The nun sanctified by the virtues of her state
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| The faults committed after profession by a good religious are expiated in this world by her daily exercises of piety, by her meditations, Communions, and mortifications. But if a religious should not make full atonement in this life for all her sins, her purgatory will not be of long duration. The many sacrifices of the Mass which are offered for her after death, and the prayers of the Community, will soon release her from her suffering. Remuneratur copiosius. "A religious is more abundantly rewarded." Worldlings are blind to the things of God; they do not comprehend the happiness of eternal glory, in comparison with which the pleasures of this world are but wretchedness and misery. If they had just notions, and a lively sense of the glory of paradise, they would assuredly abandon their possessions, even kings would abdicate their crowns, and, quitting the world, in which it is exceedingly difficult to attend to the one thing necessary, they would retire into the cloister to secure their eternal salvation. Bless, then, dear Sister, and continually thank your God, who, by his own lights and graces, has delivered you from the bondage of Egypt, and brought you to his own house; prove your gratitude by fidelity in his service, and by a faithful correspondence to so great a grace. Compare all the goods of this world with the eternal felicity which God has prepared for those who leave all things for his sake, and you will find that there is a greater disparity between the transitory joys of this life and the eternal beatitude of the saints than there is between a grain of sand and the entire creation. Jesus Christ has promised that whosoever shall leave all things for his sake shall receive a hundred-fold in this life, and eternal glory in the next. Can you doubt his words ? Can you imagine that he will not be faithful to his promise? Is he not more liberal in rewarding virtue than in punishing vice ? If they who give a cup of cold water in his name 18
shall not be left without abundant remuneration, 1 how great and incomprehensible must be the reward which a religious who aspires to perfection shall receive for the numberless works of piety which she performs every day ? for so many meditations, offices, and spiritual readings ? for so many acts of mortification and of divine love which she daily refers to God’s honor? Do you not know that these good works which are performed through obedience, and in compliance with the religious vows, merit a far greater reward than the good works of seculars ? Brother Lacci, of the Society of Jesus, appeared after death to a certain person, and said that he and king Philip II. were crowned with bliss, but that his own glory as far surpassed that of Philip as the exalted dignity of an earthly sovereign is raised above the lowly station of an humble religious. The dignity of martyrdom is sublime; but the religious state appears to possess something still more excellent. The martyr suffers that he may not lose his soul; the religious, to render herself more acceptable to God. A martyr dies for the faith; a religious for perfection. Although the religious state has lost much of its primitive splendour, we may still say, with truth, that the souls who are most dear to God, who have attained the greatest perfection, and who edify the Church by the odour of their sanctity, are, for the most part, to be found in religion. How few are there in the world, even amongst the most fervent, who rise at mid night to pray and sing the praises of God ? 1 "Quisquis enim potum dederit vobis calicem aquæ in nomine meo, . . . non perdet mercedem suam." Mark, ix. 40. How few who spend five or six hours each day in these or similar works of piety ? Who practise fasting, abstinence, and mortification ? How few who observe silence, or accustom themselves to do the will of others rather than their own ? And, surely, all these are performed by the religious of every Order, even in convents where the discipline is relaxed many are found, who, on the day of judgment, will condemn the others who aspire to perfection, observe the rules, and perform, in private, many works of supererogation. It is evident that the conduct of the generality of pious Christians in the world cannot be compared with that of good religious. No wonder, then, that St. Cyprian called virgins consecrated to God the flower of the garden of the Church, and the noblest portion of the flock of Jesus Christ. 1 St. Gregory Nazianzen says the religious " are the first-fruits of the flock of the Lord, the pillars and crown of faith, and the pearls of the Church." 2 I hold as certain that the greater number of the seraphic thrones vacated by the unhappy associates of Lucifer will be filled by religious. Out of the sixty who during the last century were enrolled in the catalogue of saints, or honoured with the appellation of Blessed, all, with the exception of five or six, belonged to the religious orders. Jesus Christ once said to St. Teresa: " Woe to the world, but for religious." 