Chapter XVIII: The Frequentation of the Sacraments

Confession.

I do not intend to treat in this place of the confessions of those who commit mortal sins, although I shall say something on proximate occasions and on sacrilegious confessions; but I will principally speak of the confessions of timorous souls that love perfection and endeavor constantly to purify their souls more and more from the stain of venial sins,

Cesarius relates that a good priest commanded, in the name of God, a devil who appeared to him to tell what was most hurtful to him. The demon answered that nothing was more injurious or displeasing to him than frequent confession. Jesus Christ once said to St. Bridget, that they who wish to preserve fervor should often purify their souls by accusing themselves in confession of all their defects, and all their negligence in his service.¹ Cassian says² that he who aspires to perfection should aim at great purity of conscience; because from purity of conscience the soul passes to perfect love. Hence, love corresponds to cleanness of heart. It is, however, necessary to know that in the present state this purity of soul does not consist in a total exemption from all faults; for except our divine Saviour and his divine Mother, there neither has been nor will be in this world any soul free from all stain. In many things we all offend.¹—But it consists in two things: first, in a careful guard over the heart, to prevent the commission of every deliberate sin, however venial; and secondly, in instantly purifying the soul from any fault that it may commit. Now these two are precisely the fruits of frequent confession.

In the first place, confession cleanses the soul from the stains which it contracts. St. John Climacus relates² that a young man, in order to discontinue the wicked life that he led in the world, went to a monastery in order to become a religious. Before his admission the abbot told him that if he wished to be received, he must make a public confession of all his sins. The young man, who was sincerely resolved to give himself to God, readily obeyed; and behold, while he confessed his faults in the presence of the monks, a holy religious who was among them saw a man of venerable aspect expunge from a written paper that he held in his hand every sin that had been confessed, so that at the end of the confession all the sins of the penitent were cancelled. Now, what then took place in a visible manner, happens invisibly to every one that confesses his sins with the requisite dispositions.

Confession not only washes away the stains of the soul, but it also gives it strength against relapse. The angelic Doctor teaches that the virtue of penance not only destroys the fault that has been committed, but also prevents it from budding forth again. In his life of St. Malachy, St. Bernard relates that there was a certain woman who was so much given to impatience and to anger that she became insupportable. Hearing from her that she never confessed her impatience, St. Malachy induced her to make a confession of all her sins of anger. St. Bernard states that after her confession she became so meek and patient that she appeared incapable of resenting any injury or insult that she received.

Hence, to acquire purity of conscience, many saints confessed their sins every day. Such was the practice of St. Catharine of Sienna, of St. Bridget, of Blessed Colletta, of St. Charles Borromeo, of St. Ignatius of Loyola, and of many others. St. Francis Borgia went to confession even twice a day. If worldlings cannot bear to appear before those whom they love with a stain on the countenance, what wonder is it that souls that love God should endeavor always to purify themselves more and more, in order to render themselves more pleasing in the eyes of their beloved Lord! But I do not intend to require of religious who practise frequent Communion to go to confession every time they. communicate; but it is right that they should go to confession twice or at least once a week, and also when they have committed any deliberate fault.

¹ L. de Blois, Concl. p. 2, c. 5.

² Collat. 1, c. 5.

¹ “In multis enim offendimus omnes.”—James, iii. 2.

² Scal. par. gr. 4.

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE, SORROW OR- CONTRITION, AND Pur- POSE OF AMENDMENT.

Every one knows that for a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow, and a purpose to avoid sin.

I. As to the examination of conscience, for those that frequent the sacraments, it is not necessary to distress the head by efforts to find out all the minute circumstances of venial sins. I would rather see such persons careful to discover the causes and roots of their attachments and tepidity. I say this for certain nuns who go to confession with their heads full of things heard at the grate, and thus they always give the same account, and recite the same faults without sorrow, and without any thought of amendment.

For spiritual souls that go frequently to confession, and guard against deliberate venial sins, it is not necessary to spend a long time in the examination of conscience; with regard to grievous sins, they need not scrutinize the conscience, for had they committed any mortal sin, they would know it without examination. With regard to venial sins, if they have been fully deliberate, they, too, by the remorse that they cause, would make themselves known to the soul. Besides, there is no obligation of confessing all our venial transgressions; consequently we are not obliged to make a strict search after them, and much less after the number, the circumstance, the manner, or the causes of them; it is enough to confess those that are most grievous, and most opposed to perfection, and to tell the rest in general terms. And when you have not certain matter for the sacrament, tell some sin of your past life for which you have great sorrow; and say, for example: I accuse myself in a special manner of all the faults I have committed in my past life against charity, purity, or obedience. How consoling is the doctrine of St. Francis de Sales on this point. ‘Be not troubled, he says, if you do not remember all your little faults at confession; for as you often fall imperceptibly, so you are often raised up imperceptibly,”¹ that is, by the acts of love, or by the other good acts that devout souls are accustomed to perform.

II. In the second place, sorrow is necessary; this is the principal condition necessary for obtaining the pardon of sins. The most sorrowful, not the longest confessions, are the best. The proof of a confession is found, says St. Gregory,’ not in the multitude of the words of the penitent, but in the compunction that he exhibits.² But let nuns who go frequently to confession, and abhor even venial faults, banish all doubts regarding the sincerity of their sorrow. Some are troubled because they do not feel sorrow; they wish to shed tears, and to feel a tender sorrow every time they receive the sacrament of penance; and, because with all their efforts they are unable to excite this tender sorrow, they feel always uneasy about their confessions. But you must be persuaded that true sorrow consists not in feeling it, but in wishing for it. All the merit of virtue is in the will; hence, speaking of the virtue of faith, Gerson has said that sometimes a person who wishes to believe,¹ has more merit than another who believes.' Speaking of sorrow, St. Thomas says that the essential sorrow necessary for confession is a displeasure at having committed sin; and this sorrow is not in the sensitive part of the soul, but in the will; for sensible sorrow is an effect of the displeasure of the will, which effect we are not always able to produce, because the inferior part does not always follow and obey the superior part of the soul.² Whenever the will is displeased, above all things, at having committed sin, the confession is a good one.

Be careful to abstain from forced efforts to excite sensible sorrow. Remember that, with regard to interior acts, the best are those that we perform with the least violence, and with the greatest sweetness; for the Holy Ghost orders all things sweetly and peacefully.³ Hence, the holy penitent Ezechias said of the sorrow that he felt for his sins: Behold in peace is my bitterness—most bitter.⁴ He felt great sorrow, but it was accompanied with peace.

When you wish to receive absolution, be careful, in your preparation for confession, first to ask of Jesus Christ, and of the sorrowful Mother Mary, a true sorrow for your sins. Make afterwards, as has been already said, a short examination of conscience, and then as to the sorrow, it is‘enough for you to say with sincerity:

My God, I love Thee above all things; I hope, through the blood of Jesus Christ, for the pardon of-all my sins, for which I am sorry with my whole heart, because by them I have offended and displeased Thy infinite goodness; I abhor them above every evil, and I unite my abhorrence of them to the abhorrence that Jesus had for them in the garden of Gethsemani. I purpose, with Thy grace, never more to offend Thee.

And as often as you have sincerely wished to make these acts, go. in peace to receive absolution, without fear or scruple. St. Teresa gave another excellent means of removing anxiety about sorrow for sins. “See,” said the saint, “whether you have a sincere purpose not to commit the sins that you confess; if you have, doubt not that you also have true sorrow.”

III. In the third place, a purpose to sin no more is necessary; and this purpose must be firm, universal, and efficacious. First, it must be

firm. Some say: I would wish never more to commit this sin: I would wish never more to offend God. Alas! this expression, I would wish, denotes that the purpose is not firm. In order to have a firm purpose, you must say with a resolute will: I will never more commit this sin: I will never more deliberately offend God. Secondly, it must be

universal, so that the penitent will purpose to avoid all sins without exception, that is, all mortal sins. With regard to venial sins, it is sufficient for the validity of the sacrament to have sorrow for one species of them, and to have a firm purpose to avoid it, Spiritual souls should purpose to avoid all deliberate venial sins; and with regard to indeliberate venial sins, it is enough to resolve to guard against them according to the best of their ability; for it is impossible to avoid all indeliberate sins.

Thirdly, the purpose of avoiding sin must be efficacious; that is, it must make the penitent adopt the means of not relapsing into the sins that he confesses, and must make him avoid the proximate occasions of a relapse. An occasion is called proximate in which a person has frequently fallen into grievous sins, or has been, without a just cause, an occasion of sin to others. It is not enough for penitents to purpose merely to renounce sin: it is necessary also to resolve to remove the occasion of it; otherwise all their confessions, though they should receive a thousand absolutions, will be invalid: for not to remove the proximate occasion of mortal sin is in itself a mortal sin. And, as I have already shown in my Moral Theology,¹ he that receives absolution without a firm purpose of removing the proximate occasion of mortal sin, commits a new mortal sin, and is guilty of sacrilege.

But some one may say, If I separate from such a person, if I give up such familiarity, scandal will be the consequence, and it will be an occasion of talk to the Community. I answer: My dear sister, you are wrong; you will, on the contrary, give scandal by not removing the occasion, for the religious are aware of the friendship; and be assured, that although they may not speak in your presence, they think your conduct deserving of blame. But you will say: To separate from such a one would be an act of incivility, and even of ingratitude, for she assists me, serves me; and relieves me. She assists you; yes, she helps to remove you from God, and to make you lead an unhappy life here, and a more unhappy life hereafter. Is it incivility or ingratitude? Civility and gratitude are first due to Jesus Christ, who is a Sovereign of infinite majesty, and from whom we have received immense benefits. You may add, But I have pledged my word not to separate from her. But did you not first give your word to Jesus Christ at your profession that you would have no other lover but him?¹ Did you not give your word that you wish neither to love nor to be loved by any other than God? Do you not then see that it is passion that makes you speak in this manner, and makes you seek pretexts in order to bring you to eternal perdition? Ah! give no more pain to the heart of your Spouse, who feels his heart, as it were, wounded, at the sight of one of his spouses giving her affections to any other than to himself. To St. Ludgard, while she was miserably entangled in a dangerous friendship, Jesus appeared, and showed her his heart grievously wounded. The saint began to weep over her fault, and took leave of her friend, saying that she could love no other than Jesus Christ, to whom she had been espoused. Thenceforward she consecrated herself entirely to the love of her Spouse, and became a saint.

This is said only in passing, for proximate occasions scarcely ever occur in convents.

¹ Lettre 55.

² In 1 Reg. l. 6, c. 2.

¹ “Aliquando non est tam meritorium credere, sicut velle credere.”—De Præp. ad M. cons. 3.

² “In contrition there is a twofold sorrow: one in the will itself, which is essentially contrition itself, which is nothing other than displeasure at past sin; the other sorrow is in the sensitive part, which is caused by the first sorrow.”—Suppl. q. 3, a. 1.

³ “Disponit omnia suaviter.”—Wisd. viii. 1.

⁴ “Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima.”—Is. xxxviii. 17.

¹ Lib. 6, n. 454.

¹ “Nullum, præter eum, amatorem admittam.”

But a nun may perhaps be tempted to conceal a sin in confession. A certain nun may have the misfortune of falling into mortal sin; the devil endeavors to lock her mouth, and to make her ashamed to confess her sin. O God! how many souls shall, on account of this accursed shame, burn, and burn forever in hell, or rather in the bottom of hell. Some Christians, through human respect, and through fear of losing the esteem of others, easily continue for months and years to make sacrilegious confessions and Communions. In the Chronicles of the Discalced Carmelites it is related that a young girl of great virtue consented to a sin against chastity; she concealed the sin three times in confession, and went to Communion; after the third Communion she suddenly fell dead. Because she was regarded as a saint her body was laid in a particular part of the church of the Jesuits; but after the obsequies were finished, and the church closed, the confessor was conducted by two angels to the place of interment; she came forth, fell on her knees, and threw from her mouth, into a chalice prepared for them, the three consecrated hosts which had been sacrilegiously received, and miraculously preserved in her breast. The angels stripped her of the scapular; the miserable girl instantly presented a horrible aspect, and was carried out of sight by two devils.

But how can a Christian that has been so daring as to sin grievously against the divine majesty, and has thus merited hell, where he should suffer eternal shame, find an excuse before God for concealing a sin in confession, in order to avoid the transient and trifling confusion that would arise from confessing it to a priest? If he wishes to be pardoned by God, and to deliver himself from the hell that he has deserved, the shame caused by the confession of his sin disposes him to receive pardon. It is but just that the man that has despised God should humble and confound himself. Adelaide the sinner gave a beautiful answer to the devil: being called by God to a change of life, she was converted, and instantly resolved to make a good confession; the devil placed before her eyes the shame that she should suffer in confessing all her sins, and said to her: “Adelaide, where are you going?’ She courageously answered: “Filthy beast, do you ask me where I am going? I am going to confound myself and you.”

Along with this shame, the devil endeavors to fill the mind of sinners with many delusions and vain fears. 1.

Such a one says: My confessor will rebuke me severely if I tell this sin. Why should he rebuke you? Tell me, were you a confessor, would you speak harshly to a poor penitent, who should come to manifest his miseries to you, in the hope of being raised up from his fallen state? How, then, can you imagine that a confessor, who is bound by his office to show charity to those that come to the tribunal of penance, should treat you with harshness and severity, if you confess your sin to him? 2.

