JULY 6.

SERMON ON THE MOUNTAIN: 'BLESSED ARE THE POOR IN

SPIRIT.'

1st Prel. Imagine you see Jesus seated on the mountain, and giving the wonderful lessons of His Gospel to the world. 2d Prel. Beg for grace both to receive and understand the Gospel teaching, and to induce others to receive it.

POINT I. Circumstances of the Sermon.

CONSIDERATION. Our Lord chose the twelve Apostles that He might send them to preach, and thus transmit by them or their successors in the apostolate His divine doctrines to all nations and all generations. He immediately began to teach them what they were to say. When He came down to the foot of the mountain, where the people could see and hear Him, He found 'a very great multitude of people from all Judea and Jerusalem, and the sea-coast both of Tyre and Sidon.' · He had drawn them thither by His Providence, to accomplish His Will of having many witnesses to the truth that the doctrine preached by the Apostles and their successors was indeed His Gospel, the pure Word of God, without any intermixture of human teaching. 'And when He was set down, His disciples came unto Him.' He began to speak, and delivered a long discourse called the Sermon on the Mount, which contains the substance of the law of God, and all evangelical perfection.

APPLICATION. Let us show our gratitude to God, who allowed us to be born in the bosom of the Catholic Church, the only guardian of the eternal truth taught by the Son of God. Whoever makes it, then, the rule of his life shall be saved. As religious, we have contracted an obligation of observing it more perfectly than the rest of the faithful. Happy indeed are we to be bound by such an obligation. It will win an immense

increase of glory for us in heaven. Have you been faithful to this obligation?

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT II. Teaching of Jesus Christ on Poverty.
First Beatitude.

CONSIDERATION. Our Lord commenced His discourse by laying down the principles of true happiness. These had been corrupted by pagan vices and Jewish prejudices, as they now are by a proud and sensual world. And there is a great contrast between the beatitudes which the world proclaims, and those of Jesus Christ. The world says, 'Blessed are the rich;' our Lord says, Blessed are the poor;' not exactly the poor by birth, but poor in spirit, detached in heart and mind from the possessions of earth for the love of God. Why are they blessed? 'because,' says our Lord, theirs is the kingdom of heaven;' because even in this life, having neither fear nor anxiety, they are in peace, which is a foretaste of heaven.

APPLICATION. Among the poor whom Jesus Christ calls blessed we can distinguish three classes: 1st, the actual poor, perfectly resigned to the will of God; 2nd, the rich who are really poor in spirit; 3rd, the voluntary poor, who have stripped themselves for ever of all things to follow Jesus Christ in poverty. To this latter class we have the happiness to belong; and to it especially belong those wonderful promises of our Lord, as we learn from the words, 'There is no man who has left house or lands for My sake and the Gospel's, who shall not receive a hundred times as much now in this time, and in the world to come life everlasting.' These words ought to fill our hearts with holy joy and courage. AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT III. Teaching of Jesus Christ on Riches. CONSIDERATION. Our Lord's teaching upon poverty showed plainly enough what we ought to think about

riches, and those who cling to them as their dearest possession. But lest we should not fully understand this, He added these terrible words, 'Wo to you that are rich, for you have your consolation;' meaning that they are so entirely taken up with material enjoyments that they live in complete forgetfulness of their last end, and at length death comes suddenly upon them, they are destitute of merit, loaded with sins, and they fall into eternal misery.

APPLICATION. Look around you, and see what is passing in the world. Do you not see this condemnation of our Lord verified? Let it teach you, then, the unspeakable favour that God has done you by withdrawing you from the world; show Him your gratitude, and redouble your zeal to undeceive those whose desire for temporal enjoyments is drawing them away from the path of salvation.

COLLOQUY.

JULY 7.

ON RELIGIOUS POVERTY.

1st Prel. Imagine you hear Jesus saying,

poor in spirit.'

'Blessed are the

2d Prel. Ask for grace to love and esteem holy poverty.

POINT I. Excellence of religious Poverty.

CONSIDERATION. The strongest proof we can have of the excellence of religious poverty is that our Lord set a great value on it, and chose it Himself for the companion of His whole life, from the cradle to the grave. He highly exalted it, saying, Beati pauperes spiritu. He gave it to us as a counsel, and has promised great rewards to those who practise it. It was highly valued by the first Christians following His example, and then as time went on by all the Saints. especially the founders of religious orders, who to gether with their numberless followers, bound them

selves by vow to live in perpetual poverty, knowing from the teaching of the Church that a vow increases the merit of the practice of poverty.

APPLICATION. Let us strive to renew our esteem and love of holy poverty; far from being ashamed of it before men, let us glory in it, and try to make the lovers of this world understand the folly and disappointment of the pursuit of riches; and how noble and wise a thing it is to exchange the fleeting and perishable possessions of earth for the eternal treasures of the world to come.

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT II. Essence and Spirit of religious Poverty.

CONSIDERATION. The essence of religious poverty, or of the vow of poverty, consists in having nothing of our own, that is, independent of our superior; therefore it follows that a religious cannot, without sinning more or less grievously, receive, give, exchange, or lend anything without permission from his superior. He, on the other hand, being but the administrator of the property of the community, cannot dispose of it either to inferiors or strangers, but according to the spirit of the rule and the greater good of the community.

APPLICATION. Have we always thus understood and practised holy poverty? Have we not sometimes infringed the rules under vain pretexts, at least in small matters? Let us be on our guard, for these little transgressions will easily lead to great ones, under some delusion or other. But religious, who are alive to their true interests, will not be contented with the essence of poverty; they will look to its perfection, the spirit of poverty. The religious who is penetrated with it looks on poverty as his inheritance; far from taking offence at a refusal, or of murmuring when he has to suffer privation, he thinks himself too well treated, because he has the poverty of Jesus Christ always before his eyes. He takes great care of everything given for his use, and

he receives with humble gratitude, like the beggar who lives upon alms, the food and clothing which is bestowed on him. He feels himself to be unworthy of them, because he has so often abused the gifts of his Creator.

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT III. Advantages of religious Poverty.

CONSIDERATION. 1st, It removes the greatest obstacle to eternal salvation, attachment to the possessions of earth: 'A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven,' says Jesus Christ. 2nd, It is a pledge of eternal possessions and a superabundance of joy: Thou shalt have treasure in heaven,' says our Lord again. 3rd, It places us in the path of perfection, according to the words of our Lord: If thou wilt be perfect, go sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and come follow Me.' The entire detachment from earthly possessions is a powerful help in uniting us to God by charity, in which consists all perfection. Plenitudo legis charitas-The fulness of the law is love. And as regards this present life only, what blessings does religious poverty bring upon us? We feel them better than we can express them. We shall feel them better still at the hour of death.

APPLICATION. We should have these thoughts always in our mind, and the difficulties that we meet in our vocation and in keeping our vows will appear slight indeed to us.

COLLOQUY with Jesus Christ, the great model of voluntary poverty.