Chapter III: The Religious Should Belong Entirely to God

i. She should Renounce everything, and Love only God.

Plutarch¹ relates that in Rome it was the duty of a woman, on her first arrival at the house of her husband, to address him in the following words: “Wherever you are, there also shall I be. Wheresoever your will leads you, there likewise my desires shall carry me.”² It is this perfect conformity of her will with his that Jesus Christ demands of every virgin who aspires to the dignity and glory of his spouse. My son, he says, give me thy heart.³ My child and my spouse, what I desire from you is, that you give me your heart, your affections, and your will. The Holy Ghost says that when God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, he set his eyes upon their hearts.⁴ He fixed his eyes not upon their hands, but upon their hearts; because external works are of no value before God, unless they proceed from the heart, and be accompanied by the affections of the soul. All the glory of the spouse of Christ consists in an entire and a perfect union of her heart with the heart of God. All the glory of the King’s daughter is within.⁵ This union of her interior makes a religious belong entirely to the

¹ Qu(Fst. Rom. q. 29.

² “Ubi tu Caius, ego Caia.”

³ “Prrebe, fill mi, cor tuum mihi.”—-Prov. xxiii. 26.

⁴ “Posuit oculum suum super corda illorum.”—Ecclus. xvn. 7.

⁵ “Omnis gloria ejus... ab intus.”—Ps. xliv. 14.

Lord.

“God,” says St. Bernard, “requires to be feared as a Sovereign, to be honored as a Father, and to be loved as a Spouse.”¹ Hence in his virginal spouses the Redeemer bears more patiently with every imperfection than with a divided heart or a want of love. It was to show the necessity of a complete and unqualified dedication of themselves to his glory that he ordained by his Church that in receiving the sacred veil on the day of their profession his spouses should be reminded of their obligation to reject every other lover. “Receive,” the bishop says, “the veil, that you may admit no lover but him.”² Receive this veil, that you may no longer have regard to creatures, and that you may banish from your heart every affection that is not for God. The Church commands religious at their profession to change their name, that they may forget the world, that they may esteem themselves dead to all earthly things, and that the dispositions of their souls may correspond to the words which they utter on that solemn occasion: “The empire of the world and all the grandeur of the earth I have despised for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, towards whom my heart inclineth.”³ I have despised the world and all its pomps, for the sake of Jesus, my Spouse, to whom, because he is most amiable and most worthy of my love, I have consecrated all the affections of my heart. Every religious should say to the world with St. Agnes: “Depart from me, food of death, for I am pledged to another lover.”⁴ Whenever any earthly object steals into her heart, and claims a share in that love which had been entirely consecrated to her divine Spouse, she should exclaim: “Begone, pernicious affection, you seek to poison my heart: depart, therefore, for another lover, more noble, more faithful, and more acceptable than you, has loved me before I could love him, and has taken possession of my whole soul: you are a vile and miserable creature; but my Spouse is the Lord, the King of heaven and earth. I am espoused to Him whom the angels serve.”¹

¹ “Exigit Deus timeri ut Dominus, honorari ut Pater, ut Sponsus amari.”—In Cant. s. 83.

² “Accipe velum, ut nullum amatorem praeter eum admittas.”

³ “I have despised the kingdom of the world and every ornament of the age for love of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, whom I have cherished.”

⁴ “Discede a me, pabulum mortis, quia jam abalioamatore praeventa sum.”

¹ “Ipsi desponsata sum, cui Angeli serviunt.”—Offic. 2: fan.

