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AHihil Obstat.
HENRICUS S. BOWDEN,

CENSOR DEPUTATUS.

Emprimatur.
EDM, CAN. SURMONT,

VICARIUS GENERALIS.

WESTMONASTERII,
Die 28 Mai, 1913

{AU rights reserved]

| THE
INTERIOR LIFE

SIMPLIFIED AND REDUCED TO
ITS FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE

EDITED BY THE

VERY REV. FATHER JOSEPH’ TISSOT

BUPERIOR-GENERAL OF THE MISSIONARIES OF ST, FRANCIS OF SALES

TRANSLATED BY

W. H. MITCHELL, MLA.

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LONDON |
BURNS OATES & WASHBOURNE LTD.

PUBLISHERS TO THE HOLY SEE

First Impression - - - - 1912

Second Impression - - - 1916
Third Impression + - + x1921
Fourth Impression - - - 1927

Made and Printed in Great Britain

;

TO THE READER

THE pages of this invaluable book are not from my pen ; and
yet they are mine so far as a religious may venture to say so.
Their writer gave them me in manuscript with full liberty to
do what I liked with them. Contrary to his expectation, but
not without his authority, I decided to have them published
as soon as I had pondered them. They had procured me
inward enjoyment, and (thank God), I venture to hope, true
spiritual profit. I should have blamed myself had I kept
them to myself, and I remembered the words of the Wise
Man: ‘I have learned without guile and communicate
wisdom without envy ; and her riches I hide not.”

What, then, did this manuscript contain ? Substantially,
nothing new ; for, starting from the well-known Fundamzntal
Principle of St. Ignatius, admirably commented on, it reaches
conclusions that the simplest of logic suffices to deduce. But
it is just the simplicity and unanswerable logic of the argu-
ment, and the astonishing richness of the Scriptural texts
wherewith it is corroborated, which have delighted me.

In these latter days, indeed, there is a great dearth of
spiritual treatises primarily arresting the intelligence, per-
suading it by means of reason and faith, and compelling it to
set the will towards duty and perfection. How different is
the solidity of such a foundation from that of sentimentalism,
so much exploited in these days in the service, or rather, to
the prejudice, of piety !

Is feeling, then, excluded from these pages ? One would
think so, on opening them and seeing the author’s efforts to
reduce it to a secondary rôle. Nevertheless, soon, in the
light of his clear and irrefutable teaching, arises a warmth
that wins the heart. The great law of love, Diliges Dominum,
sets free the soul from the returns of selfishness, and pene-

1 Wisdom, vii. 13.
v

vi TO THE READER

trates it with a beneficent and ardent activity, free from all
admixture, and rich in consolation and unction.

It is thus that, apparently all unconsciously, but really in a
way which is eminently logical, this book ascends from the
regions of asceticism to those of the freest and surest mysticism.
In this way—and herein it seems to me to gain a truly
Salesian charm—its doctrine is linked and identified with that
of St. Francis of Sales and his best interpreters! We shall
find many quotations from the sweet Doctor, and he seems
to have inspired the plan and practical deductions of this
work in his counsel to the Lady-president Brulart : ‘‘ We must
not judge of things according to our own liking, but according
to God’s ; this is the great thing. If we are holy according to
our own will, we shall never be really so ; we must be holy
according to the will of God.’”2

These few words will explain my humble part in the publica-
tion of this book. I beg the reader not to skip a single line
of it, beginning with the Preface. This is necessary if he is
to get a good grasp of what it teaches, and to appreciate and
practise its teaching.

The author, in giving me his work, ingenuously said he
was entrusting me with a foundling, and begged me to adopt
it. I do so with only one regret—that I have not the honour
of being its father. I have baptized it by giving it a name
which appears to me appropriate ; and I have had the good
fortune to find it an eminent god-father in my Bishop, whose
approbation, with God’s help, will assure the work success.

Annecy, Feast of Our Lady of Good Counsel.

JOSEPH TISSOT,
Misstonary of St. Francis of Sales.

1 Here I am pleased to be able to mention one of St. Francis of
Sales’ daughters who has best understood their holy Father, the
venerated Mére Marie de Sales Chappuis, whose teaching and life are
wonderfully in accord with the theories laid down in this book.

4 Letter, dated, June 8th, 1606.

APPROBATIONS

The Bishop of Annecy

... Tus higher life... is called the interior life by
mystical writers. In it there are two factors, the grace of
God and the action of the soul: an action which is subject
to great varieties of form and manner, according to character,
disposition, habit of mind or impulse of heart, in each in-
dividual. The direction of the soul, in this union of its own
activity with the graces it receives from God, is therefore a
science, and an art. That is why so many books have been
written on this subject: the safest and readiest means of
procuring for the soul the inexpressible happiness of living
inwardly with God, and of beginning the life of heaven by
the inner life. Simplicity of procedure, such is the aim of
the unknown, but surely thoroughly competent, author of
this work, presented to us by the Reverend Father Superior
of the Missionaries of St. Francis of Sales, and for which he
solicits our approbation: The Interior Life simplified and
reduced to its Fundamental Principle.

The desire to make the interior life more accessible, by
curtailing the often very complicated apparatus wherewith
it is surrounded by so many masters of the spiritual life, is
certainly an excellent thing: how many souls are kept at a
distance by the number of acts which they are asked to per-
form to live in union with God, by the multiplicity of dis-
tinctions and minutiæ of detail! This idea, which was good
in itself, has been happily set forth and carried out. We
advise and recommend the attentive and repeated reading of
this book to priests and people. Priests will find in it much
profit to their own progress in the interior life, and clear light
for the guidance of souls whose direction is entrusted to them.

Given at Annecy, April 23rd, 1894.

+ LOUIS,
Bishop of Annecy.

viii | APPROBATIONS

His Eminence Cardinal Bourret, Bishop of Rodez

DEAR REVEREND FATHER,

The book you have just published, entitled: The
Interior Life simplified and reduced to its Fundamental
Principle, combats an evil which disfigures piety in many
_ souls ; t.¢., vague and sentimental religiosity, encumbered
with petty practices.

This book concentrates upon one point, the fulfilment of
God’s will, so much light as to illuminate and inundate it.

The Preface gives a clear outline of its plan. But when,
after a very substantial commentary on the Fundamental
Principle of St. Ignatius, the author rises, by inference, to
an analysis of the different degrees of piety, and especially
when he speaks of God’s good pleasure and of its acceptance,
he appears to me to be really new and suggestive.

Filled as it is with Scriptural quotations admirably com-
mented on, and passages from the Fathers and from St.
Thomas, this book leaves far behind it all the host of little
treatises which are destitute of theology, depth, or unction.

If well digested, it is capable of transforming and sanctifying
any aspiring soul who is ready to follow the teachings of logic
and of faith.

I believe I am doing a good work in recommending it....

‘+ JOSEPH CARD. BOURRET,
Bishop of Rodez,

RODEzZ,
june 25th. 1894.

TRANSLATOR’S NOTE

Waite this translation was in the printer’s hands, the late
Mr. H. G. Worth, who kindly helped in preparing the manu-
script for the Press, was taken from his many sorrowing
friends. Some of them may be interested to hear that he
was so impressed with the value of the work that he
intended, had he been spared, to distribute it as widely as
possible, as he agreed with the translator in thinking that
such a masterly exposition of typical Catholic asceticism is
better calculated to win appreciation for Catholicism from
other Christians than brilliant controversial writing. May
his wishes for its success be fulfilled |
W. H. M.

ALL Saints’ Day, 1912.

Ae es

*
pe
x

PREFACE

1. Souls are ailing.—I have no wish to speak of our un-
happy society at large, moribund afar from God, bandied
about and pulled hither and thither between the two opposite
extremes of materialism and occultism. Its bewilderment
and agitation and anguish grow keener from day to day, and
show how deep the evil is. What now claims my attention is
not this society in its reversion from Christianity to paganism,
but rather the society which calls and believes itself Christian,
and which, as a matter of fact, still adheres to the appearances
and practices of a Christian life. Again, in this society, I am
rather considering those who are professedly devout, and who,
by their position or taste or vocation, are more devoted to
the exercises of religion. As I look on these, I see so many
whose life is languishing in mediocrity! Anæmia seems to
threaten the soul more than the body. Poor staggering souls,
they lean for support on a host of petty practices, and never
succeed in being able to stand upright! They are like con-
sumptives, afraid of the open air: they know it no longer,
and are stifling in the muggy atmosphere of an enervating
sentimentalism. Their eyes are blurred by being fastened
upon the dimness of books lacking in doctrine and phrases
without reality! Of a truth, if they are condemned to such
a régime as this, it must be because their constitution has been
singularly impaired. Many think of improving the régime :
those who are wise believe that the improvement must be
made in the constitution. This, too, is my opinion, and to
the best of my limited ability, I would fain try to find
some light that may help towards the discovery of the real
remedy.

Such is the aim of this little essay. If any soul find therein

some ray of light, let him attribute it to Him alone who is all
xi

. xii PREFACE

light and no darkness.1 Man in himself is always darkness ;
he is only light in the Lord.?

2. Want of substance.—The piety of to-day suffers from a
general’ malady: it is wanting in substance and depth, and
is deficient in solidity. In some souls everything is superficial
—and it is the same with some books. Must we say that
piety has followed the downward progress of the times, or
that the decadence of our days is due to the weakening of
piety ?—I cannot tell. Both are doubtless true. But would
it not be equally true to say that the insipidity of the salt
has let the world become corrupt ? You are the salt of the
earth :4 these words, addressed to the Apostles and to all
those who participate in their ministry, also apply to higher
souls who, by the bitter strength concealed in piety, are
called upon to purify the world and to keep it from corrup-
tion. And if the salt has become unsavoury, wherewith
shall it be seasoned ?

3. Sentimentalism.—However this may be, the evil is the
same in both directions. From the region of ideas and
principles we have come down to the right earth of the senses
and emotions. In public as in private life, in intellectual as
in moral life, we are too often in search of emotions, we live
too readily according to the senses. Life tends to become
animal, and to be merely a succession of sensations. The
deep ways of the mind and heart are more and more un-
known ; romanticism penetrates everything, even piety.

How, indeed, has sentimentalism perverted piety! It has
become attached to the mawkish externals which it adorns
with the brightest flowers of pseudo-mysticism, feeding on the
disturbing illusions of the senses and hiding from many souls,
under deceptive appearances, the absolute emptiness that it
conceals! so that they often hardly know that they have
nothing left but a show of piety, and that they have lost its

1 Quoniam Deus lux est, et tenebræ in eo non sunt ullæ (1 Joan.i. 5).
2 Eratis enim aliquando tenebre, nunc autem lux in Domino
(Eph. v. 8).
By “‘ general,” I mean that it affects both the constitution of piety,
and a vast number of souls.
4 Vos estis sal terre; quod si sal evanuerit, in quo salietur ?
(Matt. v. 13).

PREFACE xiii

power.! The fascination of trifles has made them lose sight
of the deeper good,? because they see nothing but seductive
superficiality.

4. Superficiality of life.—Living by the senses, our life
becomes outward, on the surface ; we no longer penetrate into
the inner depths of the soul. The soul has infinite deeps.
“ God,” it is said, ‘‘ speaks in the depths of every soul. To
listen in these deeps, where truth makes herself heard, and
where ideas are gathered, to go by way of piety to the Master
within ”’—how many are there who can do this, or who
think of doing it ? How many are there who understand the
intellectual way whereby God comes to us, and who, in order
to find Him, know how to explore the innermost chambers
of their own house and the unspotted profundity of their
own heart ?4 Unfortunately; we know so little of our inmost
being and of how to enter therein! Sometimes we care so
little about doing it! And are we not too often afraid totry ?

We are satisfied with a cursory and superficial glance,
which is enough to maintain a fair amount of outward pro-
priety ; but the profound purification of the soul, the pro-
gressive transformation of the human life into the divine,
the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new,
all this work done deep down we are scarcely acquainted with.
We allow these depths to be invaded by all sorts of wretched-
ness. Self-seeking, which is the abstract of all man’s vices
and the source of all his sins, very easily comes to terms
with this superficial sentimentalism. It is so agreeable to
be pleased with oneself—and with God!—And when all
goes so well with us on our Thabor, why should we not pitch
three tents there ?5 Yes,—only in them will dwell neither
Jesus Christ, nor Moses, nor Elias; there, along with our
piety of the senses, will abide second-rate virtue, if not
sensualism and pride.

! Speciem quidem pietatis habentes, virtutem autem ejus abne-
gantes (2 Tim. iii. 5).

? Fascinatio nugacitatis obscurat bona (Sap. iv. 12).

3 Gratry, Perreyve.

* Intelligam in via immaculata, quando venies ad me. Perambula-
bam in innocentia cordis mei in medio domus mee (Ps. c. 2).

‘ aa est nos hic esse, faciamus hic tria tabernacula (Matt.
XVii. 4).

xiv PREFACE

5. Ignorance of the depths.—This is not the place that God
has chosen for the uplifting of the heart : the heart takes its
rise from deeper down, from the vale of tears.i Down there
in the depths is the place for the combat and the toil. We
must tear out and uproot this self-seeking and self-love which
have such a living hold upon the heart, and which have
struck such deep root in all directions. It means hard labour
and few joys, at any rate for the senses. Yet here, too, there
are joys, joys which are more real and in greater fulness.
God Himself takes part in the work, and communicates to
the worker the gladness of His presence, and this is why he is
happy, says the sacred text.

But the senses are unacquainted with these joys; they
perceive the tears and the toil, the pains and the uphill
character of the struggle: this is why we instinctively dread
the depths in which the work has to be done. It is easy to
delude oneself, when, on the one hand, one has no difficulty
in finding joys that seem quite pure, and, on the other, one
sees a strife which scarcely appears quite necessary !—More-
over, pretexts abound for preferring immediate and easy sur-
face pleasures to the toil and combat of the depths. |

And thus occurs what is spoken of by St. John of the Cross.
“Many,” says he, “from want of knowledge use spiritual
goods for the sole satisfaction of the senses, and their spirit
therefore remains void. The soul is in great measure cor-
rupted by sensible sweetness, and draws off all the life-
giving waters of grace before they reach the spirit, which is
left dry and barren. Scarcely one can be found who is not
subject to this tyranny of the senses.’

6. External piety.—Living on the surface of the soul, we
come to live on the surface in everything ; for he who knows »
not how to penetrate within the soul has forgotten how to
penetrate into the depths of anything else. He is taken up
with externals, and matters of detail become chiefly important
to him. Thus in duties and obligations, he sees the letter
rather than the spirit, the bark rather than the sap, the body

1 Beatus vir cujus est auxilium abs te, ascensiones in corde suo

disposuit in valle lacrymarum, in loco quem posuit (Ps. Ixxxiii. 6, 7).
2 The Ascent of Mount Carmel (Book III 32).

PREFACE - XV

rather than the soul. He knows that such and such details
are prescribed, ‘and certain others forbidden. He sees the
external side of the law, the material fact of the prescription,
and this is the only thing to which he attaches a certain
amount of importance. He does not see the inward side, the
reason and end of the prescription, the spirit of the law ;
and thus he brings an external and mechanical fidelity to the
material observance of the letter which he sees and which
killeth, without drawing any inspiration from the spirit which
quickeneth,! and which he does not see.

We so rarely ask ourselves to what deep needs correspond
the observances imposed by the law or introduced by custom !
We are no longer acquainted with needs which are deep.
Above all we want external agitation and surface sensations ;
and as these are not to be found in the law, we go on to seek for
them in factitious practices which are calculated to produce
emotions. In the meantime, so far as what is of obligation
is concerned, we are satisfied with keeping a watch upon
externals ; for this, indeed, costs us less. ‘The mind dwells
in the elementary, i in the word only, and does not really enter
into the region of thought. For want of piety, the mind
neither goes from the word to the idea, nor from the idea to
the soul, and still less from the soul to God.”? And in this
way, a soul whose fidelity to external practices leaves nothing
: to be desired does not make any progress, because it does
not enter within where it would draw the water of life ; it is
like an automaton, the movement of which is regulated
throughout, but remains ever the same. This is materialism
in piety.

7. The lessening of souls.—Being attached to external
practices, the soul cannot soar. It is imprisoned, chained,
stuck fast. Seeing things in their littleness, it becomes small
and cramped. Petty practices make petty souls; for the
soul always takes its proportions from the things to which
it becomes attached. I become little if I am attached to
little things, or rather, to the petty side of things ; for even
little things have a great side, as great things have a petty

1 Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat (2 Cor. iii. 6).
2 Gratry, loc. cit.

xvi PREFACE

side. There are souls who only know how to get attached
to the smaller side of things, whether the things be great or
small; and hence they become mean and narrow. Others,
on the contrary, have ever in view the greater aspects to
which they become attached, and which constantly help to
make them expand.

In piety, as, indeed, in all other matters, the external is
the smaller side. As soon as I give it importance, every-
thing within me begins to get wasted and mean ; my spiritual
horizon grows narrow, I become the slave of trifles, which
check my expansion. I suppose that a few infidelities in things
external kill piety, and this is unfortunately true of mine,
which is altogether outward. Thus I am faithful to my petty
practices and become imprisoned in them: if I neglect them,
I have nothing left. This is common experience ; and this is
why we find unhappy souls constantly playing fast and loose,
resuming their practices, forsaking them by degrees, and
then coming back to them only to give them up again.

8. Division.—Hence spring dissection and division. Our
piety drags us through a crowd of incoherent and meaning-
less details. There is no unity in the soul; its forces are
frittered away amidst a host of practices which have no
common centre and no higher aim. Nothing is more de-
plorable than this lack of co-ordination in ideas, of continuity
in the will, and of consistency in action. Piety is no longer a
living body ; it is a series of attempts, fumblings, and hesita-
tions. One would think that there was no compass, so in-
coherent is the steering of the ship. As a matter of fact,
it is wanting : this body is without a soul.

9. Weakness.—And what weakness there is! There is no
life ; it is merely a matter of dragging on. And this, too, in
spite of a fair amount of good-will. “I cannot make it out,”
once said an old veteran in sacerdotal struggles, ‘‘ the more
I go forward, the more I slide back. I think I am making
efforts, and that I have already made a great many, and yet,
in spite of them all, I feel that I am making less and less pro-
gress.” I admit these words concealed a certain amount of
unconscious humility; yet they contained a good deal of
the sad truth which is experienced by many.

%

PREFACE XVii |

“Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled
about many things ” (Luke x. 41). Was not multiplicity
Martha’s misfortune, and yet Jesus loved her, and loved her
devotion ? But she had too many irons in the fire! Multi- +
plicity distracted her ; and by distracting, disturbed her ; and
by disturbing, troubled her; and by troubling, weakened
her ; so that she was unequal to her work and was obliged to
come and ask for her sister’s help. Thus, too, is it with our-
selves. The manifold occupations of life and thousands of
anxieties about personal matters distract the soul ; and the
incoherent multiplicity of our devotional exercises, instead
of bringing unity, strength, and peace to the soul, add to its
evils by scattering, troubling, and weakening it still further.
How can we wonder at the languor of souls, when what
ought to be their healing and their life only increases the evils
from which they suffer ?

10. Building without foundations.—If we only knew the one
thing necessary !1—If we only thought of building the one
house upon the one foundation !—But what can we expect ?
We build upon the sand? Is it any wonder that the house
will not stand ? Such winds blow! such floods come down!
And when the dilapidated building has almost tumbled to
the ground, we go into a retreat to try to prop it up. And
like a child, who sees his house of cards collapse and wishes to
put it up again, we think about making fresh resolutions and
new practices, as external and shallow and incoherent as
those which have preceded them, and therefore, as frail, and
our building is bound to come to the ground once more when
smitten by the winds and the floods. And we do not think
of trying to find the rock, we do not endeavour to build upon
a solid and deep foundation. Do we even know that our
building must have such a foundation ?

11. The enlightening of good-will.—Is it necessary to say
that these remarks are not of universal application and that
they do not suit everyone ? They indicate defects and do not
tefer to virtues. It were foolish to attempt to strike a balance

1 Porro unum est necessarium (Luc. x. 42).

? Acdificavit domum suam super arenam, et descendit pluvia, et
venerunt flumina, et flaverunt venti, et irruerunt in domum illam,
et cecidit, et fuit ruina illius magna (Matt. vii. 26, 27).

xviii PREFACE

between the two. There are many very excellent souls who |
walk in the true ways of God and who have no need of my
poor reflections to find their way to Him. Their own light
is far greater than any that they will find here. Yet the work
of the ministry proves to me daily that there are souls whc
deceive themselves and are in ignorance. Such, indeed, are
full of good-will, but are exposed to the dangers here indicated,
and they inhale the morbid atmosphere of a crowd of false
notions which render their piety unhealthy.

If only some small ray of light from this little work might
enlighten one of them to some extent !—if it were only to be
in some degree remedial and healing !—Then, indeed, would
not my work have won too ample a reward ?—But Thou
alone, O God, Thou alone canst heal. If there be here any-
thing of Thine, that it is which will give light and healing.
Thou alone knowest if there be any such thing in these reflec-
tions.—Oh, how consoling would it be, if they really bore
some ray of Thy light and love! This, O my God, is all that
they fain would bear! May they bring it to souls of good-
will, souls who err because they are in ignorance. It is to
such, above all, that these considerations are addressed ; for,
generally speaking, the counsels here given have in view
rather those who know not than those who will not ; they
tend to the enlightening of good-will rather than to the
arousing of evil will.

12. The foundation of the spiritual life—All these evils:
sentimentalism, depression, incoherence, division, weakness,
have one common source and depend upon the same cause,—
a want of foundation. No cure will be effected as long as the
attention is not brought to bear upon this essential point,
and it is this that I would wish to illumine.

In order to erect a solid building, one must first of all pay
attention to the foundations ; for the solidity of the con-
struction will depend upon the foundations. Without founda-
tions, there is nothing solid, nothing strong, and nothing
lasting. The important thing, therefore, is to know the
foundations of the spiritual life, and to lay them down strongly,
and to set the building of perfection solidly on the one basis,

4 —iis qui ignorant et errant (Heb. v. 2).

PREFACE | xix

apart from which nothing living can be erected ; for no one
can lay any other foundation than that which has been
already laid.

It is this one foundation that I desire to point out and
bring fully into the light, if I can. I should like to be able
to say to souls: Look, there is the one foundation. I should
only be too happy if I could add with St. Paul: According
to the grace of God, that is given to me, as a wise architect, I
have laid the foundation. It is for each one to build thereon ;
but let him take heed how he buildeth thereupon.?

13. This book is only a preface.—But again, I never thought
of trying to throw light upon the whole of the foundation of
which St. Paul speaks, namely, Jesus Christ : my book would
then have grown into a large treatise. The person, indeed,
of Jesus Christ, the head and model of all the predestinate,
will hardly be directly dealt with in these considerations.
This book is only a preface ; it is a preparation, which has
become necessary, for the return of Jesus Christ to the soul.
Our artificial and superficial Christianity leaves Jesus Christ
outside and on the surface. And He Himself declares that
He wishes to dwell within the soul, and the soul to dwell
within Himself3 Is not this the point to which souls must
‘be brought back to-day, when so many of them have forgotten
the paths of the interior life ? When the wood is green, it
must first of all be dried ; otherwise you get from it nought
but choking smoke instead of comforting flame. This book
does not in any way pretend to set the fire alight ; it only
endeavours to prepare a little green wood.

Hence, here will be found elementary reflections, and they
will be focussed on only one of the corners of the great build-
ing, that which St. Ignatius calls, in his Exercises, the Funda-
mental Principle. Everything will be confined to this unique
and truly fundamental idea; all will converge upon this
unity and this foundation ; and nothing will be said that is

1 Fundamentum enim aliud nemo potest ponere preter id, quod
positum est (1 Cor. iii. 11).

2 Secundum gratiam Dei que data est mihi, ut sapiens architectus
fundamentum posui : alius autem superædificat. Unusquisque autem
videat quomodo superædificet (1 Cor. iii. ro).

3 Manete in me: et ego in vobis (Joan. xv. 4)

XX PREFACE

not directly and immediately relevant thereto. This is why
the little work is called—The Interior Life simplified and
reduced to tts Fundamental Principle.

14. The rod, the root, and the flower.—Here it will be well
to indicate our mode of procedure. From the root of David
will rise a rod, and on this rod, a flower, and on this flower
will rest the Spirit of God.1 Under this image Isaias announces
Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus Christ is the head and the model
of all Christians, and He is the archetype of the spiritual life ;
what is fitting for Him is fitting, in due proportion, for all
that springs from Him.

Moreover, piety is well represented by this same image.
It has a root, which is reason ; a rod, which is faith ; and a
flower, which is the spiritual life. Without the root, there
will be no rod ; without the rod, no flower. The flower rises
from the rod, and the rod from the root. The mysterious
sap fructifying the root, rises in the rod, and bursts into
bloom in the flower. Thus, under the mysterious action of
the divine sap which is called grace, reason, which is the root,
is fructified ; on it rises the rod of faith ;2 and on this rod of
faith expands the wonderful flower of the spiritual life. Thus
the spiritual life is the flower of faith and reason, it rises as a
whole from reason and faith ; and all spiritual life which has
not this rod and this root, or to speak plainly, all spiritual
life which, in its foundations, is not theological and rational,
is not the flower upon which rests the Spirit of God.

15. The importance of the reason in piety.—This is why we
here address the reason in the first place, and very little will
be found herein for the feelings To-day so many books
exaggerate in the matter of sentiment, that we may here be
excused for giving it a very small place. Besides, wishing to

1 Egredietur virga de radice Jesse, et flos de radice ejus ascendet,
et requiescet super eum Spiritus Domini (Is. xi. 1, 2).

2 I say: Faith rises from reason; not, Faith springs from reason.
Although faith, being composed of a twofold element, like all that
belongs to and comes from the Man-God, springs in reality, so far as
it is human, from reason; yet its divine element, which is the chief
thing and which springs from grace and revelation, does not allow
us to say that faith springs from reason, as we say that Jesus was born
of Mary. This assimilation has, at least, never been used in Catholic
writings, in order to avoid Pelagianism

PREFACE xxi

go to the foundation and the root, we must go to the reason.
In this way a simple syllogism, founded on a rational idea,
will suffice to lead us to the ultimate conclusions of the most
perfect holiness.

Reason, no doubt, will be enlightened by faith, the root
will not be separated from the rod in producing its flower ;
but it is no less true that this flower of piety appears as the
full and perfect blossom of the reason by means of faith. We
shall see this in the explanations which follow ; we shall see
that, in order to be a saint in the strict sense of the term, it
would suffice, by God’s grace, I do not say, to possess right
reason, but to act in accordance with reason ; so that, if man
has been defined as a rational animal, it must be added that
he spends his life irrationally. Piety is the exquisite power
of faith and reason; neither reason nor faith find their full
bloom except in piety.

16. Reason and sentimentalism.—No one, I think, will
misunderstand the bearing of the demands here set forth in
favour of reason ; it is easy to be convinced that they are in
no way detrimental to faith or grace, but only to sentimental-
ism (I was about to say, to animalism, for the two are so
nearly related). Sentiment has taken an importance in the
guidance of life which does not belong to it either by nature
or by grace, and in this way it diminishes both nature and
grace. |

The intellect is the master-faculty in man, it is this that
ought to direct us. It is the intellect which prepares the
paths of faith, and it is in the former faculty that dwells this
great virtue. When the directive functions of the intellect
have been supplanted, not only nature, but faith suffers from
it, and the spiritual life is vitiated. This is just what is
happening to-day. Sensibiity, which holds the second rank
in man’s faculties, takes the first place ; it even aspires to
direct our piety. Thus it is that life becomes a matter of
feeling, and faith an impression. Everything becomes animal
and material; everything, even the highest of all, declines
and sinks ; everything tends to become external and empty ;
everything totters and falls, stagnates and wastes away.

1 Cf. S. Thomas, 2a, 2ae, q. 4, a. 2.

xxii PREFACE

Why ?—Because the tree no longer has any roots, the building
has no foundation, the mountain has moved from its basis,
the body no longer has a soul.

This disorder must be remedied, and we must overthrow
the usurpation of sensibility, and restore to the reason its
rôle of being the first handmaid of faith. Hence, what we
so energetically call for on behalf of the reason is still more
salled for in the interest of faith and piety. We aim at
restoring to both their basis and root, so that they may grow
in strength and truth.

17. How this book is divided.—Three great ideas sum up
this little work : the end, the way, and the means. What is
the end of every supernatural life ? what is the way ? and
what are the means ? the end towards which it must tend ;
the way it has to go ; the means it should use. To show the
one unique and highest end, the way that leads to this end,
and the means of walking in this way: such is the three-
fold object of this work, which is thus divided into three
parts.

This is a fundamental division. Most people’s interest
to-day is concentrated too much upon questions of means.
Our ears are incessantly dinned with a multitude of considera-
tions, recommendations, and exhortations, which would lead
us to suppose that external practices were the fundamental
part of religion. Devotions, confraternities, and sacraments ;
soon we shall hear nothing else spoken of so far as religion is
concerned. All these things are good and, indeed, very good ;
they are holy and, indeed, very holy ; but in their rôle and
place. All these things are means, and means are of use only
in the way, and the way is useful only towards the end.
Questions of means are only questions of the third order in
true religion. Questions as to the way come before them and
explain them ; and questions of the end come first and explain
all else, both the way and the means. Without this end, we
can understand nothing about the way ; and without the way,
nothing about the means. The means will pass away, the
way will pass away, the end alone will abide.

It is well to put things in their proper place and to restore

a little substance and order to our ideas. That is why the

PREFACE xxiil

first and most important part is here given to the end, the
second deals with the way, and the third treats of the means.
This is the logical order of things.

18. Here we give only the framework of piety.—These ques-
tions will only be dealt with on their great main lines: we
shall only give our attention to the most fundamental princi-
ples, not going into detail or into their application ; for this
would be endless, and would not correspond with the object
we have set before us. Here will be found only the broad
canvas, or rather, the skeleton and framework of piety.
What would a piece of embroidery be without any canvas, a
body with no skeleton, a building without a framework ? The
piety of to-day is too much like that ; we must come back,
then, to the canvas, the skeleton, the timber-work.

For this reason we shall only point out the chief parts and
their connexion.

Thus, in the first part, we shall not look, in particular, at
any habit, virtue or disposition, that constitutes the interior
life. There will be no detailed consideration of acts or virtues,
but we shall alone consider the one disposition which focusses
and reunites all the rest, in which, therefore, the interior life
is summed up and concentrated.

In the same way, in the second part, we shall not study in
detail either the commandments or the operations of God ;
but we shall concentrate our thoughts upon the divine will,
which is the primary rule and the one source of all His com-
mandments and operations. .

Lastly, in the third part, will be found no rule or special
practice for spiritual exercises, but we shall exclusively give
our attention to the conditions of their vital unity.

Any reflecting person will see that nothing seems to be
finished ; everywhere he will seem to see toothing-stones ; a
great thought is no sooner sketched than we pass on to another.
This is done on purpose, so that each one may be forced to
build for himself, and to complete in all its parts the great
work of which the first outline is here put into his hands.
Once more, it is a skeleton which has to be covered with flesh;

veins, nerves, muscles and skin, so as to become a complete -
body.

xxiv PREFACE

Jesus Christ is He who is the perfect form! and life of this
body ; He, too, is its clothing? and fulfilment. He, indeed,
is the real blood that flows in these veins, carrying with it
everywhere, even to the utmost extremities, the most perfect
forms of life. The perfect form of life is given by Him alone.
But His sacred person and His life-giving rôle, as I have said,
are here very little touched upon. In a word, there is a
canvas; but no embroidery: a skeleton, but not a perfect
body : a framework, but not a finished building. Nothing is
completed, but everything is in readiness. Only may the
preparation be solid enough and strong enough for the erection
of a building of the highest value and for the growth of a body
of the greatest beauty !

19. The connexion of the ideas.—The principles and ideas
are here so connected that the reader can only be fully
satisfied after having gone right through the whole book in all
seriousness. Perhaps, in the beginning, some difficulties may
occur to him; I venture to think that they will be cleared
up as he reads on. He need only have patience and not allow
himself to become systematically confused, but permit the
many questions which are raised to arrange themselves at the
proper moment in their right order. This is not a book in
which one can take a bit here and a bit there at will, and cut
it out ; all is interdependent and linked together and reciprocal.
If you break the chain, you lose the best of the work and will
no longer understand it.

20. Get to the bottom of the fundamental principle.—Here
is a remark of some importance. The fundamental idea may
at first sight seem so well known that one may be tempted
to pass it over hastily. I beg, however, ihe reader to weigh
it well, and to get as deep a knowledge as possible of it ;
because it is just from this that the reason will deduce con-
clusions that are strictly logical and practically important,
and which one would be far from suspecting at the outset.
It is like some small box of mean appearance, which conceals
treasures within. As long as it is unopened, nothing is

1 —quos prædestinavit conformes fieri imaginis Filii sui (Rom.
viii. 29).
2 Induimini Dominum Jesum Christum (Rom. xiii. 14).

PREFACE XXV

known, and it is the same as if nothing were possessed. But,
to open it, much searching is needed to discover the secret.
Look for this secret, dear reader, and reflect. And, if inside
my little box you find some pearl of price, pray to the Giver
of every perfect gift, to the Father of lights,1 not to leave in
too great penury the soul of him who tells you of these things.

21. Shut out any notion of methods.—I add a final word.
Some, at the outset, may think that they have here a new
devotional method. Nothing can be farther from the author’s
mind. His one aim is to remind people of principles, and he
conjures the reader not to look for anything but principles
herein, and to shake himself free from anything that appears
to him like a method. Principles alone are the foundation,
method is merely an accessory. Whoever takes away from
this book the least notion of a method will not have obtained
any real view of the idea which inspired and governed the
work.

I insist on this recommendation, since experience proves
every day how many illusions arise from the mania for finding
expedients where there are nothing but principles. Souls in
the elementary stage of Christian life, and therefore still more
those who are superficial, only require expedients ; I beg them
not to open this book, which is not in any way intended for
them ; they would not understand it. Deeper souls, whose
piety is sincere, feed upon principles ; I venture to believe
that this book may be of some benefit to them and that they
will understand it ; in any case, it was written for them.

1 Omne datum optimum et omne donum perfectum desursum est,
descendens a Patre luminum (Jac. i. 17).

CONTENTS

PART I

THE END
PAGES
To THE READER - = - 2 = ° v—vi
APPROBATIONS - = - - . > = vii—viii
PREFACE - . =: - - e - Xi—XXV
PRELIMINARY—LIFE - - - - - - 3—6

1. Perfect and imperfect life, p. 3.—2. Natural and
supernatural life, p. 4.—3. ‘“‘ Increase,” p. 4.—4. Christian
life, p. 5.—5. Subject of Part I, p.5.—6. Its divisions, p. 6.

