The Spirit of the Cure of Ars.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

THE SPIRITTHE CUR& OF ARS.Qaulattb from 14t Jrtwrb ofWITH SEYENTEEN ADDITIONAL WOBTATIONS.EDITED BIJOHN EDWARD BOWDEN,p~1XmT 01 T- OUTOBT 01 ST. PHILIPLONDON :BURNS, LAMBERT, AND OATES,17 UD 18 PORTMAN BTREET,AND a PATEBNOBTEB aow.-

PREFACE.THE following pages have been translated, by thekind permission of the Abbe Monnin, from thesmall volume lately published by him, under thetitle of Esprit du Curd d'dra. To this it hasbeen thought well to add the exhortations of M.Vianney, given in a book called, Are: ou, LeJrmac Phihuylrc rcdGvcnu C%riitien, and publishedby Perisse Frbres, in 1856.The devotion to the holy Cur4 of Ars is now sowidely spread in ~ n~land, that a few words copcerningthe present state of the scene of hie laboursmay be found acceptable.All is as he left it but five yeare ago. The littlechurch remains unchanged, except that his bodylies beneath a hlack slab in the centre of its nave;for the magnificent chapel of St. Philomena, whichwas planned under his direction, will not be completedbefore next year. Altar and chair, pulpitand confessional, remain as he used them, to recall

ivPREFACE.the inspired words and the heroic life which mdethe once neglected church of Am one of the favouritepilgrimages of Europe. That pilgrimageis continued now; and scarcely a weekwithout some miraculous events, to reward thefaith of those who perform it, and to show thathis blessing rests upon it still.Ars is visited by considerable numbers of personsat all times of the year ; but especially aboutthe 4th of August, the anniversary of the death ofM. Vianney. The daily morning qnd evening instructionsare carried on hy the missionaries whomhe associated with himself in his work; and theRetreats which he founded are still given twicein every month.The few objects which the holy Cur6 used arecollected together in his room, to the door of whichthe faithful are admitted. The uneven staircaseand brick floor, the rough lantern and earthenwarepipkin, are characteristic of him in whosemouth " poor " was the favourite epithet for allbelonging to himself; while the embroidered vesbments, jewelled chalices, and marble altars, bespeakhis love for the beauty of the house of God.Those who knew him intimately for many yearsare there to epeak of his holiness. The missionarieswho shared his labours, the Brother of the

PREFACE.VHoly Family who waa constantly at his side, andthe devout persons whose privilege it was to servehim, bear joyful witness to wonders which fellunder their own observation, and to that supernaturallife of their Pastor which was the greatestmiracle of all.It is understood that the Holy Father has expressed,great interest in the Beatification of theCur6 of Ars, and has desbd that his cause maybe introduced to the Roman Congregation as soonae possible. The devotion of the people, who regardhim ELI a saint, has rendered it neceseary toremove the railings which at first surrounded hi8tomb; and the m-udo offerings with which theywere abundantly covered have been reserved untilthe time when the Church shall authorise suchpublic expressions of veneration.If we have ever thought, in reading of the apostoliclabours of saints who lived in times gone by,that the uncompromising severity of their teachingwould have been modified by the altered circumstancesof our own age, the life of the Cur6 of Arsshows us that we were mistaken. We see him inthe midst of a neighbouring people, the trustedguide of every class of Christians. Every doubtthat could arise from the exigencies of the nineteenthcentury, concerning theology, politics, or

YiPBEFACE.even fashion, wua submitted to his decision; andhe answered one and all in words which mighthave fallen from St Vincent Ferrer or the B.Leonard of Port Maurice. Thus, when we hearof the numbers of all ranks and conditions whocrowded from town and county into the secludedvillage church to hear hia simple exhortations,our thoughts go back to the time when Pharieessand Sadducees, soldiers and publicans, thmugedthe desert-banks of the Jordan to hear the preachingof St Johu Baptist, and to be told that theymust do penance, because the kingdom of heavenwas at hand.In perusing the instructions of the Uud of Are,we may 111iss the sweetness of his voice, or thebright look and affectionate manner with whiohthey were wont to be accompanied; but our hearbb&n within us as we read,for they come from asaint on fire with the love of God, who was raisedup in an unbelieving generation to carry on theold tradition, and to sanctify the world by thesimple preaching of the Cross.JOHN E. BOWDEN.

CONTENTS.PABT I.THE Cmaow.U 01 ~ h a IN Em CATLCEIIYI,~. 1.I. Cateehi.monSdvtition . . . .IV. htechhn on the Holy$ir? : . . .11. Cawchim on the Lars of 'M .El. Catechism on the Pnm tiven of th; & SouiV. Catechism on the Blease VupVL Cakehim on tho B.ncti5cation of ~unds; :MI. Catechism on the Word of Qod . . .VIII Catechi~m on Pra erX. Catechism on the Holy Bacri5ce of the 16.u .Catechism on the%rienththoba : :XI. Cltechum on the RmlPrucnca XII. Catechum on Communion XIII. Catechism on Frequent bmmdion . . .XIV. Cstechum on Bin XV. On the ume Buhject' XVI. Catechii on Pride . . . . .XVII. Cateehum on Impurity . . XVIII. Catechiam on Confession . XIX. Cateck on the Cardinal Viiea : . .XX. Ctitechiam on HoXXI. Catechimnon B&& : : :PABT II.Tar Cnrf or Am IN 818 HOXILI?.~,~. 145..after Pentemst v. Homily for the last Bhnd& iu ;ha YL . . .I. Homily on the Parable of the Cockle . . .IL Homily on the Parable of the I ~ h o mIII. Homily on the Gospel for the Pint Bunday in &t :1V. Homily on the Gapd for the Twenty-ht Bunday

...VlllCONTENTS.PABT 111.----. ----I. The Clvd of Am in hia Convenation . . . 151II. Faith of M. V i j . . . . . . 175III. Hope of M. Viannq . . . . . . 176IV. Chari of M Viannq . . 180V. ~hou$tn of jb. vianney on the ~oj; of tie =tnimLife . . . . . . . . . 186. .TI. Zul of M. Vinq . . . . . 195VII. Love of M. Vianney for thk POO; . . . . 198VIII. Humility of M. Vianney . . 201IX. Tho ht. of M. Vianney on ~eli-d& & 8&inB 207X. ~oa%. viannq npoke of the samu . . . 310PART IV.Srvmrrxn moara~xons or rrrr Cud or AM.. bn &nth : : :1.11.III. , On the hnt JudgmentIV. On Binv. On ~em~tationn' :VI. Onpride. VII. On Avarice . .VIII.OnL- IX. On Enw -. S41X. On ~luiton~843XI. On Anger. . . . . . . . . 917XI[. On 010th . Z49XIII. On Grace . 269XIV. On Hahiteal G&. 266XV. On Prayer . . . . 259. . . . . . . . WOXVI. on the Love of bod . . . . . . . 268XVII. On Pa&e

SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS,PART I.TEE CUR$ OF AM IN HI9 CATECHISMS.T~RE ie no doubt," says PBre Gratry, 'L that,.through puriv of heart, innocence, either preservedor recovered by virtue, faith, and religion,there are in man capabilities apd resourcesof mind, of body, and of heart whichmost people would not suspect. To this orderof ;eeourcee belongs what theology calls iufusedscience, the intellectual virtues which theDivine Word inspirea into our minds when Hedwells in us by faith and love."And the learned Oratoritin quotes with enthusisem,excusing himself for not translatingthem better, these magnificent words of a saintwho lived in the eleventh century, in one of themystic monasteries on the banks of the Hhine :R

2 SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS.LL This is what purifies the eye of the heart,and enables it to raise itself to the true light Icontempt of worldly cares, mortification of thebody, contrition of heart, abundance of tears,. . . meditation on the admirable Essenoe of Godand on His chaste Truth, fervent and pure prayer,joy in God, ardent desire of heaven. Embraoeall this," adds the saint, "and continue in it.Advance towards the light which offers itselfto you as to its sons, and descends of itself intoyour hearts. Take your hearts out of yourbreaste, and give them to Him who speaks toyou, and He will fill them with deific splendour,and you will be sons of light and angels of God."The description we have just read seems tohave been traced from the very lie of the Cudof Ara. Every detail recalls him, every featureharmonises marvellously with his. Who hasever carried further contempt of worldly cares,mortification of' the body, abundance of tears" ?He mas always bathed in tears. And then," meditation on the admirable Essence of Godand on His chaste Truth, and fervent and pureprayer, joy in God, ardent desire of heaven,"-how characteristic is this ! " He had advancedtowards the light, and the light had descendadof itself into his heart. . . . He had taken hisheart from his breast, and given it to Him whospoke to him ; and He who spoke to him," who

IlUT OF TEE CUR^ OF US. 8jg -the Divine, uncreated Word of God, " fliedhim with deific splendour!' No one could doubtL who has had the happiness of aesisting atany of the catechisms of Ars ; of hearing thatextraodmuy language, which was like no humanlanguage ; who has seen the irresistiblee&t produced upon hearers of all classes bythat voice, that emotion, that intuition, thatfire, and the signal beauty of that unpolishedand almost vulgar French, which wan transfiguredand penetrated by his holy energy,even to the form, the arrangement, and theharmony of its words and syllables. And yetthe Curd of Are did not speak word9; trueeloqueuce consists in speaking things: he spokethings, adin a most wonderful manner. Hepoured out hie whole soul into the souls of the ,crowds who listened to him, that he mightmake them believe, love, and hope like himself.That is the aim and the triumph ofevangelical eloquence.How could this man, who had nearly beenrefused admittance into the great Seminary becauseof his ignorance, and who had, since hispromotion to the priesthood, been solely employedin prayer and in the labours of theconfessional-how could he have attained tothe power of teaching doctrine like one of theFathers of the Church? Whence did he derive

4 SPIRIT OF TEE C& OF ABB. ~his astonishing knowledge of God, of nature,and of the history of the soul? How was itthat his thoughts and expressions so often cp.incided with those of the greatest Christiangeniuses, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. ThomaaAquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa?For example, we have often heard him saythat the heart of the saints was lipuid. Wewere much struck with this energetic expression,without suspecting that it was so theologicallyaccurate ; and we were surprised sadtouched to find, in turning over the pages ofthe Summa, that the angelical doctor assignsto love four immediate effects, of which thefirst is the liquefaction of the heart. M. Vianneyhad cehinly never read St. Thomw, whichmakes this coincidence the more remarkable;and, indeed, it is inexplicable to those who areignorant of the workings of grace, and who donot comprehend those words of the DivineMaster: '' Thou hast hid these things from thewise and prudent, and hast revealed them tolittle ones."'The Spirit of God had been pleased to en.grave on the heart of this holy priest all thathe was to know and to teach to others; and ibwns the more deeply engraved, w that h wwas the more pure, the more detached, and* St. Matt. xi. 85.

empty of the vain science of men; like a cleanand polished block of marble, ready for the toold the sculptor.The faith of the Cur6 of Ars was his wholewience; his book was our Lord Jesus Christ.He sought for wisdom nowhere but in JesusChrist, in His death and in His cross. Tohim no other wisdom was true, no other wis-dom useful. He ought it not amid the dustof libraries, not in the schoola of the learned,ht in prayer, on his knees, at his Master'sFeet, covering His Divine Feet with tears andkisses; in the presence of the holy tabernacles,where he passed his days and nights beforethe crowd of pilgrims had yet deprived him ofliberty day and night, he had learnt it all.When persons have heard him discourseupon heaven, on the Sacred Humanity of ourLord, on his dolorous Passion, His Real Presencein the most Holy Sacrament of our altars,on the Blessed Virgin May, her attractionsand her greatness, on the happiness of thesaints, the purity of the angels, the beauty ofsouls, the dignity of man,--on all those subjectswhich were familiar to him,-it often happenedto them to come out from the discourse quiteconvinced that the good father saw the thingsof which he had epoken with such fulness ofheart, with such eloquent emotion, in such

passionate accent., with such abundance oftears; and indeed his words were then impressedwith a character of divine tenderness,of sweet gentleness, and of penetrating unction,which was beyond all comparison. There wasso extraordinary a majesty, so marvellous apower, in his voice, in his gestures, in hislooks, in his transfigured countenance, that itwas impossible to listen to him and remaincold and unmoved.Views and thoughts imparted by a divinelight have quite a different bearing from thoseacquired by study. Doubt was dispelled fromthe most rebellious hearts, and the admirableclearness of faith took its place, before so absolutea certainty, an exposition at once so luminousand so simple.The word of the Cur6 of Ars was the moreefficacious, because he preached with his wholebeing. His mere presence was a manifestationof the truth; and of him it might well be said,that he would have moved and convinced meneven by his silence. When there appeared inthe pulpit that pale, thin, and transparent fgce;when you heard that shrill, piercing voice, likea cry, giving out to the crowd sublime thoughtsclothed in simple and popular language,--youfancied yourself in the presence of one of thosegreat churacters of the Bible, speaking to men

SPIRIT OP THE CUR$ 03 ABS. '7in the language of the prophets. Youalready filled with respect and confidence, anddiepoeed to listen, not for enjoyment, but forprofit-Before he began, the venerable catechistused to cast a glance over his hearers, whichprepared the way for his word. Sometimesthis glance became fixed on some one ; itseemed to be searching into the depths of someBOUI which the saint had suddenly seen through,and in which one would have thought he wasbking for the text of hi discourse. Howmany have thought he was speaking to themalone! How many have recognised themselvesin the picture he drew of their weaknesses!How many have listened to the secret historyof their failings, of their temptations, of theiroombata, of their uneasiness, and of theirremorse lTo those to whom it was given to assist atthese catechisms, two things were equally remarkable-thepreacher and the hearer. Itwas not words that the preacher gave forth,-itwas more than words; it was u, soul, a holyrod, all filled with feith and love, that poureditself out before you, of which .you felt in.your own soul the immediate contact and thevmth. As for the hearer, he was no longeron the earth, he was transported into those

8' SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS.pure regions from which dogman and mysteriesdescend. As the saint spoke, new and clearviews opened to the mind; heaven and earth,the present and the future life, the things oftime and of eternity, appeared in a light thatyou had never before perceived.When a man, coming fresh from the world,and brin,&g with him worldly ideas, feelings,and impressions, sat down to listen to thisdoctrine, it stunned and amazed him-it set eo,utterly at defiance the world, and all that theworld believes, loves, and extola. At first hewas astonished and thunderstruck; then bydegrees he was touched, and surprised intoweeping like the rest. No eloquence hasdrawn forth more tears, or penetrated deeperinto the hearts of men. His words opened away before them like flames, and the mosthardened hearta melted like wax before thefie. They were burning, radiating, triumphant;they did more than charm the mind,-they subdued the whole soul, and brought itback to God, not by the long and diflicult wayof argument, but by the paths of emotion,which lead shortly and directly to the desiredend.M. Vianney was listened to as a new apostle,sent by Jesus Christ to Hie Church, to renwin her the holiness and fervow of His Divine

SPIRIT OI TEE C& OF AM. 9SIp;tit, in an age whose corruption has so effacedthem from the souls of most men. And it is agreat marvel that, proposing, like the Apostles,a doctrine incomprehensible to human reason,and very bitter to he depraved taste of theworld,-speaking of nothing but crosses, humiliations,poverty, and penance,-his doctrinewas so well received. Those who had not yetreceived it into their hearts were glad to feedtheir mind upon it. If they had not courage.to make it the rule of their conduct, they couldnot help admiring and wishing to follow it.It is not less remarkable that, though hespoke only in the incorrect and common Frenchnatural to people brought up in the country,one might say of him, as of the Apostles, thathe was heard by all the nations of the world,and that his voice resounded through d theearth. He was the oracle that people went toconsult, that they might learn to know JesusChrist. Not only the simple but the learned,not only the fervent but the indifferent, foundin it, a divine unction which penetrated them,and made them long to hear it again. Themore they heard, the more they wished tohear; and they always came back with love tothe foot of that pulpit, as to a place where theyhnd found beauty and truth. , Nothing moreclearly showed that the Cur6 of Ars was full

10 SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS.'of the Spirit of God, Who alone is greater &anour heart; we may draw from His depths wiaoutever exhausting them, and the divine satietywhich He gives only excites a greater appetite.The holy Cud spoke without any other preparationthan his continual union with God;he passed without any interval or delay fromthe confessional to the pulpit ; and yet beshowed an imperturbable confidence, whichsprang from complete and absolute forgebfulnewof himself. Besides, no one was temptedto ci5ticise him. People generally critmieethose who are not indifferent to their opinionof them. Those who heard the Cur15 of Amhad somethiug else to do-they had to passjudgment on themselves.M. Vianney cared nothing for what mightbe said or thought of him. Of whomsoeverhis audience miaht consist. though Bishops andother illustrious"personageB often- mingld withthe crowd that mmded his ~ul~it. he neverbetrayed the least emotion, no; tie ieast ernbarrassmentproceeding from human respect.He, who was so timid and so humble, wan nolonger the same person when he paseed throughthe compact mass that filled the church at thehour of catechism; he wore an air of triumph,he carried his head high, his face was lighkdup, and his eyes cast brilliant glances.

He was aeked one day if he had never beenafraid of his audience. No," he answered;"on the contrary, the more people there are,the better I am pleased!' Then, to impose onus, he added, L1 A proud man always thinks hedoes well." If he had had the Pope, theCardinals, and Kings around his pulpit, he~uld have said neither more nor less, for hethought only of mule, and made them thinkonly of God. This real power of his wordeupplied in him the want of talent and rhetoric; it gave a singular majesty and an irresistibleauthority to the most simple thing&at issued from that venerable mouth.The power of his word was also increasedby the high opinion the pilgrims entertainedof his sanctity. "The first quality of the mancalled to the perilous honour of instructing thepeople," says St. Isidore, is to be holy andirreproachable.' He whose mission it ia todeter others from sin must be a stranger tosin; he whose task it is to lead others to perfationmust be in every thing their model ofperfection." In the holy catechist of Am,virtue waa preaching truth. When he spokeof the love of God, of humility, gentleness,patience, mortification, sacrifice, poverty, orthe desire of suffering, his example gaveimmense weight to his words; for a man who

12 SPIRIT OF THE C W ~ O9.ABS.practises what he teaches is very powerful hconvincing and p eding others.He used to put his ideas into the mostsimple and transparent form, letting them 8gat the expression that beat suited them. 2;could bring truths of the highat order withinthe reach of every intellect; he clothed themin familiar language ; his simplicity touchedthe heart, and his doctrine delighted the mind.That science which is not sought for iaabundant; it flows like the fountain of livingwater, which the Samaritan woman knew not,and of which the Saviour taught her the virtue.Thus, his considerations on sin, on the offenceit is against God, and the evil it inflicb onman, were the painful result of his thoughts. ,They penetrated him, they overwhelmed him;they were like a burning arrow piercing hiebreast; he relieved his pain by giving utteranceto it.It was a wonderful thing that this man, soready to proclaim his own ignorance, had bynature a great attraction for the higher facultiesof the mind. The greatest praise thathe could give any one was to say that hewas clever. When the good qualities of anypat person, whether an ecclesiastic or a layman,were enumerated before him, he seldomfailed to complete the panegyric in the88

BPLRIT OF TEE CURS OF ARB. 13words: LL WhBt pleases me most is, that heis learned."M. Vianney appreciated the gift of eloquencein others ; he blessed God, who, for His ownglory? gives such privileges to man, but hedished them for himself. He had no scruplein utterly neglecting gramw and syntax inhie discourses ; he seemed to do it on purpose,mt of humility, for there were faulta in themthat he might easily have avoided. But thisincorrect language penetrated the souls of hishearera--enlightened and converted them. "Apobhed discourse," says St. Jerome, "onlygratifies the eare; one which is not so makesits way to the heart."His manner of speaking was sudden andimpetuous; he loosed his words like arrowsfrom a bow, and his whole soul seemed to flywith them. In these effusions the pathetic,the profound, the sublime, was often side byside with the mmple and the vulgar. Theyhad all the freedom and irregularity, but alsoall the originality and power, of an improvisation.We have sometimes tried to write downwhat we had just heard, but it wae impossibleto recall the things that had most moved us,and to put them into form. What is mostdi&e in the heart of man cannot be expressedin-writing.

We have, however, set down a few worde,in which we find mare thap an eoho or aremembrance. We find the Cur6 of A- himself,the simple expression of his heart and ofhis d. These are some of his lofiy anddeep thoughts :"To love God! oh, how beautiful it is ! Wemust be in heaven to comprehend love. ,. . .Prayer helps us a little, because prayer is theelevation of the soul to heaven. . . ."The more we know men, the less we lovethem. It is the reverse with God; the more weknow Him, the more we love Him. This knowledgeinfiames the soul with such a love, that itcan no longer love or desire any thing but God.... Man was created by love; the~efore he ie aodisposed to love. On the other hand, he ia sogreat that nothing on the earth can satisfs him.He can be satisfied only when he turns towardsGod. . . . Take a fish out of the water, and itwill not live. Well,such is man without God."There are some who do not love the goodGod, who do not pray to Him, and who prosper ;that is a bad sign. They have done a littlegood in the midst of a great deal of evil. Thegood God rewards them in this life.This earth is a bridge to cross the water;it serves only to support our steps. . . . Weare in this world, but we are not of this world,

sinw we my every day, 'Our Father, who artin heaven.' . . . We must wait, then, for ourreward till we are at home, in our Father'shouse. This is the reason why good Christiansdlkr crosses, contradictions, adversities, contempt,calumnies--so much the better! . . .Bnb people are astonished at this. They seemto think that because we love the good God alittle, we ought to have nothing to contradictus, nothing to make us suffer. . . . We say,'There is a person who is not good, and yetevery thing goes well with him; but with me,it is of no use doing my best; every thing goes,wrong.' It L because we do not understand thevalue and the happiness of crosses. We saysometixnea, God chastises those whom He loves.That is not h e. Trials are not chastisements;they are graces to those whom God loves. . . .We must not consider the labour, but the reaompense.A merchant does not consider thetrouble he undergoes in his commerce, but theprofit he gains by it. . . . What are twentyyears, thirty years, compared to eternity? What,then, have we to suffer? A few humiliations,r few annoyances, a few sharp words; that willnot kill us."It is glorio~~s to be able to please God, SOLittle as we are !LC Our tongue ~hould be employed only in

16 SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ABB.Ipraying, our heart in loving, our eyee in moping."We are great, and we are nothing. . . .There is nothing greater than man, andthing less. Nothing is greater, if we considerhis soul; nothing is less, if we look at hisbody. . . . We occupy ourselves with thebody, as if we had it alone to take care of; wehave, on the contrary, it alone to despise. . . .('We aie the work of a God: . . . one adways loves one's own work. . . . It is easyenough to understand that we are the work ofa God; but that the crucifixion of a God s h dbe our work1 that is incomprehensible. . . ." Some people attribute a hard heart to theEternal Father. ' Oh, how mistaken they.are!The Eternal Father, to disarm His own justice,gave to His Son an excessively tender heart;no one can give what he does not possess.'' Our Lord said to His Father: ' Father, donot punish them!' . . .Our Lord suffered more than was necessayto redeem us. But what would have satis-fied the justice of His Father would not havesatisfied His love. Without our Lord's Death.all mankind together could not expiate a singlelittle lie." In the world, people hide heaven and hell:wen, because if we knew its beauty, we

BPIBIT OB TEE CUBE OF m. 17shod wieh to go there at all costs-we should,indeed, leave the world alone; hell, becauseif we knew the torments that are endured there,we should do all we could to avoid going there.'& The sign of the cross is formidable to thedevil, because by the Cross we escape fromhim. ; . . We should make the sign of thecrose with great respect. We begin with theforehead: it is the head, creation-the Father ;then the heart: love, life, redemption-theSon ; then the shoulders: strength-the HolyGhost. . . ." Every thing reminds ue of the Cross. Weourselves are made in the form of a cross."In heaven we shall be nourished by thebreath of God. . . . The good God will placene as an architect places the stones of a building--eachone in the spot to which it is dapted." The souls of the saints contained the foundationsof heaven. They felt an emanationfrom heaven, in which they bathed and lostthemselves. . . . As the disciples on MountThabor saw nothing but Jesus alone, so inte-rior souls, on the Thabor of their hearts, nolonger see any thing but our Lord. Theyare two friends, who are never tired of eachother. . . .There are some who lose the faith, andnever see bell till they enter it.C

18 SPIRIT OI TEE CUR^ OF U S .The lost will be enveloped in the wrath ofGod, aa the fiah are in the water.['It is not God who condemns w to hell; itis we ourselves who do it by our sins. Thelost do not accuse God; they accuse them-selves.They say, [ I have lost God, my soul,and heaven by my own fault.'" No one waa ever lost for having done toomuch evil; but many are in hell for a singlemortal sin of which they would not repent."If a lost soul could say once, ' 0 my God, 1.love Thee!' there would be no more hell for him ;. . . but, alas, poor soul! it has lost the power.of loving which it had received, and of whichit made no use. Its heart ie dried up like.gapes that have pasaed through the winepress.No more joy in that soul, no morepeace, because there is no more love. . . .[' Hell has its origin in the goodness of God.The lost will say, ' Oh, if at leaat God ha< notloved us so much, we should suffer less! Hellwould be endurable. . . . But to have been M,much loved! what grief !' "Beside these deep thoughts, he had some'that were forcible and startling. He called the*cemetery, the home of all; purgatory, the in-,- of the good God; the earth, a warehouse.We are on the earth;' he said, only as in

a warehouse, for a very little moment. . . .We seem not to move, and we are gobg towardseternity as if by steam."A dying man was asked what should beput on his tomb. He anawered, 'You shallput, Here lies a fool, who went out of thisworld without knowing how he came into it!" If the poor lost souls had the time that wewaste, what good use they w dd make of it!If they had only half an hour, that half-hourwould depopulate hell."In dying, we make restitution; we restoreto the earth what it gave us-a little pincli ofdust, the size of a nut; that is what we'shallbecome. There is, indeed, much to be proudof in that !For our body, death is only a cleansing. Jnthis world we must labour, we must fight. Weshall have plenty of time to rest in all eternity.'' If we understood om happineaa aright, wemight almost my .that we are happier than theesinb in heaven. They live upon their income:.they can earn no more; while we can augmenhour treasure every moment.gg The Commandments of God are the guideswhich God gives us to show ue the road toheaven; like the names written up at the cornersof the streets and on guide-posts, to pointout the way.

20 WIIUT OF TEE CUR$ OI ARS." The grace of God helps us to walk, andsupports us. He is aa neceseary to us ascrutches are to a lame man." When we go to confession, we ought tounderstand what we are going to do. It mightbe said that we are going to unfasten our Lordfrom the cross. When you have made a podconfession, you have chained up the devil. Thesins that we conceal will all come to light. Inorder to conceal our sins effectually, we mustconfess them thoroughly. Our faults are likea grain of sand beside the great mountain of themercies of the good God!'M. Vianney made great use of comparisonsand similes in his teaching; he borrowed themfrom nature, which was known and loved bythe crowd whom he addressed, from the beautiesof the country, from the emotions of rurallife. The recollections of his childhood hadkept all their freshness, and in his old age hecould not resist the innocent pleasure of recallingfor a moment the lively sympathies of hisyouth. This return of the thoughts to thebrightest days of life is like an anticipation ofthe resurrection. After the manner of ourLord, he used the most well-known events, themost common facts, the incidents that camebefore him, aa figures of the spiritual life, audmade them the theme of his instructions. The

Gospel is f d of symbols and figures, fitted tolead the soul to the comprehension of eternaltruths by a comparison with what is more evidentto the senses. In like manner, allusions,metaphore, parables, and figures, coloured allthe diacourses of the Cur6 of Are.His mindhad acquired the habit of raising itself, bymeans of visible things, to God and to theinvieible. There was not one of his catechismsin which he did not often speak of rivulets,forests, trees, birds, flowere, dew, lilies, balm,perfume, and honey. All contemplativea lovethis language, and the innocence of theirthoughts attaches itself by predilection to all .the beautiful and pure thinge with which theAuthor of creation has embellished His work.A good man, our Lord says, brings forth goodthings out of the good treasure of his heart.The sweet writings of St. Francie of Sales area model of this style, dear to all mystics;and we are not surprised to find these gracesof language and this exquisite taste in theBinhop of Geneva. But where had this poorcountry cud learnt his flowers of eloquence ?Who had taught him to use them with suchdelicate tact and ingenuity? Let us listen :" Like a beautiful white dove rising from themidst of the waters, and coming to shake herwings over the earth, the Holy Spirit issues

from the infinite ocean of the Divine perfeotions,and hovers over pure souls, to pour inbthem the balm of love.The Hol Spirit reposes in a pure mias on a be g of roses.There coma forthfrom a eon1 in which the Holy Spirit reeiden asweet odour, like that of the vine when it ir inflower.'t He who has preserved hie baptismal innocenceis like a child who has never disobeyedhis father. . . .LL One who has kept his innocence feels him-wlf liftad up on high by love, aa a bird in o a ~ried up by its wings. Those who have pweeouls are like eagle0 and swallows, which fly inthe air. . . . A Christian who is pure ia uponearth like a bird that is kept fastened down bya string. Poor little bird ! it only waita forthe moment when the string is out to flyaway.LL Good Chrietiam are like those birds thathave large winga and small feet, and whichnever light upon the ground, because theycould not rise again, and would be caught.They make their nests, too, upon the pointa ofrockg on the roofs of houses, in high placesSo the Christian ought tu be alwaye on theheights. As soon as we lower our though&towards the eartb, we are tsken captive..

"A pure soul ia Ulre a he pearl. As longas it ia hidden in the ohell, at the bottom ofthe sea, no one thinka of admiring it. But ifyou bring it into the ounahine, this pearl willshine and attract all eyes. Thus, the puresoul, which ia hidden from the eyes of theworld, will one day shine before the angels inthe sunshine of eternity.lL The pure soul ie a beautiful rose, and theThree Divine Persons descend from hwyw toinhale ita hgrance.The mercy of God ia like an overflowingtorrent--it carries away hearts with it as itpassee.lL The good God will pardon a repentantsinner more quickly than a mother wouldsnatah her child out of the fire.LL The elect are like the ears of corn that areleft by the reapers, and like the bunchea ofpp after the vintage.lL Imagine s poor mother obliged to let fallthe blade of the guillotine upon the, head ofher child: suoh is the good God when He condemnaa sinner.l' What happiness will it be for the just, atthe end of the world, when the soul, perfumedwith the odoura of heaven, shall be reunitedto ita body, and enjoy God for all eternity!Then our bodies will come out of the ground

24 emm or TEE CURL OF ARE.like lien that has been bleached. . . . Thebodies of the just will shine in heaven like h ediamonds, like globes of love !'l What a cry of joy when the aoul ahdcome to unite itself to its glorified body--tothat body which will never more be to it aninstrument of sin, nor a cause of suffering I Itwill revel in the sweetness of love, as the beerevels in flowers. . . . Thua the sod will beembalmed for eternity!" . . .We see that the Curb of Ars was a poet, inthe highest sense of the word; for his heartwas endowed with exquisite sensibility, and hegave expression to it in the simplest and truestmanner.LL One day in spring," he said, I was goingto see a sick pereon; the bushes were full oflittle birds, that were singing with all theirmight. I took pleasure in listening to them,and I said to myself, 'Poor little birds, yonknow not what you are doing1 What a pitythat is 1 You are singing the praiees ofGod! "Does not this recall St. Francis of Aseisi?'' Our holy Curb," writes one of his mostintelligent hearers, "is always eqdy admirablein his life, his works, and his worda.This may perhaps surprise you, but it is perfectlytrue. There is something astoaishing

SPIRIT OF TEE C& OP ARB. 95in the satisfaction, or rather the enthusiasm,wiah which the crowd of all classes presses into hear his so-called catechiems. I have heard 'distinguished ecclesiastics, men of the world,h e d men, and artists, declare that nothingever touched them so much ae that expansionof a heart which contemplates, whichloves, which sighs, and which adores. A collectionmight almost be made of the Fiordtiof the Cud of Am. Nothing could be moregraceful and brilliant than the picture he drew,a few days ago, of spring."A few lines further on, he added, Yesterday,our old St. Francie of Assisi waa morepoetical than ever, in the midst of his teamad of his bmts of love.Speaking of thesoul of man, which ought to aspire to Godalone, he cried out, Does the fish seek thetreee and the fielda? No; it darts through themter. Does the bird remain on the earth?No; it flies in the air. . . . And man, whois created to love God, to possess God, to containGod, what will he do with all the powersthat have been given him for that end 1'"He liked to relate the simple and poeticlegend of St. Maur, who, when he was one daycarrying St. Benedict his dinner, found a largeeerpent. He took it up, put it in the fold ofhis habit, and &owed it to St. Benedict, saying

'' Bee, father, what I have found." When theholy patriarch and all the religious were assembled,the serpent began to hies, and try tobite them. Then St. Benedict said, ''My child,go back, and put it where you found it." Andwhen St. Maur was gone, he added, "Mybrethren, do you know why that animal is 80gentle with that ohild ? It is because he haskept hie baptismal innocence."He also repeated with great pleasure theanecdote of St. Francis of Assisi preaching tothe fishes. 'I One day," he said, '' St. Francisof Assim was preaching in a province wherethere were a great many heretics, These miscreantsstopped their ears to avoid hearing him.The saint then led the people to the sea-bore,and called the fishes to come and listen to theWord of God, since men rejected it. Thefishes came to the edge of the water, the largeonea behind the little ones. St. Francis askedthem this question, 'Are you grateful to thegood God for saving you from the deluge?'The fishes bowed their heads. Then St.fiancis said to the people, ' See, these fishes aregrateful for the benefits of God, and you areso ungnrtet'id aa to despise them I' "M.Vianney mingled with his discourses somehappy rednbcences of hie shepherd's life :1' We ought to do like shepherds who are in

SPIBIT OF TEE cunk OF ms. 27the fields in winter,-life is indeed a longwinter. They kindle a fire, but from time totime they run about in all directions to lookfor wood to keep it up. If we, like the shepherds, were always to keep up the fire of thelove of God in our hearts by prayers and goodworks, it would never go out.If you have not the love of God, you arevery poor. You are like a tree withoutflowers or fruit.It is always spring-time in a soul unitedto God."When he spoke of prayer, the most pleasingand ingenioue comparisons fell abundantlyfrom hie lips:''Prayer is a fragrant dew; but we mustpray with a pure heart to feel this dew." There flows from prayer a delicious sweetness,like the juice of very ripe grapes." Prayer dieengages our eoul from matter;it raises it on high, like the fire that inflates aballoon.LL The more we pray, the more we wish topray. Like a fish which at first swims on the& of the water, and afterwards plunge0down, and is always going deeper, the eoulplrmgee, dives, and loses itself in the sweetnessof conversing with God.rL m e nevw seems long in prayer. I know

28 SPIRIT OF THE C& OF ARS.not whether we can even wish for heaven?Oh, yes! . . . The fish swimming in a littlerivulet ie well off, became it ia in ite element;but it is still better in the sea. When we pray,we should open our heart to God, like a fishwhen it sees the wave coming.The good God has no need of us. Hecommands ne to pray only becauae He willsour happiness, and our happiness can be foundonly in prayer. When He sees ne coming,He bends His heart down very low towardsHis little creature, se a father bends downto listen to his little child when it speak8 tohim.LL In the morning, we must do like the littlechild in its cradle. The moment it opens itseyes, it looks round the house for its mother.When it aeee her, it begins to smile ; if it doesnot see her, it cries."Speaking of the priest, he made use of thiltouching simile :'' The priest is like a mother to you, like anurse to a child of a few months old. Shefeeds itit has only to open its mouth. Themother sap to her child, ' Here, my little one,eat.' The priest says to you, Take and eat;this is the Body of Jesus Christ. .May it keepyou, and lead you to life eternal.' Oh, beau-tiful words! . . .'