Without love the soul of man cannot exist. Her affections must be fixed on God or on creatures: if she love not creatures, she will certainly love God. Hence, the Holy Ghost exhorts us to guard our hearts with the utmost vigilance against all affections which have not God for their object: With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it.² While the heart loves God, the soul shall have life; but if the heart transfer its affections to creatures, spiritual death will be the inevitable consequence. In order, then, to become a saint, the spouse of the Lamb must expel from her soul whatsoever has not God for its end and object. When any one demanded admission into the Society of the Fathers of the Desert, they answered him by the following question: “Do you bring a vacant heart, that it may be filled by the Holy Ghost?”³ Justly did they require a soul detached from earthly goods; for a heart in which the world dwells cannot be replenished with the love of God. Whoever brings to the fountain a-vessel replete with sand, will labor in vain to fill it with water unless it be first emptied of its contents. O my God, why do so many religious frequent the holy exercises of prayer and Communion, and draw from them so little increase of divine love? It is because their hearts are so full of the world, of self-esteem, of vanity, or of self-will, of affection to friends, attachment to creatures. Until the world is rooted out of their hearts, the love of God cannot take possession of their souls. Give me a religious who is detached from the world and the things of the world, and I pledge myself that divine love shall abound in her soul. To obtain this detachment from the earth, it is necessary to call continually on the Lord, in the language of holy David: Create in me a clean heart, O God.¹ Give me, O Lord, a heart free from every affection which does not proceed from the love of Thee. Woe to them that are of a double heart.² “Woe,” says St. Augustine, in his comment on these words, “to them who divide their heart, giving it partly to God and partly to the devil.” For, continues the saint, the anger of God is justly provoked against those who treat him and his sworn enemy with equal attention, and therefore he departs from them, and yields to the devil the undivided possession of their hearts. “God is angry, because in the affections of a double heart he is associated with the devil: he departs, and the devil possesses the whole.”³ The holy Doctor then concludes, that because a soul loves God less in proportion as her affections are fixed on other objects, a religious cannot be entirely devoted to the love of her Spouse while she is attached to creatures. “He loves you less, who loves anything else with you.”⁴

In a word, every little attachment to created objects impedes the perfect consecration of the soul to God. St. Teresa, while she cherished a certain little inordinate though not an unchaste affection for a relative, was but imperfectly united to God; but when she afterwards disengaged her heart from all earthly attachments, and consecrated her whole soul to the love of Jesus, she merited to hear from him: “Teresa, now thou art all mine, and I am all thine.”¹ St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that a religious who gives not to Jesus her whole heart gives him nothing. The assertion was most just; for it is impossible to divide a heart too small to love a God who deserves infinite love, and to give one part of it to him and another to creatures. No, says blessed Egidius, “The soul, which is one, must be entirely given to Him who is one,² who merits all our love, and who has done and suffered so much to extort our love. Surely, observes Father Nieremberg, it was not necessary for our redemption that Jesus Christ should have submitted to all the miseries and endured all the pains of his life and death. A single drop of his blood, a tear, a prayer, would have been sufficient to save the whole world, and an infinite number of worlds. But the Son of God has shed the last drop of his blood, and has given his life, not only to redeem us, but also to compel us to love him with our whole hearts. He could have sent an angel to deliver us from sin: “but,” says Hugh of St. Victor, “lest you should divide your love between the Creator and the redeeming angel, he who was your Creator has chosen to become your Redeemer.”³

² “Omni custodia serva cor tuum, quia ex ipso vita procedit.”—Prov. iv. 23.

³ “Affersne cor vacuum, ut possit illud Spiritus Sanctus implere?”

¹ “Cor mundum crea in me, Deus.”—Ps. l. 12.

² “Væ duplici corde.”—Ecclus. ii. 14.

³ “Iratus Deus, quia fit ibi pars diabolo, discedit, et totum diabolus possidet.”—In Jo. tr. 7.

⁴ “Minus te amat, qui tecum aliquid aliud amat.”—Conf. l. 10, c. 29.

¹ Life, ch. 39.

² “Una uni!”

³ “Ne amorem divideres, tibi factus est Creator et Redemptor.”

