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

apostolic labours, he runs the risk of finding that most
of the merit for his successes has been awarded to
someone else.
However, the merit and fruitfulness of our apostolic
labours are not the most important consideration. It
is still more important for us to ask ourselves are we
giving our Lord what he wants form us. Are we giving
him that for which he ordained us ? Recent years have
seen many accounts of communications from the
Sacred Heart, some perhaps less authentic than others,
but all agreeing on one point, namely, that our Lord
is not satisfied with the return we priests are making
for his love. He has chosen us to be his special friends.
He has chosen us to share the joys and sorrows of his
heart, to give him sympathy for his sorrow, love for
his love. He has not chosen us because of any merit or
talent of our own, but because of his own goodness
and mercy. He has not chosen us for what we are, but
for what he can make of us. Any good there is in us is
there because of his love. Because he has first loved
us he has shared everything with us. He shared with
us his merits, his powers, his virtues, his priesthood.
He even shared in the punishment of all our sins, for
he cannot share in their guilt. He has taken all our
debts on himself. He has chosen us to share in his
work, not because he needed our co-operation, but
because he wanted us to share in his reward, in his
happiness in heaven. And the one thing he wants from
us above all else is our personal love. Is he being dis­
appointed ?
Perhaps it is because of a misunderstanding on our
part, a false humility, a Jansenistic reverence, an ex­
aggerated fear, that we fail to give him the generous
love of intimate friendship for which he chose us to

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95

be priests. Perhaps it is because of a ‘legalistic’ view
of our duties, which tends to emphasize the external
action rather than the interior disposition, which sees
in our obligations the prescriptions of a penal code
rather than the beseeching appeal of a divine Heart
impatient for our love. We do not know our Lord.
We do not know his love. We do not know the longings
of his Sacred Heart.
It would seem that our Lord feels that we priests
neat him as One far away, One known all too slightly,
One in whom we have too little confidence. He wants
us to rekindle our faith, love and confidence, and to
live trustfully in his intimacy, loving and loved. He
wants us priests to carry on his work of casting the
lire of Divine love upon the earth, but he insists that
we can do that only if we know him and love him as he
longs to be loved. Instead it would seem that we have
loo little confidence in him, that we even avoid him. He
would have us use greater intimacy and confidence in
our dealings with him, uniting ourselves to him in our
hearts where he is ever present as long as we are in
the state of grace. Love must dominate our fears, and
we must never forget that, above all else, he loves us.
1 Ic chose us because of the love he has for us, but he
is hurt by our failure to trust in that love when we
realize our own miseries and our faults. We do not
understand his heart. We do not realize that it is our
very destitution and helplessness that move his mercy
towards us. We do not realize that by acknowledging
and accepting our poverty and misery, and then turning
trustfully to him, we give him pleasure and glory far
in excess of our offences. He loves us as we are. He
knows our frailties. He knows we will fall again. He
knows how little value can be set on our promises.

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But he is quite prepared to save us and restore us each
time after our falls if we but turn to him with humble
confession and loving confidence. For above all he
wants our union and intimacy with him. His delight
is to be with us in our very hearts, to be sought there,
to be loved there. He has chosen us for this very life
of union with him, to comfort him and to make re­
paration for the sins of those who offend him.
He wants us priests to study his heart, to know and
share its feelings, to do all we can to realize its desires.
No one can recall his address to the apostles at the
last supper without realizing how true all this is;
and we must remember that every word there has a
special message for each one of us who are his priests.
Pius X has warned us that holiness of life is the only
thing which makes us worthy priests. If we fail in this
we fail in everything. Haec .... sacerdoti si desit,
desunt ei omnia.8
We must, then, try to correspond fully with our
vocation. No sense of our unworthiness or our incapa­
city, no consciousness of our coldness, our tepidity or
even of our sinfulness should deter us from seeking
intimate friendship with Jesus. It is our nothingness
that he wants. The only foundation for his work in our
souls is our incapacity, our misery, our futility. He will
even accept our sins, for he is our Saviour, come to
save us from our sins. Even our future sins will be no
barrier to our present intimacy as long as they are not
willed here and now. In fact the glory of his love is
wonderfully shown in his choice of such unsuitable
material for the masterpieces of his mercy. To let our
shortcomings persuade us that we are not included in
his invitation to intimate friendship is to forget com­
pletely the laws of the supernatural life. First of all

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97

that life is completely swper-natural ; it is not limited
by the limitations of nature. Secondly, it is gratuitous;
even where merited, it is only so because of a gratuitous
promise of reward. But above all, the supernatural is a
participation in the divine. So that when it is a question
of returning our Lord’s love, our natural ability to
love does not enter into it; we have to receive from
our Lord the very love by which we are to love him.
That is why our human or personal limitations should
never be allowed to interfere with our hopes of ful­
filling our vocation to be the chosen friends of our
I ord, or with our privilege of making reparation to
his wounded heart. For it is from his own heart that
we are to draw the means and the strength to be his
friends and to make reparation to him. He himself
symbolized this in the case of St. Margaret Mary when
he exchanged hearts with her. He expressed it to her
explicitly time and time again. His heart is the source
of all our love and friendship for him. What we have
to do is to learn to draw upon its treasures.
We must, then, first of all make the person of Jesus
a living reality in our lives by frequently conversing
with him, in our prayer, in our visits to the Blessed
Sacrament, in our Stations of the Cross. We must keep
him before our eyes by our reading and our remem­
bering. Secondly, we must remove any obstacles to
intimate friendship which there may be in our outlook
or in our lives. Attachment to sin, exaggerated fear of
suffering, over-strict notions of our obligations, could
interfere with our generous giving of ourselves. In this
connection some harm may have been done by wrong
distinctions between the active and the contemplative
life, between the ascetical and the mystical life. It is
true that there are Orders especially organized for

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THE priest’s way to god

contemplation; it is true that there are special states
of infused prayer which are not common. That does
not mean that the active life has nothing to do with
contemplation, or that the ascetical life does not imply
an interior life of union with God. Actually, as far as
priests are concerned, our own opinion is that their
lives should, par excellence, be a combination of both
the active and the contemplative lives; that for them
those states of prayer which some writers call mystical,
but which are by no means extraordinary, are quite
attainable. That, perhaps, is a matter of opinion. But
we think there can be no two opinions on this point,
namely, that every priest, called by his priesthood to
the active life of the apostolate, is by the very same
priesthood still more urgently called to an interior life
of union and intimate friendship with our Lord. If
our Lord’s words at the last supper mean anything,
surely they mean that.
If a priest finds that mental prayer seems an impo­
sition, if he finds that his spiritual life is one of medioc­
rity, if he finds that his words have no unction and
his words but little fruit, perhaps it is because of his
failure to realize this aspect of his vocation. On the
other hand, our Lord himself assured some of his
chosen souls that no other means are required to restore
the mediocre and the tepid—even the sinful and the
fallen—to their full fervour, than a confident appeal
to his mercy and a loving intimacy with his Divine
heart. He is our Saviour, we are his chosen friends,
and his gifts are without repentance.
There is, then, no priest who cannot hope to give
our Lord that love which he asks for and which he
has merited. We have only to ask the Father for it in
the name of his Son, our Redeemer, and we shall

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99

infallibly obtain it if we do not ask amiss. We have
but to remind the Father of his Son’s love for him and
his merits which he has applied to us; to insist that what
the Father does to us is done to his Son. And if more be
needed, we have only to set before him the vocation
which his Son has given to us to be his friends and the
longing of that Son’s heart for our love. And if that
is not enough, let us go to Mary; let us tell her that we
have no wine; that her Son has invited us to the wed­
ding feast and we have no gift for him; that he has
pleaded for our love and we have but cold, dry hearts
to give him. Surely she will have compassion on her
Divine Son if, per impossibile, she has not compassion
on us. Here above all our poverty of spirit is our claim
and our title to the riches of the kingdom of heaven.
I'he Love of God for God, the Divine Spirit himself, is
ours for the asking. Nothing is needed but our humble
desire and our willingness to become what our Lord
wants us to be: men after his own heart. This vocation
makes no extraordinary demands on us for extreme
penances or intense suffering. What our Lord looks
for is that we love him in the ordinary things of our
life; that we perform them in union with him, or
rather, that we allow him to perform them in union
with us. We priests should never let ourselves be per­
suaded that Jesus looks only to the cloister for love
and reparation, expecting from us merely the service
of our ministry. Far from it! Our ministry is only
pleasing to him if it is the result of our love. We priests,
let it be again repeated, are chosen to be his friends
par excellence.
It is true that most priests have a special group of
souls committed to their care. Too often we overlook
our duty of prayer and mediation even in their regard.

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

But our charge goes further than any particular group.
As priests we stand between God and all men. Our
prayers and our penances are made on their behalf.
But very often the work of our ministry is fruitless in
regard to the group of souls committed to our charge.
Then our only hope of fruitfulness is in our union with
God. Where a priest does his work in union with Christ,
abiding in him by lovingly doing his will, he will always
bring forth fruit even though he may never see it in
this life. Somewhere grace is brought down by his
efforts. When we remember the wide tracts of the
earth’s surface where it is almost impossible for a
priest to penetrate, we can realize how important this
type of apostolic action may be today; and we may be
consoled for the apparent waste of our efforts in tilling
barren soil by the thought that if we do it in and with
Christ, abiding in him, somewhere else all unknown
to us, souls are being brought to the love of God. That
is by no means the least important aspect of our
vocation to abide in the Vine, by love and confidence.
But this abiding in Christ is by far the most important
aspect of our vocation as priests.
1
*
’
*
*
‘
7
’

Cf. II-IIae, q. 184, art 8; q. 189, art 1 ad 3
E Supremi Apostolatus, Oct. 4th 1903
Ephes. 1, 10.; Coloss. Ill, 11
Gal. II, 20; Phil. I, 21
Ephes. IV, 3
John XV, 4-5
A.A.S. Oct. 15th 1924
Cf. Haerenti Animo, Aug. 4th 1908

CHAPTER TEN

THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY

In the previous chapter we were insistent that every
priest, called as he is by his priesthood to the active
life of the apostolate, is by that very priesthood still
more urgently called to an interior life of union and
intimate friendship with our Lord. In practice we think
that no priest will err in accepting this as a working
principle. It is perfectly true that a priest cannot
continue to be a friend of our Lord’s or to be inti­
mately united to him, if he neglects his apostolic oblig­
ations, but it does not always follow that a life of active
apostolate is accompanied by such friendship and
divine union. The importance of seeking for divine
union is, then, obvious. But how in practice are we to
find it?
Theoretically, perhaps, faith, hope and charity are
the virtues which we should exercise in order to achieve
this close union with our Lord. In practice, however,
humility has an importance that is in some ways pre­
eminent. For the whole of the supernatural economy
is based on grace: everything we achieve must come to
us from God. And God, as the Holy Spirit tells us,
‘resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble.’1
God made the world, and God redeemed the world,
for his own glory. God associates us priests with him

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

in his saving and sanctifying work, but his own glory
is still the fundamental motive of this work. It is true
that he seeks his glory through his mercy. But the
glory of his mercy is his own. He warns us : Ί am the
Lord, this is my name; I will not give my glory to
another.’2 If we have not humility, we shall try to
rob God of his glory and appropriate it to ourselves,
and then God must resist us.
Let us, however, consider it from the point of view
of friendship with our Lord. He has chosen us to be
his friends, quite gratuitously. It is not for any goodness
or value that is in us that he has chosen us. His motive
is rather to give than to receive. He wants to make us
sharers in his own happiness and it is in order that we
may earn our share of his happiness that he makes us
priests. He could do our work himself ; he could use the
ministry of the angels. But he has decided to co-opt
us in sheer loving mercy without any claims on our
part save that of poverty. It is his love that animates
his choice and his generous bestowal of friendship.
Even in human friendship, where one has chosen
gratuitously and longs to do everything for the person
one has chosen, what can cause so much pain and
anguish as self-sufficiency? And in divine friendship
the same is true. Our Lord knows our weakness, he
knows our meanness, he knows our treachery, he
knows our infidelity. All these he can heal and pardon.
But self-sufficiency shuts the door on all his advances.
He stands at the gate and knocks, and the self-sufficient
will not open to him. Love calls for dependence, divine
love especially so. Love wants to give, divine love
most of all; but nothing can be given to the selfsufficient.
If a priest, then, asks what he is to do to meet the

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103

demands of our Lord for his friendship, the best
answer is that he should imitate St. Paul and glory
gladly in his infirmities that the power of Christ may
dwell in him.3 Fr. Clerissac O.P. summed it up very
neatly in the Introduction to his book, The Mystery of
the Church, when he said: ‘It is our emptiness and
thirst that God needs, not our plenitude.’ The realiza­
tion of this truth is a great grace from God and it is
one we priests should ask for, earnestly and insistently.
Human reason and human experience may, perhaps,
indicate to us the poverty of our own resources, but
unless God gives us the grace we are not likely to relish
our poverty and glory in our infirmities. Yet they are
our most valuable assets for they are our title to divine
union. ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the
kingdom of heaven.’4 Thomas à Kempis gives expres­
sion to our Lord’s desire by putting the following words
in his mouth: ‘What more do I ask of thee than to
try to give thyself up entirely to me? Whatever thou
givest besides thyself is nothing to me: I seek not thy
gift but thyself: just as thou couldst not be content
without me, though thou hadst everything else: so
nothing thou offerest can please me unless thou offerest
me thyself.... Behold, I offered my whole self to the
Father for thee, and have given my whole Body and
Blood for thy food : that I might be all thine, and thou
mightest be all and always mine. But if thou will stand
upon thy own strength, and will not offer thyself freely
to my will, thy offering is not perfect, nor will there
be an entire union between us.’s
As usual, à Kempis sums it up in a phrase. If we
‘stand upon our own strength’ as he says, we cannot
have complete union with our Lord. Jesus is not content
to be merely our Partner, he insists on being our All.

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

It is, perhaps, an instinctive desire and striving for
independence that is in many cases the cause of our
failure to fulfil our vocation to be the friends of our
Lord. In the natural order, the sons of men grow up
from absolute dependence to an ever-increasing in­
dependence of their parents. In the supernatural order
growth is quite different. In the earlier stages God’s
gifts endow us with a certain measure of independence.
We feel we can stand, if not on our own strength, at
least on the strength God has given us. To us it seems
as if we had a reserve of power at our disposal, as if
our priestly powers were our own. As we grow, how­
ever, our dependence becomes greater and greater.
The more our union with Christ develops, the more
complete becomes our dependence upon him. It is
essential that we priests realize this. Otherwise all our
striving will lead us away from God instead of bringing
us to union with him, for our whole natural tendency is
to try to develop our own competence and efficiency
even in the supernatural order. We look forward to
being able to handle any situation, to being strong
enough to deal with any temptation, to being virtuous
enough to perform all good works. True advance is
quite different. One becomes more and more convinced
of the essentially super-human nature of all super­
natural works, whether in the service of souls or in our
own sanctification. The inadequacy of our own power
becomes more and more manifest. It is true, of course,
that our confidence in God and our assurance of his
co-operation are also ever-increasing, but we clearly
realize that all that we have or do is the work of God
rather than our own. In fact, our futility becomes so
obvious that when souls come to us for help we hesitate
to do more than promise to pray for them. Charity,

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105

and perhaps duty, demand that we make an effort
to assist them, but our attempts are so clumsy and
our words so foolish that we fly to our Lord to supply
for our futility and failure. This is especially marked
where there is question of direction of souls who are
well advanced in the spiritual life. It sometimes seems
that the grace we minister to them must be paid for
by our own painful incompetence.
Yet this is typical of all our priestly life, in all its
aspects. Divine union here below is to be sought for
through and in Jesus Christ. And it is through and to
Jesus as our Saviour that we must be united. The
necessary disposition, then, on our part is the realiz­
ation of our need of being saved. This is the very
antithesis of self-sufficiency. And it makes clear to us
how much of our striving to achieve union as a merited
prize rather than as a merciful gift is wide of the mark.
It also gives us great consolation and courage. For
misery is the title to mercy and our short-comings are
our claim to be saved. So that we cannot ever go to the
throne of grace with more confidence than when we
are most conscious of our own emptiness and futility.
1 ven our sins and infidelities are no obstacle. We go
to our Saviour to be saved from ourselves. And he
himself will come and save us. This is the essential part
of that self-denial upon which he insisted when he told
us that we must deny ourselves and follow him. For
he intends to replace our ‘self’ by himself. He is our
Life and our All. If only we priests could grasp this
principle, our whole life could be changed in a short
lime. But it means a complete change of outlook. Too
many of us regard divine union and friendship with
Jesus as something remote, something only to be achieved
after a long laborious struggle in the spiritual life,

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

something which is the reward for our fidelity and
merit, and the crown of our strength and virtue.
Nothing could be more misleading! The very com­
mencement of the spiritual life involves divine union—
a union so intimate that we are made partakers of the
divine nature and become the dwelling-places of the
Blessed Trinity. We are warned that we cannot have
life unless we eat the Flesh of Christ and drink of his
Blood; and this physical union with him, intimate as
it is, is only a shadow and a sign of the much more
intimate spiritual union with God which it produces
in our souls. This union is the essential source of all
Christian life. For us priests, especially, it is unquestion­
ably true that we are called, and called most urgently,
to live in intimate friendship with our Lord, not merely
in the remote future, but here and now at this very
moment. The friendship is not a reward for our virtue
but a remedy for our sinfulness; it is not the result of
our achievements but the essential means of our fruit­
fulness. We must, therefore, get rid of all that interferes
with this friendship, and do all we can to promote it.
In a word, we must be humble.
Perhaps the best way in practice to estimate our
lack of humility is to consider the defects that this lack
produces. And lest we be afraid to admit our short­
comings, let us consider these very defects in the
apostles themselves. First of all, let us stand with the
apostles when our Lord asks us all: ‘What did you
treat of in the way?’® Like them, probably, we shall
have to hold our peace because it would be hard for
us to deny that we were disputing, in one way or
another, which of us should be the greatest. The desire
to excel, to be successful, is usually evidence of self­
seeking ambition. We feel we are self-sufficient and we

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107

wish to have our sufficiency recognized and praised.
Our Lord’s answer should warn us of our error; ‘Amen,
1 say to you, unless you be converted and become as
little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom
of heaven.’7 Again, perhaps, we can find a fellowship
with the apostles in that scene where St. John reported
to our Lord : ‘Master, we saw one casting out devils in
thy name, who followeth not us: and we forbade him.’*
I low many diseases may lie behind such an attitude,
all different forms of self-seeking, jealousy at another’s
success, a desire to monopolize for ourselves the glory
of the apostolate, stubborn attachment to our own
views, to our own traditions, to our own ‘school’. Is
there any danger that we are tempted to hinder or
decry work done in the name of Christ for which we
ourselves are not going to obtain the credit?
Then, perhaps, we can find further fellowship with
the sons of thunder, who would command fire and
brimstone to come down from heaven and consume
those who opposed them or rejected their teaching.9
If so, we should be mindful of our Lord’s rebuke:
‘You know not of what spirit you are. The Son of
man came not to destroy souls, but to save.’10 Patience
and mercy were characteristic of Christ; they must
also be characteristic of us if we are to be of the same
spirit as he is. These same sons of Zebedee may reveal
to us our own thoughts and desires when, on hearing
our Lord foretell his passion and death and ultimate
resurrection, they pleaded for seats on either hand in
his glory. Our Lord’s answer applies to us also. It is
an invitation to drink the chalice that he drinks of and
to be baptized with the baptism wherewith he is
baptized.11 And his warning to those who seek power
and authority may have its meaning for us if we wish

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THE PRIEST S WAY TO GOD

to be friends with him: ‘Whosoever will be greater
shall be your minister. And whosoever will be first
among you shall be the servant of all. For the Son of
man also is not come to be ministered unto but to
minister, and to give his life for the redemption of
many.’12
When we fail in our efforts, could he not often say to
us, as well as to the apostles, that it is because of our
unbelief, and when we succeed, do not our elation and
self-satisfaction contrast with his words: ‘When you
have done all these things that are commanded you,
say: we are unprofitable servants; we have done that
which we ought to do.’?13 How often do we regard
ourselves as the one best fitted to deal with a certain
situation or to handle a special type of soul ! How often
do we magnify ourselves in our thoughts, turning the
gifts of God to our own glory, and flattering ourselves
that we indeed are profitable servants, whose services
are so valuable and almost necessary to our Master!
If we are to live in friendship with Jesus we must
share his sentiments. We must, in fact, follow the
precept of St. Paul: ‘Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus.’14 Our Lord’s whole aim was
to ‘empty’ himself, to humble himself, to be obedient
even unto death. In all things he was led by the Holy
Spirit and lived for the glory of his Father. If we do not
share his sentiments, if we are not of one mind with
him, we are really against him. That is why he is so
insistent that we, his disciples and his friends, must
deny ourselves. No form of self-denial is so important
as this complete renunciation of self, of self either as
the centre of our life or as the source of our strength,
a renunciation which is involved in true humility. In
fact, it may be said that without this form of self­

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109

denial, all other forms are not merely delusions, but
are even dangerous, for they can be the food of pride.
To acquire this humility, we must pray with sincerity
and insistence. We must also cultivate the company of
Jesus. He dwells in our hearts, he resides there to be
our All. He is there as our Saviour. We must study
him in the Scriptures; we must learn his ways—so
meek and humble—by constant conversation with
him. We must forget ourselves and depend on him.
But we must, above all, have unlimited confidence in
him. His mercy is infinite. There is nothing which he
is not prepared to forgive. There is nothing which he
is not prepared to remedy. There is nothing which
he is not prepared to restore. He literally rejoices in
being our Saviour. He is Love incarnate. His love
rejoices in its omnipotent power to save us from our­
selves. He rejoices with the whole heavenly court when,
like the prodigal son, having wasted all our substance,
we turn to him. He is on fire to make us his loving
friends. We believe in him, but we must also believe
in his infinite mercy and infinite love. He asks us for
our love and that we should never doubt his love for
us; above all he asks us priests that we should trust
him and never, never doubt his mercy.
The virtue that opens the door to his love, and
which is the foundation of our trust, is humility. It has
a wonderful power of transmuting all our sins and
debts into assets. Let us quote the words of Blessed
Guerric, a disciple of St. Bernard, which are thus
rendered and partly summarized by a modern Cister­
cian. ‘Humility has a very special property of its own;
it not only ensures that the other virtues are really
virtues, but if any one of them is wanting, or is im­
perfect, humility, using that very deficiency, of itself