" A child, when it sees its mother, spriugsf0wani.a her ; it etruggles againat any one whokeep it back; it opena ita little mouth, andstretches out its little arms to embrace her.Your soul, in the presence of the priest, naturallysprings towards him; it runs to meethim; but it ia held back by the bonds of theflesh, in men who give every thing to the senses,who live only for their carcass." Our soul is swathed in our body, like ababy in ita swaddling-clothes ; we can seenothing but its face."Every one will be struck with the truth andaptitude of this last simile. Beside thesetouching comparisons, some of M. Vianney'swere original and energetic. To exalt thebenefita of the Sacrament of Penance, he madeuse of metaphors and parables :" A furious wolf once came into our country,devouring every thing. Finding on its way echild of two years old, he seized it in hismouth, and carried it off; but some men, whowere pruning a vineyard, ran to attack him,and snatched his prey from him. It is thusthat the Sacrament of Penance snatches usfrom the claws of the devil."When he had to draw a parallel betweenChristians and worldly people, he said:"I think none so much to be pitied

30 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ARS.those poor worldly people. They wear a 'cloaklined with thorns-they cannot move withoutpricking themselves ; while good Christianshave a cloak lined with soft fur." The good Christian sets no value on thegoods of this world. He escapes from themlike a rat out of the water."Unhappily, our hearts are not sufficientlypure and free from all earthly aMons. Ifyou take a very clean and very drp sponge,and soak it in water, it will be filled to werflowing; but if it is not dry and clean, it willtake up nothing. In like manner, when theheart is not free and disengaged from thethin@ of earth, it is in vain that we steep it inprayer ; it will absorb nothing.The heart of the wicked swarms with sinslike an ant-hill with ants. It is like a pieca ofbad meat full of worms." When we abandon ourselve. to our passions,we interweave thorns around our heart."We are like moles of a week old ; nosooner do we see the light, than we buy ourselvesin the gound.'L The devil amuses us till the last moment,as a poor man is kept mused while thesoldiem are coming to take him. When theycome, he cries and struggles in vain, for theywill not release him.

CL Wheb men die, they are often like a verghlaty bar of iron, that must be put into the fire.Poor ei~enr are stupefied like snakes inwinter.. "The slanderer is like the snailili which,brawling over flowere, leaves its slitne uponthem and defiles them.What would you say of a man who shouldplough hie neighbouf's field, and leave his ownuncultivated? Welli that is what you do.You are always at work on the consciences ofothers, and you leave your own untilled. Oh,when death comes, how we shall regret havingthought so much of others, and so little ofonrselves; for we ehd have to give an accountof ourselves, and not of others ! . . . Let usthink of ourselves, of aur own conscience,which we ought always to examine, aa weexamine our hands to see if they are clean."We always have two secretaries : thedevil, who writes down our bad actions, toaccuse us of them; and our good angel, whowrites down our good ones, to justify us atthe Day of Judgment. When all our actionsshall be brought before us, how few will bepleasing to God, even among the best of them !So many imperfections, 'so many thoughts ofself-love, human satisfactions, sensual pleaam,self-complacency, will be found mingled'

32 8PIRIT OF THE C U OP ~ ARS.with them all! They appear good, but it Monly appearance; like those fruits which seamyellow and ripe became they have been p i dby insects."We see by these fragments that M. Vianneywas one of those contemplatives who do notWain to soften the austerity of their ideasby simple graces of expreseion, whether out ofcompassionate kindness to their disciples, orfrom the natural attraction felt by those whoare good for what is beautiful. He found inbeautiful creatures Him who is supremelybeautiful; he disdained not the leaat of them.At peace with all things, and having returnedin a manner to the primitive innocence adcondition of Eden, when Adam beheld creaturesin the divine light, and loved them withfraternal charity, his heart overflowed withlove, not only for men, but also for all beingsvisible and invisible. His words breathed anaffectionate sympathy for the whole of creation,which no doubt appeared to him in its originaldignity and purity. He looked upon it aa asister, who expressed the same thoughts andthe same love as himself in another manner.This is shown in hie apostrophe to the littlebirds. Where other eyes perceived nothingbut perishable beauties, he discovered, aa witha sort of second-eight, the holy harmony and

the eternal relatione which conneot the physialwith the moral order-the mysteries ofattnre with those of faith. He did the same ,in the region of by. Ages, events, andmen were to him only symbols and allegories,praphecies and their accompliehment.Nothing could be more beautiful, touching,and pathetic, than the application that he madeof the legend of St Alexis to the Real Presenceof our Lord.At the moment when the mother of St.Alexin recogniaee her son in the lifeless bodyof the beggar, who has lived thirty years underthe staircase of her palace, she cries out, 'L 0my eon, why have I known thee so late !" . .The aotal, on quitting this life, will see HimWhom it possessed in the Holy Eucharist; andat the right of the consolations, of the beauty,of the riches that it has failed to recognise, italso will cry out, " 0 Jesus l 0 my God Iwhy have I known Thee so late I"The Cud of Ars sometimes made edifyingr&ections on r ent events and circumstanceswhich had made an impression upon himaelf;and though he did it with reserve, we have inthis way gained some valuable information,which would otherwise have been lost.LL Becaw our Lord does not show Himselfin the most Holy Sacrament in all His majesty,Ti

84 6mIT DF TEE CUB# OF AM.you behave without respect in His presenga;but, nevertheless, He Himself is there. He isin the midst of you. . . . So, when that @Bishop was here the other day, every body wqapushing against him. . . . Ah, if they hadknown he was a Bishop ! . . ."We give our youth to the devil, and theremains of our life to the good God, who is sogod that He deigns to be content with eventhat; . . . but, happily, every one does not &SO. A great lady has been here, of one of thefirst families in France; she went away thismorning. She is scarcely three-and-twenq,and she is ri&-very rich indeed. .. . Shehas offered herself in sacrifice to the good God.for the expiation of sins, and for the conversionof sinners. She wears a girdle all armed withiron points; she mortifies herself in a thousandways; and her parents know nothing of it.She is as white as a sheet of p+p. Hers is abeautiful soul, very pleasing to the good God,such as are still to be found now and then inthe world, and they prevent the world fromcoming to an end.L6 One day, two Protestant ministers camehere, who did not believe in the Real Presenceof our Lord. I said to them, 'Do you thipkthat 13 piece of bread could detach itself, and go,of its own accord, to place itself on the tongueI

SPIRIT OF RIE CUB$ OF ARS. 35of ti person who came near to receive it?''No.' ' Then it is not bread! There was a'man who had doubts about the Real Presence,and he said, 'What do we know about it? it isnot certain. What is consearation? Whathappens on the altar at that moment?' But. h wished to believe, and he prayed the BlessedVirgin to obtain faith for him. Listen attentivelyto this. I do not say that this happenednomewhere, but I say that it happened to myself.At the mmqt when this man cams up to-me& Holy Communion, the Sacred Host detcrdedIteelf from my Jrngers while I wae atilla good way o$, and went of Itself and placedfieelfupon the tongrrs of that man."We will not undertake to give a consecutiveview of the teaching of the Curb of Ars. Therewns indeed a sort of connection between theparts of it, but it would be imposdble to debcribethe sudden inspirations that burst forthand ran through it like raya of light. Hiscatechisms in general defied analysis; and weshould be afraid of disfiguring them by re-.ducing them to the formality of a theologicalsystem. We shall therefore confine ourselvesto offering to our readere an abridgment ofsome of the most remarkable discourses.

86 SPIRIT OF TEE c d OF ABS. 1II. . -CATECHlSll ON SALVATION.Turn are many Christians who do not evenknow why they are in the world. " 0 m. Cod, why hsrt Thou sent me into the world$LL To save your soul!' " And why dost Thouwish me to be saved?" "Becaw I lovey OU!'The good God has created us and sent usinto the world beawe He loves us; He wisheeto save us becaw He loves ua. . . . To besaved, we must know, love, and serve God.Oh, what a beautiful life ! How good, howgreat a thing it is to know, to love and serveGod l We hare nothing else to do in this ~world. All that we do besides is lost time.IWe must act only for God, and put our works 1into His hands. . . . We should say,on awaking,"I desire to do every thing to-day forThee, 0 my God ! I will submit to all thatThou shalt send me, ns coming from Thee. Ioffer myself as a saarifice to Thee. But, 0God, I can do nothing without Thee. DoThou help me I"Oh, how bitterly shall we regret at the hourof death the time we have given to pleesuraqto useless conversations, to repose, instead. of

having employed it in mortification, in prayer,in good works, in thinking of our poor misery,in weeping over our poor sins; then we shellaee that we have done nothing for heaven.Oh, my children, how sad it is I Threequartereof those who are Chrietians labourfor nothing but to sati~fy this corpse, whichwill soon be buried and corrupted, while theydo not give a thought to their poor sod, whichmust be happy or miserable for all eternity.They have no aense nor reason: it makes onetremble.Lbok at that man, who is so active and reatleas,who makea a noise in the world, whowants to govern every body, who thinks himselfof consequence, who seems as if he would liketo say to the sun, " Go away, and let meenlighten the world instead of you." . . . Someday this proud man will be reduced at theutmost to a little handful of dust, which willbe swept away from river to river, from Sdneto !3a8ne, and at last into the sea.See, my children, I often think that we arelike those little heaps of sand that the windWises on the road, which whirl round for amoment, and are scattered directly. . . .We have brothem and sisters, who are dead.Well, they are reduced to that little handful ofdust of which I was speaking.

Worldly people say, it is too difficult to saveone's soul. Yet nothing is easier. To observethe commandments of God and the Chnrch,and to avoid the seven capital sins; or if youlike to put it so, to do good and avoid evil:t&at ia all.Good Christians, who labour to save theirsouls and to work out their salvation, am .always happy and contented; they enjoy beforehandthe happiness of heaven: they willbe happy for all eternity. While bad Chriatians,who lose their souls, are always to bepitied; they murmur, they are aad, they areaa miserable aa stones; and they will be so for .all eternity. See what a difference !This is a good rule of conduct, to do nothing .but.what we can offer to the good God. Now,we cannot offer to Him slanders, calumnies,injustice, anger, blasphemy, impurity, theatres,dancing: yet that is all that people do in theworld. Speaking of dances, St. Francis of Salesused to say that they were like mushrooms,the bent were good for nothing." Mothers areapt to say indeed, LL Oh, I watch over mydaughters." They watch over their toilets, butthey cannot watch over their hearts. Thamwho have dances in their houses load them-:selves with a terrible responsibility befbre God; .they are answerable for all the evil that .is.

done--forSPIRIT OF TEE C& OF ARS. 39the bad thoughts, the slanders, thejealousies, the hatred, the revenge. . . . Ah,if they well understood this responsibility, theywould never have any dances. Just like thosewho make bad pictures and statues, or writebad books, they d l have to answer for allthe harm that these things will do during allthe time they last. . . . Oh, that makes onetremble ISee, my children, we must reflect that wehave a soul to save, and an eternity that awaitsuu. The world, its riches, pleasures, and hon-our8 d pans away; heaven and hell willnever pw away. Let ua take care, then.The saints did not all begin well; but they allended well. We have begtm badly; let us endweil, and we shall go one day and meet themin heaven.CATECHWY ON THE LOVE OF GOD.OUR body is a vessel of corruption; it ismeant for death and for the warms, nothingmore 1 And yet we devote ourselves to satisfyingit, rather than to enriching our soul,which ia so great that we can conceive nothingpter-no, nothing, nothing! For we see

40 SPIRIT or THE CUR% OF AM.that God, urged by the dour of His charity,would not create ue like the animals; He hascreated us in His own image and likeness, doyou see? . . . Oh, how great is man1Man, being created by love, cannot live withoutlove: either he loves God, or he loves himselfand he loves the world. See, my children,it is faith that we want. . . . When we havenot faith, we are blind. He who does not see,does not know; he who does not know, doesnot love; he who does not love God loves hinaself,and at the same time loves his pleamres.He fixes his heart on things which pass awaylike smoke. He cannot know the truth, norany good thing; he can know nothing but fslmhood, because he has no light; he is in a mistIf he had light, he would see plainly that allthat he loves can give him nothing but eternaldeath; it is a foretaste of hell.Do you see, my children, except God, nothingis solid-nothing, nothing! If it ia life, .it passes away; if it is fortune, it crt~mbleaaway; if it is health, it is destroyed; if it isreputation, it is attacked.We are scatteredlike the wind. . . . Every thing is passing awayfull speed, every thing is going to ruin. 0God1 0 Godl how much those are to be pitied,then, who set their hearts on all these thingelThey set their hearts on them because they'

BPIlUT OF TEE CURS OF ABS. , 4 1h e themselves too much; but they do notlove themselves with a reasonable love,-they .love themselves with a love that seeks themselvesand the world, seeking creatures morethan God. That is the reason why they arenever satisfied, never quiet; they are alwaysuneasy, always tormented, always upset.See, my children, the good Christian runshis corn in this world, mounted on a finetriumphal chariot; this chariot ia borne byangels, and conducted by our Lord Himself:while the poor sinner is harnessed to thechariot of this life, and the devil who drives ithmer him to go on with great strokes of thewhip.My children, the three acts of faith, hope,and charity contain all the happiness of manupon the earth. By faith, we believe whatGod has promised us : we believe that we shallone day see Him, that we shall possess Him,that we shall be eternally happy with Him inheaven. By hope, we expect the fulfilment ofthese promisee: we hope that we shall be rewardedfor all our good actions, for all ourgood thoughts, for all our good desires; forGod tokes into account even our good desires.What more do we want to make us happy?In heaven, faith and hope will exist no more,fer the mista which obscure our reason will be

42 WIEIT OF TEE c d OF AM.dispelled; our mind will be able to nnderstandthe things that are hidden iium it herebelow. We shall no longer hope for any thing,became we ahall have every thing. We do nothope to acquire a treasure which we alreadyposaess. . . . But love I oh, we shall be inebriatedwith it I we shall be drowned, loet inthat ocean of divine love, annihilated in thatimmense charity of the Heart of Jeml so thatcharity is n foretaste of heaven. Oh1 howhappy should we be if we knew how to under-.stand it, to feel it, to taste it1 What makes uaunhappy is, that we do not love God.When we say, "My God, I believe, I believefirmly, that is, without the least doubt,without the least hesitation" . . . Oh, if we werepenetrated with these words: " I firmly believethat Thou art present every where, that Thouseest me, that I am under Thine eyes; that oneday I myself shall see Thee clearly, that I shnllenjoy all the good things Thou hset promisedme I 0 my God, I hope that Thou wilt rewardme for all that I have done to pleeseTheel 0 my God, I love Thee; my heart ismade to love Theel" Oh, this act of faith,which is also an act of love, would suffice forevery thiig! If we understood our own happinessin being able to love God, we should remainmotionless in ecetasy. . . . ... .

If a prince, an emperor were to cause one ofhb wbjects to appear before him, and should .say to him, ('1 wish to make you happy;stay with me, enjoy all my posseeeions, but becareful not to give me any just cause of displeasure,"with what care, with what ardour,d d not that subject endeavour to satisfy hispaincel Well,God makes the same proposalsto as, . . . and we do not care for His friendship,we make no account of His promises. . . .What a pity!CATECBLBM ON THE PREROGATIVE8 OP THE PURESOUL.NOTING ie so beautiful as a pure soul. Ifwe understood this, we could not lose ourpurity. The pure soul is disengaged frommru#er, from earthly things, and Gom iteelf.. . . That is why the mints ill-treated theirbody, that is why they did not grant:it what itrequired, not even to rise five minutea later, towarm themselves, to eat any thing that gavethem pleasure. . . . For what the body losesthe roul gains, and what the body gaine thesod losee.Purity comes from heaven; we must auk for

44 SPrruT OP THE C& OF ABS.it from God. If we ask for it, we shall ob&nit. We must take great care not to lose it;We must shut our heart against pride, againatsensuality, and all the other passions, as oneshuts the doom and windows that nobody maybe able to get in.What joy is it to the guardian angel to con:duct rr pure soul1 My children, when a soul ispure, all heaven looks upon it with love !Pure souls will form the circle round ourLord. Tbe more pure we have been on earth,the nearer we shall be to Him in heaven.When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving,because it has found the Source of love,which is God. Happy," says our Lord, " arethe pure in heart, because they shall see God!"My children, we cannot comprehend thepower that rr pure soul has over the good God.It is not he who does the will of God, it is GodWho does his will. Look at Moses, that verypure soul. When God would punish theJewish people, He said to him, Do not pray forthem, because My anger must fdl upon thispeople. Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and Godspared His people ; He let Himself be entreated ;He could not resist the prayer of that puresod. 0 my children, a soul that has neverbeen stained by that accursed sin obtains fromGod whatever it wishes l

SPIRIT OF THE CUE$ OF AM. 45Three things are wanted to preserve purity-the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments.Another meam is the reading of holybooks, which nodha the soul.How beautiful is a pure soul ! Our Lordshowed one to St. Catherine; she thought it sobeautiful that she said, " 0 Lord, if I did notknow that there is only one God, I shouldthink it was one." The image of God is reflectedin a pure soul, like the sun in the water.A pure aoul is the admiration of the ThreePereons of the Holy Trinity. The Father con-templates His work: There is My creature ! . .The Son, the price of His Blood: the beautyof an object is shown by the price it has cost.... The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in atemple.We also know the value of our soul by theefforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell isleagued against itheaven for it. . . . Oh,how great it must be !In order to have an idea of our dignity, wemust oflen think of heaven, Calvary, and hell.If we could understand what it is to be thechild of God, we could not do evil,-we shouldbe like angels on earth. To be children ofGod, oh, what a dignity !It is a beautiful thing to have a heart, and,little as it is, to be able to make use of it in

46 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS.loving God. How shameful it is that mnnshould descend so low, when God haa plddhim so high !When the angels had revolted against Gd,this God who is so good, seeing that they oouIdno longer enjoy the happiness for which Rehad created them, made man, and this littIeworld that we see to nourish his body. Buthis soul required to be nourished also ; and asnothing created can feed the soul, which is aspirit, God willed to give Himself for its food.!But the great misfortune is, that we neglect.tohave recourse to this divine food, in mssingthe desert of this life. Like people whodie of hunger within sight of a well-providedtable, there are some who remain fifty, sixtyyears, without feeding their souls.Oh, if Christians could understand the languageof our Lord, who says to them, "Notwithstandingthy misery, I wish to see near Methat beautiful soul which I created for Myself.I made it so great, that nothing can fill it butMyself. I made it so pure, that nothing butMy Bmiy can nourish it."Our Lord has always distinguished puresouls. Look at St. John, the well-beloveddisciple, who reposed upon His breast . . !St. Catherine was pure, and she .was oftentransported into Paradise. When she died,

BPIBIT OF TEE C& OF AM. 41a&s took up her body, and carried it to, Mount Sinai, where Moses had received theCommandments of the law. God has shownby thin prodigy that a soul is so agreeable toHim that it deserves that even the body whichbur participted in its purity should be buriedby angels.God contemplates a pure soul with love; Hegrants it all it desires. How could He refuseany thing to a soul that lives only for Him, byHim, and in Him? It seeks Him, and Godshows Himself to it ; it calls Him, and Godcoma ; it is one with Him; it captivates Hiswill. A pure soul is all-powerful with thegraaious Heart of our Lord.A pure soul with God is like a child withita mother. It caresees her, it embraces her,and ita mother returns its caresea and embraces.CATECHISX ON THE HOLY SPIRIT.0 r~ children, how beautiful it is l TheFather is our Creator, the Son is our Redeemer,and the Holy Ghost is our Guide. . .Man by himself is nothing, but with the

48 SPIRIT OF THE CUB$ OF ABS.Holy Spirit he ie very great. Man is allearthly, and all animal; nothing but the HolySpirit can elevate his mind, and raise it onhigh. Why were the mints so. detached fromthe earth? Because they let themselves heled by the Holy Spirit. Those who are ledby the Holy Spirit have true id=; that isthe reason -that so many ignorant people arewiser than the learned. When we are led bya God of strength and light, we csnnot goastray.The Holy Spirit is light and strength. Heteaches us to distinguish between truth andfalsehood, and between good and evil. Likeglasses that magnify objects, the Holy Spiritshows' us good and evil on a large scale. Withthe Holy Spirit we see every thing in its trueproportions; we see the greatness of the leastactions done for God, and the greatness of theleast faults. As a watchmaker with his glasaeedistinguishes the most minute wheals of a watch,so we, with the light ef the Holy Ghost, distinguishall the details of our poor life. Thenthe smallest imperfections appear very great,the leaet sins inspire us with horror. That iathe reason why the most Holy T i n neversinned. The Holy Ghost made her understandthe hideouanesa of sin; she shudderedwith terror at the least fault.

Those who have the Holy Spirit cannotendure themselves, so well do they know theirpoor mieery. The proud are those who have 'mot the Holy Spirit.Worldly people have not the Holy Spirit, orif they have, it is only for a moment. Hedo- not remain with them; the noise of theworld drives Him away. A Christian who isfad by the Holy Spirit has no difficulty inleaving the goods of this world, to run aRerthose of heaven; he knows the difference betepeenthem. The eyes of the world see noW e r than this life, as mine see no fartherthan this wall when the church-door is shut.The eyes of the Christian see deep into eter-nity.To the man who gives himself up tothe guidance of the Holy Ghost, there seemsto be no world ; to the world there seems to beno God. . . . We must therefore find out bywhom we are ltk. If it is not by the Holy Ghost,we labour in vain, there is no substance norsovoar in any thing we do. If it is by the HolyGhost, we taste a delicious sweetness; . . . itis enough to make us die of pleaenre IThose who are led by the Holy Spirit experienceall sorts of happiness in themselvea,while bad Christians roll themselves on thornsa d flinta.A soul in which the Holy Spirit dwells is6

5i) SPIRIT OF TEE ~d OF AM.never weary in the presence of God; his heartgives forth a breath of love.Without the Holy Ghoet we are like thestones on the road. . . . Take ih one hand asponge full of water, and in the other a littlepebble ; press them equally. Nothing willcome out of the pebble, but out of the spongewill come abundance of water. The sponpis the soul filled with the Holy Spirit, and thestone is the cold and hard heart which is notinhabited by the Holy Spirit.A soul that possesses the Holy Spirit tasteesuch sweetnew in prayer, that she finds thetime always too short; she never losea the holypresence of God.Such a heart, before ourgood Saviour in the Holy Sacrament of theAltar, is a bunch of grapes under the winepress.The Holy Spirit forme thought8 and suggestswords in the hearts of the jud. . . . Thosewho have the Holy Spirit produce nothingbad: all the frnita of the Holy Spirit are good.Without the Holy Spirit all is cold ; therefore,when we feel we are losing our fervour,we must instantly make a novena to the HolySpirit to ask for faith and love. . . . See,when we have made a retreat or a jubilee, weare full of good desires: these good deaires arethe breath of the Holy Ghoet, which has passed

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS. 5 1bver bur souls, and has renewed eveiy thing,like the warm wind which melts the ice andbrings back the spring. . . . You who are notgreat aainte, you atill have many momentawhen you taste the sweetness of prayer andof the presence of God : these are viaits of theHoly Spirit. When we have the Holy Spirit,the heart expands-bathes itself in divine love.A 68h never complains of having too muchwater, neither does a good Christian ever complainof being too long with the good God.There are eome people who find religion wearisome,and it is because they have not the Holyspirit.If the damned were asked, Why are you inhell? they would answer, For having mistedthe Holy Spirit. And if the sainta were asked,Why are you in heaven? they would answer,For having listened to the Holy Spirit. Whengood thoughte come into our minds, it ie theHoly Spirit who ia visiting us.The Holy Spirit is a power. The HolySpirit supported St. Simeon on his column; Hedried the martyra. Without the HolySpirit, the martyrs would have fallen like the 'leaves from the trees. When the fires werelighted under them, the Holy Spirit extinguiehedthe heat of the fire by the heat ofdivine love.

52 SPXBIT OF THE cud OF m.The good God, in sending w the HolySpirit, has treated ns like a great king whoshould send his minister to guide one of hiesubjecte, saying, "You will accompany thisman every where, and you will bring him backto me safe and sound."How beautiful it is,my children, to be accompanied by the HolySpirit! He is indeed a good Guide; and tothink that there are some who will not followHim !The Holy Spirit is like a man with a csfiiageand horse, who should want to take us to Paris.We should only have to say ' yea; and to getinto it. It is indeed an eaay matter to sayyes ! . . . Well, the Holy Spirit wanta to takeus to heaven; we have only to say 'yes,' and tolet Him take us there.The Holy Spirit is like a gardener cnltivatingour souls. . . . The Holy Spirit is ourservant. . . .There is a gun; well, you load it, but someone must fire it and make it go off. . . . In thesame way, we have in ouraelvea the power ofdoing good; . . . when the Holy Spirit givesthe impulse, good works are produced.The Holy Spirit reposes in just souls likethe dove in her nest. He brings out good deeireain a pure soul, as the dove hatches heryoung ones.

SPIRIT OF THE CURE OF ABS. . 53The Holy Spirit leads us as a mother leadsby the hand her child of two yeam old, . . . asa person who can see leads one who is blind.The Sacraments which our Lord institutedwould not have esved us without the HolySpirit. Even the Death of our Lord wouldhave been useless to us without Him. There-fore our Lord said to His Apostles, LL It is goodfor you that I should go away ; for if I did notgo, the Conaoler would not come." . . . Thedement of the Holy Ghat was required, torender fruitful that harvest of graces. It ialike 3 grain of wheat-you cast it into theground; yes, but it must have sun and rain tomake it grow and come into ear.We should say every morning, LL 0 God, sendme Thy Spirit, to teach me what I am andwhat Thou art."CATECBISLI ON TEE BLESSED VIRGIN.TEW Father takes pleaeure in looking uponthe heart of the most Holy Virgin Mary, as themasterpiece of His hands; for we always likeour own work, especially when it is well done.The Son takes pleasure in it as the heart of

His Mother, the source hm which He drew theBlood that haa ransomed us; the Holy Ghostas His temple.The Prophets published the glory of Marybefore her biih; they compared her to themn. Indeed, the apparition of the Holy Virginmay well be compared to a beautiful gleam ofsun on a foggy day.Before her coming, the anger of God waahanging over our heads like a sword ready tostrike us. As soon as the Holy Virgin ap-peared upon the earth, His anger was appeased.... She did not know that she was to be tbsMother of God, and when ehe was r little childshe used to say, When shall I then see thatbeautiful creature who is to be the Mother ofGod ?"The Holy Virgin hae brought us forthtwice: in the Incamation and at the foot of theCross ; she ie then doubly our Mother.The Holy Virgin is often compared to amother, but she is much better still than thebest of mothers; for the best of mothera sometimes punishes her child when it displeasesher, and even beab it: she thinks she is doingright. But the Holy Virgin does not so; sheis so good that she treats us with love, andnever puninhen us.The besrt of thii good Mother is all love and

SPIRIT OF TEE CUB^ OF AM. 55mercy ; she desire6 only to aee us happy. Wehave only to turn to her to be heard.The Son has His justice, the Mother haa nothingbut her love.God has loved us so much as to die for us ;but in the heart of our Lord there is justice,which is an attribute of God; in that of themost Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy.Her Son was ready to punish a sinner ; Maryinterposes, checks the sword, implores pardonfor the poor criminal. "Mother," our Lordsays to her, I can refuse you nothing. If hellcould repent, you would obtain its pardon."The most Holy Virgin places herself betweenher Son and us. The greater sinners we are,the more tenderness and compassion does shefeel for us. The child that has cost ita mothermost team is the dearest to her heart.Doesnot a mother always run to the help of theweakest and the most exposed to danger? Isnot a physician in the hospital most attentiveto those who are most seriously ill ?The Heart of Mary is so tender towards us,that those of all the mothers in the world puttogether are like a piece of ice in comparisonto hera.See how good the Holy Virgin is ! Her greatservant St. Bernard used oRen to say to her, " Ipalute thee, Mary." . . . One day this goo4

Mother anawered him, '1 salute thee, my aanBernard." . . .The Ave dlan'a is a prayer that is neverwearisome.The devotion to the Holy Virgin is delicim,sweet, nourishing. When we talk on earthlysuhjecta or politics, we grow w y ; but whenwe talk of the Holy Virgin, it is alwayenew.All the sainta have a great devotion to ourLady; no grace comes from heaven withoutpassing through her hands. We cannot gointo a house without speaking to the park;well, the Holy Virgin is the portress ofheaven.When we have to offer any thing to a greatpersonage, we get it presented by the pereon helikes best, in order that the homage may beagreeable to him. So our prayern have quitea different sort of merit when they are yresentedby the Blessed Virgin, because she isthe only creature who has never offended God.The Blessed Virgin alone bas fdiilled the Grstcommandment - to adore God only, and loveHim perfectly. She Mfilled it completely.All that the Son asks of the Father iegranted .Him. All that the Mother ash of theSon is in like manner granted to her.When we have handled something fragrant,

SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF AM. , 57our hands perfume whatever they touch: letour prayer pass through the hands of the HolyVirgin; she will perfume them.I think that at the end of the world theBlessed Virgin will be very tranquil ; but whilethe world lasta, we drag her in all direc-tions. . . . The Holy Virgin is like a motherwho has a great many children,-she is continuallyoccupied in going from one to theother.VI.ICATECBISY ON THE SANCTIFICATION OF SUNDAY.You labour, you labour, my children; butwhat you earn ruins your body and your soul.If one asked those who work on Sunday, Whathaw you been doing?" they might answer, Ihave been sellingmy soul to the devil, crucifyingour Lord, and renouncing my Baptism. Iam going to hell; I shall have to weep for alleternity in vain." When I see people drivingcarts on Sunday, I think I see them carryingtheir souls to hell.Oh, how mistaken in his cnlculations is hewho labom hard on Sunday, thinking that hewill earn more money or do more work! Can

58 r sPllUT OF THE C U OF. ~ AM.two or three shillings ever make up for'theharm he does himself by violating the law ofthe good God? You imagine that every thingdepende on your working; but there comes anillness, an accident . . . so little is required!a tempest, a hailebrm, a frost. The good Godholds every thing in His hand; He can avengeHimself when He will, and as He will; themean8 are not wanting to Him. Is He notalways the strongest? Must not He be themaster in the end ?There was once a woman who came to herprieet to sek leave to get in her hay on Sunday.'LBut," said the priest, ILit in not necessary;your hay will run no risk." This woman insisted,saying, " Then you want me to let mycrop be lost?" She herself died that veryevening; . . . ahe waa more in danger than hercrop of hay. . . ." Labour not for the meat which perisheth,but fbr that which endureth unto life everlasting."What will remain to you of your Sundaywork ? You leave the earth just as it is; whenyou go away, you carry nothing with you. Ah!when we are attached to the earth, we are notwilling to go1 . . . Our first aim is to go toGod; we we on the earth for no other purpoae,* St. John vi. 27.

BPIBIT OF THE CUBE OF ABS. 59My brethren, we Bhould die on Sunday, andrise again on Monday.Sunday is the property of our good God; itis His own day, the Lord's day. He made allthe days of the week: He might have keptthem all; He has given you six, and has reservedonly the seventh for Himself. Whutright have you to meddle with what does notbelong to you? You know very well thatstolen goods never bring any profit. Nor willthe day that you steal from our Lord profit youeither. I know two very certain ways of becomingpoor: they are, working on Sunday, endt+g other people's property.CATECHISM ON THE WORD OF GOD.MY children, the Word of God is of no littleimportance I These were our Lord's h twords to Hie Apostles, Go and teach," . . .to show us that instruction is before everything.My children, what has taught us our religion?-Theinstructions we have heard. Whatgives ue a homr of sin? . . . what makes US aliveI

to the beauty of virtue, . . . impires us withthe desire of heaven?-Instructions. Whatteacherr fathers and mothers the duties theyhave to fulfil towards their children, andchildren the duties they have to fulfil towardstheir pamtal-I~ctione.My children, why are people so blind and soignorant ? Because they make so little accountof the Word of God. There are some who donot wen say a Pdsr and an Aw to beg ofthe good God the grace to l i n to it attentively,and to profit well by it. I believe, mychildren, that a pmon who doea not hear theWord of God ae he ought, will not be saved; hewill not know what to do to be eaved. Butwith a well-inetructed person there ia alwayssome remum. He may wander in all mrte ofevil ways ; there ia still hope that he will returneooner or later to the good God, even if it wereonly at the hour of death. Instead of which, aperson who has never been inetructed is like asick person-like one in his agony who i8 nolonger conscious: he knows neither the greatnessof sin nor the value of virtae; he dragshimeelf from sin to sin, like a rag that isdragged in the mud.See, my children, the esteem in which ourLord holds the word of God; to the womanwho cries, 'lBlessed is the womb that bore

Thee, and the papa that gave Thee suckl" heanswera, " Yea, rather blessed are they whohear the *ord of God and keep it 1"Our Lord, who is Truth itself, puts no lessvalue on His Word than on His Body. I donot know whether it is worse to have distractionsduring Mass than during the instructions;I see no Werence. During Mass we lose themerits of the Death and Paesion of our Lord,and during the inatructiona we lose His Word,which is Himself. St. Augustine says that itis as bad aa to take the chalice after the consecrationand to trample it under footMy children, you make a scruple of missingholy Mass, because you commit a great sin inmissing it by your own fault; but you have noscruple in missing an instruction. You neverconeider that in this way you may greatlyoffend God.At the Day of Judgment, whenyou will all be there around me, and the goodGod will say to you, LL Give Me an account ofthe instructions and the catechisms which youhave heard and which you might have heard,". . . you will think very differently. Mychildren, you go out during the instructions,you amuse yourselves with laughing, you donot listen, you think yourselvee too clever tocome to the catechism; . . . do you think, mychildren, that things will be allowed to go on

62 SPIRIT OF TEE CUE$ OR AB8.so 7 Oh, no, certainly not ! God will arrangemattera very diffmntly.How sad it is l we eee fathers and mwthem stay outaide during the instructions; yebthey are under obligations to instruct theirchildren ; but how can they teach them? Theyare not instructed themselves. . . . All thisleads straight to hell. . . . It ia a pity lMy children, I have remarked that there i8no moment when people are more inclined tdsleep than during the instructione. . . . Yotiwill say, I am so very sleepy. . . . If I wexeto take up a fiddle, nobody would think ofsleeping; every body would bemused, evw bodywould be on the alert. My children, you listenbhen you like the preacher ; but if the preacherdoes not suit you, you turn him into ridicule.. . . We mubt nbt think so inuch about theman. It is not the body that we must attendto. Whatever the priest may be, he is &illthe instrllment that the good God makes use ofto distribute His holy Word. You pour liquorthrough a funnel ; whether it be made of goldor of copper, if the liquor is good it will atillbe good.There are some who go about repeatingevery where,"Priests say just what they please."No, my children, priests do not srry what theyplease; they say what is in the Gospel. The

SPXBIT OF THE C& OF ARB. 68prieete who came before us said what we say;those who shall come after us will say the samething. If we were to say things that were nottrue, the Bishop, would very soon forbid us topreach. We say only what our Lord hastaught.My children, I will give you an example ofwhat it is not to believe what priests tell you.There were two eoldier~ passing through aplace where a mission was being given; one ofthe soldiem proposed to his comrade ta go andhear the sermon, and they went. The missionarypreached upon hell. lL Do you believeall that this priest says?" asked the leastwicked of the two. l1 Oh, no!" replied theother, I believe it is all nonsense, invented tufrighten people." l1 Well, for my part, I believeit; and to prove to you that I believe it,I shall give up being a soldier, and go into aconven~" Go where you please; I shall continuemy journey." But while he was on hi8journey, he fell ill and died. The other, w40was in the convent, heard of his death, and beganto pray that God would show him in whatstate his companion had died. One day, as hewas praying, thia companion appeared to him;he recognised him, and asked him, " Where areyou?" "In hell; I am lost!" " 0 wretchedman! do you now believe what the missionary

said?" '' Yes, I believe it. Biissionaries arewrong only in one respect; they do not tell youa hundredth part of what is suffered here!'My children, I often think that most of theChristians who are lost are lost for want of instruction-theydo not know their religionwell. For example, here is a person who hasto go and do his day's work. This person haaa desire to do great penances, to pass half thenight in prayer; if he is well instructed, he willsay, No, I must not do that, because then Icould not fulfil my duty to-morrow; I shouldbe sleepy, and the least thing would put meout of patience; I should be weary all the day,and I should not do half ae much work aa if Ihad rested at night; that must not be done."Again, my children, a servant may have a desireto fast, but he is obliged to pass the wholeday in digging or ploughing, or whatever youplease. Well, if this servant is well instructed,he will think, "But if I do this, I shall not beable to satisfy my master." Well, what willhe do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortifyhimself in some other way. That is what wemust do-we must always act in the way thatwill give most glory to the good God.A person knows ithat another is in distress,and takes from his parents what will relieyethat distress. He would certainly do much

SPIRIT OP THE c d Or ABa 64better to ask than to take it. If his parentsrefuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspirea rich person to give the alms instead of him.A well-instructed person always haa twoguides leading the way before him-goodcounsel and obedience.SEE,my children; the treasure ofa Christianis not on the earth, it is in heaven. Well, ourthoughts ought to be where our treasure is.Man has a beautiful office, that of prayingand loving. . . . You pray, you love-that isthe happiness of man upon the earth.Prayer is nothing else than union with GodWhen our heart is pure and united to God, wefeel within ourselves a joy, s sweetness thatinebriates, a light that dazzles us. In thinintimate union God and the soul are 'like twopieces of-wax melted together; they cannot beseparated. This union of God with His littlecreature ia a most beautiful thing. It is ahappiness that we cannot understand.We have not deserved to pray; but God, inHb goodness, has permitted UE to speak to Him.B

66. GPWT OF THE CU& OF ABS.Our prayer is an incense which He receimwith extreme pleasure.My children, your heart is poor and narrow;but prayer enlarges it, and rendem it capableof loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of heaven,an overflow of paradise. It never leaves uswithout sweetness. It is like honey descendinginto the soul and sweetening every thing.Troubles melt away before a fervent prayerlike snow before the sun.Prayer makes time pass very quickly, andso pleasantly that one does not perceive howit passes. Do you know, when I was runningup and down the country, at the time thatalmost all the poor priests were ill, I was prayingto the good God all along the road? I assureyou, the time did not seem long to me.We see some persons who lose themselvesin prayer like a fish in the water, because theyare all for God. There is no division in theirheart. Oh, how I love those generow souls ISt. Francis of Assisi and St. Colette saw ourLord and spoke to Him as we talk to eachother.While we, how often we come tochurch without knowing what we come for,or what we are going to ask ! And yet, whenwe go to any one's house, we know very wellwhat we are going for. . . . Some people seemto say to God, LL I am going to say two warde

to Thee, to get rid of Thee." I often thinkthat when we come to adore our Lord, weehould obtain all we wish, if we would ask itwith very lively faith and a very pure heart.But, alas! we have no faith, no hope, no desire,no love IThere are two criea in man, the cry of theangel and the cry of the beast. The cry ofthe angel is prayer; the cry of the beast issin. Those who do not pray, stoop towardsthe earth, like a mole trying to make a holeto hide itaelf in. They are all earthly, allbmtieh, and think of nothing but temporalthings, . . . like that miser who was receivingthe laat Sacraments the other day ; when thegave him a silver crucifix to kbe, he" That cross weighe full ten ounces."If there could be one day without worshipin heaven, it would no longer be heaven ; andif the poor lost souls, notwithstanding theireufferings, could worship, there would be nomore hell. Ah 1 they had a heart to loveGod with, a tongue to bless Him with; thatwaa their deetiny. And now they condemnedto curse Him through all eternity. Ifthey could hope that they would once prayonly for one minute, they would watch for thatminute with euch impatience that it wouldhaen their torments. . .