The Lord commands all to love him with their whole heart. To each one he says: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart.⁴ This precept of love is especially directed to the spouses of the Redeemer. A brother in religion said once to the Venerable Father John Joseph of Alcantara, that he had become a religious to save his soul. The Venerable Father replied: “My child, do not say that you have left the world to secure your salvation; say rather that you have entered religion to become a saint; for the object of a religious should be to love God in the highest degree.” O my God, if a religious love not Jesus Christ with her whole soul, to whom will she give the preference in her heart? Oh! how many marks of predilection must he have shown to you in making you his spouse in religion? He must first have selected you for creation from among an infinite number of possible beings. Then to make you from your birth a child of the Church, by the holy sacrament of baptism, he must have chosen you from among so many millions who are born in infidelity and heresy. Lastly, in bringing you into religion by his lights, his invitations, and by his special graces, he must have preferred you before the numberless multitudes of seculars whom he has left in the world in the midst of so many dangers and occasions of losing their immortal souls. Now if you do not love your God with your whole heart and soul, if you do not consecrate your entire being to his service, to whom will you give your heart? This, says the Psalmist, is the generation of them that seek the Lord.¹ Who can behold virgins of noble birth and splendid fortunes despising the pomp and pleasures of the world, which they might have enjoyed, and shutting themselves up in a convent, to live in poverty and abjection; who, I say, can behold these holy virgins without exclaiming, This is the generation of them that seek the Lord?²

Since, then, God has called you to be his spouse, all your thoughts and affections must be fixed on him, and on him alone. “Have no connection,” says St. Bernard, “with the world; forget all things; reserve yourself for him alone whom you have chosen from among all.”3 Now that you are consecrated to Jesus Christ, what have you to do with the world? Forget all things, and endeavor to preserve your whole heart for that God who has chosen you for his spouse in preference to so many others. You must give him your whole heart; for Jesus Christ requires that his spouse be an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain. My spouse is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up.¹ The spouse of Jesus must be an enclosed garden admitting into her heart no lover but Jesus. “An enclosed garden,” says Gilbert, “which admits none but her beloved.”² She must be a sealed-up fountain; for he is a jealous Spouse who will suffer no one to share in the affections of his beloved. Put me, he says, as a seal upon thy heart; as a seal upon thy arm: for love is strong as death.³ I desire to be placed as a seal upon your heart and upon your arm, that you may love none but me, and that my glory may be the sole object of all your actions. 11 The Beloved,” says St. Gregory, “is put as a seal upon the heart and arm of his spouse; because, in a holy soul, the intensity of her love is shown by the affections of the will, and by the works of her hands.”⁴ Oh! how love, when it is strong, banishes from the soul every affection which is not for God: For love is strong as death. As no created power can avert the stroke of death when the hour of dissolution arrives, so there is no obstacle which a soul filled with divine love will not overcome. If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing.⁵ A heart which loves God despises all that the world can give, and disregards all that is not God. “When,” says St. Francis de Sales, “a house takes fire, the furniture is thrown out of the windows; and when a soul burns with divine love, she, without the aid of sermons, or spiritual reading, or the exhortations of directors, divests herself of all affection for creatures, to possess and to love her only Supreme Good—the God of Majesty and Sovereign of the universe.”

⁴ “Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo.”—Matt. xxii. 37.

¹ “Haec est generatio quaerentium eum.”—Ps. xxiii. 6.

² “Have nothing to do with crowds; forget all things; reserve yourself for the one alone whom you have chosen for yourself from among all.”—In Cant. s. 40.

¹ “Mea sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus.”—Cant. iv. 12.

² “Hortus conclusus, qui neminem nisi Dilectum admittit.”—In Cant. s. 35.

³ “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, because love is strong as death.”—Cant. viii. 6.

⁴ “The Beloved is set as a seal upon the spouse's heart and upon her arm, because in a holy soul how much he is loved by her is shown both by will and by action.”

⁵ “Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam.”—Cant. viii. 7.