Another says: But the confessor will, at least, be scandalized at my sin, and will conceive a dislike for me. All false; he will not be scandalized, but will be edified, when he sees the good disposition that makes a sinner confess his sins with sincerity, in spite of the shame that he feels. And will he not have heard from other penitents similar or perhaps more grievous sins? Oh! would to God that you were the only sinner in the world! Neither is it true that he will conceive a dislike for those who disclose their guilt to him; on the contrary, he will entertain a greater esteem for them, and will labor more zealously to assist them, when he sees the confidence that they place in him, and that has made them reveal their miseries to him. 3.

Alas! what do certain sinners say: I will go to confession, but not till the extraordinary confessor comes. And will they, for the sake of avoiding shame, live in the mean time at enmity with God? In danger of being lost forever, in an actual hell, caused by the remorse of conscience that lacerates the soul, and that leaves them without peace night or day? Father, they say, I have unfortunately fallen into sin, but I will not despair on that account. They say, I will confess it to an extraordinary confessor. And will they remain in sin, or add several sacrileges to the sin they have committed? Do they not know that sacrilege is a horrible sin? Will they change into the poison of eternal death the remedy that Jesus Christ has prepared for them by his blood, in the sacrament of penance? I will, they say, go to confession afterwards. But what will become of them for eternity if they meet a sudden death which is now so frequent, that we hear almost every day, that some one has died suddenly. 4.

But, some say, I have not confidence in my confessor, Go, then, to another. Should a nun ever have the misfortune of falling into this delusion, let her ask a confessor from the bishop.¹ But should a person not be able to procure a strange confessor, would it not be madness to conceal his sin? Were he afflicted with an ulcer that might cause death, would he not, if there were no other remedy, instantly call for a surgeon, and however great his shame, would he not make known his disease? And in order to recover the life of the soul, and to escape hell, a Christian cannot bring himself to open his conscience to a spiritual Father. Let all remember that it is not enough to say: I accuse myself of all the sins that I have committed since my childhood, as they are before God. If they do not open their conscience, these words only serve to add to their delusion and danger of damnation.

You, then, should have courage, and generously conquer this shame that the devil magnifies so much in your mind. It will be enough to begin to reveal the sin that you have committed; all your vain apprehensions will instantly vanish. And you may be persuaded that after confession you will feel more happy at having confessed your sins, than if you were made monarch of all the earth. Recommend yourself to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and she will obtain for you strength to overcome all repugnance. And if you have not courage to disclose your sins at once to the confessor, say to him: Father, assist me, for I stand in need of help: I have committed a certain sin, which I cannot bring myself to confess. The confessor will adopt an easy means of dragging from its den the wild beast that devours you. It will be enough for you to answer yes or no to his interrogations. Oh! may you do this. Should a person be unwilling to tell his sin in words, he may write it on paper, and show it to the confessor, saying: I accuse myself of this sin that you have read. And, behold, the eternal and temporal hell has disappeared, the grace of God is recovered, and with it peace of conscience. The greater the violence a person does himself in order to conquer shame, the greater will be the affection with which God will embrace him. Father Paul Segneri the younger relates that a certain person made such an effort to confess certain sins, committed in her infancy, that in disclosing them to her confessor she swooned away. But in return for the violence that she had done herself, the Lord gave her such fervent compunction, that thenceforward she gave herself up to a life of perfection, and of great austerities, and died with the reputation of a saint.

¹ For her peace of conscience, a religious or novice may approach or have summoned any confessor approved by the local Ordinary for women’s confessions and validly and lawfully confess to him in a prescribed place. The. Superioress may not hinder this in any way; and contrary privileges are revoked. Cfr. Can. 522.

Doubts.

But I do not wish that any soul be disturbed by what has been just said. What I have said is applicable only to those who have a consciousness of grievous and certain sins, and who, through shame, will not confess them. With regard to doubts, which some may have of having committed certain sins, or of having made bad confessions, if they wish to disclose them to a confessor for their greater tranquillity, they will do well, unless they have a scrupulous conscience. For the scrupulous, it is not advisable to confess their doubts, as will be more fully explained hereafter. It may be useful for the timid to know certain doctrines approved by theologians, that may save them from a great deal of disquiet of conscience, and give them peace of mind.

First, it is a solid and very probable opinion of divines, that there is no obligation of confessing doubtful mortal sins, when a person doubts whether he had full advertence, or whether he gave a perfect and deliberate consent. The divines add, that at death there is an obligation either of making an act of perfect contrition, lest the doubtful sin should have been really grievous, or to tell, not the doubtful sin, but any certain sin (a venial sin is sufficient), and to receive the sacrament of penance. But this is necessary only when a person, after the doubtful sin, had never received sacramental absolution. Many theologians of high authority also say that persons that have for a long time led a spiritual life, when doubtful whether they have consented to mortal sin, may remain certain of not having lost the grace of God; because it is morally impossible that a person well confirmed in good purposes should be suddenly changed, and yield to mortal sin, without clearly perceiving that he had consented to it. For mortal sin is a monster so horrible that it cannot enter a soul that has for a long time abhorred it without producing on the mind a clear knowledge of its entrance into the soul. This is fully proved in my work on Moral Theology.¹ Secondly, when it is certain that a mortal sin has been committed, and when there is a doubt whether it has been ever confessed, then if the doubt be a negative one, that is, if there be no reason to judge that it has been confessed, it is certainly necessary to tell the sin in confession. But when there is reason to believe, or a well-founded presumption, that the sin has been once told, then, according to the common opinion of divines, there is no obligation of confessing it. Hence, divines commonly teach that if a person that has made his general or particular confessions with sufficient diligence doubts whether he has forgotten in confession a certain sin, or circumstance of sin, he is not bound to confess it; because he can prudently judge that it has been already sufficiently confessed.¹ He need not confess the sin, though he should feel a great unwillingness to disclose the doubt that tormented him. But such a person may say: If I were bound to tell such a thing, I should feel great shame. But what does it matter that you are ashamed to tell it? As long as you are not obliged to confess it be not troubled. The confession of certain natural actions should also cause shame, but you are not therefore obliged to mention them. Thus, for example, you are not obliged to confess certain acts of levity or immodest jests, that occurred in your childhood, without a knowledge of their malice. Nor is your having done these acts in secret a certain proof of malice; for children do certain natural actions secretly, though these actions are not sins. Hence, we are not bound to accuse ourselves in particular of such things, unless we remember that we committed them with an impression, or at least with a doubt, that they were grievous sins. It is, then, enough for a person to say within himself: Lord, if I really knew that I was bound to confess these things, I would readily confess them, though I should suffer every pain.

This is intended for the comfort of timorous souls that feel great anxiety arising from a fear that they did not well know how to explain all their doubts in confession. But it is useful for all, at least for their humiliation, to make known to their director the doubts by which they are troubled. I except the scrupulous, for they should not speak of their doubts, as will be explained more fully in the following chapter. What would advise is, that all would explain to their confessors, their passions, attachments, and the causes of their temptations, that he may be able to cut off the roots, which, if not extirpated, will never cease to cause temptations, and will expose the soul to great danger of consenting to sin, when it can, but will not, remove the cause. It will also be very profitable to some to disclose the temptations that are most humiliating, particularly thoughts against chastity, though there should be no consent. St. Philip Neri used to say that a temptation disclosed is half conquered. I have said that it is very profitable to some: for with regard to others, of tried virtue, who are too timid on this point, and are always afraid of having consented to sin, it is sometimes useful to forbid them to confess such temptations, unless they are certain of having yielded to them. For, as has been said elsewhere, by the very examination that such persons make, in order to ascertain whether they have consented or not, and to think of the manner in which they will explain the temptation, the images of the bad objects presented to the mind become more vivid, and the soul becomes more agitated by repeated apprehensions of consent. Obey your confessor on this point, and be regulated by his advice.

¹ Lib. 6, n. 450 et 476.

¹ Ibid. n. 477.

What I recommend to you is, to be sincere and faithful in disclosing to your spiritual Father, all the secrets of your conscience, and in explaining things to him as they really are.

I also recommend to you, in confessing your faults, to abstain from excusing them. The soul that excuses and covers its defects shows that it has but little sorrow for the sins that it confesses. I know not how a person can have sincere sorrow for a fault, for the commission of which he thinks he had a just reason. The confession of some consists in exaggerating the occasions that led them to yield to impatience, or to some other defects. But of what use, I ask, are such exaggerations? Confess the fault that you have committed, and omit the cause that led you into it.

Guard also against useless discourses at confession. Of what use is it to relate to the confessor all the occasions of displeasure that you have received from others, or to make many complaints about your infirmities and tribulations? Were you to omit all these complaints, all these confessions, a quarter of an hour would be abundantly sufficient for your confession, in which your principal object should be to get rid of some habitual fault, or to advance in perfection.

Some, at every confession, recite the same story, which they have learned by heart; the recital of it lasts at least half a quarter of an hour. I accuse myself, they say, of the little love I have had for God, of not having fulfilled my obligations, of not having loved my neighbor as I ought, and the like. Of what use are such accusations? All lost time.

St. Catharine of Bologna wished that her nuns should speak to the confessor of nothing but of the state of their conscience. St. Teresa says that, “after having told her sins, received absolution, and asked (if necessary) some spiritual advice from the confessor, a nun should retire immediately; for spiritual discourses, when long, easily infuse an affection, which, though not bad, is at least not holy.” St. Catharine of Sienna used to say: ‘‘ Religious should not introduce unnecessary conversation with their confessor.” Thus, a religious will always observe holy detachment, and will not be disturbed when deprived of her spiritual Father. However, when the confessor speaks to you on the direction of your conscience, be careful not to interrupt him, and to attend to what he says without thinking of anything else. There are some who are very anxious to speak to the confessor, but when he speaks they pay very little attention to his admonitions. St. Francis de Sales used to say,’ that great importance should be attached to the words of a priest in the tribunal of penance, because he then holds the place of God, who enlightens him in a special manner to say what is conducive to our spiritual welfare.¹

¹ Entret. 15.

Some religious wish to live without a director, and imagine that, having the rules and the Superior, they stand in need of no other guide. But they err, for, along with the rules and the Superior, nuns should have a confessor to direct the interior exercises, and to admonish and guide them, even in what regards their exterior employments. It is true, says St. Gregory, that some saints have been directed immediately by God himself; but, adds the saint, such examples “are to be venerated but not imitated, lest while a person disdains to be the disciple of a man, he may become a teacher of error.”² Virtue holds the middle place. As in the spiritual life sloth is criminal, so indiscretion is a vice. It is the business of a director to correct and moderate both, and therefore a guide is necessary. When a religious has not a director that is able to guide her soul to perfection, God supplies the deficiency; but to refuse the guidance of a minister of God, when it can be had, is an act of temerity that the Lord will punish by permitting the soul to fall into many errors. God could guide us all by himself, but to make us humble he wishes that we submit to his ministers, and depend on their directions.

² “They are to be venerated, not imitated, lest, while someone disdains to be the disciple of a man, he become a teacher of error.”—Dial. l. 1, c. 1.

Cassian relates¹ that a solitary in the desert, dying of hunger, refused some loaves that had been offered to him, saying that he expected from God a supply of food; the unfortunate man died miserably. Now, I may be asked why did the Lord send, for many years, by means of a crow, a loaf to St. Paul the hermit, and refuse to provide for this solitary? The answer is evident. St. Paul had no means of supporting life; but the solitary refused the food that had been offered to him, and therefore God abandoned him. Now, what is said of corporal food is likewise true with regard to the food of the soul. Hence; Cassian concludes, that they that refuse the guidance of the wise, do not deserve to be guided by God. The choice of a spiritual Father should not be made by accident, nor through predilection. You should select the person whom you consider best qualified to promote your spiritual progress, and who is not only a man of learning and experience, but also a man who practises prayer and walks in the way of perfection. A vessel can give no other wine than that which it contains. St. Teresa says, that “if directors are not men of prayer, their learning will be of little use.”² When you have chosen a guide, you should not change him without a just reason. You ought not to leave your confessor, but should rather adhere more closely to his directions when he reproves your faults. To his son, the heir of his kingdom, St. Louis King of France, bequeathed the following advice: “My son, select a confessor who knows how to direct you, and who has at the same time courage to reprove you as often as reproof is necessary.” There is no confessor more injurious than the priest who seldom reproves, and treats with too much indulgence, the faults of his penitents; for by such indulgence he makes them think little of their de- Wr fects. If, then, dear sister, you find a confessor who conducts you by the narrow way, and who, when he sees that you commit voluntary faults, reproves you with severity, have a great esteem for him, and do not ever leave him.

Obey your director and do not depart from his directions, even when what you would wish to do in opposition to his advice, appears good in your eyes. In the lives of the ancient Fathers it is related that a young man far advanced in virtue, disregarding the advice of his spiritual Father, resolved to leave the monastery and to go into the desert in order to live in solitude. But what was the result? From the desert he went to live with his relatives, and in their society he forgot the desert and abandoned himself to a life of tepidity.