3 Ruffinus says: "It cannot be doubted that the world is preserved from ruin by the merits of religious." 4 1 " Flos est ille ecclesiastic! generis, .... illustrior portio gregis Christi." De Discipl. virg. 2 "Sunt generis nostri primitive, columnae et coronæ fidei, margaritæ templi." Orat. 9. 3 Ribera, Vit. 1. i, c. 13. 4 Dubitari non debet ipsorum mentis adhuc stare mundum." Hist. Monach. prol. When, then, the devil affrights you by representing the difficulty of observing your Rule, and practising the selfdenial, and the austerities necessary for salvation, raise your eyes to heaven, and the hope of eternal beatitude will give you strength and courage to suffer all things. The trials, mortifications, and all miseries of this life will soon be past, and to them will succeed the ineffable delights of paradise, which shall be enjoyed for eternity without fear of failure or of diminution. Prayer. O God of my soul, I know that Thou dost most earnestly desire to save me. By my sins I had incurred the sentence of eternal condemnation ; but instead of casting me into hell, as I deserved, Thou hast stretched forth Thy loving hand, and not only delivered me from hell and sin, but Thou hast also drawn me, as it were by force, from amidst the dangers of the world, and placed me in Thy own house amongst Thy own spouses. I hope, O my Spouse, to be admitted one day to heaven, there to sing for eternity the great mercies Thou hast shown me. Oh ! that I had never offended Thee. O Jesus, assist me, now that I desire to love Thee with my whole soul, and wish to do everything in my power to please Thee. Thou hast spared nothing in order to gain my love : it is but just that I devote my entire being to Thy service. Thou hast given thyself entirely to me: I give myself without reserve to Thee. Since my soul is immortal, I desire to be eternally united to Thee. And if it is love that unites the soul to Thee, I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good; I love Thee, my Redeemer; I love Thee, O my Spouse, my only treasure and object of my love : I love Thee ! I love Thee ! and hope that I shall love Thee for eternity. Thy merits, O my Redeemer, are the grounds of my hope. In Thy protection, also, O great Mother of God, my Mother Mary, do I place unbounded confidence. Thou didst obtain pardon for me when I was in the state of sin ; now that I hope I am in the state of grace, and am 19 a religious, wilt thou not obtain for me the grace to become a saint? Such is my ardent hope, my fervent desire. Amen. CHAPTER III THE RELIGIOUS SHOULD BELONG ENTIRELY TO GOD. 1. She Should Renounce everything, and Love only God. PLUTARCH 1 relates that in Rome it was the duty of a woman, on her first arrival at the house of her husband, to address him in the following words: " Wherever you are, there also shall I be. Wheresoever your will leads you, there likewise my desires shall carry me." 2 It is this perfect conformity of her will with his that Jesus Christ demands of every virgin who aspires to the dignity and glory of his spouse. My son, he says, give me thy heart? 3 My child and my spouse, what I desire from you is, that you give me your heart, your affections, and your will. The Holy Ghost says that when God created our first parents, Adam and Eve, he set his eyes upon their hearts. 4He fixed his eyes not upon their hands, but upon their hearts; because external works are of no value before God, unless they proceed from the heart, and be accompanied by the affections of the soul. All the glory of the spouse of Christ consists in an entire and a perfect union of her heart with the heart of God. All the glory of the Kings daughter is within.5 This union of her interior makes a religious belong entirely to the Lord. 1 Quæst. Rom. q. 29. 2 " Ubi tu Caius, ego Caia." 3 " Præbe, fili mi, cor tuum mihi"Prov. xxiii. 26. 4 " Posuit oculum suum super corda illorum." Rcdits. xvii. 7. 5 " Omnis gloria ejus . . . ab intus." Ps. xliv. 14. " God," says St. Bernard, " requires to be feared as a Sovereign, to be honored as a Father, and to be loved as a Spouse." 1 Hence in his virginal spouses the Redeemer bears more patiently with every imperfection than with a divided heart or a want of love. It was to show the necessity of a complete and unqualified dedication of themselves to his glory that he ordained by his Church that in receiving the sacred veil on the day of their profession his spouses should be reminded of their obligation to reject every other lover. " Receive," the bishop says, " the veil, that you may admit no lover but him." 2 Receive this veil, that you may no longer have regard to creatures, and that you may banish from your heart every affection that is not for God. The Church commands religious at their profession to change their name, that they may forget the world, that they may esteem themselves dead to all earthly things, and that the dispositions of their souls may correspond to the words which they utter on that solemn occasion: "The empire of the world and all the grandeur of the earth I have despised for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ, whom I have seen, whom I have loved, in whom I have believed, towards whom my heart inclineth." 