BOOK I. THE ELEMENTS

CHAPTER

ie

2h

TITI,

IV.

THE PURPOSE OF CREATION - - ~ - 8—1I10
1. God created everything, p. 8.—2. For Himself, p. 8.—

3. He is the first principle and the end, p. 9.—4. God’s

glory is the essential good of His creatures, p. 9.

My END - - - - ~ = I0—I4
5. God made me, p. 10.—6. For His glory, p. 11.—7. This

is all man, p.11.—8. On earth, p. 12.—9. In heaven, p. 12.

—10. For my happiness, p. 13.—11. Union of both ends,

P 13.

UNION - - - - . - I4—1)
12. The Incarnation, p. 14.—13. The Church eternal,

p. 15.—14. Glory by union, p. 15.—15. The difference

between glory and union, p. 16.—16. The Saviour’s.

prayer, p. 16.—-17. My prayer, p. 17.

Tue ORDER OF My RELATIONS WITH GOD = - 17—20
18. The intelligible essence of things, p. 17.—19. Their
real essence, p. 18.—20. Is my satisfaction in the essence
of things ? p. 19.—21. I can lose it, p. 19.
xxvii :

XXViii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGFS

V.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

II.

THE DEPENDENCE OF My SATISFACTION = = 20—22
22. The joy of heaven, p. 20.—23. My joy in this world,

p. 20.—24. Subordinate to God’s glory, p. 21.—25. And

springs from it, p. 21.—26. The Lord’s joy, p. 22.

THE USE OF CREATURES - - - - 22—26
27. Creatures, p. 22.—28. Use, p. 23.—29. Instruments,

p. 24.—30. The way to use them, p. 24.—31. For God,

p. 25.—32. For myself, p. 25.—33. Here and hereafter, p. 26.

SATISFACTIONS IN CREATURES - - - 27—29
34. The variety of pleasures in things created, p. 27.—

35. The drop of oil, p. 27.—36. Before and after sin, p. 28.

—37. Pleasure is merely instrumental, p. 29.

THE ORDER OF My RELATIONS WITH CREATURES) - 30-—33
38. Pleasure, p. 30.—39. Human utility, p. 30.—40. Cor-

poral utility, p. 31.—41. Intellectual and moral utility,

p. 31.—42. Divine utility, p. 32.—43. The complete order

of the instruments, p. 32.

THE EssENTIAL ORDER OF CREATION - - 33—35
44. Summing up, p. 33.—45. Querite primum regnum

Dei, p. 34.—46. My greatness : all things are mine, p. 35.—

47. Lam God’s, p. 35.

. AN EXPLANATION OF THE PATER NOSTER - - 36—40

48. The greatness of this prayer, p. 36.—49. Hallowed be
Thy name, p. 37.—50. Thy kingdom come, p. 37.—51. Thy
will be done, p. 37.—52. Give us our bread, p. 38.—53. The
three last petitions, p. 38.—54. Allis here, p. 39.

BOOK II. ORGANIZATION

. My OBLIGATIONS - - - - ° 42—46

1. Knowing, willing, acting, p. 42.—2. My mind must
know God, p. 42.—3. Truth, p. 43.—4. My heart must
love God, p. 43.—5. Charity, p. 44.—6. My action must
serve God, p. 45.—7. Liberty, p. 46.

THE ESSENCE OF PIETY - - - ra 46--50
8. Seeing, loving, and seeking God, p. 46.—09. Veritatem

facientes in charilate, p. 47.—10. The union of these three

operations in piety, p. 48.—11. Other texts, p. 48.—12. The

great commandment, p. 49.—13. The definition of the

Catechism, p. 49.

CHAPTER

III.

IV.

Vi.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

Xx,

CONTENTS XXIX

/ PAGES

THE VIRTUE OF PIETY . . - - 50—54
14. The living unity of my being in piety, p. 50.—

15. Facility and readiness, p. 51.—16. Piety is the great

disposition, p. 51.—17. The body and the soul of piety,

p. 52.—18. It is a matter of the mind, p. 53.—19. The

function of sentiment, p. 53.—20. The loss of sensible

impressions, p. 54.

Gop’s GLORY - . . = . 55—58

21. What glorifying God means, p. 55.—22. The ma-
terial and formal elements of glory, p. 55.—23. Intrinsic
glory, p. 56.—24. Extrinsic glory, p. 56.—25. The fulness
of the word “‘ glory,” p. 57.—26. Crescamus, p. 57.

à
» ZEAL - - - - - ° 58—61

27. Multiplicamini, p. 58.—28. Divine honour, p. 59.—
29. The human bond, p. 59.—30. The eternal bond, p. 60.
—31. Zeal in one’s vocation, p. 61.

DISORDER—ADHERENCE TO CREATURES - . 61—63

32. The journey far from God, p. 61.—33. Stopping,
p. 62.—34. Adherence, p. 62.—35. Rest, p. 63.

DISORDER—ATTACHMENT TO SELF - - ” 64—66
36. Appropriation, p. 64.—37. Self-seeking, p. 64.—

38. The evil is not in satisfaction, but in subversion,

p. 65.—39. Gloria mea nihil est, p. 65.

DIsORDER—ITs EFFECTS - . - - 66—71

40. Perversion, p. 66.—41. Evil, p. 67.—42. Lies, p. 67.
—43. Vanity, p. 68.—44. Slavery, p. 68.—45. Universal
groaning, p. 69.—46. Death, p. 70.

DIsORDER—ITs DEGREES - - - - 71—74

47. The descent, p. 71.—48. Division, p. 71.—49. Dom-
ination, p. 72.—50. Exclusion, p. 72.—51. The three
stages of evil, p. 73.—52. The three stages of life, p. 73.

AVOIDING MORTAL SIN—THE First DEGREE OF PIETY 74—78
53. Sin, p. 74.—54. Restoration, p. 75.—55. Habit,

Pp. 75.—56. The multiplicity of actions and the oneness

of disposition, p. 76.—57. Eagerness to be avoided, p. 77.

—58. The height of this first step, p. 78.

CONTENTS

XXX
< BOOK III. GROWTH
CHAPTER PAGSS
I. AVOIDING VENIAL SIN — THE SECOND DEGREE oF

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VIL.

VIII.

PIHTY. =: - D - . à 80—82
1. Sin, p. 80.—2. Its gravity, p. 80.—3. Restoration,
p. 81.—4. The height of this step, p. 81.

IMPERFECTION—-THE DOMINATION OF THE HUMAN - 82---85
5. Its definition, p. 82.—6. The domination of human

pleasure, p. 83.—7. What is the harm of it? p. 84.—

8. The source of the evil, p. 84.

IMPERFECTION—THE ABSENCE OF FORMAL OFFENCE 85—88
9. The second characteristic of imperfection, p. 85.—

10. The transgression of a counsel, p. 86.—11. The non-

culpable transgression of a precept, p. 86.—12. “Go

behind Me, Satan,” p. 86.—13. The Saviour’s reasons,

p. 87.

IMPERFECTION—Its Evi, - - + - 88—go

14. Why is not imperfection a sin? p. 88.—15. Its
connexion therewith, p. 89.—16. Its frequency, p. 89.—
17. Its evil, p. go.

Y

. PERFECTION—THE THIRD DEGREE oF PIETY - 90—-092

18. Its proper object, p. 90.—19. The scope of the
word, p. 91.—20. Ex toto, p. 91.—21. Perfection according
to St. Francis of Sales, p. 92.

THE STATE OF PERFECTION = - - 93—95
22. The external state, p. 93.—-23. The internal state,

Pp. 93.—24. Religious perfection, p. 94.—25. Episcopal and

sacerdotal perfection, p. 94.

PERFECTION AND SACRIFICE — - - - 95—99
26. Perfection is not sacrifice, p. 95.—27. Aberration

p. 96.—28. Failure, p. 96.—29. Would not sacrifice be more

perfect ? p. 97.—30. Sacrifices necessary, P. 97.—31. To

what extent ? p. 97.—32. The fear of sacrifice, p. 98.

THE STATE OF My Sout - - - - 99—I03
33. Where am I ? p. 99.—34. Human utility, p. 100.—

35. In ordinary life, p. 100.—36. God’s interest and mine

are not incompatible, p. 101.—37. In the spiritual life,

p. 101.—38. If I would only go down deep! p. 102.

CONTENTS — XXXI

CHAPTER TAGES

IX.

XI.

II.

Ill.

IV

THE GENERAL STATE ~ - - = 103-—105
39. The state of society, p. 103.40. Bible ideas,

p. 104.—41. The ages of faith, p. 104.—42. Ideas of

to-day, p. 105.

. THE STATE OF THIS EVIL - - - = +. 106—108

43. The centre of the evil, p. 106.—44. We do not
see or see amiss, p. 106.—45. The worth of sentimental
books, p. 107.—46. Dogmas make nations, p. 107.

RESTORATION - - - - - 108—112
47. Knowing and seeing, p. 108.—48. The influence of

habit on actions, p. 109.—49. The morning intention : its

value, p. 109.—50. Actual and habitual intention, p. 110.

—51. Complete subversion, p. III.

BOOK IV. THE SUMMITS

. Hottiness—THE FourtTH DEGREE OF PIETY - 114—11)

1. Work done and work to do, p. 114.—2. The acts of
holiness, p. 115.—3. The state of holiness, p. 115.—
4. The greatest glory of God, p. 116.—5. Indifference,
p. 116.

MysTICAL DEATH = “ - “ - I17—120
6. The mystery of life and death, p. 117.—7. The human,

p. 118.—8. It must die, p. 118.—9. Seminatur ... surget,

p. 119.—10. Passing away, p. 119.

TRANSFORMATION - - - - - 120—122
11. Quotidie morior, p. 120.—12. Renewal, p. 120.—

13. Rising by degrees, p. 121.—14. The vow of the most

perfect and trifles, p. 122.

CoNSUMMATION—THE FirtTH DEGREE OF PIETY + 123—127
15. The two crowns, p. 123.—16. Immolation, p. 124.—

17. The supreme conclusion, p. 124.—18. Beatt mortui,

p. 125.—19. The rational man, p. 126.—20. St. Francis of

Sales’s wish, p. 127.

. PURGATORY - - - - - - 127—130

21. Nothing defiled enters into heaven, p. 127.—22. The
duration of purgatory, p. 128.—23. Purification and

glorification, p. 128.—24. Glorification stopped, p. 129.—
25. Purification continued, p. 129.

XXxii CONTENTS $

CHAPTER PAGES
VI. A GENERAL VIEW—UNITY - - > = 130—134
26. Unity, p. 130.—27. Simplicity, p. 131.—28. Strength,
P. 131.—29. Division, p. 132.—30. The three struggles,
p. 132.—31. Nothing to give unity, p. 133.

VII. A GENERAL VIEW—PEACE - - - ' = 134—136
32. Liberty, p. 134.—33. Equanimity, p. 135.—
34. Peace, p. 135.—35. Glory and peace, p. 136.
VIII. For PRIESTS - - - - - 137— 14!

36. The duel between the ministry and spiritual exer-
cises, p. 137.—37. The priest seeks self, p. 137.—38. He
also seeks the good of others, p. 138.—39. Destroy the
common enemy, p. 139.—40. Centre and circumference,
p. 140.—41. Exhortation, p. 141.

CONCLUSION ° e = re : . 142

Pow) Tt
THE WAY

PRELIMINARY—THE WILL oF Gop - = 145—150

1. Who must mark out the way? p. 145.—2. The
kingdom of heaven, p. 145.—3. The two entrances, p. 146.
—4. The two wills of God, p. 147.—5. The two dwellings
of the Holy Ghost, p. 147.—6. Their union, p. 148.—
7. The division of this Part, p. 149.

BOOK I. THE WILL SIGNIFIED

I. COMMANDMENTS AND COUNSELS - - - 152—154

1. Divine manifestations, p. 152.—2. The command-
ments of God, p. 152.—3. The commandments of the
Church, p. 153.—The counsels, p. 153.

II. THE DuTiEs oF ONE’s STATE OF LIFE ~ - 154—157

5. Twofold object, p. 154.—6. The application of the
commandments, p. 155.— 7. The choice of counsels,
p. 155.—8. For priests, p. 156.—g. For religious, p. 156.—
10. For laymen, p. 157.

CONTENTS XXXili

CHAPTER PAGES

Ill.

IV.

LÉ

VI.

Vil,

VIII.

THE KNOWLEDGE oF Duty—THE GENERAL OBLIGA-
TION - - - - - - 158—160
11. Practical piety, p. 158.—12. Knowing, loving,
executing, p. 158.—13. The necessity of knowing one’s
duty, p. 159.—14. Ignorance, p. 159.—15. Illusion,
p. 160.

THE KNOWLEDGE OF DuTY—SPECIAL OBLIGATIONS - 161—164
16. Knowing the commandments, p. 161.—17. The

spirit of the commandments, p. 161.—18. Knowing the

commandments of the Church, p. 162.—19. Knowing the

counsels, p. 162.—20. Knowing the duties of one’s state,

p. 163.—21. The necessity of direction, p. 164.

LOVE AND PRACTICE = - - + 164—167
22. Loving duty, p. 164.—23. The divine yoke, p. 165.—

24. Human appearances, p. 165.—25. Fidelity in practice,

p. 166.—26. Breadth in fidelity, p. 166.

THE PIETY OF THE PRIEST - È - 167—170

27. Vocations, p. 167.—-28. The forms of vocation,
p. 168.—29. Liturgy and canon law, the form of sacer-
dotal piety, p. 168.—30. The good priest knows this,
p. 169.—31. The liturgical and canonical spirit, p. 169.

THE PIETY OF THE RELIGIOUS - - - 170—173

32. The piety of the religious has its form in his Rule,
p. 170.—33. The religious does not overstep his Rule,
p. 171.—34. The rind is hard, p. 172.—35. The book to
be eaten, p. 172.

THE SPIRIT OF PIETY - . È - 173—176

36. The divine encounter, p. 173.—37. Knowing how to
pierce the veil, p. 174.—38. Making no distinction between
things ordered, p. 174.—39. Leaving my own practices
for God’s, p. 175.—40. The children of God are born of
God, p. 175.

BOOK 11. THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE

L.

DIVINE ACTION - - - - - 178—1&2
1. In God’s arms, and my own little steps, p. 178.—
2. God’s care for me, p. 178.—3. The fresco, p. 179.—
4. All works together for the good of the elect, p. 180.—
5. The wonderful appropriateness of God’s work, p. 181.
Cc

XXXIV CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGES

II.

III.

jas

“VI.

Vil.

VIII.

IX.

THE PURPOSE OF THE DIVINE OPERATIONS » 182—184

6. God’s action, p. 182.—7. His idea, p. 183.—8. His
desire, p. 183.—9. Ipse faciet, p. 184.

THE Two Mopes or Gop’s OPERATION = - 185—188
10. Putting off and putting on, p. 185.—11. Consola-

tions and trials, p. 186.—12. Ged’s intention, p. 186.—

13. The divine effects of joy and sorrow, p. 187.—14. The

divine witness of love, p. 187.

THE PROGRESS OF THE DIVINE WoRK - - 188—192
15. The needle and the thread, p. 188.—16. The three-

fold outward denudation, p. 189.—17. The threefold

inward denudation, p. 190.—18. Its correspondence with

the five degrees of piety, p. 191.—19. God’s gifts becoming

hindrances, p. 192.

. PASSIVE PIETY - - - - - 193—197

20. Keeping open, p. 193.—21. Acceptance, p. 194.—
22. Recognizing, welcoming, submitting, p. 194.—
23. Simple acceptance, p. 195.—24. Peace in acceptance,
p. 195.—25. Rest in God, p. 196.—26. The definition of
passive piety, p. 197.
WAITING FOR GOD - - - - - 197—201
27. The state of expectation, p. 197.—28. Returning to
calmness, p. 198.—29. When God’s work is to be known,
p. 199.—30. Avoid curiosity, p. 200.—31. Attention and
submission, p. 201.—32. The spiritual director, p. 201.

Joys AND SUFFERINGS - - - - 202—205
33. The difficulty of accepting consolation well, p. 202.—

34. St. John of the Cross advises its rejection, p. 203.—

35. The difficulty of accepting suffering well, p. 203.—~

36. Ask for nothing: refuse nothing, p. 204.

‘I THANK THEE” - - - - 205—208
37. How to say “I thank Thee,” p. 205.—38. The

torrent of joy, p. 206.—39. Pain extinguished, p. 207.—

40. A wonderful power for progress, p. 207.

THE ALOES - : - - - - 208—212
41. Look trial in the face, p. 208.—42. Chew the aloe,

p. 209.—43. Shun imaginary suppositions, p. 210.—

44. One’s eyes on God, and one’s feet on the ground,

p. 211.—45. Cast all care upon God, p. 211.

CONTENTS XXXV

BOOK III. THE CONCURRENCE OF THE

TWO WILLS

CHAPTER PAGES

[.

IT.

III.

iv;

VI.

VII.

Vill.

THE NECESSITY OF CONCURRENCE - - - 214—217
1. Harmony is necessary, p. 214.—2. It is God who

worketh, p. 214.—3. By His will of good pleasure, p. 215.—

4. In us, p. 215.—5. Both to will, p. 216.—6. And to do,

p. 216.

THE NATURE OF THE CONCURRENCE - - 217—222
7. The origin and the measure of my action, p. 217.—

8. The meeting, p. 218.—9. Union, p. 219.—10. Elec-

tricity, p. 220.—11. The divine contact, p. 221.

THE DIVINE ALLIANCE - - - - 222—226
12. Solicitation and union, p. 222.—13. Union grows and

becomes complete, p. 222.—14. Nisi Dominus, p. 223.—

15. Surgite postquam sederitis, p. 224.—16. Naturalism,

Quietism, Christianity, p. 225.—17. Acceptance, p. 226.

Gop’s ACTION AND Man’s ACTION - - - 227—229

18. God’s action is just and eternal, p. 227.—19. Man's
action is false and mortal, p. 227.—20. Nonne homines
estis ? p. 228.—21. Christian action, p. 228.

. DIVINE GUIDANCE - - ~ - - 229—233

22. God requires duty, p. 229.—23. The whole of duty,
p. 230.—24. Nothing but duty, p. 231.—25. Extraordinary
ways, p. 231.—26. God performs all our works, p. 232.—
27. Not a fatalist nor a quietist, p. 232.

HuMAN RESOLUTIONS: THEIR STERILITY - - 233—235

28. Broken resolutions, p. 233.—29. Human activity,
Pp. 234.—30. Practices of my own choosing, p. 234.—
31. Ruins, p. 235.

HuMAN RESOLUTIONS: THEIR FOLLY - - 236—238

32. The example of St. Peter, p. 236.—33. God so well
knows my needs, p. 236.—34. I know so little, p. 237.—

35. Negligence, p. 237.

CHRISTIAN RESOLUTIONS . . - - 238—241
36. The ease of the Christian’s walk, p. 238.—37. God’s

yoke, p. 239.—38. Hope in God, p. 240.—39. Sobriety in

resolutions, p. 240.—40. Unity, p. 241.—41 Fitness,

D. 24k.

XXXVI CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGES
IX. THE FUNDAMENTAL RESOLUTION” = . - 242—244
42. The one primary and governing resolution, p. 242.—
43. No uneasiness as to the present, p. 243.—44. Nor as to
the future, p. 243.—45. Prayer for confidence, p. 244.

X. CONCURRENCE RESTORED - - - - 245—249
46. Deviation, p. 245.—47. The consequences, p. 245.—
48. To be accepted, p. 246.—49. Human contrition,
p. 246.—50. Divine detestation, p. 247.—51. Divine
reparation, p. 247.—52. Thank Thee, O God! p. 248.

PART Li]
THE MEANS

PRELIMINARY - - - - = 251—254
1. The necessity of means, p. 251.—2. God’s instru-

ments, p. 251.—3. My instruments, p. 252.—4. In Him

we live and move and be, p. 253.—5. What is essential

and what changes, p. 253.—6. Division, p. 254.

BOOK I. THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE

I. PENANCE - - - . + 256—256

I. Justice, p. 256.—2. Penalties, p. 256.—3. Mercy
p.257.—4. Their union, p. 257.—5. Redemption, p. 258.—
6. Adimpleo quæ desunt ..., p. 259.

II. MORTIFICATION AND Its FUNCTION - * 259—264

7. Lost ease and vigour, p. 259.—8. Expiation and re-
paration, p. 260.—9. Mortification, p. 260.—10. True
and false mortification, p. 261.—11. The hand of Satan
and the hand of God, p. 262.—12. The mind of the Church,
p. 262.—13. The mind of the saints, p. 263.

III. GENERAL RULES FOR MORTIFICATION - - 264—267

14. Love that destroys and hatred that preserves,
p. 264.—15. No cowardly sentimentalism, p. 264.—
16. The liberating agent, p. 265.—17. No degrading
cruelty, p. 265.—18. Necessary cruelty, p. 266.—19. The
remedy, p. 266.—20. The will to be healed, p. 267.

CONTENTS XXXVii

CHAPTER PAGES

iV.

VE

Wir

VIII.

II.

88 8

SPECIAL RULES FOR MORTIFICATION > - 268—271

21. Three kinds of mortification, p. 268.—22. The
mortifications of duty, p. 268.—23. Penances occasioned
by duty, p. 269.—24. Providential penances, p. 269.—
25. The acceptance of death, p. 270.—26. Voluntary
penances, p. 270.—27. Penance for others, p. 271.

. THE FUNCTION OF SELF-DENIAL - - - 272—274

28. Its necessity, p. 272.—29. The evil to be avoided,
p. 272.—30. Limits to be observed, p. 273.—31. The good
to be gained, p. 274.

THE PRACTICE OF SELF-DENIAL - - - 274—-276

32. Duty, p. 274.—33. The Rule, p. 275.—34. Personal
regulations, p. 275.—35. Detachment, p. 276.

THE PRACTICE OF HUMILITY - - - 276—279
36. Nothing through self, p. 276.—37. All through God,

Pp. 277.—38. Nothing for self, p. 278.—39. All for God,

P. 279.

THE GREATNESS OF HUMILITY - - - 279—282

40. All and nothing, p. 279.—41. True greatness,
p. 280.—42. The humility of the saints, p. 280.—43.
Humility, holiness, unity, p. 281.

BOOK II. THE EXERCISES OF PIETY

. THE PURPOSE OF EXERCISES OF PIETY - - 285—288

1. Their twofold purpose, p. 285.—2. Means of forma-
tion, p. 285.—3. If badly used, they are means of deforma-
tion, p. 286.—4. The appetite for God, p. 287.—5. Exer-
cises of the mind, the heart, and the senses, p. 288.

PHARISAIC REGULARITY - - - - 288—291
6. Outward regularity, p. 288.—7. The flowers of the

Church’s garden, p. 289.—8. My bouquet, p. 289.—

9. Obligatory practices, p. 290.—10. Practices which

are of counsel, p. 291.—11. Optional practices, p. 291.

ISOLATION—GENERAL EFFECTS - - - 29I—294

12. Definition, p. 291.—13. The drawers, p. 292.—14.
Distaste, p. 293.—15. Sterility, p. 293.

XXXViii CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGES

IV.

VE.

VIE

VIII.

IX.

ISOLATION—PARTICULAR EFFECTS = . 294—298
16. Meditation partitioned off, p. 294.—17. The mental

prayer of the ancients, p. 295.—18. Living meditation,

p. 296.—19. Distractions, p. 296.—20. Unity of work and

prayer, p. 297.—21. The Psalms, p. 297.

. INCONSTANCY - - - - > 298—301

22. The inconstancy of my fancies, p. 298.—23. And of
my too external procedure, p. 299.—24. And of my weak-
ness, p. 300.—25. The remedy: sincerity and confidence,
Pp. 301.
EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE - . - 302—306
26. Exercises must possess unity, p. 302.—27. Examina-
tion of conscience is the guiding bond of unity, p. 302.—
28. The means of unity, p. 303.—29. The witness of the
saints, p. 304.—30. Acts are transitory, p. 304—31.
Habits are the strings to strike, p. 305.

THE GLANCE = - - - 307—309
32. Its easiness, p. 307.—33. Its object, p. 307.—

34. It is the substance of self-examination, p. 308.—

35. The tap, p. 309.

THE EXAMINATION INTO DETAILS - - - 310—313

36. The examination into secondary dispositiors,
p. 310.— 37. The process of fructification, p. 310.—
38. Self-examination follows and aids the soul’s progress,
p. 311.—39. It is not a matter of statistics, p. 312.—
40. Hunting up details, p. 313.

CONTRITION AND FIRM PURPOSE - - - 314—317
41. Their necessity, p. 314.—42. Perfect contrition,

Pp. 314.—43. Imperfect contrition, p. 315.—44. Rising

from one to the other, p. 315.—45. Firm purpose, p. 316.

—46. Union of the three elements of the examination of

conscience, p. 316.

. THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF SELF-EXAMINATION - 317—321

47. The habitual self-examination, p. 317.—48. The
general self-examination, its centre and two circumfer-
ences, p. 318.—49. The two fundamental questions,
p. 319.—50. The particular examen, p. 319.—51. The
preliminary examination. p. 320.—52. The facilitation of
confession, p. 220

CONTENTS XXXIX

CHAPTER PAGES

XI.

II.

Lil.

IV

VI.

VII.

THE UNITY OF THE EXERCISES - . . 321—326
53. Singleness of eye, p. 321.—54. Self-examination is

the eye of the exercises, p. 322.—55. It is the obligatory

prelude to meditation, p. 233.—56. And of all the other

exercises, p. 323.—57. The presence of God, p. 323.—58.

The great means of piety, p. 324.—59. Consult avian

writers for details of methods, p. 325.

BOOK III. GRACE

. THE NATURE OF GRACE - - - - 328—331

1. The necessity of a bond, p. 328.—2. Its nature,
p. 328.—3. Actual grace, p. 329.—4. Habitual grace,
Pp. 329.—5. The effects of sanctifying grace, p. 330.—
6. The two kinds of grace combined, p. 330.

THE SOURCE OF GRACE - - - - 332—333
7. The Saviour’s merits, p. 332.—8. God’s action,

Pp. 332.—9. The reservoirs, p. 333.—10. My action,

P. 333.

THE NECESSITY OF GRACE - - . - 334—337
11. In general, p. 334.—12. To see, p. 334.—13. To will,

P. 335.—14. To act, p. 335.—15. We are not sufficient,

p. 336.—16. The new life, p. 337.

My WEAKNESS - - - - - 338—340
17. Relying on myself, p. 338.—18. In my knowledge,

p. 338.—19. In my will, p. 339.—20. In my activity,

P. 339.

. REMEDIES FOR WEAKNESS - - - 340—343

21. St. Peter’s example, p. 340.—22. Do not wonder,

Pp. 341.—23. Hope, p. 342.—24. Relapses, p. 342.

PRAYER - - - * . - 343—340
25. All exercises are productive of grace, p. 343.—

26. The soul’s aspiration and respiration, p. 344.—27. We

must pray always, p. 344.—28. Ask in the name of Jesus,

P- 345.—29. Why God makes us pray to Him, p. 346.—

30. The function of prayer in piety, p. 346.

THE SACRAMENTS - - - - = . 347-958

31. Sensible signs, p. 347.—32. The seven sacraments,
P. 347.—53. The seeds implanted, p. 348.—34. The rights
conferred, p. 349.—35. The treasures accumulated, p. 350.

xl CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGES
VIII. THE BLESSED VIRGIN . > ° « ‘3550-1352
36. The Mother of piety, p. 350.—37. Hail, Mary!
Pp. 351.—38. Full of grace, p. 352.—39. The Lord is with
thee, p. 352.—40. Rlessed art thou among women, p. 353.

IX. Jesus CuRIsT - - - - - 354—358

41. Invocation, p. 354.—42. God and man: their union
in Jesus Christ, p. 355.—43. In myself, p. 355.—44. In
this book, p. 356.—45. Which is only a Preface, p. 357.

X. GENERAL RÉSUMÉ - - - - 358—360

46. Unity, p. 358.—47. Life, p. 359.—48. A command-
ment which lies very close to me, p. 359.—49. An easy
way, P. 359.—50. Prayer, p. 360.

SUMMARY OF THE INTERIOR LIFE

SIMPLIFIED

PREFACE - - - - - . - - 363
TAR? I: THE END = - - - - - 365
Book I. THE ELEMENTS - - - - - 366
Book II. ORGANIZATION - - - - - 369

- Book III. GROWTH - - : - . 2:
Book IV. Tue SUMMITS - - . - - 376
tan) IL: THE WAY - . - - - + 476
Book I. THE WILL SIGNIFIED - ~ . - 380
Book II. THE WILL oF Goop PLEASURE - . - 382
BooK III. THE CONCURRENCE oF THE Two WILLIS - - 385
PART III. THE MEANS- - - ~ - - 387
Book I. THE PRACTICES oF PENANCE . - - 388
Book II. EXERCISES or PIETY . . . - 390

Boox ITI. GRACE - - - - - - 394

PART I
THE END

PRELIMINARY
Life

1. Perfect and imperfect life.—2. Natural and supernatural life.—
3. ‘‘ Increase.” —4. Christian life—5. Subject of Part I.—6. Its
divisions.

1. Perfect and imperfect life.—This first part is entitled—
THE END; and the end is living, for man was made to live.! And
it is because I am made to live and this is my end, that it is
useful to put at the head of this first part a preliminary section,
entitled—Life.

And what is living ?—It is having within one an activity
of one’s own, arising from an inward principle, which is capable
of developing itself by its own action and of possessing its own
development.?

There are two kinds of life, perfect and imperfect. The
perfect life is that which belongs to a being which is self-
possessed and finds its exercise in the fulness of a movement
which leaves nothing to be achieved. The absolute fulness
of such life is to be found in God alone. The divine act where-
by God possesses, knows, and loves Himself in the Trinity of
the divine Persons, is an infinite act, and this act is the life of
God in Himself.

In heaven, I shall have the fulness of life of which my being
has become capable, and I shall possess eternally and change-
lessly, in one act wherein my whole vital powers will find their
exercise, the development which I have acquired. This will
be, in my own measure and degree, perfect life.

Here below life is imperfect. And what is imperfect life ?—
It is the movement of acquisition whereby a being is developed.
The internal principle of activity goes on increasing and
expanding by its own action. It is a life which forms and
builds and organizes itself. The characteristic signs of this

! Factus est homo in animam viventem (Gen. ii. 7).

2 Cf.S Thomas, De Potentia, § 10, a.,i., c.
3

4 THE INTERIOR LIFE

life are acquisition and growth. The growth of an imperfect
being is an essential manifestation of its life. And such is the
condition of my present life.

2. Natural and supernatural life-—I am made to live.
What does this mean ?—It means that I am called to develop
in myself the fruits of holiness in this world, in order to gain
in heaven, as an end, and without end, eternal life.1 The life
of this world is growth, the life of heaven is possession, and
both are the proper activity of my being.

I have my soul and my body ; and my soul is itself living a
life imparted to it by God ; and my body is living by my soul,
which imparts animation thereto. My soul can act, and it acts
by means of the faculties which appertain toit. My body can
act, and it acts by means of the powers which belong to it, and
which are animated and controlled by thesoul. Thesoulhasa
complete organization of knowing, willing, and acting faculties,
and the body has a whole series of organs attached to the
faculties of the soul and acting by them. And it is in the
action of these faculties and powers that my natural life
consists.

By God’s grace I have another life, 1.e., another capacity
for action; which no longer depends upon me, but upon God.
This is the supernatural life, whereby God, uniting ineffably
with my nature, raises me above myself and imparts to my
faculties the power of doing divine acts. Thus He Himself
becomes the life of my life, the soul of my soul: a mystery of
love! And this life is supernatural life, s.e., eternal life ;2 for
it is the development on earth of the life I shall enjoy in heaven.

3. ‘‘ Increase.’’>—I am made to live, and I am made for
nothing else. What shall I do in heaven ?—I shall live end-
lessly in the one act of eternal praise, which is eternally
beatifying. What have I to do here below ?—I have to live,
t.¢., to develop myself, since imperfect life, which is all I now
have, consists in self-development. ‘ Increase,” said our
Lord to man, in giving him the power to develop and com-

1 Habetis fructum vestrum in sanctificationem, finem vero vitam
æternam (Rom. vi. 22).

2 Gratia autem Dei vita æterna in Christo Jesu Domino nostro
‘Rom vi 23). * Crescite (Gen. i. 28).

THE END: LIFE 5

municate his life. And this is the primal word addressed to
man by the Creator. And the plenitude and the majesty of
this word contain and express the law of life in its totality.
All my obligations, without a single exception, have their
basis and explanation in this primary obligation. It is this
that gives the meaning and measure of all my duties towards
God and creatures and myself. I must increase, I must
develop the physical life of my body, the moral life of my
heart, the intellectual life of my mind. And this is the
reason for taking care and precautions for the maintenance
of the body, the education of the heart, and the instruction
of the mind. Everyone is bound to work for the acquisition
and preservation of the full development of his faculties.

4. Christian life-—And this natural development must be
ordered by God. The increased faculties must be used as
instruments for the supernatural life. ‘‘ Yield not your
members as instruments of iniquity unto sin,” says St. Paul,
“but present yourselves to God as those that are alive from
the dead, and your members as instruments of justice unto
God.”’? The supernatural life thus grows in proportion to the
development of the natural life and of the perfection of the
union of the human with the divine.

It is even its privilege to increase further amidst the in-
evitable diminutions forced upon nature by the law of death.
St. Paul, in the fourth chapter of his second Epistle to the
Corinthians, speaks magnificently of this triumph of life even
in death. “For which cause,” says he, “ we faint not: for
though our outward man is corrupted: yet the inward man
is renewed day by day.’’?

5. Subject of Part I.—It is this life; with its increase
and results, that I mean to study here. I must live: why?
how ? whereunto ? Life—such is the main, central, synthetic,
one idea, in which all others and all our inquiries will end.
Life, —but by no means in its little external details or in some

1 Sed neque exhibeatis membra vestra arma iniquitatis peccato ;
sed exhibete vos Deo, tanquam ex mortis viventes, et membra vestra
arma justitiæ Deo (Rom. vi. 13).

2 Propter quod non deficimus ; sed licet is qui foris est noster homo
corrumpatur, tamen is qui intus est renovatur de die in diem
(2 Cor. iv. 16).

6 THE INTERIOR LIFE

isolated and particular instance, no: life in its highest fulness,
in its unity ; the interior life, the very title of this book ; life
supernatural and divine: in a word, my end in its totality
and finality, in the great lines of its construction and com-
pletion. ;

The proper subject of this Part I is exclusively life in
itself, 7.e., that which builds and acquires itself, that which,
having once finished its acquisition, will eternally abide: for
that is life in its proper sense, and that is the end.