But, perhaps, you will tell me that you have been badly directed by your confessor, and of this other spiritual Fathers have assured you.^* In the first place, I answer, that you can scarcely have erred by obedience to your director; but if you have fallen into an error, do you know why you have erred? It is because you have been obedient in some things and not in others. With such imperfect obedience God is not bound to co-operate. But place yourself entirely in the hands of your director, with a firm determination to obey him in all things, and then the Lord will never permit you to err. “Though your confessor should not have all the learning that you would desire, God will take care to supply the defect. For it is not possible that a soul desirous of becoming a saint, and placing all her confidence in God, should be deluded when she faithfully obeys his minister.

From this I infer that it is impossible for a nun to err when she regulates her conduct by the advice of the ordinary confessor, though he may be changed from time to time. That great servant of God, Sister Paula Centurione used to say: ‘To me every confessor appears

¹ Coll. 2, c. 6.

² Life, ch. 13.

• A religious for the peace of her soul and for greater spiritual progress may ask the Ordinary for a special confessor or spiritual director. Cfr. Can. 520, n. 2. the same, because every confessor applies the blood of Jesus Christ to cure the wounds of my soul.” When a new confessor comes to the convent, it will be enough for you to give him a general knowledge of your conscience. You should then place yourself under his direction. For the nun that sincerely desires to become a saint, and wishes for nothing but God, every confessor that is appointed by her bishop, is a safe guide. A religious only wants a good will and a determined resolution, to refuse to self-love every gratification, in order to find in all things the sole pleasure of God. Hence, the Venerable Sister Ursula Benincasa used to say to her religious: “‘ My dear sisters, be persuaded that no director can make you saints, unless you are resolved to mortify self-will and your passions.”

Prayer. Ah! my Jesus, Thou hast suffered so much, Thou hast given Thy blood and Thy life in order to place me under the necessity of loving Thee, and I have repaid Thee with ingratitude. How often have I, for a miserable gratification, turned my back on Thee, and have lost Thy grace. I knew that in committing sin, I gave Thee great displeasure, and with this knowledge I have consented to sin. Ah! my dear Redeemer, pardon me for the sake of the blood that Thou hast shed for me. Assist, we beseech Thee, Thy servants whom Thou hast redeemed by Thy precious blood.”¹ I am sorry with my whole heart for having offended Thy infinite goodness. Lord, increase my sorrow: give me a sorrow for my sins, which will make me always weep till death, over the injuries I have done Thee. Had I died in my sins, I could never more love Thee. Since Thou givest me time to love Thee, I wish to love Thee ardently, and to love nothing but Thee. I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good, I love Thee with my whole heart, and because I love Thee, I give my entire will to Thee. Give me grace to love Thee always for the future, and then do with me, and dispose of me as Thou pleasest.

¹ “Te ergo quæsumus, tuis famulis subveni, quos pretioso sanguine redemisti.”

I accept all Thy arrangements. Grant that in all temptations and in all dangers of sin I may never cease to recommend myself to Thee.

O Mary, my Mother, obtain for me the grace that in my temptations, I may always have recourse to God and to thee, who art all-powerful with God.

Scruples.

A scruple is nothing else than a vain fear of sinning, that arises from false and groundless apprehensions.

These scruples are useful in the beginning of conversion. For a soul that has but a short time renounced sin stands in need of repeated purgations. Scruples produce this effect; they cleanse the soul, and at the same time make it careful to avoid real sins, and they also render it humble; so that distrusting its own opinion, it places itself in the hands of its spiritual Father to be directed as he pleases. St. Francis de Sales used to say, that “the fear that begets scruples in those that have lately gone from the confines of sin, is a certain presage of future purity of conscience.¹

But, on the other hand, scruples are hurtful to those that seek perfection, and have for a long time given themselves to God. In such persons, says St. Teresa, scruples produce extravagant impressions, which bring the soul to such a state that it will not advance a single step towards perfection. St. Francis de Sales has written {! Be diligent, but guard against inquietudes; for there is no greater obstacle to advancement in perfection.”²

It is, however, necessary to make a distinction between scrupulous consciences. Some nuns boast of being free, and are ashamed to be looked upon as scrupulous, and therefore they give themselves up to a tepid life. They give and receive presents as they please; they disregard the Rule, saying that it is not binding; they give liberty to the eyes, to the tongue, to the ears, to see, to speak, and to hear whatever they please. They blush to appear mortified, and censure those that practise mortification; they call it affectation and singularity to speak in a low tone, and to keep the eyes cast down. Hence, they are easily led by the imperfect to join in their vain amusements. Let such nuns cease to boast of their freedom of conscience; for they are at least tepid and imperfect religious. Would to God that they were scrupulous; that is, that they had, as they ought to have, a delicate conscience. But let such religious beware lest they should be of the number of those who, as David says, follow like sheep the bad example of others, and find themselves one day confined with them in hell. They are laid in hell like sheep.¹ To refuse to lose time in the parlor, or on the terrace, to refuse to speak in the choir, or in the time of silence, or to avoid telling a lie, however small, are signs, not of a scrupulous, but of a delicate conscience that every religious ought to have. The marks of a scrupulous conscience are the following: 1.

To be always afraid of not having, at confession, true sorrow, or a sincere purpose of amendment. 2.

To be afraid, on frivolous grounds, of sinning in every action; for example, of always consenting to rash judgments, or to every bad thought that presents itself to the mind. 3.

To be inconstant, in doubts, considering an action at one time to be lawful and at another unlawful; and to be at the same time disturbed with great fears and perplexities.

¹ Introd. ch. 2.

² Lettre 213.

¹ “Sicut oves in inferno positi sunt.”—Ps. xlviii. 15.

4. Not to be calmed by the decision of a confessor, etc.

To decide whether a penitent is scrupulous or not belongs not to the penitent but to the confessor; for all scrupulous persons say that their scruples are not scruples, but real doubts and sins. If they knew them to be scruples, they would disregard them. They are in the dark, and therefore they do not see the state of their conscience. The confessor, who is free from the darkness in which they are involved, understands it well. Hence, the penitent should obey his advice; if she wish to decide for herself, the more she labor to tranquillize her conscience by her own opinions, the greater will be her confusion and agitation of mind; and, as will be hereafter shown, she will perhaps expose herself to the danger of perdition.

With regard to those who walk in the way of perfection, the devil ordinarily fills their mind with scruples and troubles, that, in order to get rid of them, they may give up the practice of virtue, or abandon themselves to despair, and voluntarily take away their own lives. And has not this happened to several? A modern but learned author, Father Scaramelli,¹ relates that he himself had known two persons, one of whom was led by scruples to inflict on his breast several wounds with a knife, and the other shot himself and instantly fell dead. I know a person who, on account of similar anxieties of conscience, threw himself out of a window, but escaped death; and at another time intended to cast himself into a well, but was prevented by another person. We read of several cases of scrupulous persons that have taken away their own lives. The devil labors at least to disturb religious by scruples, in order to render them unable to go to Communion, to say the divine Office, and if possible to make them lose their reason and become foolish; or to render the way of perfection hateful, that thus they may give up mental prayer, the frequentation of the sacraments, and that, by degrees, losing the aid and love of God, they may abandon themselves to a tepid life, and pass from scruples to real sins. Hence, many theologians say that when directed by her confessor to act with freedom and to conquer scruples, a scrupulous person not only can but ought to obey his directions; and should she act otherwise she is guilty of sin, because she does an injury to herself by making herself unable to advance in the way of God, and also because she exposes herself to the danger of losing her health, her reason, and her soul, by abandoning herself to vice.

¹ Dir. asc. tr. 2, a. 11, c. 2.

The spiritual masters prescribe many remedies against scruples, but the generality of theologians, as well as the ascetics, say that the principal and only remedy for a penitent is to place herself in the hands of a spiritual Father, and to obey him blindly, distrusting entirely her own judgment. St. Philip Neri used to say that there is nothing more dangerous than to direct one’s own conscience. A scrupulous person that is not obedient to her director is lost. St. John of the Cross says that not to submit to the judgment of a confessor is pride and a want of faith. And justly; for Jesus Christ has declared that they that obey his priests obey himself; and that they who despise them despise him: He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me.”¹ Hence the same St. John of the Cross, speaking in the name of our Lord to a penitent who disobeys her director, says: “Being unfaithful to your confessors you are also unfaithful to me, who have said he that despises you despises me. But, on the other hand, they who obey the spiritual Father cannot err.” St. Bernard teaches that “whatever a man holding the place of God commands, when we are not certain that it is displeasing to God, ought to be received as if commanded by God himself.”¹

Hence Blessed Henry Suso used to say that God does not demand an account of what is done through obedience. St. Philip Neri taught the same to his penitents. Let them he would say, who desire to advance in the way of God, place themselves under a learned confessor, and obey him as they would obey God. Whoever acts thus, is certain of not having to render to God an account of his actions. Hence the saint exhorts penitents to have confidence in their confessor, because the Lord will not allow him to err. Should a person become blind, what other remedy, I ask, can he have than a faithful guide, who will conduct him in the way in which he has to walk? And in like manner, a soul that finds itself in a state of darkness and confusion, on account of its scruples, should allow itself to be conducted by the guide whom God has given it, and ought to obey him blindly. I say, by the guide whom God has given it; for ordinarily speaking, a penitent agitated by scruples, would do well to speak of her doubts to her confessor only; for others, though holy and learned, in consequence of not understanding the state of her conscience, may ask a question or drop a word not in accordance with the sentiments of her own director. Behold, that word will again throw her conscience into a state of confusion, and losing her former confidence in the confessor, she will be forever, or at least for a long time, disturbed and agitated.

Obey, then, your director, dear sister, and fear not that in obeying him you may be led astray. This was the practice of the saints who have been often troubled with perplexities and fears of conscience, and thus they obtained tranquillity of conscience. St. Catharine of Bologna was afflicted with scruples, but she followed in all things the advice of her director. She was sometimes afraid to approach holy Communion, but in spite of all her fears she obeyed her spiritual Father, and communicated. Jesus Christ appeared one day to her, and to animate her still more to obedience, told her to have courage; because by her obedience she gave him great pleasure. Our Saviour also appeared to Blessed Stephana de Soncino, of the Order of St. Dominic, and said to her: “Since you have placed your will in the hands of your confessor, who represents my person, ask me for any grace and it shall be granted.”

The same advice was given by St. Augustine to his friend St. Paulinus, by whom he was consulted about doubts of conscience: “State your doubts,” was the reply of the holy Doctor, “to a spiritual physician, and let me know what the Lord will say to you through him.”¹ Hence St. Augustine held as certain that should St. Paulinus consult a spiritual Father, God would certainly have spoken to him through his director, and would make known to him the divine will. St. Antonine relates that to a religious of the Order of St. Dominic, who was harassed by scruples, a deceased religious appeared and gave the following advice: “Consult with the wise and acquiesce in their advice.”² The same holy archbishop relates that a disciple of St. Bernard was reduced to such a state by scruples, that he could no longer say Mass; but in this disturbed state he asked advice from his holy master, and St. Bernard said to him, without giving any reason for the counsel: “Go and say Mass; I take it on my conscience.” The monk obeyed, and thenceforward was freed from all his troubles of conscience.

It is useless to say had I St. Bernard for my confessor, I, too, would obey him blindly; but my confessor is not a St. Bernard. He is not a St. Bernard, but he is more than a St. Bernard, for he holds the place of God. Listen to the advice of Gerson: “Whoever you are that speak in this manner, you err; for you have not intrusted your soul to the hands of a man because he is learned, but, because he is placed over you. Wherefore obey him, not as a man, but as God.”¹ You who speak thus, says this learned author, err; for you have not placed yourself in the hands of a man because he is learned or holy, but because God has given him to you for a guide. Obey him, then, not as a man, but as God, and you will never err. In the beginning of his conversion, St. Ignatius of Loyola was so violently assailed by scruples, and so encompassed with darkness, that he found no peace. But because he had true faith in the words of God, he that heareth you heareth me, he said with great confidence: Lord, show me the way in which I ought to walk, and though you should give me a dog for my guide, I will faithfully follow him. And because the saint was faithful in obeying his director, he was not only delivered from his scruples, but also became an excellent guide to others. Hence St. Teresa has well said: “Let a soul choose a confessor, with a determination not to seek any longer an excuse for self-will, but to trust in the words of the Lord, he that heareth you heareth me. Our Lord sets so great a value on this submission that though it may be after a thousand struggles, and with a persuasion of the imprudence of the confessor’s opinion, that though it may be with or without pain that we follow his advice, he will assist us so much that he will certainly make us conform to his divine will.”¹

If, dear sister, Jesus Christ at judgment should demand an account of what you have done in obedience to your director, you can say in answer: Lord, I have done this to obey Thy minister, whom Thou hast commanded me to hear. Say this to him, and fear not that he will condemn you. Father James Alvarez has written, that though a confessor should by chance make a mistake, the penitent in obeying him is secure, and does not err. And are you, in order to be secure against error, obliged to examine whether the confessor has sufficient learning? When he has been lawfully approved by the bishop, as you are bound to suppose, he holds the place of God in your regard, and you cannot err in following his advice.

But, you will say, I am not scrupulous; my anxieties are not vain but well-founded fears. I answer: no fool esteems himself foolish, but his folly consists in being a fool without knowing it. And, in like manner, I say to you, that you are scrupulous, as your director considers you to be, because you do not see the groundlessness of your scruples. Did they appear to you to be vain apprehensions you would disregard them, and would be no longer disturbed by them. Cast off your fears, then, and obey your confessor, who understands the state of your conscience.