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THE priest’s way to god

repairs the deficiency. Therefore, if something seems
to be lacking in any soul, it is lacking for no other
reason than that the soul should be all the more perfect
by its absence, for virtue is made perfect in infirmity.
“Paul”, saith the Lord, “my grace is sufficient for
thee.”15 He for whom the grace of God is sufficient can
be lacking in some particular grace, not only without
serious loss, but even with no small gain, for that very
defect and infirmity perfects virtue; and the very di­
minution of a certain grace only makes the greatest
of all God’s graces—namely, humility—present in a
fuller measure and a more stable way. Far, then, O
Lord, from thy servants let that grace be—whatever it
may be—which can take away or lessen our grace
in thy eyes (gratiam tui), by which, namely, although
more pleasing in our own eyes, we become more hateful
in thine. That is not grace, but wrath, for it is only
fully fit to be given to those with whom thou art angry,
in whose regard thou hast disposed such things, and
that because of their simulation, thrusting them down
at the very moment of their elevation and rightly
crushing them even while they are raised on high.
In order, therefore, that that grace alone, without
which no one is loved by thee, may remain safe in our
possession, let thy grace and favour either take away
all other grace from us or else give us the grace of
using all properly; so that having the grace by which
we serve thee pleasingly with fear and reverence, we
may earn the favour of the Giver through the grace
of the gift, and that, growing in grace, we may be the
more truly pleasing to thee.’
Humility, then, is all-important. And by humility we
understand a disposition that tends to forget self
completely and to remember only Christ. It is a great

THE VIRTUE OF HUMILITY

111

gift from God; in fact, in its higher stages, it seems to
be an infused grace. But it is essential to divine union
and friendship. So that we who are literally called to the
wedding feast of the Lamb must have the wine of
humility. And if we have no wine, we have but to turn
to her whose humility prepared her to be the Mother
of God and ask her, in the name of her Son, for that
humility without which he cannot live in us. How can
such a prayer be refused?
I
•
’
4
4
•
’
•
»
10
II
■*
”
14
14

James IV, 6
Isaias XLII, 8
Cf. 2 Cor. XII, 9
Matt. V, 3
Imitation of Christ IV, 8
Mark IX, 32
Matt. XVIII, 3
Mark IX, 37
Luke IX, 54
Ibid.
Cf. Mark X, 35 et seq.
Ibid.
Luke XVn, 10
Phil. II, 5
2 Cor. ΧΠ, 9

CHAPTER ELEVEN

PROGRESS IN HUMILITY

It is essential that anyone who wishes to succeed in
the spiritual life should have a proper appreciation of
the importance of humility. Very often humility is
regarded as one of a number of virtues which would be
desirable ornaments for one’s soul but not absolutely
essential. Sometimes humility is misunderstood and is
regarded as demanding that a man deny or at least
decry his own abilities and gifts, even to the extent of
denying all that God has wrought in his soul. Both
views are mistaken; for humility is an essential virtue
which is so powerful that where it is present all else
is added unto it, so that we may truly call it the one
thing necessary; and it is based fundamentally on
truth, the truth of what we are, of what God is and
of what he has done for us. She who excelled all other
human creatures in humility could exult in the know­
ledge that God had done great things for her. So
important is this virtue, and so sufficent, that we feel
bound to discuss it at some length despite the risk of
repeating what we have already written and of wearying
our readers with fundamental considerations.
Lest someone, knowing of the primacy of charity
in the spiritual order and of the capital place given to
it by St. Paul, should feel that we are exaggerating

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113

the importance of humility, let us quote St. Augustine
on the subject. He writes: ‘Ipsa est perfectio nostra,
humilitas’, and again: ‘Universa disciplina Christiana
docet humilitatem qua et acquirat et custodiat charitatem’, ‘Nihil excelsius via charitatis et non in illa
ambulant nisi humiles.’1 It is precisely because charity
is of primary importance that humility is so essential;
for charity is the gift of God, and God will give his
grace only to the humble. By the very law of his being
he must resist the proud; for the proud assume to
themselves the glory that belongs to God, and God
cannot give his glory to another. What then is humility?
We can hardly find a better answer than that given
by Dom Belorgey in his book, L'humilité Bénédictine,
‘Humility’, he writes, ‘is the truth about our relations
with God, recognized by our intelligence, accepted by
our will and realized in our whole life.’ (If this were
to be amended in any way, we would insert the adverb
‘lovingly’ before each verb). This concept of humility is
of special importance and significance for the priest.
The priest’s principal duty is to offer sacrifice to God;
to acknowledge by a most sacred and solemn rite our
relations with God and to profess publicly his complete
acceptance of all that those relations entail. Each time
a priest celebrates Mass, he makes public profession of
these sentiments and associates himself with the dis­
positions which animated our Lord Jesus Christ in his
sacrifice on Calvary. Obviously, humility, as we have
just described it, is in perfect harmony with these
dispositions and, as we shall see, sums them all up.
Humility, then, is the fulfilment of that fundamental
obligation of worship which the first of God’s command­
ments lays upon us, a fulfilment which has an intrinsic
value of its own in God’s sight quite apart from any

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fruit or effects which it may produce elsewhere. We
are inclined to forget that acts of the virtue of religion
have a value of their own even though they have no
apparent usefulness in our ministry. Our primary duty
is the direct service of God; to love and serve our
fellow men is only a secondary duty and a derivation of
the first. Humility, then, must not be evaluated by its
usefulness, even though in practice it can be the source
of a most fruitful ministry. Its great value is that it
puts us in our proper place in relation to God, and
determines correctly our attitude to him. What is this
attitude ?
St. Thomas answers the question in the Summa'.2
‘Per sacrificia repraesentabatur ordinatio mentis in
Deo. Ad rectam autem ordinationem mentis in Deum
pertinet quod omnia quae homo habet recognoscat a
Deo tamquam a primo principio, et ordinet in Deum
tanquam in ultimum finem.’ There we have it. All that
we have is from God and must be ordained to God.
And the Saint hammers it out in various places. God
is our first beginning, the first principle of all we do,
our supreme good and final end, by whom alone we
can be made happy. This is dry doctrine, wearyingly
familiar and dull. But look at its implications. It means
that, having submitted ourselves to God and recognized
him as the power behind all that we do, we then must
admit that there is nothing he wills us to do that is
outside that power. And having recognized him as our
last end, we immediately see that we are called to
intimate union with him, and that all his power is at our
disposal to effect that union. Why,—to use a modern
phrase, more expressive than elegant—it ‘stands out
a mile’ in the Mass. Immediately after we offer sacrifice
God gives us the Body and Blood of his Son as the

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food of our souls in order that we may be one with
him. St. John Chrysostom condenses it into a mar­
vellous phrase: ‘ut unum quid simus.’ That is why
we need never be afraid of humility or reluctant to
admit our lowliness in God’s sight. Our very poverty
of spirit is our title to the Kingdom of heaven. The
Scripture tells us that God exalts the humble. One is
almost tempted to say that humility itself exalts them!
Perhaps the close connection between humility and
confidence may become apparent in this view of things.
Recognition of our absolute dependence on God, so
far from depressing us and crushing us, should, on the
contrary, make us optimistic and courageous. For if
God be with us what does it matter who is against us ?
If God is our strength (and he has said so himself)
what can prevent our attaining all that he wills for us ?
And if God is our last end, is not union with him the
supreme purpose of his will ? It is significant that when
our Lord was instituting the sacrifice of the Mass, he
himself sounded and stressed this note of union.
‘That they may all be one, as thou, Father, in me, and I
in thee; that they also may be one in us . . . that they
may be one, as we also are one. I in them, and thou in
me: that they may be made perfect in one ... that the
love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them
and I in them.’3 This insistence on divine union becomes
all the more significant when we recall the words
spoken earlier in this discourse4: ‘Without me you can
do nothing.’ It is precisely because we can do nothing
of ourselves that we must abide in the Vine and put
all our hopes in him who calls us to such intimate
union.
Humility is but the recognition and willing acceptance
of this fact. It means of course a life of ever-increasing

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dependence on God, but it also means a life of everincreasing strength, confidence and joy. It means an
entirely new appreciation of the great truth that all
things work together for good to them that love God,
and a joyous acceptance of our vocation to glory in
our infirmities.
As a monk living by the rule of St. Benedict, I am
rather loath to cite monastic principles of St. Benedict’s
teaching in support of this thesis, lest I seem to be led
by personal preference and piety to apply to the secular
clergy something which is intended only for the mon­
astic life. Despite that danger, I think it will be useful to
discuss St. Benedict’s teaching on the point. St. Bene­
dict lived in the fifth century when the doctrine of the
apostolic age was still fresh in the Church and when
it had not yet been adapted or developed to suit special
needs and cases. In fact St. Benedict was legislating
for men who wished to be perfect Christians in the
shelter of the cloister. He proposes very little spiritual
teaching except on humility. In his discussion of the
twelve degrees of the ladder of humility he reveals his
view of that virtue. He bases humility on the practice
of the presence of God. ‘The first degree of humility
is always to have the fear of God before our eyes, never
forgetting but always remembering what he has
commanded.’ He develops his teaching to include in
this degree constant meditation on the abyss into which
those fall who despise God, and ‘on the eternal life
prepared for those who fear him.’ This leads to a con­
tinual guard against sins and vices, which is achieved
by reflecting that the eyes of God are ever upon us,
that all our actions, and even our desires, lie open to
his view. The second degree of humility is ‘that a
person love not his own will, nor seek the gratification

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of his own desires, but shape all his actions according
to those words of our Lord : I came not to do my own
will but the will of him that sent me.’ These two degrees
of humility cover the conversion of a man from a life
of sin (or perhaps the avoidance of sin from the
beginning) and a subsequent advance to realize the
importance of God’s will. The passing of these two
degrees may be regarded as the preliminary steps which
have led us into the priesthood or into religion. The
next degree is worded in a way suitable to the religious
life, but it only adapts to it a principle which applies also
to the life of a priest. ‘The third degree of humility is
for a monk to submit himself with all obedience to his
superior for the love of God after the example of Jesus
Christ of whom the Apostle saith: “He humbled him­
self becoming obedient unto death”.’ There is an
important advance here, for it accepts the principle
that God’s will is shown to us by men, in whose divine
authority we must believe and whom we should obey
for love. The role of faith and charity is stressed and
the example of our Lord takes a more important place.
But the next degree is the testing-place of the spiritual
life to which we have referred before, and which is the
stumbling stone where many come to grief and failure in
their quest for God. ‘The fourth degree of humility
is to keep patience in the exercise of obedience, and not
to lose it or depart from it, either because of the
difficulty of the thing commanded or the injuries to
which one may be subjected, agreeably to what is said
in scripture: “He that shall persevere to the end, he
shall be saved”,8 and again: “Let thy heart take courage
and wait thou for the Lord”.6’
This is where most of us fail to carry out the sacrifice
we make of ourselves at Mass. St. Benedict indicates one

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source of our failure when he quotes scripture to
justify our subjection to human authority with all its
limitations and mistakes : ‘Thou hast set men over our
heads.’7 When we notice the human element in the
men who rule us, or in the neighbours who try us,
or in the mistakes and misfortunes that cause us so
much trouble, we cease to take a supernatural view of
things, we set aside our faith and we lose our patience
and submission. This is a fatal error. St. Benedict
exhorts us in the words of the scripture : ‘Take courage
and wait thou for the Lord.’8 This is most important,
because it is a reminder that God himself will come to
aid us if we but wait for him as he has so often asked
us to do. The saint goes on to develop his doctrine in
terms that are very applicable to priests who, sharing
our Lord’s priesthood, should also be prepared to share
his sufferings and patience as a Victim. He writes:
‘The scripture furthermore teaches us that the faithful
servant ought to suffer all things, however repugnant,
for the love of his Lord, saying in the person of those
who thus suffer: “For we suffer death all the day long:
we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”.8’ And he
expects us to rejoice and to say: ‘But in all these things
we overcome because of him that hath loved us.’10
Let no reader say that this is for monks but not for
secular priests. Are not priests the chosen friends of
our Lord? Are they not chosen to be fellow victims
with him just as they are priests with him ? Are they not
called to abide in the Vine that they may bear fruit?
Are they not to be ‘purged’ that they may bring forth
more fruit? To surmount this degree of humility, we
priests may have to make radical adjustments in our
outlook on our vocation and on our work. The time
comes sooner or later when obstacles permitted by

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Providence, and even seeming to come from the hand
of superiors, may interfere with the work which we
regard as our special vocation. A new appointment,
a change of duty, a removal of some help or some such
thing, can frustrate all our hopes and ambitions. And
we fondly imagine that we are being prevented from
doing God’s work—that, in fact, we are being pre­
vented from doing God’s will by God’s will itself!
For everything that happens, happens to us according
to his will. We forget that God’s plan is of a piece.
We forget that God has warned us that we are to be
purged. We fail to realize that we are being invited to
go up higher at the banquet of his love. We forget that,
like our Master, it behoves us to suffer these things
and so enter into our glory.
Mention has just been made of some of the events
which may interfere with our patient submission to
God’s providence. Those mentioned are of course
quite minor ones. St. Benedict’s principle applies to a
much wider field. It would cover such trials as those of
the purifying ‘nights’ of which St. John of the Cross
speaks, and would even extend to such sufferings as
those of concentration camps which seem to be part
of the sacerdotal vocation of so many of today’s
priests. The essential point underlying his doctrine is
that as we cease to make ourselves the centre of our
own lives and realize the completeness of God’s claim
on our devotion to him, we become more and more
generous in our abandonment to his will, and more
and more closely resemble our model and Master,
Jesus Christ.
Pride is that disposition of mind and heart which
makes self the principle of all our own excellence.
We tend to regard our excellence as of our own making

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or meriting; we regard holiness and perfection as due
to us; and we tend to make our own excellence our
final end and purpose. Humility, on the contrary,
although it does not deny the excellence of what God
has done and will yet do for us, refers everything to
God. This is its connection with sacrifice, for in the
offering of sacrifices, according to St. Thomas, man
avows that God is the first principle of the creation
of all things, and the last end to which all must be
related.11 Humility establishes us perfectly in these
dispositions, which should animate our daily cele­
bration of the Mass.
Humility and confidence are inseparable. Very often
we have no confidence because we are not humble.
But sometimes we fail to become humble because we
have not enough confidence. We do not realize that
God is more anxious about, and more capable of,
making us happy and holy than we ourselves are.
We hang on to ourselves as a drowning man clutches
at a straw, because we cannot or will not trust the ocean
of God’s mercy to support us. We are, in fact, like the
apostles, ‘men of little faith.’ And the very same fear
prevents us from being generous in our sacrifice. We
forget the teaching of St. Augustine and St. Thomas:
‘True sacrifice is every work that is done in order that
we may cleave to God in a holy union, who is the final
good by which alone we can be made truly happy.’
If we but knew the gift of God, we would fly from the
poverty of our own apparent riches and cleave to the
apparent emptiness of the all-satisfying God.
St. Benedict completes the ladder of interior humility
in the next three degrees. The fifth degree refers to our
need of revealing our interior life to a competent guide
who can represent God, for the Saint says: ‘To this

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121

are we exhorted by the scripture in these words:
“Commit thy way to the Lord, and trust in him”.12’
In doing so we obtain pardon, we obtain light, and we
obtain strength. The sixth degree asks us to be content
with the poverty and abjection that may fall to our lot,
whether interior or exterior, looking upon ourselves
as unworthy servants, saying: T have been brought to
nothing, and I knew it not: I am become as a beast of
burden before thee, and I am always with thee.’13 The
seventh degree brings us to the height of interior
humility where we sincerely speak and think of our­
selves as the lowest of all—‘a worm and no man, the
reproach of men and the outcast of the people.’ This
appreciation of and joy in our own nothingness would
seem to mean infused grace and light; it must be
absolutely sincere, proceeding from an inmost con­
viction without the slightest trace of affectation.
The next five degrees are merely the external ex­
pression of our interior dispositions, whereby we avoid
singularity and observe modesty in our speech and
bearing, not being self-assertive, tending rather to be
silent than to speak. When the height of this ladder is
reached, St. Benedict promises us that we shall then
‘attain to that perfect love of God which casteth out
fear, whereby all that we dreaded so much at the outset,
we shall begin to do without any labour—naturally,
as it were, and by habit, not now through the fear of
hell, but for the love of Christ, and because of the
delight that attends the practice of virtue.’
To imagine that, however suitable this may be for
monks, it seems quite outside the vocation and scope
of the secular clergy would be a complete error. For
the priest, by his office as priest, is called to the closest
possible union with God, which means that he is called

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to climb this ladder of humility, there being no other
way that leads to God.
In this chapter we have not been able to discuss the
practice of humility in detail; but the broad outline
has an importance of its own. And its importance
increases in the case of secular priests. To the first
secular priests our Lord himself said: ‘Unless you be
converted and become as little children, you shall not
enter the kingdom of heaven.’14 And God has since
sent us, in the person of St. Thérèse of Lisieux, a living
model of humility to recall us to the true notion of
sanctity and perfection. The allocution of Pope Bene­
dict XV on the occasion of her beatification is really a
commentary on the text which we have just quoted.
The Holy Father insisted that her way of spiritual
childhood was meant for all, even for converted sinners.
It is the way par excellence for us priests, both because
of our personal vocation to sanctity and because of our
official responsibility for the worship of God and for
his glory. Let us pray, then, to Mary, whose humility
made her worthy to be the Mother of God, to show us
this way of sanctity and divine union and to obtain
for us those special graces by which we can leave our
self and cleave to God as our all.
I
’
•
‘
•
•
’
•
•
«
II
«
>·
“

In Ps. 130, 14; De Virg. 31; In Ps. 141, 7
I-IIae, q. 102, art. 3
Cf. John XVII, 21, 23, 26
XV, 5
Matt. XXIV, 13
Ps. XXVI, 14
Ps. LXV, 12
Ps. XXVI, 14
Ps. XLIII, 22
Rom. VIII, 37
II-IIae, q. 102, art. 3
Ps. XXXVI, 5
Ps. LXXII, 22-23
Matt. XVIII, 3

CHAPTER TWELVE

SPIRITUAL CHILDHOOD

There are few safer sources of doctrine than papal
documents. And when to the significance already im­
plied by beatification, such papal documents add that
of an insistent emphasis on the universal application
of the example and teaching of a particular saint, it
would be folly to overlook their importance. It is
generally admitted that the sanctification and the
example of St. Thérèse of Lisieux were definitely de­
signed by Providence to draw attention to the true way
to holiness and to remind us of what holiness essentially
requires. This general belief is in perfect harmony with
the explicit teaching of Pope Benedict XV. His address
on the occasion of the decree1 on the heroic virtues of
the now canonized St. Thérèse is of the utmost im­
portance for the spiritual life of all men, and especially
so in the case of all priests. Having summed up the
saint’s spirituality in the phrase ‘spiritual childhood’,
the Holy Father proceeds: ‘There lies the secret of
sanctity . . . for all the faithful scattered over the
whole world! . . . Her example’, he hopes, ‘will be
the means of swelling the ranks of perfect Christians
. . . wherever the children of the Catholic Church are
to be found.’ These striking words make it impossible
for us to refuse to study her teaching and to apply it to

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ourselves. In order that we might do so the Holy Father
went on to explain what he meant by spiritual child­
hood. Citing the example of a child’s reliance on and
confidence in its parents, he teaches that ‘in the same
way spiritual childhood is the outgrowth of trust in
God and complete abandonment to him.’ And he
continues : ‘It will not be out of place to enumerate the
qualities of this spiritual childhood, both as regards
what it omits and what it includes. It knows nothing
of self-pride, or the thought of being able to attain by
purely natural means a supernatural end, or those
spurious notions of self-reliance in the hour of danger
and temptation. On the other hand, it presupposes
a lively faith in the existence of God, a practical homage
to his power and mercy, a confident recourse to the
Providence of him who alone can give us grace to avoid
evil and to seek good.’ And having thus summarized
the essentials of this teaching, he adds the very grave
statement: Our Lord Jesus Christ pointed to it as a
necessary condition for obtaining eternal life.’ These
words alone justify our insistence here upon our thesis,
for it is not merely a question of perfection, but of
salvation itself! We must therefore listen further to the
Holy Father.
He continues by referring to the incident in St.
Matthew’s Gospel where our Lord took a little child as
a model and said to his disciples: ‘Amen I say to you,
unless you be converted and become as little children,
you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.’2 ‘Suffer
the little children to come unto me . . . for of such is
the kingdom of God. Amen I say to you, whosoever
shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child
shall not enter into it.’3 And the Holy Father
continues:—‘It is of great importance to note the force

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of the language used by our Divine Lord. The Son
of God was not content with merely stating that the
Kingdom of heaven was for children: “Talium est enim
regnum coelorum”, or that whosoever should become as
a little child would be greatest in the Kingdom of heaven ;
but he even went so far as to exclude from his Kingdom
those who did not become as little children.’ And
commenting on the various means used by our Lord to
impress this lesson on the minds of his hearers, the
Holy Father insists: ‘From this we must conclude that
it was the Divine Master’s express desire that his
disciples should see in the way of spiritual childhood
the path which could lead them to eternal life. In face
of this insistent and forcible teaching of our Lord, it
would surely not be possible to find a soul who could
hesitate in entering this way of confidence and self­
surrender, all the more so, to repeat our own words,
because our Divine Lord, not only in a general manner,
but also by a concrete example, declared this way of
life to be absolutely essential, even in the case of those
who have lost the innocence of their childhood. There
are some who try to persuade themselves that the way
of trust and abandonment to God is the exclusive
privilege of those souls whose baptismal robe has re­
mained unsullied by sin. They are unable to reconcile
the idea of spiritual childhood with the loss of their
innocence. But do not the words of the Divine Master,
“unless ye be converted and become as little children”,
indicate the necessity of a change? “Unless ye be con­
verted” suggests a transformation which the disciples of
Jesus had to undergo in order to become children once
again; and who should become a child again, if not he
who is no longer one?’ And the Holy Father continues
his explanation showing that our Lord’s words indicate