Perhaps, dear Sister, so much love is not due to your Spouse, Jesus, who died upon the cross for your redemption; who has given you himself so often in the holy Communion, and has enriched your soul with so many special graces which have not been granted to others? Reflect, says St. John Chrysostom, that he has given you himself entirely and without reserve. “He has given all to you: he has reserved nothing for himself.”¹ This consideration was one of the principal means by which St. Bernard enkindled in his soul the flame of divine love. “He,” says the saint, “was given to me entirely: he was wholly consumed for my benefit.”² My Saviour has given me his adorable divinity and his sacred humanity; he has become a whole-burnt offering for my sake: can I refuse to consecrate my entire being to his love? My beloved to me, and I to him.³ My beloved has given himself entirely to me: it is but just that I dedicate to him my soul, my body, my life, and all my possessions. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that a religious being called to be the spouse of a crucified God, should, in her whole life and in all her actions, have in view no other object than Jesus crucified; and should in her whole life have no other occupation than the continual meditation of the eternal love which her divine Spouse bore to her. When Jesus was about to accomplish the redemption of man, he said: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out.¹ Perhaps by these words the Son of God meant that after his crucifixion the devil was to be banished from the earth? “No,” says St. Augustine, “but from the hearts of the faithful.”² Now if Jesus Christ has died for all, he has suffered in a special manner for his virginal spouses. Since, then, a God has given himself entirely for your salvation, would it not be enormous ingratitude in you to refuse to him the sacrifice of your whole heart, or to love him only with reserve? Say, then, frequently to your Spouse: O my Jesus, Thou hast given Thyself to me without reserve; Thou hast given all Thy blood, all Thy labors, all Thy merits, for my sanctification. In a word, Thy favors were so abundant and magnificent that nothing more remained to be conferred upon me. I therefore give myself entirely to Thee; I offer to Thee all that I possess or shall ever possess upon earth; I consecrate to Thee all my pleasures, my body, my soul, my will, my liberty. I have nothing more to present to Thee: if I had Thou shouldst have it. I renounce all that the world can give, and declare that Thou alone canst satisfy the desires of my heart. “Oh!” said St. Teresa, “what a profitable exchange to give our hearts to God, and in return to be made the objects of his love.”³ “But,” continues the saint, “because we do not offer to him the undivided affections of our souls, he does not bestow upon us all the treasures of his love.”4

¹ “Totum tibi dedit, nihil sibi retinuit.”

² “Totus mihi datus, totus in meos usus expensus est.”—In Cant. s. 3-

³ “Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi.”—Cant. ii. 16.

¹ “Nunc princeps hujus mundi ejicitur foras.”—John, xii. 31.

² “Sed extra corda credentium.”—In 1 Jo. tr. 4.

³ Way of Perf. ch. 17. 'Life, ch. n.

The spouse of Jesus should sing no other than that canticle of love recommended by holy David: Sing to the Lord a new canticle.¹ “What,” says St. Augustine, “is a new canticle, but new love?”² The old canticles are those affections to creatures and to ourselves to which we have been subject from our birth, and which continually spring up from the inclinations to evil transmitted to us by our first parents. For, says the Holy Ghost, the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth.³ But the new canticle is love, by which the soul is consecrated to God. “The voice,” says St. Augustine, “of this singer of canticles is the voice of holy love: let us love him for his own sake.”⁴ The voice of the soul praising God is the fervor of charity which makes her love him, because he merits her love, and banishes from her affections whatever is not God. Jesus crucified, commands his spouses to be crucified to all earthly things. Whenever, then, the world places before your eyes its pomps and delights, you should exclaim with St. Paulinus: “Let the rich enjoy their treasures, and kings their thrones; Christ is our kingdom and our glory.”⁵ His love is more valuable to us than the sovereignty of the earth. The spouse of Jesus should desire nothing but love; should live but for love; should seek only to advance continually in love: she should incessantly languish with love, in the choir, in the cell, the dormitory, the garden, in all places. Such should be the ardor of her charity, that the flames of her love would extend to all parts of the convent, and even beyond the boundaries of the enclosure. To this love the Apostle exhorts and invites her, by the example of her beloved Spouse. Happy the religious who can say with St. Francis, “my God and my all.” My God, who hast shown to me such an excess of love, why should I seek earthly possessions? I have found Thee, the source of all happiness. My God and my all, I care not for honors, for riches, or for pleasures. Thou art my glory, my treasure, my delight, and my all. What have I in heaven? and besides thee, what do I desire upon earth? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion forever.¹ Can I, O my God, find any one in heaven or on earth who is so deserving of my affection, or who has done so much to gain my love? Thou alone shalt be the Lord of my heart; Thou shalt reign in its affections, and shalt rule its motions with sovereign sway. Thee alone shall my soul obey, seeking in all things Thy holy will. I found him whom my soul loveth; I held him and will not let him go.² Yes, I have found the object of all my affections: I have found him who alone can make me happy. Though the world, with all its pleasures, and hell, with all its powers of darkness, should endeavor to separate me from Thee, I will not abandon Thee, O Jesus, my Spouse. “I held him, and will not let him go.” I will hold Thee fast by my love, and will never suffer Thee to depart from me. I desire to live and to die always, and in all things, united to Thee.