As to the work whereby life is built up, as to its progress
and its rules ; as to the means, and as to the mode and con-
ditions of their use, although they help towards the building
and are indispensable thereto, nevertheless they are not the
building itself. The work and its rules pass away ; the means
and their mode of use pass: the building abides. And here,
in this Part I, I intend to consider alone that which abides,
that which is the end ; the work and the means, as I said in
the Preface (§ 17), will be the subjects of the Second and
Third Parts.

6. Its divisions.—In what is really the eternal building of
my being in God, I shall consider four things :

1. The elements of the building :

2. The organization of the elements :

3. The first developments of the building :
4. Its higher developments.

Thus this first part will be subdivided into four books:

1.—The Elements.
IT.—Organization.
I11.—Growth.
1V.—The Summits.

BOOK I
THE ELEMENTS

In his Epistles, wherein he treats so divinely of the divine
life, St. Paul compares it to the building of a house, to the
growth of a plant, to the increase of a body. The enlarge-
ment of the building, the plant, the body, presupposes prin-
ciples of organization, and materials for organization.

What are the organic principles, the fundamental principles,
that ought to help in the building up of our being ? This is
what I must know, and mean to know, in the first place.
And as I am placed between God and His creatures, having
with Him and them relationships which are necessary for my
life, the first and fundamental principles of my divine increase
are the fundamental relationships which exist between Him,
them, and me. And these primary relationships are what I
am about to study in this First Book.

CHAPTER I

The Purpose of Creation

1, God created everything.—2. For Himself.—3. He is the first
principle and the end.—4. God’s glory is the essential good of
His creatures.

1. God created everything.—God created all things. All
things were made by Him : and without Him was made nothing
that was made (John i. 3). For He spoke, and they were
made : He commanded, and they were created (Ps. clxviii. 5).
It is He who giveth to all life, and breath, and all things
(Acts xvii. 25) ; for in Him we live and move, and be (1h14. 28).

This is a truth proved to me by reason, and which faith
teaches me to adore Yes, O God, Thou hast made all things
with Thy word (Wisd. ix. 1), and that alone has been done
which Thou hast willed Thine is the day, and Thine is the
night : Thou hast made the morning light and the sun. Thou
hast made all the borders of the earth (Ps. Ixviii. 16). Thou
hast made heaven and earth, and all things that are under
the cope of heaven (Esther xiii. 10).

2. For Himself.—God Himself that formed the earth, and
made it, the very Maker thereof ; He did not create it in vain
(Isa. xlv. 18). For the Lord by wisdom hath founded the
earth ; He hath established the heavens by prudence (Prov.
iii. 19). Yea, Lord, Thou hast made all things in wisdom
(Ps. ciii. 24), and Thou hast ordered all things in measure,
and number, and weight (Wisd. xi. 21). But it is the property
of wisdom to attain all her ends mightily, and to order all
things sweetly thereto? God, who is infinite wisdom, has,
then, set before Himself an end in the work of creation ; and
to this end He has adapted His creatures.

Creatures have an end, they exist for an end. And what

1_Et hoc factum est quod ipse voluisti (Judith ix. 4).

J yids} a fine usque ad finem fortiter et disponit omnia suaviter
; . Vili. 1).
Bee 8

THE END: ELEMENTS 9

is this end ?—It can be no other than God Himself. For, if
God had created things for any other end than Himself, He
would have referred and subordinated His action to that end ;
He would have subordinated Himself thereto, since His action
is Himself. Thus the end would have*been above God Him-
self; in other words, God would not be God. Hence, God
could only create things for Himself ; creatures can only exist
for Him and for His glory.

3. He is the first principle and the end.—It is I, saith He, I
am He that created the heavens, and stretched them out :
that established the earth. and the things that spring out of
it: that giveth bread to the people upon it, and breath to
them that tread thereon. It is I, the Lord, this is My name:
I will not give My glory to another! For My own sake, for
My own sake will I do it, and I will not give My glory to
another. Hearken to Me, O Jacob, and thou, O Israel: I
am He ; I am the first, and I am the last.2 TI am the beginning
and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last
(Apoc. 1. 8).

Hence it is, therefore, for Himself that the Lord hath made
all things (Prov. xvi. 4). All things were made by Him, and
all things were made for Him. Nothing exists without Him,
nothing exists except for Him. All things come from Him,
all things go to Him. He is their one beginning, He is their
total end. He is alone their first principle, He is alone their
end. He is the first, He is the last. It is impossible for any-
thing to exist without His power, it is impossible for anything
to exist otherwise than for His glory. His power is the one
raison d’être of things, considered as their first principle; His
glory is their one raison d’être, considered as their end.

4. God’s glory is the essential good of His creatures.—If
God’s glory is the one ratson d’étre, the one end of things, it
is also their one good ; for a being cannot have any other

1 Hæc dicit Dominus Deus, creans ccelos et extendens eos, firmans
terram et que germinant ex ea, dans flatum populo quæ est super
eam, et spiritum calcantibus eam.... Ego Dominus, hoc est nomen
meum ; gloriam meam alteri non dabo (Is. xlii. 5, 8).

2 Propter me, propter me faciam, ut non blasphemer, et gloriam meam
alteri non dabo. Audi me Jacob, et Israel quem ego voco ; ego ipse, ego
primus, et ego novissimus (Is. xlviii. 11, 12).

10 THE INTERIOR LIFE

essential good than its one end. The good is what every
creature desires and tries to find; but what every creature
thus desires and tries to find is its end. Its end is, therefore,
for every creature its own true good.!_ And, since God’s glory
is the one essential end of His creatures, it is also their one
true good. ‘The one and sovereign good is called the end,”’
says St. Augustine, ‘‘ just because for the sake of this we wish
for all other things, but we wish for itself, only for its own
sake.”’2 The means for reaching the end are only good so far
as they help towards this end. In the means, there is no true
good except that which leads on to the end.

N.B.—The word “ essential ” is here always used in its most absolute
philosophical sense. It will never be used except to denote that which
is of the very essence of things, t.e., that which, in creatures and in

their relations, is of such necessity, that without it, the creatures
and their relations would not exist.

CHAPTER II

My End

5. God made me.—6. For His glory.—7. This is all man.—8. On
earth.—g. In heaven.—10. For my happiness.—11. Union of
both ends.

5. God made me.—All things were made by God, therefore
I, too, was made by Him. It is He who has made me, not I
who have made myself. Thy hands have made me, and
fashioned me wholly round about (Job x. 8). Concerning the
creation of the first man, God said: Let us make man to our
image and likeness : and let him have dominion over the fishes
of the sea, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts, and
the whole earth. and every creeping creature that moveth
upon the earth. And God created man to His own image

1 Cum bonum sit quod omnia appetunt, hoc autem habeat rationem
finis, manifestum est quod bonum rationem finis importat (S. Thomas I.
q. 5, a. 4, C).

2 Ideo quippe et finis dictus est summum bonum, quia propter
hunc cetera volumus, ipsum autem nonnisi propter ipsum (S. Aug.
De Civit. Dei, viii. 8).

3 Ipse fecit nos, et non ipsi nos (Ps. xcix. 3).

THE END: ELEMENTS 11

(Gen. i. 26, 27). And the Lord God formed man of the slime
of the earth : and breathed into his face the breath of life, and
man became a living soul (Gen. xxxiili. 7).

The masterpiece of visible creation, the image of God, man
is the last and the supreme link in the chain of terrestrial
beings, the term vf the work of creation. Possessing a
material body and a spiritual soul, he touches both the visible
and the invisible world. Bearing in his body the likeness of
inferior beings, bearing in his soul the likeness of God Himself,
he is placed between creation and the Creator as the meeting-
place of matter and spirit, the link between heaven and earth.

6. For His glory—But why has God created me ?—All
things were made for God, therefore I, too, am made for Him,
solely for Him. He is alone my essential end, my total end ;
He is the entire reason of my existence, the sole purpose of
my life. Ihave no other raison d’être than His glory. I only
exist to procure this one good for Him. It is for Him, for
Him alone that I live, it is for Him that I die, it is for Him
that I shall live world without end. It is not for myself
that I live, it is not for myself that I die; for none of us
liveth for himself. For whether we live, we live unto the
Lord ; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Therefore
whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s (Rom.
xiv. 7, 8).

And every one that calleth upon My name, saith the Lord, I
have created Him for My glory, and it is for this that I have
formed him and made him.!

7. This is all man.—God’s glory is the whole purpose of my
life, it is my all, the whole of me ; for if I do not procure it,
I have no more raison d’être, 1 am good for nothing, and am
nothing. Let us hear together the conclusion of the discourse.
Fear God, and keep His commandments: for this is all man
(Eccles. xii. 13). This is allman! How, asks St. Augustine, :
can we put a more wholesome truth into fewer words ? Fear
God, and keep His commandments : this is all man. All man,
indeed, is there: this is true of everyone: he is a keeper of
God’s commandments ; if he is not that, he is nothing. The

1 Et omnem qui invocat nomen meum, in gloriam meam creavi
eum, formavi eum et feci eum (Is. xliii. 7).

12 THE INTERIOR LIFE

image of the truth cannot be refashioned in him in whom
dwells the likeness of vanity.1

This is all man, whether on earth or in heaven, all his
mortal life, and all his eternal life. For I have this twofold
destiny in time and in eternity ; or rather, my one destiny is
made up of two periods, for time prepares for eternity. J am
made to live for a time in this world and to grow up in it, in
order to live afterwards in the mansions of eternity, possessing
in immutable fulness the complete growth to which I shall
have attained.

8. On earth.—Then, why must I grow on earth ?—For God
and His glory. All the powers and capacities I have received;
all the obligations and laws that are binding on me, all the
means and helps given me, all these have in view this final,
high, absolute, infinite goal—the glorification of God’s
sovereign Majesty. My soul and my body, my mind, my
heart and my senses, my days and my nights, my activities
and my repose, my life and my death, all these must praise
God. This is all man, the whole of his life, the plenitude of
his existence. Further on, I shall see still better the immense
scope and the profound meaning of this expression—this is
ALL man. It is thereby that he is something: it is thereby
that he ts. Apart from that, he is nothing, he has no being.
It is thereby that he attains full growth : and apart from that,
his life becomes void, and wastes away.

9. In heaven.—This is all man in heaven. For what are
the saints doing in the splendour of glory ?—One thing only,
even that which they had begun in their life of transition—-
they praise God. Heaven resounds with nothing but the
chants of sacred praise, which re-echoes on every side. This
is the chant that suffices both angels and men ; and of itself
it fills all eternity. In the unity of Jesus Christ’s body, all
the elect unite to extol in endless concert the name of the
thrice holy Trinity. Each one has his part in the universal
concert, according to the qualities of his life and vocation ;

1 Quid brevius, verius, salubrius dici potuit ? Deum time, inquit,
et mandata ejus serva, hoc est enim omnis homo. Quicumque enim
est, hoc est, custos utique mandatorum Dei; quoniam qui hoc non est,

nihil est, Non enim ad veritatis imaginem reformatur remanens in
similitudine vanitatis (S. Aug., De Civit. Dei, xx. 3).

THE END: ELEMENTS 13

each one has his place assigned to him in the great body.
And all together, harmoniously ordered, correspond with one
another in the marvellous entente which composes the eternal
communion of saints, and gather up their life in the supreme
hymn which delights the divine heart.—This is eternal life!
Oh, how shall we then find in all its fulness the whole meaning
of the expression of the sacred text—this is all man !

10. For my happiness.—In creating me for Himself, God
manifests to me the essential love which He has for Himself.
God is love (x John iv. 8), and He has created everything by
love : by love for Himself before all, and thus it is that He
has made all for His glory. But His work of creation was also
for the love of me, and thus it is that He has made all things
for my happiness. My happiness—this is the secondary end
of my creation. I am made for happiness, this, too, is an
end of my being ; all that is within me aspires to happiness ;
desires, demands, seeks happiness ; it is my nature’s irresistible
need. Whether I will or no, whether deliberately or instinc-
tively, I am always seeking my own satisfaction, because God
has thus ordered my being. Satisfaction in this world, satis-
faction in eternity, this need is so deep that infinity alone can
fill it to the full. My senses, my soul, my heart, my mind,
everything within me, is made for happiness. God intends
me to find, even in this world, a host of satisfactions in my
life’s progress towards Him, in my acquisition of the being
which constitutes my temporal existence; and finally, in
eternity, the one, infinite, ultimate, complete repose of my
whole being, which is called salvation. Happiness in this
world, happiness in the next, this, too, is my end.

11. The union of both ends.— Have I, then, two ends .
assigned to my existence ?—Yes, and No. Yes, for in my
life there are God’s part and my part, His rights and my
hopes. No, for these two ends must, according to the divine
idea, be so blended into one that the supreme and final term
of my existence is my consummation in the unity which is in
God.1 |

God has done what He intended to do ; and He intended to

i Ut sint consummati in unum (Joan. xvii. 23).

14 THE INTERIOR LIFE

unite my happiness to His own honour; He intended to
beatify me in glorifying Himself; thus He has united His
interest with mine, my life with His, my being with His own.
I have thus two purposes of my existence ; and these two
purposes are but one ; for God has so joined them that my
felicity is finally found solely in Him. What He puts forward
as the final end of His work is my eternal union with Himself,
my consummation in unity with Him for His glory and for
my happiness. He wishes Himself to be the life of my life,
the soul of my soul, the all of my being : He wishes to glorify
Himself in me and to beatify me in Himself. The wonders
of this unity and the means for realizing it are what I here
desire to meditate upon.

CHAPTER III

Union

r2. The Incarmation.—13. The Church eternal.—14. Glory by union.
—15. The difference between glory and union.—16. The Saviour’s
prayer.—17. My prayer.

12. The Incarnation.—‘‘ God knew from all eternity,” says
St. Francis of Sales, ‘‘ that He could make an innumerable
quantity of creatures of different perfections and qualities,
and that He could communicate Himself to them. And,
considering that amidst all the various ways of communicating
Himself, there was none so excellent as to unite with some
created being in such wise that its nature should be, as it
were, made one entity with, and subsisting in the Divinity so
as to make therewith one single person ; His infinite goodness

. resolved and determined to make one in this manner.”1

‘Now, among all the creatures which this sovereign power
could bring forth, He thought good to choose the same human
nature that afterwards was, in fact, united to the person of
God the Son, designing to give it the incomparable honour of
personal union with His divine Majesty, in order that it might

4 St. Francis of Sales, Traité de l'Amour de Dieu. Book If 4.

THE END: ELEMENTS 15

eternally enjoy in the most excellent way the treasures of
His infinite glory.” |

“Then, having thus preferred the sacred humanity of our
Saviour to this happiness, supreme Providence ordained not
to confine His loving-kindness to the single person ot His well-
beloved Son, but to spread it on His behalf amidst many other
creatures. And amongst the mass of this innumerable quantity
of things which He could have brought forth, He chose to
create men and angels, as it were to keep His Son company,
to participate in His graces and in His glory, and to adore
and praise Him everlastingly.”’

13. The Church eternal.—What is first in the intention is
that which is realized in the last term of the execution. Now,
that which will be the terminal result of the whole work of
creation, its final crown, will be the Church eternal. The
Church eternal, £.e., the society of angels and saints, joined
together in the unity of the great body of Jesus Christ : He,
God and man, being their head ; they, angels or men only,
but participating in Him and by Him in the divine life. This is
the body of the elect, which will sing the great praises intended
and desired by God the Creator. Each of the elect, whether
angel or man, there has his place and function according
to his vocation. And since each one will perform in the uni-
versal concert the part assigned to him, the resultant harmony
will be the delight of all eternity and the bliss of heaven.

It is of this society that I am already now an associate by
grace, and I shall be eventually incorporated in it by glory.
I shall have my own part in the eternal song. Here I am
getting ready, I am practising, 1 am acquiring an aptitude
for this beatific praise. I shall sing of God with all the more
plenitude and perfection, the better I have worked down here
on the development of my life for God and according to God.

14. Glory by union.—It is, then, by Jesus Christ, with Him
and in Him, that all honour and glory must be given to God
the Father in the unity of the Holy Ghost. Thus, presiding
over the work of creation, there are, as it were, two divine
ideas. One general, absolute, anterior to everything else,

_ À Per ipsum, et cum ipso, et in ipso, est tibi Deo Patri omnipotenti,
in unitate Spiritus Sancti, omnis honor et gloria (Canon Missæ).

16 THE INTERIOR LIFE

expressed in these words—God’s glory. The other special,
free, putting the former into concrete and particular shape,
expressed in the word—union. It is through the special mode
of union with God in Jesus Christ that I am called to praise
God. And in this union will be my felicity.

In absolute principle, no potential creature can be of any
use finally except to proclaim God’s glory. As a matter of
fact, every creature actually called into being must help to
procure God’s honour by the special mode of union. Hence,
God’s glory by union in Jesus Christ, such is the last word of
the idea of creation.

15. The difference between glory and union.—Nevertheless,
the two terms of this idea in its totality remain distinct :
glory remains the aim essentially laid down ; union, the mode
freely proposed for the attainment of this aim. And, in the
reality of things; these two parts of the one creative idea will
emphasize the fact that they are eternally distinct. For there
will be beings called to divine union who will never attain to
it. Will they not glorify God ?—Yes, they will certainly
glorify Him, but in a different mode from that to which they
have refused to rise. They will have lost the honour and
happiness of beatific union, but God will lose none of His
glory. He will be glorified in the damned ; but He will be
glorified by their subjection to avenging punishment, instead
of being glorified by their union with His beatitude. The
mode which was freely and mercifully offered for eternal
praise will be found to be changed, and the praise itself will
be ultimately rediscovered in its absolutely and fundamentally
imperishable character.

16. The Saviour’s prayer.—Glory through union in Him,
this is, indeed, what is asked for in the final prayer of Him
who is the first-born of every creature, and who came into
this world to speak the last word on everything, and revealed
to us His Father’s secrets. ‘‘ And not for them [My Apostles]
only do I pray, but for them also who through their word
shall believe in Me: that they all may be one. As Thou,
Father, in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in
Us ; and that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.
And the glory which Thou hast given Me, I have given to

THE END: ELEMENTS 17

them : that they may be one, as We also are one. I in them,
and Thou in Me: that they may be made perfect in one ”
(John xvii. 20-23).1

17. My prayer.—O my God, I adore Thy greatness and Thy
goodness :—Thy greatness which imposeth Thy glory upon all
creatures, so that none can withdraw therefrom :—Thy good-
ness, which calleth Thine elect to the honour of the divine
banquet. O my God, I am one of those whom Thou hast
called, grant that I be not one of the unworthy. Many are
called, but few chosen (Matt. xx. 16)! And, for the sake of
Thy glory, I so long to be one of the chosen! I desire to take
my place at Thine eternal feast, not only or principally to
enjoy Thee, but above all to give Thee the perfect praise
which will come from union with Thee. Oh, let my praise
be perfect, my God! Let my life expand to increase Thy
glory! The full blessedness of this praise is all my desire
and hope and petition. Wherefore, O Lord, for the glory of
Thy name, deliver me from all that hinders me from union
with Thee.?

CHAPTER IV
The Order of my Relations with God

18. The intelligible essence of things.—19. Their real essence.—
20. Is my satisfaction in the essence of things ?—21. I can lose it.

18. The intelligible essence of things.—I am therefore called
to the dignity of being a child of God, living by His life ; He
has intended my union with Himself. In this union, there is
the part of His glory, and the part of my satisfaction. But
in this union of my satisfaction with His glorification, what
order is to be observed ? I cannot separate them, how are
they to be united ? Have these two parts the same impor-
tance? In this union, are the two interests on the same
footing ?—Certainly not. God’s part is the supreme aim, the

1 This passage corresponds verbatim with the English Catholic
version : the punctuation is the French author’s, where it differs from
the English.

? Propter gloriam nominis tui, Domine, libera nos (Ps. xxviii. g).

2

18 THE INTERIOR LIFE

absolute end, the essential good. It is the one thing neces-
sary,! the one thing absolute. So necessary, so absolute, that
before any beings began to exist, it was true, eternally and
invariably true, that no potential being could come into
existence except for the glory of its Author.

The mode of glorification, the measure of honour to be paid,
may vary infinitely, according to the nature and action of the
creature. And in fact, this mode and measure vary endlessly
according to the capacity and the conduct of creatures. I
can personally render more or less glory to my Creator ac-
cording as I advance more or less in union with Him. I can
also fail to rise to this supreme mode of glorification which
consists in my union with God, and only procure Him the
glory of submission to a deserved punishment, and of the
avenging of His justice by this punishment. The particular
modes of glorification are not in the absolute essence, in the
pre-existing necessity which comes before everything, and
which is called the intelligible essence of things.

What is in this essence is the obligation that binds every
being, in the whole measure of its being, to be referred in
some way or other to the honour of its Creator. And it is
this final absolute reference which is the external, and essen-
tially necessary, glory.

19. The real essence.—This divine glory, independently of
the mode and measure in which it is procured, also belongs
to the real essence of things. This real essence, as it is called,
is that which so enters into the proper constitution of a being
that without it, it would cease to have any being. And God’s
glory enters so fully into the real constitution of a creature
that without it, it would cease to exist. It penetrates so
deeply into man’s nature, it dominates his life so fully, that
even the damned, suffering the penalties of divine justice, are
obliged to yield God the glory they were unwilling to render
Him freely at the solicitation of His mercy. God has made
all things for Himself, all things, even the wicked reserved
for the day of eternal evil.2 And St. Augustine affirms that

1 Porro unum est necessarium (Luc. x. 42).
2 Universa propter semetipsum operatus est Dominus, et impium
ad diem malum (Prov. xvi. 4).

THE END: ELEMENTS 7 19

the goodness of God could not permit evil unless His omnipo-
tence were able to bring good out of evil.

20. Is my satisfaction in the essence of things ?—To begin
with, God might not have created me ; nothing in the essence
of things called for my existence. Therefore, He created me
freely by the gratuitous decree of His goodness. And, from
the moment of my creation, the absolute essence of His
nature demanded that it should be for His glory. But when
He created me, what bound Him to choose for His glory the
pre-eminent mode of supernatural union in which I become
a participator in His very life ? He willed to raise me to the
honour of participating in His own felicity, and He has given
my faculties the special mode of action whereby they unite
with their object, they feed upon it, they assimilate it, or
rather, they are assimilated thereto and live thereby. The
initial aptitude and the need of beatific union are implanted
in all my powers, and these are entirely gratuitous gitis, they
are the splendours of God’s free good pleasure. My creation
is, then, a free gift which the essence of things did not demand,
and my adaptation to union with God is a still freer gift,
which my nature in itself did not in any way call for.

21. I can lose it.—As a matter of fact, I may suffer in this
world and be damned in eternity without destroying my
nature and the essential order of things. If my pleasure here
below and my eternal salvation were of the intelligible essence
of things, it would be absolutely impossible for me to lose
them ; for what is of the essence of things is invariably neces-
sary and cannot be otherwise. If they were merely of the
real essence of my nature, I could not lose them without
losing my nature. As soon as I am able to lose them, they
are not altogether essential things. There is only one thing
altogether essential, God’s glory procured somehow or other ;
my satisfaction, my salvation itself, so far as it is a matter of
my satisfaction, is a relative thing, or rather, a thing cor-
relative to God’s glory.

Therefore, I may and must honour my Creator with the
supreme honour which consists in my union with Him, and

1 Nec sineret bonus fieri male, nisi omnipotens et de malo facere
posset bene (Enchir. 26".

20 THE INTERIOR LIFE

it is to this mode of glorification that my happiness is annexed.
But I also may, by the abuse of my free-will, deny my Saviour
this glory, and then His justice will avenge on me the order I
have violated ; He will derive His glory from me in another
manner, and I, for my part, shall not derive my happiness
from Him.

CHAPTER V

The Dependence of my Satisfaction

22. The joy of heaven.—23. My joy in this world.—24. Subordinate
to God’s glory.—25. And springs from it.—26. The Lord’s joy.

22. The joy of heaven.—Not only is my satisfaction by no
means essentially necessary, but this satisfaction, given me
gratuitously by God, is necessarily dependent upon His glory.
My eternal satisfaction, which is my salvation, depends abso-
lutely upon the glory of God ; for I am only able to obtain it
by working in this world for God’s honour ; and in heaven I
shall be happy because I shall sing the divine praises. It is
the singing of God’s praises which is the source of the blessed-
ness of the saints. ‘‘ Blessed, O Lord, are they that dwell in
Thy house ” (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5).— Why blessed ?—Because “ they
shall praise Thee for ever and ever ”’ (ibid.).

23. My joy in this world.—It is true that I may seek the
satisfaction of my increasing growth in this world while for-
getting God’s glory; but it is a false and deceptive satisfac-
tion, short and incomplete, mingled and disturbed, and it is
finally cruelly expiated.

I no more think of my true satisfaction, even in this world,
before or apart from God’s glory, than I think of wages apart
from work, reward apart from merit, the value of a thing
apart from the thing itself. The wages depend on the work,
and are measured by it, the reward by the merit, the value
by the thing. Such is the order. Thus my satisfaction
depends on God’s glory and is measured thereby. Our Lord
says to His Apostles: “These things I have spoken to you,
that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be filled ”

THE END: ELEMENTS 21

(John xv. 1x1). The things He had spoken to them were, to
abide in His love by keeping His commandments, 1.e., by
procuring God’s glory. And this Jesus calls His joy. Jesus’
joy, which is God’s glory, must be in them in order that their
joy, t.e., their satisfaction, may be filled and fully real.

24. It is subordinate to God’s glory.— My satisfaction depends
on God’s glory in two ways. First, in that it is secondary,
and God’s glory is the chief thing. Therefore, my satisfac-
tion cannot take precedence nor dominate. In all things,
God’s honour must come first, and my happiness come to me
afterwards ; in all things, God’s glory must be the rule ; God’s
interest is the supreme interest, man’s interest is absolutely
subordinate thereto. The disciple is not above the master,
nor the servant above his lord (Matt. x. 24). God’s glory and
man’s happiness are the two pages of one leaflet which follow
one another, and which cannot be separated nor reversed
without spoiling the sense of the book of creation. Hence,
subordination of the human interest to the divine interest,
and co-ordination of the two. God first, myself second ;
God’s glory before everything, my satisfaction after it, sub-
ject to it, in conformity with it ; such is the first part of the
divine plan.

25. It springs therefrom.—But further: not only must my
joy never outstrip, dominate, or contravene God’s glory, but
it must spring and come therefrom, or rather, exist therein.
The just shall rejoice in the Lord (Ps. Ixiii. 11). Be glad in
the Lord, and rejoice, ye just (Ps. xxxi. 11). Rejoice in the
Lord always ; again, I say rejoice (Phil. iv. 4). Holy Scrip-
ture is full of passages which repeat this profound thought.—
What is meant by the joy of the just ?—The joy which is
proper to the just man, his own joy ; for there is a joy which
is the joy of the just, and a joy which is not the joy of the
just. I give you peace, My peace, and not that which is of
of the world, says our Lord Where is this joy of the just,
which is his own, which is true joy, the only true joy, because
it is the only joy which is in conformity with the divine order ?
whence can it be drawn ? whence comes it ? whither goes it ?

! Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis; non quomode
mundus dat, ego do vobis (Joan. xiv. 27).

22 THE INTERIOR LIFE

where does it dwell >—In Domino, in the Lord ; it is in God, it
is to be drawn from God, it comes from God, it dwells in God.

26. The Lord’s joy.—He wills to be, Himself, Himself alone,
the full and infinite source of my happiness. In Himself,
Himself alone, does He intend to beatify me. To what
extent! In what way !—He intends to consummate my life
in the unity of His own life, to give me the eternal delights
of the beatific vision, to inebriate me with the plenty of His
house, to make me drink of the torrent of His pleasure. The
happiness will be so full that it will not only enter into me,
but that I shall enter into it, because it will overflow on all
sides, and I shall not attain to any of its borders. ‘ Enter
thou into the joy of thy Lord ” (Matt. xxv. 21) : such will be
the ineffable word that will bid the servant to the eternal
feast. The joy is so immense as to be supernatural, so super-
natural as to overflow the capacity possessed by any possible
creature. God has by no means willed to be satisfied with
receiving from me a glory which is purely natural, but He
has willed to give my nature, in its union with Himself, a
supernatural capacity for glorifying Him. In the same way,
He is not satisfied with giving me a natural capacity for a
limited happiness, but He has created in me a supernatural
capacity for an infinite happiness. O my God! grant that
my being may expand in all its supernatural capacity for the
glory and happiness which Thou hast created for it.

CHAPTER VI

The Use of Creatures

27. Creatures.—28. Use.—29. Instruments.—30. The way to use
them.—31. For God.—32. For myself.—33. Here and hereafter.

27. Creatures.—I have just seen my relations with God in
their primary and fundamental notions. His glory, as the
essential end ; my happiness in Him, as an end attached to

1 Inebriabuntur ab ubertate domus tuæ et torrente voluptatis
tuæ potabis eos (Ps. xxxv. 9).

THE END: ELEMENTS 23

the former ; my union with Him, as the highest and perfect
mode of glorifying Him ; the subordination of my happiness
to His honour, as the order of union. We must now look at
my essential relations with other creatures in their general
principles. |

I cannot of myself maintain the existence which God has
given me. Come from nothingness, I revert to it of my own
accord. God alone hath life in Himself ;1 I have not life in
myself ; neither my body nor my soul have in themselves the
means of their own subsistence, they must seek them beyond
themselves, and they must look to other creatures for them :
for this reason these are placed at my disposal.

By creatures, I mean universally all that is not God, all
created things. Consequently, things spiritual as well as
things material : grace, virtues, sacraments, the Church, etc. :
food, the vegetable world, the animal world, and all material
creation ; in a word, all that has been made in the world of
spirit or of things corporal. And not only everything that
has been made, but all that happens day by day, all passing
events : physical events in the progress of the world, moral
events in the conduct of mankind, divine events in the inter-
vention of grace, all these are comprised in the generic term—
creatures.

28. Use.—When I speak of the use of creatures, I speak of
the manner in which I must make use of existing things,
spiritual and corporal, and of events which follow one another.
The word “creatures”? has, then, an absolutely universal
sense, and denotes all that is not God, all that is between God
and me, all that is, and all that takes place and happens
around me, in me, for me or against me. The word will never
be employed here in the restricted sense popularly attributed
to it, and which makes use of it to denote solely material
beings. In this broad and absolute sense, it is very useful for
explaining the great principles of my life; alone of itself it

sums up all that is for my use.
- Consequently, I do not need to descend into particulars,
1 Qui solus habet immortalitatem (1 Tim. vi. 16). Sicut enim

Pater habet vitam in semetipso, sic dedit et Filio habere vitam in
semetipso (Joan. v. 26).

24 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and I am not obliged to mention one after the other, for
instance, grace, sacraments, food, events, and so forth ; no,
all that is designated by the words—use of creatures : and in
these words I sum up all that is, and all that can be, of use
to my soul and body. It is most important to grasp this
deep meaning attributed to the word “ creatures,’”’ and to
understand its scope, because this word will be frequently
employed.

29. Instruments.—Creatures are for my use, God has given
them me. Why? Is it ultimately for myself that God has
placed them at my disposal ?—He has created them for Him-
self before all things ; if He gives me the use of them, it can-
not be for myself in the main, but essentially for Himself.
They are for my use for the sole end of all things, God’s glory.
He has given them me, as He gave Israel the lands of the
nations, as He gave him the labours of the peoples, that
they might observe His commandments and seek after His
law.t

What, then, are creatures to me in reality ?—Means to
procure God’s glory—means and instruments proper for this
work, made, ordered, and given primarily for this purpose.
Means and instruments !—essentially, so far as I am con-
cerned, creatures are solely intended for this. Means and
instruments for giving glory to God !—They are given me, in
the last resort, neither for themselves, nor for myself, but for
God’s glory. This is what I must diligently and deeply
meditate upon, to comprehend it clearly.

30. The way to use them.—Means and instruments : there-
fore 1 must only use them as instruments are used. And how
are instruments used ?—They are used for the work for which
they were made. Thus, I make use of a knife to cut, of glasses
to see, of a carriage for conveyance. Who ever thought of
trying to see with a knife, or to cut with a carriage, or to be
conveyed anywhere by means of glasses ?

Only madmen and infants who are ignorant of the meaning
of an instrument, put it to some ridiculous use. No man of
sense employs any instrument for any other use than that

1 Et dedit illis regiones gentium, et labores populorum possederunt,
ut custodiant justificationes ejus et legem ejus requirant (Ps. civ. 44. 45).

THE END: ELEMENTS 25

for which it is intended. And not only is an instrument
not used for other purposes, but it is used in the measure—
neither more nor less—in which it is useful for its purpose.
This is the nature of an instrument, and this is the way to
use it.

31. For God.—Creatures, all creatures, so far as x am con-
cerned, are essentially and solely instruments—instruments
ordered for the sanctification of God’s name, this is their
essential destination. Nothing can come into contact with
my life except for this higher purpose. The relations which
are dependent upon my free-will, like those which events
independent of my will impose upon me, everything coming
into contact with my soul and my body, with my mind, my
heart, and my senses, through angels and men, animals and
the vegetable world, inanimate elements and the stars, all
these encounters, voluntary or passive, internal or external,
what should their direction be ? what result should they
bring about ?—They should develop my life according to God
and for God, and increase in me His holy glory. This is the
higher and divinely intended purpose of all these contacts
with creatures. My life ought to be like a lyre pitched
to echo a hymn to its Creator’s praise. The contacts with
creatures strike the various strings one after the other
to make them resound according to the designs and desires
of their Author. The contacts which I choose, like those
which I undergo, must produce this harmony.

32. For myself.—Along with this primary service for His
glory, God has ordered in creatures another service for my
happiness. He did not will to enjoy His glory alone ; His love
has willed to make me enter into participation in His goods,
and has made Him reveal this marvellous ordinance of
loving affection, whereby creatures, the instruments of
His glory, become at the same time the instruments of my
satisfaction. Every creature says first of all: Glory to
God ; and then, Peace to His servant.* And thus I become
an associate of God, I share in the benefits of the vast work
of creation.

1 Et dicant semper: Magnificetur Dominus, qui volunt pacem
servi ejus (Ps. xxxiv. 27).

26 THE INTERIOR LIFE

What am I saying ? that I share in the benefits? But I
have all the benefits: “ for,” says St. Francis of Sales,’ “this
is how He shares His divine loving-kindness with us ; He gives
us the fruits of His benefits; and reserves the honour and
praise of them for Himself.” ‘He does not need our ser-
vice,” says St. Augustine,? ‘ but we require His governance,
to operate in us and to guard us. And this is why He is our
sole and true Lord, since we serve Him without His gaining
anything by it, all the gain being for us and for our salvation.
If He had any need of us, He would not be wholly our Lord,
since He would Himself be subject to the necessity of finding
help in us.” Here is the wonder of His love for me. He has
made all things for His glory and for my service.