68 BPIBIT OR TEE CUR$ OF m.Our Father who art in heaven !" . . . Oh,how beautiful it is, my children, to have aFather in heaven !'LIf I make the good God reign in my heart, Hewill make me reign with Him in His glory.Thy will be done." There is nothing sosweet, and nothing so perfect, as to do thewill of God. In order to do things well, wemust do them as Qod wills, in all conformitywith His designs. " Give us this day ourdaily bread." We are composed of twopsrte, the eon1 and the body. We ask theThy kingdom come." . . .good God to feed our poor body, and Heanswers by making the earth produce all thatis necessary for our support. . . . . But weask Him to feed our soul, which is the bestpart pf ourselves; and the earth is too small tofurnish enough to satisfy it; it hungers forGod, and nothing but God can satiate it.Therefore, the good God thought He did notdo too much, in dwelling upon the earth andasmming a body, in order that this Body mightbecome the food of our souls. "My Flesh,"eaia our Lord, "is meat indeed. . . . Thebread that I will give ie My Flesh, for the lifeof the world."The brd of souls is in the tabernacle.The tabernacle ia the etorehouee of Christisne....

SPIRIT OF THE c d OF AM. 69Oh, how beautiful it is, my ohildren ! When.the priest presenta the Host, and showe it toyon, your soul may say, There is my food.0 my children, we are too happy ! . . . Weohall never oomprehend it till we are inheaven. What e pity that ie!IX.CATECHISM ON THE PRIESTHOOD.MY children, we have come to the Sacramentof Orders. It is a Sacrament which seemsto relate to no one among you, and which yetrelates to every one. Thie Sacrament raiseclman up to God. What is a piiest ? A manwho holds the plaoe of God-a man who is investedwith all the powers of God. '' Go," saidour Lord to the priest ;'' aa my Father sent Me,I send you. All power has been given Me inheaven and on earth.Go then, teach allnations. . . . He who listem to you, listena toMe; he who deapiaes you, despises Me."When the priest remits sins, he does not say,God pardona you;" he says, '' I absolve you."At the Consecration. he does not sap. " This isthe Body of our hk;" he sap, This is MyWy."

70 .8PIlUT OF TEE CUR^ OF AR!3.St. Bernard tells us that every thing haecome to ue through Mary; and we may alsosay that every thiig has come to us throughthe prieet ;. yes, all happiness, all graces, allheavenly g~fta.If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, weshould not have our Lord. Who placed Himthere, in that tabernacle? It was the priest.Who wae it that received your soul, on itsentrance into lie ? The priest. Who nourishesit, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage ?The priest. Who will prepare it to appearbefore God, by washing that soul, for the lasttime, in the Blood of Jesus Christ ? Thepriest-always the priest. And if that soulcomes to the point of death, who will raise itup, who will restore it to calmness and peace ?Again, the priest. You cannot recall one singleblessing from God without finding, side by sidewith this recollection, the image of the priest.Go to confession to the Blessed Virgin, orto an angel; will they absolve you? No. Willthey give you the Body and Blood of our Lord?No. The Holy Virgin -not make her DivineSon descend into the Host. You might havetwo hundred angels there, but they could notabsolve you. A priest, however simple hemay be, can do it ; he can say to you, Go inme; I pardon yon."

.SPIRIT OF THE c d OF AM. 72Oh, how great is a priest I The prieat willnot underatand the greatness of his office tillhe ie in heaven. If he understood it on earth,he would die, not of fear, but of love.The other benefits of God would be of noavail to us without the priest. What wouldbe the use of a home full of gold, if you hadnobody to open you the door? The priesthas the key of the heavenly treasures; it is hewho opens the door; he is the steward of thegood God, the distributor of His wealth.Without the priest, the Death and Passionof our Lord would be of no avail. Look atthe heathens: what hss it availed them thatour Lord has died ? Alas I they can have noshare in the blessings of redemption, whilethey have no priesta to apply His Blood totheir souls1 .The priest is not a priest for himself; hedoes not give himself absolution ; he does notadminister the Sacraments to himaelf. He isnot for himeelf, he is for you.After God, the priest is every thing. Lavea parish twenty years without priests ; theywill worship beasts.If the Missionary Father and I were to goaway, you would say, "mat can we do iathia church? there is no Maas ; om Lord is nolonger there: we may ae well pray at home."'

72 .GPIRITOFTHE~OFAB~,When peopIe wish to destroy religion, theybegin by attacking the prieat, because wherethere is no longer any priest there is no aacrifice,and where there is no longer any sacrifice Ithere is no religion.When the bell cab you to church, if yonwere asked, LC Where are you going 9" youmight answer, " I am going to feed my soul1'If some one were. to ask you, pointing to thetabernacle, What is that golden door?" 'L Thatis our storehouee, where the true Food of oursouls is kept" "Who has the key? Wholays in the provisions ?Who makes readythe feast, and who serves the table ?" LL Thepriest" IL And what is the Food 3" Theprecious Body and Blood of our Lord." 0God 1 0 God ! how Thou hset loved un ! . . .See the power of the priest; out of a pieceof bread the word of a priest makes a God. Itis more than creating the world. . . . Some onesaid, "Does St. Philomena, then, obey theC d of Am 3" Indeed, she may well obeyhim, mince God obeys him.If I were to meet a pht and an angel, Ishould salute the @eat before I saluted theangel. The latter ia the friend of God; butthe prieat holds His place. St. Teress kiseedthe ground where a priest had paesed. Whenyou see a priest, you should say, There ie he

d o made me a child of God, and openedheaven to me by holy Baptism; he who purifiedme after I hnd sinned; who gives nourishmentto my soul." At the sight of a church-tower,you may say, What is there in that place?""The Body of our Lord." "Why is Hethere?" '' Becaucie a priest haa been there, andhaa said holy Mass."What joy did the Apostles feel aRer theBernvrection of our Lord, at aeeing the Masterwhom they had loved so much l The priestmwt feel the same joy, at seeing our Lordwhom he holds in his hands. Great value isattached to objects which have been laid inthe drinking-cup of the Blessed Virgin and ofthe Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers ofthe priest, that have touched the adorable Fleshof Jeeue Christ, that have been plunged intothe ohalice which contained His Blood, intothe pyx where Hie Body haa lain, are theynot still more precioue?The priesthood is the love of the Heart ofJesue. When you see the priest, think of ourLord Jesus Christ.

74 5PIBIT OF THE d OF UB.CATECHISM ON THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE YAW.ALL good works together are not of equal vdnewith the sacrifice of the Mass, because they arethe works of men, and the holy Mass is thework of God.Martyrdom is nothing in wm-parison ; it is the sacrifice that man makea ofhis life to God; the Mass is the sacrifice thatGod makes to man of His Body and of HisBlood. Oh, how great is a priest! if he u nde~stood himself, he would die. . . . God obeys him ;he speaks two words, and our Lord comes downfrom heaven at his voice, and shuts himself upin a little Host. God looks upon the Altar.L6 That is My well-beloved Son," He says, "inWhom 1 am well pleased."He can refuse nothing to the merits of the'offering of this Victim. If we had faith, weshould see God hidden in the priest like a lightbehind a glass, like wine mingled with water.After the Consecration, when I hold in myhands the most holy Body of our Lord, andwhen I am in discouragement, seeing myselfworthy of nothing but hell, I say to myself,"Ah, if I could at-least .take Him with me!Hell wonld be sweet with Him; I could be con- .test to remt+in suffering there for all eternitf, if

we were together. But then there would be no 'more hell; the flamee of love would extinguishthose of justice."How beautiful it is ! After the Consearation,the good God is there as He is in heaven. Ifman well understood this mystery, he would dieof love. God apares us because of our weakness.A priest once, after the Consecration, hadsome little doubt whether his few words couldhave made our Lord descend upon the Altar ; atthe same moment he saw the Host all red, andthe corporal tinged with blood.If some one said to us, " At such an houra dead person is to be raised to life," we shouldrunvery quickly to see it. But is not theConsecration which changes bread and wineinto the Body and Blood of God, a much greatermiracle than to raise a dead person to life? Weought always to devote at least a quarter ofan hour to preparing ourselves to hear Masswell ; we ought to annihilate ourselves beforeGod, after tho example of His profound annihilationin the Sacrament of the Eucharist ;and we ~hould make our examination of conscience,for we must be in a state of grace to beable to assist propedy at Moss.If we knew the value of the holy Sacrificeof the Mass, or rather if we had faith, we shouldbe much qore zeqloqa to aseist (rt it.

76 BHB~T or TW c d or AES.My children, yon remember the story I havetold you already of that holy priest who W~IEpraying for his friend; God had, it appears,made known to him that he was in purgatory;it came into his mind that he could do nothingbetter than to offer the holy Sacrifice of theMass for his wul. When he came to themoment of Consecration, he took the Host inhis hands and said," 0 Holy and Eternal Father,let us make an exchange. Thou hast the eoulof my friend who ie in pngatoy, and I havethe Body of Thy Son, who is in my hands';well, do Thou deliver my friend, and I offerThee Thy Son, with all the merita of His Deathand Passion." In fact, at the moment of theelevation, he saw the sod of his friend rising toheaven, all radiant with glory. Well, my children,when we want to obtain any thing fromthe good God, let ue do the same ; Bfter HolyCommunion, let US offer Hi His well-belovedSon, with all the merita of Hia Death and RisPassion. He will not be able to refuse usany thing.

XI.CATECHIBY ON THX REAL PrngEIPCI.Om Lord is hidden there, waiting for us tam e and visit Him, and make our requests toHim. See how good He ia I He accommodatesHimeelf to our weakness. In heaven,where we shall be glorious and triumphant,we shall see Him in all His glory. If Hehad presented Himself before us in that glorynow, we should not have dared to approachHim; but He hides Himself, like a person in sprinon, who might say to us, LL YOU do not seeme, but that is no matter; ask of me all youwish, and I will grant it. He is there in theSacrament of His love, sighing and intercedinginceesantly with His Bather for sinners. Towhat outrages does He not expose Himaelf,that He may remain in the midst of us I Heis there to console us; and therefore we oughtoften to visit Him. How pleasing to Him iathe short quarter of an hour that we sted fromour occupati~ns, from something of no use, tocome and pray to Him, to vieit Him, to consoleHim for all the outrages He receives IWhen He sees pure souh coming eagerly toHim, He smiles upon them. . . . They comewith that simplicity which plmes Him so

78 s~rnrr OF THE CUB^ OF m.much, to ask His pardon for all sinnere, for theoutrages of so many ungrateful men. Whathappiness do we not find in the presence ofQod, when we find ourselves alone at His feetbefore the holy tabernacles l " Come, mysoul, redouble thy fervour; thou art aloneadoring thy God. His eyes rest upon theealone!' This good Saviour ia so full of lovefor us, that He seeks us out every where.Ah ! if we had the eyes of angels with whichto see our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is here presenton thin Altar, and Who is looking at us,how we should love Him 1 We should nevermore wish &I part from Him ; we should wbhto remain always at His feet; it would be aforetaste of heaven: all else would become insipidto us. But see, it is faith we want. Weare poor blind people ; we have a mist beforeour eyes. Fdth alone can dispel this miat.Presently, my chiien, when I shall hold ourLord in m hands, when the good God blessesr,yk dim then to open the eyes of youreart, say to Him, like the blind man ofJericho, " 0 Lord, make me to see 1" If yousay to him sincerely, LL Make me 'to see I" youwill certainly obtain what you desire, becauseHe wishes nothing but your happiness. Hehas His handp full of graces, seeking to whomto distribute them; alas,l and no one will haoe

SPIRIT OF'THE c d OF ARS. 79them . . . Oh, indifference 1 Oh, ingratitude 1My children, we are most unhappy that we donot underand these things 1 We shall understandthem well one day; but it will thenbe too late !Our Lord is there as a Victim; and a prayerthat is very pleasing to God is to ask theBlessed Virgin to offer to the Eternal Fatherher Diviue Son, all bleeding, all torn, for theoonversion of sinners; it is the best prayer wecan make, since, indeed, all prayers are madein the name and through the merits of JesusChrist. We must also thank God for all thoseindulgences that purify us from our sins . . . .but we pay no attention to them. We tread uponindulgences, one might say, as we tread uponthe sheaves of corn after the harvest. See,there are seven years and seven quarantinesfor hearing the Catechism, three hundred daysfor reciting the Litany .of the Blessed Virgin,the Salve Regina, the Angelus. In short, thegood God multiplies His graces upon ua ; andhow sorry we shall be at the end of oui livesthat we did not profit by them!When we are before the Blessed Sacrament,instead of looking about, let us shut our ayesand our mouth; let us open ourheart: our goodGod will open His; we shall go to Him, Hewill .come to us, the one to .ask, the other to

eceive; it will be like a breath from one to theother. What sweetness do we not find in forgettingourselves in order to seek God ! Thesaints lost sight of themselves that they mightsee nothing but God, and labour for Him alone;they forgot all created object. ili order to findHim alone. This is the way to reach' heaven.XII.CATECHISM ON COYMUNIOI?.WEEN God willed to give nourishment toour soul to sustain it in the pilgrimage of life,He looked over creation, and found nothingthat was worthy of it. He then turned toHimself, and resolved to give Himself. . . .0 my soul, how great thou art, since nothingless than God can satisfy thee! The Food ofthe soul is the Body and Blood of God I Oh,admirable Food ! If we considered it, it wouldmake us lose ourselves in that abyss of love forall eternity!How happy are the pure souls that havethe happiness of being united to our Lord bycommunion1 'They will shine like beautifuldiamonds in heaven, because God will be seenin them.** "Gloria eju in te videbitur" (Isaka Ix. 2).

W ~ OF T THE C& OF 15~9. 81Our Lord haa said, Whatever you shall askthe Father in My name, He will give it you.We &odd never have thought of asking ofGod H~E own Son. But God hsa done whatman could not have imagined. What mancannot express nor conceive, and what he neverwould have dared to desire, G d in His lovehas said, has conceived, and haa executed.Should we ever have hed to ask of God toput His Son to death for us, to give us HisFlesh to eat and His Blood to drink ? If allthis were not true, then man might have imaginedthings that God cannot do; he wouldhave gone farther than God in inventions oflove! That is impossible.Without the Holy Eucharist there would beno happiness in this world; life would be insupportable.When we receive Holy Communion,we receive our joy and our happiness.The good God, wishing to give Himself tous in the Sacrament of His love, gave us a vastand great desire, which He alone can satisfy.In the presence of this beautiful Sacrament, weare like a peraon dying of thirst by the aide ofe river-he would only need to bend his head;. . . lac a person still remaining poor closeto a great treaeure-he need only stretch outhis hand.He who communicates loses himself in GO?c

like a drop of water in the ocean. They canno more be separated.At the Day of Judgment we shall see theFlesh of our Lord shine through the glorifiedbody of those who have received Him worthilyon earth, as we see gold shine in copper, orsilver in lead.When we have just communicated, if wewere asked, LL What are you carrying away toyour home?" we might answer, ." I am cmyingaway heaven." A saint said that we wereChrist-bearers. It is very true; but we havenot enough faith. We do not comprehend ourdignity. When we leave the holy banquet, weare as happy as the Wise Men would have been ifthey could have carried away the Infant Jesus.Take a vessel full of liquor, and cork it well;you will keep the liquor as long as you please.So if you were to keep our Lord well and recollectedly,after Communion, you would longfeel that devouring fire, which would inspireyour heart with an inclination to good and arepugnance to evil.When we have the good God in our heart,it ought to be very burning. The heart ofthedisciples of Emmaus burnt within them frommerely listening to His voice.I do not like people to begin to read directlywhen they come from the holy table. Oh, no!

what is the uee of the words of men when Godis speaking? We must do like one who is verycurious, and listens at the door. We mustlieten to all that God says at the door of ourheart.When you have received our Lord, you feelyour soul purified, because it bathes itself inthe love of God.When we go to Holy hmmunion, we feelsomething extraordinary, a comfort which pervadesthe whole body, and penetrates to theextremities. What is this comfort? It is ourLord, who communicates Himself to all parts ofour bodies, and makes them thrill. We ireobliged to say, like St. John, '& It is the Lordl"Those who feel absolutely nothing are verymuch to be pitied.XIII.CATECHISM ON FREQUENT COlfMUNION.MY brethren, all beings in creation requireto be fed, that they may live; for this purposeGod haa made trem and plants grow; it is awell-awed table, to which all animals come andtake the food which suits each one. But thesoul also nlust be fed. Where, then, is its food?

My brethren, the food of the soul is God. Ah!what a beautiful thought! The soul can feedon nothing but God. Only God can d c efor it; only God canm it; only God can satiateits hunger: it absolutely requires its God!There is in all houses a place where the provisionsof the family are kept; it is the storeroom.The church is the home of souls; it isthe house bdonghg to us who are Christians.Well,in thii house there is a store-room. Doyou see the tribernacle ? If the souls of Christianswere asked, What is that?" your soulswould answer, 6L It is the store-room." . . .There is nothing so great, my children, asthe Eucharist! Put all the good works in theworld against one good Communion; they willbe like a grain of dust beside a mountain.Make a prayer when you have the good Godin your heart; the good God will not be ableto refuse you any thing, if you offer Him HisSon, and the merits of His holy Death andpassion.My children, if we understood the value ofHoly Communion, we should avoid the leastfaults, that we might have the happineaa ofmaking it oftener. We should keep our soulsalways pure in the eyes of God. My children, Isuppose that you have been to confession to.day,and you will watch over yourselves; you will

SPIRIT OF THE cud OF AES. 85be happy in the thought that to-morrow youwill have the joy of receiving the good Gadinto your heart. . . . Neither can you offendthe good God to-morrow ; your soul will be allembalmed with the precious Blood of our Lord.. . . Oh, beautiful life10 my children, how beautiful will a soul bein eternity that haa worthily and often receivedthe good God l The Body of our Lord willehine through our body, Hie adorable Bloodthrough our blood; our soul will be united tothe Soul of our Lord during all eternity. Thereit will enjoy pure and perfect happiness. Mychi1dren;when the soul of a Christian who hasreceived our Lord enters paradise, it augmentsthe joy of heaven. The Angels and the Queenof Angels come to meet it, because they recognisethe Son of God in that soul. Then willthat soul be rewarded for the pains and sacrificesit will have endured in its life on earth.My children, we know when a soul hasworthily received the Sacrament of the Eucharist.It is SO drowned in love, so penetratedand changed, that it is no longer to berewgnised in its words or its actione. . . . Itis humble, it is gentle, it is mortified, charitable,and modest; it is at peace with every one.It is a soul capable of the greatest sacrifices; inshort, yon would not know it again.

Go, then, to Communion, my children ; go toJesus with love and confidence; go and liveupon Him, in order to live for Him! Do notsay that you have too much to do. Haa notthe Divine Saviour said, " Come to me, all youthat labour and are burdened, and I will refreshyou"? Can you resist an invitation so full of loveand tenderness? Do not say that you are notworthy of it. It is true, you are not worthy ofit; but you are in need of it. If our Lord hadregarded our worthiness, He would never haveinstituted His beautiful Sacrament of love; forno one in the world is worthy of it, neither thesaints, nor the angels, nor the archangels, northe Blessed Virgin; but He had in view ournds, and we all are in need of it. Do notsay that you are sinners, that you are too miserable,and for that reason you do not dare toapproach it. I would as soon hear you saythat you are very ifl, and that therefore youwill not take any remedy, nor send for thephysician.All the prayers of the Maas are a preparationfor Communion; and all the life of a Christianought to be a preparation for that greataction.We ought to labour to deserve to receive ourLord every day. How humbled we ought tofeel when we see others going to the holy

table, and we remain motionless in our place!How happy is a guardian angel who leads ebeautiful soul to the holy table I In the primitiveChurch they communicated every day.When Christians had grown cold, they substitutedblessed bread for the Body of our Lord;this is both a consolation and a humiliation. Itis indeed blessed bread; but it is not the Bodyand Blood of our Lord !There are some who make a spiritual communioneve y day with blessed bread. If weare deprived of sacramental communion, let usreplace it, ae far aa we can, by spiritual communion,which we can make every moment;for we onght to have always a burning desireto receive the good God. Communion is to thesoul like blowing a fire that is beginning to goout, but that has still plenty of hot embers; weblow, and the fire burns again. After the receptionof the Sacraments, when we feel ouraelveaslacken in the love of God, let us haverecourse at once to spiritual communion. Whenwe cannot come to church, let us turn towardsthe tabernacle: a wall cannot aeparate us fromthe good God ; let us my five Paters and fiveAves to make a spiritual communion. Wecan receive the good God only once a-day; asoul on fire with love aupplies for this by thedeaire to receive Him every moment.,-

88 SPIRIT OF TEE cmi or ARS.0 man, how great thou art l fed with them y and Blood of a God i Oh, how sweet alife is this life of union with the good God! It Mheaven upon earth ; there are no more troubles,no more crosses! When you have the happinessof having received the good God, you feela joy, a sweetness in your heart for somemomenta. Pure soule feel it always, and in thisunion consists their strength and their happiness.CATECHISM ON SIN. ,SIN is the executioner of the good God, andthe assassin of the soul. It snatches us. awayfrom heaven, to precipitate us into hell. Andwe love it l What folly l If we thoughtseriously about it, we should have such a livelyhorror of sin that we could not commit it.0 my children, how ungrateful we are 1 Thegood God wishes to make us. happy, that isvery certain; He gave us His Law for no otherend. The Law of God is great; it is broad.King David said that he found his delight init, and that it was a trearnue more precious tohim than the greatest riches. He mid alsothat he walked at large, because he had soughtafter the commandmente of the Lord. The

SPIEIT OF TEE C& OF 89good God wishes, then, to make us happy, andwe do not wish to be so. We turn away fromHim, and give ourselves to the devil ! We fly&om our. Friend, and we seek after our murdererI We commit sin; we plunge ourselvesinto the mire. Once sunk in this mire, weknow not how to get out. If our fortune werein the case, we should soon find out how to getout of the difficulty; but because it only concernsour soul, we stay where we are.We come to confession quite preoccupiedwith the shame that we shall feel. We accuseomelves by steam. It is said that many confess,and few are converted. I believe it isso, my children, because few confess with teareof repentance. .See, the misfortune is that people do notreflect. If one said to those who work onSundays, to a young person who had beendancing for two or three hours, to a man comingout of an alehouse drunk, " What have youbeen doing? You have been crucifying ourLord 1" they would be quite astonished, becausethey do not think of it. My children, ifwe thought of it, we should be seized with horror;it would be impossible for us to do evil.For what haa the good God done to ua that weshould grieve Him thus, and put Him to deathafresh-Him, who haa redeemed ua from hell ?

It would be well if all sinners, when they aregoing to their guilty pleasures, could, like St.Peter, meet our Lord on the way, who would sayto them, " I am going to that place where thouart going thyself, to be there crucified afresh."Perhaps that might make them reflect.The saints understood how great an outragesin is against God. Some of them passed theirlives in weeping for their sins. St. Peter weptall his life; he was still weeping at his death.St. Bernard used to say, "Lord ! Lord ! it isI who fastened Thee to the cross I"By sin we despise the good God, we crucifythe good God ! What a pity it is to lose oursouls, which have coat our Lord so many suffering!What harm has our Lord done us, thatwe should treat Him so ? If the poor lost eoulecould come back to the earth! if they were inour place!Oh, how senseless we are I the good God callaus to Him, and we fly from Him! He wishesto make us happy, and we will not have Hiehappiness. He commands us to love Him, andwe give our heart to the devil. We employ inruining ourselves the time he gives us to saveour souls. We make war upon Him withthe means He gave UE to serve Him.When we offend the good God, if we were tolook at our crucifix, we qhould hear our Lord

saying to us in the depths of our soul, " Wiltthou too, then, take the side of My enemies?Wilt thou crucify Me afresh?" Cast your eyeson our Lord fsstened to the Cross, and say toyourself, " l'hat is what it cost my Saviour torepair the injury my ains have done to God!"A God coming down to earth to be the victimof our sins, a Qod ssering, a God dying, aC*od enduring every torment, because He wouldbear the weight of our crimes l At the sight ofthe Cross, let us understand the malice of sin,and the hatred we ought to feel for it. Let usenter into ourselves ; let us see what we can doto make amends for our poor life."What a pity it is!" the good God will sayto ns at our death ;'' why hast thou offendedMe-Me, who loved thee so much 3" To offendthe good God, who has never done us any thingbut good ; to please the devil, who can neverdo us any thing but evil! What folly !Is it not real folly to choose to make ourselvesworthy of hell by attaching ourselves tothe devil, when we might taste the joys ofheaven, even in this life, by uniting ourselveswith God by. love? One cannot understandthis folly ; it cannot be enough lamented. Poorsinners seem as if they could not wait for thesentence which will condemn them to the societyof the devils; they condemn themselves to it.

92 SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS.There is a eort of foretaste in this life ofparadise, of hell, and of purgatory. Purgatoryis in those souls that are not dead to themselves;hell is in the heart of the impious;paradise in that of the perfect, who are closelyunited to our Lord.xv.ON THE SAME SUBJECT.HE who lives in sin takes up the habits andthe appearance of the beasts. The beast, whichhas not reason, knows nothing but ita appetites.So the man who makes himself like the beastsloses his reason, and lets himself be guided bythe inclinations of his body. He takes hispleasure in good eating and drinking, and inenjoying the vanities of the world; which passaway like the wind. I pity the poor wretcheswho run after that wind; they gain very little,they give a great deal for very little profit,-they give their eternity for the miserablesmoke of the world.My children, how sad it is! when a soul is ina state of sin, it may die in ,that state ; andeven now, whatever it can do is without meritbefore God. That is the reason why the devil

BPUlT OF TBE CUR$ OF ABS. 93is so pled when a soul is in sin, and perseveresin it, because he thinks that it isworking for him, and that if it were to die hewould have possession of it.When we are insin, our soul is all diseased, all rotten ;. . . it ispitiful. ... Thethought that thegood God sees itought to make it enter into itself. ... And then,what pleasure is there in sin ?None at all.We have frightful dreams that the devil iscarrying us away, that we are falling overprecipices. . . . Put yourself on good terms withGod; have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance;you will sleep as quietly as an angel.You will be glad to waken in the night, topray to God; you will have nothing but thanksgivingaon your lips ; you will rise towardsheaven with great facility, as an eagle soarsthrough the air.See, my children, how sin degrades man ; ofan angel created to love God it makes a demonwho will curse Him for all eternity. Ah !.ifAdam, our first father, had not sinned, and ifwe did not sin every day, how happy we shouldbe! we should be as happy as the saints iuheaven. There would be no more unhappypeople on the earth. Oh, how beautiful itwould be !In fact, my children, it is sin that bringsupon ua'all calamitiee, all scourges, war, famine,

94 SPIRIT OF TEE CU& OF hB&pestilence, earthquakes, hs,frost, hail, storms,-all that afflicts us, all that makes us miserable.See, my children, a person who is in a stateof sin is always sad. Whatever he does, he isweary and disgusted with every thing; while hewho is at peace with God is always happy,always joyous. . . . Oh, beautiful life ! Oh,beautiful death !My children, we are afraid of death; I canwell believe it. It is sin that makes us afraidof death; it is sin that renders death frightful,formidable; it is sin that terrifies the wickedat the hour of the fearful passage. Alas ! 0God ! there is reason enough to be terrified, tothink that one i~ accuraed~ccursed of God IIt makes one tremble. Accursed of God ! andwhy 3 for what do men expose themselves tobe accursed of God 7 For a blasphemy, for abad thought, for a bottle of wine, for two minutesof pleasure ! For two minutes of pleasureto lose God, one's soul, heaven, for ever ! Weshall see going up to heaven, in body and soul,that father, that mother, that sister, that neighl~our,who were here with us, with whom we .have lived, but whom we have not imitated;while we shall go down body and soul to burnin hell. The devils will rush to overwhelm us.All the devils whose advice we followed willcome to torment us.

SPIEXT OF TEE CUB& OF AM. 95My children, if you saw a man prepare agreat pile of wood, heaping up fagots one uponanother, and when you asked him what he wasdoing, he were to answer you, " I am preparingthe fire that is to burn me," what wouldyou think ? And if you aaw this same manset fire to the pile, and when it was lightedthrow himself upon it, what would you say ?This is what we do when we commit sin. Itia not God who casts us into hell; we cast ourselvesinto it by our sins. The lost soul willsay, I have lost God, my soul, and heaven;it is through my fault, through my fault,through my most grievous fault !" He willraise himself out of the fire only to fall backinto it.He will always feel the desire of risingbecause he was created for God, the greatest,the highest of beings, the Most High, . . . aa abird shut up in a room flies to the ceiling, andfalls down again; the justice of God is the ceilingwhich keeps down the lost.There is no need to prove the existence ofhell. Our Lord Himself speaks of it when Herelatea the history of the wicked riclr man whocried out, LL Lazarus ! Lazarus I" We knowvery well that there is a hell, but we live as ifthere were not; we sell our soule for a fewpieces of money. We put off our conversiontill the hour of death; but who can assure us

9 6 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ARB.that we shall have time or strength at that formidablemoment, which has been feared by allthe saints-when hell will gather itself up for alast assault upon us, seeing that it is the decisivemoment? There are many people wholose the faith, and never see hell 611 they enterit. The Sacraments are administered to them;but ask them if they have committed such asin, and they will answer you, "Oh I settlethat as you please." . . .Some people offend the good God everymoment; their heart is an ankhill of sins: itis like a spoilt piece of meat, half-eaten byworms. . . .No, indeed; if sinners were to think of eternity-ofthat terrible FOR EVER !-they would beconverted instantly. Gain has been in hellnearly six thousand years, and he is only justentering it.XVI.CATECHISM ON PRIDE.PRIDE is that accursed sin which drove theangels out of paradise, and hurled them intohell. This ein began with the world.See, lily childran, we sin by pride ia-y

SPIRIT OP TEE C& OP ABS. 97, wap A person may be proud in hie clothes,m his language, in his gesturee, even in hismanner of walking. Some persons, when theyare in the streets, walk along proudly, andeeem to say to the people they meet, " Lookhow tall, how upright I am, how well I walkl". . . Othera, when they have done any goodaction, are never tired of talking of it ; and ifthey fail in any thing, they are miserable, becamethey think people will have a bad opinionof them; . . . others are carry to be.seen withthe poor, if they meet with any body of consequence;they always seeking the companyof the rich; . .. . if, by chance, they are noticedby the great people ofthe world, they boast andare vain of it. Others take pride in speaking.If they go to see rich people, they consider whatthey are going to say, they study fine language;and if they make a mistake of a word, they arevery much vexed, because they are afraid ofbeing laughed at. But, my children, with ahumble person it is not so . . . whether he islaughed at or esteemed, or praised or blamed,whether he is honoured or despised, whetherpeople pay attention to him or pass him by,it is all the same to him.My children, there are again people whogive great alms, that they may be well thoughtof--that will not do1 These. people will, reapa

SPIRIT OF THE CUR6 OF AR&no fruit from their good works. On the contrary,their alms will turn into sins.We put pride into every thing, like salt. Welike to see that our pod works are known. Ifour virtues are seen, we are pleased; if ourfaults are perceived, we are sad. I remarkthat in a great many people; if one sap anything to them, it disturbs them, it annoys them.The saints were not like that-they were vexedif their virtues were known, and pleased thattheir imperfections should be seen.A proud person thinke every thing he does iswell done; he wants to domineer over all thosewho have to do with him; he is always right,he always thinks his own opinion better thanthat of otliers ; . . . . that will not do I Ahumble and well-taught person, if he is aekedhis opinion, gives it at once, and then letsothers speak. Whether they are right orwhether they are wrong, he says nothing more.When St. Aloysiun Gon2aga was a student,he never sought to excuse himself when hewas reproached with any thing; he aaid whathe thought, and troubled himself no furtherabout what others might think : if he was wrong,he was wrong ; if he was right, he aaid to himself,'' I have certainly been wrong some othertime.". My children, the saints were so completely

dead to themselves, that they cared very littlewhether othera agreed with them. People in-the world say, "Oh, the saints were simpletonal"Yes, they were simpletons in worldlythii ; but in the things of God they werevery wise. They understood nothing aboutworldly matters, to be sure, because theythought them of so little importance that theypaid no attention to them.CATECHISM ON IMPURITY.EAT we may understand how horrible anddetestable is this sin, which the demons makeus commit, but which they do not committhemselves, we must consider what a Christianis. . . . A Christian, crkted in the image ofGod, redeemed by the Blood of a God I aChristian, the child of God, the brother of aQod, the heir of a God l a Christian, theobject of the complacency of the Three DivinePersons! a Christian, whose body is thetemple of the Holy Ghost; that is what sin dishonours.We are created to reign one day in haven,-md if we have the dfbrtune to commit thie

180 EPIRIT OF TEE C& OF AW.sin, we become the den of the devils. OurLord said that nothing impure should enterinto His kingdom. Indeed, how could a soulthat haa rolled itaelf in this filth go to appearbefore so pure and so holy a God ?We are all like little mirrors, in which Godcontemplatee Himself. How. can you expectthat God should recogniae His likeness in animpure sod?There are some souls so dead, so rotten, thatthey lie in their defilement without perceivingit, and can no longer clear themselves from it:every thing leads them to evil, every thing remindsthem of evil, even the most holy things;they always have these abominations beforetheir eyee; like the unclean animal that isaccustomed to live in filth, that is happy in it,that rolls itself and goes to sleep in it, thatgrunts in the mud ; these persons are an objectof horror in the eyes of God and of the holyangels.See, my children: our Lord was crownedwith thorn to expiate our sins of pride; butfor this accursed sin, He was scourged and tornto pieces, since ,He mid Himself that after ZIiPflagellation all His bones might be counted.0 my children, if there were not some pure-11s here and there, to make amends to the' God, and disarm Hia justice, you would

,see how we should be punished! . . . For now,BPIBIT OF TEE CUR^ OF AR8. 101this crime is so common in the world, that it isenough to make one tremble. One may say,my children, that hell vomits forth its abominationsupon the earth, as the chimneys of thesteam-engine vomit forth smoke.The devil does all he can to defile our soul,and yet our soul is every thing; . . . our bodyie only a heap of corruption: go to the cemeteryto see what you love, when you love your body.As I have often told you, there is nothingso vile as the impure soul. There was once asaint who had asked the good God to show himone; and he saw that poor soul like a deadbeset that has been dragged through the streetam the hot sun for a week.By only looking at a person, we know if heis pure. Hk eyes have an air of candour andmodesty which leads you to the good God.&me people, on the contrary, look quite inflamedwith passion. . . . Satan places himselfin their eyes to make others fall and to leadthem to evil.Those who have loat their purity are like rpiece of cloth stained with oil; you may washit and dry it, and the stain always appearsagain: so it requires a miracle to cleanse theimpure soul.