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an ‘obligation to labour to regain the lost qualities of
childhood.’ And since there is no question of resuming
either the outward appearance or feebleness of the
state of infancy, the Pope sees here ‘a counsel given
to those who have attained maturity to return to the
practices of the virtues associated with spiritual child­
hood.’
This long quotation is only excused by the need of
establishing the papal endorsement of the doctrine of
spiritual childhood. It is a doctrine which takes on a
very special significance when we associate it with the
teaching of the apostles in regard to the effects of
baptism, by which we become the adopted sons of
God, participating in the divine nature and being in
all things dependent on him for every movement of
life in our souls. Childhood in the supernatural order
is nothing make-believe or far-fetched. It is the funda­
mental fact of the supernatural life. And it is only by
spiritual childhood that we can live in true harmony
with our nature and our dignity as sons of God.
Spiritual childhood includes three important virtues:
humility of heart, poverty of spirit and unbounded
confidence. We have been treating of humility in the
previous chapters. To what we have already said let us
add St. Thérèse’s comment. ‘To be little means not
attributing to self the virtues one practises, believing
oneself incapable of anything; it means recognizing
that the good God places this treasure of virtue in the
hand of the little child to be used by him when he has
need of it; but always it is God’s treasure. In fine, it
means not being discouraged by our faults, for children
fall often, but are too small to do themselves much
harm.’ For us priests this teaching applies not only
to our own personal lives, but also to all the powers and

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127

graces we have as priests. Too often, although we do
admit our limitations, we credit ourselves with some­
thing of our own. When serious obstacles arise in our
path, then we are discouraged; the reason is that we
have trusted, not in God, but in ourselves. Our proper
attitude should be to lay aside any sense of our own
self-sufficiency and to expect every necessary grace and
strength from God. This of course means a life of
complete dependence on God.
Often we are forced to admit our insufficiency. Our
incapacity and our futility are only too obvious. But
even then we only admit the truth to resent it. This is
where we fail. True humility, true poverty of spirit,
true love of our Lord rejoices in its poverty and exults
in such complete dependence on God. Grace will come
to such a soul in abundance when it is needed—but
there must be no piling up of reserves, no proprietorship.
One has to wait for each day and each deed for the
necessary help to arrive. And when it does arrive, we
must not make it ours: all is on loan. This poverty of
spirit is not a passing phase. We have to be prepared to
be poor all our lives. This is impossible if we have not
proper confidence in God.
Too often our confidence in God is based on an illu­
sory sense of our own merits. But true theological hope
is based on the goodness of God, who is sufficiently
good to overlook our lack of merit, and to be infinitely
merciful to our poverty and nothingness. When a
man realizes this truth, which is one of the most funda­
mental of all the truths of the spiritual life, he feels an
urge to strip himself completely of all pretended
possessions for it is when we are poor in ourselves that
we are most rich in God. And such souls cannot hope
too much in God. St. John of the Cross—a Doctor of

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the Church whom no one has ever accused of being
lax—insists: ‘From the good God we obtain all that
we hope for.’
In fact, part of the proper office for the octave of
the feast of St. Thérèse of Lisieux is taken from St.
John of the Cross and bears out all we have said. The
following teaching of the saint is quoted by the Church
in the lessons for the second day of the octave:
‘The greater the things God wills to give us, the
more he increases our desires, even so as to make a
void in the soul, in order to fill it with his good things.
Firm hope is all-powerful to touch and vanquish the
heart of God; and to attain to the union of love, the
soul must walk relying on nothing but hope in God
alone, without which it will be unable to obtain any­
thing. The hope of a soul which ceaselessly turns to­
wards him is so acceptable to God that it may truly be
said that the soul obtains whatever it hopes for.’
Lest the reader should think that we are getting far
away from the life of the secular clergy, let us quote from
a letter of Pius XI to Fr. Fray, the superior of the
French seminary in Rome:4 ‘The Teresian spirituality
cannot be counselled strongly enough to souls, and
especially to the souls of priests. It expresses the foun­
dation of the Gospel. Its dominant note is simplicity in
renunciation and entire sacrifice to love. And today
more than ever the priest should give himself without
reserve, without restriction, to the cause of God and
the Church.’ Thus encouraged, let us presume to put
before the secular clergy another quotation from St.
John of the Cross, also cited in the office of St. Thérèse’s
octave :
‘It is of the highest importance that the soul exercise
itself constantly in the labours of love, in order that,

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129

being rapidly consummated, it may not be retarded by
anything of earth but quickly come thither where it will
behold its God face to face. The smallest act of pure
love is more precious in the eyes of God, and more
profitable to the Church, than all other works put
together. Without love all our works, all our labours,
are as nothing before God, for he holds as acceptable
only our love. Wherefore the soul which is aglow with
this perfect love is named the Spouse of the Son of
God, and appears to us as raised to a footing of equality
with him, because their mutual affection renders all
common between them. Enkindled by this love, the
soul desires neither wages nor reward. Its will is to
lose all and sacrifice itself without desiring to gain
aught for itself, so that it may please Jesus. Happy the
soul that loves! The Lord becomes, as it were, its
prisoner, and holds himself ready to fulfil all its desires.
Love is repaid only by love.’
No reader need be surprised at this sudden leap from
the depths of childlike humility to the ardent heights of
divine love. The vocation of every Christian is to love
God with his whole heart and his whole soul. One
might even say that his vocation is to love God with
the love with which God loves himself. And the teaching
of all Christian time, coming down from our Lord
himself through his apostles, re-echoed by St. Benedict,
by St. Thomas, by St. John of the Cross, by St. Thérèse,
is that the way to the heights of divine love is by the
path down into the depths of humility. To gain life we
have to lose our own. To put on Christ, we have to
deny ourselves. To let God act freely in our souls, we
have to remove all self-centred or self-seeking tendencies
which oppose his action. The foundation of our hope
is God’s goodness. We must believe in his love for us.

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St. Thérèse describes holiness by saying that it ‘does not
consist in this or that practice, but lies in a disposition
which renders us humble and little in God’s hands,
aware of our weakness and confident to the point of
audacity in our Father’s goodness.’
There is nothing to stop any soul from reaching the
heights of divine love—so important for the Church
as well as for itself—except its own self-sufficiency, its
own independence, its own pride. Humility, we repeat,
is the ladder to the summit of divine love. And selfrenunciation, carried out in true simplicity, is the sure
way of finding union with God. Poverty of spirit is the
divinely announced title to the kingdom of heaven.
Ultimately we must find God, we must renounce our­
selves, we must be reduced to poverty, if not in this
life, then in the next in the purifying fires of Purgatory.
But now is the acceptable time, and St. Thérèse has
been raised up to show us the true way.
We have already, in previous chapters, insisted upon
the special propriety of humility in one who daily
offers sacrifice to God; we feel bound to return to it.
The Benedictine concept of humility as flowing from
reverence to God is especially significant in this con­
nection. A man who is called by his profession, as a
priest is, to proclaim God’s glory before heaven and
earth, can find no better way of doing so continually
than by true humility and spiritual childhood. St.
Thérèse has given us one example. Another example,
perhaps more akin to our own vocation, is that of
Dom Marmion, the Dublin priest who became a
Benedictine abbot and wrote what I think I may justly
call the theology of spiritual childhood. Time and time
again he insists in his writings that we must find all in
Christ. Time and time again he urges us to lay down

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131

our will and judgement, our own way of seeing things,
at the feet of Christ, and to tell him that we do not
want anything except what comes from him, that we do
not desire to do anything except what he, as the Word,
from all eternity has decided for us; that in fact we
should try to live in the spirit of St. Paul’s words:
‘Vivo autem, jam non ego: vivit vero in me Christus’5
This of course means a high degree of self-abnegation.
But that is not so difficult if only we can stir up a
lively and unlimited faith in two things: in the burning
personal love that God the Father has for each of us,
a love which animates all his providential dispositions
in our regard and which makes him ever solicitous for
our welfare; and, secondly, in the infinite riches that
are ours in Christ. His merits, infinite as they are, are
ours. His claim upon the Father is ours. Truly has
he borne all our infirmities and our weaknesses and has
made ample provision for them. Truly has he taken
away all our sins and has paid the price of our iniquities
so that we may be delivered from them. In him there
is nothing wanting to us in any grace.
If we have a real conviction of these two truths about
God, we shall not be afraid to face the truth about
ourselves. The ordinary priest who is not conscious of
mortal sin finds it rather difficult to apply to himself
what spiritual writers say about the nothingness and
the sinfulness of the human creature. But there is a
misunderstanding at the root of his outlook. He forgets
that a man in the state of grace is neither a mere
creature, nor is he alone. He is then a creature raised to
a participation in the divine nature, and one in whose
soul God dwells as a partner. To see the truth
about ourselves we should abstract from the effect
of grace, and view ourselves as we would be without it.

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In this condition, in so far as the supernatural order is
concerned, we are literally dead. We cannot make a
single movement towards God, we have not even any
claim upon God. All our riches are in Christ. In his
name we can call upon God with the assurance that he
must hear us. By his grace we can believe in God,
we can hope in God, we can love God. By his strength
we can live in God and for God. Gladly, then, let us
glory in our infirmities that the power of Christ may
dwell in us.
We have, therefore, to make up our minds whether
we are going to live by our own strength or by the
power of Christ. If we decide—as faced with a super­
human vocation we must decide—that we must live
by the power and strength of Christ, then immediately
we are committed to that complete emptying of our­
selves which is summed up in true humility and spiritual
childhood.
1
2
’
‘
4

Aug. 14th 1921
Matt. XVIII, 3
Mark X, 15-16
Oct. 8th 1938
Gal. II, 20

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

RECITING THE DIVINE OFFICE

It would be a mistake to make too sharp a distinction
between the interior life of a priest and his external
duties. All his priestly actions should flow from, and
be animated by, his interior life. And his interior life
can grow in depth and intensity through the proper
performance of his priestly functions. In fact, any
separation of the exterior work from the interior life
is to be deplored; they are only two different aspects
of the one same thing, the exterior work being but the
expression of the interior life and love. This is especially
true of the duty of reciting daily the diving office.
It is unfortunate that long prayers have become so
associated in our minds with penance that we tend to
look upon the recital of any vocal prayers of obligation
merely as a penitential work, and to be concerned
chiefly with the externals of its accomplishment. It
is, of course, true that as far as the satisfaction of the
particular obligation which is attached to the breviary
is concerned, lip articulation is quite sufficient; and it is
further true that, as far as fulfilment of the obligation
is concerned, scruples must be ruthlessly avoided. But
there is much more in the daily recitation of the office
than a mere penance to be performed as a legal ob­
ligation under the penalty of serious sin. We priests

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THE priest’s way to god

tend to overlook, or at least to underestimate, the im­
portance of one of the two aspects of our priesthood.
As priests we stand between God and man. We speak
to men and act on them in the name of God, but
we also speak to God and worship him in the name
of his people. It is this second aspect of our priestly
vocation, an aspect which in many ways is its primary
one, that we so often overlook. And even if we only
consider the first-mentioned function—that of our
duties to our flock—we still underestimate the im­
portance of our breviary even in their regard. A priest
seldom does so much for his flock as when he prays for
them, and he seldom prays for them so effectively as
when he recites the divine office.
Yet the primary importance of the divine office is
its value as an act of divine worship. We know that
when we as priests administer the sacraments, their
principal effect is produced ex opere operato—indepen­
dently of our personal merits and fervour. We know
too that when we offer to God the sacrifice of the Mass,
we offer him something which has a value in his eyes
quite independent of our own unworthiness, for in our
offering he sees Christ both offering and being offered.
But we often forget, or at least fail to realize fully, how
much there is in the divine office that has a value and
an importance of its own. It is of course true that there
is no question here of the ex opere operato manner of
acting that belongs to the sacraments. But for all that,
our position in the eyes of God when we are reciting
the breviary is so official, so representative, so ‘vicar­
ious’, that after the Mass and the sacraments there is
hardly any other action which has a value—a great
value—so independent of ourselves.
The very nature of the office itself suggests this.

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135

The psalms and canticles which form the greater
portion of it are the inspired work of the Holy Spirit.
The rest is composed by the Church which has the aid
of the Holy Spirit in all that concerns divine worship.
So that in its content alone the breviary has a value—
if one may so speak—in the eyes of God. To this there
is added the fact that the priest reciting the breviary
is not merely praying privately in his own name; he
is an official representative of the whole Church
speaking to God in her name and speaking with her
claim to be heard. His own personal defects and de­
merits do not affect his official status and importance.
He comes before God as a representative of the Church
which Christ loved and for which he delivered himself.
The voice of the priest is the voice of the spouse, and
has all the claim to be heard and the power to please
that such a divinely redeemed spouse has. For this
reason alone we priests should attach a very great
importance to our recitation of the office, both as a
means of satisfying God’s claim to worship and praise,
and also as a means of interceding with him for the
needs of our people and of the whole Church.
But there is far more in it than that. For the Church
is the Mystical Body of Christ, and when she speaks
to the Father, Christ the Son of the Father is one with
the Church, and he speaks too with her and in her.
This is no mere metaphor. St. Augustine is most
insistent on this union of Christ with the Church in
the Church’s prayer as is evident from the following
quotations :
‘ We pray to him in the form of God; he prays in
the form of the slave (i.e. ourselves). There he is the
Creator; here he is in the creature. He changes not,
but he takes the creature and changes it into himself,

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making us one man, head and body with himself. We
pray therefore to him, and through him and in him;
we pray with him and he prays with us; we recite this
prayer of the psalms in him and he recites it in us.’1
‘Let him rise up, this one chanter; let this Man sing
from the heart of each of us, and let each of us be in
this Man. When each one of you sings a verse, it is
still this one Man that sings, since you are all one
in Christ.’2
‘You should of course consider that each of you is
speaking but that primarily this one Man is speaking
who reaches to the ends of the earth.’3
This is the great importance of the office: it is the
prayer of Christ said by Christ to the Father of Christ,
and when we recite the office, we enter into Christ,
we put on Christ, we are one with Christ. In each of
us the Father sees and hears Christ, his well-beloved
Son in whom he is well pleased.
This view of the divine office will do much to correct
the many mistakes we make in our attitude to it. First
of all, we frequently complain that we find more
devotion in other prayers and that the divine office
does not arouse our fervour. No priest needs to be re­
minded that feelings of devotion are secondary and
that their absence does not lessen the value of our
prayer; such a ‘dry’ prayer, in fact, may be most
valuable. But that is not really the point. It is not so
much a question of replacing dryness by devotion or
coldness by fervour. It is a question of replacing our­
selves, of getting rid of ourselves, and of substituting
for ourselves the person and the prayer of Christ.
Here we may note the importance of true humility
which has occupied us so much in previous chapters.
The truly humble man is never surprised at his own

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137

failure in prayer, nor does he presume to pray in his
own name. Knowing what he is, and remembering
what God is, he recognizes immediately his own com­
plete inadequacy to pray to God as he should be prayed
to, and he instinctively abandons himself and goes in
search of Christ, who alone can pray to God and praise
him adequately. And the man of faith and humility
knows with complete certainty that Christ is only too
willing to be found and to co-operate in such prayer
and praise. Did he not tell us himself that he must be
about his Father’s business? And the man of faith,
thus led by humility to seek Christ, takes up the
breviary and, opening it, calls on God to come to his
aid and then, united to Christ, allows him to use the
lips of his creature to pray to the Father and to praise
him in the name of his Son. If we but knew the gift
of God ! If we could only realize how completely Christ
supplies for all our deficiencies when we say the office
united to him by faith! The role of faith here is of
essential importance. The just man lives by faith and
it is by faith that Christ lives in our hearts. Faith must
animate and rule our use of the breviary. It requires
faith to realize all that the breviary should mean in a
priest’s life.
For in actual fact there is but one Priest, Christ
himself, and we are only participators in his priesthood.
And there is one great prayer of that Priest who, as the
Word of God, is the only adequate praise of God; and,
after the Mass, we have no more effective way of
making that prayer and that praise our own than by
reciting the divine office.
But it is important that we do not make the mistake
of expecting to find a personal application for all the
words of that office. Their full application is to be

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

found in some member of that Mystical Body of Christ
in whose name we are praying. We praise God on be­
half of all creation; we thank him, we beg his grace
and mercy, not merely for ourselves, but for all man­
kind. Many of the texts that the Church puts on our
lips could refer to some soul under persecution, being
tortured for his faith. Many texts, too, find their full
application in the case of sinners who, having lost the
grace of God, cannot come back to him unless he gives
them grace. This, in fact, is a most important aspect
of our official prayer as priests. There is no soul so
helpless as the soul in mortal sin. No temporal privation
or need, however urgent, can constitute such a claim
on our charity as the supernatural needs of the soul
in sin. It was particularly for such souls that our Lord
came on earth and suffered and died. We must try
to partake of his compassion for such souls. And apart
from the Mass, there is no more effective way of helping
these souls than by the recitation of the divine office.
It is unfortunate that this apostolic aspect of the divine
office is so often overlooked. It is true that many priests
do realize that prayer is their primary task in the work
of converting souls, though the realization is by no
means so widespread or so complete as it should be.
But even when the need of prayer in the apostolate is
duly recognized, the supremacy of the divine office is
overlooked and we have recourse to other prayer,
personal prayer, much more dependent on our own
dispositions than the official prayer which we say in
the name of the Mystical Body of Christ. It is true
that such personal prayers have their place and their
importance; but they should not be allowed to supplant
the divine office in our estimation or in our choice.
There is no prayer more effiacious in drawing down the

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139

graces we need for our own souls or for those in whom
we are interested.
We have mentioned the need for faith, and we should
like to emphasize it, for its importance is not confined
to the divine office. Sooner or later, all real progress
in the spiritual life leads to a state where one must
live and walk and work by faith. God hides himself and
we can only believe in him. He hides his grace from
us and even his readiness to grant it to us, and we must
believe in his goodness and mercy. He hides from us
the fruits of our labours in his vineyard, and yet we
must continue to work by faith. It is true most priests
have experienced obvious answers to prayer; but the
time comes sooner or later when our prayers seem to
lose their efficacy. This is particularly true of the divine
office. Its generality, its vagueness of application, its
extensive reference, conspire to hide from us its value.
The fruit of our recitation of the psalms may be found
in some other vineyard far from the scene of our own
labours and may remain quite unknown to us. In fact
the whole of the spiritual life may come to share in
this apparent futility. St. Francis de Sales uses the
comparison of a musician who has become deaf and
who has no means of knowing whether he pleases those
for whom he plays. The comparison can often find an
application in the case of a priest reciting his office.
For the moment, it has no appeal for himself ; it seems
dry, difficult, hard to understand, and incapable of
exciting any devotion. Yet the priest must believe. He
has the authority of the Church to rely upon, and he
should always remember the insistence with which our
Lord instructed his apostles about the essential principle
of fruitfulness in the apostolate, which is to abide in
him. How can we better abide in him than by entering

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

into his prayer and making it our own? And in that
very same instruction of our Lord, we should find an
explanation for the aridity and difficulty that the divine
office often assumes; for did he not warn us that when
we had begun to bring forth fruit by abiding in him,
his Father, the good husbandman, would purge and
prune us so that we might bring forth more fruit?
We have to be careful that, when God thus begins to
lead us on to better things and to a more fruitful
apostolate, we do not oppose his good work by throw­
ing ourselves into activities where at least some meagre
fruit is apparent and where our natural energies find
some satisfaction in their activity. It is this very tendency
and satisfaction that God wishes to ‘purge’. The
apostolate is, in all its branches, a supernatural work.
It must be done by supernatural means, and one of
the primary supernatural means is prayer, especially
the prayer of Christ which we make our own in the
divine office.
To appreciate properly the significance of the divine
office one must have faith, and that faith must include
not merely the prayer of Christ but Christ himself. We
know that the merits of Christ are infinite and that
these merits are shared with his Mystical Body, the
Church. When, then, we pray in the name of Christ,
we have these infinite merits of Christ pleading in our
favour and outweighing all human demerits which
could lessen the appeal of our prayer or obstruct its
efficacy. This confident trust in the merits of Christ
is one of the most important dispositions which must
be ours when we come to say the office. The acts of
faith and of hope which are required must be delibe­
rately produced as a prelude to our prayer. We should
not forget the part played by our will in these acts and

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141

we must decide to believe in God, and decide to hope
in God, because he is God.
When it comes to the actual recitation of the office,
many practical problems arise. They vary so much from
one man to another that it would be hopeless to attempt
their solution here. There is of course the general
difficulty of sustaining one’s attention and avoiding dis­
traction. St. Thomas’ doctrine on attention at prayer
is well known: we may attend to the saying of our
prayer, we may attend to the words we say, or we may
attend to him to whom they are said. The special nature
of the office adds a further possibility, for we may also
attend to the Person who is saying the office with us,
the Person who is really saying the office.
This possibility should open a way for many priests
to approach the breviary with renewed zeal and courage.
Experience has taught most of us something of our
own limitations and of the inadequacy of our own
prayers. An increasing realization of the nature of
God, of his infinite perfection and goodness, adds a
further motive for us to seek competent aid in praying
to him and praising him. True zeal for his glory makes
us seek union with Christ, who alone can give his
Father adequate glory. True zeal for souls makes us
cleave to the divine Saviour who came on earth to
save souls, and who alone can properly intercede with
his Father on their behalf. Turning then in this spirit
to the divine office, we find there by faith our divine
Saviour to whom we can ‘attend’ while we are reciting
the words dictated by his Holy Spirit or provided by
his spouse. The very commencement of the office is an
appeal for such help: ‘Deus in adjutorium meum in­
tende: Domine ad adjuvandum me festina.’ If we
make the petition with sincerity and humble confidence

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we have already gone far to say our office properly.
But even to go so far on our way implies a fair degree
of the interior life. Too often the life of a priest is
directed towards souls instead of towards God. For
that reason, he overlooks the importance of his own
interior life and tends to resent, or at least to neglect,
exercises and prescriptions that seem to take up time
and energy which could, apparently, be employed
more profitably for souls. To do this is to forget the
first commandment. God requires the first fruits and
the best of the flock. His claim on our direct worship is
a primary one, and this includes his claim on the time
necessary for the recitation of the divine office in praise
of his name and glory. His glory is his own, he will not
and cannot give it to another. For that reason it is of
capital importance that we priests give him due honour
by direct worship. And even our work for souls must
be primarily work for God and must be done in a
spirit which recognizes our complete dependence on
him. Such a spirit will inevitably prompt us to give first
place even in our apostolic work to prayer for his
grace and help. And if we obey that prompting, we
shall run no risk of depriving him of the glory of his
mercy.
First things must come first. He has a first claim
on our direct service. All other service—even the
service of souls—must have him not only for its final
end, but also for its first principle. The divine office
plays a great part in ensuring the preservation of this
perspective, and we must convince and frequently
remind ourselves of the importance of the divine
office not only in the direct worship of God but also
in the apostolic care of souls. We repeat that after the
Mass a priest can hardly find a more efficient way of

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143

serving God and saving souls than by the devout re­
citation of the divine office.
1 St. Augustine, In Ps. 85
1 In Ps. 122, 1
’ In Ps. 142

