The nun sanctified by the virtues of her state
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| The spouse of Jesus should sing no other than that canticle of love recommended by holy David: Sing to the Lord a new canticle 1 "What," says St. Augustine, "is a new canticle, but new love?" 2 The old canticles are those affections to creatures and to ourselves to which we have been subject from our birth, and which continually spring up from the inclinations to evil transmitted to us by our first parents. For, says the Holy Ghost, the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth 3 But the new canticle is love, by which the soul is consecrated to God. " The voice," says St. Augustine, " of this singer of canticles is the voice of holy love: let us love him for his own sake." 4 The voice of the soul praising God is the fervour of charity which makes her love him, because he merits her love, and banishes from her affections whatever is not God. Jesus crucified, commands his spouses to be crucified to all earthly things. Whenever, then, the world places before your eyes its pomps and delights, you should exclaim with St. Paulinus: " Let the rich enjoy their treasures, and kings their thrones; Christ is our kingdom and our glory." 5 His love is more valuable to us than the sovereignty of the earth. The spouse of Jesus should desire nothing but love; should live but for love; should seek only to advance continually in love: she should incessantly languish with love, in the choir, in the cell, the dormitory, the garden, in all places. Such should be the ardor of her charity, that the flames of her love would extend to all parts of the convent, and even beyond the boundaries of the enclosure. 1 " Cantate Domino canticum novum." Ps. xcv. i. 2 " Quid habet canticum novum, nisi amorem novum ?" Serm. 336, E. B. 3 Sensus enim et cogitatio humani cordis in malum prona sunt ab adolescentia sua." Gen. viii. 21. 4 " Vox hujus cantoris, fervor est sanctiamoris; ipsum amemus propter ipsum." 5 " Sibi habeant divitias suas divites, sibi regna sua reges; nobis eloria, et possessio, et regnum, Christus est." Ep. ad Aprum.
To this love the Apostle exhorts and invites her, by the example of her beloved Spouse. Happy the religious who can say with St. Francis, " my God and my all." My God, who hast shown to me such an excess of love, why should I seek earthly possessions? I have found Thee, the source of all happiness. My God and my all, I care not for honors, for riches, or for pleasures. Thou art my glory, my treasure, my delight, and my all. What have I in heaven ? and besides thee, what do I desire upon earth ? Thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever? 1 Can I, O my God, find any one in heaven or on earth who is so deserving of my affection, or who has done so much to gain my love ? Thou alone shalt be the Lord of my heart; Thou shalt reign in its affections, and shalt rule its motions with sovereign sway. Thee alone shall my soul obey, seeking in all things Thy holy will. I found him whom my soul loveth ; I held him and will not let him go? 2 Yes, I have found the object of all my affections: I have found him who alone can make me happy. Though the world, with all its pleasures, and hell, with all its powers of darkness, should endeavor to separate me from Thee, I will not abandon Thee, O Jesus, my Spouse. " I held him, and will not let him go." I will hold Thee fast by my love, and will never suffer Thee to depart from me. I desire to live and to die always, and in all things, united to Thee. 1 " Deus meus, et omnia. Quid mihi est in coelo, et a te quid volui super terram ? . . . . Deus cordis mei et pars mea Deus in aeternum. " Ps. Ixxii. 25, 26. 2 " Inveni, quern diligit anima mea; tenui eum, nee dimittam." Cant. iii. 4. 2. We must overcome ourselves and courageously Strive for Perfection - Means to be adopted for this Purpose. To attain perfection, and to enjoy true peace of con science, it is necessary to die to the world and to self. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord 1 As corporal death is necessarily accompanied with pain, so abandonment of the world and detachment from its pleasures is utterly impossible without trials and sufferings. The kingdom of heaven is represented to us in the Holy Scriptures under various images. It is sometimes compared to a treasure which can be obtained only by selling all our possessions; sometimes to a city which, because the gate is narrow, no one can enter without fatigue and industry; sometimes to a palace in which the stones (that is, the souls of which it is composed) must be polished with the utmost care; sometimes to a feast, to which no one is admitted unless he abandon all other concerns; sometimes to a prize which cannot be won without running to the end; and, finally, to a crown, for the acquisition of which it is necessary to fight and conquer. In a word, to die to the world, self-love must die in the soul. 23 St. Augustine says, that the love of God increases in proportion as self-love is diminished; and that the destruction of the latter is the perfection of the former. " The diminution of cupidity," says the holy Doctor, "is the nutriment of charity; but its total absence is the perfection of charity." 