I hear you say in reply: the defect is not in the confessor but in me, who am not able to explain myself, and therefore he cannot understand the miserable state of my soul. But you yield to so many foolish scruples, and you scruple not to charge your spiritual Father either with ignorance or with sacrilege. When you confess doubts that, as you say, regard mortal sins, the confessor was obliged to make the interrogations necessary, in order to form a correct judgment of your doubts. Hence, if without just reason, or without understanding you, as you imagine, he has commanded you to disregard these doubts as vain scruples, he must have acted either through ignorance or through malice. Then by distrusting his advice, through fear that he did not sufficiently understand you, you, as I have said, charge him either with ignorance or with sacrilege: and for this very rash judgment do you feel no scruple? To nuns that begin to censure the decisions of their confessors, we ought to say what the learned Monsignor Sperelli wrote to a religious who had accused her confessor of heresy, because he had said that the sins that she confessed were not sins. “Tell me,” said the learned bishop to her, “in what university have you studied theology, that you know better than your confessor how to decide on sins? Ah! go and attend to your work of spinning and do not give ear to such follies.”

I will not say the same to you, but I tell you to acquiesce in all the directions of your spiritual Father. When, after having once explained your doubts to him, he says that you have confessed your sins sufficiently, that he will hear no more, or when he tells you to be obedient, or to go to Communion, etc., obey him without hesitation, and be assured that he has understood you sufficiently. You should not entertain any doubt about the correctness of his advice, but should obey him blindly and without reply, not asking the grounds of his opinion, but submitting in all things to his direction.

¹ “Qui vos audit, me audit; et qui vos spernit, me spernit.”—Luke, x. 16.

¹ “Whatever a man, in the place of God, commands, provided it is not nevertheless certain to displease God, must be accepted in every respect no differently than if God commanded it.”—De Præc. et Disp. c. 9.

¹ “Confer these things with some meek physician of the heart; and write to me what the Lord reveals to you through him speaking to you.”—Ep. 95, E. B.

² “Consule discretos, et acquiesce illis.”—P. 1, tit. 3, c. 10, § 10.

¹ “Whoever you are who speak thus, you err; for you have not committed yourself into the hands of a man because he is learned, etc., but because he has been placed over you; therefore obey him, not as a man, but as God.”—De Præp. ad M. cons. 3.

¹ Found. ch. 5.

If you desire to understand the reason of his advice, you will be always more perplexed, and will relapse into your troubles of conscience. Obey blindly; that is, without asking reasons. Be careful, then, never to examine the directions of your confessor. Scruples are, as it were, a species of pitch, which, the more it is handled the more it adheres; the more you reflect on them, the more you fill your mind with darkness. Keep before your eyes the following beautiful maxims of St. Francis de Sales: First, a soul should be satisfied when it is told by its spiritual Father that it is going on well, and should not seek any greater certainty. Secondly, it is better for us to walk blindly under divine Providence, amidst the darkness and perplexities of this life. Thirdly, an obedient soul has never been lost. This last maxim should calm your mind on all occasions. In a word, keep always before your eyes this great rule, that in obeying your confessor, you obey God; force yourself, then, to obey him in spite of all your fears. And be persuaded that if you are not obedient to him, it will be impossible for you to go on well; but if you obey, you are always secure. But, you say, if I am damned in consequence of obeying my confessor, who will rescue me from hell? What you say is impossible; for, it is not possible that obedience, which is the secure way to heaven, should be for you the road to hell.

Ordinarily speaking there are two sources of scruples, by which the scrupulous are generally tormented. The first regards the past; the second regards the future: some are afraid of not having confessed their sins as they ought; others are ‘afraid that they commit sin in every action.

With regard to the past, scrupulous nuns would wish to be continually employed in making general confessions with the hope of thus removing their fears and troubles. But what is the result? Their perplexities are always increased; because new apprehensions, and scruples of having omitted, or of not having sufficiently explained their sins, are continually excited. Hence, the more they multiply confessions, the more their inquietudes are redoubled. There is no doubt, that a general confession is most useful for those that have never made one. It contributes greatly to humble the soul by bringing before its view all the irregularities of the past life. It also contributes to increase its sorrow for its ingratitude towards God, and to make it adopt holy resolutions for the future. It also gives the confessor a better knowledge of the state of the penitent’s conscience, of the virtues which she stands in need of, and of the passions and vices to which she is most inclined: thus, he will be better able to apply remedies, and to give advice. But, for those who have once made a general confession, it is not useful to repeat it. Should a doubt afterwards arise, a penitent who does not remember to have ever intentionally omitted any sin in confession, is, ordinarily speaking, not obliged to confess any sin, unless she is certain that it is a grievous sin, and that she never mentioned it in confession.

But, you may say, if the sin be really a mortal sin, and if I have not confessed it, shall I be saved? Yes, you will be saved: for the divines, along with St. Thomas,¹ teach, that if, after a diligent search, a mortal sin has been omitted through forgetfulness, it is indirectly remitted by the absolution. It is true, that when the penitent remembers it, or has just reason to doubt whether it was ever confessed, she is bound to mention it; but when, as has been stated in the preceding paragraph, she can prudently judge that it was told in some past confession, she is not bound to confess it. I have said, she is not obliged to confess it, and this holds for all: but a soul tortured by scruples, is, according to the divines, not obliged to confess a past sin, unless she can swear that it was certainly a mortal sin, and that it was never told in any confession. For the repetition of past sins may be productive of grievous detriment to a scrupulous soul, and may drive her to despair. And when a penitent finds herself greatly agitated and confused, in endeavoring to decide whether she can swear or not to the certainty of the sin, the confessor can, in such a case, exempt her from confessing sins of her past life; for, in a case of so much danger and evil to the penitent, the obligation of providing for the integrity of the confession ceases: since the divines commonly teach, a less inconvenience excuses from the integrity of the confession. Hence, to conclude this point, scrupulous persons should understand that a general confession is useful for others, but very dangerous and injurious to them. Good directors, therefore, do not permit scrupulous persons to speak of past sins. The remedy for them is not to explain, but to be silent, and to obey; hence, when they wish to speak of past sins, the confessor must not listen to them; for if he once permits them to speak, they will be always disturbed when they do not explain their doubts.

I have said so much regarding general confessions; as to the ordinary confessions, it is not necessary for religious that seek perfection and communicate frequently, to receive absolution before each Communion; it is enough for them to receive absolution once or twice a week, and when they fall into any deliberate venial sin. St. Francis de Sales, in one of his letters, says that even when persons who walk in the way of perfection, commit a deliberate venial fault, they ought not to omit Communion, because they have not the opportunity of going to confession. For, as the Council of Trent teaches,’ there are other means¹ of obtaining the remission of venial sins, such as acts of contrition, and of love. I have read that St. Mechtilde, not having an opportunity of confessing certain acts of negligence, made an act of contrition, and went to Communion. After Communion, Jesus Christ appeared to her and said that she had acted rightly. A certain learned priest used to say that it is sometimes more profitable to the soul to go to Communion after a venial sin without confession, than if she had gone to confession and received absolution before Communion. For the soul will then make so many acts of contrition for the fault it has committed that it will receive holy Communion with greater fervor and humility.

With regard to those who are afraid of committing sin in all their actions, or of consenting to every bad thought that starts up in the mind, it is necessary to know two things: first, that feeling is one thing, and consent another. The motions of sense that naturally arise, are never sins when the will resists them. Neither should a person scruple having given cause to them, when the cause has been placed for a good end, that is, for spiritual or temporal utility. The second is, that in order to commit mortal sin the full advertence of the understanding, as well as the full consent of the will, is necessary; if either be wanting the sin is not grievous. And in cases of doubt, timorous, and particularly scrupulous, souls, as has been already said elsewhere,”² ought to feel certain that they have not sinned grievously, unless they can affirm with certainty that they have consented to mortal sin. And here it may be useful to remark, that for certain very timid souls, that are always in doubt about having consented to bad thoughts, it is better sometimes not to accuse themselves of certain temptations; for example of temptations to hatred, against faith, or purity; because, as has been already explained,¹ by examining whether they have or have not given a deliberate consent, and how they may explain their temptations, the images of bad objects are excited still more vividly in the mind, and their agitation is increased by the fear of having given a new consent. Such souls should be told to accuse themselves of such thoughts only in a general way, saying: I accuse myself of all the negligences of which I have been guilty in banishing bad thoughts.

There are two privileges then, given to the scrupulous penitent by the generality of divines, such as St. Antonine,² Navarre,³ Suarez,⁴ and many others.

The first is, that by acting with a fear or scruple, she is not guilty of sin, as long as she acts through obedience. And it is not necessary for her to form expressly at each act, a practical judgment of the lawfulness of her actions, by reflecting that she is acting according to obedience. To exempt her from all fault, it is enough for her to make a virtual judgment; that is, it is enough for her to act by virtue of a judgment already formed, that such fears ought to be disregarded. Nor can it be said that the soul then acts with a practical doubt about the unlawfulness of an action; it is one thing to act with a practical doubt, and another to act with a fear of its sinfulness. Gerson justly teaches, that to act with a doubt that arises from a formed conscience, or after a person has examined the circumstances, and come to the conclusion that while the doubt remains, he cannot act without sin, would be to act with a practical doubt, and would. be sinful. But when the mind is perplexed, vacillating amid doubts, and not knowing what opinion to adopt, but at the same time, resolved not to do anything displeasing to God, such a doubt is not according to Gerson, a practical doubt, but a vain fear and scruple that should be, as much as possible, rejected and despised. These are his words: “A conscience is formed when, after inquiry and deliberation a person judges by a definitive sentence that an act is to be performed or omitted. And to act against such a conscience is a sin. A fear or scruple of conscience consists in a vacillation of the mind between doubts; the soul knows not whether it is bound to do or to omit the act, but would not wish to omit what it knows to be pleasing to the divine will; and such fear should be, as much as possible rejected and extinguished.”¹—Hence, when a soul has a firm purpose not to offend God, and acts according to obedience in overcoming scruples, it is not guilty of sin, though it acts with fear, and though it does not actually advert to the command of its director.

The second privilege of the scrupulous is that after having acted, they should believe that they have not given consent to any temptation, unless they are certain of having fully adverted and consented to the malice of the sin. Hence, when they are doubtful their very doubt is a certain sign that they either had not full advertence or that they did not give a full consent. Hence, if the confessor tells them not to confess such doubts, they ought to obey; and should not think of leaving him if he persists in refusing to listen to the explanation of their doubts.

I add, that the spiritual Father who is indulgent in hearing the doubts of scrupulous souls, falls into a great error: for by scrutinizing their consciences, they generally become disquieted, and are rendered more incapable of advancing in the way of God. What has been just said does not regard so much the direction of penitents, as of confessors in the guidance of souls. Penitents have only to submit their judgment to their spiritual Father, and to obey him in all things. However, it may be useful to certain penitents to know what has been just said for the direction of confessors, that, when their confessor tells them not to accuse themselves of certain sins, nor to speak of them unless they are certain of having committed a grievous fault; or when, after having heard them, he sends them to Communion without absolution, they may not begin to contend with him, but may obey blindly, without even asking a reason for the command that he has imposed upon them.

But some may say: I wish to act with a certainty of not giving displeasure to God. I answer, that the greatest security that you, who have a troubled conscience, can have, is to obey your director, and to conquer scruples, in spite of the actual fear that molests you. And know that, though you were at the point of death, you would be obliged to act in this manner in order to avoid the delusions of the devil. And here I repeat what I have already said, that you ought to scruple not to have done violence to yourself in order to conquer scruples by acting against your fears in obedience to your spiritual Father, even though you may not be persuaded that your scruples are vain fears. For, if you omit an act on account of the scruple, you will not be able to make any further progress in the way of God, and as has been said you will expose yourself to the danger of losing your soul or your reason; and to expose yourself to such danger is a certain sin. Hence, the devil excites so many fears in scrupulous persons, that they may either abandon themselves to a tepid life, or may lose their reason; or, at least, that they may not advance in perfection, and live always amid troubles and confusion, in which hell always gains something. St. Aloysius Gonzaga used to say, that in troubled water the devil always finds fish to catch.

If, then, you wish to go on well and securely, obey punctually all the commands and directions of your confessor. And beg of him to prescribe, not only particular, but also general rules for your direction. I say general rules; for example, to overcome and disregard scruples as long as it is not evident that what you scruple is a grievous sin; or not to confess anything unless you can swear that it was certainly a mortal sin; and unless you can also swear that it was never told in confession; or to go to Communion always when you are not certain of having committed mortal sin; or never to repeat the divine Office, or any part of it, unless you are certain of having omitted it; and other similar rules that are usually given to the scrupulous. For particular rules, that is, rules given by the confessor in particular cases that have occurred, are of little or no use for the direction of a penitent tormented by scruples. She will always say that the second case is not like the first on which she had the advice of the confessor, and thus the mind will always be full of confusion and inquietude.