33. Here and hereafter.—God intends me to grow in this
world, to increase my capacity for glorifying Him in eternity ;
and creatures are ordered to bring me this increase. But
each increment brings me enjoyment ; for a being enjoys
according to the measure of its completion. Every creature,
by completing my being for God and according to God,
brings, therefore, with it a proportional amount of happiness ;
it gives my aspirations more or less satisfaction and repose,
Yes, in the expansion of my being for God by means of crea-
tures, I get joys, true, deep, and substantial joys. No doubt,
they are but partial, because my divine growth takes place by
degrees. But ultimately will come the great joy, the eternal
felicity; the immensity of happiness, for which the work
done in me by God’s instruments is preparing me. Hence,
creatures bring me some amount of true happiness in this
world, and prepare me for the infinite satisfaction of eternal
salvation. O divine Goodness! if I only knew Thee! O
Love ! if I only loved Thee !

1 Théotime, Book IV, ch. vi.

2 Deus servitute nostra non indiget, nos vero dominatione illius
indigemus, ut operetur et custodiat nos. Et ideo verus et solus
Dominus, quia non illi ad suam sed ad nostram utilitatem salutemque
servimus. Nam si nobis indigeret, eo ipso non verus Dominus esset,

cum per nos ejus adjuvaretur necessitas, sub qua et ipse serviret (De
Docivina Christ., I, viii. 24).

THE END: ELEMENTS 27

CHAPTER VII

Satisfactions in Creatures

34. The variety of pleasures in things created.—35. The drop of oil.—
36. Before and after sin.—37. Pleasure is merely instrumental.

34. The variety of pleasures in things created.—I willingly
make use of the term “ satisfaction ” as better indicating the
nature of the need which I feel in searching and of the con-
tentment I experience in possession. I require satisfaction,
and this is why I seek ; I am at rest, when I am satisfied.

But God bas not only given me this essentially reposeful
satisfaction, which is in my growth for Him, in my union
with Him. This enjoyment is final, it is part of the very
purpose of my life. His goodness has contrived other satis-
factions for me, and these are also encouraging, but they have
quite a different place and rôle in my existence. These are
satisfactions in creatures.

There are, indeed, for me in creatures, placed there by the
hand of their Author, infinitely varied pleasures :—material
pleasures, of sight, hearing; smell, taste, and touch ; beauties
of nature and of art, the charm of music, the perfume of
flowers, the flavour of food, and so forth : moral pleasures, of
the family, of friendship, of appreciation, of practised virtue,
and the like: intellectual pleasures, of literature and science,
of discovering or of contemplating truth: supernatural
pleasures, in prayer, in religious practices, and in the divine
touches of grace. What a quantity of pleasures ! how great
is their variety and extent! What are they in the mind of
God who made them, and what is their function ?

35. The drop of oil.—To know what they are, I have only
to look where they are.—Where are they ?—In the creature
—And what is the creature ?—An instrument, nothing but
an instrument. Consequently, the pleasure which is therein is
no more than it; it is, then; an instrumental pleasure, a
quality given by God to the instruments placed at my service.

Why does this quality exist ?—To facilitate the use of the
instruments.

28 THE INTERIOR LIFE

A cutting tool will not always cut, it gets dull; and when
it has lost its edge, it must be sharpened on the grindstone.
The rapidly revolving wheel would soon become worn but
for the drop of oil to ease the friction and prevent heating.
Thus my faculties are soon wearied and worn out: they, too,
must have their lubricating drop of oil, their refreshing drop
of water, their sharpening on the grindstone. They need dash
and vigour, fire and force, ease and liveliness. When the
wheels of my spirit are smooth-running and well-oiled, then
my lips chant God’s praises with wonderful readiness.1 Such
is the function of this drop of the oil of gladness which God
has implanted in His creatures for the benefit of those who
love justice and hate iniquity.”

36. Before and after sin.—This is pleasure in things created
in the mind of God, such is its function; this is why His
infinitely foreseeing loving-kindness has provided it in all
instruments. In God’s original purpose every creature was
merely an instrument, not one was a hindrance ; and every
creature was furnished with its little drop of oil, its joy,
which facilitated its use for God. To-day sin has upset this
beautiful order ; I find hindrances at every step and troubles
at every turn. God did not make either the hindrances or
the troubles ; they are the penalty of sin. In restoring this
impaired order; Jesus Christ neither removed the hindrances
nor the troubles ; but He provided both with a utility which
I shall study later on.

In spite of sin, there remain a multitude of pleasures ;
the oil of joy is still not wanting to my faculties. Every-
where, if there is a duty to be done, I find instruments for
its performance ; and in these instruments there is often a
pleasure which facilitates my use of them. Thus, why are
there family pleasures ?—To make the great duty of educa-
tion easier for parents and children.—Why the pleasures of
friendship ?—To provide souls thus drawn together with an
impetus towards the good.—Why are there the pleasures of
feeding ?—They correspond to the fundamental duties of the

1 Sicut adipe et pinguedine repleatur anima mea, et labiis exulta-
tionis laudabit os meum (Ps. lxii. 6).

2 Dilexisti justitiam et odisti iniquitatem, propterea unxit te Deus,
Deus tuus, oleo lætitiæ (Ps. xliv. 8).

THE END: ELEMENTS 29

conservation of life-—Why, the pleasures of prayer, of the
sacraments, of meditation, and of all spiritual favours ?—
They correspond with the great and very sacred duties of the
divine relations they assist. Thus pleasure always corre-
sponds with duty, to help on its accomplishment. The
pleasure will be all the more intense in proportion to the
importance of the duty.

37. Pleasure is merely instrumental.—This pleasure is, then,
really a satisfaction, since it corresponds with a need of my
faculties and satisfies this need. But it is only an instru-
mental satisfaction which I must make use of ; and not a final
satisfaction in which I may find my repose. It is a means
and not an end. When I say that I am made for happiness
and that happiness is the secondary end of my existence,
there is no question of the happiness which is in created things.
For me there is no trace of any end in these ; my end is in
God, my final happiness is in Him ; they only contain means.

It is a terrible reversal of God’s plan to misunderstand
pleasure in created things and to live for the sake of enjoying
it. Unfortunately, this reversal frequently occurs! This,
indeed, is just where I make mistakes whenever I leave the
established order. Further on,1 I shall see that this is the
sole disorder. I seek to put myself to sleep in enjoyment
instead of making use of it for the facilitation of duty. To
leave God, I make use of the very thing which should render
me more alert in giving Him glory. |

Yes, pleasure is, indeed, a good thing, but only when it is
well employed. If I abuse it, it becomes the worst of all
evils and the source of all my aberrations. When well used,
it makes saints ; badly used, it brings damnation. Happy is
the man who knows how to make use of it! unhappy is he
who misuses it! May I learn never to pervert what is in the
divine mind! No pleasure is bad in itself ; its misuse alone
can make it evil. Every pleasure that helps to facilitate duty
is wholesome, fortifying, uplifting. If it runs counter to duty,
it becomes pernicious; deleterious, lowering. On the one
hand, how it brutalizes ! on the other, what virtues it sustains !
It is for me to see how I mean to use it.

1 See Book II, ch. vi. ff.

30 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VIII

The Order of my Relations with Creatures

38. Pleasure.—39. Human utility.—40. Corporal utility —41. Intel-
lectual and moral utility.—42. Divine utility —43. The complete
order of the instruments.

38. Pleasure.—For me there are two things in creatures :
utility and pleasure : their utility, as instruments for develop-
ing my life ; their pleasure, as facilitating this development.
We must then consider the order of their utility, and the order
of their pleasure.

First of all, it is fairly clear that as pleasure only exists
to facilitate the function of the instrument, it must be
subordinate to this function. Oil is only used in a machine
according to the nature of its construction and the necessities
of the work to be done. A watch does not require the same
quantity nor the same quality of oil as a steam-engine.
Every instrument and every work has its own measure. It
is by utility and necessity that the distribution and economy
of the lubrication are governed. But it is thus that the
economy and distribution of pleasure must be governed in
human life. It must be subordinate not only to the end,
but to the instrument and to the work of the instrument.
The pleasure of food and drink, for instance, must be sub-
ordinate to our need of nourishment ; the pleasure of sleep,
subordinate to our need of rest ; the pleasure of recreation;
subordinate to our need of renewal of strength. And thus it is
with the whole scale of pleasure, from the lowest to the
highest, from the most material to the most spiritual. The
absolute rule is to take satisfaction in created things in the
measure, and on the conditions, necessary for the proper
performance of duty. They must facilitate, and not en-
cumber ; and, above all, they must never stop.

39. Human utility.—This, then, is the first subordination,
that of pleasure to utility. But how is utility itself to be
governed ?—For me creatures contain a twofold utility : that
which works for my natural human utility, which is human

THE END: ELEMENTS 32

utility; next; that which co-operates towards my super-
natural divine development, which is divine utility. What is
the order of the relation of these two utilities ? They must
unquestionably be so interwoven and united as not to impede
one another. How is this interweaving and umon to be
established ?

Human utility is that which belongs to my natural being :
the material development of my physical life, the virtuous
development of my moral life, the rational development of
my intellectual life. How many are the beings and influences
destined by the omnipotent wisdom of Love to concur in the
threefold growth of my life as man!

And all these beings and influences preserve order in their
utility, if they work towards my vital expansion, according
to the rule of their subordination. For, even in human
utility, there is a necessary subordination of material interest
to intellectual interest, and of both to moral interest. My
health is important, but less so than my knowledge; my
knowledge is necessary, but less so than my virtues.

40. Corporal utility.—Hence, questions dealing with the
protection, the maintenance, and the development of our
material life have their importance, and they comprise obliga-
tions. The manifold economic cares of work, business, in- .
dustry, hygiene, and so forth, are praiseworthy in themselves ;
for they concur towards a necessary end. Material interest,
however, if it is the first in the order of vital necessities, is
only last in the order of importance and of dignity. It must
be, consequently, subordinate and referred to the interests
which are superior to itself. I must attend to my body, and,
according to the conditions of my calling, not neglect such
cares of a material order as are incumbent upon me. This is
a duty ; and if it is less in dignity, it nevertheless involves a
number of grave obligations.

41. Intellectual and moral utility.—The growth of the mind
is of a far higher order, for we are far more human by the
mind than by the body ; but moral growth is that which best
fulfils and completes our human dignity, for we are still
more human by the heart than by the mind. Hence, the
means that work for our physical development are subordinate

32 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to, and co-ordinate with, those that work for our intellectual
development ; and these, again, to and with those that concur
in our moral development. Health is for knowledge, and
knowledge for virtue : this is the natural order. And thus is it
that I must measure the use of my instruments. My bodily
strength must subserve my intellectual vigour, my intellectual
vigour my moral energy ; and all three, united in concord,
must attain to the fulness of their development. They
must be united and in concord in their gradations of dignity,
without the inferior encroaching upon the superior, and with-
out excluding one another. All developments are not normal.
A wen or a hump is a growth, but they are, above all, excres-
cences ; and this is what must be avoided.

42. Divine utility.—Divine utility is that which belongs to
the supernatural development of the divine life, to the
increase of God’s glory. Beings and their influences upon me
possess a special power of leading me to this height. The
natural growth of my life cannot stop at myself, since I am
made for God. Consequently, the natural efficacy of created
means must be subordinate to their divine efficacy.

In fact, if it is the mission of creatures to develop me, it is
with God in view. If I make a selfish use of them, stopping
short at myself, I deprive them of their essential function.
In using them, I must therefore not put aside, or relegate to
the second place, that which is their primary object. God’s
supreme glory must be the practically dominant and effec-
tively determinant motive of my use of them. I may, and I
ought, to look upon them as instruments of my growth,
but with God in view. I may, and I ought, to like them fot
the advantage they bring to my life, but according to God.
I may, and I ought, to go in search of them for the work of
expansion which they produce in my existence, but for God.
It matters little whether the intention of His glory be actual
or virtual ; the essential thing is that this should be in some
way its highest, and the final, term; the essential thing is
that my human growth should end in God, since man is made
for God.

43. The complete order of the instruments.—This, then, is
the order to be kept in the use of the instruments of my life.

THE END: ELEMENTS 33

Pleasure, subject to utility ; human utility, ordered according
to the dignity of its interests and referred to divine utility —
I must take things, and the enjoyment of them, to increase
myself, and to raise me upto God. Creatures and the pleasure
connected with them must produce in me an upward move-
ment unto God, and not any need of resting in myself, or
in them. St. Augustine observes that God, after the work
of creation, took His joy and rest, not in His work, but in
Himself1 Thus, creatures and enjoyment in them are solely
intended to make me increase and rest in God. I use them,
and rest in Him: this the law of justice, and this is God’s
plan.

And the order of creation only exists in its plentitude,
God’s plan is only realized in its integrity, I only attain my
end in its totality, when God is all in all to me,? when I look
for nothing beyond Him, when all things lead me to Him,
and finally, when His glory has dominated and absorbed my
satisfaction, and has become alone my end, my joy and my
repose.

CHAPTER Ix

The essential Order of Creation

44. Summing up.— 45. Querite primum regnum Dei.—46. My great-
ness : all things are mine.—47. I am God’s.

44. Summing up.—This, then, is the essential order of
creation.

Firstly, God’s glory, the sole essential good, the supreme
end of all things, which must be sought for its own sake, before
all things, in all things.

Secondly, my satisfaction in heaven and on earth, a
secondary good, subordinate to and united to the fundamental
good, which I ought to seek only in the second place, in con-
formity with God’s glory, in it, and by it.

Thirdly, other created goods, with their twofold utility,

1 Ab ipsis in seipso requievit (De Gen. ad litt. iv. 26).
2 Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus (1 Cor. xv. 28).

34 THE INTERIOR LIFE

human and divine, means and instruments of the two first
goods, and which I ought to use finally and before everything
for God’s glory, and in the measure, neither more nor less,
in which they procure it.

Fourthly, satisfaction in things created, a purely instru-
mental property, but an exquisite refinement of the Creator’s,
who wills thereby to make my journey through creatures to
Himself easy and expeditious.

Such is the essential order of my creation, such the supreme
rule of my life.

45. Querite primum regnum Dei.—“‘ Seek ye therefore first
the kingdom of God, and His justice, and all these things
shall be added unto you ” (Matt. vi. 33). What are the king-
dom of God and the justice of God ?—They mean God’s
glory, and my happiness therein. This is the end, twofold
yet one, towards which my life should be directed, whereto
it should be devoted. I am obliged to tend towards it, for
our Lord formally commands me to seek it. And He com-
mands me to seek it before all things, and in the first place.
He does not separate God’s kingdom from His justice, for
my felicity is united with its immensity.

Other things are means, they are the manifold and the
contingent, they must serve to the end. “ Therefore,’ says
St. Augustine,! “ God’s kingdom and justice are our good, it
is these we must desire, it is these that must be our end,
this is why we must do everything which we do. But this
life is the battle through which we have to fight our way to
that kingdom, and this life is subject to necessities. But, as
to these necessities, says the Lord, all things shall be given
you in abundance. As for yourselves, seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His justice. When He says: that first, this
afterwards : afterwards, not in order of time, but in order of

1 Regnum ergo et justitia Dei bonum nostrum est, et hoc appeten-
dum, et ibi finis constituendus, propter quod omnia faciamus quecumque
facimus. Sed quia in hac vita militamus; ut ad illud regnum pervenire
possimus, quæ vita sine his necessariis agi non potest: Apponentur
vobis hæc, inquit ; sed vos regnum Dei et justitiam ejus primum quæ-
rite. Cum enim dixit illud primum, significavit quia hoc posterius
quærendum est, non tempore sed dignitate; illud tanquam bonum

nostrum, hoc tanquam necessarium nostrum, necessarium autem
propter illud bonum (De Serm. Dei in monte. ii. 53).

THE END: ELEMENTS 35

dignity : that, means my good ; this, my necessity ; and this is
my necessity in view of that which is my good.”

46. My greatness : all things are mine.—And in this order
I see my greatness. ‘‘ All things are yours,” says St. Paul,
‘whether it be Paul, or Apollo, or Cephas, or the world, or
life, or death, or things present, or things to come: all are
yours : and you are Christ’s : and Christ is God’s ”’ (1 Cor. iii.
22, 23). All things are mine, all things in this world, in life
or in death, in time or in eternity, all things are mine, all is
for me. I am master of all things, above all things. Lord,
what, then, is man ?—Why hast Thou set him over the works
of Thy hands? What glory and honour! Thou hast sub-
jected all things under His feet, all sheep and oxen: more-
over the beasts also of the field, the birds of the air and the
fishes of the sea.! Here is my dignity : I am set over all things,
the owner of all things, the master of all. God has created
all things for me, He has placed all things at my disposal.

47. I am God’s.—Yet this is only the smaller side of my
greatness. I am God’s, and I am for God: here is my true
greatness. God wills to raise me to Himself, to unite me to
Himself, to make me participate in His glory. Apart from
God, nothing is great enough to be myend. He Himself is
infinitely above me, and He wishes me to rise to Him in the
measure in which it is given me to attain unto Him. There
is the whole object of my life : to go to God, while making use
of His creatures. My God, how wonderful Thou art !—How
great is man in Thy thoughts! But how little is he in his
own! For man, enriched with all these honours, has never
understood them; he has lowered himself to the level of
creatures without reason, and has become like unto them.?
And when at last I get to understand my dignity, shall I
appreciate it enough never to lower it ?—Called to rise to
God, how can I descend towards the level of the brute ?

1 Quid est homo quod memor es ejus ? ... gloria et honore coronasti
eum et constituisti eum super opera manuum tuarum. Omnia sub-
jecisti sub pedibus ejus, oves et boves universas, insuper et pecora
cam i, volucres cœli et pisces maris (Ps. viii. 5-9).

t homo, cum in honore esset, non intellexit, comparatus est
te insipientibus et similis factus est illis (Ps. xlviii. 13)

A

36 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER X

An Explanation of the Pater noster

48. The greatness of this prayer. — 49. Hallowed be Thy name. —
50. Thy kingdom come.—51. Thy will be done.—52. Give us our
bread.— 53. The three last petitions. 54. Allis here.

48. The greatness of this prayer.—I find a luminous con-
firmation of this teaching in the Pater noster. This is the
perfect prayer ; therein are contained all goods, the only true
goods, and these in the order in which I ought to ask for them.
Now, these goods and their order of dignity are just those
which I have been considering. It is, therefore, useful to
stop a few minutes to meditate upon it, in order to enter more
profoundly into the essential order of my life.

Everything in the Pater noster is so divine! Of a truth,
it is the summing up of all prayer, and not only of all prayer,
but of all faith and of all religion. He who meditates upon it
meets with the depths of the infinite on every side ; his medi-
tation will suffice to make him enter into the deep things of
God.t_ It is, indeed, the short word which the Lord made
upon the earth ;? and therein our Lord has set all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge which were hidden in His heart.
How consoling would it be, were charity to instruct my
heart and pour therein all the riches of fulness of understand-
ing to know the mystery of God the Father and of Jesus
Christ !3

In the Pater noster, I find explained not only what is my
end, but also the way and the means, 1.e., the three ideas
which sum up all that I want to meditate upon in this little
work; and I find them in their order and in their mutual
interdependence. The Pater noster is, then, for me a light
and a support, and I have every interest in meditating upon

1 Spiritus omnia scrutatur etiam profunda Dei (1 Cor. ii. ro).

2 Verbum breviatum faciet Dominus super terram (Rom. ix. 28).

3 Ut consolentur corda ipsorum, instructi in charitate et in omnes
divitias plenitudinis intellectus, in cognitionem mysterii Dei Patris
et Christi Jesu, in quo sunt omnes thesauri sapientiæ et scientiæ
absconditi (Col. ii. 2, 3).

THE END: ELEMENTS 37

it after St. Thomas,! whose short but sublime exposition of it
will be my guide.

49. Hallowed be Thy name.—What is the subject of this
first petition ? What is the first good that I ask for before
all the rest >—The hallowing of God’s name. But is that
anything else than His glory? God’s name expresses God
and all that is in Him. Hallowing expresses all that man can
do for the honour of His name. Consequently, the hallowing
of God’s name is God’s glory for His own sake, the praise
which all creatures owe to Him, the first, essential, funda-
mental, unique, necessary good ; this is what I desire and
ask for before all. This first good dominates and contains all
other goods, the goods I afterwards ask for depend thereupon,
and are correlative thereto. Moreover, this first petition of
the Pater noster dominates and contains the other petitions,
in the same way as the first of God’s commandments contains
and dominates the other commandments.

50. Thy kingdom come.—What is the reign or kingdom of
God, if it be not the riches, the goods He communicates to
those whom He wishes to participate in that kingdom ? Here,
then, is my secondary good, my own good, my participation
in God’s goods, my final satisfaction in this world and in the
next. This is why I ask that this kingdom of God, wherein
are comprised all the increments that God communicates to
His creatures, may come : and to whom ?—To myself. What
I ask for is to participate in God’s goods, here and hereafter.
And this I only ask for in the second place ; it could not be
the first petition, because my utility, even my eternal utility,
only comes after God’s glory. This is why the petition,
“Thy kingdom come,” follows the petition, ‘‘ Hallowed be
Thy name,” which necessarily comes first.

51. Thy will be done.—To procure God’s glory, a way has
to be followed. How shall I procure it, if I know not the
way thither? God’s will marks out the way for me: His
will shows me the road I have to go, what I ought to avoid,
what I must do, to procure His glory and to find my own
advantage. This it is that gives me guidance to procure God
the sanctification of His name, and for myself the coming ot

2 4, 2 ae, Q. 83, a. 9, c.

38 - THE INTERIOR LIFE

His kingdom. After the two first petitions naturally comes
the third, ‘“‘ Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

52. Give us our bread.—It is not enough to know the road ;
we must also have the means to walk in it. In vain do I
know the road, if I faint from inanition by the way; I shall
be no further forward. My soul as well as my body requires
nourishment, that is to say, what maintains life and strength.
This is what is called my daily bread ; and thereby I designate
all that must help me as a means to walk in the way of God’s
will to the end, which is God’s glory. It is, therefore, in order
for this petition for my daily bread to come immediately after
that for God’s will.

53. The three last petitions.—The fifth petition, ‘ forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.”

I know the end, the way, the means ; what remains for me
to ask for ?—The removal of hindrances. Now, there are
three hindrances, one of which is opposed to each of these
three things : the end, the way, and the means.

The first hindrance, the essential, radical hindrance, is sin.
Sin is the hindrance that turns us away from the end. I
therefore ask for its removal before everything, it is the
subject of the fifth petition.

The sixth petition, ‘ lead us not into temptation.”

After sin, the most serious hindrance is what leads to sin,
temptation. Temptation is the hindrance that turns us aside
from the way of God’s will. I beg God to guarantee me
against it and to keep me from falling into it, because it is a
hindrance by nature, and always a danger.

The seventh petition, “‘ deliver us from evil.”

A final hindrance, apart from sin and temptation, is to be
found in the other evils of soul and body which deprive me
of the means that are necessary for my progress. They may
therefore be a hindrance to my end, and I beg for their removal
in that measure only in which they may diminish God’s glory
and my own true happiness.

Such is the Pater noster, the perfect pattern of prayer, and
also the perfect pattern of duty. Our Lord therein drew for
us the foundations of all prayer and of all spiritual life in a
few bold strokes.

THE END: ELEMENTS 39

54. All is there—What a beautiful frame would the Pater
noster make for a complete treatise on the Christian life! All
is there : both good and evil, the good to be done, and the evil
to be avoided. All is there, ranked according to its import-
ance, and co-ordinated in its interdependence: the order of
good to be done, the order of evil to be avoided. All is there,
for me and for others: what I ought to do, and what I can
do, for myself, and what I ought to do, and what I can do,
for others.

For myself, if I would have the full pattern of my life, I
have only to meditate upon the Pater noster. It will tell me
what is the good, and what is my good ; the order, the dignity,
and the connection of goods ; the way to follow, the means
to use. It will tell me what is evil ; why, how, and in what
measure it is evil, and in what order it must be avoided. I
therefore have the entire pattern of my development.

I have also an entire scheme of service. Should I desire to
know what good is to be done around me, the Pater noster
says to me: Give God’s bread to further God’s will in the
hope of God’s kingdom in view of God’s name. Should I
desire to know the evil to be avoided by my neighbour:
Deliver him, it says, from physical, moral, and intellectual
evils, set him free from temptation, help him to quit sin.
Such is the ascending scheme of service. What a programme
for life !—If only I knew how to meditate upon it !—If only
I knew how to put it into practice !

BOOK II
ORGANIZATION

I know the elementary principles of the organization of my
life. I must now set them together. Life consists in unity ;
and organic life consists in the unity of manifold elements
brought into action and interwoven in and by the activity of
a single principle. Every being lives in the measure in which
it attains to unity, says St. Augustine In this book I mean
to consider the unity of my life. And as my life is a com-
pound of movements, acts, and manifold habits, what I
require and intend to examine is not the multiplicity of the
elements, but their living unity.

To live, I have many acts to perform, manifold habits to
acquire, various kinds of knowledge and virtue to cultivate.
To give a character to my nature, the necessity, and even the
place, of each of these habits and forms of knowledge and
virtue, is, indeed, of the highest importance for my interior
life ; but that does not enter into the more simple and funda-
mental purpose that I have in view. I must be one, all the
dispositions of my being must be focussed into one. It is the
one disposition, the universal resultant of partial dispositions
that I am anxious to cultivate. What I am trying to find is
the secret of the unity in which life consists. |

In what is the total and living unity of my being con-
stituted, and in what does it consist ? On the other hand,
how is the disorganization of this unity and life brought about,
and in what does it consist ? This is a twofold question which
sums up the whole of the contents of this second Book.

1 Nihil est autem esse quam unum esse. Itaque in quantum quid.
que adipiscitur unitatem, in tantum est (De moribus Manich. ii. 8)

41

CHAPTER I
My Obligations

1. Knowing, willing, acting —2. My mind must know God.—3. Truth.
—4. My heart must love God.—5. Charity.—6. My action must
serve God.—7 Liberty. *

1. Knowing, willing, acting.—For me, what duties flow
from the great principles according to which it has pleased
God to organize my life ?—For it is evident that they must
be my rule of conduct ; my life must conform to them and
carry them into practice. To act, I must know, will, and do:
to know, to will, to do, are the three elements of a complete
human action. I have, then, an obligation which is at once
threefold and one: threefold, since it touches my intelligence,
my will, and my actions one, since these three things must
not be separated.

2. My mind must know God.—The intelligence is the first
principle of human acts. The mind sees and judges. It sees
what has to be done, and it judges whether the means are
proportioned to the end. I am made for God’s glory;
creatures are the instruments put into my hands to procure
this glory ; that is the great principle. What practical obliga-
tion does this fundamental truth bind upon my mind ?—It
binds upon my mind the obligation of seeing God as the one
essential purpose of my life ; of seeing Him, I say, of having
Him before my eyes, of knowing and remembering that His
glory is the great end which must dominate, inspire, and
direct my whole conduct.

It binds upon my mind the obligation of considering
creatures as being what in reality they are, means for glorify-
ing God. Consequently, my mind must be applied to know
in each creature what may serve God’s glory, and how far
each one is useful or hurtful to this end. Creatures are
instruments : is this or that creature a good instrument ? how

42

THE END: ORGANIZATION 43

can I make use of it ? This, before all else, is what I must
get to know about the creatures I have to make use of.
(Remember the broad sense I have given to the word
“creatures,” p. 23.)

To see God in all things, to see all things according to God
and for God, this is my mind’s absolute duty. In all my
ways I must have this view of God present to my mind, and
this view will direct my steps in uprightness ;! and I shall be
in the truth, which is the summing up of the obligations and
of the life of my intelligence. :

3. Truth.—It is God who is the substantial truth, and ideas
make the truth of things ; for things are only true so far as
they are in conformity with the divine ideas. To have the
truth is, then, to see God and God’s ideas ; to see God in
Himself, and to see Him in things.

Let me see Him in Himself. Let me see Him here on earth
in the misty brightness of faith , for the veils that impede
direct vision are not lifted in this world. Let me see Him in
heaven in the splendours of His glory. Let me apply my
mind to knowing Him, let me feed my intelligence on the
substance of His ideas. Truth grows in me in the measure
in which my mind enters into the view of God.

Let me see Him in things. When I see in things that which
leads to God, I see the truth. For this true, this entirely
true, side of creatures is that which glorifies God, since that
is its essential destiny and the fundamental reason of its
existence. The whole constitution and properties of beings
are ordained and disposed to procure the glory of their Author.
The great and full truth of things is their aptitude for reveal-
ing the greatness of God.’ When I see them in this light, I
have the truth, which is the law and the life of my mind.

4. My heart must love God.—The will is determined by the
intelligence, according to the old adage of philosophy: “ We
cannot will unless we know.’ But it is not forcibly deter-
mined ; for I may know and not will. Hence, there is also a
duty for my will.

1 In omnibus viis tuis cogita illum, et ipse diriget gressus tuos
(Prov. iii. 6).
2 Nihil volitum nisi prius cognitum.

44 THE INTERIOR LIFE

The will esteems, appreciates, loves.1 With my will, there-
fore, I must esteem, appreciate, and love God’s glory as my
one essential good, love nothing above it, nothing contrary to
it, nothing apart from it ; feel that therein is my all, and that
without this, all is nothing to me. I must esteem, appreciate,
and love in creatures, above all, that in them which is essential,
t.¢., the means of obtaining my all. That is what I must
supremely love and esteem in them. I must not love them
at all for their own sake, nor for my sake, but for God before
all else. The measure of my love, the cause of my prefer-
ence, must be just the measure in which they help me to
glorify God. If, before all else, my will is attached to that .
in creatures which leads me to God, it is in the fulness of its
duty ; and this fulness of the duty of my will is entirely
expressed in the great word used by St. John to denote God
Himself : charity.

5. Charity.—God is charity, and he who abideth in charity
-abideth in God, and God abideth in him.? Charity, then, is
God loved, loved in Himself, and loved in all things.

God loved in Himself. Love is the desire for the good, the
will for the good. And the good is God. He is the sovereign
Good, the first principle of all good ; the supreme Goodness,
the first cause of all that is good ; the essential Love, the
source of all that is really love. Let me love God in Himself
and for Himself, apply to loving Him all the will-power of
my being, nourish my heart on the substance of His love.
Charity grows in me in the measure in which my heart enters
into the love of God.

Charity is also God loved in His creatures. If, in all things,
my heart tries to find and embrace that which contributes to
the honour of holy goodness, I have and I know the charity
of Christ which surpasseth all knowledge, and thereby I am

filled unto all the fulness of God3 Charity enables me to

1 Appreciation and esteem may seem to be but a judgement of the
intellect, but they are only completed by the adhesion of the will, that
appreciative love which gives them their true character; and this
is why I attribute them to the will.

2 Deus charitas est, et qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet et
Deus in eo (1 Joan. iv 16).

3 Scire etiam supereminentem scientiæ charitatem Christi, ut
impleamini in omnem plenitudinem Dei (Eph. iii. 19).

THE END : ORGANIZATION 45

enter into the fulness of God and of all things. Things only
have their fulness in God’s glory ; for what gives them their
reality, essence, and individuality, is that in them which leads
to God. The earth has its fulness in the possession of God,!
it is full of the praise of God.2 This fulness is embraced by
charity, which loves in all things only that which leads to
divine glory, and thus it grasps the reality of all things. This
is why love is the fulfilling of the law.

6. My action must serve God.—In action, I am seeking,
choosing, using. I must then seek before all else, and in all
things, God’s glory. I must serve God, and make use of all
things for God.

To serve God means to apply and refer to His honour and
worship my powers of action ; to devote and consecrate my
efforts and movements to them ; to direct my occupations and
my work towards Him, so that there may be in me nothing
that is not employed in His service, so far as the character and
measure of my calling are concerned.

Let me make use of all things for God, and for this purpose,
let me seek, choose, and make use of creatures so far as they ©
help me to glorify Him—neither more—nor less.—I have no
other essential reason for seeking after creatures, no other
essential reason for putting them aside. No doubt I may
seek for those that bring me satisfaction, and avoid those that
are a source of trouble to me: must not the machine have its
oil ? must not a little gladness lubricate the mechanism of my
faculties ? But I ought to do this only in a secondary way,
and always in conformity with and in view of the great
business. My satisfaction must never be the principal and
primary rule of my actions.

To act according to the will of God, to prefer what most
contributes thereto, to put in the background what is less
useful for the purpose, and to get rid of anything that is a
hindrance, such is my rule of action. If I follow it, my works
are perfect, my ways are right; consequently I am just, since
it is the just whom God conducts through the right ways.

1 Impleta est terra possessione tua (Ps. ciii. 24).
2 Laudis ejus plena est terra (Habac. iii. 3).

3 Plenitudo ergo legis est dilectio (Rom. xiii. 10),
4 Justum deduxit per vias rectas (Sap. x. 10).

46 THE INTERIOR LIFE

7. Liberty —When I see in each instrument that which
helps me to go to God, when my love is attached to that, I
succeed in making use of everything in the measure in which
it helps me towards God’s glory, which I solely consider and
love in a sovereign manner. If, indeed, I consider and esteem
nothing so much as this divine utility in my instruments, I
use them according to their utility, neither more—nor less.—
But to reach this point means great freedom.

These words “ neither more nor less ”” well indicate, indeed,
the degree of liberty my action has to attain. I must suffi-
ciently master my instruments to be able to take, use, and
lay them aside freely, according to their utility. To utilize
each thing just as far as it is or may be profitable towards
God’s glory, without allowing my likings to make me outstrip
the measure, or my dislikes to prevent me from attaining
thereto ; to employ what is useful so far as it is useful; to
lay aside what is the opposite so far as it is contrary ; not to
permit my action to be modified, in reality, by any preference
or repugnance of nature, this means having the great, sovereign
and royal liberty of the children of God. And it is to this
liberty of action that I am called If my mind be in truth,
my heart in charity, my actions in liberty, then I shall fulfil
all the obligations of my life.

CHAPTER II
The Essence of Piety

8. Seeing, loving, and seeking God.—g. Veritatem facientes in chari-
tate.—10. The union of these three operations in piety.—11. Other
texts.—12. The great commandment.—13. The definition in
the Catechism.