2 Charity is estimated, not by its tenderness, but by its strength. Ardent charity smooths every asperity and surmounts every obstacle. " There is nothing," says St. Augustine, " so difficult, which the fire of love does not conquer." 3 In another place he says: " In what we love there is no labor; or if there be, we love the very labor itself." 4 1 " Beati mortui, qui in Domino moriuntur." Apoc. xiv. 13. 2" Nutrimentum charitatis est imminutio cupiditatis; perfectio, nulla cupiditas." De div. quast. q. 36. 3 Nihil tam durum, quod non amoris igne vincatur." De Mor. eccl. cath. c. 22. 4 " In eo quod amatur, aut non laboratur, aut et labor amatur." De Bono vid. c. 21. In a soul that loves God, torments endured for his sake excite no pain; or if they do, these pains are to her a source of happiness and delight. In his confessions, the saint writes, that when he gave himself entirely to God, the very privation of sensual gratifications filled his soul with joy; and that though at first he dreaded their loss, he afterwards had reason to rejoice at their relinquishment. " How sweet, on a sudden, was it become to me to be without these joys ! and what I was before so much afraid to lose, I now cast from me with joy." 1 To a religious who has fixed her whole heart on God, the practice of poverty, of obedience, mortification, and of all virtues is easy and agreeable; but to her whose affections are divided between God and creatures, all the duties of religion are an intolerable burden. It is true that whatever good we do, comes from God, and that without his grace we cannot, according to the Apostle, even pronounce the name of Jesus. But not withstanding our absolute dependence on divine grace, God commands us to perform our part, and to co-operate with him in the work of our salvation. Many desire to become saints, but wish that God would do all, and that he would bring them to eternal glory without labor or inconvenience to them. But this is impossible. The law of God is said to be a yoke borne by two, to show that the divine aid, on the one hand, and our co-operation on the other, are indispensably necessary for its observance. And sometimes, to carry this yoke, and merit everlasting happiness, we must do violence to the feelings of flesh and blood. The kingdom of heaven suffer-eth violence, and the violent bear it away." 2 1 " Suave mihi subito factum est carere suavitatibus nugarum; et quas amittere metus fuerat, jam dimittere gaudium est." Conf. 1. 9, c. i. 2 " Regnum cœlorum vim patitur, et violenti rapiunt illud." Matt. xi. 12. And St. Paul says, that the crown of life shall be given to him only who shall combat till he overcomes the enemies of his salvation. O spouse of Jesus, I say to you with the same apostle, hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown? 1 Since Jesus Christ has made you his spouse, do not allow your enemies to snatch from you the eternal dignity of queen which he has prepared for you in his kingdom; but, on the contrary, hold fast your crown, by assimilating yourself to your beloved, the predestined model of the elect: For, whom He foreknew, he also predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son. 2 He has gone before you, crowned with thorns, scourged at the pillar, loaded with the cross, and saturated with contempt and reproach; and in that pitiable condition he invites you to follow him, and to deny yourself: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me. 3 He has died for you, and it is your duty to sacrifice your life for him, and to say with the seraphic St. Francis: "O good Jesus, may I die for the love of thee, who hast condescended to die for the love of me." 4 Yes, it is but just that you should die to yourselves, and live only for that God who has died for your salvation. " That they also," says the Apostle, who live, may not now live to themselves, but unto him who died for them 5 You. indeed, are weak; but if you trust in the goodness of your Spouse, his grace and strength will prepare you to execute so arduous a task. 1 " Tene quod habes, ut nemo accipiat coronam tuam." Apoc. xi. 12. 2"Quos præscivit, et prsedestinavit conformes fieri imaginis Filii sui." Rom. viii. 29. 3 " Si quis vult post me venire, abneget semetipsum." Matt. xvi. 24. 