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

WITH OUR LADY

Since every priest is, by his office, a minister of grace,
he cannot neglect devotion to our Lady, who is the
Mediatrix of all graces. That alone would constitute
a close relationship between the priest and our Lady.
But the connection between them has an even wider
foundation. Christ himself, whose priesthood we share,
became a priest in the womb of his Mother. And the
exercise of Christ’s priesthood is directed to incor­
porating every soul into his Mystical Body, and to
nourishing and developing that Body. Pius X has made
it quite clear that just as Mary is the Mother of Christ’s
natural body, so too she is the Mother of his Mystical
Body. Every priest, then, who works for the building
up of the Mystical Body of Christ, is de facto working
in partnership with Mary as well as with Christ. In
fact, it is in a certain sense true that every priest shares
in Mary’s mystical maternity of souls.
Our Lady’s part in the Sacrifice of Calvary is, of
course, still a matter for theological discussion. That
she took a considerable part in it is quite certain. Since
our principal function as priests is to offer that sacrifice
sacramentally in the Mass, Mary has for us no small
significance. In fact, to cut short a discussion which
could be prolonged at great length, we may state quite

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bluntly that no priest can do without Mary. He must
have her help—and she certainly should have his de­
votion.
But even though she is so important for his work
for other souls, yet Mary’s first importance is for his
own soul. Her function is to form Christ in the souls of
men. Since the priest must be another Christ, to whom
then can he come with more assurance than to Mary?
Our constant prayer to her should be that she would
form Christ in us, and form us in Christ. This constant
and confident recourse to Mary, in season and out of
season, is the first element in sacerdotal devotion to
Our Lady. Every ministerial work we do as priests is
done to Christ: ‘Amen, I say to you, you did it to me’.1
And because Mary is the Mother of Christ, she must
have her part in all we do. If we could only realize how
eager Mary always is to do something for Christ in the
souls to whom we minister, and if we could only under­
stand the immense power she has in regard to grace,
we would joyfully and confidently invoke her aid in
every single work of our ministry—in the name of
Christ. She in turn would develop that charity, which
should be the characteristic virtue of the priesthood,
until it resembled the charity which is a burning fire in
her own immaculate heart.
But even in regard to our direct relationship with God
himself, our Lady’s importance is tremendous. The
truth is that the only adequate love and worship which
God can receive is the love and worship given to him
by a Divine Person—by Christ himself. No one appre­
ciates this better than our Lady. No human being is so
zealous for God’s glory or so eager to have him loved
as he should be loved as is Mary. She knows that it is
only by being united to Christ and being quickened by

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

the Spirit of Christ that we can give God due honour
and due love. She is the divinely chosen means used by
the Holy Ghost in bringing forth Christ on earth. If
we go to her in the name of God—for his honour and
for his love—asking her to give us her Son so that we
may love God and serve him as Christ wishes to love
and serve him in and through us, she will undoubtedly
hear our prayer and give us Christ himself unless we
set up obstacles by our own self-love and self-will.
Prayer, then, is the first work of devotion to our Lady.
What particular form this prayer takes is not so impor­
tant. The Rosary, however, put before us by Canon
Law and urged upon us by so many Papal documents,
is an obvious choice and should, of course, be recited
daily by every priest. But we would suggest adding
to it some more personal and intimate prayer—a prayer
made in our own words and in our own way—in order
that we may develop intimacy and union with our Lady.
Such a prayer, of course, need not be too long, but it
cannot be too fervent. Some form of a daily ‘visit’ to
our Lady should be a feature of our programme. It
should be the intimate meeting of a son with his mother,
in which sincere candour and loving confidence pre­
dominate. The less formal ‘prayers’ one says on such
occasions the better. But the fundamental bond ought
to be that love and interest in Christ which we should
have in common with our Lady. The principle must
never be forgotten that the foundation, the motive, the
purpose and the mainspring of devotion to Mary is
devotion to Christ. We may confidently assert that no
one has ever practised true devotion to Mary without
thereby gaining a great increase in devotion to Christ.
Prayer, however, is not enough. Devotion to our
Lady should lead us to imitate her example and to

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follow her ideals. We can find a perfect summing-up
of her mind and doctrine in the only recorded words
she spoke to men : ‘Whatsoever he shall say to you, do
ye.’2 Obedience and abandonment to the will of God
in all its manifestations are the keynotes of Mary’s life.
Her Fiat at the Annunciation is only the summing-up
of the entire consecration of herself to God and to his
will which animated every moment of her life.
It is, perhaps, possible to find in this lesson of precept
and example a deeper significance. Our Lady’s function
is to incorporate us completely in Christ. Now this
requires our co-operation. Once we have received the
supernatural life of grace through the sacraments, the
completeness of our incorporation in Christ depends
on the degree of our submission to the will of God.
Unlike the members of a human body, the members of
the Mystical Body of Christ are masters of their own
actions. In every action, we can decide to do our own
will, and thus, despite the fundamental bond of incor­
poration into Christ, we for the moment live our own
life, quite separate from the life Christ lives in his
Mystical Body. In so far as we remove our actions
from the influence of the Holy Ghost, who resembles
the soul in the Mystical Body of Christ, we separate
ourselves from Christ. Whereas when the Holy Ghost
has complete control over all our actions, when, in
fact, we are completely led by the will of God, we are
living our full mystical life in Christ, no matter how
prosaic or commonplace our actions may be—so long
as they are the will of God. Christ came on earth to
do the will of the Father, and wherever the will of the
Father is being done, there Christ is doing it in part­
nership with the created agent. Mary’s exhortation to
obedience thus lays down the principle of co-operation

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in the maternity of the Mystical Body. Christ himself
told us that he who does the will of his Father in heaven
is his mother.3 By devoting ourselves to doing the will
of God and accepting all its manifestations we are not
merely imitating Mary, but we are co-operating in her
work as mother of the Mystical Body of Christ in our
own souls. It is extraordinary how true devotion to
Mary always leads to devotion to Christ, to the Holy
Spirit and finally to the Blessed Trinity.
But there are other outstanding virtues which
characterized our Lady’s life and which call for our
imitation. Her humility is one of her greatest glories.
Her virginity made her body holy, but her humility gave
her holiness of spirit. By her virginity she pleased God,
but by her humility she drew God down to this earth.
The whole Incarnation is characterized by humility.
And it was by her humility that our Lady most closely
corresponded to the dispositions of her Son in his
Incarnation. Being his Mother, she had to resemble
what he was to be. To be humble, one must accept
the truth, especially the truth about oneself; one must
adapt oneself willingly to things as they are; one must
will what God has willed in the way which he has willed
it. Our Lady ignored herself completely. She looked
always to God, never worrying or even asking what
effect she produced on others. She never compared or
preferred herself to others. She avoided all singularity,
all wish for distinction; she always showed candour,
simplicity and perfect rectitude of intention. But if
one may try to sum up her humility in a phrase, it is
not enough to say that hers was a humility which
ignored itself, or which kept silent, or which effaced
itself ; one must go further and describe it as the humi­
lity which completely forgets itself. There is ample field

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149

here in this matter for every priest to try to imitate
Mary’s humility. It will be a life-long work, it will only
be achieved completely by special graces, but it is what
Mary, and not only Mary but Christ himself, has
taught us in every moment of their lives.
There are, however, many degrees of devotion to
our Lady. If we are asked to suggest some means of
growing in this devotion we would put forward the
following. First, we must study our Lady, and our own
vocation in reference to our Lady. Secondly, we must
continually pray for devotion to our Lady, begging
especially the gift of a filial piety to her. Thirdly, we
should endeavour to imitate her favourite virtues: in
particular her charity, her humility, her simplicity, her
spirit of faith and of prayer, her careful custody of her
heart; but above all one must imitate her in her com­
plete devotion to Jesus and to his interests. Fourthly,
we should second her in her apostolate, acting as her
junior partner, so to speak, working in dependence and
reliance upon her who is so intimately connected with
the work of our salvation. Fifthly, if one wishes to go
further, there is the complete consecration of oneself
to Mary. This is not a way which appeals to every one.
It is, however, a short cut to sanctity. Associated with
the name of St. Louis Grignon de Montfort who ex­
pounded the doctrine in his book True Devotion to Our
Lady, it acquired a special significance when he was
canonized. This consecration to our Lady consists in
making over to her as completely as we can all that we
have, all that we do, all that we are, all that we acquire,
past, present, and future—in a word, in giving to her
everything of which we have any power to dispose.
We give Mary our body that it may be used in her
service in activity or in suffering as she desires. We

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

consequently accept all the dispositions of Providence
in regard to health, strength, sickness, life or death,
for the whole of our days on earth. We give Mary the
right to dispose of us and of all our material possessions,
relying on her maternal care to provide for us. But
still more, we place all our faculties at Mary’s disposal
for the service of her Son. We employ them for her and
not for ourselves, and we commit the outcome of all
our actions to her protection, accepting failure or
success with prudent indifference. Our soul itself we
give to her, with the Christ-life that Baptism has
planted within us, relying on her to ensure its sancti­
fication, its perseverance, its salvation and its ultimate
union with God in heaven.
We go even further. All our prayers, and all the
prayers that are said for us, even after death, are made
over to her to apply according to her own intentions.
The supernatural value of our works is included in our
offering so that she can use their satisfactory and impetratory effect as she pleases; even our merits, in so
far as they can be transferred, belong to her. We make
no reserve; all that is in any way ours is hers to draw
on and to use as she pleases. It is of capital importance
to realize that all this consecration to our Lady is only
a means—but to our mind the most efficacious means—
to an end. The end of it all is that we may belong more
securely and more completely to her Son Jesus Christ.
He asked us to ‘abide’ in him. It is in order that we may
abide in him that we give ourselves to Mary. We shall
get some idea of the underlying purpose if we recall
how our Lord’s Body was formed on earth. Until he
was bom every particle of his sacred Flesh and Blood
was drawn from Mary. By taking the products of the
earth in food and drink, Mary made them part of herself

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151

and thus they became part of our Lord. Even after
the Nativity this process continued, for in the beginning
he was nourished by our Lady herself, and then by the
work of her hands when she prepared his food. Now
there is an analogous pattern in the formation of the
Mystical Body of Christ, for this Body is formed by
the mediation of Mary. The more, therefore, we give
ourself to Mary, the more certainly and the more
completely are we given by her to Christ.
It must be remembered that this devotion is no pass­
ing act; it is a life-long policy, an habitual attitude of
mind, a continued turning of the heart. It needs fre­
quent renewal, but often a smile or a glance towards
our Lady is all that is necessary. It is not a devotion to
be adopted without deliberation and reflection. Those
who wish to find a more detailed account of it should
read the two small works of St. Louis Grignon de
Montfort. Tanquerey sums up the devotion in each of
his two books, The Spiritual Life and Doctrine and
Devotion. Once this offering has been made, we should
be docile to all Mary’s directions, and in the matter
of our own spiritual advance, we should let her form
us in sanctity and guide our apostolate. In everything,
spiritual and temporal, we should live in confident
dependence on Mary’s care, seeing in everything that
happens her arrangement.
If our devotion to her is sincere and generous, we
shall be amazed at her solicitude for us. First of all,
we shall find an extraordinary peace in our own souls.
We are in Mary’s hands, and she can and will look after
us much better than we can ourselves. Then our work
is under her protection and guidance. No matter what
help we need, no matter what special grace is required
to achieve God’s purpose, we are sure that Mary’s

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THE priest’s way to god

all-powerful intercession will obtain it. Every priest
knows the numerous little things—meetings, books,
words, ideas—resulting apparently from chance, which
play so great a part in the apostolate. Once we have
put Mary in charge of our lives, these things begin to
multiply in an amazing manner, so that Mary’s inter­
vention is almost palpable. The more generous we are
with Mary, the more munificent she will be with us.
No one need think that such devotion to our Lady
will interfere with our direct approach to Jesus Christ.
Quite the contrary. Union with our Lady gives us a
new confidence and assurance in approaching our Lord.
Our sins no longer lessen our spontaneity of approach,
for our consciousness of Mary’s support removes our
diffidence. And this approach to Christ in union with
our Lady prepares us for the still more important
approach with Christ to God. She thus trains us in the
essential lesson of Christianity. In fact we can even
go to our Lady in the name of Christ, reminding her
that what she does for us is done for Christ so that we
are giving her new opportunities of doing something
for her beloved Son. We can even plead our defects
and our demerits in our favour, by reminding her that
she never had to overcome repugnance in loving and
serving Jesus in himself, whereas in loving and serving
him in us who are sinners, she can show her love for
him in a new way. Or we can approach Christ directly
and offer him an opportunity of showing his love for
his mother, because, since we are completely hers,
anything he does for us is ultimately done for her.
The consciousness that Mary can apply the fruits of
our work can give us a new assurance in our apostolate.
With the best will in the world we can never of ourselves
know where our forces can be best employed for the

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153

glory of God. Even within the limits laid down by
obedience, there is always room for individual choice
of effort and emphasis. If all is given to Mary, we know
that she will apply the results of our efforts just exactly
at the particular point where they are most needed.
Here let us remind the reader that there is a double
effect of the actions of our apostolate. One is the
immediate and what we might somewhat inaccurately
call the ‘natural’ effect of our efforts. For example,
the effect of a sermon should be some result in the
minds and hearts of our hearers. But there is another
effect, a deeper and more supernatural one. If it is
our duty to preach, then it is God’s will, and we can
approach our sermon as an act of loving submission
to God, animated by love for him, preaching just
because he wants us to preach. By this act we ‘abide’
in him; and by abiding in him, we bring forth fruit.
This fruit may be brought forth anywhere in the
Church, and it is, in some ways, a much more impor­
tant result than the one immediately produced on our
present congregation. A priest’s life could be a fruitless
failure where his immediate flock is concerned—as
sometimes happens, more or less, in the mission fields
—and yet be productive of great fruit at some other
place and perhaps some other time in the Church.
The death of Christ was the most fruitful moment of
his life on earth. So too our apparent failures may be
our most fruitful works, especially if we are in the hands
of Mary.
Much more could be said on the part played by
devotion to Mary in the life of the priest. Her charity
and our imitation of it call for further discussion.
Meanwhile let it suffice to quote the words of Pius X:
‘There is no more certain or efficacious way of uniting

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THE priest’s way to god

all to Christ than by Mary .... Clearly, there is no
other alternative for us than to receive Christ from the
hands of Mary.’4 We must, then, be sure to give her
her proper place in our lives.
1
*
’
*

Matt. XXV, 40
John II, 5
Cf. Matt. XII, 50
Ad diem ilium

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

THE TEACHING OF ST. PIUS X

The canonisation of Pope Pius X drew special atten­
tion to his teaching on the spiritual life of the priest.
Not only did he write with the authority of the vicar
of Christ, but it may be truly said that he taught nothing
which he himself did not practise. An outline, then,
of his spiritual teaching should be very much to our
present purpose in these pages.
After his elevation to the Papacy, St. Pius soon
announced to the world what he intended to do. His
purpose he declared to be that expressed in the words
of St. Paul: ‘ Instaurare omnia in Christo ut videlicet sit
omnia, et in omnibus Christus n: that is to re-establish
all things in Christ, so that Christ might be all and in
all. With this inspired purpose in mind, he appeals to
the Episcopate to assist him by their personal holiness,
their wisdom, their actions, striving to give God the
glory due to him and having no other purpose than
to form Christ in all souls. As a first step to this end
he appeals to the bishops to spare no effort that Christ
be formed in those priests who are destined for the
work of forming him in others. And the words of the
Holy Father are of tremendous significance for us
priests: ‘How can they fulfil this function unless they
themselves have first of all put on Christ—and that in

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

such a way that they can say with St. Paul : “I live, now
not I; but Christ liveth in me ... To me, to live is
Christ”.2 ’ The general vocation to be filled with the
fullness of Christ has a special application to the priest;
for he must be another Christ, not merely by showing
the power of Christ, but by imitating his deeds so that
he may be his living image. This is a high ideal, but it is
the ideal which must be that of every true priest. And
the Holy Father, pursuing his purpose of re-establishing
all things in Christ, goes on to discuss the formation
of priests upon whom the whole work depends.
Reminding the priest of his obligation to teach and
to bear fruit, St. Pius reminds him that in all his work
nothing is more effective than charity. It is a fallacy to
hope to lead souls to God by bitter zeal. It is true, the
Pope says, that St. Paul exhorts St. Timothy to ‘reprove,
entreat, rebuke’, but he adds ‘in all patience’.3 Indeed
we would draw attention to a further addition, for the
full text reads ‘in all patience and doctrine.’ The Pope
puts before us the example of Christ himself who
could say: ‘Come to me all you that labour and are
burdened, and I will refresh you’1 and in those who
labour and are burdened he sees a reference to those in
sin and in error. Christ’s wonderful meekness, mildness,
sympathy and kindness should be an example for us
priests. And there follows in the original Encyclical
(E Supremi, October 4th, 1903) a moving appeal for
charity in all the works of the apostolate. The prophet
Isaias is quoted as giving us a portrait of the heart of
Christ in the words: ‘He shall not cry out nor have
respect to person ... the bruised reed he shall not
break and smoking flax he shall not quench.’5 Our
charity must be patient and kind, even to those who
are our opponents or our enemies. Like St. Paul we

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157

must bless when we are reviled, we must be patient
when we are persecuted, we must pray when we are
blasphemed. For, as the holy heart of the Pope inspires
him to say, ‘they are not as evil as they seem to be.’
They may have been led astray by bad habits, or the
example and the advice of others; their own prejudices
and shame may have driven them to the wrong side;
but their wills are not as evil as their behaviour might
indicate. To the darkness of their souls the flame of
charity can bring light and peace; and although it may
take time to bear fruit, charity is never fatigued, never
gives up. In any case, God has promised his rewards
not for the fruit of our labours but for the good will
that animates them.
The Holy Father, then, is insistent on the lesson
taught us by the Good Shepherd : ‘Learn of me, because
I am meek, and humble of heart.’® St. Pius himself was
a model of meekness, and the mildness of saintly men
in dealing with sinners is a commonplace in Christian
history. The saints, and above all our Divine Saviour,
are our safest guides. We shall do well to model our
ministry on his and theirs. ‘This man receiveth sinners’ :
that was the impression made by our Lord on the Jews
of his day. His methods and those of his saints are
the best and will do far more good in the long run than
anything approaching harshness. We must, indeed,
‘reprove, entreat and rebuke’ when occasion demands,
but even when we do so, if our people see in us some­
thing of the gentleness and kindness of the Sacred
Heart, they will listen much more readily to our warn­
ings. The priest, like Christ, must be zealous for the
honour of his Father’s house; but, again like Christ,
he must also be ‘the friend of publicans and sinners.’
So urgent did Pius X consider the sanctification of

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

the clergy that he returned to the subject in a special
instruction, Haerenti Animo.’’ He reminds us that our
priesthood is given us not merely for ourselves but
also for others. Priests are the light of the world and
the salt of the earth. We must preach not only by word
but by example. Without holiness we are as useless as
the savourless salt. To the question of this need and
obligation of holiness in the priest, St. Pius frequently
returns. He assumes the obligation and discusses the
way it can be fulfilled in the Letter approving the Pia
Unio Cum nobis.6 In his Letter to the Clergy, Haerenti
Animo, he is more explicit. We exercise our priestly
functions not in our own name, but in the name of
Christ. And we are called by Christ to this work not
as his servants but as his friends. True friendship results
from a unity of wills: ‘Idem velle, idem nolle, ea
demum firma amicitia est.’ We must therefore have
the mind of Christ, and share in his dispositions, his
outlook, his purpose. In fact we must go further, and
here St. Pius sums up in a phrase the whole spiritual
life of the priest: ‘Est igitur nobis persona Christi
gerenda.’ We have to reproduce Christ in ourselves
and in our lives. This is our vocation and this is our
purpose.
Christ’s own dispositions, Christ’s own purpose,
Christ’s own mind, are most perfectly expressed and
summed up in his Sacrifice. We have to renew this
Sacrifice every time we offer Mass and, as Pius tells
us, we must try to conform our minds to his as he
offered himself as an unspotted victim to God. If the
former sacrifices of the Old Law, which were merely
shadows of what was to come, demanded so much
holiness in those who offered them, what obligations
are ours, whose victim is Christ himself? Nothing

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159

short of a complete dedication of our whole being to
God can correspond to the sacrifice we offer.
The standard St. Pius sets for us is high. He expects
as great a difference between the life of a good Christian
and that of a priest as between heaven and earth. But
we must form a correct view of what is required of us :
and here St. Pius corrects an error that is not unknown
even in our own times. ‘Some’, he writes, ‘feel that a
priest’s perfection is to be found in his spending himself
completely in the service of others; they would not have
him worry too much about those virtues which are
sometimes called “passive” ; all his energy and purpose
should be concentrated on the “active” virtues.’ This
view the Holy Pontiff brands as absolutely fallacious,
and makes his own the teaching of his predecessor,
Leo XIII: ‘Christ is the Master and Exemplar of all
holiness, all true holiness must be modelled on him.’
Nothing has changed the example he gave us of meek­
ness, humility of heart and obedience even unto death.
Self-abnegation is still the foundation of sanctity, and
is the source of much of a priest’s fruitfulness. To be
swayed by ambition, by honours, by success, by plea­
sure, is to depart from the rule laid down by our Lord:
‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself.’9
The Pope, of course, does not mean that we can
neglect the duties of our ministry. We have been hired
by the Master to work in the vineyard. We must be
about our Father’s business. But we must remember
that, especially in the ministry, we are nothing of
ourselves. We have been chosen as God’s instruments
but not because of our merits. For St. Paul reminds
us: ‘The foolish things of the world hath God chosen,
that he may confound the wise; and the weak things
of the world hath God chosen that he may confound

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

the strong; and the base things of the world, and things
that are contemptible hath God chosen, and the things
that are not, that he might bring to nought the things
that are.’10 Having quoted this text, Pius proceeds to
lay down doctrine of capital importance for every
priest. Here we render rather freely : ‘There is only one
thing which unites man to God, only one thing which
makes him pleasing to God and keeps him from being
an unworthy minister of his mercy, and that is holiness
of life and of manners. If this—which is the supereminent knowledge of Jesus Christ—is lacking in the
priest, everything is lacking. For without this holiness,
even that extensive knowledge of doctrine (which we
are trying to promote in the clergy), even the greatest
dexterity and skill in dealing with souls, while it may
produce some good for the Church or for particular
souls, quite often is a deplorable cause of harm . . .
Holiness, and holiness only, makes us what our divine
vocation requires us to be, men walking in newness of
life who, as St. Paul exhorts us,11 show ourselves to be
ministers of God in labours, in watchings, in fastings,
in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness,
in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned,—men whose
whole tendency is to heavenly things and who strive
in every way to lead others to God.’
The Holy Father then proceeds to point out that
the first essential step to acquire this holiness is to
pray and to pray earnestly. So close is the connection
between holiness and the practice of prayer that the
former cannot exist without the latter. Our Lord’s
own example preaches this doctrine eloquently. He
spent whole nights in prayer. He frequently prayed in
the Temple and even in the agonies of death he prayed
with a loud cry and with tears to the Father. ‘This then