CATEEXSM ON CONFESSION.MY children, as soan as ever you have a littlespot upon your soul, you must do like a pereonwho has a fine globe of glass, which he keepvery carefully. If this globe has a little dueton it, he wipes it with a sponge the moment heperceives it, and there is the globe clear andbrilliant. In the same way, as soon as you perceivea little stain on your soul, take some holywater with respect, do one of those good worksto which the remission of venial sins ia at-tached-analms, a gendexion to the BleesedSacrament, hearing a Mass. . . .My children, it is like a pereon who has aslight illness; he need not go and see a doctor, hemay cure himself without. If he has a headache,he need only go to bed ; if he is hungry, hehaa only to eat. But if it is a serious illnesa, ifit is a dangerous wound, he must have thedoctor; after the doctor come the .remedim.In the same way, when we have Men intomy grievous sin, we must have recouree tothe doctor, that ia the priest; and to theremedy, that is confession.My children, we cannot comprehend the goodneaeof God tow& na in instituting thie geat

Sacrament of Penance. If we had had a favourto ask of our Lord, we should never havethought of asking Him that. But He foresawour frailty and our inconstancy in welldoing,and His love induced Him to do whatwe should not have dared to ask.If one said to those poor lost souls that havebeen so long in hell, '' We are going to placea priest at the gate of hd : all those whowish to confess have only to go out," do youthink, my children, that a single one wouldremain? The most guilty would not be afraidof telling their 8ins, nor even of telling thembefore all the world. Oh, how soon hell wouldbe a desert, and how heaven would be peopled !Well, we have the time and the means whichhone poor lost souls have not. And I am quit.sure that these wretched ones say in hell, " 0accursed priest, if I had never known you, Iahould not be so guilty I"It ie a beautiful thought, my children, thatwe have a Elacrament which heah the woundsof our soul ! But we must receive it with gooddispositions. Otherwise we make new woundsupon the old ones. What would you say of aman covered with wounds, who ia advised togo to the hospital to show himself to the surgeon?The surgwn cures him by giving him~ e c h But, , behold! this man takes 4ia

104 spm OF T ~ cud E OF aaaknife, gives himself great blows with it, Bndmakes himself worse than he was before. Well,that is what you often do after leaving theconfmsional.My children, some people make bad oonfessionswithout taking any notice of it. Thesepersona say, 'L I do not know what is the matterwith me." . . . They are tormented, and they do.not know why. They have not that agilitywhich makes one go straight to the good God;.they have something heavy and weary aboutthem which fatigues them. My children, thatis because of sins that remain, often even venialsins, for which one has some affection. Thereare some people who, indeed, tell every thing,but they have no repentance ; and they go atonce to Holy Communion. Thus the Blood ofour Lord is profaned 1 They go to the HolyTable with a sort of weariness. They say,6L Yet, I accused myself of all my sins. . . . I donot know what is the matter with me." Thereis an unworthy commutlion, and they werehardly aware of it !My children, some people again probe theSacrament8 in another manner. They haveconcealed mortal sins for ten yeare, for twentyyears. They are always uneaay; their sin isalways preeent to their mind; they are alwaysthinking of confe8sing. it, and always putting $,

8WT OF THE CUBS OF ARB, 105d; it is a hell. When these people feel this,$hey will ask to make a general confession, andthey will tell their.mns as if they had just committedthem; they will not confess that theyhave hidden them during ten yeare-twentyyears. That ia a bad confession1 ... They oughtto say, besides, that they had given up thepractice of their religion, that they no longerfelt the pleasure they had formerly in servingthe good God.My children, we run the riak again of profaningthe Sacrament, if we seize the momentwhen there is a noise round the confessional totell the sins quickly which give us most pain.We quiet ourselves by saying, " I accused my-self properly; so much the worse if the confessordid not hear." So much the worse for youwho acted cunningly! . . . At other times wespeak quickly, profiting by the moment whenthe prieat is not very attentive to get over thegreat sins.Take a house which has been for a longtime very dirty and neglected-it is in vain tosweep it out, there will always be a nasty smell.It ia the same with our soul after confession; itrequires teere to purify it.My children, we must ask earnestly for re-A hpentance. confession, we muet plant athorn ip ow he@, and never bee sight of our

ah. We mwt do ss the angel did to St.Francis of Assiai ; he fixed in him five darts,which never came out a@.CATECHIBM ON TEE CIBDWAL VIRTWB.PRUDENCE shows UE what is most pleaeing toGod, and most useful to the salvation of oursoul. We mwt always choose the most perfect.Two good works present themselves tobe done, one in favour of a person we love, theother in favour of a person who has done ussome harm; well, we must give the preferenceto the latter.There is no merit in doing good, when anatural feeling leads us to do it. A lady wishingto have a widow to live with her to takecare of, asked St. Athanasius to find her oneamong his poor.Afterwards meeting theBishop, she reproached him that he had treatedher ill, because thii person was too good, andgave her nothing to do by which she couldgain heaven; and she begged him to give heranother. The saint chose the worst he couldha; of a cme, grumbling temy, nevq

B P OF THE ~ CUBE OF ARS. 107mtided with what waa done for her.This is@ way we mu& act, for there +I no greatmerit in doing good to one who vahee it, who.thanks us and is grateful.There are some persona who think they arenever treated well enough; they seem as if theyhad a right to every thing. They are never ,pleased with what is done for them; they repayevery body with ingratitude. . . . Well1 thoseare the people to whom we should do good bypreference. We must be prudent in all. ouractions, and seek not our own taste, but whatis most pleasing to the good God. Supposeyou have a franc that you intend to give for aMas; you see a poor family in distress, inwant of bread: it is better to give your moneyto these wretched people, because the HolySacrifice will still be offered; the priest will notfail to say holy Mass; while these poor peoplemay die of hunger. . . . You would wish topray to the good God, to pass your whole dayin the church ; but you think it would be veryuseful to work for some poor people that youknow, who are in great need; that is muchmore pleasing to God than your day .passedbefore the holy tabernacle.Temperance is another cardinal virtue; wecan be temperate in the use of our imagination,by not letting it gallop as fast ae it woJf'.

wish; we can be temperate with our eyes,temperate with our mouth-mme people constantlyhave something sweet and pleasant intheir mouth; we can be temperate with ourears, not allowing them to listen to uselessmugs and conversation ; temperate in smelling--come people perfume themaelvw to sucha degree aa to make those about them sick;temperate with the hands-aome people arealways waehing them 'when it ia hot, andhandling things that are soft to the touch. . . .In short, we can practise temperance with ourwhole body, thie poor machine, by not lettingit run away like a horse without bit or bridle,but checking it and keeping it down. b epeople lie buried there, in their beds; . . .they are glad not to sleep, that they may thebetter feel how comfortable they are. Thesaints were not like that. I do not know howwe are ever to get where they are. . . . Well 1if we are saved, we shall stay infinitely longin purgatory, while they will fly straight toheaven to see the good God.That great saint, St. Charles Borromeo, hadin hi .apartment a he cardinal's bed, whichevery body saw; but, beeidea that, there wasone which nobody could see, made of bundlesof wood; and that was the one he made nse of.Be never warmed himself; when people cay

SPIRIT OR THE c d OF ABS. 109to see him, they remarked that he placed himselfsoaa not to feel the fire. That is whatthe saints were like. They lived for heaven,and not for earth : they were all heavenly ;aud as for us, we are a11 earthly.Oh, how I like those little mortificationsthat are seen by nobody, such as rising aqusrter of an hour sooner, rising for a littlewhile in the night to pray! but some peoplethink of nothing but sleeping.There was once a solitary who had built himselfa royal palace in the trunk of an oak-tree;he had placed thorns inside of it, and he hadfastened three stones over his head, so thatwhen he raised himself or turned over hemight feel the stones or the thorns, And we,we think of nothing but finding good beds, thatwe may sleep at our ease.We may refrain from warming ourselves; ifwe are sitting uncomfortably, we need not tryto place ourselves better; if we are walking inour garden, we may deprive ourselves of somefruit that we should Like; in preparing thefood, we need not eat the little bits that offerthemselves ; we may deprive ourselves of seeingsomething pretty, which attracts our eyes,especially in the streets of great towns. Thereis, a gentleman who sometimes coma he. Hewears two pairs of spec~les, that he may see

110 SPIRIT OF THE CU& OF AM.nothing. . . . But some heads are always himotion, some eyes are always looking about. . . When we are going along the streets, ietus fix our eyea on our Lord carrying His crossbefore us ; on the BldVirgin, who is lookingat UB ; on our guardian angel, who is by ouraide. How beautifid is this interior life1 Itunites us with the good God. . . . Therefore,when the devil sees a soul, that is seeking toattain to it, he triea to turn him aside from itby Ung his imagination with a thousandhcies. A good Chrietian doea not listen tethat; he goes always forward in perfection, likea fish plunging into the depths of the sea . . .As for us, alae I we drag ourselves along like aleech in the mud.There were two eainte in the desert, who hadmed thorns into all their clothes; and weeeek for nothing but comfort1 Yet we wiah togo to heaven, but with all our luxuries, withouthaving any annoyance; that is not theway the saints acted. They sought every wayof mortifping themselves, and in the midst ofall their privations they tasted infinite meet-nw. How happy are those who love the goodGod 1 They do not lose a Bingle opportunitJrof doing good; misen employ all the means intheir power to increase their treaanre; they do7 name for the richea of haven-they.. a&

SPlBTT OF THE C d OF US. 111always heaping. up. . . . We shall be aurpriedat the Day of Judgment to see souls so' rich !XX.CATECHISM ON HOPE.MY children, we are going to speak ofhope :this is what makes the happiness of man onearth. Some people in this world hope toomuch, and others do not hope enough. Somesay, "I am going to commit this sin again.It It not cost me more to confess four thanthree." It is like a child saying to his father,cL I am going to give you four blows ; it willcost me no more than to give you one : I shallonly have to ask your pardon."That is the way pen behave towards thegood Cfod. They say, $'This year I shallamuse m self again ; I shall go to dances andto the 9 ehouse, and next year I wiU be converted.The good God will be sure to receiveme, when I choose tcr return to Him. He isnot so cruel ae the ptiests tell us." . . . Noibegood God is not cruel, but He is just. Dothink he will adapt Himself in every thingA your will ? Do you think tht He will

112 SPIRIT OF THE CUB& OF AB8.embrace you, after you have despised fIimall your life 7 Oh, no, indeed 1 There is acertain meaeure of grace and of sin sfter whichGod withdraws Himself. What would you sayof a father who should treat a good child, andone not eo good, in the same manner 7 Youwould say, this father is not just. Well l Godwould not be just if He made no differencebetween those who serve Em and those whooffend Him.My children, there is so little faith now inthe world, that people either hope too much, orthey despair. Some say, "1 have done toomucb evil ; the good God cannot pardon me."My children, this is a great blasphemy ; it isputting a limit to the mercy of God, which baano limit-it is infinite. You may have doneevil enough to lose the souls of a whole parish,and if you confess, if you are sorry for havingdone this evil, and resolve not to do it again, thegood God will have pardoned you.A priest was once preaching on hope, andon the mercy of the good God. He r e a dothers, but he himself despaired. ARer thesermon, a young man presented himaelf, saying,LL Father, 1 am come to confess to you." Thepriest answered, '' I am Willing to hear your confasion."The other recounted his sins ; afterwhich he added, "Fsthty, I have done mu&

evil; I am lost P . . . What do you say, myfriend P we must never despair." . . . Theyoung man rose, saying, LLFather, you wishme not to despair, and what do you do Y' ThiaiPaa a ray of light ; the priest, all astonishment,drove away that thought of despair, became areligious and a great eaint. . . . The good1 Gad had sent him an angel under the formof a young man, to show him that we mustnever despair.The good God is as prompt to grant us pardonwhen we ask it of Him, ns a mother is tosnatch her child out of the fire.XXI.'CATECHISM ON SUFFERING.WHETHER we will or no, we must suffer.There are some who suffer like the good thief,and others like the bad thief. They bothwffered equally. But one knew how to makehis sufferings meritorious ; he accepted them inthe spirit of reparation, and turning towardsjesus crucified, he received from His mouththeae beautiful words : This day thou shaltbe with Me in Paradiee." The other, on thehtrary, cried out, uttered imprecations andT

lasphemies, and expired in the moet frigh+ful despair. .,There are two ways of suffering-to suffqwith love, and to suffer without love. 'J%paainta dered every thing with joy, patience,and pemevace, because they loved. As fvus, we suffer with anger, vexation, and wear+neas, because we do not love. If we lovedGod,.we should love crosses, we should wishfor them, we should take pleasure in them. . . .We should be happy to be able to suffer for thelove of Him who lovingly suffered for us. Ofwhat do we complain ? Alas 1 the poor infideb,who have not the happiness of knowiqgGod and His infinite loveliness, have the samecrosses that we have; but they have not theaame consolations.You say it is hard 3 No, it is easy, it isconsoling, it is sweet; it is happineas. Onlywe must love while we der, and suffer whilewe love.On the Way of the Crcws, yon see, mychildren, only the first Btep is painful.Ourgreatest cross. is the fear of crosses. . . . Wehave not the courage to carry our cross, andwe are very much mistaken ; fbr, whatever wedo, the cross holds ~ur tight-we cannot escapeh m it. What, then, have we to lose? Why7t love our CIWIBW, and make use of them to

epm OF m c d OF ARB. 1151 *e as to heaven ? . . . But, on the contrary,most men turn their backs upon crosses, and'1By before them. The more they m, the more:the cross pursues them, the more it strikes and.crashes them with burdens. . . . If you werewise, you would go to meet it like St. Andrew,who said, when he saw the cross prepared for'-him and raised up into the air, Hail, 0 goodcross I 0 admirable cross ! 0 desirable cross!receive me into thy arms, withdraw me fromamong men, and restore me to my Master, whoredeemed me through thee."Listen attentively to this, my children: He'who goes to meet the cross,goes in the oppositedirection to crosses; he meeta them, perhaps,but he ia pleased to meet them; he loves them;he carries them courageously. They unitehim to our Lord; they purify him; they de-,tach him from this world ; they remove allobstacles from his heart ; they help him topass through life, as a bridge helps us to passover water. . . . Look at the saints; whenthey were not persecuted, they persecuted themeelves.. . . A good religious complained one. day to our Lord that he was persecuted. Heaid, 0 Lord, what have I done to be treatedthus ?" Our Lord answered him, And I, whathad I done when I was led to Calvary 1"'. . .Then the religious understood ; he wept, he

I116 SPIRIT OF TEE C U OF ~ ARB.asked pardon, and dared not complain anymore.Worldly people are miserable when theyhave crosses, and good Christians are miserablewhen they have none. The Christian lives inthe midst of crosses, as the fish lives in theaea.Look at St. Catherine ; she has two crowns,that of purity and that of martyrdom: howhappy she is, that dear little saint, to havechosen to suffer rather than to consent to sin fThere was once a religious who loved sufferingso much, that he had fastened the rope from awell round his body ; this cord had rubbed offthe skin, and had by degrees buried itself inthe flesh, out of which worms came. Thereligious asked that he should be sent out of thecommunity. He went away happy and pleased,to hide himself in a rocky cavern. But thesame night the superior heard our Lord sayingto him : IL Thou hast lost the treasure of thyhouse." Then they went to fetch back thisgood saint, aud they wanted to see from whencethese worms came. The superior had the cordstaken off, which was done by turning back theflesh. At last he got well.Very near this, in a neighbouring parish,there was a little boy in bed covered withsores, very ill, and very miserable; I said to

SPIRIT OF THE CURE OF ARS. 117.4im, " My poor little child, you are suffering, fery much I" He answered me, " No, sir ; todayI do not feel the pain I had yesterday, andto-momw I shall not suffer from the pain Ihave now!' (' You would like to get well 7"" No ; I was naughty before I was ill, and Imight be so again. I am very well as I am.". . . . It was vinegar indeed, but there wasmore oil. . . . We do not understand that, be-cause we are too earthly. Children in whomthe Holy Ghost dwells put us to shame.If the good God sends us crosses, we resist,we complain, we murmur ; we are so averse towhatever contradicts us, that we want to bealways in a box of cotton : but we ought to beput into a box of thorns. It is by the Crosuthat we go to heaven. Illnesses, temptations,troubles, are so many crosses which take usto heaven. All this will soon be over. . . .Look at the saints, who have arrived therebefore us. . . . The good God does not requireof us the martyrdom of the body ; Herequires only the martyrdom of the heart, andof the will. . . . Our Lord is our model ; letour cross, and follow Him. Let usIu do "ice like 9P e soldiers of Napoleon. They had tocross a bridge under the fire of grape-shot ;no one dared to pass it. Napoleon tookthe colours, marched over first, and they all

118 SPIRIT OF THE CUR* OF ABS.followed.Let us do the same; let us followour Lord, who has gone before us.A soldier was telling me one day, that duringa battle he had marched for half an hour overdead bodies ; there was hardly space to treadupon ; the ground was all dyed with bloodThus on the road of life we must walk OVMcrosses and troubles to reach our true country.The cross is the ladder to heaven. . . . HOWconsoling it ,k to mffer under the eyes of God,and to be able to say in the evening, at our examinationof conscience: L' Come, my soul ! thouhast had to-day two or three hours of resemblanceto Jesus Christ. Thou ha& been scourged,crowned with thorns, crucified with Hi In . . .Oh, what a treasure for the hour of death!. . . How sweet it is to die, when we have lidon the cross !We ought to run after crosses as the mimruns after money. . . Nothing but crosses willreassure us at the Day of Judgment Whenthat day shall come, we ahd be happy in ourmisfortunes, proud of our humiliations, andrich in our sacrifices 1If some one said to you, LLI should like tobecome rich ; what must I do 3" you wouldanswer him, LL You must labour." Well, morder to get to heaven, we must der. OniLord shows ns the way in the person of

I SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ARS. 119the Cyrenian ; He calls His friends to carryHis cross after Him.The good God wishes us never to lose sightbf the Cross, therefore it is placed every where ;by the roadside, on the heights, in the publiceqnsrres-in order that at the sight of it we maymy, See how God has loved us 1"The Cross embraces the world ; it is plantedat the four cornera of the world; there is ashare of it for all.. Croeses are on the road to heaven like a finebridge of stone over a river, by which to paesit. Christians who do not der; pass thisriver by a frail bridge, a bridge of wire, alwaysready to give way under their feet.He who doea not love the Cross may indeedbe saved, but with great diculty : he will bea little star in the firmament. He who shallhave suffered and fought for his God will shineBike a beautiful sun.Croesw, transformed by the flames of love, arelike a bundle of thorns thrown into the Sre, andreduced by the fire to ashes. The thorn arehard, but the ashes are soft.Oh, how much sweetness do souls experience.&at are all for God in suffering I It is like amixture into which one puts a deal of oil : the+negar remains vinegar; but the oil correcteLkbitternees, and it can scarcely be perceived.

If you put fine grapes into the winepreae,there will come out a delicious juice : our soul,in the wine-press of the Cross, gives out a juicethat nourishes and strengthens it.When wehave no crossea, we are arid : if we bear themwith resignation, we feel a joy, a happineas, asweetness ! . . . it is the beginning of heaveltThe good God, the Blessed Virgin, the angelr,and the aainte, surround us ; they are by ourside, and see us. The passage to the other life, ofthe good Christian tried by fiction, ia likethat of a pereon being carried on a bed of rosee.Thorns give out perfume, and the Croerbreathes forth sweetness. But we must squeezethe thorns in our hands, and press the Cross toour heart, that they may give out the juicethey contain.The Crosa gave peace to the world ; and itmust bring peace to our hearts. All ourmiseries come from our not loving it. Thefear of crosses increases them. A cross carriedsimply, and without those returns of self-lovewhich exaggerate troubles, is no longer a cross.Peaceable suffering is no longer suffering. Wecomplain of suffering ! we should have muchmore reason to complain of not suffering, sincenothing makes us more like our Lord thancarrying His cross. Oh, what a beautifulunion of the soul with our Lord Jesus Christ

y the love and the virtue of His Cross ! I donot understand how a Christiau cau dislike theCross, and fly from it I does he not at the sametime fly from Him who has deigned to betirstened to it, and to die for us ?Contradictions bring us to the foot of theCross, and the Cross to the gate of heaven.That we may get there, we must be troddenupon, we must be set at naught, despised,crushed. . . . There are no happy people inthis world but those who enjoy calmness ofmind in the midst of the troubles of life : theytaste the joy of the children of God. . . . Allpains are sweet when we suffer in union withour Lord. . . .To suffer ! what does it signify ? It is onlya moment. If we could go and pass a week inheaven, we should understand the value of thiamoment of suffering. We should find no crossheavy enough, no trial bitter enough. . . . TheCross is the gift that God makes to His friends.How beautiful it is to offer ourselves everymorning in sacriiice to the good God, and toaccept every thing in expiation of our sins !. . . We must ask for the love of crosses ; thenthey become sweet. I tried it for four or fiveyears. I was well calumniated, well contradicted,well knocked about. Oh, I had crossesindeed I I had almost more than I could carry !

Then I took to asking for love. of crosses, andI was happy. I said to myself, Truly there isno happinem but in this 1 . . . We mustnever think from whence crosses come : theycome from God. It is alwaye God who givesus this way of proving our love to Him.

"PART 11.TI?E CUR$ OF ARS IN HIS HOMILIES.Tam who have heard M. Vianney only in his' catechisms do but half know him. They knowthe infused light, the supernatural grace, theeolidity, transparency, depth, and originality of. his discourses ; but they do not know their life,their fie, and their unction. It was in hisSunday homilies that the mieeionary, the apostolicman, the oracle, the inspired prophet, theaaint consumed by zeal for the salvation ofsouls, ehowed himself under a rare and inimitableaspect, in all the power and fascination ofhie individual character. They were distinguishedby a mixture of loRiness and tenderness,of lively and ardent faith, of impetuouszeal, which gave the preacher such power andunction as to produce the strongest emotions inhie hearers. Hence thoae marvellous effectethat have been so o h observed at Ars; thatchange of heart, that submission of the will,those team, that deep emotion, which beganbefore the pulpit, and wae completed in thesecret intercourse of the confessional.The eloquence of hia voice was enhanced by

the eloquence of his personal appearance. Hiebroad forehead, with its aureola of white hair,his bold profile, the beatific expression of theholy man's countenance, and, above all, theever-varying fire of his glance, gave him a sortof supernatural fascination, before which we.have often seen the proudest spirits bend, andscepticism declare itself conquered.The style which he adopted in his homilies interested,captivated, and instructed his hearers,whoever they might be. Yet we mnst own thatthe eloquence of the holy curb waa destitute ofall those extraneous ornaments which usuallycontribute so much to the success of a preacher.And this is another proof of the supernaturalpower and divine charms of the Gospel, which,when preached in all its simplicity, triumphsno lees over the poverty of him who announce8it, than over the various and often exaggeratedrequirements of those who listen to it.The love of our Lord is the principle of allvirtues. Like material fire, this heavenly firewarms and purifies the soul. Now, the surestway of kindling this fire in the heart of thefaithful is to explain to them the Gospel-thatbook of love-in everv line of which the Saviourshows Himself in ~ i' gentleneas, His patience,His humilitv : alwavs the Conaoler and the Friendof man, spiaking 6 him only of love, and per-

d n g him to devote himeelf entirely to Him,by returning Him love for love.We give here but incomplete extracts, whichhave at least the merit of fidelity; they reproducethe thoughts, and sometimes the expressionand figure of them, and they will suffice to givesn idea of this style of preaching.On the Feast of the Presentation, M. Vianneysaid :" Have you meditated on the love which consumedthe heart of the old man Simeon duringhL ecstasy P for surely he wss in ecstasywhen he held the Infant Jm in his arms IHe had asked the good God to let him see theSaviour of Israel, and God had promised thathe should. He passed fifty years in this expectation,longing for this moment with all hisheart, consumed by desire.When Mary andJoseph entered the Temple, God said to him,Here He is I' . . . Then, taking in hie armsand pressing to hi heart the Infant Jesus, whowas burning and consuming that heart, the goodold man cried, ' Now, 0 Lord, let me die 1' . . .Then he gave Jesua back to His Mother; hecould keep Him but for a moment. But we,my brethren, are we not much happier thanSimeon P We can keep Him always with us, ifwe will. . . . . He comes not only into ourarms, but into our hearts."

126 EP~T OF THE a d OF us.0 man, how happy thou art, but how littlethou knowest thy happinas ! If thou did$comprehend it, thou couldst not live. . . . Oh!no; certainly thou couldst not live I"(Heretears choked the voice of the holy curb.) ",Thouwouldst die of love. ... This God gives Himselfto thee. . . . Thbu canst carry Him away,if thou wilt-where thou wilt. . . . He is nowone with thee ! . . ."The rest of the sermon was nothing but aseries of exclamations, interrupted by teara andsobs. It often happened that the holy man wasobliged to stop, overcome by his emotion. Some-times his discourse was nothing but a cry, amblime cry, of love, of joy, or of grief. Weremember that, when he mas explaining theGospel of the Second Sunday in Lent, theecstasy of the Apostles on Mount Thaboi.brought to his mind the happiness of the soulthat is called to enjoy the clear vision of theSacred Humanity of our Lord in heaven ; andhe exclaimed, transported out of himself, L4 Weshall see Him 1 we shall see Him ! . . . 0 mybrethren! h'ave you ever thought of this? Weshall see God ! we shall see Him, in goodearnest ! we shall see Him as He is, . . . faceto face And for a quarter of an hour lieceased not to weep, and to repeat, '#,We shallsee Him ! we shall see Him !"

SPIBIT oP' THE CURB OF ARS. 127.. Another time, he had taken for the subject&,hie instruction the Last Judgment ; and suddnlystopping at the words of the terrible eenknce,"Depart from me, you cursed I" heburst out into team, sighs, and eobs, and could~nly repeat, " Cureed of God ! Oh, what ahorrible misfortune! Do yon understand, my.phijaren ? cureed of God, who can only bleee !cursed of God, who is all love ! cursed of Qod,.who i~ goodness itself 1 cursed of God I"The audience wee overwhelmed.His discoursea were sometimes coloured bycontemporary events, and reflected by turns thejoy and the sadness of his soul.He said, in 1849 :" It Beems that in the absence of His Vicar,our Lord comee Himaelf upon the earth; Hereassumes Fib Humanity, to show Himself to.men. For you have heard of the new miraclewhich has lately taken place at Rome. Theyhad exposed the veil with which St. Veronicawiped the holy Face of our Lord, but whichwas almost effaced by time. While the Cardinalswere kneeling before this divine Image,.all the holy Face was seen to reappear, sad,and shedding tears. There are some who willhot believe it; can s blind man distinguishcolom ? By this apparition and these tears,our Lord said to the Cardinals, ' Where is My

128 EPIBIT OF TEE CUB^ OF ABS.Son, your Father ? He has been driven away;where is He?' As May said to St. Peterafter the death of Jesus, ' Where is your Fatherand my Son? I see Him no longer.' Our Lordwept for His Vicar, like a father who haa losthis son, like a husband who ha lost his spol~a.He worked this miracle on behalf of the Pope.How holy he must be ! Therefore, how pleasingto God must be the alms of those who give tothe Pope! You will always have the pooramong you, but you will not always have theopportunity of giving to the Holy Father. Youwill have a share in his holy prayers. OurLord has always shown deference to His Vicar;he is the keeper of all His treasures. So we cando nothing more pleasing to God than to prayfor him till he has returned to his States. Thicis what Jesus asks of UE by His tears."In 1830, having learnt that crosses had beenthrown down in some parts of France, " Theywill do it in vain !" cried he, in the middle ofhis catechism, with an energy and indignationwhich made a strong impression on his hearers ;LL they will do it in vain 1 The Cross is strongerthan they; they will not always overthrow it.When our Lord shall appear on the clouds ofheaven, they will not snatch it out of Hishands !"Three years after, God took Hia reprisals.

SPIRIT OF THE CUR^ OF AES. 129l'he cholera had visited Marseilles and Paris,and threatened Lyons. The holy Curb beganhis instruction with these serious words :" Mybrethren, God is going to sweep out the world1 "This simple sentence, and the tone of voice inwhich it was spoken, made ~uch an impressionupon an artist who heard it, that it was thebeginning of his conversion.HOMILY ON THE PARABLE OF THY COCKLE.You see, my brethren, in the Gospel of today,that the master of the field having sownhis seed on good soil, the enemy came while hewas asleep, and sowed cockle among it. Thismeans that God created man good and perfect,but that the enemy came and sowed sin. . . .There is the fall of Adam; a terrible fall, whichgave sin the entrance into the heart of man. . .There is the mixture of the good and the wicked:we see sin in the midst of virtues. . . .The cockle must be pulled up, do you say ?No, answers the Lord, for fear that in pullingup the cockle you should root up the goodcorn. Wait till the harvest. . . . The heartof man must thus rewain ti11 the end a mixtureK

130 SPIRIT OF THE cmd OF ARS.of good and evil, of vice and virtue, of light anddarkness, of good corn and cockle. . . . Thegood God has not willed to destroy this mixture,and to make for us a new nature, in which thereshould be nothing but good corn. He wills thatwe should fight, that we should labour, to preventt,he cockle from overpowering every thing.The devil is very anxious to sow temptation8under our feet; but with grace we can defeathim, we can choke the cockle. . . . The cockleconsists chiefly in impurity and pride. Withoutimpurity and pride, says St. Augustine, therewould not be much merit in resisting temptation.Three things are absolutely necessary againsttemptation : prayer to enlighten US, the Sacramentsto fortify us, and vigilance to preserveus. Happy are the souls that are tempted 1When the devil foresees that a soul is tendingtowards union with God, his rage is redoubled.. . . Oh, happy union! . . .[The rest of the homily wae lost in cries ofadmiration of the sweetness of the interior life,and of union with God.]

HOhilLY ON THE PARABLE OF THE LABOURERS.IT is said in the Gospel of to-day, my brethren,that the householder went out early in themorning to hire labourers to work in his vineyard.. . . Then there was no one yet in thisvineyard 7 Yes, my brethren, there was themost holy Virgin Mary, who was born in thatvineyard. . . . What is that vineyard? It isgrace; and the Blessed Virgin was born in it,since she was conceived without sin. . . .As for us, we have been called into it. TheLord of the vineyard sought for us, but theBlessed Virgin was always there. . . . Oh, beau-tiful labourer 1The good God could havemated a more beautiful world than that whichexists, but He could not have given being to acreature more perfect than Mary. . . . She isthe tower built in the midst of the vineyard ofthe Lord. . . .Here, my children, is a feeble comparison.You know those eggs that are in the sea,from which come little fish, which dart soswiftly through the waters. . . . In the sameway the Blessed Virgin, as soon as she iscreated, has the fulness of life, and swims inthe great ocean of grace. . . .Besides the Blessed Virgin, there was one.

132 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS.who was for a moment out of the vineyard, butwho was not long in entering it; that was .St.John Baptist. All others came after St. JohnBaptist, and the Lord of the vineyard had to goout to seek them.Who are the labourers of the first hour ?St. Aloysiua Gonzaga, St. Stanisla Kostka, St.Colette; . . . all those who entered into thevineyard by holy Baptism, and who never wentout of it, since they preserved their innocence.. . . Happy souls who can say to God, "0Lord, I have always belonged to Thee !" Oh,how beautiful, how grand it is to give one'syouth to God ! What a source of joy and hap. .piness !Then come those who give themselves to Godin the vigour of their life. They may still besincerely converted, and remain good and faith-ful labourers in the vineyard of the Lord. . . .But those poor hardened sinners, who pass theirlives far from God, who come to work in Hisvineyard when they are unable to do any thingelse, who wait to give up sin till sin gives themup, . . . oh, they are very much to bepitied!When a person has revelled for years and yearsin evil, when he has wallowed at his ease inthe mire of sin, it requires a miracle to makehim leave it. My brethren, let U8 aak for thismiracle for them. . . .