I conclude by repeating always, obey, obey; and do not treat God as a tyrant. It is true that he hates sin; but he cannot hate a soul that detests its sin, is sorry for it, and ready to die a thousand times rather than relapse into it. Tell me if you had the love and affection for a fellow-creature that you now have for God, would you ever believe that that creature did not entertain a tender love for you? Oh! how good is God to a soul that has a good will! How good, says the royal prophet, is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!¹ The Lord cannot but receive with tenderness the soul that seeks him. The Lord, says Jeremias, is good . . . to the soul that seeketh him.² Our Lord said one day to St. Margaret of Cortona: Margaret you seek me; but I seek you with far greater ardor than you seek me. Imagine that God says the same to you, if you love him and seek him. Abandon yourself into his arms, as the Psalmist exhorts you to do, and cast upon him the care of your soul, and he will preserve you, and will deliver you from all troubles. Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee; he shall not suffer the just to waver forever.³ Be obedient, and cast away so many fears. Jesus said to the same St. Margaret that her fears impeded her advancement in divine love. Do not imagine that as long as you love him from the heart God is provoked to wrath by every little fault that you commit. St. Teresa used to say: “My children, be assured that God does not, as you imagine, attend to so many trifles; do not suffer your heart to be narrowed; if you do you may lose many blessings. Let your intention be pure, and your will resolved never to offend him.”⁴

I repeat, then, and I say, obey in all things your spiritual Father, and have confidence in obedience: for by the practice of obedience you will always be secure; keep always before your eyes the great lesson that St. Philip Neri used to repeat to his penitents: “Have confidence in your confessor, for the Lord will not allow him to err; there is no surer way of cutting the snares of the devil than to do the will of another, and there is nothing more dangerous than to be directed by one’s own opinion.” In your meditations ask this grace of God that he may make you practise obedience to your director. And doubt not that if you practise it you will be saved, and will become a saint. Prayer.

My Jesus, because I love Thee all the pain arising from the troubles of my conscience consists in the fear of displeasing and losing Thee, who art an infinite Good. There was a time (and oh! that it had never been) when I did not love Thee, and cared but little to be loved by Thee. But now I desire nothing but to love Thee, and to be loved by Thee, my dear Redeemer. I do not wish ever more to displease Thee. Thou knowest my wish to love Thee at any cost; do not abandon me. If I have hitherto offended, I now feel more pain at the offences I have offered to Thee than if I lost all things—property, relatives, and life. Thou hast died for me; to Thee I consign my soul; into Thy hands I recommend it.¹ Thou lovest me, and therefore I abandon myself entirely into Thy hands, and hope never to see myself confounded, and in enmity with Thee. In thee, O Lord, have I hoped; let me never be confounded.”² My Jesus, I wish always to love Thee. This I repeat, and hope to repeat during life, at death, and for all eternity. My Jesus, I love Thee, and wish always to love Thee. O

Mary, my hope, Mother of Mercy, assist me; have pity on me.

¹ Suppl. q. 10, a. 5.

¹ Sess. 14, cap. 5.

² Page 32.

¹ Page 23.

² P. I, tit. 3, c. 10, § 10.

³ De Pœnit. d. 7, c. 4, n. 65.

⁴ De Bonit. et Mal. act. hum. d. 12, sect. 7.

¹ “A formed conscience exists when, after discussion and deliberation, by a definitive judgment of reason, something is judged to be done or avoided; and to act against it is sin. But fear of conscience, or a scruple, exists when the mind wavers amid doubts, not knowing to which it is rather bound; nevertheless it would not wish to omit whatever it knew to be pleasing to the divine will; and this fear, insofar as it can be, is to be cast away and extinguished.”—Comp. theol. tr. de nat. et qual. consc.

¹ “Quam bonus Israel Deus his qui recto sunt corde!”—Ps. lxxii. 1.

² “Bonus est Dominus sperantibus in eum, animæ quærenti illum.”—Lam. iii. 25.

³ “Cast your care upon the Lord, and he himself will nourish you; he will not permit the just man to waver forever.”—Ps. liv. 23.

⁴ Way of Perf. ch. 42.

¹ “In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum.”—Ps. xxx. 6.

² “In te Domine speravi; non confundar in æternum.”—Ibid. i.

III. Communion, Spiritual Communion, and Visiting of the Blessed Sacrament.

Of all the sacraments the adorable sacrament of the altar is the most excellent. The other sacraments con-tain the gifts of God, but the Holy Eucharist contains God himself. Hence St. Thomas says¹ that the other sacraments have been instituted by Jesus Christ to prepare men either to receive or to administer the Blessed Eucharist, which, according to the holy Doctor, is the consummation of the spiritual life; because from this sacrament is derived all the perfection of the soul. For all perfection consists in a union with God: and of all the means of uniting the soul to him there is none better than holy Communion by which, as Jesus Christ himself has said, the soul becomes as it were one thing with him. He that eateth my flesh . . . abideth in me and I in him.² Hence St. John Chrysostom says that Jesus has given his body to us under the species of bread that we may become one thing with him.³ And St. Cyril of Alexander teaches that as two pieces of wax melted together become one, so we, by holy Communion, are similarly united with Jesus Christ.⁴

Our Saviour instituted this sacrament under the form of food to show that, as corporal food is changed into our flesh, so this heavenly bread becomes one thing with us; but with this difference that earthly food is converted into our substance, while this divine bread transforms those who eat into Jesus Christ. This is the reason why Rupert makes our Lord say: “Eat and you shall be by grace what I am by nature.”⁵ And this is what our Lord deigned to say one day to St. Augustine: “I will not be changed into you, but you shall be changed into me.”⁶ The principal effect of this sacrament is to preserve in the soul the life of grace. Hence, it is called bread; for as earthly bread supports corporal life, so this heavenly bread preserves the life of the soul which consists in the grace of God.

The Eucharist is, according to the Council of Trent,¹ the divine medicine that purifies the soul from venial, and preserves it from mortal sins.’ Like a stream of water, this sacrament extinguishes the ardor of the passions by which we are consumed. Let him in whose soul the flame of some particular passion is kindled approach holy Communion, and he will find the passion altogether, or at least in a great measure, destroyed. “If any of you,” says St. Bernard, “does not experience so frequent or so violent motions of anger, of envy, or of lust, let him give thanks to the body of the Lord that produces fruit in his soul.”²* The angelic Doctor teaches that the Communion gives us strength to overcome all the attacks of the devil. “It repels every assault of the demons.”³* St. John Chrysostom asserts that when we receive the holy Eucharist, the devils are put to flight, and the angels run to our assistance.⁴ Moreover, this sacrament infuses into the soul great interior peace, a strong inclination to virtue, and a great willingness to practise it, and thus renders it easy to walk in the path of perfection.

Holy Communion, as St. Thomas teaches⁵ infuses divine charity into the heart. Jesus Christ protested that he came into the world for no other purpose than to kindle in our souls the holy fire of divine love. I came to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?¹ The Venerable Father Olimpio, of the Order of Theatines, used to say, that there is no mystery of redemption more apt to inflame us with the love of Jesus Christ than the sacrament of the altar in which he gives himself entirely to us, and pours forth all his love. Hence, speaking of the institution of this sacrament, St. John says: Jesus knowing that His hour was come to pass from this world to His Father, when He had loved His friends who were in the world, He loved them even to the end.² He loved them to the end, that is, according to the commentators, he loved them to the utmost of his power. Hence the Council of Trent said that in this sacrament Jesus “poured forth, as it were, all the riches of his divine love towards man.”³ * Holy Communion has been called by St. Thomas “the sacrament of love;⁴ * and by St. Bernard “the love of loves.”⁵* St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to call the day of Communion “the day of love;” and would say that a soul after Communion might exclaim with Jesus dying on the cross, “it is consummated.”⁶ * For after having given himself to me, God has nothing more to give me; nor can I desire anything else from him.

¹ P. 3, q. 65, a. 3; q. 73, a. 3.

² “Qui manducat meam carnem, . . . in me manet, et ego in illo.”—John, vi. 57.

³ “Corpus suum in nos contemperavit, ut unum quid simus.”—Ad pop. Ant. hom. 61.

⁴ “Ut unum quid ex utrisque factum videatur.”—In Jo. l. 10, c. 13.

⁵ “Comedite, et eritis vos gratia quod ego sum natura.”—In Exod. l. 3, c. 12.

⁶ “Nec tu me in te mutabis, sed tu mutaberis in me.”—Conf. l. 7, c. 10.

¹ “Antidotum quo liberemur a culpis quotidianis, et a peccatis mortalibus præservemur.”—Sess. 13, c. 2.

² “If any of you does not feel such frequent or such bitter movements of anger, envy, or lust, let him give thanks to the Body of the Lord, because the power of the Sacrament is working in him.”—In Cœn. D. s. 1.

³ “Repellit omnem dæmonum impugnationem.”—P. 3, q. 79, a. 6.

⁴ Ad pop. Ant. hom. 61.

⁵ P. 3, q. 79, a. 1.

¹ “Ignem veni mittere in terram; et quid volo, nisi ut accendatur?”—Luke, xii. 49.

² “Jesus, knowing that his hour had come, that he should pass from this world to the Father, since he had loved his own, . . . loved them unto the end.”—John, xiii. 1.

³ “Divitias sui erga homines amoris velut effudit.”—Sess. 13, c. 2.

⁴ “Sacramentum charitatis.”—De Sacr. alt. c. 25.

⁵ “Amor amorum.”—In Cœn. D. s. 2.

⁶ “Consummatum est.”—John, xix. 30.

Should not all, then, ardently desire to receive Jesus as often as possible in holy Communion?

We know from the Acts of the Apostles that in the first ages of the church, as St. Luke tells us, all the faithful communicated every day. Continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house.¹ In the Syriac version, instead of “breaking bread,” we find the words, “breaking blessed bread,”² which express more clearly the blessed Eucharist. Besides, the interpreters of the sacred Scripture, by the breaking of bread, understand holy Communion. Hence, according to St. Thomas,³ it is certain that in the early ages all who attended Mass received Communion. This fact is attested by St. Denis the Areopagite,⁴ a contemporary of the apostles, and by St. Jerome,⁵ who died in 420, in his letters to Lucina and Pammachius, in which he states that this pious practice was preserved in Rome and Spain, even in his own time.

By degrees the piety of the faithful began to grow cold. Such was their lukewarmness in the time of Pope Fabian,⁶ that he had to command all Christians to approach holy Communion at least three times in⁷ the year; that is, on the festivals of Easter, Pentecost, and Christmas. In after ages, the tepidity of Christians became so great, that Innocent III., in 1215,’ obliged all the faithful, under very severe penalties, to communicate at least at Easter. The decree of Innocent was afterwards confirmed by the Council of Trent.⁸ These enactments of Popes and Councils do not prove that the practice of frequent Communion is not very laudable; they only show the decay of the fervor that animated the first Christians.

¹ “Quotidie . . . frangentes circa domos Panem.”—Acts, ii. 46.

² “Munus benedictum.”

³ P. 3, q. 80, a. 10.

⁴ De Hier. Eccl. c. 3.

⁵ Ep. ad Lucin.

⁶ Cap. Etsi de Consecr. d. 2.

⁷ In Conc. Later. c. 21.

⁸ Sess. 13, c. 9.

Among the confessors of the present day, some are favorable and others opposed to frequent Communion. I agree with the former, because, as the learned Petavius has shown in his work against the rigid Arnauld, their opinion is that of the holy Fathers and of the Church.

This controversy, so long and bitterly carried on by Theologians, was settled definitely and for all time by the following Decree issued by the Venerable Vicar of Christ, Pius X. 3. DECREE OF THE SACRED CONGREGATION OF THE COUNCIL ON RECEIVING DAILY THE MOST HOLY EUCHARIST.

The Council of Trent, having in view the unspeakable treasures of grace which are offered to the faithful who receive the Most Holy Eucharist, makes the following declaration:

“The holy Synod would desire that at every Mass the Faithful who are present should communicate, not only spiritually, by way of internal affection, but sacramentally, by the actual reception of the Eucharist.” (Sess. XXII, cap. 6) Which words declare plainly enough the wish of the Church that all Christians should be daily nourished by this heavenly banquet, and should derive therefrom abundant fruit for their sanctification.

And this wish of the Council is in entire agreement with that desire wherewith Christ our Lord was inflamed when He instituted this Divine Sacrament. For He Himself more than once, in no ambiguous terms, pointed out the necessity of eating His Flesh and drinking His Blood frequently, especially in these words: “This is the bread that cometh down from heaven; not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live forever.’ (John VI. 59).

Now, from this comparison of the food of the angels with bread and with manna, it was easily understood by His disciples that, as the body is daily nourished with bread, and as the Hebrews were daily nourished with manna in the desert, so the Christian soul might daily partake of this heavenly bread, and be refreshed thereby. Moreover, whereas in the Lord’s Prayer we are bidden to ask for “our daily bread”, the holy Fathers of the Church all but unanimously teach that by these words must be understood, not so much that material bread which is the support of the body as the Eucharistic bread which ought to be our daily food.

Moreover, the desire of Jesus Christ and of the Church that all the faithful should daily approach the sacred banquet is directed chiefly to this end, that the faithful being united to God by means of the Sacrament, may thence derive strength to resist their sensual passions, to cleanse themselves from the stains of daily faults, and to avoid those graver sins to which human frailty is liable; so that its primary purpose is not that the honor and reverence due to our Lord may be safeguarded, or that the Sacrament may serve as a reward of virtue bestowed on the recipients (St. Aug. Serm. 57 in St. Matth., “De Orat. Dom.” n. 7). Hence the holy Council of Trent calls the Eucharist “the antidote whereby we are delivered from daily faults and preserved from deadly sins.’ (Sess. XIII., cap. 2).