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161

we can hold as certain and unquestionable’, says St.
Pius, ‘that a priest, in order to be what his office de­
mands, must be devoted (eximie deditum) to the practice
of prayer.’ To this prayer must be added the practice
of reflection and meditation. ‘No priest can neglect
this without grave carelessness and considerable harm
to his own soul.’ It is an essential foundation for the
sustaining of our supernatural outlook and purpose.
And a priest must develop a facility in remembering
and in striving after heavenly things, for he must fre­
quently speak and treat of the next world. He must
then so arrange his life above all merely human things,
that whatever he does in his sacred ministry he should
do according to God, inspired and guided by faith.
This necessary habit of mind and almost natural
partnership with God depends greatly on daily medi­
tation. Those who neglect this daily exercise show a
sad example of its importance. For they have lost that
sensus Christi, and are wrapped up in terrestrial affairs,
performing their sacred functions carelessly, coldly and
perhaps unworthily. And the Holy Father speaks of the
deadly blindness of those who are so foolish as to
think that time given to prayer and meditation is time
wasted. Such neglect and contempt of prayer leads to
pride and contumaciousness and to very many other
troubles which St. Pius prefers not to mention. He
then discusses the need for regular spiritual reading,
for proper examination of conscience, and for general
fervour in prayer and the practice of virtue. And again
he repeats the fundamental principle—that the motive
for all our efforts is the example of Christ. ‘For if the
priest is called another Christ, and is indeed so by
communication in Christ’s power, is it not essential
that he should also be called another Christ, and be so

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THE priest’s way to god

in fact by imitating the deeds of Christ? Therefore let
our principal preoccupation be the consideration of the
life of Jesus Christ.’
Texts from the writings of St. Pius could be multiplied
but there is no need to quote more. His life itself was a
sermon. He only preached what he himself practised.
For him, to be a priest was to be a victim, to be at
everyone’s disposal. He once said that ‘to be a priest
is to be bound to fatigue—the two are synonymous.’
If we may return to something of which we have
spoken already: his insistence on charity is of great
practical importance. Two places there are in which
a priest’s charity should never fail him. One is the
pulpit and the other is the confessional. It is true, of
course, that in the pulpit abuses must sometimes be
denounced and shortcomings criticized. But there is
always the danger that such criticism should come to
occupy a disproportionate place in our preaching.
We are sent primarily to preach the Gospel, the word
of God. Only in a secondary way are we called upon
to speak of the failings of men. Any inversion of that
order can only do more harm than good. If our preach­
ing is positive, if Sunday after Sunday we speak to
our people of the great central truths of Christianity,
that will give them a basis for leading a full Christian
life. And it will achieve far more than anything else.
And even when we have to criticize, we can do it in a
Christlike way, in a way which makes it clear that we
love the sinner while we hate the sin. ‘If you want to
draw love out, you must pour love in.’ So spoke St.
John of the Cross, and it might not be the worst of
mottoes for the priest in the pulpit.
There is no need to emphasize to any priest how
important it is always to be kind in the confessional.

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163

Nor is there any need to tell him that it is sometimes
difficult. Here, as always, Christ is our model. His
gentleness was never more apparent than with the
repentant sinner; and in the welcome of the father to
the prodigal son, we can catch some glimpse of what
Christ wants us to be when we take his place in the
confessional. It may not be easy but it will be abun­
dantly fruitful.
But all that, like everything else worth while in a
priest’s life, is impossible, unless we are living an interior
life of union with Christ. Prayer, reflection and reading
are essential foundations. No priest dare neglect them.
He who does, even on the plea of devoting more time
to the apostolate, is fooling himself and separating
himself from God. St. Pius has warned us and has
shown us the way.
I
’
•
‘
‘
■
’
•
’
10
II

Cf. Ephes. I, 10 and Col. III. 11
Gal. II, 20; Philipp. I, 21
2 Tim. IV, 2
Matt. XI, 28
Isaias XLI1, 2
Matt. XI, 29
Aug. 4th 1908
Dec. 28th 1903
Matt. XVI, 24
1 Cor. I, 27-28
2 Cor. VI, 5 et seq.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHARITY, A PRIESTLY VIRTUE

If there is any one virtue which must be especially
characteristic of the priest, it is the virtue of charity.
This is true not merely because charity is the queen of
virtues and the bond of perfection, but also because of
the very nature of the priesthood. A priest is ordained
for others. He is dedicated to God and to souls. He is
no longer his own; he belongs first to God and then to
souls, especially those souls committed to his care. He
is the shepherd who, not being a mere hireling, must
lay down his life for his flock if that be necessary. He
may not be asked to lay down his life literally for his
sheep, but he is asked to lay it down by living for them.
To repeat that rather inelegant summary, a priest must
not merely ‘deliver the goods’, for he is another Christ
and Christ delivered himself.
This vocation to deliver himself gives us some
measure of the degree of charity required in the priest.
Charity, of course, is a single virtue; by it we love God,
and by the same virtue we love our neighbour. And
St. John is quite drastic in his censure of those who
claim that they can love God without loving their
neighbour. The love of God is, of course, fundamental,
but if it is sincere it must lead to a love for souls, and
it is of this fraternal charity in the priest that we wish

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165

to speak here. And it is so important that we must
commence by letting the Holy Spirit himself speak of
it through St. Paul, in words that are so well known as
to be easily overlooked. ‘Charity is patient, is kind:
charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not
puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not
provoked to anger, thinketh no evil: rejoiceth not in
iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth : beareth all things,
believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
Charity never falleth away.’1 No priest can doubt that
these words have a very special meaning for him; it is
enough to recall the words that are spoken to him on
the morning of his ordination : ‘Ministros Ecclesiae suae
fide et opere debere esse perfectos, seu geminae dilec­
tionis, Dei scilicet et proximi, virtute fundatos.’ And
again: ‘Accipe vestem sacerdotalem, per quam caritas
intelligitur; potens enim Deus ut augeat tibi caritatem
et opus perfectum.’ These words exhort the priest to
the perfection of charity towards his neighbour as well
as towards God, and they promise him that God is
powerful enough to overcome his human limitations
and weakness and to bring him to the perfection which
he requires. With this assurance we need not be afraid
to examine what should be our charity as priests.
Charity, of course, has its foundation in the interior,
but perhaps it is better to begin by considering its
exterior manifestation in speech. And it is hardly an
unfair test to estimate a priest’s charity by his speech
with and about his fellow-priests. How do we stand
up to this test? That is a question which each of us
must answer for himself, but it may be a guide to set
the question in its context of the standard of charity in
speech among our people. And in this matter an out­
side and somewhat critical view may be worth re­

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

peating. More than one visitor to Ireland, while paying
tribute to the superlative qualities of Irish Catholicism,
has been disappointed at the way Irish Catholics speak
of one another. This, no doubt, is in relation to what
they expect in a fully Catholic country, but at any rate
the picture as they see and depict it is hardly flattering.
A tendency to speak ill of our neighbour and to regard
it as harmless because what we say is true, a readiness
to indulge in gossip which sometimes borders on
serious calumny—these things appear to our critics as
strangely out of tune with the vigorous Catholic life
of our country.
It is not a complimentary picture and it may be a
highly exaggerated one. Visitors may fail to get the
‘feel’ of a place and may see things out of all proportion.
It would be imprudent unreservedly to accept such a
verdict, but it might be equally imprudent to dismiss
it as entirely baseless. No one is in a better position
than the secular priest to pass judgement on the facts,
and if our national standards in this matter are too
low, he alone can do something about it.
But there is a further consideration. If our standards
are too low, if the atmosphere is wrong, there is at
least the danger that even we priests may ourselves
have become infected. And this could mean that quite
unconsciously we may have come to adopt too low a
standard in the way we speak to and about our fellow­
priests. There is a special danger in the field of wit and
humour. The amusing remark can sometimes be caustic
and the sally of wit may easily carry a barb. It is hard
to lay down practical rules in this matter; the formal
speech of the continent would be quite an affectation in
an Irish presbytery and the absence of humour would
make conversation unbearable. But there is a big

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difference between laughing at someone and laughing
with someone. Christian charity will try rather to laugh
with one’s neighbour than at him, and Christian per­
fection, even when not of a high degree, will refrain
completely from laughing at him. If that standard
appears too high, we can only say that our Lord insisted
that what we do to our brother is done to him. To
mock a fellow-priest is to mock at Christ, and no
eutrapelia can justify that ! Further, we might point
out that humour of the dangerous kind often springs
from motives that are far from Christian. To ‘take the
other fellow down a peg’, to enhance one’s own supe­
riority, are not the promptings of Christian charity. We
have it on the authority of the Holy Ghost that ‘if any
man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man.’2
Our speech with our neighbour, especially with our
fellow-priests, is therefore a subject on which even
the best of us would do well to examine ourselves.
But whatever about our speech, there is no doubt
that a generous charity animates all our other relations
with our fellow-priests. Charity, however, must extend
beyond our fellow-priests; it has a special reference to
our parishioners. Here, perhaps, we may find ourselves
at fault. The demands of charity go much beyond the
demands of justice, and we may be tempted sometimes
to limit the service of our parishioners to what justice
demands. To discuss details would be tedious and
perhaps invidious, but one question at least which we
might all put ourselves is this: Am I as approachable as
I should be? The humblest or most sinful member of
our flock should feel that he can come readily to us in
his troubles or his needs, should feel quite sure of his
welcome. If, through our fault, he feels otherwise, it is
nothing short of a tragedy. Admittedly every priest

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

must surround himself at times with a certain reserve.
He has to find time for his prayers, his studies, and to
provide for many other calls on his services. But he is
also a disciple of a Master of whom it was stated as
a characteristic trait: ‘This man receiveth sinners.’
Is the same thing characteristic of us? It should really
be so, for we also must be good shepherds. If our
Divine Master’s example impels us to seek out the lost
sheep in kindness, how much more readily should we
receive the same lost sheep when he seeks us out him­
self? To put it in a word, we must be Christlike, and
the sinner was never afraid to approach our Saviour.
True fraternal charity goes, of course, far beyond
the corporal works of mercy. There is—at least there
should be—a certain supernatural ‘solidarity’ between
the priest and those allotted to his care. They should
always have a prominent place in his prayers. But
if we are going to imitate our Lord fully we should go
further. We might even take their sins on our own
shoulders, at least to the extent of offering the sacrifice
of the Mass to atone for them. There is here wide
scope for charity and for imitation of our Saviour—
who is the Saviour of his Body, who delivered himself
for us, and who sanctified himself for us. We priests
have to go and do likewise.
To attempt to enumerate the various ways of prac­
tising fraternal charity, or to catalogue the offences
against it to which we are liable would serve little
useful purpose. Far more important it is to probe the
underlying causes of our failure. Failure in charity can
generally be traced to two sources: lack of a true
interior life and lack of humility. The truly humble
man is not touchy or aggressive. Wounded vanity does
not animate his remarks and his wit is free from self­

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169

seeking. His zeal has no bitterness and his corrections
are marked by benignity. Knowing his own need of
God and conscious of his lowly position in God’s
sight, he gladly and cheerfully sees and seeks God in
his neighbour. The ministry to him is not an exercise of
power but of service. All this, however, is possible only
where there is a true interior life.
This is really the root of the whole problem. It
might, perhaps, be possible to build up all the externals
of the active apostolate, with a minimum of interior
charity, but unless that charity animates all else, ‘it
profiteth us nothing.’ That, of course—if it were at
all possible—would be an extreme case. Yet something
of such an empty activity could develop in the life of a
priest who neglects his interior life. It is possible to
approach the work of the parish or the mission in a
spirit somewhat akin to that in which a professional or
business man approaches his daily duties. The orga­
nization of the parish or of the mission can be animated
by the same natural zeal that inspires many secular
undertakings. Even the work of saving souls can degen­
erate into something resembling the ideal of a teacher
who merely sees his pupils as so many ciphers to be
pushed through an examination. Typical of such
teachers and such shepherds is concentration on the
particular test envisaged, without paying much attention
to how the results are achieved or what spirit animates
the performances so crowned. Whatever may be said
about such teaching, such preaching is certainly dis­
astrous. It merely produces—or tries to produce—ex­
ternal results, generally of a negative type, while what
God wants is our hearts and our love. The priest who
justifies his existence by the fact that he ‘puts the fear
of God into his parishioners’ is hardly the shepherd

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

after God’s own heart. Such zeal is often false zeal
and does not flow from true divine charity.
The way to correct our failings in this matter and to
advance in true charity is through familiar intercourse
with our Saviour by reading, by reflection and by
prayer. Indeed we should also find a place for our
Lady in these meetings, for no one has so faithfully
imitated the charity of the heart of Jesus as she has.
It is impossible for us to be in frequent contact with
Jesus or with his Mother and at the same time not
to improve in fraternal charity. The gentleness of Jesus,
his kindness, his thoughtfulness, his compassion for the
unfortunate, his sympathy for sinners stand out from
the story of his life and of his death. Sympathy with
sinners is a form of charity that calls for a special place
in our lives. It was this sympathetic compassion for the
sinner that brought Jesus on earth and led him to his
death on the Cross, and we who are ‘other Christs’
must share in this spirit of sympathy and compassion.
It is noticeable that the holiest men are the most com­
passionate and benign in their dealings with sinners.
Those of us who wish to join them in their imitation
of Christ must seek it where they found it, in union
with him. Of all men it is only Christ who could really
claim that sin was an offence against himself ; yet he is
the most forgiving and compassionate of all. We some­
times would give the impression in our dealings with
sinners that we ourselves, rather than God, are the
persons offended. We have to learn of him who is
meek and humble of heart and who suffered and died
for those who offended him.
In the matter of fraternal charity we are too prone
to overlook the significance of the doctrine of the
Mystical Body of Christ. As Christians, we are no

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longer our own, we belong to the Body of Christ.
As members of that Body we have to live according
to the law of all such organic life, which is that each
cell, each member, each organ, lives for the good of
the whole body and not merely for itself. In any other
organism the members are animated and ruled by
whatever principle of life is common to the whole body.
Each member, normally, has no individual choice.
Willy-nilly, it submits. In the Mystical Body of Christ
things are not the same. The spirit which gives the whole
Body unity is the Spirit of Christ, the Holy Ghost. He
takes possession of each of us in baptism when we are
incorporated into the Body of Christ. But he does not
destroy our freedom of choice. In each of our actions
we have complete liberty—either to act under his
leadership or to follow our own will. To the extent
that we subject ourselves to him, we are the sons of
God and living healthy members of the Body of Christ.
Charity is poured forth in our hearts by this same
Spirit, and unless we give that charity free play in our
lives, we constrain the Spirit of God and resist his work
in our souls.
Because, then, we are members of the Body of
Christ, we must live not for ourselves but for the whole
Body. This is true even of ordinary Christians, it is still
more true of us who are priests. And because our fellow­
men are members of the same Body, either actually or
potentially, we must love and serve Christ in them. To
resist the inspirations of fraternal charity is to offend
Christ in our own souls, for it is he who wishes to serve
his members through us, and also to neglect him in our
neighbour, for it is he who wishes to be served in our
neighbours. A spirit of faith and a deep appreciation
of the nature of the Christian life are needed for a life

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THE priest’s way to god

of true fraternal charity. But that is what our Lord
would have us achieve. One has only to read his last
address to his disciples to realize what our lives as
priests should be.
St. John the Evangelist was ordained a priest at the
last supper and he commences his record of this last
festival with the account of our Lord’s washing the feet
of his disciples. He prefaces the account with the signifi­
cant words: ‘Jesus . . . having loved his own who
were in the world, he loved them unto the end’3 and
he records our Lord’s commentary at the end of this
touching ceremony: ‘Know you what I have done to
you? You call me Master and Lord. And you say well:
for so I am. If I then being your Lord and Master,
have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one
another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that
as I have done to you, so you do also.’4 And soon we
read the record of the new commandment: ‘A new
commandment I give unto you: That you love one
another as I have loved you, that you also love one
another. By this shall all men know that you are my
disciples, if you have love one for another.’5 Our
Saviour then goes on to expound the mysterious unity
which makes us branches of the Vine which is himself,
and he adds: ‘As the Father hath loved me, I also have
loved you. Abide in my love . . . This is my com­
mandment, that you love one another, as I have
loved you.’"
Here we have our Lord’s teaching for us priests.
He has given us an example; we are to do as he has
done to us. We are to love one another as he has loved
us. What has he done to us? How has he loved us?
The answer is found in the sacred mysteries we celebrate
every morning at the altar and which the Church, in

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173

giving us the power to celebrate, enjoined on us to
imitate. Christ became a victim for us and for all who
sin against him. He expects us to do as he did. That is
the measure of charity which Christ demands of his
priests.
It is literally a tremendous obligation, and one which
it would be utterly impossible to fulfil without his
special grace. But the very sacrament which gives us
his sacrifice to offer and to imitate also gives us himself
and his Holy Spirit that we may find in him the strength
to do as he does. For us priests the Mass is a well of
doctrine, an unending source of light, a spring of
strength and a centre for our whole life. We cannot
ponder over its meaning and its mysteries too much.
But we must approach its consideration in a spirit of
good will, for we must be prepared to go and do like­
wise. This will be possible only if we keep up all the
exercises by which an interior life is sustained : reading,
reflection and prayer. Without these our charity will
grow cold. Human motives will replace it as the main­
spring of our work, and without charity all that we do,
all that we are, is nothing. It is of the utmost importance
then that we devote ourselves to an interior life of
union with our Lord, that we allow him to live his
life in us and to serve himself in his members.
1
’
3
‘
5
6

1 Cor. xin, 4-8
James III, 2
John XIII, 1
John XIII, 13-15
John XIII. 34-35
John XV, 9-12

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

LIVING IN CHRIST

If our lives as priests are not so holy as they should be,
it is very often because the ideal which animates them
is not sufficiently high. Sacerdos, alter Christus. That,
perhaps, is the most pregnant expression of what our
ideal should be. The character impressed on our souls
in ordination makes us ‘other Christs’, participators in
the priesthood of Christ. And if we are to be true to
our vocation, our minds and hearts must be filled with
the spirit which was his.
What was the spirit of our great High Priest? It
consisted in a complete dedication of himself to the
Father and the Father’s will. It found its most perfect
expression on Calvary where he gave himself to suffering
and death for his Father’s sake, but it filled his soul
from the beginning. In life and in death he gave himself
entirely to his Father.
In life and in death he gave himself unreservedly also
to mankind. There is no contradiction here, for Christ’s
giving of himself to men finds both its basis and its
measure in his total dedication to the Father.
Here, as always, he is our model. We too, to the
extent that we belong to God, can give ourselves
fruitfully to men. To belong to God is, then, the funda­
mental ideal at which we must aim. Our work for souls

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175

will be Christlike—and therefore fruitful—only if it
rests on that foundation.
That then is the proper order: dedication of ourselves
to God and, arising from that, a giving of ourselves
to souls. Christ himself put the same truth in different
words when he told us that, if we wish to bear fruit, we
must abide in him. At the last supper, when he
ordained his first priests, he gave them an address which
we may fairly describe as an ordination sermon. And it
is surely significant that his whole emphasis in that
discourse is on the importance of abiding in him, of
union with him. To their work for souls, he makes,
apart from the general precept of charity, hardly any
reference at all.
A Christlike dedication of ourselves to God and to
souls for God’s sake, is therefore the very definition of
a priestly life. This means self-sacrifice on a heroic
scale; we cannot at the same time give ourselves to God
and souls, and keep ourselves for ourselves. That is
neither new nor surprising. The way of Christ was the
way of the cross, and if we are to be other Christs, it
must likewise be ours.
Perfection in this offering of ourselves is the work of
a lifetime, but even though we only succeed in recogniz­
ing and regretting our lack of generosity, there is still
great hope for us. When, however, we are satisfied with
our offering, then there is danger of stagnation and
decay. Perhaps the comment of a very wise spiritual
writer on self-sacrifice in general may help us to realize
in what direction our efforts should tend. Father John
Grou S.J., the author of A Manual for Interior Souls,
writes as follows: ‘The first fruit of our devotion to
God should be the union of our hearts with the
adoration and annihilation of Jesus in his Mother’s

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THE priest’s way to god

womb. When we give ourselves to God, it is unfor­
tunately too often with a view to becoming something
great, something distinguished, pride and self-love
exercising a strong influence over our dedication to
God.’ A little self-examination, a little sincerity, will
soon show us how true this is of much of our spiritual
life. Consciously or unconsciously, it is ourselves we
are seeking; our search for God is subordinated to our
self-seeking. This defect can be removed partly by our
own efforts with the help of ordinary grace; its complete
removal requires the operation of God’s special puri­
fications. But the first step for us is to recognize the ill.
We may perhaps be helped to realize how far we fall
short by Father Grou’s exhortation, for he continues:
‘Let us now give ourselves to God with no other view
than to be entirely consumed and destroyed, with no
other desire than to sacrifice for ever all self-esteem, all
anxiety for our exaltation—even our spiritual exaltation
—all views, considerations and reflections connected
with self. Let us once and for all lose sight of ourselves,
and give up our being to God alone.’1 This is a high
ideal, but not too high for one who is rightly called
alter Christus.
There are, however, many considerations which may
help us to adopt this high ideal and to live up to it. One
such consideration is the fact that our Lord, in calling
us to the holiness of the priesthood, has already merited
for us, at the cost of his precious Blood, all the graces
and helps that are necessary for us to achieve it. If we
are content to adopt and to follow an ideal lower than
one which corresponds to his intentions we are frustrat­
ing him, we are nullifying his efforts, we are bringing to
naught plans which he had so much at heart that he
suffered and died for their achievement.