8. Seeing, loving, and seeking God.—Always to see, love, and
seek God’s glory ; to consider, esteem and utilize all things in
view of God, is to accomplish the essential duty which is
called piety. To have in the mind truth, in the heart charity,

1 Vos enim in libertatem vocati estis, fratres (Gal. v. 13).

THE END : ORGANIZATION | 47

in action liberty, is having piety. Piety is unity. Piety,
then, is nothing else than seeing, loving, and seeking God’s
glory in all and above all ; it is the seeing, loving, and seeking
God alone for His own sake, and all things for God.

Sight, love, search, piety is all of these together ; for these
three acts, joined together, concentrated upon God and
applying to all creatures, constitute piety ; it is one universal
disposition which is profitable to all things} as St. Paul says.
But it is to this profound master of the spiritual life, to this
first of all theologians, that we must go for the definition of
piety. He gives it in terms which de Maistre declares to be
untranslatable. I am about to endeavour to penetrate into
their meaning, as far as my weakness permits.

9. Veritatem facientes in charitate.—‘‘ Let us do the truth in
charity, in order that we may in all things grow up in Him who
is the head, the Christ.” These words of the great Apostle
point out, with a profundity of meaning and a brevity of
expression which are all his own, all that constitutes piety:
its end, its means, and its operations.

Its end : to grow up in God by Jesus Christ : or rather, to
grow up in Jesus Christ for God’s glory. For Jesus Christ
is the head of the body of which I must be a member, and in
which I must grow up, if I mean to procure God the glory I
ought to give Him. Later on, I shall see the degrees of
this increase, which St. Paul calls the increase of God.

Its means: these are all things, all creatures, per omnia.
All creatures, in God’s plan, as I have seen,* are instruments.
But these instrumeuts are in the hands of piety; piety it is
that has to handle them and to make use of them for the
great work. And these instruments are only well handled
and effectively used thereby. It is piety that utilizes every-
thing.

1 Pietas ad omnia utilis est (1 Tim.iv. 8). .

2 AdnOevovres ôè ev dydry, abéjowpev els adrov Ta mévra, 8s éoruw ÿ Keparh,

6 xptorés. The approved Douai version gives: ‘‘ But doing the truth
mené we may in all things grow up in him who is the head, even

rist.

Veritatem autem facientes in charitate, crescamus in illo per omnia,
qui est caput Christus (Eph. iv. 15).

3 Crescit in augmentum Dei (Col. ii. 19).

4 See Book I. § 29.

48 THE INTERIOR LIFE ~

Its operations: these are seeing, loving, and seeking God
in all things ; this is what is expressed by the three terms :
doing the truth in charity.

10. The union of these three operations in piety.—And
these three operations must not in any way be separated ;
for piety, in its complete essence, is at once sight, love,
search : truth, charity, liberty. From this intimate union,
from the mutual interpenetration of these three elements,
springs the one and great disposition which is piety. This
union is expressed by the words of St. Paul with remarkable
energy. Of the three terms used to denote the three elements
of piety, he takes the thiid, that of action, and joins it with
the first, truth, in such a manner that he combines them into
a single verb, aAn@evovres, which is really untranslatable,
and which, for want of anything better, we translate by
“doing the truth.” And he adds to this verb, in which the
two extreme terms of piety are now concentrated, the middle
term as an object, so that all is now combined tn charitate, in
charity. Thus, charity is the centre of piety, the bond of
perfection. I see to love, and I act by loving: the develop-
ment of the body of piety thus proceeds in charity.”

11. Other texts.—This union of all the human faculties
acting in charity is shown in numerous passages of Holy
Scripture. The same St. Paul says elsewhere: That in the
Christian religion which has any worth, is neither circum-
cision, nor uncircumcision ; what is of worth, is faith that
worketh by charity. Faith doing its works in charity, is
not this again the whole of piety, in the full synthesis of the
three terms ? And the Apostle of love, in the appeal in which
he appears to sum up all the desires of that heart on which he
had rested, speaks like the Apostle who had returned from
the third heaven. “ My little children,” he says, “let us
not love in word, nor in tongue, but in deed, and in truth ”
(x John iii. 18). To St. John love is not real, if it is merely

1 Super omnia autem hæc charitatem habete, quod est vinculum
perfectionis (Col. iii. 14).
2 Augmentum corporis facit in ædificationem sui in charitate
(Eph. iv. 16).
Nam in Christo Jesu neque circumcisio aliquid valet neque
preputium, sed fides que per charitatem operatur (Gal. v. 6).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 40

an affair of words and an operation of the tongue. He com-
mends love, it is the recommendation of all his life and tie
summing up of all his teaching. But the love which he
commends must be preceded by the truth and followed by
works, love must be in deed and in truth. Thus it is that the
beloved disciple also exhorts to piety.

12. The great commandment.—Here it is well to recall, in
order to meditate upon its infinite depth, the commandment
which is the greatest and first commandment (Matt. xxii. 38).
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with
thy whole strength ” (Mark xii. 30). |

Thou shalt love—this is the central act of life. Love is
the highest expression, the last word of my possibilities.
When I love, I concentrate and sum up my whole being in
my love, I give myself wholly to the service of him whom I
love.

Whom shalt thou love ?—The Lord thy God ; thou shalt
love Him alone. Why ?—Because He is thy Saviour and.
thy God, which means thy Master and thy all. Thou shalt
love Him for His own sake, because He is Himself.

How shalt thou love Him ?—ex toto, with thy whole self.
Thou shalt gather up, thou shalt unite the whole of thy being
in love. Thou shalt love with thy whole self, says the Lord ;
and when God says “ all,’ He means all. It is the totality
of my faculties and of their acts, that is to say, of my life,
unified in love. With thy whole mind: there is knowledge,
sight, truth ; with thy whole heart : there is love and charity,
in the proper sense of the words ; with thy whole soul and with
thy whole strength : there is action, seeking, liberty.

And the commandment does not attribute love to all the
powers, for only the heart loves ; but all the powers to love ;
for all acts must meet and be bound together in love to com-
pose the one disposition, the general and living resultant,
which is piety. Thus it is that in the commandment “ thou
shalt love” is the great law which sums up all laws, the great
duty which sums up all duties.

13. The definition of the Catechism.—More humble in
appearance, but with a meaning no less deep, the Catechism

4

50 THE INTERIOR LIFE

teaches the little child all the doctrine of St. Paul and of
St. John. Why did God make man ? asks the Catechism-
—God made man to know Him, love Him, and serve Him,
and thus to merit eternal happiness. To know, love, and
serve : the three constituent terms of piety, the three words
that sum up all religion. There is the whole of life, the
whole of man, the one why of our existence. St. Paul affirms
it, St. John proclaims it, the Catechism repeats it.

To know, to love, to serve; intelligence, will, action ;
sight, love, search ; truth, charity, liberty: always the same
three terms joined in the same order. To know in order to
love, to love in order to serve ; to serve in loving, to love in
knowing : this is the whole of Christian life, according to the
Catechism ; and it is the whole of piety, according to St. Paul.

And this knowledge, love, and service, which are piety,
and God’s glory, merit the infinite recompense which is
eternal salvation. God’s glory in the sight, love, and service
of His majesty ; the happiness of man in the possession of His
goodness: there is the whole of religion, and the whole of
piety on earth and in heaven. What wonderful things in one
little answer of the Catechism |

CHAPTER III
The Virtue of Piety

14. The living unity of my being in piety.—15. Facility and readi-
ness.—16. Piety is the great disposition.—17. The body and the
soul of piety.—18. It is a matter of the mind.—1g. The function
of sentiment.—20. The loss of sensible impressions.

14. The living unity of my being in piety.—Such is piety.
If I break this bundle, if I take away one of its elements, I
shall have left nothing but a mutilated and false piety. If I
introduce into it a strange element, my piety will be mingled
and impure. If one of its elements weakens or deteriorates,
it becomes languishing and sickly. If the union of the ele-
ments gets relaxed, if their bond is broken, it becomes divided,
crumbles, and falls to pieces,

THE END: ORGANIZATION 51

It must, then, be true, full, and strong ; and for this, each
of the elements must be pure. It must be one; and for this,
the union of the elements must be close and firm. It must
also increase until it has reached its consummation ; and for
this, each element must go on expanding, becoming complete,
extending, and their union must become constantly closer,
and finally, that state must be constituted in me which forms
the virtue of piety.

15. Facility and readiness.—For it is not at all the act of
seeing, loving, and seeking God, that constitutes piety.
Piety is a habit ; and, like every habit, it is a facility, a readi-
ness to do the acts belonging to it. It is the facility, the
readiness to see, to love, and to seek God in all things, that
constitutes piety. The virtue of devotion, as St. Francis of
Sales calls it, does not consist in keeping the commandments,
but in keeping them readily and willingly ;! devotion being
no other than a general virtue opposed to spiritual] idleness,
a virtue which makes us prompt in God’s service.?

Hence, I have not acquired the virtue of piety, until I
have acquired this readiness in seeing, loving, and seeking
God in all things. My God, where is this readiness in my-
self ?—-How long shall I, poor son of man, be so heavy of
heart ? how long shall I love vanity, and seek after lying ??
When wilt Thou enlarge my heart to run the way of Thy
commandments, the way of piety ?4 Who will give me wings
like a dove, that I may fly and be at rest in God ?5

16. Piety is the great disposition.—Thus understood, piety
is the great duty which sums up all duties; it is the great
virtue, whence flow and whither tend all virtues. I under-
stand St. Paul, when he says that it is profitable to all things,
and that it has the promises of the life that now is, and of that
which is to come.6 I understand his saying, that when I

1 St. Francis of Sales, Letters.

2 St. Francis of Sales, The Canticle of Canticles, Preface.

3 Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ? ut quid diligitis vanitatem
et queritis mendacium ? (Ps. iv. 3).

4 Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri, cum dilitasti cor meum
(Ps. cxviii. 32).
2 Quis — mihi pennas sicut columbe, et volabo et requiescam ?

s. liv. 7).

8 Exerce autem teipsum ad pietatem, nam pietas ad omnia utilis
est, promissiones habens vite que nunc est et futuræ (1 Tim. iv. 7, 8).

52 THE INTERIOR LIFE

have only what is strictly necessary, I nevertheless have
great riches, if I have piety.! I understand when the Apostle
St. John calls it his greatest joy. ‘I have no greater grace
than this,” he says, “to hear that my children walk in truth ”
(3 John 4).

In fine, the human virtues of prudence, fortitude, justice,
and temperance, utilized by the divine virtues of faith, hope,
and charity, are as it were condensed and concentrated in
piety. And not only the virtues of the heart, but the know-
ledge of the mind, the actions of the body, every vital move-
ment, every habit or human act, all these centre and unite
in this one and sovereign disposition. Piety is, therefore,
the gathering together of all dispositions, forms of knowledge,
virtues or human actions, in the sight, love, and seeking of
God. The word “ piety’ sums up all that is made for God,
in the same way as the word “ impiety ” sums up all that runs
counter to God. :

17. The body and the soul of piety.—And how comes about
this gathering together, this living union of my whole activity
in piety ?—Piety is aSINGLE . . . WHOLE.—Its totality shows
that it has a body, its unity shows that it has a soul. What is
its body ? and what is its soul ?

The body of piety is composed of members. These mem-
bers are all and each of the forms of knowledge of my mind,
all and each of the virtues of my heart, all and each of the
actions of my powers. There is not one of the manifestations
of human life which cannot and ought not to be a member of
the body of piety.

The soul of this body is divine charity ; it is this that is
its living form, its principle of supernatural animation. And
when this soul is joined with this body, the result is the living
unity and totality which are called piety. Thus do we get a
better revelation of the depth of the saying of St. Paul’s
already quoted.2 After having counselled the practice of
the different virtues, he ends by saying: But above all these
dispositions, to animate them and to bind them into one
living and perfect whole, have charity, which is the bond of

1 Est autem questus magnus pietas cum sufficientia (1 Tim. vi. 6).
2 See § 10 above.

THE END: ORGANIZATION 53

perfection. It is not in itself the whole of perfection, for it
never goes without the other virtues.! But it is the soul which
gives them life, the bond which gives them perfection. Thus,
in the supernatural order as in the natural order, human life
finds its perfection in the union of the soul with the body.

It is thus that piety is profitable to all things, because, in
its living unity, it does not allow a single fragment of human
activity to be wasted. Everything has an infinite value for
God and in God’s eyes. Sleep as well as food, work as well
as prayer, knowledge as well as virtue, a sigh as well as a
smile, little things as well as great things, all things are full
of life and glory and merit and eternity. Apart from piety,
alas! what waste! what uselessness! what fatality !—O
living unity, O living whole, O holy piety, when shall I possess
thee ? when wilt thou possess me ? be thou the concentration
and organization of my being, be thou my entire and sole
occupation in time and in eternity !

18. It is a matter of the mind.—From considering the ele-
ments of piety, it appears that it is before all else a matter
of the intelligence and of the will. The intelligence sees, the
heart loves, and action follows. As long as the intelligence
cannot see, or sees amiss, piety is false or null. Piety begins in
the intelligence, continues by the will, and ends in action.
It is the highest exercise of man’s faculties. It has its begin-
ning in truth, its centre and climax in charity, its fulfilment
in liberty.

It is, then, no little affair of sentiment. It is a strange
abuse of words to attribute the great name of “ piety ” to
the affected tricks (mièvreries) which are practised by so
many narrow souls in spiritual exercises. The glitter of
imagination, the touches of sensibility, however fine and
pleasant they may be, are often only the empty amusements
of those suffering from illusions, who have some of the ater
ances of piety, but none of its power.?

19. The function of sentiment.—Feelings and sensible affec-
tions, as well as imagination, are good in themselves ; for

1 Read the whole of 1 Cor. xiii. to see how charity is the paid and
soul of all the virtues.

? Habentes speciem quidem pietatis, virtutem autem ejus abnegantes
(2 Tim. iii. 5).

54 THE INTERIOR LIFE

this inferior part of the soul, which borders on the senses,
is still one of God’s beautiful gifts to our nature. Imagination
and sensibility have great utility in life, and they play a
fairly important part in it. Are they not called to embellish
the hard outline of duty, to adorn it with refined graces and
pure attractions, to impart to it the brightness of the beautiful
and the relief of vigour, to clothe it with the glories of art,
and so forth? Their well-ordered function is so brilliant,
comforting, and elevating! They have, therefore, a place to
occupy in piety, their help is by no means to be despised ;
for grace employs and utilizes all natural resources. To wish
to suppress their normal function in piety would be to hurt
nature and to hinder grace. Therefore, let them keep their
place, let them find their most noble and legitimate expan-
sion in piety,—nothing could be better; let those sensitive
souls, in whom feeling predominates, go to God by this way,—
there is no harm in that.

But it must be on condition that sensibility and imagina-
tion are not allowed to play a fatal part. If they desire to
become the main thing or the whole of piety, that also hurts
nature and hinders grace ; for the sensible faculties are only
the hired servants of the intelligence and the will. To be led
by sentiment is to put the servant in charge of the house, and
to get the master to abdicate. It is not sentiment that is bad,
but the inordinate part assigned to it. What is a bad thing
is the suppression, or at least the lessening, of all the higher
part of the soul in its relations with God, and confining one-
self to the inferior regions of the sensibility.

20. The loss of sensible impressions.—In some souls, emo-
tions are so much the whole of piety that they are convinced
that they have lost all devotion when feeling disappears. Oh
dear! I have no piety left ; I no longer feel anything !—
They only had sentiment : when it is gone, they have, indeed,
nothing left. But it is not piety that they have lost ; they
never had it. If they only knew that this is just the moment
to begin to have it !—The greatest hindrance is gone ; the
way which was blocked by sentimentalism, is now clear!
But how little do people know what piety is! How far are
they from suspecting what it is in its fulness !

THE END: ORGANIZATION 55

CHAPTER IV
God’s Glory

21. What glorifying God means.—22. The material and formal
elements of glory.—23. Intrinsic glory.—24. Extrinsic glory.
25. The fulness of the word “‘ glory.””—26. Crescamus.

21. What glorifying God means.—I can now define the
meaning of the word “ glory,” and the nature of the obliga-
tion which it expresses. What is the meaning of my being
made for God’s glory ?—It means that I must apply the
resources of life which I possess to know, love, and serve
Him ; and refer my whole being to Him by the application
of my faculties of knowing, loving, and acting. The servant
who has received five talents brings back five others to his
master ; he who has received two brings them back doubled.
Both of them were diligent in using for their master that which
he had confided to them ; and they bring him back the fruits
of their diligence. And it is this diligence and this return
that glorify their master. The bad servant was not diligent,
and he brought no return; he did not honour his master,
and he was punished. Thus, then, to apply the faculties He
has given me to know, to love, and to serve Him, and by this
diligence to refer my whole being to Him, this is for me to
glorify God.

22. The material and formal elements of glory.—In glory,
there are two parts : one, which is, as it were, its matter ; the
other, as it were, its form.

The matter of glory, or the object to be glorified, consists
of the qualities of the glorious being. In God’s glory, these
are all and each of the perfections of the infinite Being.
Each one in particular, as well as all together, may be the
object of the glorification to be rendered to the Creator. |

The form of glory, or the act of glorifying, consists of all
and each of the acts whereby the perfections of the glorious
Being are acknowledged and exalted. And in the glory
which I, for my part, can and must give God, it consists of

1 Matt. xxv. 15.

56 THE INTERIOR LIFE

all and each of the acts of my life applied to the exaltation of
the divine perfections.

Glory, in its proper sense, is constituted of the meeting
together and union of these two elements. A being possessed
of the greatest of perfections, if these perfections do not
receive the honour which is their due, would be glorious but
not glorified. In the same way, honour attributed to defects
and vices is not glorification but abomination. Glory means
the meeting together of glorious qualities and glorifying
acts.

23. Intrinsic glory—God has in Himself, by Himself, and
for Himself, an infinite glory, infinitely worthy of Him; a
glory which is His own, which is as great as Himself, which is
His life, which is Himself. In the unity of His substance,
He has all perfections, and all these perfections in infinity,
which is the plenitude of the divine Being. In the unity of
His Being, God is infinitely glorious.

In the Trinity of the Persons, He is infinitely glorified. In
the infinite act whereby the Father communicates to the Son
all divine perfections by way of knowledge, and the Father
and the Son, conjointly, communicate these same perfections
to the Holy Ghost by way of love, there is a glorification in
all respects equal to the glorified Being. And this is the
intimate, infinite life of God in Himself. And in this life
He is infinitely glorious and infinitely glorified. This is what
is called the intrinsic glory of God.

24. Extrinsic glory.—The glory rendered to their Creator
by creatures is called extrinsic. In this; the object to be
glorified still consists of all and each of the divine perfections.
The glorifying act is the manifestation and the exaltation of
these perfections accomplished by creatures. The object is
infinite, the praise is finite. But although it is finite, the
praise is nevertheless full, when the being who glorifies spends
all the powers of its life in the act.

For me personally, it is possible to exalt my God’s per-
fections, by applying my whole life to know, love, and serve
Him. And as knowing, loving, and seeking God constitute
piety, my piety is that which finally glorifies God.

And since my piety is an essentially supernatural work,

THE END: ORGANIZATION 57

participating to some extent, by grace, in the nature and the
life of God, I am made capable of and responsible for giving
my Saviour and my God an entirely supernatural, and in a
manner infinite, glory.

The glorious qualities of the infinite Being are all expressed
in Holy Scripture by a single phrase—the name of God.
The acts whereby I can glorify the divine perfections are all
summed up in a single word—piety. Consequently, it is
the meeting together of my piety with God’s name which
constitutes God’s glory. And this is what is so magnificently
expressed in the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer: “ Hal-
lowed be Thy name.”

25. The fulness of the word “‘ glory.”’—The divine perfec-
tions are infinite ; and the acts by which I can exalt them are
exceedingly manifold. When I speak of God’s holiness,
power, goodness, etc., I only see one aspect of Him in His
totality. In the same way, when I speak of submission,
gratitude, or love, etc., I only name one of the particular
acts of my being. The word “ glory” is altogether general ;
it indicates at the same time all the perfections which I can
glorify in God, and all the acts by which I can glorify Him.
The fulness of the word corresponds with the whole of God’s
being and with the whole of my being.

In explaining the word “ creature,’’! I saw how convenient
was the broadness of this expression for enunciating in one
principle the universal rule of the use of all things. Nothing
possesses the force of a word of illimitable meaning. ‘ God’s
glory ” is also an universal expression, which suffices of itself
to formulate in the totality of its comprehension the most
absolute rule of my existence.

The ‘‘ Name” of God says all that is in God. The word
‘piety ” says all that is in me. The word “ glory ” says at
once both all that is in Him and all that is in me in the meeting
together in which we unite with one another. It is the most
universal term of my life.

26. Crescamus.—‘‘ Praise the Lord, O my soul,” says the
Psalmist.—‘‘ Yes,” replies the soul, ‘‘ in my life I will praise
the Lord: I will sing to my God as long as I shall be”

1 See Book I, § 27

58 THE INTERIOR LIFE

(Ps. cxlv. 2). It is my life that glorifies God ;1 my life, which
means my increase in this world, the fulness of my being in
the next. ‘‘ Increase,” said God in the beginning. And the
Apostle, taking up and explaining the Creator’s first com-
mand, says: Let us increase in Jesus Christ by means of all
things, by doing the truth in charity. O my God, give me
the want, the desire, the will, the strength, to increase for
Thee according to the measure of all the resources with which
Thou hast endued my being. Thy love expects of me the
portion of glory for which Thou hast made me. Oh that I
might not in any way frustrate the expectation and desire
of Thy heart! Thy glory can grow in me, since I can increase ;
it ought to grow, since I ought to increase. Oh that my life
might be a real, constant, and complete growth ; that my
being might attain to the full its possibilities for praise. Grant
me to live, for it is life that glorifies Thee.2 The dead shall
not praise Thee, O Lord ; nor any of them that go down to
hell. But we that live bless the Lord, from this time now and
for ever (Ps. cxili. 17, 18). I shall not die, but live : and shall
declare the works of the Lord (Ps. cxvii. 17). Thou art my
God, and I will praise Thee: Thou art my God, and I will
exalt Thee (7bid. 28).

CHAPTER V
Zeal

27. Multiplicamini.—28. Divine honour.—29. The human bond.—
30. The eternal bond.—31. Zeal in one’s vocation.

27. Multiplicamini.—To live for God, is the noble ambition
of those who are zealous and know how to devote themselves,
But if I have this ambition, I shall increase His glory not only
within me, but also around me. As all increase of soul
glorifies God, I shall dilate as many souls around me as possible.
No one in this world is isolated, and no vocation is for self
only. When He first laid down the laws of life, its Author

1 Vivet anima mea et laudabit te (Ps. cxviii. 175).
2 Vivens, vivens ipse confitebitur tibi (Is. xxxviii. 19).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 59

not only proclaimed the law of individual increase, but at the
same time He proclaimed the law of social multiplication.
‘Increase and multiply ” (Gen. i. 28). In virtue of this law,
the individual has the power and the duty of increase, the
society has the power and the duty of multiplying the increase.
This privilege of increase and of multiplication, which is
realized at the starting-point of every human life, applies to
all propagation of life, natural and supernatural. And as a
matter of fact, God only intended human intercourse for the
purpose of the multiplication of life.

28. Divine honour.—God might have reserved to Himself
the right of being the sole Author of life ; and He willed to
associate man with the power of His goodness. I can give
life. By material help and bodily care, I can promote physical
life. By counsel, encouragement, and example, 1 can exert
moral influence. By speech, teaching, and writing, I can
further the life of truth in the will. By the whole range of
my activities, I can attract towards the good, elevate, and
sanctify my surroundings. Still more, in virtue of the com-
munion of saints, by my prayers and my sacrifices I can
reach all the members of the body of the Church, of which I
form a part : I can thus be of use to the just and to sinners,
to the living and the dead; both earth and purgatory are
open to my zeal. God has given me this immense power of
expanding life on all sides for His glory. Shall I be able to
understand my power and to do my duty? If I love God,
if I desire His glory, what a field lies open to my zeal! If I
only consider that God holds as done to Himself what is done
to the least of His brethren,! and that the least practical service
done to the least of those who are His, such as merely giving
a cup of cold water, possesses an eternal value in His eyes !?

29. The human bond.—Such is the honour that is done to
me, and such is the happiness that is given me. It is also a
divine honour to communicate life, and it is also a human
bond. I am bound to all those to whom I give and from

1 Amen dico vobis, quamdiu fecistis uni ex fratribus meis minimis,
mihi fecistis (Matt. xxv. 40).

2 Et quicumque potum dederit uni ex minimis istis, calicem aqua

frigide tantum, in nomine discipuli, amen dico vobis, non perdet
mercedem suam (Matt. x 42).

60 THE INTERIOR LIFE

whom I receive, bound by the very bonds of life. We are
formed by one another and live in one another. In me there
is something of them, and in them there is something of me.
What of them is in me is their life; what of me is in them
is my life. Our lives interpenetrate one another, and are
more or less identified, according to the amount each receives
or gives. What I receive from my relations, from my friends,
from all those who exercise a vital influence upon me, is, as
it were, a part of their life which is formed in mine ; what I
give those whom I serve is, as it were, a part of my life which
is formed in them. How close are these bonds, how strong,
and how sweet! It is this exchange, this interpenetration of
life, that is the great secret of the charm of our human rela-
tionships.

30. The eternal bond.—And these bonds go beyond the
frontiers of death to reveal all the fulness of their strength
and sweetness in heaven. It is only there that they will be
rightly revealed. On earth, we are in the region of dimness
and enigma ; we see such a little way! The mystery of our
reciprocal influences remains so darkly veiled from us! But
in heaven will be the region of light and of open vision. For
there is not anything secret, that shall not be made manifest ;
nor hidden, that shall not be known and come abroad (Luke
vill. 17). In eternity, nothing vital perishes, everything
expands and grows. What bonds shall I then have with my
parents, who have done so much for my training! What
bonds with the masters, who took such care of my youth!
What bonds with friends, who gave such encouragement and
support to my life! What bonds with my brethren, whose
example and counsel so often put me in good heart !

And on the other hand, if I know how to devote myself,
what bonds will there be with innumerable souls to whom I
had imparted an increase of life by my prayers, my alms, and
penances, by my words, my example, my care, and by all my
activities! It is just the secrets and the details of this zeal,
of this communication of life, which will be proclaimed at the
general judgement as the motives and causes of immortal
beatitude.! O my God, how good art Thou in thus binding

1 Matt. xxv. 35.

LE

THE END : ORGANIZATION 61

us together for eternity! How I thank Thee for making us
live thus in one another, and all together in Thee !

31. Zeal in one’s vocation.—To live for God, to cause to
live for God, is loving myself, loving my neighbour, and also,
loving God. These three loves are but one, since in all three
we seek the same one glory of God. Oh that God may give
me the grace to live and to cause others to live for Him
according to the whole extent of the obligations and possi-
bilities of my vocation! I am right in saying ‘‘ of my voca-
tion ’’; for it is in conformity therewith that I ought to glorify
God in myself and in my surroundings. Every vocation
involves a responsibility ; and this responsibility must be
fulfilled for God’s honour. No one gives himself his own
vocation; it is God who outlines his programme of life
for each one in creating him.

By Him and for Him it is that I have my vocation. Hence,
I ought not only to extend His glory in myself by the full
spiritual increase of my being in piety, but also to extend it
around me within the sphere of influence which infinite Good-
ness has been pleased to assign to my destiny. O my God,
grant me, for the glory of Thy name, so to increase that I
may be capable of fulfilling the whole of my vocation. Make
_ me full of zeal for Thine interests.

CHAPTER VI
Disorder

Adherence to Creatures

32. The journey far from God.—33. Stopping.—34. Adherence.—
35. Rest.

32. The journey far from God.—I have just considered the
organization of my life according to God’s plan. I must now
consider its disorgarrization through human disorder. We
are made for life, says St. Paul; and He that maketh us for
_ this very thing, is God, who hath given us His Spirit, the
pledge of immortality. This is why we are courageous, know-

62 THE INTERIOR LIFE

ing that our mortal life is a journey far from God. For we
walk by faith and not by sight. But we have courage and
good-will and desire to journey away from the body, and to
be present with the Lord.

This journey far from God is my passage through creatures
in this world. I must pass through them to goto Him. But
I must pass through and go beyond them, in order to find
Him alone above them, in order to adhere to Him alone
amongst all things that are not Himself. If I know how to
pass onward in the use of them, my terrestrial pilgrimage is
performed according to the divine order.

33. Stopping.—Here, however, is the evil. Instead of
passing on, I linger, turn aside, and stop. I linger among
creatures, I turn aside from God, I stop at myself. And there
is the evil of my life, the whole evil of my life, this is disorder.

Wherein, then, does disorder consist ?—In the lingering,
turning aside, and stopping of my life, which, in all or in part,
does not rise up to God. When a part of my being or of my
movement does not attain, at least indirectly, the supernatural
union which God intends me to contract with Himself for His
glory and for my happiness, when some portion of me does
not reach the total and true end in its final term, there is
disorder. And this disorder is more or less pronounced,
according to the nature and extent of the deviation. The pre-
eminence of the end to which I am called will never allow me
to remain outside of or below it. And if I remain outside of
and below it, it is an injury done to my life, and a wrong
done to Him who is the author, director, and consummation of
my life.

34. Adherence.—And whence comes disorder ?—Always
from one thing, pleasure, pleasure in created things. I am
made to be happy, and an intense need of happiness is in all
my faculties. And in my earthly journey, far from God whom
I cannot see, since I walk by faith and not by sight ; in the
midst of creatures I can see and by the pleasure of which I

1 Qui autem efficit nos in hoc ipsum, Deus, qui dedit nobis pignus
spintus. Audentes igitur semper, scientes quoniam, dum sumus in
corpore, peregrinamur a Domino; per fidem enim ambulamus et non

per speciem ; audemus autem et bonam voluntatem habemus magis
peregrinari a corpore et præsentes esse ad Dominum (2 Cor. v. 5-8).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 63

am affected, I allow myself to be deceived by what I see, and
I forget what I do not see. Instead of sustaining my progress
by the oil of gladness which is put at my disposal, I desire,
in it and by it, to find my satisfaction and repose. Pleasure
ceases to be an instrument, and becomes an end. The
fascination of this trifle makes me lose sight of the good,
and the variableness of concupiscence upsets the good order
of my soul.

Pleasure, which ought to ease the passage of my soul through
things created, now sticks to it ; it becomes a sort of viscosity,
which attaches and keeps me to myself and to creatures. I
am now delayed, turned aside, stopped, by the very thing
which should have most contributed to the rapidity of my
ascent. Like some machine the cleaning of which has been
neglected, and in which the use of oil ends by so clogging it
as first to impede, and finally to stop its going, I contract an
adherence to things created ; I, who was made to adhere to
God alone.

35. Rest.—In heaven, the joy of the blessed is in praising
God, their satisfaction comes from this, their rest is in God.
On earth, creatures for my use have their manifold pleasures.
If I take these pleasures, which are in the creature, to stay
in them ; if I stay in them to enjoy them ; if, in this enjoy-
ment, I take my rest, my joy is no longer that of the just ;
it is not even that of reason ; it is perverted, falsified, debased ;
it is that of the animal man, of the evil nature, of the world
under a curse. This is the joy so often anathematized by
God and by His saints.

Every creature, in which I take my rest solely for the sake
of the pleasure I find in it, stops my progress towards God,
and my union with Him. However noble this creature may
be, however high or supernatural I may suppose it to be, even
if it were a most pre-eminent gift of God’s, since nothing of
this kind is God, but only a gift of God’s, if I stop therein, if
I attach myself thereto, if therein I take my rest, I stop,
attach myself, and rest outside God. And He Himself alone
is the term of my movement, the place of my rest.

1 Fascinatio nugacitatis obscurat bona, et inconstantia concupis-
centiæ transvertit sensum sine malitia (Sap. iv. 12).

64 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VII
Disorder

Attachment to Self

36. Appropriation.—37. Self-seeking.—38. The evil is not in satis-
faction, but in subversion.—39. Gloria mea nihil est.

36. Appropriation.—In adhering to the creature and in
taking my rest outside God, I stay something of the creature
in myself, and I stay something of myself in creatures. I
thus take away from God a part of my life and a part of those
things which ought to be of use to me for Him. What of
creatures I take away from God, and the part of my life that
I share, these I appropriate to myself. And from this it is
that arise selfishness, self-love, and self-interest. Whatever
of my mind and its views stops at myself and goes no higher,
constitutes selfishness. Whatever of my will and its affec-
tions is attached to myself and does not go to God, constitutes
self-love. Whatever of my powers and their actions rests in
myself and does not go further, constitutes self-interest.

It is against this undue appropriation, this ‘“ propriety ”
(“propre”), that the saints have penned such terrible
anathemas : especially do mystical writers show us in regard
thereto depths which are alarming, and in which we get a
closer view of what is meant by God’s all, and by the absolute
and essential duty of referring all to Him. He intends the
sacrifice of praise to be complete and universal, the holocaust
to be entire ; He hates and cannot endure the least robbery
in this holocaust.1 He wills my union with Himself, and this
higher, sovereign union excludes all foreign adherence, or any
union which makes me stay in things created.

37. Self-seeking.—When in creatures and in their pleasures
I rather see means of satisfying myself than of glorifying
God ; when I love them rather for my own happiness than for
His honour ; when I use them rather for my own pleasure than

1 Ego Dominus diligens judicium et odio habens rapinam in holo-
causto (Is. lxi. 8).

de

THE END: ORGANIZATION 65

for His, my life is no longer applied to seeing; loving, and
seeking God ; it is applied to seeing, loving, and seeking myself.

Self-seeking, seeking self instead of God, this is my great
temptation ; my satisfaction before all else, this is the con-
tinual tendency of my nature, its primary need, its strongest
inclination. To satisfy myself in and through creatures, to
the point of dividing, neglecting, forgetting, hurting, and
trampling under foot God’s glory, this is the leaning of my
vitiated nature. In satisfaction of the mind by pride and of
the body by sensuality, lies the whole of the evil ; and, since
sensuality and pride are at bottom only the same thing, self-
seeking, in naming self-seeking 1 have named what hinders
my piety and God’s glory, the source of my defects, the cause
of my sins, the deep root of the evil in me and in my life.
Every time that I stray from the law of my creation, it is by
seeking myself in the pleasure of things created, and because
my selfish satisfaction is put in the front rank instead of God’s
glory.

38. The evil is not in satisfaction, but in subversion.—The
evil in itself does not lie in seeking my satisfaction. Neither
the final satisfaction of my increase in God, nor the instru-
mental satisfaction of pleasure in created things, is bad in
itself ; on the contrary, both are good, and very good. God
having willed and made them for me, neither the one nor the
other can be bad in itself. All that comes from God is good.
The evil is not in my satisfaction in itself ; it is in the manner
in which I seek it, it is in the subversion which I bring about
in order to secure it. My satisfaction must remain below the
glory of God, must come after it, and help it ; and as for me,
I try to get it in creatures and set it before and above God.
The evil lies in the displacement and subversion.