SPIRIT OF TEE cud OF ARS. 133[We seem to find here, in a simple form,adapted to a country audience, the method ofthe ancient Fathers; their broad and luminouamanner of interpreting and developing the senseof the Gospel-not stopping at the letter of it,but penetrating into the mysteries it contains,revealing its treasures of wisdom and of love,showing the harmony of the two Testaments,the accomplishment of prophecy, the relationsof the past and the future, of doctrines andcommandments.Every one will observe the beauty of thecomparison of the little fishes just hatchedswimming in the wide seas, with the BlessedVirgin plunged from her birth in the ocean ofdivine grace.]HOMILY ON THE GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY INLENT.OUR Divine Lord, having been our model inevery thing, would be our model in temptationalso. For this end He allowed Himself to beled into the desert.The good soldier has no fear of the battle,and so a good Christian ought to have no fear

134 SPIRIT OF TEE cud OF 15~8.of temptation. All soldiers are good in gar-.rison : on the field of battle we see the differencebetween the breve and the cowardly.The greatest of all temptat.ions ia to havenone. We may almost say that we are happyin having temptations ; it is the moment of thespiritual harvest, when we lay up stores .forheaven. It is like the time of harvest, whenwe rise very early, and take a great deal oftrouble; but we do not complain, because wegather in a great deal.The devil tempts only those souls that wishto abandon sin and those that are in a state ofgrace. The others belong to him : he has noneed to tempt them.A saint, passing one day before a convent,saw a quantity of devih tormenting the religious,without being able to succeed in seducing them.He passed afterwards by a town, and saw asingle one sitting down with his arms across,and guiding the whole population. Then thesaint asked him how he came to be alone in agreat town, while there were so many tormentinga handful of religious. The devil answeredhim that he wee quite enough for the town,because he tempted those who were alreadyinclined to hatred, impurity, drunkenness, andit was done in a moment ; while with the rdigiousit was more difficult. The army of deviln

SPIRIT OF TEE CUR* OF ARS. 135occupied in tempting them lost their time andtheir trouble; they could gain no ground. Sothey waited till others should come, who mightgrow weary of the austerity of the rule.In a monastery,. during the Holy Sacrifice,1one of the brothers saw devils prowling roundthose good religious. He saw one in particular .stamping on the head of a monk, and anotheradvancing and receding by turns. After Mass,this brother asked the two religious what hadoccupied their minds during Office. The firstraid he had thought of a floor he wanted tohave made in the convent; and the second saidthat the devil had come to attack him, but hehad always tried to drive him away. This iswhat all good Christians do; and, therefore,temptation is to them a source of merit.The most ordinary temptations are pride andimpurity. One of the best means by which wecan resist them is a life of activity for the gloryof God. Many people give themselves up toidleness and indulgence; so it is not surprisingthat the devil has them in his power.A religious complained to his superior ofbeing violently tempted. The superior orderedthe gardener and the cook to call him everymoment. Some time after, he asked him howhe was getting on. '' 0 father," he said, " Ihsve no time now to be tempted l"

1 136 SPIRIT OF THE CURB OF AM.If we were penetrated with the holy presenceof God, we should find it easy to resist theenemy. With this thought, Cod sees thee! weI . should never sin.IIThere was once a good saint-I think it waeSt. Teresa-who complained to our Lord a hhaving been tempted, and said to Him, 1L Wherewert Thou then, 0 my most loving Jesus, duringthat horrible tempest? Our Lord answeredher, LL I waa in the midst of thy heart, takingpleasure in seeing thee fight against it."At the moment of temptation we must firmlyrenew our baptismal promises. . . . Now listenwell to that. When you an! tempted, offer tothe good God the merit of that temptation, toobtain the opposite virtue. If you are temptedto pride, offer the temptation to obtain humility;that of immodest thoughts, to obtain purity;or charity, if it is against your neighborn.Offer also the temptation to obtain the conversionof sinners; that spites the devil and putshim to flight, because the temptation is turnedagainst himself : yes, after that he will be sure toleave you alone.A Christian ought always to be ready forbattle. As in time of war sentinels are alwaysplaced here and there to see if the enemy is approaching,so we ought to be alwaya on ourguard to see if the enemy is not laying snarea

SPIRIT OF THE CURE OF ARS. 187for us, and if he is not coming to surprise us.One of two things: a Christian either ruleshis inclinations, or his inclinations rule him;there is no medium. It is like two men takingeach other by the collar to try which is the~trongest - one will ' throw the other down.One will almost always end by overthrowingthe other ; and when he has him on the ground,with his foot upon his neck, he does not caremuch for him: he has the upper hand. So withour passions; the struggle is seldom equal,-either we guide our passions, or they guide us.My brethren, how sad it is to let ourselvesbe led by our passionel A Christian is noble;he ought to command his vassals like a nobleman.Our vassals are our passions. A shepherdwas asked what he was. He answered,that he was a king. Over whom do you reign?Over my subjects. And who are your subjects?My inclinatiom. This shepherd was quite rightin saying that he was a king.We are in this world like a ship upon the seaWhat causes the waves 7 The storm. In thisworld the wind is always blowing. Our pasrtionsraise a tempest in our soul ; and thesestruggles will gain us heaven.We must not imagine that there is any placeon the earth where we could escape from thiswar. We shall find the devil every where; and

every where he will try to deprive us of heaven.But every where and always we may be theconquerors. It is not like other battlea, in whichone of two parties is always beaten ; in this, ifwe choose, with the grace of God, which isnever refused us, we may always triumph.When we think all is lost, we have only tocry out, 'I 0 Lord, save us; we perish !" Forour Lord is there, close to us, looking at uswith complacency, and saying to us with asmile : " In truth thou lovest Me ; I see thatthou lovest Me." It is indeed by battles again&hell, and by resistance to temptations, that wegive God proofs of our love.How many souls, unknown in the world, wilIone day be seen enriched by these victoriesof every moment ! The good God will Ra tothese souls, L' Come,. ye blessed of My Fa d er,. . . enter into the joy of your Master." . . .Our guardian angel is always there by ourside, pen in hand, to write down our victories.We must say every morning, Come, my soul,let us labour to obtain heaven. This eveningour battles will be over." And in the evening,TO-morrow, my soul, all the troubles of lifewill perhaps be over for thee." . . .We have not yet suffered like the martyrs.Ask them if they are sorry now . . . Thegood God does not require so much from ue.

BPWT OF THE c ud OF ARS. 139. . . There are some people who are upset bya tingle word.the ship. . .One little humiliation capsizesCourage I my brethren, courage ! when thelast day comes, you will say, '& Happy struggles,that have purchased heaven !"Let us then fight generously. When oncethe devil sees that he has no power over us, hewill leave us in peace. This is the way heusually treats sinners who are returning toGod ; he lets them taste the sweetness of thefirst moments of their conversion, because heknows very well that he would gain nothing ;they are too fervent. He waits a few months,till their first ardour has passed away ; thenhe begins to make them neglect prayer and theSacraments ; he attacks them with divers temptations; then come the battles, and then indeedis the time to ask for strength, and not tolet ourselves be overcome. Some people are soweak that when they are a little tempted, theygive way, like soft Mer. If we were alwaysmarching forward like good soldiers, we shouldraise our hearts to God when war or temptationcome upon us, and take courage. Butwe linger behind ; we say, " Provided I amsaved, that is all I want. I do not wish to bBa saint." If you are not a sainq you will beloet; there is no medium-you must be one or

140 SPIRIT OF THE CUR* OF ARS.the other ; mind that. All those who will oneday possess heaven will be saints. The soulsin purgatory are saints, because they have nomortal sins; they have only to be purified, andthey are friends of the good God. Let us workhard, my children ; the day will come that weshall find we have not done at all too much togain heaven.IV.HOMILY ON THE GOSPEL FOR THE TWENTY-FIRSTSUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.0 GOD, forgive us our trespasses, as we forgivethem that trespass against us ! The goodGod will forgive those who have forgiven : thatis the law. There are some who carry theirfolly so far as not to say this part of the Lord'sPrayer ; as if God did not see the bottom of thehart, and paid attention only to the movementaof the lips !The sainta have no hatred, no bitterness ;they forgive every thing, and think they deservemuch more for their offences against the gocdnod. But bad Christians are revengeful.The moment we hate our neighbour, Godgives ue back thia hatred ; it is an arrow which

SPIRIT OF THE C W ~ OF ARS. 141turns back against ourselves. I said one dayto some one : '' But then, you do not wish to goto heaven, as you will not see that man?" '& Oh,yen ; . . . but we shall try to keep far fromeach other, that we may not see each other."They will not have that trouble, for the gates ofheaven are closed against hatred. In heaventhere is no rancour. Good and humble hearts,who receive insults and calumniee with joy orindifference, begin their paradise in this world;and those who bear malice are unhappy,-theirface is careworn, and their eyes seem ready todevour every thing.There are people who, with a pious exterior,are offended at the smallest insult, at the leastcalumny. One might be such a saint aa towork miracles, but if one has not charity, onewill not go to heaven. A religious at the pointof death, who had led an ordinary life, and hadnot been given to great au~terities, was yet ingreat tranquillity. His superior expressed to himhis astonishment. The religious answered him :I have always forgotten all the evil that hasbeen done to me; I have forgiven it with all myheart; and I hope the good God will forgive me.:'The way to overcome the devil, when he excitesin us thoughts of hatred against those whodo us evil, is, to pray immediately for theirconversion.

142 SPIRIT OF THE CURA OF ARS.That ie the way we shall attain to overcomingevil with good, and that is what the eaints do.But these Christians in appearance will notbear any thing; every thing vexes them: theyanswer sharp words with sharp words. Whenwe begin to let ourselves loose, we pour out ourhatred. Our heart is like a reservoir full ofgall, which we are always ready to dischargeupon those who are neareet to us.It is self-love that leads us always to believe,we deserve praise; while we ought to seek onlyfor the insulta that are our due. But I am innocent,you say; I do not deserve to be treatedin such a way. You do not deserve it for whatyou have done to-day, but you deserve it forwhat you did yesterday. You deserve it for yourother sins, and you ought to thank the goodGod for letting you expiate them.The devil leaves bad Christians very quietnobodytakes any notice of them; but againstthose who do good he stirs up a thousandcalumnies, a thousand outrages.This is asource of great merits. . . .In the country, where I was a curate, therewas a person who occupied herself in placingout poor girls. It often happened that peoplecame to reproach her ; then she always humbledherself, took it all in good part, and made excuses.So people said of her, " Oh ! 8s for her,

the is a saint I"SPIRIT OF THE CUB$ OF ARS. 14 3Indeed, saints are like that.That is true devotion. . . . It is like St. Johnof God, who made himself pass for a madman.When some one had written to the superior ofthe hospice where he was, to be careful, forthat he had a saint who made himself pass formad, the superior made apologies to him: andthe saint had only one regret-that he had beenrecognised, and had no longer to endure thehumiliations, the blows, and the disagreeableremedies adapted to his pretended malady, andunder which he practised unfailing obedience.A woman whose son had been carried off bythe Moors, came to a priest to impart to himher grief. Having no means of ransoming theprisoner, the good missioner was very muchembarrassed. After having reflected for amoment, he said to the poor mother: I shallgo and take the place of your child ; sell me forhis ransom." She was not willing; but, permadedby the entreaties of the .missioner, sheconsented. The child was restored to hismother, and the missioner became a slaveamong the Turks, who were not sparing intheir ill-treatment of him. He had indeedperfect charity ; he preferred his neighbour tohimself. We, on the contrary, are vexed atthe good fortune of others.If one of your friends is praised, and nothing

is said of you, it makes you sad. If you seesome one who haa been convelted, and ismaking rapid progress in virtue, and who hasarrived in a short time at a high degree of perfection,it gives you pain to see yourself so farbehind. If he is praised, you are grieved, andsay, '& Oh 1 but he was not always like that.He was just like other people. He committedsuch a fault, and again such a fault." All thatis pride. And nothing is so contrary to charityas pride; they are fire and water.The good Christian is very different, mychildren; he is compared to a dove, because hehas no bitterness ; he loves all men-the goodbecause they tire good, the wicked out of compassion,because he hopes by loving them tomake them better, and because he sees in themsouls redeemed by the Blood of Jesus Christ.He prays for sinners, and says to our Lord, " 0God, do not permit those poor souls to perish !"Thus it is that we attain to heaven. Whilethose who think they are worth something, becausethey keep up certain pious practices, butwho are constantly a prey to jealousy andhatred, will find themselves quite unprovidedat the last day.We ought to hate nothing but the devil, sin,arid ourselves.We should have'the cllarity of St. Augustine,

SPIRIT OF TEE CUR$ OF AR8. 145who rejoiced when he saw any very good person: " At least," he said, '' there is one whowill make amends to the good God for my littlelove.'? . .A man of quality, in crossing a wood, metthe murderer of one of h'is relations ; he hadseveral times promised hi~l~self revenge : whenhe esw him, he drew his sword. The otherimmediately threw himself at his feet, and saidto .him, " For the love of God, pardon me I"At the name of God, his enemy could notstrike ; he ,eheathed his sword again, and said,"I pardon thee." The next day he went tochurch, and said to the good God, " Thou wiltsurely pardon me, since I have pardoned ? "There was a large crucifix there, which bowedits head in token of assent.A man who had been taken to prison, unjustlyaccused of stealing some cattle, wae indespair. An angel appeared to him, and saidto him : '' It is true thou art not guilty of thetheft of which thou art accused ; but dostthou not remember that .thou couldst havesaved that man who was drowning? and thoudidst not do it. It is for this thou art noweuffering."

HOMILY FOR THE LAST SUNDAY IN THE YEAR.THE world passes away; we pass away with .it. Kings, emperors, all go. We are swallowedup in eternity, from which we never return.There is only one thing to be done-to save ourpoor soul.The saints were not attached to the goods ofearth ; they thought only of those of heaven.Worldly people, on the contrary, think ofnothing but the present time.A good Christian is like those who go intoforeign countries to lay up money ; they neverthink of remaining abroad, and they have nothingmore at heart than to return to their owncountry, when once their fortune is made.Again, we should do like kings. When theyare going to be dethroned, they send theirtreasures before them; and these treasures arewaiting for them. So a good Christian sendsall his good works to the gate of heaven.The good God has placed ns on the earth tosee how we shall conduct ourselves, and whetherwe shall love Him ; but no one remains on ib.A man who had been condemned to the galleysfor a hundred years came back from them, itis said. When he returned, every body had

SPIRIT OF THE c d OF AR~. 147disappeared : he rewgnised nothing but thehouses. . . .If we were to reflect up& this, we shouldincessantly raise our eyes to heaven, our truecountry. But we let ourselves be carried hereand there by the world, riches, and materialenjoyments; and we do not give a thought tothe only thing that should occupy us.Look at the aaints. How detached theywere from the world and from matter1 Withwhat contempt they looked upon all thesethings1 A religious, having lost his parents,found himself in possession of great wealth.When the news reached him, he said, " Howlong is it since my parents died 7" "Threeweeks," they answered. LL Tell me, can a perwnwho is dead inherit property ?" 'L Certainlynot." LL Well, then, I cannot inheritfrom those who have been dead three weeks,since I have been dead these twenty yeam."Ahl the aaints understood the nothingness, thevanity of thie world, and the happiness ofgiving up every thing for that bright hope ofheaven !There are two aorta of avarice : the avarice ofheaven, and the avarice of earth. The miser ofthe earth does not carry his thoughts beyondtime. He never has riches enough; he is alwaysheaping up, heaping up. Rut when the

148 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ARS.moment of death comes, he will have nothing.I have often told you so ; it is just like thosewho make too large a provision for winter, andwhen the next harvest comes, they do not knowwhat to do with it : it only serves to embarrassthem.We carry away nothing ; we 'leaveevery thing.What wodd you say of a-person who shouldlay up in the house great stores of provisionsthat he would be obliged to throw away, becausethey would epoil; and who should neglectthe precious stones, gold, and diamonds, whichhe might keep, and carry away with him, andwhich would make his fortune ? . . . Well,my children, we do the same; we attach ourselvesto matter, to what must come to an end;and we do not think of acquiring heaven, theonly real treasure.A good Christian, a heavenly miser, makes ,very little account of earthly goods; he thinksonly of embellishing his soul, of laying up whatwill always please him, what will last for ever.Look at the kings, the emperors, the great.ones of the earth : they are very rich; but arethey happy? If they love the good God, theyare; but if not, they are not happy. For mypart, I think none are so much to be pitied aythe rich whea they do not love the good God.The saints were not attached to wealth as

SPIRIT OF TEE CUBE OF ARS. 149we are ; they were attached to what will makethem happy for all eternity.Go h m world to world, from kingdom tokingdom, from riches to riches, from pleasureto pleasure,--you willneverfind happiness. Thewhole earth can no more satisfy an immortalsoul, than a pinch of meal can satiate a famishedman.When the Apostles had seen our Lord ascendinto heaven, they found the earth without Himso dreary, so vile, so contemptible, that theysought after the tortures that would the soonermatch them away from it, and reunite them totheir good Master. The mother of the Maahabees,who saw her seven children die, and whodied seven times, said to them, to encouragethem, LL.Look up to heaven!' . . .Our Lord rewarded the faith of the saints byahowing heaven to their senses. Some of themhave been in paradise. St. Stephen, while heWBR being stoned, saw heaven opened abovehis head. St. Paul was rapt into heaven, anddeclared that he could give no idea of what hehad seen there. St. Teresa saw heaven, and,as she says, every thing on earth seemed to herever a h nothing but dirt.But we, alas I are nothing but matter. Wecreep upon the ground, andknow not how to raiseourselves on high: we are too clumsy, too heavy.

150 SPIRIT OF TEE CUR$ OF AM.The earth is a bridge for us to pass over thewater.A bad Christian cannot understand thissweet hope of heaven, which consoles, whichanimates a good Christian. All that makes thehappiness of the sainta appears hard and diffiaultto .- him. -----.These are consoling thoughts, my children;with whom shall we be in heaven ? With God,who is our Father ; with Jesus Christ, who isour Brother; with the Blessed Virgin, who isour Mother; with the angels and aainta, whoare our friends.A king, in his laet moments, said withregret, L6Must I, then, leave my kingdom, togo to a country where I know no one l" Thiswas because he had never thought of the happinessof heaven. We must make friends therefor ourselves now, that we may meet themagain after death, and then we shall not be,like that king, afraid of knowing no one.

ONE of the great errors of our day is toimagine that piety preventa the developmentof the natural qualities of man ; that it confinesthe thoughte, and ia incompatible withenlightened elevation of character and warmthof feeling. Every one has heard this paradoxrepeated; weak Christians have believed it, andit has dicted those of stronger faith.It is difficult to imagine how displeasing tothe ears of most worldly people are the words" devout" and " devotion!' As if the finest andmoet noble faculties of man lost by submitting toChristian discipline, and gained by disorder !The reverse of this is the truth.Habitual union with God by prayer andlwe, the continual victory of the spiritual overthe material, the .permanent triumph of goodover evil, which we cd the state of grace, isadmirably reflected in the intelligent part ofour being, as well and better than in the inferiorpart. It is the health of the soul; andputting it in posseasion of its object, which ia

152 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF AM.God, the Infinite, restoresits beauty, its grandeur,strength, and dignity.But is not sacrifice, it may be said, thefoundation of Christian morals, and the greatlesson of the Gospel ? Sacrifice is precisely thelaw of the intellectual and moral progress of manwhen he is holy; it is the development of themost noble attributes ofthe soul that aspires tothe glorious liberty of the children of God, andpasses over all the obstacles which visible thingswould place in ita way. It is the passage fromdeath to life, from darkness to light, fromslavery to liberty.Till we have freely renounced every createdobject, by an earnest application of the doctrineof sacrifice, liberty of the' soul is but a name ;we are free only like a bird held by a string,which may think itself free while it does not attemptto fly, but the moment it tries to getaway, perceives that it is a prisoner. Such is theliberty that attachment to creatures leaves us.'' If, therefore, the Son shall make you free,you shall be free indeed.".This love does not devastate the heart aspassions do ; nor does it suppress any thingwhich ought to remain in it. The love of JesusChrist in the heart of man is like a ray of mnshining through the painted windows of a' St John viii. 36.

SPIRIT OF THE CUB$ OF ABS. 153cathedral, colouring and embellishing it, butdestroying and displacing nothing. In a soulfilled with this love, strong and sweet beyondconception, the. sacred fire burns the morebrightly and purely for being hidden.It is supposed that persons consecrated toGod cannot possess enlightened minds or nobleand generous hearts. As if human feelings werenot beautified by the struggles of duty; and as ifholiness did not raise the soul to a higher destiny,by releasing it from the bonds of time, andenabling it to unite itaelf to the Eternal Objectof its love I The breaking of all bonds andthe removal of all obstacles does not mean thedestruction of all love and the suppression of allliberty. Fountains are not dried up by beingsanctified; and holiness, far from disfiguring,elevates and purifies whatever it touches. Itgives to the good dispositions which we haveby nature, an increase of strength and wisdom,which is the work of the Holy Ghost.This intellectual and moral perfection of thehuman faculties, refined by grace, was verystriking in M. Vianney.We are ready to allow that he had no varietyor extent of human sciences. Where, when,or how could he have acquired them ? But hehad what supplied the place of knowledge, andeven of experience-the faith which knows and

154 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF AM.foresees all things. He had great practicalwiadom, a profound knowledge of the wayaof God and of the miseries of man, an admirablesagacity, a prompt and accurate judgment,an acute, judicious, and penetratiug mind. Hewas endowed, besides, with a supernaturalmemory, an exquisite tact, and a power of observationwhich would have made him formidableto those who approached him, if his greatand indulgent charity had not softened all hisjudgments.Out of the little unknown corner of the earthwhere Providence had placed him, rather undera bushel than on a candlestick, he shone beforethe world with incomparable brilliancy; he wasa triple representation of our Lord, setting beforemen the light of truth, with an example of captivatinggoodness, and edifying virtue.'' The Curb of Am is a holy man," some onesaid to a learned professor of philosophy, buthe is nothing else."'' He is enlightened," answered he, '' veryenlightened. He shows it in his converaabonson every sort of subject, on God and on theworld, on men and on things, on the presentand the future. . . . Oh, how clearly and howwell we nee, when we eee by the light of theHoly Ghoat I To what heights does faith mineour intellect and our reaeon !I1

ARer an interview with M. Vianney, a verydistinguished man wrote as follows : Ls We arein admiration of the progressive spirit of your1 mint Nothing elevates the ideas of the mosthumble of men like holiness I"Although absorbed in the duties of his ministryof prayer, teaching, and direction, the Cur6of Ars was indifferent to no question which,directly or indirectly, affected the interests ofreligion or of society. He had very clearopinions on a multitude of questions, which thecleverest people often cannot decide, but whichhe always solved by looking at them as they regardedthe glory of God and the good of souls.The world will perhaps say again: " But thisman, who always denied himself all humanpleasures, who had never known the sweetnessor the benefits of social and civilised life,who ao constantly and completely practisedrenouncement, and whose whole life was psedin the obscure enclosure of a confessional, musthave taken a narrow and severe view of everything, and his austerity could leave no roomfor kindness or indulgence." This is anothermistake.This man, so severe to himself, and who borein his whole person the marks of the mostterrible penance, was amiable and gentle ; hisconversation was sweet and refined, full of truth

'156 SPIRIT OF TEE CUR& OF ARS.and consolation, and had a singular power ofattraction.In the company of priests or of Christians,whom he knew and loved, he willingly expanded;and this intimate intercourse was fullof gaiety and simplicity, of tender charity, of ingeniousand appropriate remarks, which wentto the heart of all. These would make adelightful and admirable book ; but, unfortunately,we have not sdcient details, and ifwe had them, the task would be beyond ourpower. A smile cannot be written down, andthe conversations of the Cur6 of Ars were as thesmile of his soul. He never laughed; but thatsmile seldom left his lips, encouraging cheerfulness,and inspiring confidence. The Spirit ofGod which was in him gave an incomparablefitness and simplicity to all his words, whichwere animated by the extreme tenderness of hieheart. We might gather up his least words.Thus, the good Cur6 long lamented Mademoiselled'Ars, and always retained a tenderveneration for her memory. When he paidhis first visit to the new inhabitante of theCastle, he expressed his regret before them,wying, Poor lady ! how sad it is to see her nomor@ on her poor bench in church!" . . .Then, fearing he might have been wanting indelicacy to the heir of his benefactress, he sud-

SPIRIT OF TEE C U OP ~ ABS. 157denly reproached himself for his sorrow and histears, adding, '&And yet . . . 9e are wrongto complain. The good God treats us as Hetreated His people. When he took away Moses,be left them Caleb and Josue."A little while after, in returning their goodwishes for the new year, he said to the familywhich was soon to take its place in his heartnext to Mademoiselle d'Ars, " I ahould like tobe St. Peter, and I would give you the keys ofparadise for o new-year's gift." Once when theyhad presented to him some of their numerousrelations, and asked for o special blessing uponthem, the holy Cur6 gave it, saying, " Oh I thecousins of M. des. Garets are already blessedl"When Mgr. de Langalerie in one of his frequent visits, said to him, " My good Cur&will you permit me to celebrate Holy Mass inyour church?" he answered, "Monseigneur, Iam sorry it is not Christmas, that you mightmy three."The first time PBre Hermann came to Are,they wanted him to preach, and the good Curbasked him to catechise the crowd instead ofhim. The Rev. Father took good care not toaccept the offer ; he only consented to say a fewwords after the servant of God had spoken-andeven that was'a great deal for his humility.If. Vianney gave his instruction as usual, and

158 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF m.ended it thus : " My children, there was oncea good saint who wished very much to hear theBlessed Virgin sing. Our Lord, who takenpleasure in. doing the will of those who loveHim, deigned to grant him this favour. Hesaw a beautiful lady, who began to sing beforehim. He had never head so sweet a voice.He was ravished with delight, and cried out,' It is enough I it is enough ! if you go on, Ishall die !' The beautiful lady said to him,' Be not in a hurry to admire my singing, forwhat thou hut heard is nothing. I am onlythe virgin Catherine, and thou art going to hearthe Mother of God;' and the Ble~sed Virginsang in her turn. And that song was so beautiful,so beautiful, that the saint fainted and felldead with delight . . . drowned in the balm oflove ! . . . Well, my children, it will be the samething to-day, . . . you have just heard St. Catherine; you are going to hear the Blessed Virgin."One day e missionary recently admitted intothe Society was presented to M. Vianney, andit was observed that he wee the youngest of all.L L Y are ~ very ~ fortunate, my friend," said he,embracing him ;" you will have more time toserve the Divine Master. In the College of theApostles, our Lord had a tender predilectionfor St. James the Less, because he was theyoungest."

I SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ABS. 159The same missionary having gone to assistat the prrioessions of Corpus Christi at Lyons,the Curb said to him on his return, LL There .waa once a saint who used to disappear on theeve of all the great feasts. He was seen nomore till the'day after.the feast in paradise.He went to celebrateI think, my dear com-panion, you do like him." . . .Wishing to show his companions in labourhis esteem for their services, he said, " Thegood God gives me white bread to eat at theend of my days. He knows that poor oldpeople require soft food. . . . He treats meas o~ Lord treated the bridegroom at the marriage-feastof Cana; he gives me the good wineat the last."M. Vianney wished to pay for the crosseswhich the missionaries receive when they pronouncetheir vows : L L Let me alone," he said ;"1 have so many crosses, I can share themwith my friends."ARer a sermon which had pleased him, hetook both the hands of the preacher in his own,saying, LL Ah! our vessels were too small to holdsuch beautiful things I "A Lazarist of Valfleury asked the Curd ofArs if one of their Fathers, lately seized withparalysis, would be able to preach again. " Yes,my friend," he answered, LL he will always

160 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS.preach. The sermons of saints are their examples!'A Parisian had said, 'I Sister Rosalie waa mymother, and the Curb of Ars is my father."'' Alas ! poor orphan I" said M. Vianney, witha sigh ; '' the father can never replace themother."On the return of his missionary after a longabsence, he received him with open arms, audcried out, " Ah I my friend, there you are !what happiness I I have often thought thatthe reprobate must be very wretched at beingseparated from the good God, since we sufferso much in the absence of those we love I"An ecclesiastic wss excusing himself for nothaving brought a surplice to assist at the HighMass on Sunday; M. Vianney reassured him,saying, && Oh, never mind. You wear it onyour heart, by the whiteness of your soul."A little child gave him a nosegay on his birthday;&'My little one," he said, smiling graciously,&' your nosegay is very beautiful, but your soulis still more beautiful."One day within the Octave of Corpus Christi,the holy Curb having gone to see the m'qnificentpreparations for the procession which weremade at the Castle, they were regretting thata high wind would prevent the illumination.Pointing to the young children round the steps

of the throne prepared for our Lord, he said,These are bright and burning torches, which, cannot be extinguished by the wind." And ongoing away, after rejoicing the hearts of all byhis presence, he added, " The inhabitants ofthis house change, generations succeed eachother; but it is ever the house of the goodGod." After the procession, which was verylong, they wanted him to take some refreshment; he refused, saying, " It is of no use ; Iwant nothing. How could I be fatigued ? Iwas bearing Him who bears me."During the inundations of May 1856, it happenedone night that the pilgrims who werewaiting in the church had bolted the door onthe inside. At one o'clock in the morning, theC d came up and knocked gently at the door;they did not hear him. He knocked again.The rain was falling in torrents ; he stood in itfor some minutes, and went into the confessionalwithout thinking any more about it. Whenhe came into the sacristy to vest for Mass, theyperceived that his cassock was dripping wet :they pressed him to change it; they asked hima thousand questions. He only answeredjoyously, Let it alone, let it alone ! it is no-1thing ; it proves that I am not made of sugar."M. Vianney was once making his round ,ofvisits to hhe sick under a burning July sun.

162 BPIIUT OF THE CURB OF ABS.The priest who accompanied him, seeing hishead uncovered, offered him his hat. '' Yonwould do better, my friend," said the holy Cud,'' to offer me your science and your virtues."This waa what you exposed yourself to byoffering him any civility. It was very differentif you attempted to pay him a compliment.'' How happy you are to be young I" said heto some one. " Without reckoning any thingelse, you have so much strength and so muchzeal to spend in the service of the good God."Monsieur le Curb,'' replied the other, you'&are younger than I."'' Yea, my friend, in virtue."" Monsieur le Cud," a person said to him anothertime, " since you love your mimianariegyou will leave them the mantle of Elias whenyou depart P"'I My friend, you &auld not ask a mantle ofhim who has not even a shirt."Speaking of that mozetta, whioh was atonehing kindness on the part of the Bishop,but a great humiliation to the good Curb, someone observed that he was the only Canoncreated by Mgr. Chalandon. M. Vianney peroeivedthe trap laid for him, and replied quiakly,I can well believe it.The Bishop was un-lucky. . . He has seen hie mistake, and hedares not try again."

IISPWT OF THE cud OF ARS. 163One day he saw one of his portraits, at thefoot of which were awkwardly represented hismozetta and his cross of honour. IL TO makeit complete," he mid, they should write underit, vanity, +, ad nothingness!'Another time, allusion was made to theaedifferent dignities." Yes," answered he, 'L Iam an honorary Canon by the kindness of theBishop, a knight of the Legion of Honour by amistake of the government, and . . . the shepherdof three sheep and an ass by the will ofmy father."One day, the Cud of Ara saw a person comeinto the sacristy whom it was easy to recogniaeby his appearance and language as a man ofthe world. The stranger approached him re-spectfully ; and the servant of' God, thinking heknew what he came for, pointed to the littlestool on which his penitents were accustomedto kneel.The fine gentleman, who perfectly understoodthe gesture, hastened to say, LL M. le Curb, Iam not come for confession ; I am come toreason with you."0 my friend, you have wme to the. wrong person ; I cannot reason ; . . . . . butif you are in want of consolation, place your-self there" (and he again pointed hexorably tothe stool), and be assured that many others

164 SPIBIT OF THE cud OF AES.have done so before you, and have not r e p dof it."l1 But, M. le. Curb, I have already had thehonour of telling you that I did not come forconfession, and that for a decisive reason4have no faith.I believe no more in confessionthan in any thing else."" You have no faith, my friend 7 Oh; howI pity you ! You live in a mist. . . . . Alittle child who knows ita catechism knowsmore than you. I thought myself very ignorant; but you are still more so. . . Youhnve no faith ? Well, place yourself there,and I will hear your confession. When youhave made your confession, you will believejust as I do."lL But, M. le Cud, it is neither more nor leesthan a comedy that you are advising me to aotwith you"l1 Place yourself there, I tell you 1"The persuasion, the sweetness, the tone ofauthority tempered by grace, with which thesewords were spoken, induced this man to fall onhis knees, almost in spite of himself. He madethe sign of the cross, which he had long disused,and began the humble acknowledgment of hiafaults. He arose not only consoled, but fully.believing, haring experienced that the short&and surest road to faith is to do the works of

SPIRIT OF THE C& OF ARS. 1651 faith, according to the eternal word of theI Divine Master, " He that doth the truth comethto the light."The fonnder of a celebrated orphanage connultedM. Vianney on the opportunity of ob-@ining the attention and the patronage of thepublic, through the medium of the prees.Instead of making a noise in the newspapers,"answered the servant of God, '' make a noiseat the door of the tabernacle."" M. le Curb," replied this good man, " Irbould be very glad to make my novitiate withyou."" Do not be uneasy ; they will give you one,"replied M. Vianney, alluding to the trials whichawaited the new foundation.A postulant, who had just left the Congregationof the Sisters of St. Vincent of Paul, oneday had an interview at Ars with a priest latelyarrived from Jerusalem, who told M. Vianneythat he had advised her to go to the East, toemploy her strength and her zeal in those parts.IThe good Curb, who was aware of her fickleness,answered, '< Send her to paradise. There atbaet ehe will not wish for change."We may see that M. Vianney was ready withquick answers, which were now and thengently malicious.'' M. le Curb," said a person whose broad

166 SPIXIT OF THE C& OF ARB.face and robust appearance contrasted singularlywith the palenesa and emaciation of the holyold man, '' I reckon on you to take me up toheaven. I hope you do not forget your friends,and that you give me a good share of the mefitof your fwte and penances. When you go tbheaven, I shall try to take hold of your OWsock."0 my friend, take good care not to do that,"replied the good Cud. " The gate of heavenis narrow,"-and he cast alittle malicious glanceat the broad shoulders of the other,-" weshould both remain outside at the gate."He was afraid he might have hurt the feelingsof his visitor by these words, though theywere spoken in joke, and in the kindest manner ;and he made the most humble and politeexcuses for them.A religious said to him with simplicity,LL You are generally thought ignorant, Father."They are rfght, my daughter ; bur it is nomatter, for I will tell you more than you willdo."He wae asked for some relics for a personwho waa very de~irous of having them. Hereplied, smiling, " Let her make some I"One of his parishioners, an excellent girl,full of zeal and devotedness, but whose seelwas sometimes too eager and impetuous, like

SPIRIT OF THE cud OF AM. 167that of the Apostles before Pentecost, wanted togive him advice : M. le Curb, you are wrongin doing this ; you ought to do that." . . .'' Come," interrupted the holy man gently, " weare not yet in England," alluding to the Englishconstitution, which allows a woman to be at thehead of the government.M. Vianney was often mirthful.Brother Athanasius, the director of the sehoolof Am, returning from a drive, was relatinghow his horse had started and thrown him intothe ditch. The good Curb condoled with himon the accident, and then added : LL My friend,St. Antony never fell out of a carriage ; youehould do like him." '' M. le Curb, how didSt. Antony do 4" 'L He went always on foot."M. Vianney could give answers that wereirresistibly convincing. A freethinker oneday declared to him that there were some thingsin religion which it was impossible for him tobelieve." For example- 3" said the good Curd.LL For example, the eternity of punishment."LL My friend, I advise you never to speak ofreligion."LL And why not 3"Because you should first learn your catechism.What does the catechism say ? Thatwe must believe the Gospel, because it is the

168 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS.word of our Lord.Do you believe theGogpel 7"'' Yes7 M. le Curb."" Well, the Gospel says, 'Depart into everlastingfire !' What more would you have ?That appears to me sufficiently clear.".The Curb of Ars had an interview one daywith a rich Protestant. The servant of Ooddid not know that he had the misfortune tobelong to a sect, and spoke to him, as he wasaccustomed to do, of our Lord and the saintawith the warmest effusion, ending by putting amedal into his hand.ceiving it :The other said, on re-'( M. le Curb, you are giving a medal to aheretic-at least, I am a heretic only fmmyour point of view. Notwithstanding the differenceof our belief, I hope we shall both beone day in heaven!'The good Curb took his hand, and fixing onhim his eyes, which expressed his lively faithand his burning charity, he said, in a tone ofdeep compassion and tenderness : '' Alas, myfriend, we shall be united above only inaamuchas we have begun to be so upon earth ; deathwill make no change. Where the tree falls,there it lies."" M. le Curd, I trust in Christ, who said, ' Heho believeth in Me shall have eternal life"'

SPIRIT OF THE CUR% OF ARS. 169a A,h I my friend, our Lord also said otherthings. He said that whoever would not listento the Church should be regarded as a heathen.,He said that there was to be but one flock andone shepherd, and He appointed St. Peter to1 be the head of that flock." Then, spaking ina more gentle and insinuating volce, " Myfriend, there are not two ways of serving ourLord-there is only one good way ; and it is toBeme Him ae He wishes to be served."Thereupon the good Cur6 disappeared,leaving that man penetrated with a salutaryuneasiness, the forerunner of divine grace, bywhich he was afterwards happily overcome.Notwithstanding his decided love of solitude,M. Vianney's disposition was open, and his con-veraation at once flowing and reserved. Toavoid remarks painful to his humility, he neverasked questions, nor allowed time for others toask them ; he kept the lead in conversation,and seemed afraid of having a reply. He hadnot the shadow of self-love, and if he spokeoccasionally of himself, it was because hishumility urged him to it, and the power ofopening his heart seemed to be a support tohis weakness. Not being able to speak freelyto every one, he relieved himself by confidinghis thoughts to a few hearts that he couldtnut ; and the subject of these confidences wae

'170 SPIRIT OF THE cue OF m.always what most frightened and humbled him.He never revealed his whole interior ; he ledyou to the door of his soul? and no further.LL 0 my God 1 how happy we shall be inparadise, since even already on earth the companyof the mints is so delightful, and theirconversation so full of charms and sweetnees 1"This exclamation ohn escaped ua on comingout from those evening conversations, when themissionera of Ars had the great privilege ofbeing admitted in turns to enjoy the intimacyof the eervant of God. We felt that it waa oneof the rareat favours of Providence, and weshowed our appreciation of it by words and byteare, but most ohn by a religious silence.The end of those long and fatiguing days wanthe time when he talked with moat familiarity,warmth, and freedom. Standing at 'the comerof the fire-place, or before his little table,according as his benumbed limbs required thewarmth of the fire, with a beaming, happycountenance, the joy and innocence of his sodshowed itself in a thousand sparkling remarks,full of similea and of sweetness.Following the counsel of St. Paul, he avoidedvain and profane discourse, and idle questionswhich lead to controversy rather than to edification.If any little debate arose before him,he modedy kept silence, aa if he were afrrrid

1 of disobliging either party by giving an opinion.If he was asked, he put in a gracious and conciliatoryword, or laid down one of those greatprihciplee which are beyond discussion, andwhich restore peace between adversaries, bybringing them into ground where dispute is nolonger possible.IHie soul was alwaye soaring like an angelicbeing above the strife of vulgar interests andpassions. He looked at every thing from thatpoint of view, familiar to the saints, wheredwells light without shadow. Conscience washie only horizon. The exterior world had noplace in his mind.Nothing wae good or pleasant or interestingin his eyes but what related to the good God.The heart is where the treasure is. The SovereignGood attracted him lo such a degree thathe could not turn his thoughts elsewhere. Hisconversation was more divine than human, andbreathed the perfume of heaven. He spoke of'the mysteries of the other world as if he hadcome back from it, and of the vanities of thisworld with a gentle irony that made you emile.As he went on speaking, he became more at hisease, and the warmth of his soul diffised itselfmore freely.If any troublesome person,-for there was agreat variety among the pilgrims who came to

172 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF AM.him,-if any troublesome and indiscreet personcame to talk of worldly affairs, however importantthey might be, the holy Cur6 wss tookind and too civil to interrupt him, but he wasailent, and visibly annoyed. But these casemwere rare, for he was surrounded by a sort ofdivine atmosphere, which kept people fromintroducing worldly topics, for fear of disturbingits purity.In this age of activity, novelty, and progress,in these laborious and disturbed times, the Curbof Ars had no desire whatever to know anything about this world, nor did he pay the leaatattention to passing events ; so completely hadhe come to use things as not using them, toenjoy them as not enjoying them ; his wholemind and heart being bent on another object.'' YOU speak sometimes of the railway, M. leCurb," some one said to him ; " do you knowwhat it is 7" .'' NO, and I do not wish to know ; I speakof it because I hear others speak of it."This man, to whom the railways every daybrought from two to three hundred strangere,died without having ever seen a railway, orhaving any idea what it waa like.But if he was a stranger to every thing belongingto the material world, he found infinitedelight and consolation in every thing that be-

SPIRIT OF TEE cud OP US. 173longed to the divine world,-that is, the Churchof Jesus Christ, the kingdom of souls boughtand redeemed by His Blood; inallthat increasedHis glory,that tended to the diffusion of His doctrine,to the triumph oftruth ; that multiplied thenumber of the faithful destined to praise Himfor ever.However sublime might be the subiect of theconversation, the good %ur6 always ireservedthat sim~licitv which is the true characteristicof the childrin of God. In speaking of thesaints, of heaven, and of divine things, he kepthie familiar language, and used popular comparisons.The charms of divine love, thedelights of the Eucharist, the happiness of thegood, the misery of the wicked, the expectationof eternal joys, were mingled with noble solicitudefor the increase of the Kingdom of JesusChrist, the exaltation of Holy Churah, and thetriumph of juetice and truth.FAITH OF M. VIANNEY.Tgg Curk of Ar3 had received the gift of faithin an eminent degree. The Holy Spirit shedso bright a light on his innermost soul, that he

174 SPIBIT OF TRE OUR$ OF ARS.%saw divine things with a clearneae, oertahty,and sweetnees, which caused ecstasies and tears,and the ready acquieacerice of his mind in thetruthe that were shown to him. His intimateunion with God had rendered these truths, as itwere, sensible and palpable to him. What weperceive from a distance, vaguely, confusedly,through a cloud, he saw with a clear and steadyeye." If we loved our ~hrd, we should have thabgilded Taberntiole, that abode of the good God,always before the eye8 of our mind Whenwe see the tower of a church on our way, theBight of it should make our heart beat, as theheart of the spouse beab at the sight of thodwelling of her beloved. We ought to be unableto take our eya offit!'lL We have nothing but a faith three hundredmiles distant from its object, an if the good Godwere beyond the eeaa If we had a lively,penetrating faith, as the saints had, we should,like them, see our Lord.Somc priests see Himevqy day at dlass." . . . Do not these word8recall those of St. Pad, Novi hominem 8" Thaiae who have no faith are much moreblind than those who have no eyes. . . . . Weme in thin world like people in a thick fog ; butfeith is the wind which disperses it, and whichcauses a beautiful sun to shine on our souls.