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177

Perhaps, however, we are not exactly content with
our low standards of aim and of achievement, but we
see no possibility of doing any better. The fundamental
source of this error—for it is an error and a very serious
one—is our lack of true theological hope and a corres­
ponding tendency to base our hopes on ourselves rather
than on God. Even the apostles were not immune from
this error. Time and time again our Lord reproached
them with their lack of faith and confidence in him.
‘Modicae fidei, quare dubitasti?’ To us as to them our
Lord addresses his assurances: ‘With men, it is im­
possible; but not with God. For all things are possible
with God.’2 ‘All things are possible to him that believeth.’3 And St. Paul assures us: T can do all things
in him who strengtheneth me.’4 So far from indicating
an early limit to our hope of progress, our knowledge
of our limitations is rather a first and almost an essential
condition for our progress. For our hope is in God,
especially in God’s mercy; and our holiness is to be the
work of God. If we realize that, then we can say with
St. Paul : ‘Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may dwell in me.’8 His grace
is sufficient for us, and power is perfected in infirmity.
Our mistake lies in asking ourselves what we can do,
instead of what God is willing to do. Once we are sure
of our vocation to holiness, and for priests St. Pius X
has left no room for doubt about that, the question
of difficulty or impossibility does not arise; God’s grace
is sufficient for the carrying out of his wishes, and he
himself will provide for all things necessary.
There is another approach to the problem which
should be of great help. Not only is it a fact that our
holiness is to come from Christ, but it is to come from
Christ already present within our souls. This doctrine

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THE priest’s way to god

of the divine indwelling is too often forgotten or over­
looked. Yet there are few doctrines which offer such
consolation or such encouragement to the priest in his
pursuit of holiness. There is no need to prove to a
priest that God is really present in the soul of the just
man. The doctrine is obvious to anyone who reads St.
Paul. It should be still more obvious to any priest who
reflects on the theology of the sacrament of the Blessed
Eucharist. If the reception of the Body and Blood of
Christ under the form of food and drink signifies the
effect of the Blessed Sacrament, what must be the
intimate union with God which it produces? Too often
we think of Holy Communion as a wonderful means of
gaining a few minutes’ temporary intimacy with the
human nature of Christ. We forget that its real purpose
is to nourish our intimacy with the divine nature of the
Son of God, to increase our share in that divine nature.
The doctrine of God’s presence in our soul, connected
as it is with the doctrines of the Blessed Trinity and of
the Incarnation, is so rich and so many-sided that it
can be viewed in various ways. Let us here consider
it, as Fr. de Jaegher S.J. does in his book One with
Jesus, as the presence of Christ in our souls and our
identification with him. One fundamental effect of this
point of view, and of the devotion to which it leads,
is that we gradually cease to make ourselves the centre
of our lives and that we more and more make Christ
the centre. For Christ does not dwell in our souls in
order that we should live our own life through him,
for ourselves, so to speak, but rather that he may
continue his life in us, through us, for the sake of the
Father. We must not forget that the Persons of the
Blessed Trinity are essentially related and referred to one
another; each one is ad ahum. For in the human life

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179

of the Son, as we insisted earlier in this chapter, he
lived and worked propter patrem. It is easy then to see
how fundamental in the life of Christ is this utter
dedication of himself to the Father; his dedication of
his life to the souls of men is secondary to that and is
both animated and controlled by it.
This dedication to the Father must find its counter­
part in the life of the priest, who is another Christ and
who so often offers the sacrifice of Christ. Our appoint­
ment to apostolic activity and our zeal , for souls does
not excuse us or exempt us from it. In fact it would
seem that precisely because of our duty to souls, our
duty of dedication to God becomes still more urgent
and important. It was not by preaching but by his
Passion and Death that Christ redeemed men. It would
be a great mistake to think that we priests are called
only to continue his work of preaching. Far from that,
it is true rather that he is called us to allow him to
continue in us his life of devotion to the Father. It
follows, therefore, that there can be no true partnership
with him, no genuine intimacy with him in our souls,
unless we wish, at least, to share this fundamental
sentiment of his heart. Too often our zeal is concen­
trated on doing things for God. Obviously that is a
holy and wholesome purpose, provided that it be pro­
perly animated by divine charity. But it can become
so predominant in our lives that we forget two impor­
tant truths. The first is that the only things that are
properly done for God are those that are done by
Christ—either in himself or through us. The second is
that in our own lives the things that God does to and
for us are far more important, even for God, than the
things we do for him. The whole of the later stages of
purification in the mystical life seem to be aimed at

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THE PRIEST’S WAY TO GOD

convincing the soul that it has nothing and can do
nothing, that in fact God is its All. But even in the
earlier stages, it is important to realize how primary
a part is played in it all by God. And for a priest,
whether in his private life or in his apostolic work, it
is still more important to realize this fact. There is only
one person who can love God adequately, who can
adore God properly, who can serve God exactly as he
should be served: and that is Christ. Our work as priests
is to put on Christ, to form him in ourselves and in those
committed to our care.
All our efforts, then, should be aimed at allowing
Christ to live in us and to share all our actions. All
virtue, all perfection, all achievement should be sought
principally as a means to this end. May we in passing
here note a view of the spiritual life that is only too
common among religious and which seems to be shared
by many priests. It was very well put by one nun who
said to the writer that they were taught that the impor­
tant thing was to collect virtues; when you had a com­
plete collection, like a lot of little parcels properly tied
up and arranged, then possibly God might take some
more personal interest in you and you might dare to
hope for some slight degree of personal contact with
him. Obviously from one point of view the doctrine is
sound. But considered as a comprehensive view of even
the approach to the spiritual life it is so utterly in­
adequate as to be a grotesque—one might almost say
—perversion of the truth. The spiritual life begins in
Baptism, with the entrance of the Holy Spirit into the
soul and the incorporation of the soul in Christ. What
can be more intimate than that? All that follows is a
mere flowering of that divine seed, divinely sown.
Christ is the beginning and the end. It is he to whom

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181

we owe our spiritual life and its development. It is
upon him that we must rely, not on our own efforts or
achievements.
However, in this matter it is not easy to write in
general terms. We are not correcting ideas that are
completely erroneous, we are merely indicating their
inadequacy. It is not so much a question of truth or
error as one of proper perspective. We have, of course,
a part to play ourselves, an essential one. But the part
played by Christ is far more important, and too much
forgotten. For us priests anyhow, who can exercise
our priestly functions only by the power of God, there
is less excuse for overlooking the importance of Christ
in our own spiritual lives, or in the service of the Father.
If we could fashion an ideal and form a purpose of
giving ourselves completely to him in every action,
that he might use us to live his life of love and service
of the Father, our whole lives would be changed and
enriched. For we must remember, when we give our­
selves to Christ, he also gives himself to us, and his
merits are ours. This is one point where the limitations
of the self-centred soul become evident. When such a
person realizes that he has sinned, he immediately
becomes discouraged, for he feels that his only hope
of recovery and of progress lies in his being able to
make personal satisfaction for his failings. Whereas the
Christ-centred soul immediately seizes on the merits
of Christ and offers them to the Father to propitiate him
and to atone for its sins, and then goes on with its hope
in God undiminished and unaffected. It is true he tries
to make up to Christ by additional love and humility
in the future. But his hope is not dependent on his
efforts to make reparation. So too with difficulties.
The self-dependent soul is discouraged by difficulties,

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THE priest’s way to god

and sets its course or lowers its purpose to avoid them.
The Christ-centred soul merely makes certain that the
way which these difficulties beset is really the way
Christ wishes it to proceed. Once reassured on this
point, it gaily goes ahead, quite confident in the power
and the will of Christ to deal with these difficulties.
But these are only examples. The whole life and out­
look of a soul centred on Christ differ toto coelo from
those of the soul centred on itself.
It is true that the perfection of this Christocentric
outlook belongs to the more mature stages of the
spiritual life. But from the very beginning the life of
the Christian must in its essentials be centred on
Christ. This is still more true of the life of a priest.
Notwithstanding all appearances to the contrary, it is
equally true of the work of the priest, for Christ insists
not only that we shall bear fruit if we abide in him,
but also that if we do not abide in him, we shall not
bear fruit. That is why we are so insistent on the need
for an interior life in the priest called to apostolic
labours. There is no other way in which he can achieve
success in the apostolate. That is why, too, we put
before priests devotion to Christ living in their own
souls, as an ideal. It will not only promote their
personal progress but it will also fertilize their work
for souls.
One practice that may help us to develop an appre­
ciation of Christ’s presence within us is the habit of a
daily visit, if one may so call it, to Christ present in our
souls. And perhaps this ‘visit’ would be all the more
successful if it were made not in the church, but some­
where in private. By a ‘visit’, we merely mean a turning
of our attention to Christ represented as present
within us, and a short converse with him, something

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183

after the manner of our thanksgiving after Holy
Communion. We should be careful, in our converse
with him, to stress our need for his co-operation in all
our actions, and our willingness to be guided by him
in all things. We should of course earnestly ask him to
make us conformable to himself, to animate us with
his views, and to unite us every day more closely to
himself. But it would be fatal to think that this is a
devotion that is limited to a particular practice or set
of practices. It is essentially a devotion that must
gradually occupy our whole lives, so that we come to
live and act with Christ, for Christ and through Christ.
One consoling thought in this regard is that our Lord
is intensely eager to produce this union of heart and
mind, of life and activity. All we have to do is to cease
interfering with his efforts. And after our Lord, no one
is more interested or more anxious about it than our
Lady. If we approach her for her Son’s sake she will
certainly work wonders to transform our souls. But
we must not forget our Father who is in heaven; for
his whole Providence is intent on uniting us to his
Son, so that abandonment to his will is the key-note
of this devotion, as it was the key-note of the life of
Christ.
1
’
’
‘
4

The Interior of Jesus and Mary
Mark X, 27
Mark IX, 22
Phil. IV, 13
2 Cor. XII, 9

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOUL

It is difficult, as most priests will agree, to treat adequa­
tely of the Holy Ghost and to give practical advice about
devotion to him. But, if difficult, it is essential, for we
cannot overlook the importance which our Lord
attached to the Holy Spirit whom he was to send to us.
In fact, when reading the Gospels, we often get the
impression that this sending of the Holy Spirit into
our souls is the crowning purpose of Christ’s life and
death. ‘I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I
go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you;
but if I go, I will send him to you.’1 This thought
loomed large in his mind at the last supper, when he
prayed for the sending of the Holy Spirit on his apostles.
‘I will ask the Father, and he shall give you another
Paraclete, that he may abide with you for ever.’2 So
important is this gift of the Holy Spirit that St. Paul
can say, speaking by the same Holy Spirit: ‘If any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is not of his.’3 We
cannot, then, let any inherent difficulties deter us from
attempting to achieve some knowledge and devotion
in regard to this Gift of God.
Who, then, is this Holy Spirit? First of all, he is God
himself, the third Person of the Blessed Trinity. Now
this third Person ‘proceeds’ in the Blessed Trinity by

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way of love, so that one may say that he is the very
love with which God loves himself. Or, to be more
accurate, he is the very love with which the Father and
the Son love one another. St. Thomas bluntly says:
‘The Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son.’4
It is true that he discusses at length the exact ways in
which it may be said that the Father and the Son love
one another ‘by the Holy Spirit’,5 but having deter­
mined the exact meaning to be attached to the phrase,
he would even include us in the object so loved. We
may then borrow a phrase from St. John of the Cross
and call the Holy Ghost ‘the living flame of divine love.’
Now we know that in the Blessed Trinity all is
common to the three Persons where there is no oppo­
sition of relation. The same one intelligence, the same
one will, the same one power, the same one majesty is
common to each Person, because the same one and
indivisible divine nature is common to the three Persons.
So too all exterior works, that is, all those actions
accomplished ‘outside’ God, whether in the material
world or in the souls of men, all these are common to
the three divine Persons, since it is the one divine nature
that is the principle of all such works. But the Church
deliberately attributes certain actions to individual
Persons because of some affinity between the operation
and the property of that Person. The Creed professes
our belief in the omnipotent Father, the Creator of
Heaven and earth, and all works in which the power
of God is especially manifest are generally attributed to
the Father. So, too, works in which the divine wisdom
is prominent, such as the order and arrangement of the
universe, are attributed by way of appropriation to the
Son. Since the Holy Ghost is so intimately connected
with divine love, to him are appropriated the works in

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which the divine love and goodness are especially ex­
pressed, particularly the work of God’s loving mercy in
the sanctification of our souls. Our Lord’s own words
can themselves be used to justify this principle of
appropriation and the scriptures definitely attribute to
the Holy Ghost the pouring out of grace and charity
into our souls. This is not done without reason, and
we cannot neglect the role so divinely attributed to the
Holy Spirit without great loss to ourselves. Let us con­
sider for a moment what the Holy Spirit does to our
souls.
He comes to us as the Gift of God and makes his
abode with us. He elevates our souls to a superhuman
state and transforms them by sanctifying grace. He
endows them with the fundamental virtues of faith, hope
and charity, enriches them with the moral virtues and
adorns them with his sevenfold gifts. It is of the highest
importance for us to have some realization of this in­
dwelling of the Holy Spirit in our souls and of his
work there. We are, indeed, familiar with the tremen­
dous divine intimacy conferred on us in Holy Com­
munion when Christ gives us his Body and Blood under
the sacramental species, and remains intimately present
with us as long as the species endure. We know, of
course, that he is not inactive while he is with us; we
realize that he gives us many wonderful graces. But we
may feel that when this sacramental presence has
ceased, the time of personal intimacy and union with
the divinity is over. Moreover, when we think of the
sacramental Christ present within us, we have a
tendency to think mainly of his human nature, and we
have a certain difficulty in forming any image which
effectively represents and suggests intimate union with
him. In fact, if we try to be too clear or definite in our

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imagery, the notion of intimate union with God may
become not only difficult but even impossible to
maintain. So that although our Lord’s words to
his disciples telling them that it was expedient for
them that he should go referred to his Ascension and
to the effects that would follow, yet they are not without
significance even in this context. And although it is
by the humanity of Christ that the divinity is revealed
to us, yet it was not without reason that Christ himself
warned us of our need of the Spirit, for it is in the unity
of the Spirit that we are made one with him. It is of
importance, then, that we give devotion to the Holy
Ghost its proper place in our lives. Otherwise we shall
miss much of the fruit of the Passion and Death of
our Saviour.
The difficulty of forming a concept of the third
Person is a real one. The second Person is known to us
in his humanity and in the Sacrament of his love. Even
in regard to the first Person, his name of Father estab­
lishes him in our hearts and appeals to one of our funda­
mental instincts. But the name of the Holy Ghost
appeals to no familiar experience. Yet the very vague­
ness and obscurity that it conveys leaves us more
freedom and facility to conceive a close personal
union. At the very least it removes apparent obstacles
that can arise from the images we form in the case of
the other two Persons.
To describe the Holy Ghost as the soul of our soul
could, of course, be completely wrong, if we take the
word soul too literally. Yet he has been called the soul
of the Mystical Body of Christ, and also his role has
been compared to that of the heart in the human body.
These two descriptions will give us some idea of the
intimacy and the permanence of his presence within us.

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Before, however, we try to explain something of the
truth they contain, it may be no harm to note two
points that can affect and impair our grasp of this
truth. In his admirable work on the Holy Ghost, the
late Fr. Edward Leen points them out. The first point is
this. Owing perhaps to the controversy with the first
Protestants, and the dispute about the value of good
works, great emphasis has been laid on the moral
aspect of religion. The theology of human acts and their
efficacy for salvation have been so stressed since the
time of the Reformation that, as Fr. Leen says, the
average mind has got the idea that morality is the
principal element of the supernatural life. The fact is,
of course, that morality is only a condition of the
supernatural life. Human conduct takes the primary
place, instead of the extraordinary elevation of the
human being by the divine contact. We must restore
the primacy of place to the divine in our spiritual life
and devotion to the Holy Ghost is a most effective way
of doing it.
The second point which Fr. Leen emphasizes is this.
From our very early days we have been accustomed to
the idea that God is everywhere. For many of us,
unfortunately, this idea conjured up a picture of a
watchful and critical overseer, a just but inflexible
judge, always waiting to catch us doing wrong and to
punish us for it. There may be a tendency to carry over
this idea of God into our relations with the Holy
Ghost. Unless we can correct this tendency we will
find it very difficult to be at ease with our divine Guest,
and our inclination will be to neglect and forget him.
In order to obtain a more correct view, it may help
us to remember that the Holy Ghost is sent and given
to us by the Father and the Son and that they send

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him to us as a result of their concern for sinners. We
have two significant pictures of their attitude to sinners.
The Son, who was given the name of Jesus because he
was to save his people from their sins, describes himself
as the Good Shepherd who leaves the ninety-nine other
sheep in order to find the one that was lost. And when
he has found it, he puts it tenderly on his shoulders,
rejoicing. The Father is shown to us in the parable of
the prodigal son as a father who runs to meet his
repentant child, embraces him, clothes him, restores all
he has lost and makes a feast for his return. Surely,
then, we need have no servile fear of the third Person
whom these two send us and who himself is the re­
mission of our sins. Our Lord has told us that the
Holy Spirit comes to supply for his own absence, as
another paraclete to console and strengthen us. The
yoke his presence lays upon us is, like the yoke of
Christ, easy and the burden is light. He comes to us
with all the loving tenderness and compassion of the
all-merciful God—for he is God himself.
So far from being in our souls to condemn us, he
is there to regenerate us. He has justified us and con­
tinues to sanctify us. As St. Thomas says: ‘The gift
of sanctifying grace is not given to us in order that
we may have no further need of divine help; every
creature requires to be preserved by God in the good
already received from him . . . For that reason the
work of the Holy Spirit is not limited by the effect of
his permanent gifts in us; apart from this effect, he
moves and guides us yet more.’8 He is continually
giving us light and strength. Of old, God promised by
his prophet: T will give you a new heart, and put a
new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony
heart out of your flesh, and give you a heart of flesh.

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And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and 1 will
cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep
my judgments, and do them.’7 We can easily apply
these words to the work of the Holy Spirit within us,
which indeed is well summed up in St. Paul’s phrase
that the Holy Spirit ‘helpeth our infirmity.’8 The Church
underlines the benignity of his interest in us in her
hymns. She addresses him: ‘Pater pauperum, Dator
munerum, Consolator optime, Dulcis hospes animae,
Dulce refrigerium.’ This wonderful prayer, the Veni
Sancte Spiritus, is full of light on the tenderness of the
Holy Ghost. Tn labore requies, In aestu temperies,
In fletu solatium.’ In this hymn too the Church makes
it clear exactly what we are of ourselves and what he
does for us, when she sings: ‘Sine tuo numine, Nihil est
in homine, Nihil est innoxium.’ It is because of our
utter helplessness that the Holy Spirit is given to us
and that we must go to him with unshakeable con­
fidence.
We should, then, pray frequently and fervently for
devotion to the Holy Spirit and take care to make that
devotion an intergal part of our spiritual lives. Further,
we should try to realize to what great dignity he has
raised us by making us participators in the divine
nature. To live in accordance with that dignity we have
continual need of his inspiration and his help. We
cannot even pray without him; he, in fact, prays for us
‘with unspeakable groanings.’ We have already referred
to the comparson of his work in our souls with that of
the soul in the human body. The Holy Spirit cannot, of
course, enter into a substantial union with our souls
as the soul does with the body, But he can and does act
as a vivifying principle upon which every single move­
ment of our supernatural life depends, both for its

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191

inception and its execution. Without him we are dead,
for all our spiritual life depends on him.
This fact should be at the basis of our devotion to
him. We should turn to him almost instinctively in all
our needs and ask for his help and guidance. As we
grow in grace his inspirations and initiative become
more evident. At no time, of course, does he deprive
us of our liberty. There is, however, a difference in the
manner of acting of the virtues and the gifts, and as we
come nearer to God, the gifts are more in evidence.
These make us so pliable in his hands that St. Thomas
says that under their influence the human mind ‘non
se habet ut movens sed magis ut mota.’ The Fathers
sometimes have illustrated the difference by a com­
parison. Using the virtues we are like men rowing a
boat by their own efforts, but under the influence of
the gifts the boat is moved gently and speedily onward
by the wind in its sail.
What we have to do in practice is to be very careful
to conform to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit.
Cardinal Manning sees three degrees of ‘non-con­
formity’ in three texts of scripture. ‘Grieve not the
holy Spirit of God’;9 ‘You always resist the Holy
Ghost’10; ‘Extinguish not the spirit’.11 These words of
scripture should warn us of the danger of refusing to
listen to his voice. For we can so harden our hearts that
we no longer hear him, and he will then cease to speak
to us. This, of course, is ruinous and is a fate that we
must avoid at whatever cost. Our ideal should be the
very opposite; we should strive to rely on and to be
very attentive to him, for it is only when we are led and
‘activated’ by him in all things that we are living fully
as sons of God.
Obviously we have a duty to reverence him present

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in our souls, but this reverence should not prevent a
loving familiarity. Theologians stress the fact that he
is given to us as a gift·, that is, he is ours for our use
and enjoyment. We should, then, make use of him.
In all our doubts and uncertainties we should turn to
him for guidance. He may not speak to us directly but
he will not leave us without guidance, for he has com­
passion on our infirmity. In difficulties and temptations
we should appeal to him for strength and courage.
He will aid our infirmity and strengthen us with his
grace. We can make our own the Church’s prayer
to him: ‘Lava quod est sordidum, Riga quod est
aridum, Sana quod est saucium, Flecte quod est rigidum
Fove quod est frigidum, Rege quod est devium.’ He
aids us by transforming us.
This ‘use’ of the Holy Ghost is of special significance
at private prayer. When our prayer disappears in aridity
and distraction, then we should realize that he is
within us praying and that we have only to second his
prayer in order to be pleasing to the Father. One of
the great obstacles to progress in prayer and in the
whole spiritual life is our tendency to make ourselves
instead of God the centre of our supernatural strivings.
We shall not succeed until we accept the failure of our
own efforts and put all our confidence in God within
us. In our prayer we should always remember that
we have in the Holy Spirit the mutual Love of the
Father and the Son as our own possession and that
we can always offer the Father this divine Love. And
if that attitude of prayer overflows into our lives, if
we ‘use’ the Holy Spirit, we shall approach closely to
the example of our Lord, who all his life was led by the
Holy Spirit, who handed himself over completely to
him and who thus always did the things that pleased