¹ “Cantate Domino canticum novum.”—Ps. xcv. i.

² “Quid habet canticum novum, nisi amorem novum?”—Serm. 336, E. B.

³ “Sensus enim et cogitatio humani cordis in malum prona sunt ab adolescentia sua.”—Gen. viii. 21.

⁴ “Vox hujus cantoris, fervor est sanctiamoris; ipsum amemus propter ipsum.”

⁵ “Let the rich have their riches for themselves, and kings their kingdoms for themselves; for us Christ is glory and possession and kingdom.”—Ep. ad Aprum.

¹ “My God and all things. What is there for me in heaven, and what have I desired from you upon earth? . . . The God of my heart and my portion, God forever.”—Ps. lxxii. 25, 26.

² “Inveni, quem diligit anima mea; tenui eum, nec dimittam.”—Cant. iii. 4.

2. We must Overcome ourselves and courageously Strive for Perfection—Means to be adopted for this Purpose.

To attain perfection, and to enjoy true peace of conscience, it is necessary to die to the world and to self. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.¹ As corporal death is necessarily accompanied with pain, so abandonment of the world and detachment from its pleasures is utterly impossible without trials and sufferings. The kingdom of heaven is represented to us in the Holy Scriptures under various images. It is sometimes compared to a treasure which can be obtained only by selling all our possessions; sometimes to a city which, because the gate is narrow, no one can enter without fatigue and industry; sometimes to a palace in which the stones (that is, the souls of which it is composed) must be polished with the utmost care; sometimes to a feast, to which no one is admitted unless he abandon all other concerns; sometimes to a prize which cannot be won without running to the end; and, finally, to a crown, for the acquisition of which it is necessary to fight and conquer. In a word, to die to the world, self-love must die in the soul.

¹ “Reati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur.”—Apoc. xiv. 13.

St. Augustine says, that the love of God increases in proportion as self-love is diminished; and that the destruction of the latter is the perfection of the former. “The diminution of cupidity,” says the holy Doctor, “is the nutriment of charity; but its total absence is the perfection of charity.”² Charity is estimated, not by its tenderness, but by its strength. Ardent charity smooths every asperity and surmounts every obstacle. “There is nothing,” says St. Augustine, “so difficult, which the fire of love does not conquer.”³ In another place he says: “In what we love there is no labor; or if there be, we love the very labor itself.”⁴ In a soul that loves God, torments endured for his sake excite no pain; or if they do, these pains are to her a source of happiness and delight. In his confessions, the saint writes, that when he gave himself entirely to God, the very privation of sensual gratifications filled his soul with joy; and that though at first he dreaded their loss, he afterwards had reason to rejoice at their relinquishment. “How sweet, on a sudden, was it become to me to be without these joys! and what I was before so much afraid to lose, I now cast from me with joy.”¹ To a religious who has fixed her whole heart on God, the practice of poverty, of obedience, mortification, and of all virtues is easy and agreeable; but to her whose affections are divided between God and creatures, all the duties of religion are an intolerable burden.