4 " O bone Jesu ! moriar amore amoris tui, qui amore amoris mei dignatus es mori." 5 " Qui vivunt, jam non sibi vivant, sedei qui pro ipsis mortuus est." 2 Cor. v. 15. When the devil molests you, and endeavors to cast you into despair, by representing to you the difficulties and miseries of a life of continual mortification, of incessant self-denial, and of perpetual abstinence from sensual pleasures, answer him in the words of the Apostle: I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me. 1 Of myself I can do nothing; but the Lord, who has chosen me for his spouse, and called me to his love, will give me courage and strength to walk in the rugged path of his commandments. " If," says St. Teresa, " we be not in fault, God will assuredly, by his all-powerful aid, enable us to become saints." And, O my God, upon whom, if not upon your spouses, will the obligation of sanctity be imperative? O consecrated virgins, offer yourselves frequently to God, with a strong desire and determination to please him in all things, and implore continually the assistance of his holy 24 grace. He has promised to grant whatsoever is asked of him with confidence. All things whatsoever you ask, when ye pray, believe that you shall receive; and they shall come unto you? 2 What then do you fear? Have courage; God has taken you from the world; he has delivered you from its snares; has called you to his love; and has, if you be faithful to him, prepared for you numberless helps and graces. You have already left the world; you have, as St. Teresa used to say to her spiritual children, taken the most difficult and important step; and to become a saint little now remains to be done. Resolve, then, at once to dissolve every worldly attachment. 1 " Omnia possum in eo qui me confortat." Phil. iv. 13. 2" Omnia quæcumque orantes petitis, credite quia accipietis, et evenient vobis." Murk, xi. 24. Perhaps, after having forsaken the world, and renounced all its goods, after having voluntarily relinquished your liberty, and bound yourself, by vow, to perpetual enclosure; perhaps, after all these sacrifices, you are disposed, for the miserable gratifications of sense or caprice, to risk your all the everlasting possession of paradise and of God and to prefer, before the exalted glory of spouse of the Most High, the unhappy slavery of Satan, who will render you unhappy in this life, and eternally miserable in the next. Resolve, then, I say again, to burst every earthly tie, and tremble lest the words which you now read should be the last invitation of your Spouse. Do not resist the voice of God any longer. If you neglect his call on this occasion, he may perhaps abandon you forever. Resolve, then, resolve! “The devil," says St. Teresa, " is afraid of resolute souls." St. Bernard teaches that many souls are lost through want of fortitude. Take courage, then, and trust in the power and goodness of God: strong resolutions overcome all difficulties. Oh ! happy, thrice happy soul, if, in obedience to the voice of God, you give yourself entirely to your Spouse, Jesus. When death approaches you can return thanks to him for his favours, and address him in the words of the glorious St. Agnes: "O Lord, who hast taken from me the love of the world, receive my soul." 1 O my God, who hast disengaged my heart from creatures, that all its affections might be fixed on Thee, receive, now, my soul, that I may be admitted into the kingdom of Thy glory, to love Thee with all my strength, without fear of being ever separated from Thee the Supreme and Infinite Good. 1 " Domine, qui abstulisti a meamorem sæculi, accipe animam meam." Offic. 21 Jan. Oh, that all religious would imitate the example of the Venerable Frances Farnese ! Her life at first was very imperfect; but happening one day to read the history of the Franciscans in Japan, she was suddenly seized with compunction, and exclaimed: "And what, my Sisters, will we do? We have forsaken our families and our goods, and shall we now draw down upon our souls the vengeance of God, and the sentence of eternal death by attachment to the things of the world which we do not possess ?" From that moment she resolved to give up the world, and to consecrate herself entirely to God. This resolution she afterwards fulfilled in the accomplishment of that wonderful reformation of the Order which was planned and executed by her direction:" Men," says St. Jerome, " always seek to advance in , the knowledge of their secular profession, but are satiated with the mere rudiments of the science of the saints. In all their worldly pursuits," says the saint, " men are never satiated; but in virtue it is sufficient for them to have made a beginning." 1 Every Christian is bound to tend to perfection. " When I speak of a Christian," says St. Ambrose, " I mean a perfect man." 2 The precept by which all are commanded to love God with all their strength, imposes upon all the obligation of perfection. Besides, to discharge the duty of preserving sanctifying grace it is necessary to struggle always to perfect charity in the soul; for in the path of virtue he that does not advance, recedes, and exposes himself to the danger of sin. Now, if this is true with regard to all Christians, how much more so must it be with regard to religious, who are bound by a stricter obligation to seek perfection, not only because they receive more abundant graces and more powerful helps to sanctity, but also because they have promised to observe the vows and rules of religion ! 