The desire on the part of God was so well understood by the first Christians that they daily flocked to the Holy Table as to a source of life and strength. ‘They were persevering in the doctrine of the Apostles, and in the communication of the breaking of bread.” (Acts. II. 42). And that this practice was continued into later ages, not without great fruit of holiness and perfection, the holy Fathers and ecclesiastical writers bear witness.

But when in later times piety grew cold, and more especially under the plague of Jansenism, disputes began to arise concerning the dispositions with which it was proper to receive Communion frequently or daily; and writers vied with one another in imposing more and more stringent conditions as necessary to be fulfilled. The result of such disputes was that very few were considered worthy to communicate daily, and to derive from this most healing Sacrament its most abundant fruits, the rest being content to partake of it once a year, or once a month, or at the utmost weekly. Nay, to such a pitch was rigorism carried that whole classes of persons were excluded from a frequent approach to the Holy Table; for instance, those who were engaged in trade, or even those who were living in the state of matrimony.

Others, however, went to the opposite extreme. Under the persuasion that daily Communion was a divine precept, and in order that no day might pass without the reception of the Sacrament, besides other practices contrary to the approved usage of the Church, they held that the Holy Eucharist ought to be received, and in fact administered it, even on Good Friday.

Under these circumstances the Holy See did not fail in its duty of vigilance, for by a decree of this Sacred Congregation, which begins with the words “Cum ad aures’’, issued on February 12, A. D. 1679, with the approbation of Innocent XI, it condemned these errors, and put a stop to such abuses, at the same time declaring that all the faithful of whatever class—merchants or tradesmen or married persons not excepted—might be admitted to frequent Communion according to the devotion of each one and the judgment of his confessor. And on December 7, 1690, by the decree of Pope Alexander VIII, “Sanctissimus Dominus’’, the proposition of Baius postulating a perfectly pure love of God, without any admixture of defect, as requisite on the part of those who wished to approach the Holy Table, was condemned.

Yet the poison of Jansenism, which, under the pretext of showing due honor and reverence to the Holy Eucharist, had infected the minds of even good men, did not entirely disappear. The controversy as to the dispositions requisite for the lawful and laudable frequentation of the Sacrament survived the declarations of the Holy See; so much so, indeed that certain theologians of good repute judged that daily Communion should be allowed to the faithful only in rare cases, and under many conditions.

On the other hand, there were not wanting men of learning and piety who more readily granted permission for this practice, so salutary and so pleasing to God. In accordance with the teaching of the Fathers, they maintained that there was no precept of the Church which prescribed more perfect dispositions in the case of daily than of weekly or monthly Communion; while the good effects of daily Communion would, they alleged, be far more abundant than those of Communion received weekly or monthly.

In our own day the controversy has been carried on with increased warmth, and not without bitterness, so that the minds of the confessors and the consciences of the faithful have been disturbed, to the no small detriment of Christian piety and devotion. Accordingly, certain distinguished men, themselves pastors of souls, have urgently besought His Holiness Pius X, to deign to settle, by his supreme authority, the question concerning the dispositions requisite for daily Communion; so that this usage so salutary and so pleasing to God, might not only suffer no decrease among the faithful, but might rather be promoted and everywhere propagated—a thing most desirable in these days, when religion and the Catholic faith are attacked on all sides, and the true love of God and genuine piety are so lacking in many quarters. And His Holiness, being most earnestly desirous, out of his abundant solicitude and zeal, that the faithful should be invited to partake of the sacred banquet as often as possible, and even daily, and should profit to the utmost by its fruits, committed the aforesaid question to this Sacred Congregation to be looked into and decided once for all (definiendum).

Accordingly the Sacred Congregation of the Council, in a plenary Session, held on December 16, 1905, submitted the whole matter to a very careful scrutiny; and after sedulously examining the reasons adduced on either side, determined and declared as follows: 1. Frequent and daily Communion, as a thing most earnestly desired by Christ our Lord and by the Catholic Church, should be open to all the faithful of whatever rank and condition of life; so that no one who is in the state of grace, and who approaches the Holy Table with a right and devout intention, can lawfully be hindered therefrom.

2. A right intention consists in this: that he who approaches the Holy Table should do so, not out of routine, or vain glory, or human respect, but for the purpose of pleasing God, of being more closely united with Him by charity and of seeking this divine remedy for his weakness and defects. 3.

Although it is most expedient that those who communicate frequently or daily should be free from venial sins, especially from such as are fully deliberate, and from any affection thereto, nevertheless, it is sufficient that they be free from mortal sin, with the purpose of never sinning in future; and, if they have this sincere purpose, it is impossible but that daily communicants should gradually emancipate themselves even from venial sins, and from all affection thereto. 4.

But whereas the Sacraments of the New Law, though they take effect ex opere operato, nevertheless produce a greater effect in proportion as the dispositions of the recipient are better; therefore, care is to be taken that Holy Communion be preceded by serious preparation, and followed by a suitable thanksgiving, according to each one’s strength, circumstances and duties. 5.

That the practice of frequent and daily Communion may be carried out with greater prudence and more abundant merit, the confessor’s advice should be asked. Confessors, however, are to be careful not to dissuade any one (ne quemquam avertant) from frequent and daily Communion, provided that he is in the state of grace and approaches with a right intention. 6.

But since it is plain that by frequent or daily reception of the Holy Eucharist union with Christ is fostered, the spiritual life more abundantly sustained, the soul more richly endowed with virtues, and an even surer pledge of everlasting happiness bestowed on the recipient, therefore parish priests, confessors, and preachers—in accordance with the approved teaching of the Roman Catechism (Part II. cap. 4, n. 60)—are frequently and with great zeal to exhort the faithful to this devout and salutary practice.

7. Frequent and daily Communion is to be promoted especially in religious Orders and Congregations of all kinds; with regard to which, however, the decree “Quemadmodum”, issued on December 17, 1890, by the Sacred Congregation of Bishops and Regulars, is to remain in force. It is also to be promoted especially in ecclesiastical seminaries, where students are preparing for the service of the altar; as also in all Christian establishments, of whatever kind, for the training of youth. 8.

In the case of religious institutes, whether of solemn or simple vows, in whose rules, or constitutions, or calendars Communion is assigned to certain fixed days, such regulations are to be regarded as directive and not preceptive. In such cases the appointed number of Communions should be regarded as a minimum, and not as setting a limit to the devotion of the religious. Therefore, freedom of access to the Eucharistic Table, whether more frequently or daily, must always be allowed them, according to the principles above laid down in this decree. And in order that all religious of both sexes may clearly understand the provisions of this decree, the Superior of each house is to see that it is read in community, in the vernacular, every year within the octave of the Feast of Corpus Christi.

9. Finally after the publication of this decree, all ecclesiastical writers are to cease from contentious controversies concerning the dispositions requisite for frequent and daily Communion.

All this having been reported to His Holiness Pope Pius X, by the undersigned Secretary of the Sacred Congregation in an audience held on December 17, 1905, His Holiness ratified and confirmed the present decree and ordered it to be published, anything to the contrary notwithstanding. He further ordered that it should be sent to all local ordinaries and regular prelates, to be communicated by them to their respective seminaries, parishes, religious institutes, and priests; and that in their reports concerning the state of their respective dioceses or institutes they should inform the Holy See concerning the execution of the matters therein determined.

Given at Rome, the 20th day of December, 1905.

Vincent, Card. Bishop of Palestrina, Prefect.

L.S. Cajetan De Lai, Secretary.

The preparation for frequent Communion is twofold: remote and proximate.

I. The remote preparation consists in detachment from creatures. St. Augustine says that,¹ if you expected a visit from a great personage, to whom certain objects in your house would be offensive, would you not remove them before his arrival? When, then, you wish to receive Jesus Christ you should remove from your heart all earthly affections that you know to be displeasing to him. He that wishes to communicate often, should empty his heart of the things of the earth. This is precisely what our Lord once said to St. Gertrude: “I want nothing more from you, than that you come to receive me with a heart divested of all self-love.”²

¹ In Ps. cxxxi.

² Insin. l. 4, c. 26.

II. As to the immediate preparation you should begin it the evening before Communion, by acts of love and of desire. As soon as you awake in the morning, consider that you are to receive Jesus Christ, and with a fervent aspiration, invite your Spouse to hasten into your soul.

Immediately before Communion, you should, even though you had made mental prayer, excite in your soul lively sentiments of faith, of humility, and of desire.

First, you ought to animate your faith by reflecting on the majesty of him whom you are to receive. If faith did not assure us of this who could ever imagine that a God wished to make himself the food of his own creatures? But the Church has declared, in several of her councils, and especially in the Council of Trent,¹ that our Redeemer, Christ Jesus, is really and truly present in the consecrated Host. How beautiful was the answer of St. Louis, king of France, to a person inviting him to behold Jesus Christ, who appeared in the consecrated host, under the form of an infant! “Let those,” said the holy king, “that do not believe by faith, go and see; I believe more firmly than if I saw Jesus Christ with my eyes.” And he remained where he was.

Secondly, you should excite sentiments of humility by considering that in spite of your misery you are to receive a God into your mouth and into your heart. The Venerable Paul Segneri used to say that, for a person going to Communion the most appropriate sentiment is one of astonishment that would make her exclaim: What! a God to me! a God to me! What would be the sentiments of a shepherd, if he saw his sovereign coming to dwell with him in his tent? What are your sentiments when you behold the King of heaven coming into your heart in the holy Communion? Will you not at least say to him with true humility: Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldst enter under my roof.² To humility unite an act of contrition and of hope, confidently expecting that Jesus Christ, when he comes into your soul, will enrich you with his graces.

Thirdly, you must excite an ardent desire of receiving Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament. To nourish the soul this celestial bread must be eaten with hunger. He that receives it with the strongest desire derives from it the greatest graces. St. Francis de Sales¹ used to say that he that gives himself to us only through love should be received only through love. Our Redeemer said once to St. Mechtilde: “When you communicate, desire to have the greatest love that the saints have had for me, and in return for this desire I will accept your love in proportion to the fervor with which you wished for it.”²

To remember these acts it will be sufficient to say to yourself before Communion: Who comes? to whom does he come? why does he come? A God of infinite majesty comes: he comes to you, a miserable sinner: and he comes to be loved by you.

¹ Sess. 13, can. 1.

² “Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum.”—Matt. viii. 8.

¹ Introd. ch. 21.

² Blos. Concl. an. fid. c. 6, n. 6.

After Communion remain with Jesus Christ as long as you can. Father d’Avila said that we should set great value on the time after Communion, because it is a precious time for acquiring treasures of grace. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was accustomed to say: “The time after Communion is the most precious time of our life; it is the fittest time for negotiating with God, and for inflaming our souls with his divine love. At that time we have no need of masters or of books, for Jesus Christ himself teaches us how we are to love him,”³ St. Teresa used to say: “After Communion let us not lose so good an opportunity of negotiation. God does not repay with ingratitude the abode in which he is well received.”¹ In another place she says that after Communion Jesus Christ remains in the soul as on a throne of grace, and appears to say to it what he said when on earth to the man that was born blind: What wilt thou that I should do to thee?² Beloved soul, tell me what you want from me; I am come for the purpose of bestowing on you the graces you ask of me.

It is the opinion of Cajetan, Suarez, Gonet, Valentia, Lugo, and others, that as long as the sacramental species remain, the fruit of the sacrament and divine love are increased in proportion to the efforts of the soul to unite itself to Jesus Christ, and to the good acts that it performs. For the operation of this celestial bread in the soul is similar to that of corporal food, which gives nourishment and strength in proportion to the time it remains in the body. Many religious communicate frequently, and draw but little fruit from their communions, because they remain but a short time with Jesus Christ. To St. Margaret of Cortona our Lord once said: “I treat souls as they treat me.”

If you are not prevented by some duty of obedience or of charity, be careful to remain with Jesus Christ at least for half an hour after Communion. I say, “at least for half an hour,” for an hour is the proper time for thanksgiving. Endeavor to employ yourself after Communion in acts of recollection, of thanksgiving, of love, of sorrow, of oblation of yourself, and of all that you possess; but, above all, in petitions to Jesus Christ for his graces, and particularly for the gift of final perseverance and of his holy love. In these acts consists that “negotiation” of which St. Teresa speaks; and when you feel dryness and dissipation of mind, read a book that contains devout affections towards God. The entire day of Communion should be spent in more than usual recollection. St. Aloysius Gonzaga endeavored to entertain himself for three days after Communion in thanking Jesus Christ. Nor should your recollection be diminished because you communicate more frequently; on the contrary, the oftener you receive the Lord the more closely should you keep yourself united to him.

³ Cepari, ch. 48. Boll. c. 14, n. 157.

¹ Way of Perf. ch. 35.

² “Quid tibi vis faciam?”—Mark, x. 51.

6. EXCUSES BROUGHT FORWARD BY CERTAIN RELIGIOUS FOR NOT COMMUNICATING FREQUENTLY.

What shall we say of the nun who, through carelessness, abstains from the holy Eucharist, though she has the opportunity of frequent Communion, and has before her eyes the example of the sisters who communicate often? Let us see whether her excuses are reasonable: 1.