39. Gloria mea nihil est.—“‘ It is true,” says St. Francis of
Sales,! ‘‘ that what we do for our salvation is done for God’s
service, provided that we refer our salvation to His glory as
its finalend. It is also true to say that our Saviour has made
our salvation in this world only a secondary end, but that He
has referred it as a final end to His Father’s glory ; Himself
‘Saying that He came not to seek His own glory, but the glory

1 The Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, Book XVIII, ch. xii.
5

66 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of Him that sent Him ; and He went so far as to protest that *
if He sought His own glory, His glory would be nothing, which
means it would be vain if God’s glory were not its chief end.’
Our Saviour’s glory indisputably holds the most pre-eminent
place among created satisfactions and goods. What is my
glory compared to our Saviour’s glory ? And if our Saviour
declares that His glory is vanity and nothingness apart from ©
His Father’s, how must it be with all other satisfactions of
creatures ? Vanity, nothingness, disorder, such is every satis-
faction sought apart from God’s glory.

CHAPTER VIII
Disorder
Its Effects

40. Perversion.—41. Evil —42. Lies —43. Vanity.—44. Slavery.—
45. Universal groaning.—46. Death.

40. Perversion.— What I do contrary to God’s glory, and
which does not go directly or indirectly to this end, is per-
version and evil, lies and vanity, slavery for myself and for
creatures, and lastly, death.

Whatever in me goes contrary to God’s glory is radical
perversion and iniquity: it destroys God’s plan, breaks down
the order of my life, and annihilates the very thing for which
God made me, and for which He made all that in any way
concerns me. This is the perversion that puts me at variance
with the essence of things—and which, by destroying my
raison d’être, would destroy my being and all beings, if God’s
works could be destroyed, and if God, by His power, were not
to bring back my being to render to Himself in another
manner the glory which I am seeking to destroy. No creature
will ever be able to understand what is the meaning of a
single sin! The perversion of sin! This is an unfathomable
mystery! This is eu /

1 Ego non quero gloriam meam . . . si ego glorifico meipsum,
gloria mea nihil est (Joan viii. 50 and 54).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 67

4r. Evil.—For there is only one evil—as there is only one
good.—The one essential good is God’s glory. The one
essential evil is that which destroys this good, that which
attacks God’s glory,—sin.—This is the evil!—All created
goods have in them only that of good which procures God’s
glory. All the evils in the world have in them only that of
evil which participates in sin.—In all evils that which is evil
is the portion of sin which has crept into them.—Nothing is
evil except sin and what belongs to sin. God’s glory is the
one and universal good.—Sin is the one and universal evil.—
O God ! what a quantity of evils there are in the world ! and
yet there is only one !—It I only knew how to understand
this !

God’s glory is God’s one good, since He can only act for
His own glory ; it is also my one good, since it is my entire
end. Apart from this, there is no other good than that which
leads to this highest good. In the same way, sin may be
called God’s evil, since it attacks God’s one good ; and it is
my highest evil, since it deprives me of my highest good.
Apart from sin, there is no other evil than that which leads
thereto or comes therefrom.

Good and evil! God alone has a real knowledge of them.
“You shall be as gods, knowing good and evil ” (Gen. iii. 5).
Such is the perfidious promise of the tempter. Of a truth, if
I knew good and evil as they are, I should become like God
by participating in His knowledge ; knowing in all things how
much good and how much evil there is, how much is for His
glory and how much is contrary thereto, this is, indeed, the
great thing to know. Oh, how much I need to acquire this
knowledge ! |

42. Lies.—Disorder may exist in my mind, in my heart; in
my actions. In my mind, it produces lies ; in my heart,
vanity ; in my actions, slavery.

When my sight is centred on myself and wanders away
from seeing God, my mind belies its destiny ; for it is made
to see God. In the creature, when I look at that only which
can give me satisfaction, when I consider it merely from the
point of view of my human utility, my mind is once more in
error and lies ; for it is made to see in the creature the means

68 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of going to God. Is it not the great falsehood, indeed, to
look for myself in creatures, to think that they are made
mainly for me, and to put myself in God’s place? Thus, I
deceive myself, and make creatures belie their destiny.

Moreover, the great murderer from the beginning, the devil,
the father of all those who refuse God’s glory and seek it for
themselves, stood not in the truth, the truth is not in him;
he lies, and has his root therein; for he is a liar, and the
father thereof.1 He is the liar, the great liar, because he
seeks in all things to usurp the glory of God. He is the
father of lies, because he urges men to look for nothing but
their own satisfaction in all things, and prevents them from
considering their Creator’s praise.

43. Vanity.—Love, if it stop at idle enjoyment, only
cleaves to vanity and emptiness. Oh, how empty are
creatures, if I do not try to find in them that which is their
fulness and essence! “Vanity of vanities,’’ said Ecclesiastes ;
“vanity of vanities, and all is vanity ” (Eccles. i. 2). Vanity
means the creature when void of God. Every created thing
that I love exclusively for my own satisfaction is vanity to me,
because to me it is void of God. How empty are the pleasures
of the world, and what a void do they create in the soul! We
must, indeed, have experienced what fulness means in order
to feel the meaning of emptiness! It is only after having
felt something of the fulness of God, the fulness that comes
from the love of His glory, that a soul begins to feel the vanity
of its own selfish satisfaction ; it knows what emptiness is,
it feels its depth, it knows what a burden it is.

Yes, indeed, everything in my life which is no help, which
does not somehow contribute to the love of God’s glory, is
useless and null and wasted. Being made, and made only for
that, if I do it not, I am no good, I am worthless, I am nothing.
Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity! O God! am I not
entirely vanity, I, who live so little and so rarely in the love
of Thy glory ?

44. Slavery.—When I seek my human pleasure in things

1 Ille homocida erat ab initio et in veritate non stetit, quia non est

veritas in eo; quum loquitur mendacium, ex propriis loquitur, quia
mendax est et pater ejus (Joan. viii. 44).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 69

created, when I seek in them my life’s repose, I become a
slave. There arise in me deep, insatiable, constantly grow-
ing needs. I no longer have any control over my own appe-
tites, nor over the witchery and tyranny of the influence of
things around me. A sad servitude is this, and it makes
my existence the plaything of what is meant for my use!

In fact, what has become an ultimate necessity to me is
a form of slavery. I cannot withdraw myself from the
dominion of the end which has become a necessity to me ; I
am under it, it is my master, and I am its servant. As soon
as I set the end of my life in the enjoyment of things created,
they become the dominant necessity of my life, they bind
me with an imperious tyranny, and I become their slave.

And I see clearly that this is the case. For what is the
source of my uneasiness, of my trouble, of my disturbance,
of my sadness, all of which are signs of my slavery ?—The
one source is seeking my own pleasure. I am uneasy, when
I am afraid of having it taken from me; troubled, when
I have lost it; disturbed, when it is difficult to get it;
discouraged, when I no longer see how to find it ; sad, when
it is altogether wanting to me.

I am aslave in the measure in which I seek my own pleasure ;
unhappy, exactly in proportion to the way in which I desire
to place human happiness in the forefront of my life. Such
is the just punishment of broken order! For, says St. Augus-
tine, he who does not give God His due by doing as he ought
renders it to Him by suffering as he ought. Nor is there any
interval between these two things ; at the very moment when
he does not as he ought, he suffers as he ought. For the
beauty of the universal order cannot endure to be defiled
for a single moment with the ugliness of sin without being
made good by the beauty of punishment.}

45. Universal groaning.—Creatures, all created things, so
far as I am concerned. are essentially only instruments—
instruments ordained for God’s glory: this is their essential

1 Si non reddit faciendo quod debet, reddit patiendo quod debet.
Nullo autem temporis intervallo ista dividuntur, ut quasi alio tempore
non faciat quod debet, et alio patiatur quod debet ; ne vel puncto

_ temporis universalis pulchritudo turpetur, ut sit in ea poe dedecus
sine decore vindictæ (De libero arbitrio, iii. 44).

70 THE INTERIOR LIFE

destination. If I use them for another end, if I employ them
mainly for another purpose, the use I thus make of them is,
as far as I am concerned, always foolish, usually hurtful, and
often wrong. So far as created things are concerned, it is a
use which violates order and is contrary to nature; for I
turn them aside in a disorderly way from the great purpose
for which they were created. St. Paul, in his energetic way,
speaks of the way in which they are violated. The whole of
creation, he says, waits with great expectation for the revela-
tion of the sons of God, because it is now subject to vanity,
not willingly, but by reason of Him that made it subject,
in hope that itself also shall be delivered from the servitude
of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of
God. For we know that every creature groaneth and
travaileth in pain as of child-birth until now !!\—What a word
is this !—St. Paul sorrowfully heard this universal groaning :
“we know,” says he. And what do I know of it ?—I make
the whole of creation groan, and, thrice deaf, I hear nothing.

46. Death.—Finally, if order is life, disorder is death. And
what is death ?—It means separation, disintegration, anni-
hilation ; separation from the principle of life, disintegration
of the true elements of being, and the annihilation of its
existence. Death is complete, when this threefold work is
finished ; death has begun, wherever this threefold work has
begun. Its reign extends wherever there is separation, dis-
integration, and annihilation.

Disorder is a kind of death, because it makes me leave God,
establishing a more or less pronounced separation between
Him and me. It is my death, because it disintegrates the
oneness of my faculties, which it scatters and disperses amidst
creatures. It is my death, because it hinders my growth
for God, lessens my being, and dries up or annihilates my
merits. Thereby I am separated from God, dispersed amidst
creatures, lessened in myself. The reign of death is within
me; and it works baneful destruction just where life alone

1 Expectatio creature revelationem filiorum Dei expectat. Vanitati
enim creatura subjecta est non volens, sed propter eum qui subjecit
eam in spe; quia et ipsa creatura liberabitur a servitute corruptionis

in libertatem filiorum Dei. Scimus enim quod omnis creatura in-
gemiscit et parturit usque adhuc (Rom. viii. 19-22).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 71

should be increasing. Alas! how lamentable do I feel the
works of death within me to be! I am far from God, so
scattered amidst creatures, so weak in myself!

CHAPTER IX
Disorder

Its Degrees

47. The descent.—48. Division.—49. Domination.—50. Exclusion—
51. The three stages of evil.—52. Fhe three stages of life.

47. The descent.—Disorder is very extensive ; it stretches
from heaven to hell. What a distance there is between a
soul which almost touches heaven and only bears the least
trace of the dust of earth, and one about to be flung into
eternal fire! Hence, disorder has various degrees ; can they
be measured in any way ?—It is clear that I cannot calculate
each of the increases which my soul may gain, nor each of
the losses which disorder may inflict upon it. What is
possible and useful is to characterize in its broad outlines the
progress of evil which separates me from God.

And since there is deviation, in order to appreciate it, I
must first of all see where it begins, so that I may afterwards
be able to ascertain where it ends. Therefore, by proceeding
from above to below, 1.e., by following the downward descent
of the soul in its deviation, I shall be able to form an idea of
its disorder. If I would then consider how it is to be cor-
rected, I shall have to proceed from below to above, 1.e., to
follow the progress of the soul in its return. Let us first
look at its descent.

48. Division.—Since disorder is radically an aberration of
the soul, which permits itself to be bewitched and taken up
with pleasure in creatures, a division occurs in this first
deviation from God. The stream of life no longer sets wholly
towards God, it is severed, and one part of it is diverted
towards creatures. And in this way, my divided interest,
my human pleasure, is put very nearly on the same foot-

32 THE INTERIOR LIFE

ing as God. I no longer consider God as my one ail, I
think of Him as no longer being sufficient, in Himself alone,
for my hope, my happiness and my life. I find in myself
something apart from Him, something that divides with Him
the honour of being, to some extent, the end of my life’s
progress. I get attached to myself and to creatures, and in
me there occurs a sort of rupture through which something
of my personality escapes ; and this leakage frustrates God
of the all which He has a right to expect and to require, in
reality, from me. Diliges ex toto.

What an astounding .wrong is done to God, if He is com-
pared with the creature, if the latter is allowed to share my
life with Him, and thus to frustrate Him of a part of my being,
and of a part of those beings destined to glorify Him through
me, and which I appropriate to myself !

49. Domination.—But appropriation does not stop short
at division ; it ‘‘ goes further still,” as St. Francis of Sales
would say, it comes to domination. Then, it is no longer a
juxtaposition of false human interest with the divine in-
terest, there is superposition. The pleasure of created things
ends by getting a more or less pronounced preponderance
over immortal glory. In the mind, certain ways of looking
at and judging matters, assign to things human a higher
place than things divine. In the heart, certain affections
give the preference to human satisfaction. In the actions,
certain endeavours put selfish interests above sacred interests.

This is a still greater disorder, it means subversion, it means
that man is higher than God. It is no longer merely a failure
to understand God’s all, it is also the misunderstanding of
God’s sovereignty. It is a more or less extended, a more or
less conscious subversion, whereby that which ought to be
only an instrumental facility, subordinate even to the use of
the instrument, comes to predominate over God’s glory ; that
which is very secondary thus tends to become the chief thing,
the accidental to become the essential, selfish satisfaction to
take the first place; the servant to put himself above his
Master, the creature before the Creator.

50. Exclusion.—And with the still further mrotblne
of pleasure upon God’s rights, disorder finally is carried to

THE END: ORGANIZATION 73

such an excess that the Supreme Master is supremely mis-
understood, and His rights are excluded. The direction of
the soul towards disorderly satisfaction is so great that it
becomes totally turned away from God. The supernatural
union is broken, the divine life is lost, the divine glory is
annihilated. Destruction of life, exclusion of God’s glory,
such is the last depth of the abyss.

51. The three stages of evil.—Here then are the three suc-
cessive stages in the long descent from God : division, domina-
tion, exclusion ; false pleasure first divides, then dominates,
and finally excludes God’s glory. And these are three real
stages.

For division has a long way to run before it gets to domina-
tion. And domination itself has far to go before reaching
exclusion. And exclusion finally increases with the multi-
plication of iniquity. Consequently, these are the three
stages of evil.

52. The three stages of life.—Piety, which is the journey
back to God, reascends these three stages, starting from the
depths to attain the heights.

It begins by restoring life to the soul, and drags it forth
from the deeps of evil, from excluding God’s glory. This
is the first stage of its ascent : it may be called the reawaken-
ing of life, or the recognition of God. It is the recovery of
union,

It will next correct the disorder of my satisfaction pre-
dominating over God’s glory; it will go on to efface and
abolish the falseness of human preferences, the usurpation of
the divine by the human. This will be the second great
stage, which I shall call the growth of life, or God first. This
will be the perfecting of union.

Finally, it will desire to purify and wipe out all traces of
division ; it will not allow false human interests to come into
comparison and to mingle with divine interests. And this
will be the third and last stage, which I shall call the summits
of life, or God only. And this will be the consummation of
union.

These three stages of life are to be found in spiritual writers
under various names. Thus, some say: the states of begin-

74 THE INTERIOR LIFE

ning, advancement, and perfection. Others: the purgative,
illuminative, and unitive life. Others: the fundamental
Christian life, the ascetic, and the mystic life. St. Ignatius
says : the first, second, and third degrees of humility. These
various names are not, however, synonymous; for they
consider life from different points of view, and they do not
uniformly attribute to each of their three degrees the same
extent and the same character. Nevertheless, they approxi-
mate to one another, in that they all divide the entire eleva-
tion of the spiritual edifice into three stages.

We must now consider these three stages of life. The last
chapter of this second Book will be briefly devoted to the first
stage of the reawakening of the soul. Then in the third Book
there will be studied at greater length the growth of life,
and the fourth will be taken up with the summits.

CHAPTER X
Avoiding Mortal Sin

The First Degree of Piety

53. Sin. — 54. Restoration. — 55. Habit.— 56. The multiplicity of
actions and the oneness of disposition. — 57. Eagerness to be
avoided.—58. The height of this first step.

53. Sin.—If I set my own satisfaction before God’s glory
in such a way as to break with Him altogether and to separate
myself entirely from Him, that is mortal sin. Mortal sin is
the domination of human satisfaction to the point of a grave
and formal infraction of a divine commandment. It is the
complete and radical subversion of the essential order of my
creation, it is the destruction wifhin me of God’s plan, it is
disorder in all its dreadful perversity. I face God, and
trample His glory under foot, by sacrificing it to my own
pleasure. All those who sin are devoid of God’s glory.

This is the evil which must be lamented with the tears

! Omnes enim peccaverunt et egent gloria Dei (Rom. iii 23).

THE END: ORGANIZATION 75

which Holy Scripture so rightly callsirremediable.! Such were
the tears of Jeremias. ‘Consider diligently ; and see if there
hath been done anything like this. Ifa nation hath changed
their gods, and indeed they are not gods: but my people
have changed their glory into an idol. Be astonished, O
ye heavens, at this: and ye gates thereof, be very desolate,
saith the Lord ” (Jer. ii. 10-12).

54. Restoration.—To restore order herein, means to place
my satisfaction below God’s glory and service, and never to
allow the former to subvert it mortally and to exclude it ;
this is the first degree of piety. The lowest depth in the abyss
of disorder consists in seeing, loving, and seeking my p'easure
in created things to the point of breaking with God and of
destroying His glory. The first degree of piety consists in
seeing, loving, and seeking God’s glory in preference to my
own pleasure in all grave circumstances in which my pleasure
would tend to separate me from God ; in maintaining this
divine glory in its place as the principal object of my sight,
of my love, and of my search.

And as for my own pleasure, if I can harmonize it with
God’s glory, I shall be satisfied with putting it in its place,
and of assigning it its function. But if I could not reconcile
it therewith, if it is absolutely bad, I shall sacrifice it. And
even if I had to sacrifice my life in doing this, I should sacri-
fice it: such is the price which I must be ready to pay for
maintaining God’s glory in the first place in my existence.
No pleasure, not even that of life itself, ought to take its
place.

55. Habit.—Piety will have attained this degree in me when
I have sufficiently acquired readiness and facility in making
the sacrifices necessary for avoiding mortal sin. When I have
the disposition to rectify and to sacrifice, if need be, every
satisfaction rather than to commit a single mortal sin volun-
tarily ; when, if occasion so require, I act thus with promptness
and facility; when this disposition is perfectly established
in my soul, I have reached the first degree of piety.

In order to be perfect, this disposition must be established

_ throughout my being, dominate all my faculties, and affect

1 Flebat irremediabilibus lacrymis (Tob. x. 4).

76 THE INTERIOR LIFE

my whole life. ‘Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with
thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole
mind, and with thy whole strength ” (Mark xii. 30). Mortal
sin must have no place in my mind or heart Or soul or body:
no creature and no circumstance must be able to make it
enter therein, unless it be by surprise. I say, surprise ; for
our poor human frailty is so great that such wretchedness
is always possible, even in the best and strongest dispositions.
But these passing accidents do not prevent the acquired habit
from subsisting, and do not make the soul fall away from
the state which it has attained. In speaking of a state of
soul or a degree of virtue, we must never take into the reckon-
ing mere somersaults arising from sins of pure frailty.

56. The multiplicity of acts and the oneness of disposition.—
It is, indeed, with the state of the soul and with the degree
of virtue that we here have to do. For now I do not mean
to study acts, or the practice of any particular virtue. I
intend to consider only the sole and unique central disposition,
the universal resultant of all acts and of all dispositions,
which concentrates and sums up in its living unity all the
virtues, and which is called piety. It is upon this whole
and this unity that I fix my regard ; and its developments and
degrees of increase are what I now mean to look at. The
avoidance of mortal sin is the first degree of it, the first stage
of the return to life.

This degree, like all those that come after it, is not charac-
terized by the greater or less multiplicity of the acts pro-
duced, but by the oneness and perfection attained by the
disposition. The soul, indeed, only succeeds in getting
established in a definite state in the measure in which it
attains to the oneness of its characteristic disposition. I
know well that this disposition is acquired by the repetition
of acts ; but the repetition of acts, if it contributes to form
habits, is, nevertheless, not the habit itself. In fact the
habit has its natural root in the tendencies of the soul, and
its supernatural root in infused graces. And it is developed
not only by my human work, but above all by God’s work in
me. I shall see this in the second part. Hence, the repeti-
tion of acts enters only as the fourth and last factor into the

THE END: ORGANIZATION 77

formation of piety. There are, indeed, the following factors
in my life ; first of all, natural tendencies, then, supernatural
graces, next providential action, and lastly, my personal
action. Piety is the final result of these four factors.

57. Eagerness is to be avoided.—These reflections, which will
be given their necessary explanation later on, must be re-
called here, in order to put me on my guard against the im-
patience and disquiet of human tendencies. Indeed, with
the mania for feverish fuss which carries away souls of good-
will in these days, I shall be immediately borne off to plunge
headlong into anxious or impatient agitation, leading me
either to dread the impossibility, or else to expect to find a
too speedy possibility, of getting established in a state the
beauty of which attracts me. And I should find myself left
amidst anxious and vain fears, and should wear myself out
in thoughtless and fruitless proceedings.

No, no, let there be not too much eagerness ; we do not
begin to build before making our design, we do not start
before knowing the end. The architect takes his time to
draw out his plans in full detail ; he only sets the workmen
to build after the plans are all ready. The traveller takes his
time to study and prepare for his journey ; he only makes a
start after all the preparations are quite finished.

Thus, here, I am going to forearm myself against any attacks
of fear or precipitation. I am going to consider in all its
height the divine plan of my life, and I am going to take
stock of it with calmness, without asking myself at the out-
set how I shall succeed in carrying it into execution. For
it is not a good thing to mingle and confuse the two kinds of
work together. I intend, then, to be diligent in studying.
first of all, the end; and I mean to study it thoroughly.
Questions of ways and means will afterwards come in their
place at the proper time. Whatever impatience or uncer-
tainties there may be, whatever fears and improbabilities and
discouragements I may experience, these are hares I shall not
start. There is a time, and there is a place, for everything.

This much being laid down by way of precaution, I return
to the consideration of the first degree of piety, which is the
avoidance of mortal sin.

78 THE INTERIOR LIFE

58. The height of this first step.—The avoidance of mortal
sin is already one degree of piety, since it is seeing, loving,
and seeking God that make us avoid sin. Wherever these
three things are united: sight, love, and seeking for God, there
is piety. However weak its beginnings may be, these begin-
nings always belong to this great disposition, which is the
summing up and the living unity of Christian life.

Besides, it is not the work of a day to succeed, not only
in driving away mortal sin in practice, not only in possessing
the disposition which avoids it at all costs, but in establish-
ing, securing, and fortifying this disposition in such a way
as to give me facility and readiness in making all the sacrifices
which may be actually necessary, even the sacrifice of life
itself, in order to avoid a single mortal sin. And this facility
and readiness must be established in the senses, in the heart,
in the mind, and in my whole being.

Have I reached this point ?—Do I not still halt between
two sides, and do I sufficiently understand to what extent
the Lord is my God, and to what extent I ought to serve Him ?1
In my struggle against sin, have I resisted to the blood ?2
Can I even say, O my God, I have ascended only the first step
of piety ?—Am I sure that I have done that much ?—What
facility do my mind, my heart, my senses, possess in the
rejection of sin—and of the thought of sin ?—I have lived in
sin—have I quite got free from it ?—Has it not left behind in
me secret and deep affections ?—Am I really restored and
quite purified ?—What am I, O my God?... Aheap ofearth
and ashes: be Thou glorified !8—What is my piety, if I have
not reached the first rung of the ladder ?

1 Usquequo claudicatis in duas partes? Si Dominus est Deus,
sequimini eum (3 Kings xviii. 21).

2 Nondum enim usque ad sanguinem restitistis, adversus peccatum

repugnantes (Heb. xii. 4).
Quid superbit terra et cinis ? (Ecclus. x 9).

BOOK III
GROWTH

When it has eliminated the evil of mortal sin, my soul has
restored within itself the foundations of order and recovered
life. And when it has become sufficiently steadfast to remain
habitually in a state of grace, it leads a fundamentally Chris-
tian life. The deepest part of its disorder, which I have
called the ‘‘ exclusion ’’ of God’s glory, has been got rid of;
the first stage of life, which I have called “ the re-awakening
of the soul,” has been traversed ; God has been found once
more.

Now opens the second stage, that of “ growth.” The evil
to be expelled is the “‘ domination ” of the human over the
divine, the falseness of certain preferences for created things,
dominating and therefore hurting and lessening God’s glory.
. When this part of the spiritual journey is designated the
ascetic life, which means the life of exercise, we consider
primarily the human side, man’s efforts, which, more especi-
ally in this part of one’s career, are exercised in setting one
free from what is human and in seeking the divine by various
practices of prayer and penance. If we call it the illumina-
tive life, we consider primarily the divine side, the gifts of
God which impart eternal enlightenment to the soul. Since
I am not now anxious to ascertain accurately the function of
human efforts nor to define God’s gifts, which are the two
factors of life, but to follow life itself in its halts and advances,
I characterize this stage as ‘ domination ”’ of the human, with
regard to the things that bring it to a standstill; and as
“‘ growth,” so far as its forward movement is concerned.

In what does domination consist ?—It seems to me to have
two steps, venial sin, and imperfection. Growth will there-
fore consist in the elimination of this twofold evil. It is this
evil and this elimination that I am about to consider in this
third book.

79

CHAPTER I
Avoiding Venial Sin

' The Second Degree of Piety
1. Sin.—2. Its gravity.—3. Restoration.—4. The height of this step.

1. Sin.—What is venial sin ?—It is the domination of
human satisfaction to the point of a formal infraction of a
divine precept.

It is domination. Being fastened to creatures by the

mucilage of pleasure, my soul prefers its satisfaction to God’s
order ; it is satisfied with itself and dissatisfied with God.
The commandment is there, and it is binding ; my soul per-
ceives it, at least to some extent; and it chooses its false
satisfaction. This is the dominance of pleasure.
_ But it is not so far dominant as to exclude God’s glory
altogether, and the infraction it produces is but slight ;
whether the levity comes from the matter, which is not grave
in itself, or through the weight of the prohibition that forbids
it; or whether it comes from a want of sufficiency in my
advertency or in my consent. And just because the offence
does not amount to being grave, it does not deprive me of
life ; my soul is not altogether turned aside and separated
from God. It is a sort of injury done to the soul, and it is also
an injury done to God.

2. Its gravity.— Although not nearly so grave by nature
and in its effects as mortal sin, this evil is nevertheless essen-
tially a disorder, in other words, an evil compared with which
all others do not deserve to be called evils. Unfortunately,
pleasure is so much my rule of life that it is difficult for me
to understand it, and still more to feel it. I so easily under-
stand the evils that attack my pleasure, and I feel them so
strongly !—I understand so hardly the evil which attacks God’s :
glory, and I feel it so little! Who can understand sins (Ps.

xvii. 13) ? Who is wise, and can understand these things ?
80

THE END: GROWTH 81

Who is intelligent, and can know them ?!}—O my God! in
what aberration do I live, when I call evil that which is
hardly so at all, and when I find it so difficult to think that
is evil which is so very ill !—The evils that afflict me are often
so good for me! Venial sin is never this! The greatest ills
always involve some good ; in the least of venial sins, so far
as it is sin, there is not the least trace of any good !—Who can
understand sin ?

3. Restoration.—The second degree of piety consists in the
rectification of this disorder. In the circumstances in which
there is venial sin, 7.¢., where my own satisfaction, coming
before God’s glory, injures and wounds it, I shall succeed in
reserving for the divine glory its proper place and rights,
No forbidden pleasure will usurp its position.

What constitutes this degree is a thoroughly acquired
facility and readiness in putting my own satisfaction in its
own place, and in assigning to it its proper function, without
allowing it, of deliberate intention, the least venial exhibition.
And this facility must dominate and sway my whole mind,
my whole heart, and my whole body. Diliges ex toto.—It
must extend to all circumstances and to all creatures. And
if I must sacrifice my own Satisfaction, if I must immolate
life itself, rather than commit voluntarily and deliberately
the least verial sin, I am ready to make the sacrifice. Nothing,
not even the fear of death, should make me commit a venial
sin voluntarily. When this disposition is established in the
soul, when I make the necessary sacrifices with readiness and
facility rather than deliberately allow my satisfaction a venial
deviation, then I have reached the second degree of piety,
which is the avoidance of venial sin. Such a life is solidly
Christian.

4. The height of this step.—The perfection of this degree is
by no means so easily attained. For finally to purify the
mind, the heart and the senses, from all affections and attach-
ments, even those which are venial ; to undo one after the
other the meshes so closely interwoven by the venial habits,
which enclose my poor human nature; to purify so many
inward sinuosities which conceal thoughts of pride, affections

+ Quis sapiens et intelliget ista, intelligens et sciet hac? (Os. xiv. 10).
8

™~

82 THE INTERIOR LIFE

for creatures, and sensual leanings; to raise all my powers
to such a facility and readiness in restoration as prevents
any venial recurrence, in all this, it must be admitted,
there is work which is almost infinite. From the first
degree of piety to this second step in its perfection, what a
course has to be run !—lIf, indeed, it is already a difficult
matter to become established for good in the entire avoidance
of mortal sin, what is to be said of the entire avoidance of
venial sin ? The occasions of venial sin are far more numerous
than those of mortal sin.

And where am I? Alas! how numerous are my venial
sins !—Does not self-seeking lead me at every turn to wrong
God ?—and this, although I know it well ?—although I fully
take it into account ?—And how many sins there are which
I am almost unaware of, arising from habits over which I
keep no watch !—How often my evil instincts, but little or
scarcely repressed, increase the number of my affronts, and I
hardly take any notice of them !—Oh, these venial sins! I
do not consider how many they are ! they are more in number
than the hairs of my head.

CHAPTER-T1I
Imperfection

The Domination of the Human

5. Its definition.—6. The domination of human pleasure.—7. What
is the harm of it ?—8. The source of the evil.

5. Its definition.—Along with venial sin does all trace of
“the domination of the human ”’ disappear ?—The work has
already made progress, but it is by no means yet finished.
The first part of the stage of growth is over; but a second
part remains, and this is also higher and more extended.
After having got rid of the hurts resulting from venial sin, I
have to break away from the bonds of imperfection.

1 Comprehenderunt me iniquitates mez et non potui ut viderem |
multiplicatæ sunt super capillos capitis mei (Ps. xxxix. 13).

THE END: GROWTH 83

Wherein does this evil consist ? What is imperfection ?—
[t is the domination of human satisfaction up to the point of
the simple transgression of a counsel, or the non-culpable
transgression of a precept. It is seeking myself and my own
pleasure before God’s glory in things naturally good or even
bad in themselves, but without there being any formal offence
against God. When, without any formal offence against the
divine Majesty, I use some created thing primarily for myself,
staying at self to some extent, directing my act too much
towards my own satisfaction, or too much dominated by the
influence of my own nature, I commit an imperfection.

Two signs clearly characterize this disorder: 1. the
domination of what is human; 2. the absence of what is
called a formal offence against God. And these two signs
must be explained. The first, the domination of the human,
will be the subject of this chapter. The second, the absence
of any formal offence against God, will be treated in the next
chapter.

6. The domination of human pleasure.—This domination,
known or unknown, intended or not, actual or habitual, may
influence an act or the mode of its doing. This fact gives rise
to involuntary and to voluntary imperfections: the latter
known and intended, the former wanting in advertence or
consent. Without causing the act to go beyond the limits of
the useful and the honest, this domination nevertheless makes
it stop short, to some extent, at myself primarily. There is
too much adherence and stopping short at pleasure, which
ought, indeed, to be only a means of inspiration ; and it is
this adherence and this stopping short which deprive my
movement of some of the relationship which it should possess,
at least virtually, with God’s glory in the first place. And
thus I am led to fall short of the fulness of the counsel given
by the Apostle: ‘ Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever
else you do ; do all to the glory of God ” (1 Cor. x. 31).

Nowhere, and in nothing, must God be given the second
place. The intention of my act may go to Him first, either
actually or virtually ;1 the essential thing is that it should go

1 See § 50 further on, for the question of actual and habitual
intention,

84 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to Him in some way, and that my own satisfaction should be
subjected to His service. Without going so far as to offend
Him formally, I must also not act with regard to Him, even
in what is good, like some unmannerly person who always
pushes into the first place, and who speaks and helps himself
first. Impoliteness is quite out of place in dealing with men,
it is much more so with God. It is certainly less lamentable
to fall short in human decorum than to be wanting in what
is due to God.

7. What is the harm of it ?—This evil arises from a habit of
our evil nature which recoils upon itself through selfish anxiety.
According te the energetic words of Holy Scripture, the soul
is here to some extent “‘ bowed down.’? It yields to the
tendency towards self-seeking which makes me look instinc-
tively first of all for that in the creature which cajoles me,
And though I am often unconscious of it, the strength of this
habit leads my eyes to see, my heart to love, my senses to
act, by and for a sort of personal preference, so that good
itself is seen, loved, and sought for, under some human aspect.
And the viscosity of things created fastens to myself, in some
measure, the employment and the care of my faculties. In
all this, I am in reality following natural instincts rather than
the leadings of grace.

8. The source of the evil—Hence, the source of imperfec-
tion must be sought in the tendencies, instincts, and habits
of our evil nature. And I must look for this source. Here,
indeed, I desire to study my inner life: And since the ques-
tion at stake is for me to define the steps of my soul’s ascent
towards God by way of interior purification, I cannot be
satisfied with characterizing my acts by their external and
objective disagreement with the divine order, and by their
pernicious effects. It is far from being all to ascertain that
such and such an act is opposed mortally, venially, or im-
perfectly, to the intended order of God, and that it produces
unhappy results within me ; I must also know why and how
my soul is led into this opposition and into this unhappy
state. I must discover the source.

First of all, I tried to find this source in the case of mortal

1 Incurvaverunt animam meam (Ps. lvi. 7).

THE END: GROWTH 85

sin, and then in the case of venial sin, and now I must try to
find it in the case of imperfection. And I find that it is in
what is the sole reservoir of the manifestations of disorder in
all its stages. It is the more or less close adherence of my
being by means of pleasure to things created. Thus it is
that I have come to recognize the domination of human satis-
faction up to the point of excluding the divine life and glory,
by the grave and formal infraction of a divine precept in
mortal sin. In the case of venial sin, I saw human pleasure
dominating me up to the point of the slight breach of a
precept. Here, in the case of imperfection, I again find this
domination of false satisfaction ; the adherence to what is
created is still strong enough to set up a preference, a pre-
dominance of the human, which leads to the neglect of a
counsel, or to the non-culpable infraction of a precept.