. . . . . See how all is sad and cold amongimteatants ! it is a long winter. With us all isbheerhl, joyous, and consoling!'LL Let worldly people talk as they please.Ah I how should they see? they are blind.Our Lord Jesus Christ might work all themiracles now that He worked in Judea, andI they would not believe. He to whom all powerwaa given has not yet lost Hie power. Forexample, last week a poor vine-dresser broughthere on hie shoulders a little boy of twelveyeare old, who was quite a cripple, and hadnever been able to walk. 'i'his good man madea novena to St. Philomeng and his little boywas cured the ninth day, and went away gallopingbefore him."L'Formerly our Lord made the lame walk,healed the sick, raised the dead to life. Somepeople who were present then, and saw theseprodigies with their own eyes, yet did not believe.Men are the same at all hmes and in allplaces. If the good God is powerful, the devilale0 has his power ; and he makes use of it toblind the eyes of the poor world."

SPIRIT OF THE CUBA OF AB8.HOPE OF P. VIrWNEY.ALTHOUQH still kept down by the bonds of thebody, the Cur6 of Am was scarcely less absorbedin God than those pure intelligences which everburn before Him in the light of eternal charity.The fear of the judgments of God was his predominantidea, and despair was his temptation ;nevertheless, he desired and longed for death :It is the union," he said, 'I of the soul withthe Sovereign Good." He often spoke of writinga book on L' the delights of death." Whileothers require all their strength to resign themselvest6 die, M. Vianney's effort was to resignhimself to live. In his conversation, he sometimes echoed the desire of St. Paul to be soondelivered from the tabernacle of his body, thatwhat was mortal in him might be swallowed upby life.His most graceful comparisons related to thedesire of heaven. He often made use of thatof the swallow, which only skims the groundand scarcely ever alights upon it ; of the flamealways tending upwards ; of the balloon, whichrises in the air as soon as the coda that hold itdown are cut He said :

WIBIT OF THE C& OF ARB. 177LL The heart is hwn towards what it lovesmost : the proud to honours, the avaricious toriches ; the vindictive thinks of his revenge, theimmodest of his wicked pleasures. But whatdoes the good Christian think of? Towardawhat will his heart turn? Towards heaven,where God is, who is his treasure!'I L' Man was created for haven ; the devil baabroken the ladder by which he reached it. OurLord haa made another for us by His Passion ;He has opened the door. The Blessed Virginis at the top of the ladder, holding it with bothher hands, and calling to us, ' Come, come I'Oh, what a beautiful invitation ! What a beautifuldestiny has man I To see God, to loveHim, to bless Him, to contemplate Him throughouteternity !"L' When we think of heaven, can we haveany regard for the earth 'l"1 ARer ahe hail been in heaven, St. Tmaacould look no more at the things here below.When she was shown any beautifid object, shesaid, ' That is nothing ; it is only dirt.'"" St. Colette sometimes left her cell, besideherself with joy at the thoughts of heaven, andwent through the corridors crying out, ' Toparadise I to paradise I' "In heaven our heart will be so lost, sodrowned in the happiness of loving God, thatI

178 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ARS.we shall not be occupied with ourselves norwith others, but with God alone."A good Christian ought not to be able toendure himself in this world ; he languishes onearth. If a little child were down there in thechurch, and its mother was in the tribune, itwould stretch out its little arms to her ; and ifit could not get up the staircase leading to her,it would ask for help, and would not rest till itwas in its mother's arms."" It is said that in heaven we shall be uponthrones, to signify that we shall be great. Thesethrones are formed by the love of God ; thereis nothing else in heaven. . . The love of Godwill fill and inundate every thing." . . .'1 When St. Teresa was asked what she hadseen in heaven, she cried out, I have seen ! Ihave seen l. . . I have seen !' . . . . Shestopped there ; breath and words failed her:she could say no more."lL Oh, the beautiful union of the Church onearth with the Church in heaven 1 As St. Teresasaid, ' You triumphing, and we fighting, we arebut one in glorifying God !' "'( St. Augustine says that he who fern deathdoes not love God ; that is very tme. If youhad been long separated from your father,would you not be happy to see him again P"l1 Oh, what a beautiful acquisition is heaven !

SPIRIT OF TEE c d OF AM. 179But what ia necessary that we may attain to it?Purity of heart, contempt of the world, and loveof God"After he had given an enchanting instructionon heaven, the Curb of Ars was asked, aaWhat isrequired that we may merit this recompense,of which you have given us so magnificent apicture?" Ny friend," he answered, " graceand the Cross."He was very fond of relating this story :" There was once a good religious, whothought he should find the time long in paradie.The good God showed him plainly thathe was mistaken. One day he was in the gardensof the monastery, and perceived a littlebud hopping from branch to branch, whichseemed more and more beautiful as he lookedat it. At last, it was so very beautiful that themonk could not take his eyes off it ; he beganto pursue it, and wanted to catch it. However,he stopped, thinking he must have been halfan hour running after his bird. He returnedto the monastery, but was very much surprisedto find at the door a brother whom he had neverseen, and the brother did not know him either ;his surprise wrrs still greater, when he saw nothingin the house but strange faces and new .people. He said, ' And our fathers, where arethey ?' The others looked at him in astonish-

180 SPIRIT OP THE cU& OF ARBment..At last he told them his name; andthey looked in the registers, and found thatit was a hundred years since he went away.. . . Thus the good God showed him that thetime does not seem long in paradise!'To give an idea of M. Vianney's love of ourLord, we should have to depict all the ardour,energy, sweetness, strength, and generosity thatcan be concentrated in a human sDul with theaid of grace. All the faculties of his mind, allthe powers of his rewon, all the resources ofhis will, were at the service of this dominantfeeling. The union of which St. John Chrysostomspeaka woe already begun in him ;Jesus Christ alone was in all his thought., hieaffections, and his desires. Withoutthe Saviour,the society of the blessed could not have pleasedhim. Jesus Christ waa his life, his heaven, hispresent, his future ; and the adorable Eucharistalone could allay the thirst that consumed him.He could not cease to think of Jesus Christ, toaapire to Kim, to speak of Him. Then it was

ISPIRIT OF TEE CUBE OF m. 181not words, but flames that issued from his heartand his mouth. He pronounced the adorablename of Jesus, and said, '' Our Lord," with anemphasis which could not fail to strike everyone; his heart seemed to be on his lips.What his reading had most strongly impressedon his memory, and what recurredmost often in hie dlcoursea, were the burningwords by which the love of the saints for theDivine Master is the most vividly expressed ;he liked to quote those words of our Lord toSt. Teresa : LL I am waiting for the Day of Judgmentto make known to men how much thouhast loved Me." And again : '' When menwill not have Me, I will come and hide Myselfin thy heart." He never quoted them withoutbeing interrupted by his tears.He repeated also those words of St. Catherineof Siena, who cried out in her ardour,l1 0 my dearest Lord ! if I had been the stonesend the earth where Thy Crosa ,was planted,what grace and consolation I should have feltin receiving the Blood which flowed from ThyWounds I" He related, with much emotion,that St. Colette said to our Lord, " My sweetMaster, I desire indeed to love Thee, but myheart is too little." She then saw descend agreat heart all in flames, and at the same timeheard a voice saying to her, tL Love Me now ae

much aa thou wouldst."Add her heart wasinundated with love.0 Jesus !" he often cried out, with his eyesfull of tears, LL to know Thee is to love Thee !. . .. If we knew how much ouf Lord lovaus, we should die of joy ! I do not believethere are any hearts so hard aa not to love,when they see themselves so much loved ....Charity is so beautiful 1 it is an emanationfrom the heart of Jesus, who is all love .....The only happiness we have on earth, is to loveGod, and to know thab God loves us!, . . . .He also said, mournfully :I sometimes think that few good workswill be rewarded, because, instead of doingthem for the love of God, we do them fromhabit, by routine, from self-love. . . . . Whata pity it is I"All in God's sight, all with God, all toplease God. . . . Oh, how beautiful it is !Come, my soul, thou shalt converse with thegood God, labour with Him, walk with Him,fight and suffer with Him. Thou wilt labour,but He will bless thy work ; thou wilt walk,but He will bless thy footsteps ; thou wilt suffer,but He will bless thy tears. How great, hownoble, how consoling it is, to do every thing underthe eyes and in the company of the good Ood !To think that He sees all, that He taka account

of all.SPIRIT OF THE C& 01 AM. 18sLet ua say every morning, 'All toplea.se Thee, 0 my God ! all my actions withThee 1' . . . . How sweet and consoling is thethought of the presence of God I . . . . One ianever weary ; the hours slip away like minutea.. . . . In short, it is a foretaste of heaven.""Poor sinners I when I think that there aresome who will die without having even tastedfor one hour the happiness of loving God 1. . . . . When we are tired of our exercises ofpiety, and con~ersation with God wearies ua,let us go to the gates of hell, and look at thosepoor lost souls, who can no longer love the goodW. If we could lose our souls withoutmaking our Lord suffer I but we cannot."" A Christian who had faith would die oflove. . . . . A good Christian who loves Cod andhis neighbow,--and when we love God, we loveour neighbour,--aee how happy he is ! Whatpeace is in his soul I. It is paradise on earth."I often think that the tongue of those poordead, who are in the cemetery yonder, can nolonger pray, . . . . . that their heart can nolonger love." . . . .He often ended his discourse with thesewords : '' TO be loved by God, to be united toGod ; to live in the presence of Cod, to livefor God ; oh, beautiful life, . . . and beautifuldeath !"

One day, when he heard the birds in hiecourtyard, he said, sighing, "Poor little birds Iyou were created to sing, and you sing.. . . .Man was created to love God, and he does notlove Him I"" The reason why we do not love God," hesaid again, is that we have not come to thepoint when whatever costs us something givesus pleasure. If we had to lose our souls, itwould be a consolation to be able to say, 'At 1least I loved the good God upon earth.' . . . .There are some who weep because they do notlove God ; but those people love Him. Oh,how consoling it is to think that on this poorearth it is for the good God that there is moatfidelity aad most love I"The Cur6 of Ars especially recommendedthree devotions : devotion to the Passion ofour Lord and to the Holy Eucharist ; devotionto the Blessed Virgin ; and devotion to tbesouls in purgatol-y. He afbmed, after St. Bernard,that it wai a mark of reprobation not tohave a devotion to the Body and Blood of JesusChrist. '' The Passion of our Lord," he dd,"is like a great river flowing down from amountain, which is never exhausted."It would be impossible to give an idea of hisdevotion to the Blessed Sacrament. He calldIt by the moat sweet and tender names ; he in-

SPIRIT OF TEE ~d OF ABS. 185vented new expressions to speak of It worthily ;h was his favourite subject, and he waa alwaysrecurring to It in his conversations. Then hisheart melted with gratitude, happiness, and love ;hia eyes sparkled, his saintly soul shone forthin his countenance, and his voice was chokedwith tears : " What is our Lord doing in thef3acrament of His love P He assumed His goodHeart that He might love us, and out of thatHeart there issues a flood of mercy and tendernewto drown the sins of the world."He called Holy Communion "a bath oflove." When we have communicated," hesaid,'

186 SPIRIT OF TEE CUB$ OF ARB.The hart was all that remained whole in the.most holy body of our Lord, after Longinuehad pierced it to draw forth love. If we donot love the Heart of Jesus, what then shall welove ? There is nothing in that Heut but love !How ia it possible not to love what is soamiable 3"THOUGHTS OF M. WANNEY ON THE JOYS OF THEINTERIOR LIFE.THE Curk of Ars was once speakingof the joysof prayer and of the interior life ; it waa a subjectwhich he never approached without hiaheart being immediately melted :" TO be a king," he said, " what a poor position Ia king in only for men ! . . . but to be for God,1,to be wholly for God ! To be for God withoutreserve ; our body for God, our soul for God I. . . A chaste body, a pure soul l Oh, thereis nothing so beautiful !" and tears stifled hisvoice.Prayer is the only happiness of man uponearth. 0 beautiful life ! beautifid union of thesoul with our Lord ! Eternity will not be longenough to comprehend this happiness. . . .The interior life ie a bath of love into which 1

'SPIRIT OF TI& CUBE OF US. 187the soulis plunged ; . . . it is, asit were, drownedin love ! . . . . . God holds the interiorman as a mother holds the head of her childin her hands, to cover it with kisses andcaresses." . . . . .I often thi~k of the joy of the Apostles whenthey saw our Lord again. The separation hadbeen so cruel ! Our Lord loved them so much !He was so good to them ! We may presumethat He embraced them when He said to them,' Peace be with you !' So He embraces oursoul when we pray. He says to us also, ' Peacebe with you !'"'& We love a thing in proportion to what ithas cost us. You may judge by that of ourLord's love for our soul, which has cost Himall His Blood. He is eager for communicationsand intercourse with it. He longs to see it, tohear it." . . . ." There are two ways of uniting ourselveswith our Lord and of saving our souls : prayerand the Sacraments. All those who have becomesaints have frequented the Sacraments, andhave raised their souls to God by prayer. Weought in the morning on awaking, to offer toOod our heart, our mind, our thoughts, ourwords, our actions, our whole selves, to servefor His glory alone. We should renew ourbaptismal vows, thank our guardian angel, ask

188 SPIRIT OF TEE C& OF ARS.for the protection ofthat god angel who haeremained by our side during our sleep."l1 Some. good Christians are in the habit ofsaying, l I will make so many acts of the loveof God, so many sacrifices today ;' . . . . I likethat practice very much." . . .l1 We should often, in the course of the day,ask for the light of the Holy Ghost. Oh, howmuch we stand in need of it, that we may knowour poor misery ! We should say a Paler andAve for the conversion of sinners, for the souls inpurgatory ; . . . . . and often repeat, l 0 myGod, have pity on me !' like a child aaylng to. .its mother, l Give me a bit of bread ;. . giveme your hand ; . . .. embrace me !"I .'l He who does not pray ia like a hen or a- turkey that cannot rise into the air. If theyfly a little, they soon fall down, and, scratchinga hole in the earth, they nestle in it, cover theirheads with dust, and seem to have no otherpleasure. He who prays, on the contrary, ielike an intrepid eagle, which soars in the air,and seems always to wish to approach neawto the sun. Such % the good Christian on thewings of prayer. Oh, how beautiful is prayer IThe man who is in favour with God does notrequire to be taught to pray; he knows naturallyhow to pray, became he knows his own wantu."" Union with Jesus Christ, union with the

t BPIBIT OF THE cud OF AM. 189Cmss : that is salvation. Love is the distinctivemark of the elect, as the mark of the reprobate.is hatrd. No reprobate loves another reprobate; the brother detests his brother, the sonhis father, the mother her child ; and this universalhatred is concentrated upon God: thisis hell." The saints love every one ; aboveall, they love. their enemies. . . . . . Theirheart, inflamed with divine love, dilates itself inproportion to the number of sods that the good1 God puts in their way, as the wings of the henextend in proportion to the number of her youngones." "The heart of the saints is as steadfastas a rock in the midst of the sea."" Those persons who practise devotion, whogo often to confession and communion, and whofail to do worke of faith and charity, are liketrees in blossom. You think there will be asmuch fruit as flower ; but there is a greatdifference." . . . ." Oh, how beautiful will be the day of theresurrection ! we shall see those beautiful soulscome from heaven, like suns of glory, and unitethemselves to the bodies which they animatedon earth. The more those bodies have beenmortified, the more they will shine like diaplonds."LL None are really miserable but bad Christians,who forsake prayer and the Sacraments,

and wallow in sin ; for good Christians feel nomisfortunes. . . . To possess God, that is thejoy of joys. That happiness makes IJE forgetall else. Like that good saint whose life I wasreading, who remained in ecstasy h m Shrove-Tuesday till Easter-Day, he retumtid to hissensee just in time for the Resurrection. . . . .That happiness also makes us hrget sufferings.. . . Once the wind oarried away the bearskinwith which St. Simeon was covered. Whenpeople saw that he did not stir upon his column,they went up, and they found him frozen. Theyplunged him into warm water to revive him :'Why did you not leave me alone?' he said ;' I was so happy.' "" To pray well, we need not speak much.We know that the good God is there, in theholy Tabernacle ; we open our heart, we takepleasure in His holy presence ; that is the bestsort of prayer." " Like the good M. de Vidaud ;he used to rise very early in the morning, andgo to adore the Blessed Sacrament as soon asthe church was open. One day, when he wanat a country house, they were obliged to sendthree times to t.he chapel to fetch him to breakfast; the mistress of the house grew impatient.At the third message, he came away from thepresence of our Lord, saying, ' 0 my God, canone not remain, then, a moment in peace with

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS. 191Thee I' " The Cur6 of Are added, weeping, '' Hehad been there since four o'clock in the morning !There are some good Christians who would thus.pass their whole lives absorbed in adorationbefore God. Oh, how happy they are I"One day, when he had been presiding overthe renewal of vows which the Sisters of St.Joseph are accustomed to make every year onthe 2d of July, M. Vianney came out from theceremony with a full heart, unable to colitainhis joy; he gave utterance to it in sweet words :" How lovely is religion I" he said. " Howgreat is the multitude of Thy sweetness, 0 myGod, to them that fear Thee I . . . I was think-ing just now, that between our Lord and thosegood religious there was a strife of generosity,who should give the most. . . . But our Lordalways wins. The religious give Him theirheart, and He gives His Heart and His Body.. . . While the Sisters said, ' I renew myvows of povery, chastity, and obedience,' I saidto them as I presented the Host, ' May theBody of our Lord keep your soul for life everlastingI"' Then, taking occasion to dilate uponhis beloved subject, he added :LL If we could but comprehend all the blessingsthat are contained in HOI~ Communion,.nothing more would be required to satisfy theheart of man. The avaricious would no longer

un after treasures, nor the ambitious afterglory ; every one would forsake the earth,-would shake off ita dust, and take flight towardeheaven. Communion ! Oh, what honour Goddoes to His creature 1 He reposes on hiatongue, passes over his palate as over a littleroad, and stays in his heart ss upon a throne !0 my Uud 1 my Uud ! some eple have knownhow to appreciate this honour. Thus, a holyBishop hati been known to sweep the churchhimself, and to put on his rochet for thia function,which appears degrading, but which heesteemed so highly that he wore his insignia ofa Bishop to perform it. A king used formerlyto press the grapes with his own handsfor the consecration of the Chalice, and to preparethe flour for the Hoate."'' One Communion well made is dcient toinflame the soul withthe love of Uud, and to makeit deapiae the earth. It ia not long since a greatperson of this world came here to go to HolyCommunion ; he had a fortune of three hundredthousand francs : he gave a hundred to build achurch, a hundred to the poqr, a hundred tohis relationti, and went to La fiappe. After himthere came a very learned lawyer ; he made agood Communion, and set out to go and put himselfinto the hands of PBre Lacordaire. Oh ! oneHoly Communion, one alone, is enough to die-

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS. 193gust a man with the earth, and to give him aforetaste of heavenly delights !I''' One ought to be a seraphim to say Mass I. . . . I hold our Lord in my handa. I pu;Him on the right, and He remains on the right.I put Him on the left, and He remains on theleft! . . . . . If we knew what Holy Mass is,we should die ! We shall never, till we are inheaven, understand the happiness of saying .Mass ! Alas ! my God 1 how much is a priestto be pitied, when he does it as if he were doing ,an ordinary action!" . . . . .CHAPTER VI.ZEAL OF Y. VIANNEY.ONE evening, the servant of God appeared moreoverpowered with fatigue than usual ; he hadnearly fainted during the short walk from hisconfessibnd to the presbytery. His ideas offlight and retirement came upon him again, butthey did not prevent him from being aa gay, asamiable and open as usual, and even more so." Oh !" said he, taking his missionary by bothhanda, "if I were in your place, I would flyaway to heaven 1" Then, with great sadness andin a sorrowful voice, '' How much am I to be0

194 SPIRIT OF THE CURB OF ARS.pitied ! I know nobody more unhappy than Iam I"L6 M. le Curb, how many people would liketo change with you I"" My friend, they would exchange their goldfor copper."" 0 my God !" he often said, '' how long I findt,he time among sinners I When, then, shall Ibe with the saints ! . . The good God is somuch offended on the earth, that one would betempted to ask for the end of the world 1 Wecould not endure this life if there were not afew beautiful souls to give repose to our heart,and to console our eyes for all the evil that wesee and hear. . . . . When we think of theingratitude of man to the good God, we aretempted to go to the other end of the world toavoid seeing it. It is frightful ! And then ifthe good God were not so good l But He is sogood !" . . . ." 0 God ! how ashamed shall we be, whenthe day of the last judgment shall show us ouringratitude ! We shall understand then, butit will be too late. Our Lord will say to us,' Why hast thou offended Me 3' And we shallnot know what to answer."'< No, there is nothing in the world so unhappyas a priest ! In what is his life passed ?In seeing the good God offended. Always His

W T OF TEE CU& OF AM. 195holy Name blasphemed ! Always His commandmentsbroken 1 Always His love out-raged ! The priest sees nothing else;' hehears nothing else. . . . . . Heiscontinually,like &.Peter in the judgment-hall of Pilate, havingbefore his eyes our Lord insulted, despised,mocked, covered with ignominy. . . . . Somespit in His face, others strike Him on the face ;others put on Him a crown of thorns ; othersgive Him great blows. He is pushed ; He isthrown down ; He is trodden under foot ; Heis crucified ; His heart is pierced. . . . . Oh !if I had known what it is to be a priest, Ishould very soon have run away to La Trappe."It is impossible to describe how much he hadthe salvation of souls at heart. He might besaid to be always sighing over the loss of souls.He has often been heard to repeat from thedepths of hie soul :What a pity that soula which have costthe good God so many sufferings should belost for eternity ! Nothing &ctsthe Heart ofJesus so much aa to see all His sufferinga of noavail to so many. . . . . Let us pray, then, forthe conversion of sinners ; it is the most beautifuland the most useful of all prayers. Forthe just are on their way to heaven, and theeouls in purgatory are sure of getting there. . ..But poor sinners 1 poor sinners ! . . . There

196 SPIRIT OF TEE cud OF m.are some among them in snapenst?. One Paterand Avs would be enough to turn the scale. . . . . How many souls we may convert brour prayers 1 He who rescues a soul from he 1saves that soul and his own too. All devotionsare good, but there is none better thanthis."" St. Francis of Assisi waa once praying ina wood. 0 Lord,' he said, 'have compassionon poor sinners!' and our Lord appeared tohim and said, Francis, thy will ie conformedto Mine. I am ready to grant thee whateverthou mayest ask.' ""-St. Colette asked for the conversion of athousand sinners ; then, reflecting on it, shewaa alarmed at the great number, and accusedherself of rashnew. The Blessed Virgin appearedto her, and showed her the quantity ofsouls she had converted by her novenas. Wemay offer ourselves aa victims during a week 1or a fortnight for the conversion of sinners.We suffer from cold or heat; we deprive ourselvesof looking at some thing, or of going tasee eome one, which would give us pleasure;we make a novena; we hear Mass every dayof the week for this intention, especially intowns where we have the opportunity. Butsome people would not go a hundred paces tohear Maw. Thoae who have the happinese ,

SPIRIT OF THE CUE$ OF ARB. 197of communicating often may make a novena ofCommunions. By this holy practice we notonly contribute to the glory of God, but wealso draw down upon ourselves great abundanceof graces."'' YOU have prayed," said M. Vianney to apriest, who complained to him that he couldnot change the hearts of his parishioners ;"you have prayed, you have wept, you havemourned, you have sighed ; but have yonfasted? have you watched ? have you slept onthe gronnd? have you taken the discipline?Till you have come to this, ypu must not suppose you have done every thing!""M. le Curb," his missionary said to himone day, "if the good God were to give youyour choice of going directly to heaven, orremaining on earth to labour for the conversionof sinners, what would you do?"'I think I ehould remain here.""Oh! M. le Cud, is it possible? The saintsare so happy in heaven ! No more temptations;no more miseries !"He answered, with an angelic smile, '' Thatis true ; but the saints live upon their income !They have laboured well, for God punishesidlenese, and rewards only labour; but theycan no longer glorify God, as we can, by sacrificesfor the salvation of souls."

"Would yon remain on earth till the end ofthe world 7""Just the same."" In that case yon would have plenty of timebefore you. Would you get up so early in themorning P"" OhJ yes, my friend, at midnight! I amnot afraid of trouble. . . . I should be thehappiest of priests, if it were not for the thoughtof appearing before the tribunal of God withmy poor Cds life."In saying this, he shed abundance of tears.CHAPTER VII.LOVE OF M. VIANNEY FOB TEE WOKNEXT to sinners, those who chiefly occupiedM. Vianney's thoughts were the poor. Heloved them because our Lord loved them, andbecause he felt that, having to suffer all sortsof privations, pains, and slight8 here below,they were the more in need of being soughtout, honoured, and consoled." How lucky it is that the poor come in thisway to beg of us ! If they did not come, weshould have to go and seek them, and we havenot always time. Some people give alms that

SPIRIT OF TEE CU& OF ABS. 199they may be seen, and praised, and admired . . .Some think they do not receive thanks enough.That will not do ! . . . If you give alms for theworld's sake, you are right to complain. Butif you do it for the good God, what .does itmatter whether you are thanked or not?' Wemust do all the good we can to every body, butwe must look for our recompense from Goddone.""When we give alme, we should think thatwe are giving to our Lord, and not to the poor.We ohn think .we a- relieving a poor person,and we find it.is.,our Lord . . . Look at St. Johnof God; he us+ to waah the feet of the poorbefore he gaye them food. One day, as hewas leaning over the feet of a poor man, hesaw that this poor man's feet were pierced. Heraised his head with emotion, and cried, ' It isThou, then, 0 Lord!"' (Here M. Vianneyburat into tears.) " Our Lord said to him,' John, I take pleasure in seeing what carethou take& of My poor;' . . . and He disap-peared.""Look at the good St. ~ r e ~ who ~ i fed ~ ,twelve poor men every day at,his own table.One day there were thirteen', and he said tohis servant, ' There are thirteen poor men.'The servant answered, 'I see only twelve.'The saint observed that this thirteenth changed

200 SPIBIT OF THE CUE$ OF ABS.colou; he was sometimes crimson, and sometimesas white as snow. When the repast wasover, the Pope took this poor stranger by thehand, and, leading him aside, asked him, ' Whoart thou ?''"I am an angel'" (here the holy Curd weptagain), "'and our Lord sent me to considerclosely the care you bestow on His poor. It is Iwho present to God your prayers and your alms.'After these words, he disappeared. The table atwhich the angel sat may still be seen in Rome."'' Some people say to the poor who seem tobe in good health, ' You are idle ; you couldwork very well ; you are young and strong.'But you do not know whether it is not the willof God that this poor person should beg hisbread, and thus you run the risk of opposingthe will of God."Look at the blessed Benedict Labre ; everyone repulsed him. He was called lazy. Thechildren threw stones at him. This good saintknew that he was doing the will of God ; henever answered a word. He once went to hisconfessor, who said to him, ' My friend, I thinkyou would do better to go into service ; youmake people offend the good God. The worldsays it is only lazine~s that makes you beg.'Benedict Labre answered very humbly, 'Father, 1it is the will of God that I should beg. Draw

the curtain of your confesmonal, and you willsee.' . . . This priest opened it, and saw alight which lighted up all the chapels. He certainlytook care not to hinder him in his way oflife. . . . . . Well, my children, how do weknow that there are not some like him ? Thereforewe should never repulse the poor. If wecannot give them any thing, we may pray Godto inspire othera to do so."" Some will say, Oh ! he makes a bad useof it.' Let him make what use of it he will,the poor man will be judged by the use he hasmade of your alms, and you will be judged forthe alms that you might have given and did notgive.'''' We must never despise the poor, becausethat contempt is reflected back upon God."'CHAPTER nI1.HUMILITY OF Y. VIANNEY.THOSE who did not know the Curb of Ars, andwho heard of the wonders worked around himand of the ovations of the multitude, naturallysupposed that in this atmosphere of praise andhonour, pride would be at least a temptation tohim, if not a mare. What a, difficulty indeed .

'202 SPXBIT OF TEE CUR% OF ARS.to remain humble amid the loudest and moststriking expressions of public veneration I Thisidea waa alluded to one day in his presence ;he raised his eyes to heaven with an expressionof profound sadness and almost of despondency,and said, " Ah I if only I were not tempted todwpair I"One day he received a letter full of insulte,and soon after, mother, expressing nothing butaffection and confidence, and calling him a saint.He showed them to his dear daughters of theProvidence. " See," wid he, the danger oftrusting to human feelings.This morning Ishould have lost the peace of my soul if I hadpaid attention to the insults that were addressedto me ; and this evening I should have beengreatly tempted to pride if I had listened to allthose compliments. Oh, how prudent it ie notto dwell upon the vain opinions and discourseof men, nor to take any account, of them I"He said also on another occasion, " I receivedtwo letters by the same post; one saidthat I was a great saint, and the other thatI was a hypocrite and an impostor. . . . Thefirst added nothing to me, and the second tooknothing from me. We are what we are beforeGod, and nothing more !" . . . .Another time he said, " The good God haschosen me to be the instrument of the gracea

SPIRIT OF THE c d OF ARS. 203He bestows on sinners, because I am the mostignorant and the most mberable of priests. Ifthere had been in the diocese a priest moreignorant and more miserable than me, Godwould have chosen him in preference."This sentence often recurred in his conversation: " When people speak ill of you, they saywhat is true ; when they pay you compliments,they are laughing at you. . . . Which is best,that you should be warned, or that you shouldbe misled ? that you should be treated seriously,or in joke 7M. Vianney never spoke of himself of hisown accord. If he was questioned he answeredmodestly and shortly, and turned the conversation.But on such occasions he was ingeniousin finding phrases of contempt for himself. Hewas praising a priest whom he esteemed, andsaid, in his figurative language, that he had thequalities of the swallow and of the eagle.'L And you, M. le Curb,-what have you P"" Oh ! what have I ? The Curb of Are ismade up of a goose, a turkey, and a crab."'' How good you are," said the holy man toa missionary lately arrived at Are, " to come tohelp us !"'' M. le Curb, to say nothing of the pleasureof living with you, we are only doing ourduty ."