² “Nutrimentum charitatis est imminutio cupiditatis; perfectio, nulla cupiditas.”—De div. quest. q. 36.

³ “Nihil tam durum, quod non amoris igne vincatur.”—DeMar. eccl. cath. c. 22.

⁴ “In eo quod amatur, aut non laboratur, aut et labor amatur.”—De Bono vid. c. 21.

¹ “It suddenly became sweet to me to be without the delights of trifles; and what I had feared to lose, it was now a joy to dismiss.”—Con/. 1. 9, c. 1.

It is true that whatever good we do, comes from God, and that without his grace we cannot, according to the Apostle, even pronounce the name of Jesus. But notwithstanding our absolute dependence on divine grace, God commands us to perform our part, and to co-operate with him in the work of our salvation. Many desire to become saints, but wish that God would do all, and that he would bring them to eternal glory without labor or inconvenience to them. But this is impossible. The law of God is said to be a yoke borne by two, to show that the divine aid, on the one hand, and our co-operation on the other, are indispensably necessary for its observance. And sometimes, to carry this yoke, and merit everlasting happiness, we must do violence to the feelings of flesh and blood. The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.² And St. Paul says, that the crown of life shall be given to him only who shall combat till he overcomes the enemies of his salvation.

² “Regnum ccelorum vim patitur, et violenti rapiunt illud.”—Matt. xi. 12.

O spouse of Jesus, I say to you with the same apostle, hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.¹ Since Jesus Christ has made you his spouse, do not allow your enemies to snatch from you the eternal dignity of queen which he has prepared for you in his kingdom; but, on the contrary, hold fast your crown, by assimilating yourself to your beloved, the predestined model of the elect: For, whom he foreknew, he also pre destined to be made conformable to the image of his Son.² He has gone before you, crowned with thorns, scourged at the pillar, loaded with the cross, and saturated with contempt and reproach; and in that pitiable condition he invites you to follow him, and to deny yourself: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me.³ He has died for you, and it is your duty to sacrifice your life for him, and to say with the seraphic St. Francis: “O good Jesus, may I die for the love of thee, who hast condescended to die for the love of me.”⁴ Yes, it is but just that you should die to yourselves, and live only for that God who has died for your salvation. “That they also,” says the Apostle, who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them.⁵ You, indeed, are weak; but if you trust in the goodness of your Spouse, his grace and strength will prepare you to execute so arduous a task. When the devil molests you, and endeavors to cast you into despair, by representing to you the difficulties and miseries of a life of continual mortification, of incessant self-denial, and of perpetual abstinence from sensual pleasures, answer him in the words of the Apostle: I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me.¹ Of myself I can do nothing; but the Lord, who has chosen me for his spouse, and called me to his love, will give me courage and strength to walk in the rugged path of his commandments. “If,” says St. Teresa, “we be not in fault, God will assuredly, by his all-powerful aid, enable us to become saints.” And, O my God, upon whom, if not upon your spouses, will the obligation of sanctity be imperative? O consecrated virgins, offer yourselves frequently to God, with a strong desire and determination to please him in all things, and implore continually the assistance of his holy grace. He has promised to grant whatsoever is asked of him with confidence. All things whatsoever you ask, when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you.²

¹ “Tene quod habes, ut nemo accipiat coronam tuam.”—Apoc. xi. 12.

² “Quos præscivit, et prædestinavit conformes fieri imaginis Filii sui.”—Rom. viii. 29.

³ “Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum.”—Matt. xvi. 24.

⁴ “O bone Jesu! moriar amore amoris tui, qui amore amoris mei dignatus es mori.”

⁵ “Qui vivunt, jam non sibi vivant, sed ei qui pro ipsis mortuus est.”—2 Cor. v. 15.

¹ “Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat.”—Phil. iv. 13.

² “Omnia quæcumque orantes petitis, credite quia accipietis, et evenient vobis.”—Mark, xi. 24.