CHAPTER ITI
Imperfection

The Absence of Formal Offence

9. The second characteristic of imperfection.—10. The transgression
of a counsel.—11. The non-culpable transgression of a precept.—
12. “ Go behind Me, Satan.’’—13. The Saviour’s reasons.

9. The second characteristic of imperfection.—The first
characteristic which essentially constitutes imperfection is,
then, a certain dominance of the human over the divine. A
second characteristic, which is inseparable from the first, is
the absence of any formal offence. Since, according to the
language of the School, a definition is made by way of genus
and species, I should say that, in the definition of imperfec-
tion, the domination of the human is the genus, and the
absence of formal offence is the species. The predominance
of the human causes it to resemble sin, the absence of formal
offence is what differentiates it.

Hence, in imperfection, the predominance of the human
never rises to the point of inducing my soul to commit a

86 THE INTERIOR LIFE

formal offence against the divine Majesty. And the imper-
fection may come about in two ways: either by the simple
transgression of a counsel, or else by the non-culpable trans-
gression of a precept.

10. The transgression of a counsel.—I call the simple
transgression of a counsel that which is not complicated
either by a venial or a mortal sin ; for it is clear that sin,
too, leads to the neglect of counsels. But no doubt I may
happen to leave a counsel undone without any admixture of
sin in the omission : whether this transgression occur through
omission or commission, by an act of the mind, or of the
heart or the senses, through some internal habit or external
accident. And thus it is that so many defects and eccen-
tricities are kept up, as well as inclinations and whims, low
natural views and worldly estimates, curious and futile
fancies, human preferences and hampering connections, pre-
cipitate actions and careless behaviour, and so forth! Ina
word, all our earth-bound existence, wherein the human is
too often dominant, and the divine has not wholly the first
place which it should hold in a Christian’s life, lies here.

11. The non-culpable transgression of a precept.—“‘ Here is
an instance of it,” says St. Francis of Sales ‘I come to
tell you that such and such a person sends you his kind
regards and best wishes, and that he has spoken highly of
you. Well, all this is far from being the case. This is a venial
sin which is quite voluntary. But suppose I am telling a
story, and, as I am speaking, some words slip in which are
by no means true, and I only notice it after I have spoken
them : that is an imperfection.”” How often do I thus happen
to forget a duty, or not to observe a precept, from the fact
that I have been humanly carried away and swayed by some
natural instinct! It is this kind of dominance that makes
me imperfect. If grace had a stronger influence over me,
even these involuntary outbreaks of disorderly tendencies
would be less frequent.

12. “ Go behind Me, Satan.’-—The Gospel affords me a
truly striking example of this domination of the human over
the divine, without there being any formal offence against

1 Conversations, xv., Annecy Edition, p. 284.

THE END: GROWTH 87

God. It is in the episode in which St. Peter is addressed as
Satan by his divine Master. Our Lord was announcing to
His disciples all the sufferings of His Passion. ‘“‘ Peter taking
Him aside, began to rebuke Him saying : Lord, be it far from
Thee, this shall not be unto Thee. And Jesus turning said
to Peter : Go behind Me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto Me:
because thou savourest not the things that are of God, but
the things that are of men ”” (Matt. xvi. 22, 23). Here Peter
is addressed as Satan by the gentle Saviour, although he was
the very man whom, a few verses higher up, this Saviour hac
called ‘‘ blessed,’”’ and chosen as the foundation-stone of His
Church. What crime, then, can he have committed to draw
upon himself such a lively rebuke after having merited such
sublime praise ?—He wanted to show his Master his affection,
and he did so sincerely indeed. Peter was a man of reckless
generosity. Who is going to bring any accusation against
the Apostle for testifying his affection to his Master? And
is he addressed as Satan for thus testifying his affection ?—
Yes, just for this testimony.—Why ?—Our Saviour explains.
Thou puttest man, says He, before God, man’s thoughts
before God’s thoughts, man’s likings before God’s. And when
thou actest in this fashion, thou art a scandal unto Me; and
because thou actest thus, I call thee Satan. Give God His
place, keep thine own, go behind Me. Cease to put the
human above the divine, and learn that in all things God
must be above man.

13. The Saviour’s reasons.—These two scenes, which are
placed side by side in the Gospel, wherein Peter is first of all
addressed as blessed, and then as Satan, are singularly in-
structive. On the one hand, Peter acknowledges and con-
fesses the divinity of Christ, and Jesus says to him : “‘ Blessed
art thou.”—-Why blessed ?—Because thou hast heard and
listened not to the voice of flesh and blood, but to the voice
of the Father who is in heaven. Here is the divine above
the human.

On the other hand, Peter, following human likings and not
God’s wisdom, goes so far as to run counter to the Passion
of the Son of man, and his Master calls him Satan. Here we
see how our Saviour praises and extols faithfulness in re- .

88 THE INTERIOR LIFE

serving the first place to the divine. And here, too, we see
how He rebukes the domination of nature’s views, affections,
and tendencies, even in those manifestations which are free
from sin.

CHAPTER IV
Imperfection

Its Evil

14. Why is not imperfection a sin ?—15. Its connexion therewith.—
16 Its frequency.—17. Its evil.

14. Why is not imperfection a sin P—Why is it, and how
is it, that there is no formal offence against the divine Majesty
in imperfection ?

Is it because God, in His mercy, condescending to my
weakness, willed not to lay upon my poor fallen nature diffi-
culties too great for its strength? He knows the clay of
which He hath framed us ;! and He, who was so strict towards
angels, can be so merciful towards men |!

Or else, is it because there is not enough consent in the
deviation of my will? Iam so full of impotence ! and I meet
with so many appeals from without ! and the coming together
of the two produces so many upsets and distractions and
yieldings !

Or again, is it that this stage of disorder does not sufficiently
affect the reality of the act to prevent it from going to God
nevertheless in some manner, although in an incomplete
fashion ? In spite of the taint of imperfection, the act retains
a substance and accidents, which leave it so far in relation
with God’s honour that it does not incur the defilement and
the penalty of formal sin.

God, man, the act which brings man into relation with
God ; in God, His goodness ; in man, his frailty ; in the act,
its morality : such are the three points, outside of which it is
difficult to push our enquiry, and in which it is doubtless

1 Quoniam ipse cognovit figmentum nostrum, recordatus est quoniam
pulvis sumus Ps. cii. 14).

THE END: GROWTH 89

possible to find the reason of this absence of formal offence
in the disorder of imperfection.

15. Its connexion therewith.—However this may be, it is
nevertheless a fact, that sin and imperfection are very near
neighbours. For on the one hand, things bad in themselves
become simple imperfections through want of knowledge or
of will. And on the other hand, we see in the lives of the
saints, for instance, that God sometimes punishes infidelities
as if they were real sins, although they would be mere im-
perfections in any ordinary soul. Are they real sins in the
saints, and that especially on account of the immense enlighten-
ment with which their souls are illumined ?—I cannot tell.
But the fact that God punishes them so rigorously is very
significant.

16. Its frequency.—Hence, although I may succeed in
avoiding sin fairly faithfully, I may nevertheless still live in
almost continual disorder !—I shall commit no voluntary
sins, or but very few of them, and nevertheless I may be
almost constantly misunderstanding the order of my crea-
tion |—It is, indeed, a very high and rare thing to avoid de-
liberate venial sin ! — And, nevertheless, my life may still
be spent in continual disorder !

I say : continual disorder ; for truly the circumstances in
which a sin has to be avoided are much rarer in life than
those in which I have to do good actions. The ordinary
texture of life is made up of an uninterrupted succession of
acts which are honest in themselves and naturally good ;
the temptations to be overcome and the sins to be avoided
are relatively much less numerous. I am not always con-
fronted with a temptation or a sin, but I am always doing
something, in mind or heart or body. What an amount of
details there are in a single day ! thoughts, words, and acts
follow one another by the thousand.

Well and good! If, in this incessant work which constitutes
life, I habitually make use of things for myself primarily,
stopping short in a way at myself and my own pleasure,
forgetting God more or less, and giving Him practically the
second place, I am living in continual disorder; my life,
without being a sin, is nevertheless the subversion of the

go THE INTERIOR LIFE

order which assigns the precedence to God. O my God!
how frightful must sin be, if imperfection is indeed so far the
upsetting of the order Thou hast established in Thy creation !
—Nothing has ever enabled me to fathom so deeply the malice
of sin !

Imperfection is a subversion of God’s plan !—What then is
sin, which so deeply offends God and makes Him complain
with such bitter lamentations ?

17. Its evil.—Imperfection is once more the great evil,
the essential evil, the evil I ought to avoid to the utmost at
the cost of my blood and my life !—If I have understood the
design of my creation and the purpose of my life, I must be
convinced of this, I was about to say, overwhelmed at the
thought of it !—for, of a truth, what have I done until now ?
—If, abominable and unprofitable man that I am, I have
drunk iniquity like water,1 have I not breathed in imperfection
like the air ?—Does it not enter into my soul as the air enters
into the lungs, at every breath ?

St. Catherine of Genoa? relates that one day “ God gave
her a clear view of herself, 7.e., of such of her bad inclinations
as were contrary to pure love. And she understood that she
weuld have rather chosen not to exist than to have offended
God’s love, not only by the least sin, but even by the least
defect,”

CHAPTER V
Perfection
The Third Degree of Piety.

18. Its proper object.—19. The scope of the word.—20. Ex toto.—
21. Perfection according to St. Francis of Sales.

18. Its proper object.—To correct the disorder of imper-
fection, 1.¢., to restore order in the good or indifferent details
of my life, so as to see, love, and seek God first, and myself

1 Quanto magis abominabilis et inutilis homo, qui bibit quasi aquam

iniquitatem ? (Job xv, 16).
2 Dialogues, Part I, chap. xvii.

THE END : GROWTH OI

only afterwards, this is the proper object of perfection, and
it is the top of the second stage of piety. Up till now, we have
been correcting or redressing bad acts; perfection corrects
good acts, and drives out from them all disorder which may
impair them. When good acts are thus corrected, there no
longer remains in my life any trace of the second part of
disorder which is characterized by the dominance of my
pleasure over God. The whole of this evil has disappeared,
and this is why the third step of the whole ascent is called
perfection.

19. The scope of this word. The word perfection does not
by any means signify that the good has attained its fulness
of intensity, and that it is capable of no further increase.
In this sense, perfection is only to be found in God, in whom
the good has no limits. Nor does it by any means signify
that the good is entirely pure ; for there still remain in my soul
secret attachments apart from God, the multiplicity of which
I shall see later on. Nor does it at all show that the last
traces of disorder, what I have called the division between
human satisfaction and God’s glory, have disappeared. But
it indicates that the good is free from the evil of human
preferences, that nothing remains of the sin of the subversion
of God’s glory, nor of the disorder of the dominance of human
satisfaction. Seeking self before God is totally excluded ;
and thus, in this kind, the good is perfect. It has attained a
first and relative perfection, the work of restoration is ful-
filled ; it is therefore the perfection of restoration, or of the
ordinary ways of spiritual advance. This is the meaning of
the word “‘ perfection.”’

20. Ex toto.—What, then, is perfection ?—Perfection is
nothing else than seeing, loving, and seeking God first in all
things; it is piety which has reached that state of relative
perfection, which excludes all subversion. ‘“ All whatsoever
you do in word or in work,” says St. Paul, ‘ all things do ye
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God
and the Father by Him ” (Col. iii. 17). “‘ Therefore whether
you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do ; do all to the glory
of God ” (1 Cor. x. 31). All, absolutely all, says the Apostle ;
each thing in particular, and all things taken together : omne

92 THE INTERIOR LIFE

quodcumque . . .ommia ... Each thing, first of all, in its own
and particular entirety, in such a way that the whole of this
one thing may be truly and fully ordered towards God
primarily : omne quodcumque. This is the particular perfec-
tion of the act. Next, all things taken together generally, as
‘an organic whole, in such a way that the entire texture of my
‘ life as a whole may be effectively subordinated to the honour
of God’s name : omnia : this is the perfection of one’s state.

It is this ALL that characterizes the perfection of the act as
well as of the state. Diliges ex toto.—Here we have no longer
only all the faculties of the soul and body avoiding all sin,
but also avoiding all usurpation of God’s rights. This dis-
position of seeing, loving, and seeking God first, here really
reaches all things without any exception whatever. God is
truly in His place, at the very highest point of my life.

It is putting God fully in the first place that befits His
dignity as my Saviour, and putting myself totally in the
second place that befits my humility as His servant. One of
my life’s acts is perfect, when it entirely realizes this sub-
ordination ; and the state of my life is perfect when my whole
existence is thus ordered.

21. Perfection according to St. Francis of Sales.—‘‘ I hear
nothing but talk of perfection,” sometimes said St. Francis
of Sales, “‘ and I see very few who practise it. Everyone has
his own idea of it.... As for me, I know of no other sort of
perfection than that of loving God with all one’s heart. And
if we really love God, we try to procure Him the good of His
glory by ourselves, referring thereto our being and all our
actions, not only the good, but also the indifferent ; and not
satisfied therewith, we use all diligence and put forth all our
efforts to try to get our neighbour to serve and to love Him,
so that in all things God may be honoured. It is in this that
our end and final consummation consist, it is the end of all
consummations and the consummation of all ends.! They
who fashion for us any other sort of perfection, do but deceive
us.”2

1 Omnis consummationis vidi finem (Ps. cxviii. 96).
* The Spirit of St. Francis of Sales, Book I, ch. xxv and xxvii.

PE

THE END: GROWTH .

CHAPTER VI
The State of Perfection

22. The external state.—23. The internal state.—24. Religious per-
fection.—25. Episcopal and sacerdotal perfection.

22. The external state.—In speaking of the state of per-
fection, it is necessary to distinguish between the external
state and the internal state, between the state of perfection
to be acquired and the acquired state of perfection.

The external state of perfection is something constituted
with an organization of external means fitted for the more
prompt and full realization of the state of internal perfection.
The religious orders, in conditions as diverse as their vocations,
have realized this external state of perfection. They are
institutes of perfection. The different ordinances and prac-
tices of worship and discipline are generally organized in them

for the special purpose of facilitating to chosen souls the

ascent towards the total restoration of their lives. And those
who come to submit by enduring engagements to these ordi-
nances of worship with regard to God and of discipline with
regard to themselves, by this fact constitute themselves in
an external state of perfection.

They are constituted therein, and it is a state, because
they contract engagements which establish them in a perma-
nent position. And it is a state of perfection, because
everything in their condition, their vows, and their rule,
imposes upon them and facilitates for them progress towards
the full restoration of the honour of God.

23. The internal state.—The internal state of perfection is
acquired perfection, it is the practical realization of the full
scheme of the ascetic life. It is the soul living habitually and
universally, in mind, heart, and senses, in the sight, love, and
search of God in the first place. It is piety come to the end
of its second stage. .

But the state of perfection is not finally established in my
soul until I have acquired facility and readiness in seeing,

loving, and seeking God first in all things, until I can easily

94 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and readily make such sacrifices as are necessary for keeping
my own satisfaction constantly in its place. And the state is
by no means complete and finished until I feel that I am
disposed to sacrifice even life itself rather than commit a
voluntary imperfection. Rather let me die than seek myself
voluntarily before God, even in the smallest thing: such is
the language of perfection.

24. Religious perfection.—The state of internal perfection
is, then, that towards which a religious binds himself to tend
by his vows. To aim at eliminating imperfection little by
little, at keeping God’s glory definitely before him in the first
place, and at loving and seeking it primarily in all things,
and at never allowing his own satisfaction to usurp its place,
such is the purpose of the religious life.

The still higher ways of holiness do not come under the
obligation of the vows in the same way as the vow of perfec-
tion. Doubtless, the religious who has set the mysterious
ascent and its upward steps towards virtue in his heart, will
put no limit to his career, just as God puts none to His appeals
and to His grace. He will be glad to enter into the narrower
ways, if God invites him to do so. But it is important for
him first of all to measure at a glance the way he has to run,
and to consider the end towards which he must tend. This
end is perfection, the third degree of piety.

25. Episcopal and sacerdotal perfection.—It is in this
state, according to St. Thomas, that Bishops should be
established ; for they have received the magisterium
of perfection! Perfection in them must be in a state
of activity, 1.e., they must not only be perfect, but “ pro-
pagatots of perfection,” whose office it is to lead others
thereto.2 Perfection in the religious is in the passive state ;
he tends thereto, he receives it. The Bishop has perfection,
and gives it.

This is the state that befits the priest, not on account of
the essential obligations laid upon him by his ordination

1 Status autem episcopalis ad perfectionem pertinet tanquam
quoddam perfectionis magisterium (2, 2æ, q. 185, a., 8).

4 Secundum Dionysium (Eccles. Hier. 6) perfectio pertinet active

ad Episcopum, sicut ad perfectorem ; ad monachum autem passive,
sicut ad perfectum (bid. art. i., ad 2um).

THE END: GROWTH 95

or his office, but because of the sacred acts he fulfils ; for, if
he would fulfil them worthily, he ought to possess internal
perfection,}

CHAPTER VII

Perfection and Sacrifice

26. Perfection is not sacrifice.—27. Aberration.—28. Failure.—
29. Would not sacrifice be more perfect ?—30. Sacrifices necessary.
—31. To what extent ?—32. The fear of sacrifice.

26. Perfection is not sacrifice.—Perfection in itself does not
demand the sacrifice of my pleasure ; it only requires me to
put it in its proper place, the second place. Thus, for instance,
in the use of food and drink, it does not demand any extra-
ordinary sacrifices from me; I may use what God provides
for me in a fitting manner, without being in any way wanting
so far as perfection is concerned. The essential thing is
that my first intention should be to use these things for God’s
glory. ‘‘ Whether you eat, or whether you drink,” says the
Apostle. He does not bid us not eat or not drink. Eat and
drink , these things are not contrary to perfection ; do this,
but when you do it, do it to God’s glory. Neither the pleasure
nor the need of eating and drinking must be the dominant
or ultimate incentive, nor, above all, in any way whatever the
exclusive intention of the act ; for therein lies imperfection.
But the effectively preponderant incentive, the virtually, if
not actually, principal intention, must be God’s glory ; therein
lies perfection. The question of actual and virtual intention
will be explained later on.?

The specific idea of perfection does not consist in the sacrifice
of my satisfaction. Since I assume that my satisfaction is
permitted and void of offence towards God, it does not con-
tradict His glory, and there is no incompatibility between
them ; it is enough for me to reduce the one into obedience

1 Ex hoc quod aliquis accipit sacrum ordinem, non ponitur simplici-
ter in statu perfectionis; quamvis interior perfectio al hoc requiratur,

quod aliquis digne hujusmodi actus exerceat (Ibid. q. 184 a. 6, c).
2 See § 50.

96 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to the other, and to set each of them in the order belonging to
it. I repeat that perfection does not consist in sacrifice, but
in restoration.

27. Aberration.—Oh, how easily do I make mistakes on
this point! As soon as I get the least idea of perfection, I
run off to sacrifice, and hence the idea of perfection is almost
confused by me with the idea of deprivation and of sacrifice.
I scarcely have any other notion of it. When an impulse of
fervour fills my heart, at once I am off on the road to penance
and self-denial, where I expect to meet with perfection.
Poor wanderer ! perfection is not on this road.

These sacrifices are often a kind of red herring. For, while
I am greeting privations, I am not thinking of repairing my
ways, I go on seeking self, and disorder remains within me.
Often my sacrifices are chosen through caprice, or through
momentary tastes ; even in the selection of them, there is self-
seeking ; and my very act of choosing becomes too easily a
matter of disorder. As being satisfactory acts, they may
possess a certain value ; to lead me to perfection, they have
none ; at least, very often.

28. Faïlure—On the other hand, the sacrifices of my
choosing frequently labour under the disadvantage of being
above my strength and of not corresponding with my actual
spiritual needs. For, so long as I have not effected the recti-
fication of my intentions, I am not up to the level of such
sacrifices, my strength is not equal to bear them ; and more-
over, grace, the influence of which is proportioned to the
growth of my soul, has not been given me for this purpose ;
and then, what happens ?—Since these generous impulses
do not produce the results which I desire, because my soul is
not strong enough for this, I get discouraged and lose ground,
and the saddest outcome of my lamentable effort is this, that
I come to think perfection is impossible. It seems to me as
if I had done everything, not even shrinking from sacrifice,
and I have only succeeded in falling lower than before !

Nor could it be otherwise : I have done everything except
just what I ought to have done. What is the use of making
great strides, if I am off my road? The faster we walk on
the wrong road, the more we go astray. Why should we ga

tn, Ve yg RSR

THE END: GROWTH 97

to find perfection where it is not to be met with, and not look
for it where it really is ? Why should we try to find it a long
way off, when it is close to us? Instead of sacrificing my
satisfaction, let me correct it: how much more simple this
is! And it is just here that perfection lies.

29. Would not sacrifice be more perfect ?—But would it not
be more perfect to sacrifice my satisfaction ?—Perhaps ; but
before aiming at the more perfect, it is quite enough in the
usual order of things to aim in the first place at what is merely
perfect. To make higher sacrifices which perfection does not
require, while I am not making the rectificatian which it does
require, is a flagrant contradiction. It is a case of the best
being the enemy of the good.

This is one of the most treacherous ruses of the evil one so
far as souls of good-will are concerned. How clever it is to
put anyone on the wrong scent, to upset the question at issue
and to turn aside anyone’s attention from the true purpose,
under the pretext of some greater good which it is clearly
quite impossible for him to realize! Hence, it must be re-
peated that I may enjoy legitimate satisfactions on this sole
condition, that if I would be perfect, I must order, co-ordinate,
and direct them, actually or virtually, but effectually, to
God’s glory.

30. Sacrifices necessary.—I said that perfection im ttself
does not require the sacrifice of my satisfaction ; because the
idea of sacrifice and of the renunciation of my satisfaction
does not constitute the specific idea of perfection and is not of
its essence. But, from the fact of my nature being vitiated,
I shall often be obliged to practise certain renunciations for
the sake of repairing and preserving order within me. But
these sacrifices are not at all desired for their own sake as
constituting perfection, they are only used as the indispensable
or useful means for attaining it. And it is because they are
means that they will be especially dealt with in Part III.

31. To what extent ?—Thus, to return to the example
already mentioned, if in eating and drinking I desire to cut off
only that which is, strictly speaking, sin, without cutting off
one of those satisfactions which are allowed, I shall get

1 See Part III, Book I.
7

98 THE INTERIOR LIFE

attached to them contrary to God’s glory, and I shall become
plunged in disorder. If, on the contrary, I do not hesitate
to deprive myself voluntarily of such satisfactions as may be
usefully sacrificed for the re-establishment or the preserva-
tion of order within me, I make rapid progress.

The essential thing is, then, neither for me to deprive myself,
nor to avoid depriving myself; the essential thing lies not
herein, but higher. It lies in the rectification of my intentions,
so that they should all go in the first place towards God and
His glory. This is the essential thing: this is the end. For
this purpose I must not shrink from any necessary or useful
sacrifice; and I give no thought to any sacrifice which
does not lead thither. As to optional sacrifices, I employ
them freely and simply under God’s good pleasure. To
know how to use everything is more perfect than depriving
oneself of a great deal ; and there is often more virtue and
more profit in making use of and sanctifying a pleasure than
in doing away with it. The reason for this has been already
given.}

32. The fear of sacrifice—Under the pretext of merely
ordering my satisfaction below God’s glory, or of putting it
at His service, I may easily miss my way ; and, under the cloak
of God’s glory, I may in reality rather hold to myself than to
God, and seek myself rather than God. The ruses of self-love
are so subtle, and the cheats of the tempter are so treacherous !
How often does it not occur to me to use even the very specious
pretext of God’s glory to justify not only imperfections, but
even real sins ? What can be done in such dangerous circum-
stances ? for they are dangerous, and very dangerous.—I
must merely be on the watch to maintain my intention very
upright, and look carefully to see that I am not trying to
deceive myself, a thing which conscience will show pretty
clearly to anyone who 1s ready to interrogate himself seriously ;
and, for the rest, I must leave things to God. For where
illusions are involuntary, God undertakes to dissipate them.
He undertakes to take away from anyone such satisfactions
as deceive him ; and when such a satisfaction is forcibly torn
away from him, he then perceives how far he had become

1 See Book I, ch. vii.

THE END: GROWTH 99

attached to it. The hardship felt in being separated from it
reveals the degree of cupidity existing in the possession of it.
In dealing with the examination of conscience,? I shall con-
sider the practical means of dissipating the illusions of self-
love. And in Part IIJ,? I shall consider what are the two kinds
of sacrifices demanded by God’s will signified, on the one
hand ; and by His will of good pleasure, on the other.

CHAPTER VIII
The State of My Soul

33. Where am I? — 34. Human utility. — 35. In ordinary life.—
36. God’s interest and mine are not incompatible.—37. In the
spiritual life.—38. If I would only go down deep!

33. Where am I ?—And now, where is my soul so far as
perfection is concerned ?... Alas! doI not live in constant
disorder ? Is not my life a perpetual subversion of order ?
Let us consider: what is my habitual motive for acting ?
Is it not primarily and far too much—self ? What is the first
object of my thoughts? What is the favourite tendency of
my affections? What is the preponderant incentive of my
actions? Is it not myself, my own pleasure, my own con-
venience, my own interests, my own humour or whim or
taste ? always self ? self everywhere ?

I am speaking of the good I do or think I am doing, for
here there is no question of formal sin. Yes, in this, which
is far the most important part of my life since it occupies
almost the whole of my time, in this continuous succession of
indifferent or good actions which makes up the texture of
my days, what I usually look at in the first place is myself ;
what I seek is myself. I generally take precedence of God,
and my pleasure comes before His glory.—Such is the instinct
of our evil nature !..: Subversion!... Disorder!... O God!
is it possible for my life to be nothing but perpetual disorder ?

1 Non est in carendo difficultas, nisi cum est in habendo cupiditas
(St. Aug., De Doctr. Christ. iii. 27).

2 See Part III, Book II, § 26 ff.

3 See Pait II, Books I and II.

100 THE INTERIOR LIFE

Alas ! all that I take to be good, my acts and my justice, all
that is only a filthy rag !1 And if what I thought was good in
me, and what I perhaps was too ready to consider laudable,
if this good is but sordid, what a subject of shrinking must I
afford to God when the most repulsive infection of numerous
sins constantly contributes to increase my perversion ? ::. If
my justices are only impurities, what must I be in myself,
OO ? 2:

34. Human utility.—But it is well to look closer. In every-
thing, it should be my rule of life to see, love, and seek divine
before human utility, and to subordinate human utility to
the divine, When did I ever take account of the divine utility
of things, and of their efficacy in helping forward the divine
life in the soul ? What do I know of it? In what creature
am I accustomed to see, love, and seek chiefly God’s glory ?—
My human? interest is the universal, constant, primary, and
instinctive rule of my judgements, affections, and actions ;
for that is what I see clearly, easily, and everywhere. And
as I see it, I love and seek it, and stop short at it.

But God’s glory ! : :. Too commonly I judge events, per-
sons, and things as being good or bad according to the greater
or less amount of human benefit that I find in them either
for myself or for others. The habitual rule of my thoughts
and words is human utility. I generally love or detest events
and things according to the greater or less amount of satis-
faction they bring me. The ordinary rule of my affections
is human utility. I seek or avoid persons, events, and things
habitually according to the pleasure or displeasure they give
me, according as they help or hurt me or others from a human
standpoint. The most universal rule of my actions is human
utility.

35. In ordinary life.—If I were resolute in confronting my
judgements and tastes and habits with the maxims of the
Gospel, should I find them in harmony with these maxims ?
Thus, poverty, gentleness, tears, hunger and thirst for justice,
mercy, the love of peace, persecutions, calumnies and evil
speaking, all the things included in our Saviour’s beatitudes,

1 Quasi pannus menstruatus universe justitiæ nostræ (Is. lxiv. 6).
2 See Book IV, § 7, the definition of the Auman.

THE END: GROWTH IOI

these are called misfortunes or follies by the world. Are my
actual talk and conduct really more in accord with our Lord
than with the world ? .:. As to the love of enemies, of crosses
and privations, of a hidden, simple, and sober life ; as to con-
fidence in divine Providence, the efficacy of prayer, the
advantage of fasting, self-denial and alms-giving ; in a word,
as to the evangelical counsels, am I thoroughly worthy to be
called a follower of Jesus? : :: In the vicissitudes of daily
happenings, whether general or particular, how far do I try
and how far am I ready, to look at the advancement of God’s
kingdom within me and in mankind? For therein consists
the great significance of what happens. Thus it is that they
are regarded by God, and by the men of God. But how far
am I still from the thoughts of God ! and how far am I from
the thoughts of the men of God! The world of man lies
before me open enough, the world of God is far too much
closed to me.

36. God’s interest and mine are not incompatible.—Once
more, the evil does not lie in my thinking of my own interests
and in my considering the human utility of things. My own
satisfaction, even my instrumental satisfaction, may quite
well be united with God’s glory; often it ought to be so
united. I cannot too often say to myself : for His own glory
and for my happiness in Him, God wills me to grow, and to
develop my mind and heart and senses for Him. And in
order to grow, He wills me to make use of instruments, He
wills me to use pleasure in things created. Hence, there is no
incompatibility between my satisfaction and His glory ; the
one does not exclude the other, the one calls for the other :
but satisfaction must not become dominant, and it must not
remain purely human. And this is just what in my case it
usually does. No, in my ordinary run of life, I really fear
that there is not one thought or affection or action wherein
God’s glory entirely has its proper place, unless, perchance,
on those rare occasions when I fully accept some suffering.

37. In the spiritual life.—Are my paths any straighter, at
least in the region of the spiritual life ?—There, no doubt, I
seek God’s interests rather more. But how often are they
supplanted by views of personal interest! My devotional

102 THE INTERIOR LIFE

exercises seem good when I am satisfied with them. If a

day has given me a great deal of satisfaction, I call it a good ‘

day. But if I have experienced no satisfaction, I think
something must be wrong. What guides me in such judge-
ments ?—My own satisfaction.

I very readily try to find consolation in Communion, in
meditation, and in prayer ; and this is all very well, if in such
consolation I am trying to find means to encourage and
strengthen me in my duties ; the soul has so much need of joy
to be alert in God’s service [1 .:: But my reason for preferring
one exercise to another is often only the pleasure it affords me,
on which I feed, and in which I repose. It is myself that I
see and love and seek in all this. And what is the reason that
I have been faithful for so much longer to such and such an
exercise, or that I have constantly been irregular in the use
of some others ?—My own consolation. When I find the
consolation I am looking for and which brings me satisfaction,
I flatter myself as to the success of these exercises, I think
them just the thing, and myself too ; and as long as this lasts,
I do not give them up. But if dryness comes! then, all is
lost, everything is empty, the exercises are no longer of any
use, and I am still more good-for-nothing ; I give them up
and get discouraged. This is how I judge even my devotional
exercises !—They are too full of self, and too wanting in God.

In other supernatural works, in those of zeal or charity for
instance, what place do I give to considerations of being
thought well of, to the desire for praise, to seeking for gratitude,
to wishes for success, and so on ! What a need I feel of finding
self-satisfaction in what I do !—Am I not ordinarily depressed
and discouraged when I do not reap this harvest? Do I
not too readily measure the value of my work by the amount
of enjoyment it brings me? Is not my liking for it propor-
tioned to the consolation I meet with init? Is not my zeal
according to my satisfaction? Here, too, our judgements,
our likings, and our actions are too much ruled by self-
seeking.

38. If I would only go down deep !—My natural life, my
spiritual life, nearly everything within me, is ruled, directed

1 See Part II, Book II, $13

THE END: GROWTH 103

and dominated by my own satisfaction. How dreadful were
my examination of conscience, if only I were ready to enter
into the inner details of my thoughts and likings and actions !

How I should find the accursed instinct of selfish satis-
faction more or less supplant God’s glory in everything, every-
where, and always!... In everything! ... Oh, I shall
never know how deep is the disorder of my life!... Myself
everywhere the first . .. God constantly in the second place or
set aside. In what I do, in what happens to me, in what I
seek for or avoid, it is myself whom I consider in the first
place ; I love for my own sake, I hate for my own aalte. «6 ft
what use is this to me so far as God’s glory is concerned ?—
This is what I should be accustomed to ask myself in all
things, and this I ask myself so rarely!... Of what use will
it be to me for my own advantage or for my own pleasure ?—
This is what I always look at in the first place, and this I should
only consider in the second place, and as a consequence or as
a means to God’s glory.... Have I ever known the meaning
of perfection ?

CHAPTER IX
The General State

39. The state of society.—40. Bible ideas.—41. The ages of faith,—
42. Ideas of to-day.

39. The state of society.—This evil is also the great evil of
society. In social conditions everything is organized for
man ; human interest dominates everything, inspires every-
thing, directs and sums up everything. What place is given
to God’s glory in families, associations, and corporate bodies ?
Where is the idea of God in industries, in commerce, in science,
in politics, in history, and the rest >—In human relationships,
it is human interest which universally engrosses people’s
thoughts, feelings, and efforts. All converges towards this.
The thought of God and His glory gets weaker and weaker
and disappears ; man is driving out God.

I take what is, perhaps, the most striking example, that of

104 THE INTERIOR LIFE

history. History should be nothing else than a picture of
God’s glory amidst human vicissitudes, of divine action
amidst the agitations of human affairs. To-day it is no more
than the miscoloured picture of the convulsions of mankind.
Thus everything belies its origin and its end. It is the great
and revolutionary heresy, man put in God’s place.

40. Bible ideas.—Contrast all this with the Bible! In the
life of the patriarchs, we feel that God, their God, is every-
thing to them. He dominates, inspires, and, in practice,
guides their lives. In their history, we feel at every moment
a sense of the Spirit of God. It is the same throughout the
history of the chosen people. It is God who is the centre of
everything. If human passions cause His memory to be
forgotten, punishments recall it ; and, beneath the rod, the
cry that arises and begs for victory over enemies is always in
the first place God’s honour. “‘ For the glory of Thy name, O
Lord, deliver us ”’ (Ps. Ixxviii. 9). And when the victory is
won, they rejoice above all, because God is glorified.1 When
Moses,? Judith,? and Esther4 wish to obtain the salvation of
their people, they do it by invoking God’s glory, and this is
the motive which moves God to save His people. In the
Psalms, what a place is given to the glory of God! It is the
supreme and constant end of these sublime songs.