3 I have despised the world and all its pomps, for the sake of Jesus, my Spouse, to whom, because he is most amiable and most worthy of my love, I have consecrated all the affections of my heart. Every religious should say to the world with St. Agnes: "Depart from me, food of death, for I am pledged to another lover." 4 1 " Exigit Deus timeri ut Dominus, honorari ut Pater, ut Sponsus amari." In Cant. s. 83. 2 " Accipe velum, ut nullum amatorem præter eum admittas." 3 " Regnum mundi et omnem ornatum sæculi contempsi, propter amorem Domini mei Jesu Christi, quem vidi, quem amavi, in quem credidi, quem dilexi." 4 " Discede a me, pabulum mortis, quia jam abalioamatore præventa sum." Whenever any earthly object steals into her heart, and claims a share in that love which had been entirely consecrated to her divine Spouse, she should exclaim: "Begone, pernicious affection, you seek to poison my heart: depart, therefore, for another lover, more noble, more faithful, and more acceptable than you, has loved me before I could love him, and has taken possession of my whole soul: you are a vile and miserable creature; but my Spouse is the Lord, the King of heaven and earth. I am espoused to Him whom the angels serve." 1 Without love the soul of man cannot exist. Her affections must be fixed on God or on creatures: if she love not creatures, she will certainly love God. Hence, the Holy Ghost exhorts us to guard our hearts with the utmost vigilance against all affections which have not God for their object: With all watchfulness keep thy heart, because life issueth out from it? 2 While the heart loves God, the soul shall have life; but if the heart transfer its affections to creatures, spiritual death will be the inevitable consequence. In order, then, to become a saint, the spouse of the Lamb must expel from her soul whatsoever has not God for its end and object. When any one demanded admission into the Society of the Fathers of the Desert, they answered him by the following question: " Do you bring a vacant heart, that it may be filled by the Holy Ghost?" 3 Justly did they require a soul detached from earthly goods; for a heart in which the world dwells cannot be replenished with the love of God. Whoever brings to the fountain a-vessel replete with sand, will labor in vain to fill it with water unless it be first emptied of its contents. 1 " Ipsi desponsata sum, cui Angeli serviunt." Offic. 2: Jan. 2 " Omni custodia serva cor tuum, quia ex ipso vita procedit." Prov. iv. 23. 3 Affersne cor vacuum, ut possit illud Spiritus Sanctus implere ? 20 O my God, why do so many religious frequent the holy exercises of prayer and Communion, and draw from them so little increase of divine love ? It is because their hearts are so full of the world, of self-esteem, of vanity, or of self-will, of affection to friends, attachment to creatures. Until the world is rooted out of their hearts, the love of God cannot take possession of their souls. Give me a religious who is detached from the world and the things of the world, and I pledge myself that divine love shall abound in her soul. To obtain this detachment from the earth, it is necessary to call continually on the Lord, in the language of holy David: Create in me a clean heart, O God 1 Give me, O Lord, a heart free from every affection which does not proceed from the love of Thee. Woe to them that are of a double heart? 2 “Woe," says St. Augustine, in his comment on these words, "to them who divide their heart, giving it partly to God and partly to the devil." For, continues the saint, the anger of God is justly provoked against those who treat him and his sworn enemy with equal attention, and therefore he departs from them, and yields to the devil the undivided possession of their hearts. " God is angry, because in the affections of a double heart he is associated with the devil: he departs, and the devil possesses the whole." 3 The holy Doctor then concludes, that because a soul loves God less in proportion as her affections are fixed on other objects, a religious cannot be entirely devoted to the love of her Spouse while she is attached to creatures. " He loves you less, who" loves anything else with you." 4 In a word, every little attachment to created objects impedes the perfect consecration of the soul to God. 1 " Cor mundum crea in me, Deus. " Ps. l. 12. 2 " Væ duplici corde." Ecclus. ii. 14. 3" Iratus Deus, quia fit ibi pars diabolo, discedit, et totum diabolus possidet. "/;>/<;. tr. 7. 