What then do you fear? Have courage; God has taken you from the world; he has delivered you from its snares; has called you to his love; and has, if you be faithful to him, prepared for you numberless helps and graces. You have already left the world; you have, as St. Teresa used to say to her spiritual children, taken the most difficult and important step; and to become a saint little now remains to be done. Resolve, then, at once to dissolve every worldly attachment. Perhaps, after having forsaken the world, and renounced all its goods, after having voluntarily relinquished your liberty, and bound yourself, by vow, to perpetual enclosure; perhaps, after all these sacrifices, you are disposed, for the miserable gratifications of sense or caprice, to risk your all—the everlasting possession of paradise and of God—and to prefer, before the exalted glory of spouse of the Most High, the unhappy slavery of Satan, who will render you unhappy in this life, and eternally miserable in the next. Resolve, then, I say again, to burst every earthly tie, and tremble lest the words which you now read should be the last invitation of your Spouse. Do not resist the voice of God any longer. If you neglect his call on this occasion, he may perhaps abandon you forever. Resolve, then, resolve! “The devil,” says St. Teresa, “is afraid of resolute souls.” St. Bernard teaches that many souls are lost through want of fortitude. Take courage, then, and trust in the power and goodness of God: strong resolutions overcome all difficulties. Oh! happy, thrice happy soul, if, in obedience to the voice of God, you give yourself entirely to your Spouse, Jesus. When death approaches you can return thanks to him for his favors, and address him in the words of the glorious St. Agnes: “O Lord, who hast taken from me the love of the world, receive my soul.”¹ O my God, who hast disengaged my heart from creatures, that all its affections might be fixed on Thee, receive, now, my soul, that I may be admitted into the kingdom of Thy glory, to love Thee with all my strength, without fear of being ever separated from Thee—the Supreme and Infinite Good.

¹ “Domine, qui abstulisti a meamorem saeculi, accipe animam meam.” —Offic. 21 Jan.

Oh, that all religious would imitate the example of the Venerable Frances Farnese! Her life at first was very imperfect; but happening one day to read the history of the Franciscans in Japan, she was suddenly seized with compunction, and exclaimed: “And what, my Sisters, will we do? We have forsaken our families and our goods, and shall we now draw down upon our souls the vengeance of God, and the sentence of eternal death by attachment to the things of the world which we do not possess?” From that moment she resolved to give up the world, and to consecrate herself entirely to God. This resolution she afterwards fulfilled in the accomplishment of that wonderful reformation of the Order which was planned and executed by her directions.

“Men,” says St. Jerome, “always seek to advance in the knowledge of their secular profession, but are satiated with the mere rudiments of the science of the saints. In all their worldly pursuits,” says the saint, “men are never satiated; but in virtue it is sufficient for them to have made a beginning.”¹ Every Christian is bound to tend to perfection. “When I speak of a Christian,” says St. Ambrose, “I mean a perfect man.”² The precept by which all are commanded to love God with all their strength, imposes upon all the obligation of perfection. Besides, to discharge the duty of preserving sanctifying grace it is necessary to struggle always to perfect charity in the soul; for in the path of virtue he that does not advance, recedes, and exposes himself to the danger of sin. Now, if this is true with regard to all Christians, how much more so must it be with regard to religious, who are bound by a stricter obligation to seek perfection, not only because they receive more abundant graces and more powerful helps to sanctity, but also because they have promised to observe the vows and rules of religion!

¹ “Cum in omnibus mundi studiis non satiantur homines, hic tantum cœpisse sufficiet.”—Ad Demetr. De Virginit.

² “Christianum cum dico, perfectum dico.”—In Ps. cxviii. s. 12.

But to fulfil the command by which you are obliged to aspire to perfection, an inefficacious and fruitless desire of sanctity is not sufficient. You must do violence to yourself, and adopt the means of attaining perfection. It will not be necessary for you to undertake very extraordinary things: it will be sufficient to perform your ordinary exercises with diligence and attention, to observe your Rule with exactness, and to practise with fidelity the Gospel virtues. However, a religious who desires to become a saint will not confine herself to the mere discharge of the duties prescribed by her Rule, which is accommodated to weak as well as to perfect souls; she must also perform supererogatory works of prayer, of charity, of mortification, and of the other virtues. St. Bernard says that “what is perfect must be singular.”¹ A religious, who barely discharges the ordinary duties of the Community, will never attain sublime sanctity. It. is your duty, then, to do violence to yourself, and courageously to adopt the means of arriving at perfection.