She will say: “I do not communicate often, because I do not think myself worthy of frequent Communion.” My dear sister, if this excuse were satisfactory, you ought never to communicate. For St. Ambrose says: “He that is not worthy to receive daily is not worthy to receive after a year.”¹ But who can be ever worthy of the holy Communion? Jesus Christ alone, who was God and man, communicated worthily; for only God is worthy of receiving a God. You say you do not think yourself worthy of frequent Communion. But do you not know that the longer you defer Communion the more unworthy you become? For the longer you abstain from the Blessed Eucharist, the more your defects are multiplied, because you are bereft of the assistance that you should receive from holy Communion. A holy Dominican nun used to say: “For my part, because I am sensible of my unworthiness, I would wish to communicate three times a day; for by more frequent Communion, I should hope to render myself less unworthy.” Which of the two, says Cassian,¹ is the more humble, the man that communicates often or he that communicates but seldom? He answers that the person that frequently receives Jesus Christ is the more humble; because he knows his infirmities, and therefore seeks more frequently the remedy of his disease. The angelic Doctor says that though to abstain from Communion through humility and fear is pleasing to God, still the love and confidence that induce a soul to receive him are more acceptable in his sight. “However, love and hope, to which the Scriptures constantly exhort us, are preferable to fear.”² 2.

She will add: I do not know whether I am in the state of grace. But I ask, do you expect that an angel will come from heaven to assure you that you are in the state of grace? Is it not enough for you to have the assurance of your confessor? You ought to place more confidence in the testimony of the minister of God than in the revelations of all the angels of paradise; for in receiving a communication from angels, there might be an illusion, but in listening to the confessor who, in your regard, holds the place of God, there is no danger of deception. Whenever, then, your spiritual Father allows you to communicate take care not to obey the suggestions of the devil by abstaining from Communion through fear and scruples. Be assured that there is no species of disobedience more pernicious to a person, than to omit a Communion prescribed by his confessor; for such disobedience proceeds from a want of humility, or from a belief that he is a better judge than his director. 3.

I cannot, you will say, bring myself to communicate often, because I constantly commit faults and never amend. To this excuse an answer has been given above.³

¹ “Qui non meretur quotidie accipere, non meretur post annum accipere.”—De Sacram. l. 5, c. 4.

¹ Collat. 23, c. 21.

² “Amor tamen et spes, ad quæ semper Scriptura nos provocat, præferuntur timori.”—P. 3, q. 80, a. 10.

³ Page 66.

If your faults are fully deliberate, and if you make no effort to correct them, neither I nor any other spiritual guide will advise you to communicate often. But if you have no affection for venial sins, and do not commit them with full deliberation—if, on the contrary, you love prayer and desire to advance in perfection, then, I say to you, obey your confessor and have no more uneasiness about your Communions. The greater you perceive your infirmities to be, the more frequently you ought to seek a remedy for them in holy Communion. “Because,” says St. Ambrose, “I always sin, I should always use a remedy.”¹ We buttress walls that are inclined, not to make them erect but to prevent them from falling. You say that you perceive in yourself no amendment; will you improve without the aid of the holy Communion? No, you will, on the contrary, grow worse every day. In his treatise on Communion, Father Granada says that “he that desires to be cured of his infirmities should not abstain from this great remedy.” The bare remembrance of having communicated in the morning, and the thought of having to communicate the next day, makes a person more watchful and more attentive to the correction of his faults. Besides, the sacrament itself infuses an increase of light and strength into the soul. Theologians generally assert that the holy Eucharist produces more grace than all the other sacraments, because it contains Jesus Christ himself who is the author of grace. A present that a prince makes with his own hand is more valuable than the gifts that he dispenses through the hands of others. 4.

You will say, I feel myself distracted, cold, and without devotion. What, I ask, do you understand by devotion? If you mean sensible fervor, I say that is not necessary: it is enough to have fervor in the will, or a determination to do what you know to be pleasing to God. This is the true devotion and fervor that God demands of you; and though you do not feel this fervor of the will, you should, notwithstanding, communicate in order to obtain it by means of the holy sacrament. For if you abstain from Communion because you have not sensible fervor you will, as Gerson says,¹ imitate the folly of those who, when cold, refuse to approach the fire because they do not feel warm. According to St. Laurence Justinian,² this sacrament sometimes produces its effect, though we do not perceive it. St. Bonaventure says: “Although you feel tepid, approach with confidence; for the greater your infirmity the more you stand in need of a physician.”³ Do not be deterred from frequent Communion, because you experience more devotion when you communicate seldom than when you communicate often. He that eats but seldom eats with greater eagerness but with less profit; and, if you communicate but seldom you may, perhaps, feel a little more of sensible fervor, but you will also receive less fruit; because your soul will want the food that gives strength to avoid sins and imperfections. Seek not, then, sensible devotion in your Communions. Communicate only for the purpose of uniting your soul more closely to God, and be assured that, as often as you communicate with that view, your Communions will be productive of great fruit. 5. I

abstain from Communion to escape the censure of others that see my imperfections and rebuke me for communicating so frequently. To this pretext I answer: If you communicate with the advice of your director and through a motive of advancing in divine love, or of correcting your defects, be not disturbed by the complaints or censure of others. I have already said,¹ that, according to the Venerable John d’Avila, they who censure others for frequent Communion perform the office of the devil. Will you then pay attention to their complaints? Listen to the words of St. Francis de Sales: “If,” he says, “they ask you why you communicate so often tell them that two classes of persons should communicate frequently, the perfect, to preserve perfection, and the imperfect, to attain perfection; the strong not to become weak, and the weak to grow strong; the sick to be cured, and the healthy to prevent sickness. And as to yourself, tell them that, because you are imperfect, weak, and infirm, you stand in need of frequent Communion. Tell them that all that are free from worldly occupations, because they have the opportunity, and all that are engaged in them, because they have need of Communion, should communicate frequently.” In conclusion, he says: “Philothea communicate often, and as often as possible, with the advice of your spiritual Father; and believe me that, as the hares on our mountains become white, because they feed only on snow, so, by eating purity itself in this sacrament you will become all pure.”² To St. Frances of Rome, as she was going to Communion, the devil said: “How can you, who are so full of venial sins, dare receive the Immaculate Lamb.” Perceiving that the enemy wished to deprive her of Communion, she banished him by spitting in his face. The Blessed Virgin immediately appeared to her, and, after having praised her conduct, said that our defects, instead of being an obstacle, should be an incentive to Communion; since, in Communion we find the remedy of all our miseries. The Roman catechism teaches³ that venial sins are remitted by holy Communion; and the generality of divines agree with St. Thomas, that the holy Eucharist excites in the soul acts of divine love, by which venial sins are pardoned.¹ 6.

You will perhaps say, “I have not time to prepare as I ought for holy Communion.” I answer: if your time is spent in useless occupations or in idle discourses, then your discourse is frivolous. But if it be employed in performing the duties of your office, or of obedience, then you may rest assured that the discharge of these duties, with a view to please God, will be an excellent preparation for Communion. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi was once engaged in making bread, when the bell rang for Communion; she instantly obeyed the call, and in an ecstacy received the holy sacrament. Hence, she was accustomed to say to her sisters: “Offer to God all your actions as a preparation for Communion, perform them with the intention of pleasing him and communicate.” Whenever the want of time arises from your being employed in the service of the Community, in the care of the sick, or in the performance of any work of charity that cannot be deferred, you should never abstain from Communion in consequence of not having sufficient time for preparation. But be careful to avoid as much as possible all unnecessary conversations and amusements, and when you foresee that in the morning you will not have time to prepare for Communion, endeavor on the preceding evening to make some preparation, by reading a book of piety, and by making the acts that ought to be made in the morning; or rise a little before the usual hour and spend whatever time may be at your disposal in preparation for the holy sacrament. 7.

My confessor, you will perhaps say, is not inclined to allow me frequent Communion. If the confessor does not permit you to communicate often you must obey. But supply the want of the holy sacrament by redoubling your spiritual Communions. Say to Jesus Christ: Lord, I would receive Thee more frequently were I not prevented by obedience. And he will be pleased with your desire of Communion, and with your obedience. But why do you not ask the permission of your confessor to communicate more frequently? To ask leave for more frequent Communion is useful, and is by no means opposed to the perfection of obedience. For, in allowing more or less frequent Communion, confessors are regulated by the desire of Communion that they perceive in their penitents. To produce great fruit this divine food must be eaten with hunger; it fructifies but little in the souls that have not an appetite for it. You do not ask leave for Communion, and therefore you show but little eagerness for the holy sacrament; hence, the confessor does not permit you to communicate often. Why do you not imitate St. Catharine of Sienna, who, when deprived of Communion by her confessor, exclaimed: “Father give my soul its food; give my soul its food.” Had you, like her, manifested, with humility and resignation, this holy hunger, your confessor would have treated you in a different manner. But, because he sees you cold and not unwilling to be refused Communion, he prudently abstains from advising you to communicate more frequently.

¹ “Qui semper pecco, semper debeo habere medicinam.”—De Sacram. l. 4, c. 6.

¹ De Præp. ad M. cons. 4.

² De Discipl. mon. c. 19.

³ “Although tepid, nevertheless let him approach confidently; because the more he has felt himself to be ill, the more, being ill, he needs to seek a physician.”—De Prof. rel. p. 2, c. 76.

¹ Page 66.

² Introd. ch. 21.

³ P. 2, c. 1, q. 40.

¹ P. 3, q. 79, a. 4.

Oh! what great and continual progress is made in divine love by those who, with a strong desire, and with the permission of their spiritual Father, frequent holy Communion! Oh! how wonderfully does the Lord draw them to his love! To keep them humble and resigned, he sometimes leaves them in darkness without any sense of their own advancement, and without any of the comforts of sensible devotion. According to St. Teresa, frequent Communion is the best support of these desolate souls. Let others say what they please, it is certain that in general the most regular convents are those in which holy Communion is most frequented, and that in all monasteries the religious that communicate most frequently are the most fervent and exemplary.

O my God! why are so many frivolous excuses put forward? Let the religious that seldom communicates speak the truth, and she must acknowledge that her repugnance to frequent Communion arises from an unwillingness to bind herself to a life of greater retirement, and of greater detachment from creatures, and from self-indulgence. She knows well, that conversations with seculars, friendships, vanity, self-esteem, and inordinate attachment to the indulgence of the appetite, and such imperfections, are not compatible with frequent Communion, and therefore she abstains from it. She cannot bear to be rebuked at each Communion by Jesus Christ for her disorderly life: In a word, she receives him but seldom, because she wishes to live under less restraint.

Are you, dear sister, animated with these sentiments? If you are, I say that since you love Jesus Christ but little, and desire but little to love him, you should not receive him frequently. But beware: this obstinate tepidity that you can but will not correct may one day lead you into an abyss. Ah, arise from this miserable state; give yourself to God for the remainder of your life; you know not how long it will last; it may be very short. Reform your conduct according to the best of your ability, and endeavor to communicate more frequently. When your confessor permits you, go to Communion without fear or hesitation; and leave others to say of you what they please. Fear not that you will have to account, at the hour of death, for Communions made with the advice of your confessor. I say, and I assure you, that at the hour of death you will repent not of the Communions that you made with his permission, but of those that you could have made, and that through negligence you omitted. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi once saw a soul suffering in purgatory for having through carelessness omitted one Communion. And we read in her life that she several times burst into tears because a sister abstained from Communion through negligence. Be assured that of all your devotions there is none more dear to Jesus Christ than your Communions. For all perfection consists in a perfect union with God; and holy Communion is the action that unites the soul most closely to him, and consequently the religious can do nothing more pleasing in his sight. Hence, the same St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say: “I would rather die than omit a Communion permitted by obedience.” I shall now speak of spiritual Communion, which has been so much practised by the saints.

Spiritual Communion, as St. Thomas says¹ consists in an ardent desire to receive Jesus Christ in the holy sacrament. The holy Council of Trent² extols the advantages of spiritual Communion, and exhorts the faithful to practise it. And God himself has several times given devout souls to understand how pleasing it is to him that they receive him spiritually. Jesus Christ appeared one day to sister Paula Maresca, foundress of the convent of St. Catharine of Sienna, in Naples, as we read in her life, and showed her two precious vessels, one of gold and another of silver, and said to her, that in the former he preserved her sacramental Communions, and in the latter her spiritual Communions. On another occasion he said to the Venerable Jane of the Cross, that as often as she communicated spiritually, she received a grace similar to that which she derived from her sacramental Communions.

Father John Nider, of the Order of St. Dominic, relates, that in a certain city a poor man of great virtue desired to communicate often; but because the practice of frequent Communion did not exist in the place, he, in order to avoid singularity, contented himself with spiritual Communions. Hence, he would first go to confession, and make his meditation; he would then hear Mass, and prepare for Communion, and would open his mouth as if he were receiving Jesus Christ. The author relates, that in opening his mouth the poor man used to feel the particle laid on his tongue, and his soul filled with sweetness. One morning he put his finger into his mouth to find out whether the consecrated particle were really placed on his tongue; the sacred host adhered to his finger; he placed it again in his mouth, and received it. Thus the Lord rewarded the desire of this good servant.