4 " Minus te amat, qui tecum aliquid aliud amat. " Conf. 1. 10, c. 29. St. Teresa, while she cherished a certain little inordinate though not an unchaste affection for a relative, was but imperfectly united to God; but when she afterwards disengaged her heart from all earthly attachments, and consecrated her whole soul to the love of Jesus, she merited to hear from him: "Teresa, now thou art all mine, and I am all thine." 1 St. Joseph Calasanctius used to say that a religious who gives not to Jesus her whole heart gives him nothing. The assertion was most just; for it is impossible to divide a heart too small to love a God who deserves infinite love, and to give one part of it to him and another to creatures. No, says blessed Egidius, " The soul, which is one, must be entirely given to Him who is one, 2 who merits all our love, and who has done and suffered so much to extort our love. Surely, observes Father Nieremberg, it was not necessary for our redemption that Jesus Christ should have submitted to all the miseries and endured all the pains of his life and death. A single drop of his blood, a tear, a prayer, would have been sufficient to save the whole world, and an infinite number of worlds. But the Son of God has shed the last drop of his blood, and has given his life, not only to redeem us, but also to compel us to love him with our whole hearts. He could have sent an angel to deliver us from sin: "but," says Hugh of St. Victor, " lest you should divide your love between the Creator and the redeeming angel, he who was your Creator has chosen to become your Redeemer." 3 The Lord commands all to love him with their whole heart. To each one he says: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart. 4 This precept of love is especially directed to the spouses of the Redeemer. 1 Life, ch. 39. 2 " Una uni !" 3 Ne amorem divideres, tibi factus est Creator et Redemptor." 4 " Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo." Matt. xxii. 37. A brother in religion said once to the Venerable Father John Joseph of Alcantara, that he had become a religious to save his soul. The Venerable Father replied: "My child, do not say that you have left the world to secure your salvation; say rather that you have entered religion to become a saint; for the object of a religious should be to love God in the highest degree." O my God, if a religious love not Jesus Christ with her whole soul, to whom will she give the preference in her heart ? Oh ! how many marks of predilection must he have shown to you in making you his spouse in religion ? He must first have selected you for creation from among an infinite number of possible beings. Then to make you from your birth a child of the Church, by the holy sacrament of baptism, he must have chosen you from among so many millions who are born in infidelity and heresy. Lastly, in bringing you into religion by his lights, his invitations, and by his special graces, he must have preferred you before the numberless multitudes of seculars whom he has left in the world in the midst of so many dangers and occasions of losing their immortal souls. Now if you do not love your God with your whole heart and soul, if you do not consecrate your entire being to his service, to whom will you give your heart ? This, says the Psalmist, is the generation of them that seek the Lord. 1 Who can behold virgins of noble birth and splendid fortunes despising the pomp and pleasures of the world, which they might have enjoyed, and shutting themselves up in a convent, to live in poverty and abjection; 21 who, I say, can behold these holy virgins without exclaiming, This is the generation of them that seek the Lord? Since, then, God has called you to be his spouse, all your thoughts and affections must be fixed on him, and on him alone. " Have no connection," says St. Bernard, with the world; forget all things; reserve yourself for him alone whom you have chosen from among all." 3 1 " Hæc est generatio quaerentium eum." Ps. xxiii. 6. 2 " Nihil tibi et turbis; obliviscere omnium; soli omnium serves te ipsam, quern ex omnibus tibi elegisti." In Cant. s. 40. 1" Mea sponsa, hortus conclusus, fons signatus." Cant. iv. 12. 2 " Hortus conclusus, qui neminem nisi Dilectum admittit." In Cant. s-353 " Pone me ut signaculum super cor tuum, ut signaculum super brachium tuum, quia fortis est ut mors dilectio." Cant. viii. 6. 4 " Super cor et super brachium sponsæ Dilectus ut signaculum ponitur, quia in sancta anima, quantum ab ea diligatur, et voluntate et actione designatur." 