¹ “Perfectum non potest esse, nisi singulare.”

The principal means are:

i. A strong and ardent desire to become a saint.

2. Great confidence in Jesus Christ and in his holy Mother.

3. To avoid every deliberate sin or defect, and after a fault not to lose courage, but to make an act of contrition for it, and then resume your ordinary occupations.

4. To cut off all attachment to creatures, to self-will, and self-esteem.

5. To resist continually your own inclinations.

6. To observe with exactness the rules of religion, however unimportant they may appear.

7. To perform your ordinary duties with all possible perfection.

j 8. To communicate often—with the permission of your director; to make long and frequent meditations, and to perform all the mortifications which he will permit.

9. To prefer, on all occasions, those actions which are most agreeable to God, and most opposed to self-love.

10. To receive all crosses and contradictions with joy and gladness from the hands of God.

11. To love and serve those who persecute you.

12. To spend every moment of your time for God.

13. To offer to God all your actions in union with the merits of Jesus Christ.

14. To make a special oblation of yourself to God, that he may dispose of you and of all you possess in whatever way he pleases.

15. To protest continually before God that his pleasure and love are the only objects of your wishes.

16. Lastly, and above all, to pray continually, and to recommend yourself, with unbounded confidence, to Jesus Christ and to his Virgin Mother, and to entertain a special affection and tenderness towards Mary.

I conclude with the words which the Venerable Father Anthony Torres, after an ecstasy of love, addressed to a religious who was one of his penitents: “My child, love, love your Spouse, who is the only object that merits your love.”

Prayer.

O my God! O amiable love! O infinite lover! and worthy of infinite love, when shall I love Thee as Thou hast loved me? It is not in Thy power to give me stronger proofs of love than those Thou hast already given. Thou hast spared nothing; Thou hast expended Thy blood and Thy life to oblige me to love Thee; and shall I love Thee only with reserve? Pardon me, O my Jesus, if, in my past life, I have been so ungrateful as to prefer my accursed pleasures before the love which I owed to Thee. Ah! my Lord and my Spouse, discover to me always, more and more, Thy infinite loveliness that I may be daily more enamoured of Thy perfection, and that I may continually endeavor to please Thee as Thou dost deserve to be pleased. Thou dost command me to love Thee, and I desire nothing but Thy love. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth.¹ Speak, O Lord: tell me what Thou desirest from me: my wish is to obey Thee in all things. I will no longer resist the graces and mercies Thou hast bestowed upon me. Thou hast given Thyself entirely to me: I offer myself without reserve to Thee. For Thy mercy’s sake accept, and do not refuse this oblation. By my infidelities I have deserved to be cast away from Thy love: but the desire to be Thine which Thou hast infused into my soul assures me that Thou hast already accepted the offer. I love Thee, O God, who art infinitely amiable: I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good. Thou art, and shalt be forever, the only delight of my heart, and the sole object of my affections. And since Thou hast said, Ask, and you shall receive.¹ and hast promised to grant whatsoever we ask, I beg, with St. Ignatius, that “Thou wilt give me only Thy love along with Thy grace, and I shall be sufficiently rich.”² Give me Thy love and Thy grace; grant that I may love Thee, and be beloved by Thee, and I shall be content, and shall desire nothing else from Thee.

¹ “Loquere, Domine, quia audit servus tuus.”—i Kings, iii. 9.

¹ “Petite, et accipietis.”—John, xvi. 24.

² “Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi dones, et dives sum satis.”

O Mary, who belonged always and entirely to God, by that love which our Lord bore thee through all eternity, obtain for us the grace henceforth to love God, and to love him alone.