1 "Cum in omnibus mundi studiis non satiantur homines, hie tantum crepisse sufficiet." Ad Demetr. De Virginit. 2 " Christianum cum dico, perfectum dico." In Ps. cxviii. s. 12. But to fulfil the command by which you are obliged to aspire to perfection, an inefficacious and fruitless desire of sanctity is not sufficient. You must do violence to yourself, and adopt the means of attaining perfection. It will not be necessary for you to undertake very extraordinary things: it will be sufficient to perform your ordinary exercises with diligence and attention, to observe your Rule with exactness, and to practise with fidelity the Gospel virtues. However, a religious who desires to become a saint will not confine herself to the mere discharge of the duties prescribed by her Rule, which is accommodated to weak as well as to perfect souls; she must also perform supererogatory works of prayer, of charity, of mortification, and of the other virtues. St. Bernard says that " what is perfect must be singular." 1 A religious, who barely discharges the ordinary duties of the Community, will never attain sublime sanctity. It. is your duty, then, to do violence to yourself, and courageously to adopt the means of arriving at perfection. 25 The principal means are: 1. A strong and ardent desire to become a saint. 2. Great confidence in Jesus Christ and in his holy Mother. 3. To avoid every deliberate sin or defect, and after a fault not to lose courage, but to make an act of contrition for it, and then resume your ordinary occupations. 4. To cut off all attachment to creatures, to self-will, and self-esteem. 5. To resist continually your own inclinations. 6. To observe with exactness the rules of religion, however unimportant they may appear. 7. To perform your ordinary duties with all possible perfection. 8. To communicate often with the permission of your director; to make long and frequent meditations, and to perform all the mortifications which he will permit. 9. To prefer, on all occasions, those actions which are most agreeable to God, and most opposed to self-love. 10. To receive all crosses and contradictions with joy and gladness from the hands of God. 11. To love and serve those who persecute you. 12. To spend every moment of your time for God. 13. To offer to God all your actions in union with the merits of Jesus Christ. 14. To make a special oblation of yourself to God, that he may dispose of you and of all you possess in whatever way he pleases. 15. To protest continually before God that his pleas ure and love are the only objects of your wishes. 16. Lastly, and above all, to pray continually, and to recommend yourself, with unbounded confidence, to Jesus Christ and to his Virgin Mother, and to entertain a special affection and tenderness towards Mary. 1 " Perfectum non potest esse, nisi singulare." I conclude with the words which the Venerable Father Anthony Torres, after an ecstasy of love, addressed to a religious who was one of his penitents: " My child, love, love your Spouse, who is the only object that merits your love." Prayer. O my God ! O amiable love ! O infinite lover ! and worthy of infinite love, when shall I love Thee as Thou hast loved me? It is not in Thy power to give me stronger proofs of love than those Thou hast already given. Thou hast spared nothing; Thou hast expended Thy blood and Thy life to oblige me to love Thee ; and shall I love Thee only with reserve ? Pardon me, O my Jesus, if, in my past life, I have been so ungrateful as to prefer my accursed pleasures before the love which I owed to Thee. Ah ! my Lord and my Spouse, discover to me always, more and more, Thy infinite loveliness that I may be daily more enamoured of Thy perfection, and that I may continually endeavor to please Thee as Thou dost deserve to be pleased. Thou dost command me to love Thee, and I desire nothing but Thy love. Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth. 1 Speak, O Lord : tell me what Thou desirest from me : my wish is to obey Thee in all things. I will no longer resist the graces and mercies Thou hast bestowed upon me. Thou hast given Thyself entirely to me : I offer myself without reserve to Thee. For Thy mercy s sake accept, and do not refuse this oblation. By my infidelities I have deserved to be cast away from Thy love : but the desire to be Thine which Thou hast infused into my soul assures me that Thou hast already accepted the offer. I love Thee, O God, who art infinitely amiable : I love Thee, O my Sovereign Good. Thou art, and shalt be forever, the only delight of my heart, and the sole object of my affections. And since Thou hast said, Ask, and you shall receive (Petite, et accipietis. "John, xvi. 24.) and hast promised to grant whatsoever we ask, I beg, with St. Ignatius, that " Thou wilt give me only Thy love along with Thy grace, and I shall be sufficiently rich." (Amorem tui solum cum gratia tua mihi clones, et dives sum satis.) Give me Thy love and Thy grace ; grant that I may love Thee, and be beloved by Thee, and I shall be content, and shall desire nothing else from Thee. O Mary, who belonged always and entirely to God, by that love which our Lord bore thee through all eternity, obtain for us the grace henceforth to love God, and to love him alone. 