poverty as the wall of religion, the root of perfection. Let us love it as a mother. Let it be our glory, not our shame. Let us carefully fulfil its every precept. Have you done so ?

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT II. The Humility of St. Francis rewarded.

CONSIDERATION. Think of his marvellous humility. When he was nothing more than the merchant's son at Assisi, unknown to the world, he was great in his own esteem, greedy of notice, prompt to avenge an insult. As Superior-General of twelve thousand religious, admired and praised by all, he was humble, he was nothing in his own eyes, thinking himself unworthy to be raised to the priesthood, wishing only to be forgotten, scoffed at for the sake of God. What brought about this wonderful change? The light which God gave him, and which showed him that all which is good and beautiful in the world or in ourselves comes from and belongs to God. Soli Deo honor et gloria. To us contempt; for we have nothing of our own but original sin, inclination to evil, and inability to perform a single supernatural act.

APPLICATION. We know this well enough; it has all been explained and gone through before us. How is it, then, that it has not the same effect upon us that it had on St. Francis? How is it that we are not humble like him? Because we meditate upon these truths superficially, and soon lose sight of them. If we had them always before our eyes, we should become humble too; we, too, would make rapid progress in all virtue, of which humility is the root; we, too, would obtain special graces and special favours, for God ever gives Himself to the humble. Unite yourself, then, on this his feast to his great family, which six centuries of persecution have not been able to crush, but still remains in all its vigour with a home in every land. Beseech the Saint to get you, not his ecstasies, not his

stigmata, not his gift of miracles, but his love of poverty,

his humility. COLLOQUY.

OCTOBER 5.

JESUS CURES A WOMAN WHO HAD A SPIRIT OF INFIRMITY EIGHTEEN YEARS.

1st Prel. Picture to yourself our Lord stretching out His hand over this woman.

2d Prel. Ask for grace to derive great good from this Medita

tion.

POINT I. Wretched Condition of the infirm Woman.

CONSIDERATION. Jesus having left Bethany, where we shall often find Him again, continued His ministry, working many miracles, and constantly doing some act of mercy. 'And He was teaching in their synagogue on their Sabbath. And behold there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years; and she was bowed together, neither could she look upwards at all.' How humiliating, how pitiable a state!

APPLICATION. The condition to which the Evil Spirit had reduced this poor woman fills us with compassion; yet in it we see but a faint shadow of the miserable state to which the spirit of avarice and impurity reduces so many Christians. It keeps them thus bound, by their thoughts and affections, to the world, to material and sensual pleasures, and so renders them incapable of raising their heart to heaven, to God, or to eternity! We see too in this a faint but sad image of the religious, whom the devil of tepidity has changed from spiritual to worldly. In his intentions, his aspirations, there is now nothing exalted, nothing heavenly; he has become incapable of remaining in contemplation of God for long together; an invisible hand bows

him down-down to earth, to the flesh. Is this your portrait? Oh, how sad if it be !

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT II. The Woman cured.

CONSIDERATION. 'Whom when Jesus saw, He called her unto Him, and said to her, Woman, thou art delivered from thy infirmity. And He laid His hands upon her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.'

APPLICATION. Mark the place and the time at which this miracle was wrought. It was in the synagogue, in the place set apart for common prayer, and that the hour when the congregation assembled, that the woman was cured. If she had not been regular in her attendance, she might have missed our Lord, in which case she would have remained a cripple to the end of her days. How important, then, to be punctual at the spiritual exercises of the community! We know not to which of these exercises God may have attached special favours, special graces. Miss one, and you may lose an immense blessing. Do we not sometimes allow trifling matters to keep us away? It was after eighteen years of suffering that the woman's prayers were heard at last. What perseverance! Is yours like this?

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT III. The Ruler of the Synagogue: his

Indignation.

CONSIDERATION. While all the people rejoiced for all the things that were gloriously done by Him,' the Pharisees were greatly annoyed. The glory of Jesus put them in the shade. To sully that they would have stopped at nothing which envy could suggest, provided only they could make it appear that they were actuated by a great zeal for the law. In this spirit, the ruler of the synagogue (being angry that Jesus had healed on the Sabbath) answering said to the multitude, S

days there are wherein you ought to work; in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbathday.' But the hypocrite could not escape the humiliation he so richly deserved. The Lord answering him said, Ye hypocrites! doth not every one of you on the sabbath-day loose his ox or his ass from the manger, and lead them to water? And ought not this daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath-day? And when He had said these things, all His adversaries were ashamed.'

APPLICATION. Hypocrisy will certainly be exposed some day. Beware of it.

COLLOQUY with Jesus, our true Physician.

OCTOBER 6.

FEAST OF ST. BRUNO, FOUNDER OF THE CARTHUSIAN

ORDER.

1st Prel. Picture to yourself the Saint exclaiming, 'O beata solitudo!'

2d Prel. Ask for the love of silence and retirement.

POINT I. God's Providence in the Establishment of the Carthusians.

CONSIDERATION. St. Bruno, born at Cologne in the year 1035, of noble and wealthy parents, was destined to transplant into Europe, under the form of a religious order, the life of the ancient solitaries or contemplatives of the Thebaid. God insensibly led him to the execution of His designs by giving him a great love of solitude, penance, and contemplation. Of his intimate friends there were six who ended by sharing his desire for a solitary life. In the year 1084, Bruno, having resigned his canonry and the chair of theology which he held at Rheims, presented himself with his friends

before Hugh, Bishop of Grenoble. The latter, who had been told by God in a vision what to do, led them into the Chartreuse, a rocky desert, covered the greater part of the year with snow and thick fog. There, far removed from every human being (they were four leagues from Grenoble), they built an oratory and little cells a short distance apart, and entered upon a life of penance, prayer, and contemplation, with the greatest possible fervour. Such was the origin of the Carthusian order, which has since obtained a world-wide renown, and which, after eight centuries, still exists where it was first founded.

APPLICATION. Recall to mind the history of your own order, and the different circumstances which led you into it. The recollection will increase your trust in God and your love for the religious state.

AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS.

POINT II. God's Providence in the Extension of the Order.

CONSIDERATION. Bruno and his companions would possibly have remained unknown to the world had it not been for a circumstance which God in His Providence brought about for the furtherance of His designs. Pope Urban II., who at Rheims had been a disciple of St. Bruno, summoned him to Rome to ask his advice on a certain matter. The six original members of the community followed him, and all were received by the Sovereign Pontiff in the kindest manner; their way of life was approved, and a large piece of ground allotted to them within the walls. They there founded a second Chartreuse, which afterwards became the mother of many others. The most famous house in Italy was that 'della Torre' in the wilds of Calabria, to which St. Bruno retired, and where, on October 6, 1101, he breathed his last.

APPLICATION. You say that you find it so hard to be recollected, even during prayer. Perhaps, instead