Father Peter Faber, of the Society of Jesus, used to say¹ that spiritual Communions are a very powerful help to receive the holy Eucharist, with the proper dispositions. Hence the saints have been in the habit of making frequent spiritual Communions. Blessed Angela of the Cross, a Dominican nun, went so far as to say: “If my confessor had not taught me this method of communicating, I could scarcely live.” Hence she used to make a hundred spiritual Communions every day, and a hundred more every night. But how, you will ask, could she make so many? St. Augustine answers: “Give me a lover, and he understands what I say.”² Give me a soul that loves nothing but Jesus Christ, and it will not wonder at it. It is most easy to make several spiritual Communions in the day; it is not necessary to be fasting, to have a priest, or to spend a long time. Hence we may make a spiritual Communion as often as we please in the day. The Venerable Jane of the Cross used therefore to say: “O my Lord, how excellent a mode of communicating! without being seen or remarked: without giving trouble to my spiritual Father, or depending on any one but Thee, who in solitude dost nourish my soul, and speak to my heart.”

Be careful, then, to make frequent spiritual Communions in your meditations, visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and be particularly careful, as often as you hear Mass, to make a spiritual Communion, during the Communion of the priest. Make an act of faith, believing firmly that Jesus Christ is present in the holy sacrament; an act of love, uniting to it an act of sorrow for your sins; and then an act of desire, inviting Jesus Christ to come into your soul, in order to make it entirely his own; and in the end thank him as if you had received him. You can make these acts in the following manner:

My Jesus, I believe that Thou art truly and really present in the holy sacrament. I love Thee with my whole heart, and because I love Thee, I am sorry for having offended Thee. I embrace Thee, O my love, and I give myself entirely to Thee; do not permit me to be ever separated from Thee.

In this manner you can make as many spiritual Communions as you please.

¹ P. 3, q. 80, a. 1.

² Sess. 13, cap. 8.

¹ Formic. l. 1, c. 1.

² “Da amantem, et sentit quod dico.”—In Jo. tr. 26.

The frequent visits to Jesus Christ in the sacrament of the altar is a great help to the souls that love him. - The holy Church has instituted and celebrates the festival of the adorable sacrament with so many solemnities in honor not only of holy Communion, but also of the loving dwelling of Jesus Christ night and day in our churches, in this sacrament of love. Our loving Lord, says Nieremberg, has left himself on earth under the species of bread, principally in order to be the food of our souls; but he has left himself also in order to remain with us shut up in our tabernacles, and thus remind us of the love which he bears us. “No tongue,” says St. Peter of Alcantara,¹ “can express the greatness of the love that Jesus bears to all that are in the state of grace.”

Hence, that his absence from them might not be an occasion of forgetting him, this most sweet Spouse, before his departure from this world, left, as a memorial of his love, this most holy sacrament, in which he himself remained. He did not wish that between him and his servants there should be any other pledge than himself to keep alive the remembrance of him.

Hence, when our dear Saviour left this world, he did not wish to leave us alone, and therefore he devised a means of remaining with us in the holy Eucharist to the end of time, that even here below we may enjoy his sweet company. This he declared to his disciples, and through them to us all. Behold I am with you all days, even to the consummation of the world.² St. Peter of Alcantara therefore adds: “The Saviour did not wish to leave his spouse alone at such a distance, and therefore he has left her this sacrament, in which he himself remains, as the best companion he could leave her.”

St. Teresa says that all are not permitted to speak to the king; the most that a vassal can expect is, to speak to his sovereign through a third person. She then adds: But to speak to Thee, O King of Glory, the intervention of a third person is not necessary; Thou art always ready to give audience to all in the sacrament of the altar. Every one that wishes may find Thee there always, and may speak to Thee with confidence. Oh, how difficult is it to obtain an audience from an earthly monarch! Kings seldom give audience to their subjects. But Thou, O my Redeemer, in this sacrament, dost give audience to all, whenever they wish. Our divine king, says the same saint, in order to animate us to approach his feet with greater confidence, has clothed himself with the species of bread in this sacrament, and thus has veiled his majesty that we may not be terrified at the sight of it.

But, O God, how many insults must Jesus Christ have suffered from infidels, from heretics, and from sinners in this sacrament, in order to remain with us. Some have trampled on the sacred Host, others have thrown it into the mire. He foresaw all these injuries; but still he resolved to remain with us on the altar, that we might not be deprived of his amiable presence.

Many pilgrims make long journeys to visit the holy house in Loretto, where Jesus Christ once dwelt, or to venerate the places in the holy land in which he was born, in which he suffered and died. But Father John d’Avila had just reason to say, that he knew no sanctuary more amiable, or more apt to inspire devotion, than a church in which the holy sacrament is preserved, for there Jesus Christ has not only once dwelt and suffered, but truly lives and dwells. Hence, the saints have experienced no greater delight on earth than that which they enjoyed in the presence of the most holy sacrament. St. Francis Xavier, as is related in his Life,¹ after having labored all day for the sanctification of souls, spent the night at the foot of the tabernacle; when overcome by sleep, he threw himself on the steps of the altar! and, after a short repose, he began again to converse with his dear Lord. St. John Francis Regis¹ used to do the same; after having spent the entire day in preaching and hearing confessions, his repose consisted in remaining during the night before Jesus in the holy sacrament, and when he found the church shut he remained outside the door to pay homage, at least at a distance, to his beloved Redeemer. The Venerable Father Balthasar Alvarez, a holy man, when unable to remain in the church, endeavored at least to keep his eyes turned to the tabernacle,² in which he knew the holy sacrament was preserved. In a word, all the saints have found their paradise on earth in this sacrament. St. Teresa said one day from heaven to one of her religious: “We who rejoice in heaven, and you who suffer on earth, should be the same in purity and love. And what we do in heaven before the divine essence you should do on earth before the most holy sacrament.”³ And what greater paradise can a religious that loves Jesus Christ find on this earth than to remain at his feet, to manifest the love that she bears him, to offer to him herself and all that belongs to her, to make known her desires, to see him face to face, in order to love him with greater ardor!

But this paradise religious can enjoy in a special manner. It is true that Jesus remains in the holy sacrament for all; but he remains particularly for nuns—his spouses who enjoy his society day and night within their own very house. When Jesus was born, the holy Magi left their country and their homes, and spent a long time travelling through Palestine, inquiring for the birthplace of the Redeemer: Saying, where is he that is born King of the Jews?⁴—To visit Jesus Christ, seculars must leave their houses and go to the church, which is closed at night, and in many places is open only in the morning. But a nun need not leave her own dwelling in order to enjoy the society of Jesus Christ; he remains continually in the house in which she dwells. A nun, then, can visit him whenever she pleases, in the morning or evening, by day or by night. She, as a spouse, is permitted to dwell in the palace. How highly honored does the vassal esteem himself to be, when he is invited to dwell in the palace of the king! You then, O dear sister, are one of those happy Christians that have the honor of dwelling on this earth with Jesus Christ, the king of heaven. You can visit him and remain with him day and night, whenever you please. The Venerable Mother Mary of Jesus, the foundress of a monastery in Toulouse, used to say, that she thanked God in a special manner for two things: first, because by the vow of obedience, religious belong entirely to God; secondly, because they have the happiness of dwelling always along with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

In other churches Jesus Christ remains for all; but in your monastery he dwells only for you and your companions. Be careful to profit by his presence. O God! in all monasteries the nuns should, like so many butterflies, hover night and day about their Spouse; their hearts should remain with him to burn continually, and with greater splendor than the lights and lamps that decorate the altar. But alas! of the ingratitude of men for his loving dwelling among them, our Lord complained to his servant, Sister Margaret Alacoque, to whom he showed one day his divine heart burning with flames of love for men, and said to her: “Behold the heart that has loved men so tenderly, has reserved nothing, but has consumed itself in order to show its love for them. But in return I receive nothing but ingratitude and contempt from the greater number of men in this sacrament. But what displeases me most is, that some of these ungrateful hearts are hearts consecrated to me.”¹ In these last words he spoke of the religious that set but little value on their happy lot, of dwelling in the same house with Jesus Christ, and therefore draw but little profit from his society. If he were to come into your church once a year, and to remain only for a single day, surely all would contend with one another in paying homage to him, and in remaining in his loving company; and will you leave him alone, and visit him so seldom, because in order to see you more frequently in his presence, he, in his goodness, remains continually with you?

If you have hitherto been negligent in visiting Jesus in the tabernacle, I entreat you henceforth to avail yourself of the great treasure that you have in the most holy sacrament. Sister Anne of the cross, who had been Countess of Feria, and a Spanish lady of high rank, after being a widow for twenty-four years, became a nun of the Order of St. Clare, in Montilla; she procured a cell, from which she had a view of the altar of the Blessed Sacrament, and there she generally remained day and night. Being asked how she was employed during so many hours that she spent before the sacrament, she replied: “I would remain there for all eternity. How am I employed before Jesus in the Blessed Eucharist? I thank him, I love him, and I ask his graces.” Behold an excellent means of drawing great fruit from your visits to the Blessed Sacrament.

First, thank Jesus Christ. O God, how thankful is a nun to a relative that comes from a distance to visit her! And will you not thank Jesus Christ, who descends from heaven, not only to visit you, but also to remain always with you? First of all in your visit, enliven your faith and adore your Spouse in the sacrament: thank his great goodness in coming to remain on the altar for the love of you.

Secondly, love him. St. Philip Neri, when he saw the most holy Viaticum brought into his room, was all on fire with holy love, and exclaimed, Behold my love! behold my love! Do you say the same when you remain before the holy tabernacle. Consider that your Spouse, shut up in that prison of love, is burning with love for you. To St. Catharine of Sienna he appeared one day in the sacrament in the form of a fiery furnace, and the saint was astonished that the flames that issued from it had not filled the hearts of all men with the fire of divine love. If, when you remain in his presence, you wish to please him, repeat acts of love, offering to him yourself in a special manner.

Thirdly, ask his grace. Blessed Henry Suso used to say that it is in the holy sacrament that Jesus hears most readily the prayers of those that visit him, and dispenses his graces most abundantly. The Venerable Father Balthasar Alvarez once saw Jesus Christ in the sacrament with his hands full of graces; but found no one to whom he could impart them, because there was no one to ask them. You say that you cannot remain in the presence of Jesus Christ, because you know not what to do before him, nor what to say to him. O God! and why do you not employ yourself in asking the graces of which you stand in need? Beg of him to give you strength to resist temptations, to correct the faults into which you always relapse, to rescue you from the passion that keeps you in chains, and hinders you from giving yourself entirely to God. Entreat him to give you aid to suffer all insults and contradictions in peace, to increase in your heart his divine love, and entreat him particularly to make you live always united with his holy will. When you feel disturbed on account of having committed any fault, go instantly to the holy sacrament to ask pardon, and then calm your mind. When you receive any offence or when you meet a heavy cross, go and offer it to Jesus Christ and ask his aid to embrace it with resignation. Oh! if all religious acted in this manner and knew how to avail themselves of the society of their Spouse, they would all become saints. Let it be your care to become a saint by adopting this practice.

¹ De l’Or. et de la Méd. p. 1, ch. 4.

² “Ecce ego vobiscum sum omnibus diebus usque ad consummationem sæculi.”—Matt. xxviii. 20.

¹ Bouhours, Vie, l. 6.

¹ D’Aubenton, Vie, l. 4.

² Dupont, Vie, ch. 6.

³ Ribera, Vit. l. 5, c. 4.

⁴ “Ubi est qui natus est Rex Judæorum?”—Matt. ii. 2.

¹ Her writings, p. 1, § 1.

PRAYER. I adore Thee, O my Jesus, in the Most Holy Sacrament of the altar. Thou didst once sacrifice Thy divine life on the cross for my sake; and now, because Thou lovest me, Thou dost remain shut up in this tabernacle as a prison of love. From among so many young persons that have offended Thee less than I have, Thou hast, after I had committed so many sins, chosen me to live with Thee in Thy own house; taking me from the world and rescuing me from its dangers, Thou hast admitted me into this convent that I might remain always in Thy company on this earth, that I might one day love and enjoy Thee face to face in heaven, and become Thy eternal spouse and companion in the kingdom of Thy glory. Here Thou dost even invite me frequently to eat Thy sacred flesh in holy Communion, that I may be entirely united with Thee, and that I may become all Thine. My dear Redeemer, what can I say? I thank Thee for this great favor, and I hope one day to thank Thee for it in heaven for all eternity. I will say with St. Teresa: The mercies of the Lord I will sing forever. Yes, my Jesus, my love, and my Spouse, this I expect through Thy merits. I now declare that I feel more content at having left, for the love of Thee, the world and the little pleasures that I could there enjoy, than if I were queen of all the earth. I am sorry for having hitherto, even in Thy own house, given Thee so much displeasure, for which I would deserve to be banished from it. My Jesus, pardon me, and for Thy mercy’s sake grant that, among so many of my good sisters that have served Thee so well, I too, a poor sinner, may serve Thee. I do not wish ever more to depart from Thy feet, I wish to visit Thee frequently. Thy presence will give me strength to banish every affection that is not for Thee: it will remind me of my obligation to love Thee, and to have recourse to Thee in all my necessities. I wish to remain always near Thee; and I wish to communicate often in order to love Thee more ardently, and to be united with Thee, my beloved Lord. I love Thee, O God, concealed in the most holy sacrament. For the love of me Thou dost remain continually on this altar, and for the love of Thee I wish as much as possible to remain in Thy society. Shut up in this tabernacle Thou dost always love me; and, shut up in this convent, I will always love Thee. Then, my Jesus and my all, we shall remain always together, as I hope, for time in this house, and for eternity in paradise.

O Mary, my mother, pray to Jesus for me, and obtain for me a great love for the most holy sacrament.