'Oh, no ! it is a charity!'M. le Curb, do not suppose that. There isno charity on our part."" Oh, yes 1 You see plainly that all goeswell when you are here ; but when I am quitealone I am good for nothing. I am like ciphers,which have no value but by the side of other 'figures. . . . I am too old-I am worth not.hing."" M. le Cd,you are still young in heart andmind."Yea, my friend ; I may say, like that saintwho was asked how old he was, I have not yetlived one day."To satisfy his desire of lowering and vilifyinghimself, he continually employed the wordpoor.He spoke of his poor soul, hie poor body,his poor misery, his poor sins. . He was alwaysready to publish his faults, and according tohimself, his whole life would not have sufficed toweep for them. He was alwaya accusing himself.The humility of hie heart made him shedtears over hie weakness and ignorance, and theseteam could be dried only by hia generouacourage, which led him to throw himself withall his failings into the arms of God. He soreproached himself, that one would have thought'-4 had grown old in evildoing, and that he

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ABS. 205. was the vilest and most wretched of sinners."How good is God," he often said, " to bearwith my immense miseries !"" God has granted me this great mercy, thatHe has given me nothing in which I could truet,neither talent, nor science, nor strength, norvirtue. . . . When I reflect upon myself, I candiscover nothing but my poor sins. And thegood God does not allow me to see them all, orto know myself thoroughly. The sight woulddrive me to despair. I have no other resourceagainst that temptation to despair but to throwmyself at the foot of the tabernacle, like a littledog at its master's feet." . .The servant of God wae one of the few whospeak humbly of humility. LL M. le Cure,what am I to do to be good ?" some one askedhim.My friend, you must love the good God.""And what am I to do in order to loveGod 7""Ah 1 my friend, humility Ihumility l it isour pride that prevents us from becoming saints.Pride is the chain of the chaplet of all the vices,and humility the chain of the chaplet of all thevirtues. Alas I it is inconceivable how, and ofwhat, such little creatures as we are can beproud l . . . The devil appeared one day toSt. Macariue, armed with a whip, as if to beat

206 SPIRIT OF THE c d OF ARS.him, and mid, All that thou dost, I do ; thoufastest, I never eat ; thou watchest, I neversleep. Thereis only one thing that thou dost, andI cannot do.' ' What is it, then 7'' To humblemyself,' answered the devil, and he disappeared.Ah I my friend, there were saints who put thedevil to flight by saying, ' How miserable Iam S "These are some of his thoughts on this subject:Humility is like a pair of scales ; the morewe lower ourselves on one side, the more werise on the other."" Those who humble us are our friends, andnot those who praise us."'' A saint was asked what was the first virtue ?He answered, ' Humility! And the second ?' Humility.' And the third ? ' H~unility."'" We never understand our poor misery. Itmakes one shudder to think of it l God givesus only a little glimpse of it."'' If we knew ourselves as He knows uq wecould not live ; we should die of fear."" The saints knew themselves better thanothers, and that is why they were humble.They were covered with confusion when theyfound that God made use of them to workmiraclea. St. Martin was a great saint, andthought himself a great her. He attributed

SPIRIT OF THE CUB$ OF AM. 207all the evils that happened in his time to hisown sins."THOUQHTS OF M. VIANNEY ON SELF-DENIAL ANDSUFFERINQ.M. VIANHEY, like all the saints, was convincedthat detachment is the one only treasureof theheart; that to sacrifice is not to destroy, butto give life and liberty to the soul, by freeingit from the chains of finite things. Therefore,he always insisted much on death to self, andrenouncement qf our will." Our will,'' he said, 'I is the only thing thatwe have of our own, and can make an offeringof to the good God. Therefore, we are assuredthat a single act of renouncement of the willis more pleasing to Him than a fast of thirtydays."" Every time we can renounce our own will todo that of others, provided it is not against thelaw of God, we acquire great merits, which areknown to God alone. What is it that makesthe religious life so meritorious ? It is the renouncementof the will at every moment ; thecontinual death to all that has most life in us.

208 SPIBPT OF TEE cud OF ABS.Do you know, I h~ve often thought that thelife of a poor servant-girl, who has no will butthat of her master, if she knows how to profitby this renouncement, may be as ,pleasing toGod as that of a religious, always following herrule."'I Even in the world, we may every momentfind the opportunity of renouncing our will ;we may deprive ourselves of a visit that givesIIE pleasure; we may do a troublesome workof charity ; we may go to bed two minuteslater, get up two minutes earlier; when twothings are to be done, we may choose that onewhich is the least pleasant!'I have known some beautiful souls in theworld, who had no will of their own, and werequite dead to themselves. That is what thesaints do. Look at that good little St. Mame,who had such power with God, and was sodear to his Superior on account d his simplicityand obedience. The other religious werejealous of him, and the Superior said to them,' I will show you why I esteem that dearlittle brother so highly! He made the tourof the cells ; they all had something to finishbefore they opened their doors ; St. Mamalone, who was copying the Holy Scriptures,instantly left his work to answer the call of St.Beneclict!'

SPIBIT OF THE cud OF AM. 209'' It only the first step that is difficult inthis way of abnegation. When once it is enteredupon, we go straight forward ; and whenwe have acquired this virtue, we have everything."Speaking of the Crosq he said that it wasthe most learned book that could be read ; thatthose who did not know this book were ignorant,even if they were acquainted with every other ;that they alone were wise who loved it, wnsultedit, fathomed it ; that, bitter as it wua,nothing was so pleasing as to plunge into thedepths of its bitterness ; that it waa a schoolwhere was to be found a11 knowledge withoutweariness, and every sweetness without satiety."A how founded on the Cross," he said,"will fear neither wind, nor rain, nor storm.Trials show clearly how pleasing a work ia toGod."At a time when he was overwhelmed withwntradictions, he was on the point of addressinga letter to his Bishop, which would haveeffectually relieved him from a part of hiatroubles. The .letter wb written, but when itwas given him to sign, he tore it up, saying,6L This is Friday, the day ow Lord bore His'Cross ; I must bear mine. To-day the chaliceof humiliation is leas bitter."

210 SPIUIT OF THE CU& 08 ABS.HOW Y. VIANNEY SPOKE OF THE SAINTS.M. VIANNEY spoke often of the mints, and neverwithout tears. His stories of them were so fullof life and detail, that one would have thoughthe had lived in the most intimate interconreewith them. The legends in the liven of theservanta of God chiefly ottrncted him, and hewaa most delighted with what waa mpt won-.derful and contrary to the ordinary course ofnature. He differed entirely from those whowould limit the power of M, and leave out the~upematural from the livea of the saints, for hehad that courage of faith which does not fear tooppose the pride of human reason and to scandalisethe impious." I think," he said, 'L that if we had faith weshould be maatem of the will of God; we shouldlead it captiye, and He would refueeus nothing.'?Then he had a thousand stories to relate of thedivine condescension towards the sainta, onemore beautiful and marvelloue. than the other.He epoke of a saint who waa burning with deeireto adore our Lord in the Sacrament ofHis love, during the night ; he had only to goto a church, and the gates opened of their ownaccord to let him in.

SPIRIT OF THE CU& OF A& 211" Another saint, being in a church, prostratebefore a veiled statue of the Most Holy Virgin,waa so desirow to eee the face of the Mother ofGod, that the veil which covered the imagewithdrew of itself, and our Lady appeared tohim smiling and beautiful.''" A saint one day met a little shepherd cryingbitterly, because one of his sheep waa just dead.Touched with compassion, he recalled the porbeast to life.""There was onceasaintwho had bought a field,and the man who had sold it to him died soon after ;but they pretended afterwards that he had notpaid for it, and that the field did not belong tohim. He was not at all disturbed, but put allhis confidence in God, and answered those whotroubled him, ' Give me three days, and I willbring a witness.' He passed that time inpraying and fasting, and theday he wentto the place where the man was buried, collectedhis bones, and said to him, ' Arise, comeout of the tomb, and bear witness to the truth.'. . . Then those bones returned to human form ;the dead man arose and declared before all thebystanders that the field had been duly paid for.""There waa a saint who wanted to build amonastery, but a mountain was in the way.He commanded it to move, and the mountainwent back fifty feet."

212 EPIRIT OF THE C& OF AM."Another was asked to command a greatrock to change its place. 'Will you be convertedif I do it ?' said he. ' Yes.' He commandedthe rock, and it immediately disappearedin the air."LL See," added the good Cud, weeping,;"'aee howgood God is to those who love Him I He worksmiracles for nothing when one of His friendsasks Him. When man has a pure heart, hecommands God as if he were His master. St.Francis of Paula heard one day that hisparents were to be put to death because a manhad been found assassinated in their garden, andthey were accused of having killed him. Thenhe said, 0 Lord, let me be near them tomorrowI' In the night an angel transportedhim four hundred leagues, to the country wherethey were. The next day he said before everybody, ' Bring hither the man who has beenkilled! They brought him ; and he said, ' Icommand thee, in the name of God, to declarewhether it was my parents that killed thee.'And the man arose, and exclaimed before themall, 'No, it was not thy parents.' Then thesaint said again to our Lord, ' Let me betaken back to my monastery;' and during thenight the angel took him away again. He -travelled in this way eight hundred leagues.Thegood Godcan refuse nothing to apureheart."

SPIRIT OF THB cud OF AM. 215St. Vincent Perrer worked so many miraclesthat hie Superior, fearing they might prove asnare to his humility, forbade him to exercise,without permission, the power he had receivedfrom God. One day he was in adoration beforeour Lord, and a workman who was repairing thechurch fell from the top of a scaffold. The goodsaint cried out to him, ' Stop I stop ! I have notthe power to raise you to life agkin.' Then hewent in haste to get the permission he requiredfrom his Superior, who was very much surprised,and could not understand the matter;being sure that, at any rate, the permission wouldcome too late. What was his astonishmentwhen, following St. Vincent to the place of theaccident, he saw suspended in the air the unfortunatemason whom he expected to find lyingon the ground ! ' Come,' said he to the saint,'do whatever you wish. Indeed, there is noway of preventing you.' "These stories were the more attractive from thetender simplicity with which he related them.Nothing could be more touching and beautifulthan the frequent team, the angelic smiles, theinnocent joyfulness that were combined in him,with thoughts so lofty, with habits of life soaustere, with sacrifices so painful, and an apostolateao laborious. In an age whensimplicity basalmost disappeared from among men, no Chris-

tian can see without emotion and envy howthis holy priest fulfilled the words of our Lord,that we should become like little children.His cheerfulness and benevolence were neverdiminished by labour and suffering, but seemed,on the contrary, to increase amid the infirmitiesof old age. That gloomy period was replacedin him by a freshness of feeling and imaginationwhich overcame the chills of age, like theeternal youth of the blessed. He never knewthat sadness which makes the decline of lifesilent and melancholy, casting a shadow overthe soul.The conversations we had with him twomonths before his death have often recalled toour mind these words : "The last thoughtsof a heart filled with the love of God are likethe last rays of the sun, more inte~uie and morebrilliant on the point of disappearing."

PART IV.SEVENTEEN EXHORTATIONS OP TEE CUR^ OF ARS.TEE happiness of man on earth, my children,is to be very good; thoee who are very good blessthe good God, they love Him, they glorify Him,and do all their works with joy and love, becausethey know that we are in thio world forno other end than to eerve and love the goodGod.Look at bad Christians; they do every thingwith trouble and disguat ; and why, my children7 because they do not love the good God,because their mu1 is not pure, and their hopesare no longer in heaven, but on earth. Theirheart is an impure source which poiaons alltheir actions, and preventa them from rising toGod; so they come to die without having thoughtof death, destituta of good works for heaven,and loaded with crimes for hell: this is the waythey are lost for ever, my children. Peoplesay it is too much trouble to save one's soul ;but, my children, is it not trouble to acquireglory or fortune ? Do you etay in bed when

216 BPIBIT OF TEE CUB$ OF ARS.you have to go md plough, or mow, or reap ?No. Well, then, why should you be more idlewhen you have to lay up an immense fortunewhich will never perish-when you have tostrive for eternal glory? . . .See, my children, if we really wish to besaved, we rnust determine, once for all, to labourin earnest for our salvation ; our soul is like agarden in which the weeds are ever ready tochoke the good plants and flowers that have beensown in it. If the gardener who has chargeof this garden neglects it, if he is not continuallyusing the spade and the hoe, the flowereand plants will soon dissppear. Thue, mychildren, do the virtues with which God hasbeen pleased to adorn our soul disappear underour vices, if we neglect to oultivate them. Asa vigilant gardener labours from morning tillnight to destroy the weeds in his garden, and toornament it with flowers, so let us labour everyday to extirpate the vices of our soul and toadorn it with virtues. See, my children, agardener never lets the weeds take mot, becausehe knows that then he would never be able todestroy them. Neither let us allow our viceato take root, or we shall not be able to conquerthem.One day, an anchorite being in a forest witha companion, showed him four cypresses to be

pulled up one after the other ; the young man,who did not very well know why he told himto do this, took hold of the first tree, which wa~quite small, and pulled it up with one handwithout any trouble; the second, which was alittle bigger and had some roota, made himpull harder, but yet he pulled it up with onehand ; the third, being still bigger, offered somuch resistance, that he was obliged to take bothhands and to use all his strength ; the fourth,which was grown into a tree, had such deeproots, that he exhausted himself in vain efforta.The saint then said to him, LL With a little vigilanceand mortification, we succeed in repressingour passions, and we triumph over themwhen they are only springing up ; but whenthey have taken deep root, nothing is moredifficult; the thing is even impoasible without amiracle."Let us not reckon on a miracle of Providence,my children ; let us not pnt off till the end ofour life the care that we ought daily to take ofour soul ; let us labour while it ia yet time,-later it will no longer be within our power; letus lay our hands to the work; let us watch overourselves; above all, let us pray to the goodGod,-with His assistance we shall always havepower over our passions. Man sins, my children;but if he has not in this fist moment lost

218 SPIRIT OF THE c d OF ARS.the faith, he rune, he hastene, he flies, to seeka remedy for his ill; he cannot soon enough findthe tribunal of peuance, where he can recoverhis happinem. That is the way we shouldconductourselves if we were good Christians. Yes,my children, we could not remain olie momentunder the empire of the devil; we should beashamed of being his slaves. A good Christianwatches continually, sword in hand, and thedevil can do nothing against him, for he r&tahim like a warrior in full armour; he does notfear him, because he has rejected h m hisheart all that is impure. Bad Christians areidle and lazy, and atand hanging their heads ;and you see how they give way at the h taesault ; the devil does what he pleases withthem ; he presents pleasure to them, he makesthem taste pleasure, and then, to drown thecries of their conscience, he whispers to them ina gentle voice, " Thou wilt sin no more."And when the occasion preaenta itaelf, theyfall again, and more easily than the h t time.If they go to confession he makes themaahamed, they speak only in half-words, theylower their voice, they explain away their nine,and, what ia more miserable, they perhap concealsome. The good Christian, on the contrary,groans and weeps over his eins, andreaches the trihunal of penance half justified.

ON DEATH.A DAY will come, perhaps it is not far off,when we must bid adieu to life, adieu to theworld, adieu. to our relatione, adieu to ourfriends. When shall we return, my children 7Never. We appear upon this earth, we disappear,and we-&turn no more; our poor body,that we take such care of, goes away into duet,and our soul, all trembling, goes to appear beforethe good God.When we quit this world, where we shallappear no more, when our last breath of lifeescapes, and we say our last adieu, we shallwish to have passed our life in solitude, in thedepths of a desert, far from the world and itspleaeuree.We have these examplea of repentance beforeour eyes every day, my children, and weremain always the same. We pass our lifegaily, without ever troubling oudves abouteternity. By our indifference to the service ofthe good God, one would thii we were nevergoing to die.See, my children, some people pass theirwhole life without thinking of death. It comes,

220 SPIRIT OF TEE C U OF ~ A=.and behold l they have nothing ; faith, hope,love, all are already dead within them.When death shall come upon us, of what usewill three-quarters of our life have been to us?With what are we occupied the greatest partof our time? Are we thinking of the goodGod, of our salvation, of our soul ?0 my children ! what folly is the world ! wecome into it, we go out of it, without knowingwh jr.The good God places us in it to serve Him,to try if we will love Him and be faithful toHis law ; and after this short moment of trial,He promises us a recompense. Is it not justthat He should reward the faithfid servant andpunish the wicked one ?Should the Trappist, who has passed his lifein lamenting and weeping over his sins, betreated the same as the bad Christian, who haslived in abundance in the midst of all the enjoymentsof life? No; certainly not. We areon earth not to enjoy its pleasures, but to labourfor our salvation.Let us prepare ourselves for death ; we havenot a minute to lose : it will come upon us atthe moment when we leaat expect it; it willtake us by surprise.Look at the saints, my children, who werepure ; they were always trembling, they pined

SPlEIT OF THE C U OF ~ AM. 221away with fear; and we, who so often offendthe good God,-we have no fears. Life is givenus that we may learn to die well, and we neverthink of it. We occupy ourselves with everything else. The idea of it ohn occurs to us,and we always reject it; we put it off to thelast moment. 0 my children ! this last moment,how much it is to be feared !Yet the good God does not wish ns to despair;He shows ue the good thief, touched with repentance,dying near Him on a cross ; but heis the only one; and then see, he dies near thegood God. Can we hope to .be near Him atour last moment-we who have been far fromHim all our life? . . . What have we done todeserve that favour? . . . A great deal of evil,and no good.There was once a good Trappist Father,who was trembling all over at perceiving theapproach of death. Some one said to him," Father, of what then are you afraid 3" Ofthe judgment of God," he said. L'Ah ! if youdread the judgment-you who have done somuch penance, you who love God so much,who have been so long preparing for deathwhatwill become of me ?"See, my children, to die well, we must livewell; to live well, we must seriously examineourselves : every evening think over what we

232 SPIRIT OF THE CUB$ OF m.have done during the day ; at the end of eachweek review what we have done duriog theweek ; at the end of each month review whatwe have done during the month ; at the endof the yew, what we have done during theyear. By this means, my children, we cannotfail to correct ourselves, and to become fervent, Christians in a short time. Then, when deathcomes, we are quite ready, we are happy to goto Heaven.111.ON TJiE LAST JUDGMENT,OUR Catechism tells us, my children, that allmen will undergo a particular judgment on theday of their death. No sooner shall we havebreathed our last sigh than our soul, withoutleaving the place where it has expired, will bepmented before the tribunal of God. Whereverwe may die, God is there to exercise His juatice.The good God, my children, has measuredout our years, and of those years that He haareeolved to leave w on this earth, He haamarked out one which shall be our laat; oneday which we shall not see succeeded by otherdays ; one hour after which there will be for us.

no more time. . .What distance is there betweenthat moment and this?-the space of an instant.Life, my children, is a smoke, a light vapour;it disappears more quickly than a bird that darts1 through the air, or a hip that sails on the sea,i and leaves no trace of its course !I When shall we die ? Alas I will it be in ayear, in a month?-perhaps to-morrow, perhapstoday 1 May not that happen to us whichhappens to so many others ?It may be that at a moment when you arethinking of nothing but amusing yourself, youmay be summoned to the judgment of God, likethe impioua Baltasar. What will then be theaetonishment of that soul entering on itaeternity ? Surprised, bewildered, separatedthenceforth from ita relations and friends,and, as it were, surrounded with Divine light, itwill find in ita Creator no longer a mercifulFather, but an inflexible Judge.Imagine to yourselves, my children, a soulat its departure from this life. It is going toappear before the tribunal of its Judge, alonewith God ; there is heaven on one side, hell onthe other. What object presents itself beforeit 7 . . . The picture of its whole life l . . . .All ita thoughts, all its words, all ita actions,are examined.This examination will be terrible, my chil-

224 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF ABS.dren, because nothing is hidden from God ; Hiainfinite science knows our most inmost thoughts;it penetrates to the bottom of our hearts, andlays open their innermost folds.In vain sinners avoid the light of day thatthey may sin more fmly : they spare themselvesa little shame in the eyes ofmen, but itwillbe of no advantage to them at the day of judgment; God will make light the darkness undercover of which they thought to sin with impunity.The Holy Ghost, my children, saysthat we shdl be examined on our words,our thoughts, our actions ; we shall be examinedeven on the good we ought to have done, andhave not done, on the sins of others of which.we have been the cause. Alas I so manythoughts to which we abandon ourselves-towhich the mind gives itself up: how many inone day ! in a week ! in a month ! in a year !. . . How many in the whole course of ourlife 1 Not one of this infinite number willescape the knowledge of our Judge.The proud man must give an account of allhis thoughts of presumption, of vanity, of ambi;tion ; the impure of all his evil thoughts, and ofthe criminal desires with which he haa fedhis imagination. Those young people who areincessantly occupied with their dress, who are=eking to please, to distinguish themselves, to

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ABS. 225attract attention and praise, and who dare notmake themselves known in the tribunal ofpenance, will they be able still to hide themselvesat the day of the judgment of God ? No,no ! . . . They will appear there such as theyhave been during their life, before Him whomakes known all that is most secret in the heartof man.We shall give an account, my children, of ouroaths, of our imprecations, of our curses. Godhears our slanders, our calumnies, our free conversations,our worldly and licentious songs ;He hears also the discourse of the impious.This is not all, my children; God will alsoexamine our actions. He will bring to light allour unfaithfulness in His service, our forgetfulnessof His commandments, our transgression,of His law, the profanation of His churches, theattachment to the world, the ill-regulated loveof pleasure and of the perishable goods ofearth. All, my children, will be unveiled ;those thefts, that injustice, that usury, that intemperance,that anger, those disputes, thattyranny, that revenge, those criminal liberties,those abominations that cannot be named widoutblushee. . . .

ON SIN.Sin ia a thought, a word, ma adh, contraryto the lara of Cod.By sin, my children, we rebel against thegood God, we despise His justice, we treadunder foot His blessings.From being children of God, we become theexecutioner and assassin of our soul, the offspringof hell, the horror of heaven, the murdererof Jew Christ, the capital enemy of thegood God. . . .0 my children! if we thought of thie, if we reflectedon the injury which sin offers to the goodGod, we should hold it in abhorrence, we ehouldbe unable to commit it; but we never think ofit, we like to live at our ease, we glumber in ain.If the good God aends us remorse, we quicklystifle it, by thinking that we have done no harmto any body, that God is good, and that He didnot place us on the earth to make us mffer.Indeed, my children, the good God did notplace us on the earth to suffer and endure, butto work out our salvation. See; He willa thatwe should work to-day and to-morrow ; andafter that, an eternity of joy, of happiness, awaiteus in heaven. . . .

0 my children! how ungratefid we are! Thegood God calls na to Himself ; He wish- tomake ua happy for ever, and we are deafto Hie word, we will not share His happiness;He enjoins us to love Him, and we give ourheart to the devil. . . .The good God commands all nature as itsMaster ; He makes the winds and the etormsobey Him; the angels tremble at His ad~rablewill ; man alone dares to resist Him.See; God forbids us that action, that criminalpleasure, that revenge, that injustice ; no matter,we are bent upon satisfying ourselves; we hadrather renounce the happiness of heaven, thandeprive omdves of a moment's pleasure, orgive up a sinful habit, or change our life,What lrre we, then, that we dare thua to resintGod? Duet and aahes, which He could annihilatewith a aingle look. . . .By ein, my children, we despise the goodGod. . . . We renew His Death and Passion ;we do as much evil as all the Jews together did,in fastening Him to the Cross. Therefore, mychildren, if we were to ask those who workwithout necessity on Sunday: " What are youdoing there 'l" and they were to answer truly,they would say, &' We are crucifying the goodGod."Ask the idle, the gluttonous, the immodest,

what they do every day. If the snsrer yonaccording to what they are real y doing, theywill say, " We are crucifying the good God."0 my children! it is very ungrateful to offenda God who has never done us any harm; but iait not the height of ingratitude to offend a Godwho hw doqe us nothing but good? . . . .It is He who created us, who watches ovmus. He holds us in His hands, like a handfulof hair ; if He chose, He could cast ua into thenothingness out of which he took ue. He haagiven us His Son, to redeem UR from theslavery of the devil ; He Himself gave Him upto death, that He might reatore us to life; Hehas adopted us as His children, and ceaeea notto lavish Hie graces upon us. Notwithetanding41 this, what use do we make of our mind, ofour memory, of our health, of those limb whichhe gave us to serve Him with?rWe employthem perhaps in committing crimea. . . .The good God, my children, hae given nseyes to enlighten ue, to see heaven, and we usethem to lwk at criminal and dangeroue objecb;He harr given us a tongue to praise Him, andto express our thoughts, and we make it aninstrument of iniquity,-we swear, we b bpheme, we speak ill of our neighbow, weslander him ; we abuse the supernatural graces,we stifle the dutary remorse, by which God

would convert ub; . . . we reject the inepirahnsof our good guardian angel.We despise good thoughts, we neglect prayerand the Sacraments. What account do wemake even of the Word of aod 7 . . Do we notlisten to it with disgust ? How miserable weare I How much we are to be pitied ! Weemplog in losing our wuls the time that thegood od has given us to save them in.We make war upon Him with the means Hebaa given us to serve Him ; we turn H~E owngiRs against Him I . . .Let us cast our eyes, my children, uponJesus fastened to the Cross, and let us say tooumlva, LL This is what it has cost my Saviour torepair the injury my sine have done to God." . . .A God coming down to the earth to be thevictim of our sins ! A God suffering, a Goddying, a God enduring every torment, becamHe has put on the semblance of sin, and hauehosen to bear the weight of our iniquities ! . . .Ah I my children, at the night of that Cross,let us conceive once for all the malice of sin, andthe abhorrence in which we should hold it. . . .Let us enter into ourselves, and see what weought to do to repair our past sins ; let us implorethe clemency of the good God, and let u6all together say to Him, from the bottom of ourhesrt, " 0 Lord, who art here crucified for us,

have mercy upon w I . . . Thou comeet downfrom heaven to aure souls of sin ; cure us, wek w h Thee ; cause our souls to be purified byapproaching the tribunal of penance ; yes, 0God I make us look upon sin as the greatest ofall evils, and by our zeal in avoiding it, and inrepairing those we have had the misfortune tocommit,-let us one day attain to the happinessof the sainta."WE are all inclined to sin, my children ; wesre idle, greedy, sensual, given to the pleasuresof the flesh.We want to know every thing, to learn everything, to see every thing; we must watchover our mind, over our heart, and over oursenses, for these are the gatee by which thedevil penetrates. fke, he prowls round us iuceeeantly; his only occupation in this world isto seek companions for himself. All our lifehe will lay snares for us, he will try to makeus yield to temptations ; we must, on our side,do all we can to defeat and resist him.We can do nothing by o~melves, my children; but we can do every thing with the help

of the good God ; let us pray Him to deliverue from this enemy of our salvation, or to giveue strength to fight against him. With theName of Jesus we shall overthrow the demons ;we shall put them to flight. With this Name,if they sometimes dare to attack us, our battleswillbe victories, and our victories will be crownsfor heaven, all brilliant with precious stones.See, my children, the good God refusesnothing to those who pray to Him from thebottom of their heart. St. Teresa, being oneday in prayer, and desiring to see the goodQod, Jesus Christ showed to the eyes of hereoul His divine Hands ; then, another day, whensbe was again in prayer, He showed her HisFace. Lastly, some days after, He showed herthe whole of His Sacred Humanity.The good God who granted the desire of St.Teresa will also grant our prayers. If we askof Him the grace to resist temptations, He willgrant it to us; for He wishes to save us all, Heshed His Blood for ua all, He died for uaall,He ia waiting for us all in heaven ; we are twoor three hundred here : shall we all be saved,shall we all go to heaven ? Alas ! my children,we know nothing about it ; but I tremblewhen I see SO many souls loat in these days.See, they fall into hell aa the leaves fallhm the trees at the approach of winter. We

shall fall like the rest, my children, if we donot avoid temptations ; if, when we cannot avoidthem,we do not fight generously, with the help ofthe good God,-if we do not invoke His Nameduring the strife, like St. Antony in the desert.This saint having retired into an old sepulchre,the devil came to attack him; he triedat first to terrifp him with a horrible noise ; heeven beat him EO cruelly, that he left him halfdead and covered with wounds. "Well," aaidSt. Antony, "here I am, ready to fight again;no, thou ehalt not be able to eeparate me fromJews Christ, my Lold and my God." Thespirits of darkness redoubled their efforts, anduttered frightful cries. St. Antony remainedunmoved, became he put all his confidence inGod. After the example of this saint, mychildren, let us be always ready for the combat; let us put our confidence in God ; let uefast and pray ; and the devil will not be ableto separate us from Jesus Christ, either ixi thieworld or the next.VI.ON PRIDE.Pr& 6 an untrue bpmh of owaelvea, anuntrue idea of what we are not.

SPWT OF TEE CUB* OF us. 233The proud man ie always disparaging him-Ii self, that people may praise him the more.1 The more the proud man lowers himself, themore he eeeks to raise his miserable nothing-!ness. He relates what he has done, and whathe haa not done ; he feeds his imagination withwhat has been said in praise of him, and seeksby all posaible means for more; he is neversatisfied with praise. See, my children, if youonly show some little displeasure against aman given up to oelf-love, he gets angry, andaccuses you of ignorance or injustice towardehim. . . .My children, we are in reality only what weare in the eyes of God, and nothing more. Isit not quite clear and evident that we are nothing,that we can do nothing, that we are verymiserable ? Can we lose sight of our sins, andcease to humble ourselves ?If we were to consider well what we are,humility would be easy to us, and the demonof pride would no longer have any room in ourheart. See, our days are like grass,-like thep s which now flourishes in the meadows, andwill presently be witl~ered ; like an ear of cornwhich ie fresh only for a moment, and is parchedby the sun. In fact, my children, to-day weaw full of life, full of health ; and to-morrow,death will perhaps come to reap us and mow us

254 SPIRIT OF THE C U OF ~ AB6.down, as you reap your corn and mow yourmeadows. . . . Whatever appears vigomnqwhatever shines, whatever is beautiful, is ofshort duration. . . . The glory of this world,youth, honours, riches, all pass away quickly,as quickly ss the flower of grass, as the flower afthe field. . . . Let us reflect that BO we shall oneday be reduced to dust ; . . . that we shall be.thrown into the fire like dry grass, if we do notfear the good God.Good Christians know this very well, myohildren ; therefore they do not ocoupy themselveswith their body ; they despise the affair8of this world ; they consider only their soul andhow to unite it to God.Can we be proud in the face of the examplaof lowlineas, of humiliations, that our Lord hasgiven us, and is still giving us every day 9' JesusChrist came upon earth, became incarnate, wasborn poor, lived in poverty, died on a gibbet,between two thieves. . . . He instituted anadmirable Sacrament, in which He communicatesHimself to us under the Eucharistic veil;and in this Sacrament He undergoes the mostextraordinary humiliations. Residing con-tinually in our tabernacles, He ie deserted,misunderstood by ungrateful men ; and yet Hecontinues to love us, ta serve us in the Sacramentof the Altar. . . .

SPIRIT OF THE cud OF AR~. 2350 my children ! what an example of humiliationdoes the good Jesus give us I . . .Behold Him on the Cross to whioh our sinehave fastened Him ; behold Him : He calls us,and says to us, '' Come to Me, and learn of Me,because I am meek and humble of heart." . . .How well the saints understood this invitation,my children I Therefore, they all soughthumiliations and sufferings. After their example,then, let us not be afraid of being humbled anddespised.St. John of God, at the beginning of his conversion,counterfeited madness, ran about thestreets, and was followed by the populaae, whothrew stones at him: he alwirys came in coveredwith mud and with blood. He was shut up asa madman ; the most violent remedies wereemployed to cure him of his pretended illness ;' and he bore it all in the spirit of penance, andin expiation of his past sins.The good God, my children, does not requireof us extraordinary things. He wills that weshould be gentle, humble, and modest ; thenwe shall always be pleasing to Him ; we shallbe like little children ; and He will grant usthe grace to come to Him and to enjoy thehappiness of the eainta.

VII.ON AVARICE.OUR catechism teaches us that avarice is aninordinate h e of thc goods of this world.Yea, my children, it is an ill-regulated love,a fatal lwe, which makea ns forget the goodGod, prayer, the Sacraments, that we may lovethe goods of this world-gold and silver andlands. The avaricious man is like a pig, whicheeeks its food in the mud, without caring whel-eit comes from. Stooping towarde the earth, hethinks of nothing but the earth ; he no longerlooks towards heaven, his happiness is no longerthere. The avaricious man does no good tillafter hie death. See how greedily he gathersup wealth, how anxiously he keep it, howafflicted he is if he losee it. In the midst ofriches, he does not enjoy them ; he is, as itwere, plunged in a river, and is dying of thirst ;lying on a heap of corn, he is dying of hunger ;he has every thing, my children, and dares nottouch any thing ; his gold is a sacred thing tohim, he makes it his divinity, he adores it . . .0 my children ! how many there are in themdays who are idolaters I how many there orewho .think more of making a fortune than ofserving the good God ! They steal, they d e

BPIBIT OF THE cud OB ARS. 237fraud, they go to law with their seighbour ;they do not even respect the laws of God. Theywork on Sundays and holidays : nothing corneaamiss to their greedy and rapacioua hands. . .Good Christians, my children, do not thinkof their body, which must end in corruption ;they think only of their soul, which is immortal.While they are on the earth, they occupy themselveswith their soul alone. So you see howassiduous they are at the Offices of the Church,with what fervour they pray before the goodGud, how they sanctify the Sunday, how reaollectedthey are at holy Mass, how happythey are ! The days, the months, the yeareare nothing to them ; they pass them in loviugthe good God, with their eyes h d on theireternity. . . .Geeing us so indifferent to ow salvation, andso occupied in gathering up a little mud, wouldnot any one say that we were never to die ?Indeed, my children, we are like people who,during the summer, should make an ampleproviaion of gourds, of melons, for a long jowney;after the winter, what would remain ofit ?-nothing.In the same way, my children, what remainsto the avaricious man of all his wealth whendeath comes upon him unawares? A poorcovering, a few planks, and the despair of not

eing able to carry his gold away with him.Misers generally die in this sort of despair, andpay eternally to the devil for their insatiablethirst of riches.Misers, my children, are sometimes punishedeven in thirr world.Once St. Hilarion, followed by a great numberof his disciples, going to visit the monasteriesunder his rule, came to the abode of anavaricious solitary. On their approach, theyfound wntchers in all parts of the vineyard, whothrew stones and clods of earth at them to preventtheir touching the grapes. This miserwas well punished, for he gathered that yearmuch fewer grapes than usual, and his wineturned into vinegar.Another solitary, named Sabbas, begged him,on the contrary, to come into his vineyard andeat the fruit. St. Hilarion blessed it, and sentinto it his religious, to the number of threathousand, who all satisfied their hunger ; andtwenty days after, the vineyard yielded threehundred measures of wine, instead of the usualquantity of ten.Let us follow the example of Sabbaa, and bedisinterested ; the good God will blese us, andafter having blessed us in this world, He willalso reward us in the other.

SPLBIT OF THE CUR^ OF ARS. 239ON LUXURY.h y is the love of the phurea that areI con^ top*:No slns, my children, ruin and destroy a soul. so quickly as this shameful sin ; it snatches us. out of the hands of the good God, and hurls usI like a stone into an abyss ofmire and corruption.Once plunged in this mire, we cannot get out,we make a deeper hole in it every day, we sinklower and lower. Then we lose the faith, welaugh at the truths of religion, we no longer seeheaven, we do not fear hell. 0 my children!howl much are they to be pitied who give way tothis passion ! how wretched they are I Their,soul, whlch was so beautiful, which attractedthe efie of the good God, over which He leantas one bans over a perfumed me, has becomelike a rotten carcass, of which the pestilentialdour riees even to His throne. . .See, my children ; Jesus Christ enduredpatiexp$, among His Apostles, men who werepro d, ambitious, greedy,-even one who betJedHim ; but He could not bear the leastsgin of impurity in any of them ; it is of all6ces that which He has most in abhorrence :"My Spirit does not dwell in you," the Lordsays,if you are nothing but flesh and corruption."

