sense, again, that by faithfully fulfilling the divine will, he possesses that charity which makes us adopted children of God, and thus brothers of Jesus Christ. He Himself gave that name to His disciples when, after His resurrection, He said to the holy women, Go, tell My brethren that they go into Galilee.' APPLICATION. How important, then, it is for us to make great efforts to excel in the practice of a perfect conformity of our will with that of God! Besides many other advantages which we all know, it brings us the title of brothers of Jesus Christ; it identifies us, so to speak, with Him, and makes us partakers of all those immense blessings which He won by His passion and His death. What value do we set on this practice? What progress have we made in it? AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS. POINT III. How we can become the Mother of Jesus CONSIDERATION. 'For whosoever shall do the will of My Father that is in heaven, he is My brother and sister and mother.' Is My mother? There is something, then, greater still than becoming the brother of Jesus Christ-something more marvellous, more inexplicable. Pope St. Gregory thus explains it: He becomes the mother of Christ who, by his preaching, causes Him to be born in the hearts of men by making Him known and loved by those who were strangers to Him.' This is truly a spiritual maternity, but is it less noble and less meritorious than maternity according to the flesh? APPLICATION. We can all attain this divine maternity, although we be neither preachers nor confessors, by trying by every means in our power to help on any work for the propagation of the faith; by offering to God our prayers, our communions, our penances, and our sufferings for the conversion of infidels, heretics, and schismatics; by trying to cause Jesus Christ to be born and to live in the souls of others whenever an occasion presents itself. Have you done this? How can you improve on what you have done ? COLLOQUY. JULY 30. OF MISPLACED AFFECTION TOWARDS OUR RELATIONS. 1st Prel. Listen to Jesus Christ saying, 'He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me.' 2d Prel. Beg the grace of freedom from all misplaced affection. There are three things especially which tend to produce and develop in the heart of a religious a misplaced affection towards relations; three things therefore against which we should be on our guard, i.e., unnecessary visits, misplaced compassion, and zeal. POINT I. Misplaced Visits. CONSIDERATION. The religious who tries to create and multiply motives and excuses for visiting his relations exposes himself to great dangers, and even to losing his vocation, or at least the spirit of his vocation. St. Basil tells us this, and explains it thus: These misplaced visits cannot fail-1st, to turn away the attention of the religious from what he should do for God, his own perfection, and zeal for souls; 2nd, to fill his imagination with memories and dangerous ideas at the sight of certain persons or places which witnessed his falls in past life; 3rd, to deprive him of peace of soul by keeping him always in anxiety about his relations, their affairs, their undertakings, their successes, their reverses, their domestic afflictions, &c.; 4th, to cause him to lose, little by little, the spirit of his holy vocation. APPLICATION. If experience has not taught you the truth of these observations, return thanks to God, and strengthen the determination, which every good reli gious ought to have, of avoiding all visits to relations which are not required for very solid reasons. AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS. POINT II. Misplaced Zeal. CONSIDERATION. The masters of spiritual life call misplaced that zeal which religious imagine they have about their relations even when they desire to reclaim them from sin. They say that this mission does not devolve on the religious. There is reason to fear, unless it be imposed by obedience, that it may do much harm; and they cite a number of instances where attention to relations by religious has caused them to imbibe the spirit and love of the world. How much stronger reason is there for looking on the eagerness that a religious has about the temporal affairs of his family as misplaced and dangerous, whether it be schemes for their fortune or elevation, or whether it be to deliver them from some pecuniary or commercial embarrassment ! APPLICATION. We should always remember that we are dead to the world, and live only to God; that we should be entirely devoted to the great business of our sanctification; and that the less we occupy our mind with our relations and friends, the more readily God will hear the prayers we offer up for their temporal and spiritual happiness. Have you always acted according to these truly wise counsels? AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS. POINT III. Misplaced Compassion. CONSIDERATION. That feeling of compassion which causes us to share in the sufferings of our relations is not an imperfection; but if it disturbs our peace and prevents our fulfilment of duty, and if it goes so far as to make us waver in our vocation and abandon it that we may help our family, it is worse than misplaced, it is sinful. The compassion for relations has been, says St. Jerome, to many religious an occasion of apostacy and damnation. Quanti monachorum dum patris matrisque miserentur, suas animas perdiderunt (Req. Monach). APPLICATION. If we are ever tried by these great temptations, let us recollect that we are publicly engaged to the service of God not by conditional but by absolute vows, and that He, for whose love we have left our relations, knows how to turn the trials He is pleased to send us to our good. However, these temptations find little entrance into the hearts of religious, unless they be lukewarm, and little attached to their vocation. COLLOQUY. JULY 31. FEAST OF ST. IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA,* FOUNDER of the COMPANY OF JESUS. 1st Prel. Imagine you see the saint in heavenly glory. POINT I. Wonderful Operations of Grace in CONSIDERATION. Gratia Dei, sum id quod sum-'By the grace of God I am what I am.' These words of the Apostle can most suitably be placed in the mouth of St. Ignatius. There are, indeed, few Saints in whom the operations of grace were more manifest and more wonderful. We see how gradually it brought him to the end destined for him. In the divine decrees Ignatius was to found a religious order intended to arrest the progress of heresy in the sixteenth century, and to repair the losses it would cause the Church. Yet, up to the age of thirty years he pursued the phantom of military glory, till at last, wounded and exhausted, he laid himself down on a bed of suffering. Then did grace *Born 1491; first Superior-general of the order, 1541; bull of approbation issued Sept. 21st, 1540; died July 31st, 1556; beatified 1609; canonised 1622. begin its work, first by showing him the nothingness of this world, and inspiring him with the desire of repairing his past faults by severe penance. While he thus devoted himself for ten whole months in the grotto of Manreza, he was prepared by divers trials and frequent ecstasies for the interior life and the direction of souls. He became a consummate master of spiritual life, as we discover by his wonderful book of the Spiritual Exercises which he then wrote. But he was further destined to become an Apostle, and the father of a vast number of apostolic men; and yet Ignatius was an uneducated man! Grace gave him the desire and means of acquiring knowledge by secretly leading his steps to the University of Paris. For there, prepared for him and ready for his hands, were the young students who were to form the nucleus of the new order he was to found. The unction of grace drawn from the spiritual exercises made them united in one desire of consecrating themselves for ever to God by the vows of religion, of offering themselves to the Vicar of Jesus Christ to be sent to preach anywhere, and particularly to devote themselves to the education of youth. They carried out their intention; and Pope Paul III., after reading the summary of the rules of the Institute, presented to him under the title of the Company of Jesus, cried out, Digitus Dei est hic -The finger of God is here' (1540). Ignatius, guided by grace, governed the infant society so wisely for sixteen years, that it received the commendation of the Council of Trent, and extended rapidly to the ends of the earth. He himself was fifty-three years later reckoned among the Saints (1609). APPLICATION. Recall to your mind your past years, and especially the beginning and the progress of your vocation, and you will be firmly convinced that an especial grace has also prevented and sustained you throughout. AFFECTIONS and RESOLUTIONS. |