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his Father. That was Christ’s way; it should be ours
too, and there is no better way of pleasing God.
One other point is of particular significance for us
priests. St. Paul tells us that it was by the Holy Spirit
that Christ offered himself to God.12 We, his priests,
have to offer ourselves with him daily on the altar.
We can do this, sicut oportet, only by the Holy Spirit.
We should then frequently beg the Holy Ghost for
the spirit of sacrifice. When we begin the Church’s
sacrifice, she puts on our lips, at the offering of the
bread and wine, a prayer to the Holy Spirit. ‘Veni
sanctificator, omnipotens aeterne Deus.’ It is true that
this prayer has a special reference to the Eucharistic
sacrifice. But we may use it to ask a blessing on the
sacrifice of ourselves which we can and should make
in the offering of the bread and wine. In the days of
old, God sent down fire from heaven to consume the
sacrifices offered to him. Today he sends down the
Holy Spirit, the fire of divine love, into our hearts. If
we would have our sacrifice of ourselves acceptable
we must allow ourselves to be consumed by this divine
fire, ever present, ever working, ever praying within
us. There at the altar we priests can find a wonderful
starting point for our daily lives, if we offer ourselves
completely to God that his Holy Spirit may perfectly
possess and animate us. Our Lord has told us that if
we ask anything of the Father in his name it will be
given to us, and he has specifically mentioned the
Father’s readiness to give the ‘good Spirit’ to those who
ask him. Let us go, then, to the Father and remind
him of the merits of his Son. Let us point out to him
the Son’s desire for our love and for our perfect service
of the Father. Let us represent to him how completely
the Son has deserved to be loved by us. Pleading our

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poverty and reminding him of his Son’s promises, let
us ask him to give us his Holy Spirit so that we may
love his Son as his Son desires and deserves to be loved.
That is a prayer that God cannot fail to hear and one
which will bring down rich blessings on our souls.
I
•
•
•
»
•
’
’
’
’»
II
“

John XVI, 7
John XIV, 16
Rom. VIII, 9
III, 32, 1
Cf. I, 37
I-IIae, 109, 9
Exech. XXXVI, 26-27
Rom. VIII, 26
Ephes. IV, 30
Acts VII, 51
1 Thess. V, 19
Cf. Heb. IX, 14

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHRIST THE LIFE OF THE SOUL

There is one point on which every priest should
examine himself at intervals during his life. It is not
easy to formulate the question exactly. One could
approach the point by asking what spirit animates our
life and work: the spirit of the world or the spirit of
Christ? Each of us could ask himself: who is the centre
of my life? Is it Christ or is it myself? Or we might
formulate the question in a phrase previously used in
these pages which, if lacking in dignity, at least em­
phasizes the point of the enquiry: am I more intent
on delivering the goods than on delivering myself?
Christ, the Holy Ghost tells us, did all things well, but
above all he delivered himself.
None of these attempts to put the question quite
meets the needs of each individual situation but they
help to remind us of the necessity for continual vigilance
over the attempts of self-love and self-seeking to in­
trude into and even to take charge of our priestly lives.
Our Lord has laid down self-renunciation as an essential
condition of being his disciples. And however gene­
rously or however thoroughly we renounced self at the
beginning of our priesthood, it is, first of all, like a
weed that continually tends to return and overrun
the garden unless constantly held in check; and also

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it is a matter which calls for new and further efforts at
different stages of our progress.
As a preliminary to our discussion let us note what
seems to be a general pattern frequently observable in
the life of the soul. When a soul, under the influence
of God’s grace, first sets out in pursuit of holiness,
there is nearly always a considerable degree of self in
both the principle and the end of our efforts. Neverthe­
less God’s grace is powerful and we do achieve some­
thing. But then he seems to decide that what we have
built is not good enough and he pulls the whole edifice
down, sometimes quite violently and painfully. If we
behave as befits men of faith, hope and charity, we
begin again in closer partnership with and in greater
dependence on him, and we again achieve some success,
this time of more value. But, again, our Lord seems
not content and again our work is wrecked. This is a
process or a pattern which may be repeated quite often
in the life of a soul called to holiness. Sometimes the
different chapters, so to speak, stand out in bold relief
and the summits and the valleys are clear to the be­
holder. At other times the re-moulding and the re­
making are not so obvious, for the process is more
continuous and more even. But it is nonetheless real,
nonetheless disconcerting—and nonetheless effective.
It is well to keep this pattern in mind for it will help us
to understand and accept much that is disconcerting
and difficult in God’s providence in our regard. It
applies, of course, in the first place to our efforts at
spiritual advancement, but it also applies to our work
for God among souls.
To take the latter aspect of the matter first, it cannot
be denied that there is frequently a good deal of self­
seeking in the work of our ministry. Not all of it is

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197

culpable—some of it, in fact, at certain times is even
praiseworthy. But sooner or later it has to be eliminated.
It is amazing how many good works, begun in a true
zeal for God’s glory, can become dominated by a
self-seeking that is truly pagan for all its facade of
apostolic action. We have all heard of the famous
preacher on his deathbed whose friends were trying
to console him and remove his fear of God’s judgement
by reminding him of the great sermons he had preached.
His answer, ‘If God does not refer to those sermons I
shall take care not to remind him’, shows a deathbed
revaluation of a life’s work that may well be our own
if we are not a little more critical of our motives.
Preaching, for example, if a man has a special talent for
it, can easily be the occasion of much self-seeking.
The truly apostolic man preaches the word of God in
order to bring souls to God. As he grows in grace he
becomes more and more animated by the dispositions
of the heart of Jesus, and his desire to satisfy the
longing of that heart for the love of men becomes the
driving motive of his preaching. But unfortunately it
is possible to let other motives come with us to the
pulpit. We may find ourselves preaching ourselves, not
Jesus Christ. We may become more interested in
showing our talents than in drawing men to our Sav­
iour. Worldly fame, ‘the bubble reputation in the fool’s
mouth’, may even become our aim, and it is not un­
known that men will preach to entertain rather than
to edify. Such self-seeking, however, is generally quite
obvious, and unless a man has become completely
impervious to the protests of conscience and the com­
ments of his colleagues, he will soon have to admit and
to remedy the error of his ways.
But there are more dangerous forms of self-seeking

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in the ministry. In our work we can aim at and achieve
a success which seems directed to God’s glory, which
excites the commendation of our superiors, the praise
and perhaps the envy of our colleagues. Yet the whole
thing can be vitiated by a secret worship and seeking
of self that makes all our activity a devotion to our own
glory rather than to the glory of God. Even such works
as the conversion of non-believers or the reform of
sinners can be animated by motives that are centred
on ourselves. There is, however, more danger of a
deviation where the work we have to do is less directly
concerned with the service of souls, such, for example,
as the building of churches, the raising of funds, or
the organization of some outstanding enterprise or
function. In all these cases, what makes the position so
invidious is that the work is the work allotted to us
by authority—it is God’s will. And our success is also
what authority hopes for and commends. It is easy to
fool ourselves under such circumstances and to blind
ourselves to the fact that love of ourselves, not love
of God, is the mainspring of our activity. And that is
such a tragedy! For if we do all these things without
charity, they profit us nothing—and we are nothing.
The general pattern of a ‘priestly’ life is determined
fairly clearly by regulations and clerical conventions.
These restraints on our freedom can, no doubt, be
irksome, but many of us can adapt ourselves fairly
easily to the mould. For some of us such a life is even
congenial; for others it presents no great difficulty. But
inside the limits laid down by such a life a man can do
his whole work as a priest in much the same spirit as
laymen carry on their professions or pursue their
careers. And to make it more dangerous, many of the
principles of conduct imposed by the demands of a

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priestly life are almost identical with the dictates of
worldly prudence in the pursuit of a career. The
avoidance of mistakes, continual circumspection in
conduct, due submission to authoirty, careful restraint
in speech, assiduity in work, promptness in perfor­
mance, correctness of behaviour: all such have to be
observed by the careerist as well as by the man of God.
I do not say the difference is not noticeable, for ambition
will in the long run betray itself, but the resemblance
can be an occasion of self-deceit for the unfortunate
man who tries to persuade himself that his devotion
to self is really devotion to God. The desire for ad­
vancement, for fame, for self can possess the heart of
a priest just as it can possess the heart of a layman,
and the pursuit of such desires can disguise itself, at
least with some success, as real prudence or charity
to one’s own family or in many other ways. We have
always to be on our guard against becoming the victims
of such self-seeking.
Not only in our work for others, but even in the
effort to perfect ourselves and to acquire holiness, the
influence of self-seeking can be considerable. A priest
could seek supernatural perfection in a spirit very much
akin to that in which an artist seeks to perfect natural
talent. There is a world of difference between the
search for holiness for our own sake and the desire to
be holy for God’s sake. It is important to recognize the
fact that self-seeking can, and in the initial stages
usually does, play a part in our desire to advance in
spirituality. But it is equally important to be very
prudent and cautious in all attempts to remedy this
condition. In fact, to some extent, such self-seeking, far
from being blameworthy, is actually quite praiseworthy
and even necessary. As one progresses, the part played

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by it has to decrease and the ultimate removal of the
defects caused by self-love is really the work of God.
But even though in the beginning self-seeking can have
its proper place, it very often leads to excesses and
exaggerations that make difficulties not only for one­
self but also for others. In a book called The Salt of
the Earth,1 which we heartily recommend to every
priest, Fr. S. M. Shaw paints a striking but sympathetic
picture of this conflict between nature and grace. He
describes a young priest who feels called to advance
beyond the apparent mediocrity of his colleagues. He
does not frown at the amusements indulged in by his
friends, but he feels that he is above such things. In
his efforts to avoid appearing to condemn the com­
parative laxity of his companions, his expression as­
sumes a sweetness that shows his tolerance for such
self-indulgence. But when the critical comments of his
neighbours come to his ears, the realization that he is
sharing in the saints’ lot of being misunderstood and
even persecuted leads to such an intensification and
etherealization of the sweetness of his expression that
his colleagues become infuriated. The good young
man is perfectly in earnest and perfectly sincere. Yet his
friends are not altogether mistaken in feeling that there
is a good deal of self-seeking in his conduct. Grace,
eventually, will enlighten him and the value of the
canon that frowns on singularity may manifest itself
to him. But all such happenings are really only different
symptoms of the one fundamental disease: the failure
to make Christ the centre of the spiritual life and of all
apostolic work.
It is not easy to correct errors of
perspective without falling into exaggeration or such
overstatement as would lead to new errors. It is perfectly
true that in our apostolate we have to serve God, to

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do things for him, to labour in his vineyard. It is
perfectly true that in the spiritual life we have to aim at
and labour for our own perfection. We have to fight
the good fight, we have to earn heaven as the reward
of our good work and merit eternal beatitude by our
own acts. Yet, true as all that is, it is far less than half
the truth. In the first place, everything that we have to
do is supernatural—completely beyond our powers—
and therefore it can be done only by God’s help. Has
he not himself reminded us that without him we can
do nothing? In the second place, our capacity ‘to do
things for God’ and our power to merit are the gra­
tuitous gifts of God’s mercy. He has no need of us
except in so far as he may wish to allow the outcome
of some of his plans to depend on our co-operation.
And if he does thus make us of some importance in
his plans, it is because he has compassion on our
infirmities and, in his generous love, wishes to give us
some opportunity of adding to what he has in store
for us the relish of having, in some measure, earned it.
Christ could save every soul in the world without a
single priest. If he does not choose to do so but decides
to make us ministers in the work of Redemption, it is
solely because he wishes to share with us his happiness
and his crown. If he makes us his servants, it is because
he has quite gratuitously chosen to make us his friends.
The same principle applies to our own spiritual lives.
It is not we who perfect ourselves; our sanctification is
the work of God. And if he lets his work involve our
co-operation, it is only because his loving kindness
wants to clothe his gifts with the mantle of rewards.
There is only one mediator between God and men:
Christ Jesus. And we will never be true apostles until
we realize that our function is to let him use us just as

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he wills in the work of mediation, always remembering
that we are but helpless instruments in his hands. There
is only one spiritual life and that is the life of Christ.
And we can never begin to be saints until we realize
that all sanctity consists in the replacing of ourselves and
our lives by Christ and the life of Christ. He is the life
of our souls. Therefore the sooner we die to ourselves,
the sooner he will live in us.
Let us add to that two very important principles.
The first is that while God created the world and rules
the world for his own glory, he intends in this life to
glorify himself by his mercy. It would seem that the
glory of his justice refers more to the next life. Here
below mercy is the predominant attribute which
animates all his works. The second principle is this.
In all his dealings with our souls here below Jesus is
always a Saviour and is always acting as such. Until
we realize this and adopt in all sincerity and cheerful
willingness the attitude of one who needs continually
to be saved, we are not in our true relationship to God
nor are we living as we should.
In what we have written we have merely pointed out
the fairly obvious fact that self-seeking can easily in­
trude into our spiritual lives and our apostolic work.
We have not sought to give any detailed analysis of the
matter nor—and at this the reader may be surprised—
have we discussed how we are to get rid of the intruder.
Our reason for leaving the subject without any practical
discussion of the counter-measures to be taken is that
in the long run we think that the fewer counter-measures
we take, the better! Frankly, we think that this battle
against self is a battle which, to some extent at any
rate, is better fought by not fighting and more easily
won by running away. That, obviously, requires some

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203

elucidation, for the classical spiritual tradition is
rightly insistent on depicting the spiritual Life as a war
against self. But who is going to conduct this war? If
it is our self, then victory only means a further ex­
altation of self, and the attention to self necessary for
the fight is about the worst way to forget self. The
answer to the paradox is that the proper way to deal
with self is to forget self altogether and go to Jesus.
If we concentrate our attention on him we will forget
ourselves; if we hand over our work to him, he will
soon accomplish our death to ourselves and bring us
to a new life in himself.
The one thing, then, that is really necessary for the
priest who wishes to fulfil his vocation is to study
Christ, to talk to Christ, to know Christ, to seek Christ,
to put on Christ and to love Christ with every fibre of
his being. Our Lord himself had no other counsel for his
apostles on the night he made them priests than to
insist that he was the Vine, they the branches, that
they could bear fruit only by abiding in him and that
to abide in him was all that was necessary in order to
bring forth fruit. All his disciples must leave themselves
and follow him. To the mother of the two apostles who
wanted the chief posts in his kingdom for her sons, he
had nothing better to offer than that they should drink
the chalice of which he was to drink unto death. To
anyone who reads the New Testament in a proper
frame of mind, every page is eloquent of the truth that
we can reach eternal life only by dying to ourselves.
Yet when we start to live a spiritual life our whole
preoccupation is with ourselves. We become meticulous
in the scrutiny of our actions; we spend our energy in
planning the details of our programme and worrying
over our policy. Our hope is measured by what we see

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in ourselves—if not what we actually see, at least what
we see potentially. Everything has to be merited or
bought from God. In fact, we see ourselves as the
principle and purpose of our sanctification. Now, we
cannot altogether be blamed for that. There is much
in our surroundings, in all that we see and hear, to
help us to form that view. But it is, of course, a com­
pletely mistaken view. After all, as St. Thomas says in
discussing sacrifice: ‘By sacrifice we show the ordering
of our mind to God. For the right ordering of our
mind to God it is necessary that we should recognize
that all we have is from God as a first principle and
should be directed to God as to the ultimate end.’ And
we, as priests, offer sacrifice daily! As priests too, we
preach the theological virtue of hope. We tell our people
that they should hope in God because God is good,
but in actual fact our own hope is rather in ourselves
because we are—or expect to be—good. Once, however,
we grasp the glorious truth, everything is changed.
For our title to the kingdom of heaven is no longer
our own pretended riches but our spiritual poverty—
as our Lord told us it should be. Then we begin to
glory in our infirmities, for virtue is made perfect in
infirmity and God’s grace is sufficient for us. Our
sufficiency in fact is from God.
That is why it is so important to get away from our­
selves as quickly and as completely as we can. And we
will never understand God’s dealings with our souls
until we realize that they are based on this need for
getting rid of self and replacing that self by God. God
may draw us at first by condescending to make use
of our self-love. He may show us the sweetness of his
service and the charm of his companionship. But then
he withdraws these concessions to our self-seeking.

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205

Our work goes wrong; it is misunderstood; we meet
with criticism, with opposition and with failure. God
seems to have let us down even where the good of
others is concerned. And the desolation in our spiritual
life is still more complete. We can no longer pray.
Our exercises of piety are at best a dull weary routine
and may even be an intolerable burden. Spiritual books
are distasteful, even painfully so. The Bible commands a
certain respect, but not much more. Hope : the very word
is a mockery. Like the two disciples going down to
Emmaus, our hope is in the past tense: ‘We had
hoped .. . !’ And our desolation is akin to that of Job
on his dunghill. Blind that we are, we cannot see that
that is the most glorious assurance we can possibly have.
The story of Job is the story of every soul that is to
reach sanctity: there is no other way. It behoved Christ
to suffer and to die and to enter into his glory and
there is no other way for us. Until we are brought to
nothing and accept that nothingness, we cannot be
men after God’s heart, for Christ cannot live in us.
At first sight, then, the war on self would seem to be
our most important contribution to the work of our
sanctification. That, however, is a view which we
cannot quite accept, for at least two reasons. Firstly,
as we have said, self may find still more food for its
own exaltation in such a warfare. Secondly, no sane
human being will let go of the only plank he has until
he is convinced that the surrounding ocean will support
him. No reasonable man can be expected to discard
self until he learns Christ and is sure that he can cast
his burden on him. That is why we feel that the most
important thing for us to do is to build up a proper
idea of Jesus, of his love for us, of his constant care for
us, of his unlimited willingness to help us and to save us.

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And we also feel justified in saying that when things
go wrong or appear to have gone wrong—at any period
of the spiritual life—whether it be a falling into mortal
sin or the deprivation of some extraordinary grace,
there is always the same sovereign remedy, that of
casting our burden on the Lord, of abandoning our­
selves to Jesus. Sins are terrible things. They matter
fearfully, for they crucify Jesus. But in another sense
they do not matter at all, for if we are sorry for them
Jesus can and will save us from them. They will be
no obstacle to our close friendship with him but will
even be used by him for our benefit. Discouragement is
one of the most dangerous diseases of the soul and one
which can occur at any period of the spiritual life.
Yet it is nearly always due to the same cause: too much
regard of ourselves and too little regard of Jesus.
Once the cause is known the remedy is obvious.
Scruples have much in common with discouragement.
While they do present a special problem which needs
sympathetic and understanding treatment, the ultimate
remedy is recourse to Jesus. In this case, however, the
psychological obstacles to such a recourse must be
removed. The same remedy is the only remedy for all
self-centred piety. And it is the absolute necessity for the
replacement of the self by Christ that is at the root of
all God’s dealings with the soul. We have been told
we must die in order to live. We have been told that
we must leave ourselves and follow Christ. We have
been told that we must be made new creatures in Christ.
Why, then, worry about ourselves? Let us take God
at his word and cast our burden upon his Son, cleaving
to him who is our sufficiency, who is not only our
all but even all the glory of God.
1 Burns, Oates and Washboume

CHAPTER TWENTY

THE SACRED HEART

If we were asked what is the most important thing,
in practice, in a priest’s life, we should unhesitatingly
say that it is his personal relationship with our Lord;
and if we were asked what seems to be the most common
short-coming in the spiritual life of priests, the answer
would just as unhesitatingly be: the lack of personal
intimacy with our Lord.
For priests engaged in the active apostolate, there
is a danger of allowing preoccupation with their work
in the Lord’s vineyard to lessen their personal intimacy
with the Master of the vineyard himself. If the process
goes far enough, a stage can even be reached when
the active priest no longer thinks of such intimate union
with our Lord as essential, or even primary, in his
vocation, but regards it as something characteristic
rather of the cloister.
This is a grave misunderstanding of the vocation
of the priest in the world. If ever men were called to
the active life, the Apostles were. Yet throughout our
Lord’s address to them, his first priests, at the last
supper the emphasis is always on love and union as a
basis of their active apostolate, rather than on activity
itself. They were to bear fruit, yes, but only on con­
dition that they, the branches, remained united with

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him, the Vine. They would do great things for him,
yes, but primarily and principally by abiding in him
and in his love.
There was the same emphasis on love in the choosing
of St. Peter as their head. We are all familiar with the
words our Lord used to mark him out and give him
supreme power of ruling the Church, but too many of
us overlook the amazing significance of the threefold
interrogation that preceded the threefold command to
feed Christ’s flock. In St. John's Gospel1 we read of
our Lord’s insistent questioning of St. Peter: ‘Simon,
son of John, lovest thou me more than these?’ The only
qualification that our Lord asked St. Peter to manifest
before making him head of the Church was outstanding
love.
Again, the epistles of that other great Apostle, St.
Paul, whose fiery spirit drove him all over the Roman
world to preach Christ crucified, are overflowing with
evidence that he was constantly and overpoweringly
animated by love of Jesus, whom he had once per­
secuted. Certainly it was the charity of Christ that
pressed him on to his supernal vocation.
It would be a tragic error both for ourselves and for
our ministry if we failed to realize that what our Lord
expected of the Apostles, his first priests, he expects
also, with not a whit of difference, from every priest
whom he has chosen.
The duty of the priest to seek perfection is clear from
many Papal documents. It will be sufficient to cite
Pope Pius XII in Menti Nostrae.'1 ‘It must be recalled
that even though the increasing needs of Christian
society more urgently demand personal holiness in
priests, they are already obliged by the very nature of
the high ministry confided to them by God to work

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209

unceasingly for their own sanctification, always and
everywhere.’
Moreover, the Holy Father makes it clear that, if
this obligation is to be fulfilled, union with our Lord
is of primary importance. ‘The first striving of a priest
should be for the closest union with the Divine Re­
deemer by accepting humbly and entirely the Christian
doctrine and by diligently applying it in every moment
of his life, so that his faith illumines his conduct and
his conduct is the reflection of his faith. Led by the
light of this virtue, let him keep his eyes fixed on Christ.
Let him follow closely his teaching, his actions and his
example, convincing himself that it is not sufficient for
him to accomplish the duties enjoined on the ordinary
faithful . . . The priestly life, since it arises from Christ,
should always and in everything be directed towards
him.’
There is a possible impediment to our whole-hearted
pursuit of personal union with our Lord which should
be noted here. The danger is a subtle one, for it arises
from a misapplication of that study of right and wrong,
of the precise boundary between the forbidden and the
permissible, which necessarily occupied much of our
attention in our seminary days, and which our ministry
in the confessional must necessarily keep prominent in
our minds as priests. The danger lies in carrying over
into our own spiritual lives, as a proper and sufficient
guide for ourselves, a criterion which was never meant
for the purpose and is sadly inadequate to fulfil it.
The mentality of the judge, of the canonist, is essential
in its sphere; but we need to remember what that
sphere is, and what are its limits. Beyond them, certain­
ly, lies the field of generosity, of high sanctity as against
mere avoidance of the pit, of the pursuit of the better