God gives up the impure, then, to all thewicked inclinations of his heart. He lets himwallow, like the vile swine, in the mire, anddoes not even let him smell its offensive exhalations.. . .The immodtvlt man is odious to every one,and ia not aware of it. God has set the markof ignominy on his forehead, and he is notaehamed ; he haa a face of brass and a heart ofbronze ; it is in vain you talk to him of honour,of virtue : he is full of nothing but arroganceand pride. The eternal truths, death, judgment,paradise, hell,-nothing terrifies him,nothing can move him.So, my children, of all sins that of impurityis the moat difficult to eradicate. Other sinsforge for ue chaina of iron, but this one makesthem of bull's-hide, which can be neitherbroken nor rent ; it is a fire, a furnace, whichconsumes even to the most advanced old age.See those two infamous old men who attemptedthe purity of the chaste Susannah ;they had kept the fire of their youth even tillthey were decrepit. When the body is wornout with debauchery, when they can no longeraatiefy their passions, they supply the place ofit, oh, shame I by infamoua desires and memories.With one foot in the grave, they still speak

'the language of passion, till their laat breath ;they die ae they have lived, impenitent ; forwhat penance can be done by the impure, whatsacrifice can he impose on himself at his death,who during his life has always given way to hispassions 7 Can one at the last moment expecta good confession, a good communion, from himwho has concealed one of these shameful sins,perhaps,from hie earliest youth-who has heapedsacrilege on sacrilege ? Will the tongue, whichhas been silent up to this day, be unloosed atthe last moment? No, no, my children ; Godhas abandoned him ; many sheets of lead alreadyweigh upon him; he will add another, md itwill be the last. . . .ON ENVY.Envy is a sadness which we feel, on accountof the good that happens to our neighbour.Envy, my children, follows pride ; whoeveris envious is proud. See, envy comes to usfrom hell ; the devils having sinned throughpride, sinned also through envy, envying ourglory, our happiness.Why do we envy the. happiness and theR

goods of others ?Because we are proud ; weshould like to be the sole possessors of talents,riches, of the esteem and love of all the world.We hate our equals, because they are ourequals ; our inferiors, from the fear that theymay equal us ; our superiors, because they areabove us.In the same way, my children, that the devilafter his fall felt, and still feels, extreme angerat wing us the heirs of the glory of the goodGod, so the envious man feel8 sadneas at seeingthe spiritual and temporal prosperity of hieneighbour.We walk, my children, in the footstep ofthe devil; like him, we are vexed at good, andrejoice at evil. If our neighbour lorn anything, if hie affairs go wrong, if he is humbled,if he is unfortunate, we are joyful, . . . wetriumph ! The devil, too, he is full of joy andtriumph when we fall, when he can make usfall as low as himself. What does he gain byit? . . . . Nothing.8hall we be richer, because our neighbouris poorer ? Shall we be greater, because he isleas ? Shall we be happier, because he is moreunhappy? . . . 0 my children ! how muchwe are to be pitied for being like this ISt. Cyprian said that other evils had limits,but that envy had none. In fact, my children,

the envious man invents all sorb of wickedness ;he has recourse to evil speaking, to calumny, tocunning, in order to blacken his neighbour; herepeats what he knows, and what he does notknow he invents, he exaggerates. . . .Through the envy of the devil, death enteredinto the world ; and also through envy we killour neighbour; by dint of malice, of falsehood,we make him lose his reputation, his place. . . .Good Christians, my children, do not do so ;they envy no one ; they love their neighbour;they rejoice at the good that happens to him,and they weep with him if any misfortunecomes upon him. How happy should we be ifwe were good Christians ! . . . Ah ! my children,let us, then, be good Christians, and we shallno more envy the good fortune of our neighbour; we shall never speak evil of him ; weehall enjoy a sweet peace ; our soul will becalm, we shall find paradise on earth.ON GLUTTONY.Gluttony in an inordinate love of dng anddrhking.

244 SPIRIT OF THE c d OF ARS.We are gluttonous, my children; when wetake food in excess, more than is required forthe support of our poor body ; when we drinkbeyond what is necessary, so aa even to loseour senses and our reason. . . . Oh, howshameful is this vice l how it degrades us !See, it puts us below the brutes : the animalsnever drink more than to ~atisfy their thirst, ;they content themaelves with eating enough ;and we, when we have satisfied our appetite,when our body can bear no more, we still haverecourse to all sorts of little delicacies ; we takewine and liquors to repletion !Is it not pitiful? We can no longer keepupon our legs; we fall, we roll into the ditch andinto the mud, we become the laughing-stock ofevery one, even the sport of little children. . . .a If death were to surprise us in this state, mychildren, we should not have time to recollectourselves; we should fall in that state into thehands of the good God. What a misfortune,my children ! How would our soul be surprisedI How it would be astonished l Weshould shudder with horror at seeing - the lostwho are in hell. . . .Do not let us be led by our appetite; weshall ruin our health, we shall lose our soul.. . . See, my children, intemperance and debauchery are the support of doctors ; that lets

SPIRIT OF TEE CUE$ OF AM. 245them live, and gives them a great deal ofpractice. . . .We hear every day, such a one was drunk,and falling down he broke his leg; another,passing a river on a plank, fell into the waterand was drowned. . . .Intemperance and drunkenness are the companionsof the wicked rich man. . . .A moment of pleasure in this world will costus very dear in the other. There they will betormented by a raging hunger and a devouringthirst ; they will not even have a drop of waterto refresh themselves ; their tongue and theirbody will be consumed by the flames for awhole eternity ! . . .0 my children ! we do not think about it ;and yet that will not fail to happen to someamongst us, perhaps even before the end of theyear! . . .St. Paul said, that those who give themselvesto excess in eating and drinking shall not poisesathe kingdom of God. Let us reflect onthese words ! . . .Look at the saints : they passed their life inpenance, and we would pass ours in the midstof enjoyments and pleasures.St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal, fasted allAdvent, and also from St. John Baptist's day tothe Assumption. Soon after, she began another

246 SPIRIT OF TEE a d OF ABS.Lent, which lasted till the Feast of St. Michael.She lived upon bread and water only, on Fridapand Saturdays, and on the vigils of the feasts ofthe Blessed Virgin and of the Apostles.They say that St. Bernard drank oil forwine.St. Isidore never ate without sheddingtears l . . .If we were good Christians, we should do asthe saints have done.We should gain a great deal for heaven at owmeals ; we should deprive ourselves of manylittle things, which, without being hurtful to ourbody, would be very pleasing to the good God ;but we choose rather to satisfy our taste thanto please aod ; we drown, we sae our soul inwine and food.My children, aod will not say to us at theday of judgment, Give Me an account of thybody ;" but, Give Me an account of thysoul; what hast thou done with it 1" . . . Whatshall we answer Him ? Do we take as muchcare of our soul as of our body ?0 my children I let us no longer live for theplem of eating ; let us live as the sainta havedone ; let us mortify ourselves as they weremortified. The mink never indulged themselvesin the pleasurea of good cheer. Theirpleasure was to feed on Jesus Christ l Letus follow their footsteps on this earth, and

SPIRIT OF THE c d OF ARE. 247we shall gain the crown which they have inheaven.XI.ON ANGER.Allger ia an emotion of the eoul, which lsacEsue viobtly to repel whatever hurta or d@leadeeWI.This emotion, my children, comes from thedevil; it shows that we are in his hands; thathe is the master of our heart; that he holds allthe strings of it, and makes us dance aa hepleaaea. See, a person who puts himself in apassion is like a puppet ; he knows neitherwhat he says, nor what he does ; the devilguides him entirely. He atrikes right and left;his hair stands up like the bristles of a hedge-hog ; his eyes start out of his head,-hescorpion, a furious lion . . .is aWhy do we, my .children, put ourselvesinto such a state ? Is it not pitiable 3 It is,mind, because we do not love the good God.Our heart is given up to the demon of pride,who is angry when he thinks himself despised;to the demon of avarice, who is irritated whenhe dera any lose; to the demon of luxury,

248 SPIIUT OF THE a d OF ARB.who ie indignant when-hie plsolnves are interferedwith. . . .How unhappy we are, my children, thus tobe the sport of demons ! They do whatever theyplease with us; they suggest to us evil-speaking,calumny, hatred, vengeance; they evendrive us so far a.9 to put our neighbour to death.See, Cain killed his brother Abel out ofjealousy ; Saul wished to take away the life ofDavid ; Theodosius caused the massacre of theinhabitants of Thessalonica, to revenge a personalaffront. . . .If we do not put our neighbour to death, weare angry with him, we curse him, we givehim to the devil, we wish for his death, wewish for our own. In our fury, we blasphemethe holy Name of God ; we accuse His Providence.. . What fury, what impiety! . . . Andwhat is more deplorable, my children, we arecarried to these excesses for a trifle, for aword, for the least injustice! Where is ourfaith? where is our reason? . . . We say inexcuse that it is anger that maka us awear ;but one sin cannot excuse another sin. Thegood God equally condemns anger and the ex-cesses that are its wnaequencee. . . . How'wesadden our guardian angel!He is alwayethere at our side, to send us good thoughts, andhe sees us do nothii but evil . . . If we did

SPIRIT OF TEE CUR$ OF ABS. 249like St. Remigius, we should never be angry.See, this saint, being questioned by a Father ofthe desert how he managed to be always in aneven temper, replied, '' I often consider that myguardian angel is always by my side, whoaasists me in all my needs, who tells me whatI ought to do aud what I ought to say, andwho writes down, after each of my actions, theway in which I have done it."Philip II., King of Spain, haoing passedseveral hours of the night in writing a longletter to the Pope, gave it to his secretary tofold up and seal. He, being half asleep, madea mistake ; when he meant to put sand on theletter, he took the ink-bottle and coveredall the paper with ink. While he was ashamedand inconsolable, the king said, quite calmly," No very great harm is done; there is anothersheet of paper ;" and he took it, ande~nployed the rest of the night in writing asecond letter, without showing the least displemurewith his secretary. . . .WHAT is sloth 7Sloth is a kid ofXII.ON SLOTH.c d i e s mad disgueC,

which mzka ru, wgled a d mit ow d&,rother t h do &lunce lo ozlrek.Alas ! my children, how many slothful peoplethere are on this earth ; how many are cowardly,how many are indolent in the service of thegood God ! We neglect, we omit our duties ofpiety, just as easily as we should take a glassof wine. We will not do violence to ourselves;we will not put ourselves to any inconvenience.Every thing wearies, every thing disgusts theslothful man. Prayer, the holy Sacrifice of theMass, which do so much good to pious souls,are a torture to him. He is weary and dissatisfiedin church, at the foot of the altar, inthe presence of the good God. At first hefeels only dislike and indifference towards everything that is commanded by religion.. Soon after,you can no longer speak to him either of confessionor communion; he has no time to thinkof those things.0 my children ! how miserable we are inlosing, in this way, the time that we might sousefully employ in gaining heaven, in preparingourselves for eternity IHow many moments are lost in doing nothing,or in doing wrong, in listening to 'the suggeetionsof the devil, in obeying him! Does notthat make us tremble 7 If one of the lost hadonly a day or an hour to spend for his dva-

I tion, to what profit would he turn it I Whathaste he wouldmake to save his soul, to reconicile himself with the good God !I And we, my children, who have days and, years to think of our salvation, to save ouri mula,-we remain there with our arms crossed,I like that man spoken of in the Gospel. We, neglect, we lose our souls. When death shall, come, what shall we have to present to ourI Lord?Ah! my children, hear how the good Godthreatens the idle: LL Every tree that bringethnot forth good fruit shall be cut down, andahall be caat into the fire." " Take that unprofitableservant, and cast him out into the exteriordarkness, whew shall be weeping and gnashingof teeth."Idleness is the mother of all vices. Look atthe idle ; they think of nothing but eating,drinking, and sleeping. They are no longermen, but stupid beasts, given up to all theirpassions ; they drag themselves through themire, like very swine.They are filthy, bothwithin and without. They feed their soul onlyupon impure thoughts and desires. They neveropen their mouth but to slander their neighbour,or to speak immodest words. Their eyes,their ears, are open only to criminal objects. . . .0 my children ! that we may resist idle..

ness, let us imitate the saints. Let ua watchcontinually over ourselves; like them, let uabe very zealous in fulfilling all our duties ; letthe devil never find us doing nothing, lest weshould yield to temptation. Let us prepareourselves for a good death, for eternity. Letus not lose our time in lukewarmness, in negligence,in our habitual infidelities. Death iaadvancing ; to-morrow we must, perhaps, quitour relations, our friends. Let ue make hasteto merit the reward promised in Paradise tothe faithful servant in the Gdspel !CAN we, of our own strength, avoid sin, andpractise virtue?No, my children, we can do nothing withoutthe grace of God: that is an article of faith ;Jesus Christ Himself taught it to us. See, theChurch thinks, and all the saints have thoughtwith her, that grace is absolutely necessary tous, and that without it we can neither believe,nor hope, nor love, nor do penance for oursins. St. Paul, whose piety was not counterfeit,

BPIBIT 01 TEE 0 d OF ARE. 253~ s mus, s on his part, that we cannot of ourselveseven pronounce the Name of Jesus in amanner that can gain merit for heaven.ka the earth can produce nothing unless it isfertilised by the sun, so we can do no goodwithout the grace of the good God.Grace, my children, is a supernatural assistancewhich leads us to good ; for example,there is a sinner who goes into a church andhears an instruction: the preacher speaks ofhell, of the severity of the judgments of God ; .he feels himself interiorly urged to be converted; this interior impulse is what is calledgrace. See, my children, it is the good Godtaking that sinner by the hand, and wishing toteach him to walk. We are like little children:we do not know how to walk on the road toheaven ; we stagger, we fall, unless the hand of thegood God is always ready to support us. 0 mychildren! how good is the good God ! If wewould think of all that He has done, of all thatHe still does every day for us, we should notbe able to offend Him-weshould love Himwith all our heart; but we do not think of it,that is the reason. . . . . The angels sin, andare cast into hell. Man sins, and God promiseshim a Deliverer. What have we done to deservethis favour 3 What have we done todeserve to be born in the Catholic religion,

while so many souls are everyday lost in otherreligions ? What have we done to deserve tobe baptised, while so many little children inFrance, as well ae in China and America, diewithout baptism ? What have we done to deservethe pardon of all the sins that we commitafter the age of reason, while so many aredeprived of the Sacrament of Penance ?0 my children ! St. Augustine says, and itis very true, that he seeks in us what deservesthat God should abandon us, andfinds it ; and that he seeks what would makeUS worthy of His gih, and finds nothing;because, in fact, there is nothing in us-we arenothing but ashes and sin.All our merit, my children, consista in cooperatingwith grace. See, my children, abeautiful flower has no beauty nor brilliancywithout the sun ; for during the night it is allwithered and drooping. When the sun riees inthe morning, it suddenly revives and expands.It is the same with our soul, in regard to JesusChrist, the true Sun of justice; it has no interiorbeauty, but through sanctif'ng grace.In order to receive this grace, my children,our soul must turn to the good God by a sincereconversion ; we must open our hearts toHim by an act of faith and love. Bs the wnalone cannot make a flower expand if it is

already dead, so the @ace of the good Godcannot bring us back to life if we will notabandon sin.Cfod speaks to us without ceasing by Hiegood inspirations ; He sends us good thoughts,good desires. In youth, in old age, in all themisfortune8 of life, He exhorts us to receiveHie grace; and what use do we make of Hiswarning8 ?At this moment, even, are we co-operating rightly with grace? are we not shuttingthe door of our heart against it ? Considerthat the good God will one day call you toaccount for what you have heard to-day ; woeto you, if you stifle the cry that is rising fromthe depths of your conscience ! We are inprosperity, we live in the midst of pleaeures,all puffed up with pride; our heart is of icetowards the good God. It is a ball of copper,which the waters of grace cannot penetrate ;it is a tree which receives the gentle dew, andbears no more fruit. . . .Let UR be on our guard, my children; let ustake care not to be unfaithful to grace. Thegood God leaves us free to choose life or death ;if we choose death, we shall be cast into thefire, and we must burn for ever with the devils.Let us ask pardon of God for having hithertoabused the graces He has given us, and let ushumbly pray Him to grant us more.

XIV.ON HABITUAL GRACE.Habitud grace ti a supernatuml qcuclity,divinely infued inlo the awl, whkh r&e itinstantly the f&d of God.This grace, my children, is given and augmentedby the Sacraments, and is also kept andincreased by good works ; it brings the sinnerto life, from being dead ; it cleanses him fromall the stains of sin ; it bestows on his soul abeauty surpassing all that can be seen in thisworld ; from being poor and miserable, it rendershim in a moment richer than all the kingsof the earth; for see, my children, the leastdegree of grace is worth more than all theriches of the universe, since it is a participationof the Divinity itself. From beingslaves of Satan, grace makes us children ofGod, heirs of heaven and coheirs with JesusChrist. In the same way that where the kingis, there is his court and kingdom, so wheregrace is, there is tke court and kingdom of God.Yes, my children, the kingdom of God iswithin us when we love Him, and are in a stateof grace. Our heart is the throne where thegood God reposes ; our thoughts, our words,our actions, directed to Hie glory, are His

crown.SPIRIT OF THE CURB OF US. 257We place the sceptre in the hands ofthe good God when we consecrate our will toHim; the love that we have for Him is Hispurple, His royal mantle. . . . All the joysof our soul, the members of our body, are somany vassals.'' If any man shall hear My voice and openthe door to Me, I will come in to him, and willsup with him, and he with Me."The soul, my children, is not like a servantat this feast, but like a queen, the spouse ofthe great King, all brilliant with beauty. . . . .A life passed thus is a foretaste of eternity.St. Mary of Oignies, assisting once at thebaptism of a little infant, perceived the HolyGhost visibly descending into the soul of thatlittle child, and an infinite number of angelssurrounding it. What then passed visibly,my children, is done invisibly every time wereceive any Sacrament. See, the angels arethere, prostrate around us; they are full of admiration,they mak: a rampart for us of theirbodies. It is said that St. Catherine of Sienawent out of her house when she saw a preacherpassing in the street, and went to kiss with devotionthe place where he had trodden.. Whathumility ! what devotion ! my children, thatshows what it is to love the good God ! Thiasaint was asked one day why she did that ; she8

answered, that our Lord had shown her thebeauty of 8 soul which is in a state of grace,and that since then she had felt so much respectfordthose who consecrate themselves to the salvationof souls, that she thought it a happiness toplace her lips where their feet had trod.She used also to say, that if people could seethe beauty, the orpaments of a soul in a stateof grace, there would be no one who would notbe ready to die a thousand times rather thanlose the friendship of God by sin.The soul enriched by grace becomw sobeautiful, so pleasing to the good God, that Heseem to have no eyes but to contemplate it, noears but to hear ib prayers, no mouth but topraise its beauty, no hands but to defend andsupport it, no arms but to caress it. . . .What a happiness, my children, if we werealready good Christians I the good God wouldbe always with us, and we should be alwayswith Him. . . . We could not leave Him,we should be always praying to Him in Hischurches, we should incessantly ask Him forHi graces.See, my children, the grace of the good Godconverte every thing into gold ; all our actions,even the moat indifferent of them, being animatedby His Spirit, become works meritoriousfor eternal life.

SPIRIT OF THE ~d OF ABS. 259A solitary one day feeling more fatigued thanusual with the distance between his hut and thespring where he went to fetch water, made sresolution to bring his hut nearer to it, that hemight have less trouble. As he was walkingalong and meditating on this project, he heardbehind him a voice pronouncing these words :'< One, two, three, four." It was his guardianangel counting his steps. The solitary, ashamed,instead of bringing his cell nearer, put it, on thecontrary, farther off, that he might have moremerit.. . . .xv.ON PRAYER.OUR catechism teaches us, my children, thatprayer ia an elevation, an application of ourmind and of our heait to God, to make knownto Him our wants and to ask for His assistance.We do not see the good God, my children ;but He sees us, He hears us, He wills that weshould raise towards Rim what is most noblein us--our mind and our heart. When we praywith attention, with humility of mind and ofheart, we quit the earth, we rise to heaven, wepenetrate into the Bosom of God, we go andconverse with the angels and the saints.

It waa by prayer that the saints reachedheaven; and by prayer we too shall reach it.Yes, my children, prayer is the source of allgraces, the mother of all virtues, the efficaciousand universal way by which God wills that weshould come to Him.He says to us :" Ask, and you shall receive."None but God could make mch promises andkeep them. See, the good God doea not say to us,'I Ask mch and such a thing, and I will pntit ;" but He says in general : If you ask theFather any thing in My name, He will give ityou."0 my children! ought not this promise tofill us with confidence, and to make us prayfervently all the days of om poor life ? Oughtwe not to be ashamed of our idleness, of omindifference to prayer, when our Divine Saviour,the Dispenser of all graces, has given us suchtouching examples ofit? for you know that theGospel tells US He prayed often, and even passedthe night in prayer 7 Are we as just, as holy,as this Divine Saviour ? Have we no gracea toask for 7 Let us enter into odvea ; let Mconsider. Do not the continual needs of our son1and of our body warn us to have recome toHim who alone can supply them 7 How manyenemiea to vanquish !-the devil, the world, andourseIvea. How many bad habita to over-

come, how many passions to mbdue, how manysins to efface ! In so frightful and painful asituation, what remains to us, my children ?The -ourof the sainta : prayer, that neces-eary virtue, indispensable to good as well as tobad Christians. .. Within the reach of the ignorantaswell as the learned, enjoined to the simpleand to the enlightened, it is the virtue of allmankind ; it is the science of all the faithful !Every one on the earth who has a heart, everyone who has the use of reason, ought to loveand pray to God ; to have recourse to Himwhen He is irritated ; to thank Him when Heconfers favour0 ; to humble themselves whenHe strikes.See, my children, we are poor people, whohave been taught to beg spiritually, and we donot knw how to beg. We are sick people, towhom a cure has been promised, and we do notknow how to a ~k for it. The good God does notrequire of u h e prayers, but prayers whichcome from the bottom of our heart.St. Ignatius was once travelling with severalof his companions ; they each carried on theirshoulders a little bag, containing what was mostnecevsary for them on the journey. A goodChristian, seeing that they were fatigued, wasinteriorly excited to relieve them ; he askedthem as a favour to let him help them to carry

262 BPIRIT OF THE cud OF m.their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties.When they had arrived at the inn, this man whohad followed them, seeing that the Fathers kneltdown at a little distance from each other to pray,knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again,they were astonished to see that this man hadremained prostrate all the time they were praying; they expressed to him their surprise, an&asked him what he had been doing. His answeredified them very much, for he said :" I didnothing but say, Thoee who pray so devoutlyare saints ; I am their beast of burden ; 0Lordl I have the intention of doing what theydo; I eay to Thee whatever they say." Thesewere ahrwards his ordinay words, and hearrived by meam of this at a sublime degree ofprayer. Thus, my children, you see that thereis no one who cannot pray,--and pray at alltimes, and in all places ; by night or by day ;amid the most severe labours, or in repose ; inthe conntry, at home, in trawlling. The goodGod is every where ready to hear your prayers,provided you address them to Him with faithand humility.

XVI.ON TEE LOVE OF GOD.*'' Si diligitis me, mandata mes servate."(" If you love me, keep my commandments.")NOTHING is so common among Christians aato say, " 0 my G-od I I love Thee," and nothingmore rare, perhaps, than the love of the goodGod. Satisfied with making outward acts oflove, in which our poor heart often has no share,we think we have fulfilled the whole of theprecapt. An error, an illusion ; for see, mychildren, St. John says that we must not lovethe good God in word, but in deed. Our LordJesus Christ also says, '' If any one love Me, hewill keep My Word."If we judge by this rule, there are very fewChristiaus who truly love God, since there areso few who keep His commandments.Yet nothing is more essential than the loveof God. It is the first of all virtues, a virtueeo neceesary, that without it we shall never getto heaven ; and it is in order to love God thatwe are on the earth. Even ifthe good God didnot command it, this feeling is so natural to US,that our heart should be drawn to it of its ownaccord.Preached on Sunday, 28th May 1848.

264 SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ARS.But the misfortune is that we lavish our loveupon objects unworthy of it, and refuse it toHim alone who deserves to be infinitely loved.Thus, my children, one person will love riches,another will love pleasures ; and both will offerto the good God nothing but the languishingremains of a heart worn out in the service ofthe world. From thence comes indcientlove, divided love, which is for that very reasonunworthy of the good God; for He alone beinginfinitely above all created good, deserves thatwe should love Him above all things : morethan our possessions, because they are earthly ;more than our friends, because they are mortal ;more than our life, because it is perishable ;more than ourselves, because we belong toHim. Our love, my children, if it is true,must be without limit, and must influence ourconduct. . . .If the Saviour of the world, addressing Himselfto each one of us separately, were now toaclk us the same question that he formerlyasked St. Peter : Simon, son of John, lovestthou Me ?" could we answer with as much confidenceas that great Apostle, " Yea, Lord,Thou knowest that I love Thee" ?-Domine, trseis pia unto te. We have perhaps pronouncedthese words without taking in their meaningand extent ; for, my children, to love the good

SPIRIT OF THE CURB OF AIM. ' 265God is not merely to say with the mouth, " 0my God! I love Thee I"-Oh, no ! where isthe sinner who does not sometimes use thislanguage?. . .To love the good God is not only to feel fromtime to time some emotions of tenderness to-wards God ; this sensible devotion is not alwaysin our own power. To love the good Clod isnot to be faithful in fulfilling part of 0111 dutiesand to neglect the rest. The good God willhave no division : '' Thou shall love the Lordthy God with thy whole heart, and with thy wholesoul, and with thy whole strength." This showsthe strength of the commandment to love God.To love God with our whole heart is to preferHim to every thing, so as to be ready to lose allour possessions, our honour,ourlife, rather thanoffend this good Master.To love God with ourwhole heart is to love nothing that is incompatiblewith the love of God ; it is to lovenothing that can share our heart with the good. God ; it is to renounce all our passions, all ourill-regulated desires. Is it thus, my children,that we love the good God ? . . .Tolovethe goodGod with our wholemind is tomake the sacrifice to Him of our knowledgeand om reason, and to believe all that He hastaught. To love the good Gtod with our wholemind is to think of Him often, and to make itour principal study to know Him well.

266 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF m.Tolovethe good God with our whole strength,is to employ our possessions, our health, andour talents, in serving Him and glorifying Him.It is to refer all our actions to Him, as our lastend. Once more, is it thus that we love thegood aod ? Judging by this invariable rule,how few Christians truly love Clod ! . . . .Do those bad Christians love the good aod,who are the slaves of their passions ? Do thoseworldly persons love the good God, who seekonly to gratify their body and to please theworld ? Is God loved by the miser, who aacrificesHim for a vile gain? Is He loved by thatvoluptuary, who abandons himself to vices themost opposite to divine love? Is He loved bythat man who thinks of nothing but wine andgood cheer ? Is He loved by that other man,who cherishes an aversion to his neighbour,and will not forgive him ? Is Be loved by thatyoung girl, who loves nothing but pleasures, andthinks of nothing but indulgence and vanity ?No, no, my children, none of these persons lovethe good God; for we must love Him with alove of preference, with an active love ! . . .If we had rather offend the good aod thandeprive ourselves of a passing satisfaotion, thanrenounce those guilty meetings, those shamefulpasaions, we do not love the good God with alove of preference, since we love our pleasum,onr passions, better than the good GIod Himself.

SPIRIT OF THE 0 d OF AM. 267Let w go down into our own souls ; let us questionour hearta, my children, and see if we donot love some creature more than the goodGod.We are permitted to love our relations,our poesessions, our health, our reputation;but this love must be subordinate to the lovewe should have for God, so that we may beready to make the sacrifice of it if He shouldrequire it. . . .Can you suppose that you are in these dispositions,-youwho look upon mortal sin as atrifle, who keep it quietly on your consciencefor months, for yeare, though you know thatyou are in a state most displeasing to the goodaod 3 Can you suppose that you love the goodGod,-you who make no efforts to correct yourselves;you who will deprive yourselves ofnothing; you who offend the Creator every timethat you find an opportunity ? Yea, my children,what the miser loves with his wholeheart is his money ; what the drunkard loveswith his whole heart is wine ; what the libertineloves with hie whole heart is the object ofhis passion. You! young girls, you had ratheroffend God than gwe up your finery and yourvanities. You say that you love God ; sayrather that you love yomelves.No, no, my children ; it is not thua that thegood sod ia to be loved, for we must love Him

268 SPIRIT OF THE CUR* OF ARB.not only with a love of preference, but alsowith an active love.Love," says St. Aquatine, iL cannot remainwithout the constant action of the eoul : Nonpoteat vame amor in mind mntia. Yes," saysthis great saint ; '( seek for a love that doeanot manifest itself in works, and you will findnone."What I could it be, 0 my God, that Thylove alone should be barren, and that theDivine fire, which ought to enkindle the wholeworld, should be without activity and withoutstrength 1 . . .Khen you love a person, you show him moreor less affection, according as the ardour of yourlove for him is more or less great. See, my children,whatthe saints were like,who were all filledwith the love of the good Gbd: nothing cost themtoo much; they joyfully made the greateat sacrifices;they distributed their goode to the poor, renderedservices to their enemies, led a hard andpenitential life; tore thenlselves from the pleamresof the world, from the conveniences of life,to bury themselves alive in solitade; they hastenedto torments,and to death, aa people hastento a feast. Such were the effects which the loveof the good God produced in the saints; suchought it to produce in us. But, my chil+n,we are not penetrated with the love of God ;

SPIRIT OF TEE CUR$ OF AM. 269we do not love the good God. Can any one say,indeed, that he loves the good God, who is soeasily frightened, and who is repulsed by theleast difficulty ? Alas ! what would have becomeof us if Jesus Christ had loved usonly aa we love Him? But no. Triumphingover the agonies of the Cross, the bitterness ofdeath, the shame of the most ignominious tortures,nothing costa Him too dear when He hasto prove that He loves us. That is our onlymodel. If our love is active, it will manifestitself by the works which are the effects of love,because the love of the good God is not only alove of preference, but a pious affection, a loveof obedience, which makes us practise His commandments;an active love, which makes us ful-fil all the duties of a good Christian.Such isthe love, my children, which God requires fromus, to which He haa so many titles, which Hehas purchased by so many benefits heaped uponus by His Death for us upon the Cross. Whathappiness, my children, to love the good God!There is no joy, no happiness, no peace, in theheart of those who do not love the good Godon earth. We desire heaven, we aspire to it ;but, that we may be sure to attain to it, let urbegin to love the good God here below, in orderto be able to love Him, to possess Him eternally,in His holy paradise. . . .

270 GPIBIT OF THE CUR$ OF AM.ON PARADISE." Beati qui habitant in domo tnh, Dom,ine ; in steculesseculorum laudabunt te.("Blessed,O Lord, are those who dwell in Thy house.")To dwell in the house of the good God, toenjoy the presence of the good God, to behappy with the happinem of the good God,oh, what happiness, my children!Who canunderstand all the joy and consolation withwhich the saints are inebriated in paradise ?St. Paul, who was taken up into the thirdheaven, tells us that there are things abovewhich he cannot reveal to us, and which wecannot comprehend. . . . Indeed, my children,we can never form a true idea of heaven tillwe shall be there. It is a hidden treasure, anabundance of secret sweetnesses, a plenitude ofjoy, which may be felt, but which our poortongue cannot explain. What can we imaginegreater? The good God Himself will be ourrecompense: .Em wcea lua rnagna nimis. 0God1 the happiness Thou promisest us is such,that the eyes of man cannot see it, his ears cannothear it, nor his heart conceive it.

SPIRIT OF THE CUR$ OF ms. 271Yes, my children, the happiness of heaven isincomprehensible; it is the last effort of thegood God, who wishes to reward us. God,being admirable in all His works, will be so toowhen He recompenses the good Christians, whohave made all their happiness consist in thepossession of heaven. This possession containsall good, and excludes all evil; sin beingfar from heaven, all the pains and miserieswhich are the consequences of sin are alsobanished from it. No more death! . . . Thegood God will be in us the Principle of everlastinglife. No more sickness, no more sadness,no more pains, no more grief. You whoare acted, rejoice ! your fears and yourweeping will not extend beyond the grave. . . .The good God will Himself wipe away yourtears 1 Rejoice, 0 you whom the world persecutes! your sorrows will soon be over, and fora moment of tribulation, you will have inheaven an immense weight of glory. Rejoice !for you possess all good things in one-theaource of all good, the good God Himsdf.Can any one be unhappy when he is with thegood God; when he is happy with the happinessof the good God, of the good God Himself;when he sees the good God aa he seeshimself? As St. Paul says, my children, weshall see aod face to face, because then there

will be no veil between Him and us. Weshall possess Him without uneyiness, for weshall no longer fear to lose Him. We shalllove Him with an uninterrupted and undividedlove, because He alone will occupy our wholeheart.We shall enjoy Him without weariness, becausewe shall discover in Him ever new perfections; and in proportion as we penetrate intothat immense abyss of wisdom, of goodness, ofmercy, of justice, of grandeur, and of holiness,we shall plunge ourselves in it with fresheagerness.If an interior consolation, if a grace from thegood God, gives us so much pleasure in thisworld, that it diminishes our troubles, that ithelps us to bear our crosses, that it give8 to somany martyrs strength to suffer the most crneltorments, -what will be the happiness ofheaven, where consolations and delighta aregiven, not drop by drop, but by torrents 1Let us represent to ourselves, my children, aneverlasting day always new, a day always serene,always calm ; the most delicious, the mostperfect society. What joy, what happiness, ifwe could possess on earth, only for a fewminutes, the angels, the Blessed Virgin, JesusChrist I In heaven we shall eternally see, notonly the Blessed Virgin and Jesus Chriet, we

shall see the good aod Himselfl we shall seeHim no longer through the darkness of faith,but in the light of day, in all His Majesty !. . . What happiness thus to see the goodsod ! The angels have contemplated Him, sincethe beginning of the world, and they are notsatiated ; it would be the greatest misfortune tothem to be deprived of Him for a single moment.The possession of heaven, my children,can never weary ua ; we pOSSe8S the good God,the Author of all perfections. See, the morewe possess God, the more He pleases; the morewe know Him, the more attractions and charmswe find in the knowledge of Him. We shallalways see Him, and shall always desire to seeHim; we shall always taste the pleasure thereia in enjoying the good God, and we shall neverbe satiated with it.The blessed will be enveloped in the DivineImmensity, they will revel in delights and be allsurrounded with them, and, as it were, inebriated.Such is the happiness which the good Goddestines for us.Wecanall, my children, acquire thishappinesa.The good God wills the salvation of the wholeworld; He has merited heaven for us by Hisdeathland by the effusion of all &Blood. Whata happiness to be able to say, ''Jesus Christ diedfor me; He has opened Heaven for me; it is myT

274 SPIRIT OF TKE CUR$ OF ARS.inheritance. . . . Jesus has prepared a placefor me; it only depends on me to go and occupyit. Vado vobk parare locum. The good Godhas given us faith, and with this virtue we canattain to eternal life. For, though the goodGod wills the salvation of all men, He particu-!larly wills that of the Christians who believe inII Him : Qui credit, hubeat dam ~tanam.i! Let ua,then,thank the good God,my children;Ji let us rejoice--our namesare written in heaven,like those of the Apostles. Yes, they are writtenIin the Book of Life ; if we choose, they will bethere for ever, since we have the means ofreaching heaven.The happiness of heaven, my children, is easyto acquire; the good God has furnished us withso many means of doing it ! See, there is not asingle creature which does not furnish us withthe means of attaining to the good God ; if anyof them become an obstacle, it is only by ourabuse of them. The goods and the miseries ofthis life, even the chastisements made use of bythe good God to punish our infidelities, serveto our salvation. The good God, aa St. Paulsays, makes all things turn to the good ofHis elect ; even our very faults may be useful tous ; even bad examples and temptations. Job wassaved in the midst of an idolatrous people. Allthe saints have been tempted. If these things

are, in the hands of God, an assistance in reachingheaven, what will happen if we have reoouraeto the Sacraments, to that never-failingsource of all good, to that fountain of gracesupplied by the good God Himself? It waseasy for the disciples of Jesus to be saved,having the Divine Saviour constantly withthem. Is it more difficult for us to secure oursalvation, having Him constantly with us 'lThey were happy in obtaining whatever theywished for, whatever they chose; are we lessso? We possess Jesus Christ in the Eucharist;He is continually with us, He is ready to grantus whatever we ask, He is wa?ting for us ; wehave only to ask. 0 my children! the poorknow how to express their wants to the rich; wehave only our indifference, then, to accuse, ifaasistsnce and graces are wanting to us. If anambitious or a covetous man had as amplemeans of enriching himself, would he hesitate amoment, would he let so favourable an opportunityescape? Alas I we do every thing forthis world, and nothing for the other ! Whatlabour, what trouble, what cares, what sorrows,in order to gather up a little fortune ! See, mychildren, of what use are our perishable goods 1Solomon, the greatest, the richest, the most fortunateof kings, said, in the height of the mostbrilliant fortune : " I have seen all things that

276 SPIRIT OF THE cud OF US.are done under the sun; and behold, all isvanity and vexation of spirit."And these are the goods to acquire which welabour so much, whilst we never think of thegoods of heaven ! How shameful for ua not tolabour to acquire it, and to neglect so manymeans of reaching it IIf the fig-tree was castinto the fire for not having profited by the carethat had been taken to render it fertile; if theunprofitable servant was reproved for havinghidden the talent that he had received,-whatfate awaits us, who have so often abused theaids which might have taken us to heaven?. . . If we have abused the graces that thegood God has given us, let ua make haste torepair the past by great fidelity, and let nsendeavour to acquire merits worthy of eternallife.

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