1 " Loquere, Domine, quia audit servus tuus." 1 Kings, iii. 9. CHAPTER IV. THE DESIRE OF PERFECTION. I. How Holy Desires are Useful, and even Necessary. AN ardent desire of perfection is the first means that a religious should adopt in order to acquire sanctity and to consecrate her whole being to God. As the sports man, to hit a bird in flight, must take aim in advance of his prey, so a Christian, to make progress in virtue, should aspire to the highest degree of holiness which it is in his power to attain. Who, says holy David, will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest. 1 Who will give me the 26 wings of the dove to fly to my God, and, divested of all earthly affection, to repose in the bosom of the divinity ? Holy desires are the blessed wings with which the saints burst every worldly tie, and fly to the mountain of perfection, where they find that peace which the world cannot give. But how do fervent desires make the soul fly to God ? "They," says St. Laurence Justinian, "supply strength, and render pains light and tolerable." 2 On the one hand, good desires give strength and courage, and on the other they diminish the labor and fatigue of ascending the mountain of God. Whosoever, through diffidence of attaining sanctity, does not ardently desire to become a saint, will never arrive at perfection. A man who is desirous of obtaining a valuable treasure which he knows is to be found at the top of a lofty mountain, but who, through fear of fatigue and difficulty, has no desire of ascending, will never advance a single step towards the wished-for object, but will remain below in careless indifference and inactivity. And he who, because the path of virtue appears to him narrow and rugged, and difficult to be trodden, does not desire to climb up the mountain of the Lord, and to gain the treasure of perfection, will always continue in a state of tepidity, and will never make the smallest progress in the way of God. On the contrary, he that does not desire, and does not strenuously endeavor, always to advance in holiness, will, as we learn from experience and from all the masters of the spiritual life, go backward in the path of virtue, and will be exposed to great danger of eternal misery. 1"Quis dabit mihi pennas sicut columbæ, et volabo, et requiescam ?" Ps. liv. 7. 2 "Vires subministrat , pœnam exhibet leviorem." DC Disc. mon. c 6 The path of the just, says Solomon, as a shining light goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day. The way of the wicked is darksome : they know not when they fall} As light increases constantly from sunrise to full day, so the path of the saints always advances; but the way of sinners becomes continually more dark and gloomy, till they know not where they go, and at length walk into a precipice.1 Not to advance," says St. Augustine, " is to go back." 2 St. Gregory 3 beautifully explains this maxim of spiritual life by comparing a Christian who seeks to remain stationary in the path of virtue to a man who is in a boat on a rapid river, and striving to keep the boat always in the same position. If the boat be not continually propelled against the current, it will be carried away in an opposite direction, and consequently, without continual exertion, its station cannot be maintained. Since the fall of Adam man is naturally inclined to evil from his birth. For the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth. 4 If he do not push forward, if he do not endeavor, by incessant efforts, to improve in sanctity, the very current of passion will carry him back. " Since you do not wish to proceed," says St. Bernard, addressing a tepid soul, " you must fail." " By no means," she replied; " I wish to live, and to remain in my present state. I will not consent to be worse; and I do not desire to be better." "You, then," rejoins the saint, "wish what is impossible."5 Because, in the way of God, a Christian must either go forward and advance in virtue, or go backward and rush headlong into vice. 1 " Justorum autem semita, quasi lux splendens, procedit et crescit usque ad perfectam diem; via impiorum tenebrosa, nesciunt ubi corruant." Prov. iv. 18. 2 " Non progredi, jam est reverti." Ep. 17, E. B. 3 Past. p. 3, c. i. 4 " Sensus enim et cogitatio humani cordis in malum prona sunt ab adolescentia sua," Gen. viii. 21. 5 " Non vis proficere; vis ergo deficere ? Nequaquam! Quid ergo? Inquis: Vivere volo et manere in quo perveni; nee pejor fieri patior, nee melior cupio. Hoc ergo vis, quod esse non potest." Ep. 254. |