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and the best rather than the merely good. The judge’s
outlook, necessary as it is in much of our pastoral work,
will not do when it is question of our own spiritual
progress. It will at most tell us what we must do to
serve without transgression; it will never show us how
to serve as a lover serves. It will never lead us to that
intimate union with our Lord which he expects of us.
There are indications that the importance of this
personal union with our Lord needs special emphasis
at the present time. There is in these days an extraor­
dinary wealth of warnings and exhortations on this
very point. Some are associated with private revelations,
which must of course receive much sifting and testing;
but the general reaction of the Church discens as well
as docens seems to point to a special activity of the
Holy Spirit in his desire to rekindle in men’s hearts,
and especially in priests’ hearts, the fire of the love of
God in and through Christ. Many of those whose
work brings them into contact with a representative
section of souls serving God notice an unusual willing­
ness on God’s part to pour out special graces of prayer
and wisdom on everyone who comes, as one might
say, even half-way to meet him. Again, in his pro­
vidential action towards many whose zeal has borne
much fruit in external works, but who—though
‘good’—are far from understanding that their primary
vocation is to love him, we notice what might almost
be called a certain ruthlessness, as if he were bent on
upsetting their successes and their talents. (An im­
portant feature of God’s action in drawing souls to
himself may be involved here; we shall consider the
point later on).
The nature of the personal relationship our Lord
expects of us is very clearly brought out in the devotion

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211

to the Sacred Heart, as explained in the writings of St.
Margaret Mary, and especially as explained by Pope
Pius XI in the Encyclical Miserentissimus Deus of 1928.
The Lessons of the second Nocturn from Saturday to
Thursday of the Sacred Heart octave consist of passages
dealing with the Sacred Heart devotion taken from this
Encyclical. The Latin of all but one of the passages we
shall quote below will be found there.
We are chary, and rightly so, of private revelations
as such, but the revelations claimed by St. Margaret
Mary are put on a different footing by the unusual
reference made to them by Pius XL The devotion to
the Sacred Heart, in any case, rests of course on the
solidest of theological foundations, and is independent
of the genuineness or otherwise of those revelations.
However, the use Pius XI made of quotations from the
Saint at least makes it clear that the sentiments attri­
buted to our Lord in these passages may be taken as
truly representing his attitude. Let us consider, then,
what the Holy Father has written.
‘When Jesus appeared to St. Margaret Mary, while
emphasising the immensity of his love, he sorrowfully
complained of the many insults committed against him
by the ingratitude of men, in words that should be
indelibly graven upon the hearts of the devout : “Behold”
he said, “this heart that has so loved men and loaded
them with benefits, but in return for its infinite love, far
from finding any gratitude, has met only with neglect,
indifference and insult, and these sometimes from
souls that owe me a special duty of love.” ’ A sentence
of special importance for our present purpose is one
in which it is emphasised that our Lord complains
because his desires for our love are unrequited, rather
than because his sovereign right to our service and

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obedience is neglected: Our Lord revealed to that
most pure disciple of his Sacred Heart, St. Margaret
Mary, that, not so much in view of his rights over
mankind, as by reason of his great love for us, he
ardently desired that men should pay him this tribute
of devotion.’
The frequent insistence, in the revelations described
by St. Margaret Mary, on making reparation for the
insults and outrages to which our Lord is subjected,
may perhaps raise in our minds the question whether
there is any conflict here with the doctrine of the
present impassibility of Christ. If we have any un­
easiness on the point—and it seems that some priests
have—it should be put at rest once and for all, for
it could hold us back from entering whole-heartedly
into the full spirit of devotion to the Sacred Heart in
particular, and in general into that whole field of
heart-to-heart, friend-to-friend relationship with our
Lord of which the Sacred Heart devotion is an out­
standing expression. Here again Pius XI gives us safe
and satisfying guidance.
‘But how can it be said that Christ reigns blessed
in heaven if he can be consoled by such acts of re­
paration? We might answer in the words of St. Augus­
tine: “A loving soul will understand what I say.”3
Everyone that is truly inflamed with the love of God
turns his mind to the past, and sees him in the midst
of most grievous torments, “for us men and for our
salvation”, afflicted by sorrow and anguish, weighed
down with ignominy, “bruised for our sins”, healing
us by his stripes. He will meditate with the greater
truth if he considers that the sins and iniquities of
men, at whatsoever time committed, were the cause
for which the Son of God was given up to death, and

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213

would of themselves even now cause the death of
Christ, and a death accompanied by the same pains
and anguish, since every sin can be regarded as in some
manner renewing the Passion of our Lord, “crucifying
again to themselves the Son of God, and making him
a mockery.”4 If then in foreseeing the sins of the future
the soul of Jesus became sorrowful unto death, it
cannot be doubted that he already felt some comfort
when he foresaw our reparation, when “there appeared
to him an angel from heaven”,5 bearing consolation
to his heart overcome with sorrow and anguish.
Hence, even now, in a mysterious but true manner,
we may, and should, comfort the Sacred Heart, con­
tinually wounded by the sins of ungrateful men: for
Christ—as we also read in the Sacred Liturgy—com­
plains by the mouth of the psalmist that he is abandoned
by his friends: “My heart hath expected reproach and
misery. And I looked for one who would grieve to­
gether with me, but there was none; and for one that
would comfort me, and I found none”.’8
The Holy Father goes on to speak of Christ’s suffer­
ings in his Mystical Body, and reminds us that ‘Jesus
Christ himself taught the same truth when to Saul,
“as yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter
against the disciples”, he said: “I am Jesus whom thou
persecutes!.” By these words he clearly meant that
persecutions directed against the Church are a grievous
attack upon her Divine Head. Christ, then, as he still
suffers in his mystical body, rightly desires to have us
as his companions in the work of expiation.’
It is perhaps possible to learn, in this matter, even
from the enemy. We cite an example from our own
experience. It is a horrible example, but its very horror
may serve to impress on us how real and actual are

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the priest’s way to god

the issues involved in our discussion. A most unfortu­
nate woman, who had once communicated at a ‘black
mass’, stated that she had to do what the devil urged
her to do. This was to take the Sacred Host and
desecrate it. Her life had been a most unhappy one,
and she expressed great hatred of God for having
allowed all that had happened to her. We asked her what
satisfaction she could get from her actions, since
Christ was now incapable of suffering, and in the Host
she could only harm the species. Her answer came
with readiness and complete sureness: Oh, I can still
hurt him in Gethsemani!’
We have dealt with a number of possible misunder­
standings or difficulties which might impede us in
responding to that yearning our Lord has for our
friendship, for our personal love. Yet, when all these
have been set aside, it still remains true that many of us
who sincerely want to make that response are quite
discouraged by our lack of success. The lesson we have
to learn is that we cannot set our own hearts on fire:
this is a grace that God must give. Like the host of the
wedding feast in the Gospel, God provides the wedding
garment.
Our part is to ask, and the Mother of Fair Love is
our obvious helper here. Let us draw her attention to
our lack of wine; let us offer her the weak water of our
desire and dispositions, and beg her—for her Son’s
sake—to get it changed into the wine of Divine Love.
The answer will be, as it was at Cana: ‘Whatever he
shall say to you, that do ye.’ Wherever his will is done,
wherever his will is submitted to, there he is at work
setting us on fire with the Flame of Divine Love; for
God’s whole plan in governing the world is to bring
us to love his Son.

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215

Our prayer must be sincere and humble—and in­
sistent. We all know the example given by our Lord of
the man who knocked up his neighbour at midnight
for bread, and was heard not exactly for his reverence
but for his importunity. We are familiar with the
parable, but do we realize the full significance of the
lesson our Lord draws from it? He tells us that
if we ask and seek and knock we shall receive and find
and be welcomed; and then he adds the golden words:
‘If you then, being evil, know how to give good things
to your children, how much more will your Father
from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him ?’7
This is the very Spirit we need, for it is in and by
the Holy Ghost—who is Divine Love—that we are
to love Jesus. This prayer should be daily on our lips:
‘Father, for the sake of thy Son and because of his
merits, give me thy Holy Spirit, so that I may love
thy Son Jesus as he desires and deserves to be loved.’
Such a prayer must be heard. It is based and centred
on the Son, on his desires and his merits; and it asks
for something which God clearly wills, and which he
can give. We will certainly be answered.
But the answer may surprise us. Our Lord warned
that his Father is a good husbandman and prunes the
branches of his vine. We may find that things start to
go wrong with us. It may be that our health suffers,
and our abilities are impaired; that our friends seem
to change, and our Superiors to misjudge us; that our
plans go awry, our successes turn to failures. And we
are in despair. We had hoped, yes, but we had hoped
in our work, in our service, in our justice. And these
things are being taken from us.
If we ‘but knew the gift of God’, we would sing an
exultant Te Deum\ God is forcing us to make two

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THE priest’s way to god

changes. Previously we were intent on doing things for
God; now we realize that God wants to do things to
us, and we must learn that his work in our souls
is infinitely more important than any work of ours for
him. Previously we hoped in our work, and offered
him our service; now we must hope in his mercy, and
learn to offer him our love. For he means to call us,
like his first priests, ‘not servants, but friends.’
If, then, he is leading us into the desert, it is to
espouse us to himself in faith and, above all, in love.
‘My son, give me thy heart!’ If we are patient—for
patience has indeed a perfect work—and abandon our­
selves to his will in loving confidence, we shall soon
find that our heart is all we have left to offer him:
that love is the only gift we have for him. And at last
we shall give him that gift, the only one he craves. We
shall have learnt at last to understand the story of
Job.
And then God will restore to us our power of serving
him, but it will be a different service and a far more
fruitful service. We shall be indeed ‘other Christs’, and
our ministering will in truth be ‘through him, and with
him, and in him.’ We shall have found ‘the one thing
necessary’, ‘the better part, which shall not be taken
away.’
1
*
’
‘
6
’
’

XXI, 15
Sept. 23rd 1950; A.A.S. Oct. 2nd 1950
In Joan. 24, 4
Heb. VI, 6
Luke XXII, 43
Ps. LXVI1I, 21
Cf. Luke XI, 9-13

CHAPTER TWENTYONE

LOVING OUR LORD

In the last chapter we referred to the need for familiar
friendship with our Lord in the life of every priest,
and we urged priests to pray earnestly to the Father
for the gift of the Holy Spirit, that they might love our
Lord as he deserves and desires to be loved. Before we
discuss the unexpected aspects God’s answer to this
prayer may have, let us emphasize the importance of
realizing that all such pleading, to be efficacious, must
be based on the merits of our Lord; it must be made
in the name of Jesus Christ. Moreover, its object must
be such that it can fittingly be asked for in his name;
the request must be in accordance with the will of the
Father if our Lord is to make it his own. Generally
this is where our prayers are deficient: we ask amiss.
Very often our prayers are really attempts to get our
own will done rather than the will of the Father.
There is, however, no doubt that the particular
request we are considering—that we may love our Lord
as he deserves and desires to be loved—is in accordance
with the will of the Father. Such a prayer, therefore,
will certainly be answered. But, as we pointed out, the
nature of the answer can be quite unexpected, and
quite disconcerting. And we think it is here—in our
reaction to the answer—that most of us fail, and fail

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more than once in our lives. That we do not understand
the ways of God is perhaps excusable; but that we
should insist on expecting him to do things our way is
not quite so excusable.
A type of case one very often meets is that of priests
or nuns who have so far been quite successful in the
work allotted to them, or adopted by them. Their
labours have borne great fruit; their work is appre­
ciated; superiors are pleased, and open in their approval;
and everything seems to be going as it should. But
then something starts to go wrong. Their work is not
so successful as before; their superiors no longer
appreciate or approve of it, and perhaps changes are
made that handicap their efforts; misunderstandings
arise and lead to all sorts of disappointments. They
turn to God and pray confidently and earnestly—and,
instead of improving, things get worse and worse the
more they pray! And the result is all the more startling,
and we might say the more stupefying, if they have
prayed for an increase in love of our Lord rather than
for the success of their work.
Time and time again one meets such a pattern of
events; and time and time again one cannot help being
surprised at the slowness of the persons concerned
to appreciate what is really happening. Even those who
are quick to understand the Divine action in other
souls can be quite obtuse when there is question of
God’s work in their own souls. They say, like the
disciples on the road to Emmaus: ‘We had hoped . .
Yes, but their hope was in plans which they themselves
had made, and which they had hoped God was going
to make come true, rather than in God’s plans, which
are often so different from ours and are always better
and deeper and more far-sighted. They feel they could

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219

understand God’s intervention if their lives had been
fruitless and their work sterile—but why should he upset
their successful ministry, their successful spiritual life?
Yet that is precisely what our Lord has told us to expect:
‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he will take
away: and every one that beareth fruit he will purge it,
that it may bring forth more fruit.’1 It is when we are
being fruitful that he will interfere, in order that we may
bring forth more fruit. Despite our Lord’s warning,
we all tend to fail in our co-operation with the Divine
action at this point, and too many of us can trace our
complete falling off to a persistent refusal to recognize
and accept such Divine pruning.
No one who has himself made such a mistake can
fail to feel sympathy for others at such a crisis, but
the fact must be faced that the way of Christ is the way
of the Cross, and that this must be our path too if we
are to follow him. It is not only to the Jews and the
Greeks that the Cross is a stumbling-block and a folly:
we ourselves are not altogether free from the feeling
that it should not include us. If we analysed our re­
actions, we would often find that we tended to think
that such a way was all right for our Lord, but that
our way should be different. Yet our Lord warned us
that if we are to be his disciples we must deny ourselves,
take up our cross daily and follow him. And we who
are his priests, who stand daily at his altar, offering his
sacrifice and identifying ourselves with him, must
surely expect to be led along the road of contradiction
that is the Way of the Cross.
Judged by human standards, our Lord’s ministry
was extraordinarily unsuccessful! When one considers
the divine powers at his command, the unlimited choice

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he had of places, methods and instruments for his
apostolate, one cannot help noting how meagre seemed
the results: a handful of disciples around his Cross,
most of his followers terror-stricken fugitives, and even
after the crowning triumph of his resurrection, not two
hundred to meet together for the coming of the Holy
Spirit ! Given his opportunities, we would certainly have
done things differently! And, if the truth must be
told, we still tend to do things differently. We must
remember, however, that it was not by his ministry,
principally or primarily, that our Lord redeemed the
world, but by his Passion and Death. It was the Cross
of Christ that gave us life, rather than his apostolate.
And the same pattern must characterize our priesthood,
which is a participation in his.
No one can or dare question the fact that every
secular priest is called to active labour in Christ’s
vineyard. Like the Apostles, he has to minister to souls,
baptizing them, instructing them and giving them the
Sacraments of life. But every priest has other obli­
gations as well, and no priest has any obligation to
labour outside the limits laid down for him by lawful
authority. Divine Providence may often limit a priest’s
activity in various ways. Illness, the orders of superiors,
unsuitable circumstances are the usual ways; but God
has also permitted in our time the revival, in the form of
imprisonment, persecution or political pressure, the
special difficulties that beset the first Apostles.
If, in one way or another, we be limited in our active
apostolate, it is important to remember that other
methods are at our disposal. If we go on to say that
there are not only other methods but even better
methods, we hope we will not be taken as being pre­
judiced by our own vocation in a contemplative order.

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The role of contemplative orders in the work of the
apostolate was underlined by Pope Pius XI when he
exhorted Ordinaries in the mission field to consider the
advantage of setting up monasteries of men who by
their prayers and penances would water the soil of the
Master’s vineyard and ensure that the crop, otherwise
scanty, would be made full and fruitful. We refer here
to this teaching, not because we want to glorify the
contemplative orders, but because we think that it
implies a principle that affects every priest. For, as we
understand it, the value and fruitfulness of a life of
prayer and abnegation are not confined to the con­
templative orders but should be shared by every priest.
And, speaking salva meliore judicio, we feel that this
was the mind of our Lord.
The text wherein our Lord replied to the disciples’
comment on the readiness of the harvest for reapers,
by urging them to pray to the Master of the harvest
that he should send workers into the field, is often
quoted in this regard; but even more important and
more significant is our Lord’s insistence, in his address
at the last supper to his newly-ordained Apostles, on
the absolute need for ‘abiding’ in him. We have quoted
above the opening words of that section of our Lord’s
address. He returns to his teaching and says: ‘Abide
in me: and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you,
unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you the branches:
he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth
much fruit: for without me you can do nothing.’2 One
may conclude that as long as we ‘abide in him’, by that
very fact we are doing all that is required to make our
lives fruitful. It is true that no priest charged with the
care of souls can claim that this principle allows him

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to neglect the active ministry and fulfil his obligations
by prayer and private devotion. This is not ‘abiding
in Christ’, for we cannot abide in him if we are not
doing the will of his Father. When the will of the Father,
shown to us by our duty, demands active work, we
cannot abide in Christ without doing active work. But
the important point is that even in this activity the
principle of fruitfulness is our union with Christ, not
the intrinsic human ingenuity or efficiency of our works.
Once we realize that union with Christ is a sufficient
source of fruitfulness, we should be prepared to accept
cheerfully all providential interference with the apparent
fruitfulness of our ministry. We say ‘apparent’, because,
as we conceive it, a priest is often ‘bearing fruit’ some­
where far removed from the place where he is, by his
patient acceptance of the will of God, even when that
will of God allows the immediate results of his work
to diminish. And we cannot help feeling that this sort of
apostolic action is more than usually common today,
since such a tremendous part of the vineyard—Russia,
for instance—is outside the scope of a direct apostolate.
But leaving aside these personal views, we do think
that every priest is called to share in our Lord’s life of
self-sacrifice. Our Lord sanctified himself for us. Did
he not say to his Father: ‘As thou hast sent me into the
world, I also have sent them into the world. And for
them do I sanctify myself : that they also may be sancti­
fied in truth.’3 Our Lord, in fact, indicates the re­
semblance between his own mission and that of the
Apostles. His words are all the more significant in as
much as they were preceded by a warning of the
persecutions and the contradictions that the Apostles
would undergo: ‘These things I have told you, that
when the hour shall come you may remember that I

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told you of them.’4 It is true that not all of us are
called to undergo persecution. But is it not true that
all of us are called to undergo sanctification? And
sanctification means pruning. The very word that ex­
presses the principal function of our priesthood—
‘sacrifice’—has an implication of being made holy. Even
in our work for souls, this sacrifice takes primacy of
place; but in our spiritual life it must be predominant.
As priests we offer to God the sacrifice of Christ in
which he is the principal Offerer and Victim. But we
cannot be sincere in our offering unless we also offer
ourselves with him as victim. We know that he offers us
with himself. Pius XII makes that clear in the Encyclical
on the Mystical Body of Christ. And Pius XI, in his
Encyclical on reparation, reminds even the laity that
their offering of Mass is not as it should be unless their
offering of themselves and their ordering of their lives
correspond in some degree to the offering and life of
Christ. If this be true of all Christians, how much more
clearly does it apply to us priests? There was no more
ardent apostle than St. Paul, yet few have understood
the mystery of the Cross, and the need for sharing in
it, as he did.
Even if we were to allow our horizon to be limited
by the fruitfulness of our ministry for souls, we should
still be ready to renounce the satisfaction of seeing the
fruit our works produce, content to know by faith that
union with Christ in prayer and patience must give
fruitfulness to our ministry. But we have no right to
limit our horizon to such fruitfulness. The glory of
God is the primary purpose of creation, and if God
demands—we do not say that he does—that our lives
be sacrificed with no other result but a direct glorifi­
cation of himself, then we should be satisfied and feel

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that we have fulfilled the purpose for which we were
created. God, however, has placed his glory in our
fruitfulness, and we need never worry about our fruit­
fulness if we leave ourselves in his hands. There is no
way in which we can make our lives more fruitful for
God than by co-operating with his work for our sancti­
fication.
To mention St. John of the Cross to a secular priest
usually means raised eyebrows, more than mild sur­
prise, and a general reaction of rejection. Yet the
pattern traced out by St. John for the purification of the
soul has its counterpart in the spiritual life of every
soul that reaches the Beatific Vision. We do not say
that all undergo the process to the same degree that
the Saint paints in his dramatic picture of the Dark
Night. Yet we have our Lord’s warning to us that we
must purify ourselves if we are to follow him, and we
have his promise that the Father will purify us if we
are to bring forth more fruit. This applies to the life
of every priest. Most of us, however, greet the first
touches of the divine pruning-knife with keen resent­
ment and a lack of patience that is really quite out of
harmony with the offering that we should make of
ourselves each morning at Mass.
It is here—from our Mass—that our life of devotion
to God might well, we think, take its daily starting point,
as from a primary focus; and the Offertory of the Mass
in particular is a most appropriate place for renewing
our willing gift of ourselves to God and our cheerful
acceptance of all that he deigns to do with us. That
addition of a drop of water to the wine in the chalice,
and the prayer that accompanies this ceremony, ex­
press very suitably these dispositions. It is also very
suggestive that the bread and wine, after having been

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225

offered to God, are placed on the altar—a way of
placing them in his hands—with the gesture of the
sign of the Cross. That gesture which we make daily,
first with the bread and then with the wine, should
increase daily in its significance for us both as a re­
minder of the sacrifice that is about to take place and
as an expression of our attitude before God—of our
union with Christ, the Victim, and our acceptance of
the Cross with him.
Then we bow down, and instead—as of old—ex­
pecting fire to come down from heaven to consume our
sacrifice, we pray, with all the authority of the Church
to justify us, that the Holy Ghost will come to bless our
sacrifice. Now is the time to remember that our God is
a consuming fire! And the fire of the Love of God which
is the Holy Spirit will certainly come to sanctify us—
if we do not grieve him by resisting him. But if we
are going to co-operate with him we must remember the
cross-marked path of our High Priest. We should be
mindful, too, of the history of Job, a figure from the
Old Testament too often overlooked in our time. His
story is of the utmost significance for us priests, for
what happened to him is going to happen to us also
in some form or other. We must never forget that
sanctification is not so much a question of the develop­
ment and perfecting of ourselves, as of the denying
of self and our replacement by Christ. We must
diminish and he must increase.
Unless continual reflection on the life, the teaching
and the example of our Lord has prepared us, we shall
not be ready to fulfil our priestly vocation of being
made men after the heart of our Lord. We must pre­
pare ourselves to share not only his Priesthood but
also his Victimhood. We have, in some way or other

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226

at least, to share in his death and resurrection. Too
often our Lord has to delay his sanctifying work in our
souls because of—one might say—our unbelief. And
the loss of the ‘more fruit’ that he intended us to bring
forth is not the least of the sad results of our resistance
to his purifying work.
Our Lady knows the mind and the heart of Christ.
Let us ask her to instruct us, to prepare us, to mould
us, and to conform us to the heart of her Son, so that
we may not be found unready or unwilling when he
comes to ask us to ascend higher, to become more
intimate with him.
1
•
’
‘

John
John
John
John

XV, 1-2
XV, 4-5
XVII. 18-19
XVI, 4