5 " Si dederit homo omnem substantiam domus suæ pro dilectione, quasi nihil despiciet eam." Cant. viii. 7. Now that you are consecrated to Jesus Christ, what have you to do with the world ? Forget all things, and en deavor to preserve your whole heart for that God who has chosen you for his spouse in preference to so many others. You must give him your whole heart; for Jesus Christ requires that his spouse be an enclosed garden, a sealed fountain. My spouse is a garden enclosed, a fountain sealed up. 1 The spouse of Jesus must be an enclosed garden admitting into her heart no lover but Jesus. " An enclosed garden," says Gilbert, " which admits none but her beloved. "2 She must be a sealed-up fountain; for he is a jealous Spouse who will suffer no one to share in the affections of his beloved. Put me, he says, as a seal upon thy heart ; as a seal upon thy arm : for love is strong as death? 3 I desire to be placed as a seal upon your heart and upon your arm, that you may love none but me, and that my glory may be the sole object of all your actions. " The Beloved," says St. Gregory, " is put as a seal upon the heart and arm of his spouse; because, in a holy soul, the intensity of her love is shown by the affections of the will, and by the works of her hands." 4 Oh! how love, when it is strong, banishes from the soul every affection which is not for God : For love is strong as death. As no created power can avert the stroke of death when the hour of dissolution arrives, so there is no obstacle which a soul filled with divine love will not overcome. If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he shall despise it as nothing. 5 A heart which loves God despises all that the world can give, and disregards all that is not God. " When," says St. Francis de Sales, " a house takes fire, the furniture is thrown out of the windows; and when a soul burns with divine love, she, without the aid of sermons, or spiritual reading, or the exhortations of directors, divests herself of all affection for creatures, to possess and to love her only Supreme Good the God of Majesty and Sovereign of the universe." Perhaps, dear Sister, so much love is not due to your Spouse, Jesus, who died upon the cross for your redemption; who has given you himself so often in the holy Communion, and has enriched your soul with so many special graces which have not been granted to others ? Reflect, says St. John Chrysostom, that he has given you himself entirely and without reserve. " He has given all to you: he has reserved nothing for himself."1 This consideration was one of the principal means by which St. Bernard enkindled in his soul the flame of divine love. " He," says the saint, " was given to me entirely: he was wholly consumed for my benefit." 2 My Saviour has given me his adorable divinity and his sacred humanity; he has become a whole-burnt offering for my sake: can I refuse to consecrate my entire being to his love ? My beloved to me, and I to him. 3 My beloved has given himself entirely to me: it is but just that I dedicate to him my soul, my body, my life, and all my possessions. 1 " Totum tibi dedit, nihil sibi retinuit." 2 " Totus mihi datus, totus in meos usus expensus est." In Circumc, s. 33 " Dilectus meus mihi, et ego illi." Cant. ii. 16. St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi used to say that a religious being called to be the spouse of a crucified God, should, in her whole life and in all her actions, have in view no other object than Jesus crucified; and should in her whole life have no other occupation than the continual meditation of the eternal love which her divine Spouse bore to her. When Jesus was about to accomplish the redemption of man, he said: Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. 1 Perhaps by these words the Son of God meant that after his crucifixion the devil was to be banished from the earth ? " No," says St. Augustine, " but from the hearts of the faithful." 2 Now if Jesus Christ has died for all, he has suffered in a special manner for his virginal spouses. Since, then, a God has given himself entirely for your salvation, would it not be enormous ingratitude in you to refuse to him the sacrifice of your whole heart, or to love him only with reserve ? Say, then, frequently to your Spouse: O my Jesus, Thou hast given Thyself to me without reserve; Thou hast given all Thy blood, all Thy labors, all Thy merits, for my sanctification. In a word, Thy favours were so abundant and magnificent that nothing more remained to be conferred upon me. I therefore give myself entirely to Thee; I offer to Thee all that I possess or shall ever possess upon earth; I consecrate to Thee all my 22 pleasures, my body, my soul, my will, my liberty. I have nothing more to present to Thee: if I had Thou shouldst have it. I renounce all that the world can give, and declare that Thou alone canst satisfy the desires of my heart. " Oh !" said St. Teresa, " what a profitable exchange to give our hearts to God, and in return to be made the objects of his love." 3 " But," continues the saint, " because we do not offer to him the undivided affections of our souls, he does not bestow upon us all the treasures of his love." 4 1 " Nunc princeps hujus mundi ejicitur foras." John, xii. 31. 2 " Sed extra corda credentium." In 1 Jo. tr. 4. 3 Way of Per f. ch. 17. 4 Life, ch. 11. |