41. The ages of faith.—In the ages and countries of faith,
how much more real and living was the place assigned to God
in the customs of His faithful peoples! Nothing expressed
it so vividly as popular speech. It is in the turns of everyday
conversation that we find the best reflection of this state of
mind. But how and when was God spoken of in the times
and ages in which the notions of faith prevailed ?—The name
of God perpetually occurred with an appropriateness and
reality which were indeed admirable. They used to say
with such simplicity and sincerity: ‘“ Thank God”, “ God
be praised ’’, “ Please God ”, ‘‘ With God’s help ”, and so
forth. Private documents began with the sign of the cross,
and public deeds were drawn up in the name of the Blessed

: Cantemus Domino, gloriose enim magnificatus est (Ex. xv. 1).
2 Num. xiv. 13. 3 Judith ix. # Esther xiv.
5 Et salvavit eos propter nomen suum, ut notam faceret potent
suam (Ps. cv. 8).

THE END: GROWTH 105

Trinity, and laws were promulgated in God’s name; the
custom of giving first-fruits, inherited from the ancient faith,
consecrated to God the first-born of everything ; paternal,
judicial, and civil authority acted as a delegation of that
which is divine ; there was respect for persons and solemnities
and things sacred ; the dread of the punishment of blasphemy
and so‘many other customs, unfortunately so far removed
from our days; all these testified in practice how far the
thought of God held the foremost place in everything. God
lived in people’s thoughts and conduct, in their customs and
institutions. Human wretchedness no doubt made its appear-
ance, for it always does. But God also was manifested above
human wretchedness. It was felt that He was the King of
souls and bodies, of individuals and peoples, of time and
eternity, and His sovereignty remained above all.

42. Ideas of to-day.—In our utilitarian age, if we still have
recourse to God, it is rather because we need Him than be-
cause of His glory. We still know what carnal love means,
but what of the love of benevolence! ... To ask above all
else that God may be glorified, and to rejoice above all that
He is glorified, this is the case of a few, but they are daily
becoming fewer. And the great heresy which breaks asunder
the union of God with man, the co-ordination of the One with
the other, is drunk in by everyone, it enters everywhere, it
darkens the mind, it misleads the feelings and perverts action.
‘The Lord knoweth the thoughts of men, that they are vain ”
(Ps. xcili. 11). Even in the sanctuary and in the cloister
this cloudy and unwholesome atmosphere has found its way ;
and slowly, in small doses, but constantly and surely, its
poison filters in.

Oh, how terrible ‘it is to have to walk in this fog which is
as thick as darkness, and to inhale this air which is as heavy
as death!... And how hard it is to cast out the virus from
the spiritual organism, and to render mind, heart, and act,
completely sound!... If, however, we mean to live, it must
be done at all costs ; otherwise the virus, daily creeping in
more and more deeply, will kill us, will kill all Christian
vitality in us, and induce the putrefaction of death itself
Alas ! how sick we are!

106 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER X
The State of this Evil

43. The centre of the evil.—44. We do not see or see amiss.— 45. The
worth of sentimental books.—46. Dogmas make nations.

43. The centre of the evil.—In the light of these principles
I can better analyse the evil of my life. The evil lies not
only in the lower part of the soul, where it suffers from the
tyranny of the passions which demand irregular satisfactions.
There, no doubt, are to be found many disturbances, many
wounds, which make me groan bitterly and sigh with St. Paul :
“Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the
body of this death ?”” (Rom. vii. 24). The evil lies there, but
it is to be found still higher.

The will, too, is sick. Being full of fluctuations and feeble-
ness, it does not know how to look to God for support ; and
being left to itself, it has not enough energy to resist the per-
verse appeals of nature ; and its cowardice brings about many
falls. The evil lies there, too, but it is still higher.

The intelligence is, perhaps, more affected than the will and
the sensibility. It does not see, or it sees wrongly. And
when I do not see or see amiss, of what use are my will and
sensibility, unless it be to carry me astray through following
the false directions given by the mind? And if the blind
lead the blind, both fall into the pit (Matt. xv. 14).

44. We do not see or see amiss.—The deepest evil is, then,
in my intellect and ideas. For I judge things from the point
of view of my own interest or pleasure. This is the light in
which I see them ; and because I thus look at them, I thus
appreciate them, and act accordingly. My action is vitiated,
and my will is vitiated, and this above all on account of my
intelligence being vitiated. My actions depend upon my
feelings, and my feelings on my ideas ; and directly my ideas
are wrong, my feelings and actions are wrong. “ Certainly,”
says Father Surin, ‘‘ nearly all our defects arise from the per-
versity of our judgements, and from the fact that we do not
refer things created to their first principle, which we ought to

THE END: GROWTH 107

do, as being children of God.”! ‘‘ The way of justice is,
indeed, our way,” says St. Augustine. “ How can we help
stumbling in the way, if we have no light ? And this is why
it is our first business in this way to be able to see ; in this
way, the great thing is, to see.”’2 If seeing is the great neces-
sity, if seeing is the great business, then not to see is the great
misfortune, and seeing wrongly is the great danger. Hence,
my greatest evil is not to see, or to see amiss.

45. The worth of sentimental books.—I can now take
account of the worth of the books of piety which swarm on
all sides, the whole skill of which consists in stirring up our
sensibility. To cure the soul by means of the emotions when
the great evil is in the intelligence! ... Really, this is like
trying to cure consumption by rubbing a little ointment on
the foot! This is what all the worth of such books amounts
to. Who will give us back the devotion based upon theology
of the great ages of faith ?

Verily, we may ask ourselves if the unfortunate and too
copious production of sentimental books of devotion is not
as disastrous a plague as that of the unclean literature which
splashes us with its disgusting popularity! For, after all;
the unclean books only appeal to those who grovel in the
gutter. But devotional books are addressed to higher souls
whom God calls to raise and elevate the masses. By lowering
and withering their spiritual life, do not such books deal a
more damaging and disastrous blow to society, by preventing
these higher souls from raising it, since they do not elevate
themselves ? And this all the more, because higher souls
are relatively scarce, and the evil which is done to them is felt
by all those whom they ought to attract. Sentimentalism
in piety is the explanation of materialism in society, and there
is much to be learnt from the parallel advance of these two
kinds of literature.

_ 46. “Dogmas make nations.”’—So says M. de Bonald:
such is one of the most profound remarks of this profound
thinker. And if they make nations, they also make men.

1 Fondements de la vie spirituelle (Book II, ch. ii).

? Ipsa est enim via nostra juste vivere. Quomodo autem non
offendat in via, cui non lucet lumen? Ac per hoc in tali via videre
opus est, in tali via videre magnum est (Tract. in Joan., xxxv. 3).

108 THE INTERIOR LIFE

‘I shall never cease saying or thinking,” says another
deep thinker, M. de Maistre, ‘‘ that a man’s worth depends
upon his belief.’’! Man’s worth does, indeed, depend upon
his ideas, and he is what he thinks. It is the weakening of
truth that makes sanctity vanish from amongst mankind.2

Hence, my most urgent and primary necessity is to rectify
my ideas as to myself, as to creatures, and as to the use
I ought to make of them. As long as these remain uncor-
rected, nothing will be restored in me; as long as my efforts
are not directly brought to bear upon this point, they will
remain fruitless. It is faith that purifies the heart.2 Faith
is the vision of the truth ; truth is God’s glory seen in every-
thing. And truth is the primary element which directs
piety. When I have this clear, habitual, and dominant
vision, my heart will soon be purified, my life devout.

CHAPTER XI

Restoration

47. Knowing and seeing.—48. The influence of habit on actions.—
49. The morning intention: its value.—50. Actual and habitual
intention.—51. Complete subversion.

47. Knowing and seeing.—And nevertheless, did I not
already know that everything ought to be done for God ?—
I knew it, no doubt ; but did I see it? ... It is one thing
to know, another to see. What is the good of a more or less
speculative knowledge, entrusted to the memory where it
sleeps? ... What is the good of knowledge which does not
direct the will? ... What is some good is seeing ; seeing
practically, definitely, vitally ; seeing, not by means of con-
stantly repeated acts, which would be impossible, but
by means of an acquired habit of soul, a trained interior
disposition.

1 De Maistre, Lettres à Mme. de Stourdza.

? Defecit sanctus, quoniam diminute sunt veritates a filiis hominum

(Ps. xi. 2).
3 Fide purificans corda eorum (Act. xv. 9).

THE END: GROWTH 109

Have I any practical insight into the perpetual struggle
between my own satisfaction and God’s glory ? . . . into the
habitual dominance of my selfish interests ? . . . into my habit
of seeing everything from the point of view of my human
pleasure ? ... The evil lies in not seeing that, in not thinking
of it, and in perpetuating in myself, by the actual fact of my
daily conduct, habits of mind which are more or less errant.

48. The influence of habit on actions.—Now, the worth of
my actions depends a great deal on my habits ; for the in-
terior state of our faculties deeply modifies the nature of their
actions. Thus it is that the state of mortal sin quite deprives
even heroic acts, if done while in such a disposition, of their
eternal and meritorious worth. The best of intentions and
the finest actions, says St. Paul, do not prevent me from
being nothing and having nothing, and from being worthless,
if I have not charity.! Moreover, how many sins does this
habit draw in its train |

In the same way, if my interior habits, if my ordinary ten-
dencies are venial, without depriving my good actions of all
their value, they nevertheless singularly diminish the merit
of them, and they are a source of numerous sins. And if I
live in a state of imperfection, this state inevitably rever-
berates upon those acts which are not withdrawn from it by
a contrary intention. Whatever this intention may be,
whether actual or habitual, it must at least have the property
of affecting the act and of withdrawing it from the opposite
influence.

49. The morning intention : its value.—But once more, do
I not rectify my intention every morning by directing my
actions to God’s glory ?—No doubt ; and that is all very good.
But what I thus do in the morning is an act. Now, an act
does not destroy a habit ; it may interrupt it momentarily,
and produce some effect, until the habit regains the upper .
hand. This act does not destroy the habit I have formed of
judging everything from my own point of view. And this
all the more, because it is an act of the will, and an act of
the will is not directly contrary to a habit of mind. IfI had
no contrary habit, the morning intention would normally

1 x Cor. xiii. I.

IIO - THE INTERIOR LIFE

cover the whole of my day’s doings with its virtue. But the
habit of self-seeking is there, and in possession ; and it is
only momentarily interrupted by right acts, as long as the
habit of piety has not succeeded in supplanting it.

The fact remains that, in spite of this good morning inten-
tion, I continue habitually to look at my own interest
primarily ; the thought that practically inspires and directs
my conduct is always too much that of my own interest,
and so far the good intention has hardly corrected it ; and
it was all the less capable of correcting it, in that I did not
see clearly enough the chief seat of the evil.

What then ? is this direction of my intention in the morn-
ing no good ?—It is of very great use. First of all, it is a
very meritorious act, wherein there will be no dominance of
self-seeking. Lastly, by constant repetition it may help to
create in me the great habit of seeing, loving, and seeking God
first in all things.

50. Actual and habitual intention.—Then, is it necessary
to think ACTUALLY . . . of God’s glory in each one of my
actions ?—By no means ; it is no more necessary than actually
to see my own interest in everything in order to seek myself
habitually nevertheless. Is it not true that, from the very
fact of habit, I consider, love and seek my own interest
without hardly any thought of it, unconsciously, as it were,
and instinctively ? It goes on of its own accord. It is the
property of any habit which is definitely set up in the soul
to produce action without the soul’s noticing its influence
in any definite manner ; the habit is all the less perceived,
the more thoroughly it has been acquired. I act for self so
habitually, that I no longer notice it; the habit dominates
me so thoroughly that I no longer perceive it.

Very well ! it is just such a strong habit that must be formed
within me on behalf of God’s glory. The vision, the love,
and the seeking of God must so take possession of my powers
and so fully dominate them that I shall no longer need to
think of them definitely. Piety must become the first instinct
of my soul in the same measure as self-seeking is at present.
The impulse of grace must take the place, the function, and
the sway, now possessed by the impulse of nature ; the divine

THE END: GROWTH III

must work within me in the same conditions as the human
does now. Like the needle of a compass the soul must be
set and magnetized so as to point constantly towards God,
and finally to be fixed on Him. Then I shall have reached
perfection, and I shall go to God as easily, as readily, I was
about to say, as naturally, as I now go towards myself. Oh,
when will this be ? ...

There is the end. In Part III, I shall consider the means
of attaining it.1

51. Complete subversion.—In fine, there is almost an entire
subversion to be made. My whole life has to be more or less
revolutionized : my thoughts, feelings, and actions have to be
turned upside down. It is the deep and radical modification
of my hitherto too human manner of seeing, loving, and
acting. I must form new notions about everything, new
feelings about everything, and a new behaviour with regard
to everything. The old man must be stripped off once for
all and the new man must be put on? How deep are these
simple words : seeing, loving, and seeking God in all things,
and all things for God ! ...

Without knowing or reflecting on it, by the inclination of
my nature, I have come to see, love, and seek everything for
self. The place unduly assigned to my own satisfaction
must now be given to the glory of God. What a work!
It is only when the latter has been put in the first place in
my thoughts, in the front rank of all my affections, at the
root of all my actions, that I shall be able to say: I have
reached perfection. When shall I attain it, O my God ?

1 See Part III, Book II.

2 Exspoliantes vos veterem hominem cum actibus suis, et induentes

novum, eum qui renovatur in agnitionem, secundum imaginem ejus
qui creavit illum (Col. iii. 9-10).

BOOK IV
THE SUMMITS

WE have now reached the higher regions of piety. It is a
question of making division disappear, of getting rid of the
juxtaposition of the part of human interest which still remains
by the side of, and outside of, the divine. And this separa-
tion must vanish altogether, so that my life may have no
purpose apart from God, and that the union of my life with
His life, of my being with His being, may be absolute.

I am about to consider, in two successive stages, how the
separated and stray interest at first languishes in oblivion,
and then perishes in annihilation. The decay and death of
the human are the two higher degrees of piety, and these
upward steps belong to what is called the unitive life.

In these higher regions, certain states of soul are called
the mystical life, because the soul then enters into the secrets
of the divine intimacy. God hides it far from human dis-
turbance in the secret of His countenance! And in the
mystery of this intimacy, God works operations as mysterious
as the secrecy itself. And it is from these mysterious or
mystical operations of God that these higher states of the
soul have received the name of the mystical life.

1 Abscondes eos in abscondito faciei tuz, a conturbatione hominum
(Ps. xxx. 21).

113 8

CHAPTER I
Holiness

The Fourth Degree of Piety

1. Work done and work to do.—2. The acts of holiness.—3. The
state of holiness.—4. The greatest glory of God.—5. Indifference.

1. Work done and work to do.—When I have reached the
blessed state of the soul in which all is in order, at the third
degree of piety which is perfection, shall I be at the top ?—
I shall be already far up, but nevertheless a long way from
the summits. I am on the first peak, which is very difficult to
attain and which is reached by too few. But beyond this height
rise others; these are the high summits that touch heaven itself.

Above ordinary perfection, there is holiness. Perfection
has already shaken off the first evil, it has driven away the
disorder of human preferences ; and it is called perfection,
because it has purified the state of my soul from all sub-
version. The good is then upright, God is first ; but interior
purity is far from having attained its full expansion. There
are infinite degrees in the higher development of my purifi-
cation in its integrity.

In the three degrees hitherto considered, the soul was
successively purified from the evils of mortal sin, venial sin,
and imperfection. From these it is now set free, delivered
and cured ; it can enter upon the career of the good without
alloy, of light unclouded, and of love undivided.

A great work has been done, the disorder of self before God
has vanished ; but my union with God is still far from being
consummated. My satisfaction is put in its proper place,
but still it is not all lost in God. There is a fresh work to be
taken in hand ; or rather, the upward steps of the soul con-
tinue to rise ; for the principle of life within goes on unfolding
its activity in an uninterrupted movement.

It enters into holiness.

114

THE END: THE SUMMITS 115

2. The acts of holiness.—What is holiness ?—An example
will enable me to grasp it clearly. Ifa merchant can gain a
hundred pounds by a lawful transaction, is he likely to be
satisfied with fifty ?—Certainly not. The fundamental con-
dition of commercial negotiations is that each party shall
honestly do his best for his own interests. This is what
secures rivalry, progress, and success.

I am bound to procure God’s glory ; it is the essential object
of my life, and creatures are given me for this, But,
amongst creatures, it is certain that some help towards
this end better than others. If I do not mean my conduct
to be more unreasonable than that of the most ordinary
merchant, I am bound to choose those creatures which
best procure God’s glory. If I am not at all anxious to
choose those which are most advantageous for this end, I am
clearly going against reason, and by my conduct I am contra-
dicting the fundamental principle of my existence. If to
this one essential business I am only willing to bring the
ordinary amount of faithfulness which men bring to their
material affairs, I must distinguish between creatures
and choose those which contribute most to God’s glory.
The choice of the most perfect is the act which is proper to
holiness. t

3. The state of holiness.—But holiness is a state ; and a
state is constituted by a habit, and a habit is characterized
by facility and readiness in doing the acts belonging to that
state. Holiness is, then, a readiness and facility in seeing,
loving, and choosing in all things that which is most for the
glory of God. Diliges ex toto. . . . When all our powers,
mind, heart, and senses, have acquired this facility ; when in
all things the greatest glory of God is readily and easily seen,
loved, and embraced, holiness is established in the soul.

_The proper work for the realization of this state is seeing
in created things no longer merely God’s glory, which is
the object of the three preceding degrees ; but it is seeing to
what extent each created thing contributes to His glory,
and to make choice of those which give the greatest share.
The motto of St. Ignatius : “ To the greater glory of God,” is
the prescription for this work. We are bound thereto when

116 THE INTERIOR LIFE

we make what is called the vow of the most perfect. It is the
vow which has been made by many of the saints, and, amongst
others, by St. Teresa, St. Jeanne de Chantal, and St. Al-
phonsus of Liguori.

4. The greatest glory of God.—This state is characterized
by two things: first, by a sole anxiety for the greatest glory
of God: secondly, by forgetfulness of self. First, anxiety
for the greatest glory of God. Throughout the three pre-
ceding degrees, the soul’s principal anxiety was to set up an
equilibrium between its own satisfaction and God’s glory, to
hinder the usurpation of the former, and to establish God’s
honour at the highest point in one’s life. Now this order has
been realized, peace is secured, and satisfaction finally put
in its proper place. No longer having to strike a balance
between my satisfaction and God’s glory, I put the latter
in a still higher place. I busy myself only with God’s in-
terests, and I weigh each created thing to see which possesses
most value for Him.

This is a great ascent of the soul. Its whole life consists
in the care and the need of glorifying God by the best pos-
sible means. The zeal of God’s house has eaten it altogether
up ;! it aspires only to honour Him, and it lives only to
please Him. God is its all, it hungers and thirsts only for
His glory ;? His good pleasure is its sole food.? In heaven it
finds nothing, on earth it desires nothing apart from God and
His glory. He is the God of our heart, and all our riches,
even unto eternity.4 The desires of the heart and the manifold
needs of the body are all summed up in this one thirst.5

5. Indifference.—Thus dominated and absorbed, the soul
forgets its own satisfaction, human and created satisfaction,
the false enjoyment which comes from created things, and
which tends to stop short apart from and aside of God's
glory. Thus is realized the indifference so much recommended

1 Zelus domus tue comedit me (Ps. Ixviii. 10).

2 Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam (Matt. v. 6).

3 Meus cibus est, ut faciam voluntatem ejus qui misit me (Joan. iv. 34).

* Quid mihi est in cœlo et a te quid volui super terram ? Deus
cordis mei et pars mea Deus in æternum (Ps. Ixxii. 25, 26).

His Sitivit in te anima mea, quam multipliciter tibi caro mea (Ps.
ii. 2).

THE END: THE SUMMITS I17

by St. Ignatius, and this is the second characteristic of holi-
ness. ‘“ Man,” says he, “‘ ought to make himself indifferent
with regard to all created things in all that is left to the choice
of his free will and that is not forbidden him ; so that, so far
as he is concerned, he does not wish for health rather than
sickness, riches rather than poverty, honour rather than con-
tempt, a long lite rather than a short one, and thus with all
the rest, desiring and choosing solely what leads him most
surely to the end for which he has been created.”1

Thus, in this state, my human pleasure is indifferent to
me ; I no longer think of it, I forget it, and my thoughts are
raised still higher. I am as ready for sorrow as for joy, for
contempt as for honour, for want as for abundance, for death
as for life ; all these things are all the same to me: I have
only one thing at heart, the greatest glory of God. If there
be more of this divine glory in sorrow, the saint accepts
sorrow with joy ; if there be more in happiness, he receives
happiness with simplicity. One thing alone differentiates
creatures so far as he is concerned : the greatest glory of God.
Whether this is to be found here or there matters little ;
wherever he sees it, thither he flies without any care for joy
or sorrow. He would fling himself into hell, if more of God’s
glory could be found in doing so.

CHAPTER II

Mystical Death

6. The mystery of life and death.—7. The human —8. It must die.—
9. Seminatur ... surget.—10. Passing away.

6. The mystery of life and death—What! Can the soul
succeed in forgetting all satisfactions, and live purely for God
without any return to its own interests ?—Here is a great
mystery, which it is of importance to explain in order to escape
the errors of quietism. It is a mystery of life and death.
There is in me what ought to die, and there is in me what ought
to be set free from this death, in order to return to life. What

Exercit. Spirit., Fundamentum

118 THE INTERIOR LIFE

is it that ought to live P—All that is right, and all that comes
from God.—And what is it that ought to die ?—All that is
false, and all that comes from man. What thus comes
falsely from man is what is called the human.

7. The human.—What, then, is the human ?—The human,
understood in a sense which is exclusive and opposed to the
divine, is that in me and in my activity which is separated
from God and which runs counter to union with God, who is
the true end of my life. When false satisfactions attach me
to things created, when the independence of my activities
withdraws me from the action of God, I am dwelling in the
human. Thus, my satisfaction is human when it rests con-
tented apart from God. Thus, my movement is human
when it takes place in me and through me independently of
the divine action. In a word, everything in my vital move-
ment which is not reached, animated, and directed by the
divine life, everything which is outside of union, all this is
human, it is the human.

8. It must die.—And all this must die: why ?-—Because I
am made for God, and for Him only ; because my life consists
in being united to Him, loved by Him, ruled by Him: and
all that separates me from Him must disappear. Hence,
on what point must I bring to bear those operations which in
the language of mysticism are called unclothing, annihilation,
death, etc.?—They should exclusively be brought to bear
upon what separates me, and universally upon what separates
me, from God.

This does not mean the destruction of my soul or body, or
faculties or aptitudes, or aspirations or activities, or instru-
ments or pleasures, or hopes or happiness. It rather means
their purification by the destruction of a certain viscosity
which fastens me to created things, and of a certain inde-
pendence which keeps me at a distance from God. It means
the setting free of my being by the breaking of the ties which
bind it to the things of earth. What has to be broken,
destroyed, and annihilated, is not myself, it is these ties ;
as for myself, I have to be set free. And if, according to the
protestation of the Fore-runner, there is an ““I’’ who must
decrease aud vanish from before God, in order that He may

THE END: THE SUMMITS 119

increase ;! this is the ‘“ I” of self-seeking apart from God, it
is the “I” of nature which lives without God.

9. Seminatur . . . surget.—Hence, all that tends to keep
my life in a state which is purely natural, human, and isolated
from God, must die; all this must die, 7.¢e., it must undergo
that transformation which is most strikingly illustrated by
the death of the body.

“The body,” says St. Paul, “is sown in corruption, it shall
rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise
in glory. It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. It
is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.... Now
this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess
the kingdom of God ; neither shall corruption possess incor-
ruption.... For this corruption must put on incorruption :
and this mortal must put on immortality. And when this
mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come to pass the
saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory ”
(1 Cor. xv. 42-54).

10. Passing away.—‘‘ Yet,” says St. Francis of Sales,? “‘ we
speak with peculiar propriety of the death of a man in our
French language ; for we call it ‘ passing away,’ and the dead,
‘ those who have passed away ’; signifying that the death of a
man is but a passing away from one life to another, and that
dying is nothing else than passing beyond the confines of this
mortal life to enter into that which is immortal.”’

The body does not perish, but it is transformed ; it passes
through a progressive dissolution, and through that kind of
annihilation which is death. All that is human and mortal,
all that belongs to corruption, abjection, weakness, and to
the animal in man, undergoes the same law. All this is con-
demned to waste away and die in order to be transformed
and rise again in incorruption, in glory, in power, and ina
being which is all spiritual.

Thus it is that what is merely human satisfaction dis-
appears little by little in order to die and rise again in God’s
glory. We have seen how this satisfaction falls into languor

4 Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui (Joan. iii. 30). |
2 Treatise of the Love of God, Book IX, ch. xiii. The two French
words are trépas and trépussé. -

12) THE INTERIOR LIFE

before dying : how it falls into forgetfulness, indeed, and into
indifference, which is one of the characteristics of holiness ;
for this is nothing else than the languor and wasting, whereby
natural satisfactions journey towards their final passing away.
Further on, in Chapter IV, we shall see how this passing away
comes about.

CHAPTER III

Transformation

11. Quotidie morioy.—12. Renewal.—13. Rising by degrees.—14. The
vow of the most perfect and trifles.

11. Quotidie morior.—But the death of our satisfactions is
not quite like the death of the body. We die daily: this
is as true of satisfactions as of bodies ; daily a few fragments
fall away until the last remnant of the wall of separation has
crumbled away in death. For the body resurrection is
deferred, and it will only take place at the end of time and all
at once. As for satisfactions, in proportion as they die, they
rise again in God’s glory ; and thus it is that, in forgetting our
own satisfaction and in immolating it to God’s glory, the
saint finds it transfigured, re-arisen, and purified in this same
glory.

Hence, the saint is never without satisfactions ; the original
plan of putting God’s glory in the first place and man’s
happiness in the second, is never impaired. Forgetfulness
of self, hatred of self, annihilation of self, and death also, are
only the transformation of death into life, and the swallowing
up of death in victory. “‘ He that will save his life shall lose
it ; and he that shali lose his life for My sake, shall find it ”
(Matt. xvi. 25). We must lose all to find all ; for we can only
find what we have lost. We lose the human to find the
divine. -

12. Renewal.—" It is impossible,” says St. Francis of
Sales,! ‘‘ to remain long in this state of denudation, stripped
of all kinds of affections. And this is why, as the holy

1 The Treatise of the Love of God, Book IX, ch. xvi.

THE END: THE SUMMITS 121

Apostle remarks, after putting off the clothes of the old man,
we must put on those of the new man, that is to say, of Jesus
Christ ; for having renounced everything, and even affections
for the virtues, so as not to wish for either these or those,
except so far as God’s good pleasure shall carry us, we must
straightway put on several affections, and perhaps the very
ones we have renounced and given up ; but we must put them
on straightway, not because they are pleasing to us, useful,
honourable, and proper to satisfy our self-love, but because
they are pleasing to God, useful for His honour, and in-
tended for His glory.” Thus every day our outward man is
corrupted : yet the inward man is renewed.!

13. Rising by degrees.—Oh, what a high thing is holiness !

. . and how perfect must one be to attain unto it! Yes,
perfect : for we must have gone over the road of perfection,
at least in the sense in which it has been explained in Book III,
to reach the regions of holiness. The following remark is
general : these degrees of piety rise one above another, and
are like steps whereby the soul makes its upward ascent
towards God ; so that it is impossible to rise to a higher
degree unless one has passed through those that are below it.

It is clear, indeed, that a soul could not become estab-
lished in the avoidance of venial sin, unless it were first
strengthened to resist mortal sin; nor could it habitually
avoid imperfections as long as it does not avoid venial sins;
nor become holy until it had become perfect. No doubt the
higher degree begins to be formed whilst the one before it is
attaining its perfection ; no doubt in the lower degrees we
practise the acts of those above them : a sinner, for instance,
will sometimes emerge from his unfortunate condition by an
act which is worthy of the highest degree of holiness ; but, in
general, we can only contemplate and attain one of these states
by following the several degrees that lead up to it.

This is an important fact for the direction of souls. Each
degree has its special duties and enlightenment, and to set
it to do duties which are above it is to lay oneself open to the
risk of making grave mistakes. The vow of the most perfect,

. 1 Sed licet is, qui foris est, noster homo corrumpatur, tamen is qui
intus est, renovatur de die in diem (2 Cor. iv. 16).

122 THE INTERIOR LIFE

for instance, should not be allowed to a soul unless the state
of perfection has been soundly established in it.

14. The vow of the most perfect and trifles.—An important
observation made by St. Teresa: He who binds himself by
the vow of the most perfect ought not to stop at small trifles
and at the minutie of life to ask himself every moment in
which of these petty details the greatest glory of God is to
be found. This would be puerile and ridiculous. Life would
thus become full of worry, and subject to scruples and illu-
sions. No, it is not a question, as she says, of running after
little lizards ; but the matter in question is some great dispo-
sition of the soul. The soul must become established in a
great forgetfulness of self, in a great contempt for anything
created, in an immense desire for God’s glory. Then, let
there be simple and constant fidelity in little things, and a
generous choice of the most perfect in circumstances of some
importance.

As for the rest, as I have said, our enlightenment is pro-
portioned to our duties. A soul in the lower degrees, if it has
not a light which corresponds to its condition, will easily be
subject to illusions in looking for the most perfect, and will
fall into exaggerations and scruples. On the contrary, one
who has reached this height will not fear these reefs, because
he has light enough to keep clear of them. God’s sunlight
shines on him with greater intensity, so that from afar he can
discern between what is great and what is small, and see it
in its true light. Oh, how happy is he who knows how to be
satisfied with God’s light, how to reckon on it for his guidance,
and how to open his eyes to its rays and to follow it as it
increases |

Moreover, St. Teresa in practice was led to modify her
vow in such a way as to regard as the most perfect only what
her confessor had confirmed to her as such. It was the surest
way to cut short all worries and scruples.

THE END: THE SUMMITS 123

CHAPTER IV

_ Consummation
The Fifth Degree of Piety

15, The two crowns.—16. Immolation.—17. The supreme conclusion
—18. Beati mortui.—19. The rational man.—20. St. Francis of
Sales’s wish.

15. The two crowns.—We have seen how, in the preceding
state, human satisfaction languishes in forgetfulness ; we shall
now see how it dies in immolation. This is the crown of
holiness, the very top of the ladder which is set up between
earth and heaven! An example will again show us what this
state is: it is a well-known fact in the life of St. Catherine
of Siena. This is the report given of it by her confessor.

‘* The Saviour of the world appeared to her, holding in
His right hand a golden crown enriched with precious stones,
and in His left hand a crown of thorns.—Know, My dearest
daughter, said He to her, that thou hast to wear both the
one and the other at different times and seasons. Choose
the one thou preferrest : either in this life to wear a crown of
thorns ; and then I will keep the other for thee in that life
which has no end ; or else, now to enjoy the use of the precious
crown, and the crown of thorns shall be reserved for thee after
death.—It is a long time, O Lord, since I renounced my own
will in order to follow Thine alone ; hence it is net for me to
make any sort of choice. Nevertheless, since it is Thy will
that I should answer, I tell Thee that I choose to be in this
world unceasingly conformed to Thy blessed Passion, and
for Thee ever to seek my joy in suffering —And in saying
this, in an outburst of fervour she takes the crown of thorns
from the Saviour’s hand, and with both hands forces it upon
her head so energetically that the thorns pierce through
on all sides.” :

Thus did she choose suffering, through a supreme need of

1 Viditquef(Jacob) in somnis scalam stantem‘super terram, et cacumen

illius tangens coelum (Gen. xxviii. 12)
2 Acta Sanctorum, 11, p. got.

124 THE INTERIOR LIFE

absolute purification even in this world, and of being con-
formed to our Lord, in order that all might be stripped off
and consummated before death.

16. Immolation.—Here the soul has not to strike a balance
between the lesser or greater glory of God ; it has done this
work in the preceding state. It has now attained to see, love,
and seek God’s greatest glory in all things with facility and
readiness. It easily sees where this greater glory is to be
found, it loves it firmly, it chooses it readily ; this habit has
been thoroughly acquired by it. It does not shrink from any
sacrifice, in which there is rather more honour to be procured
for its God.

What remains to be done ? What degree can it find higher
up ?—There remains the human satisfaction which it has for-
gotten, and as to which it was indifferent. It has already
sacrificed this, as soon as it saw the divine good pleasure
rather more clearly ; but still there remains much of it behind.
These are the last traces of these adherences which hamper
and hinder its upward flight. It now wishes to complete its
holocaust, to detach, burn, and consume everything, through
a supreme need of immolation, of denudation, of disengage-
ment from things created, and of union with God.

That which characterizes this state is the need of immo-
lation, the hunger for suffering, the passion for the cross.
“Suffering or death,” is St. Teresa’s cry. ‘Not death,
but suffering,” is the still more amazing cry of St. Mary
Magdalene de Pazzi. The soul neither will nor can allow
anything created to remain in it any longer, nor any attach-
ment to things created or toitself: GoD ONLY!...GOD ONLY!

It immolates itself and everything else, all that it is and
all that it has ; it annihilates itself so that Jesus only may live
within it. I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me (Gal.
li. 20). With Christ I am nailed to the cross (Gal. ii. 19) ;
the world is crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. vi. 14) ;
I am dead ; and my life is hid with Christ in God.

17. The supreme conclusion.—This sublime state, the last
word of all earthly holiness, is further a logical conclusion

1 Mortui estis et vita vestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo
(Col. iii. 3).

THE END : THE SUMMITS 125

to be drawn from the first principle of creation : God is my
sole essential end, my sole all. The soul says to itself in fact :
If God’s glory is my one essential good, if God is the sole all
of my life, if in His glory is all my happiness, the more He is
solely the one object of my anxiety, the one aim of my love,
the one purpose of my efforts, the more shall I attain my end.
Consequently, the more I disappear in Him, the more the
satisfaction I have in what is apart from Him is swallowed up
in His glory, the more all that proceeds from self gets annihil-
ated in Him, the more God only remains. Hence, I shall
annihilate everything within me which proceeds from self,
I shall annihilate all that proceeds from things created ; and
I shall not rest, until I feel that everything has been finally
annihilated and that God reigns the sole master within me
over the ruins of my attachments to things created. It is
written : Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord (Apoc.
xiv. 13).

Then the saint, arming himself with indignation against
himself, summons to his aid self-denials and macerations,
God above all assists in this destruction of the creature by
interior devastations, and the saint’s supreme happiness is
finally to be able to raise a hymn to the sole glory of God upon
the débris of all earthly satisfactions. Dailiges ex toto.... Thou
shalt love the Lord, thou shalt sing to His glory with all thy
heart, with all thy mind, with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength.... With ALL!... O victory! this is where the
saint has attained! ... Yes, now all, all is for God, since
for him there is nothing left except in God!... ‘

18. Beati mortuii—I can understand the joy and the
intoxication of the saints in their immense sufferings. The
more suffering works in them, the more does their joy break
forth ; because they see the last remains of the created fall
one by one in themselves under the blows of sorrow. They
see God finally invade their whole being, they see death
swallowed up in victory. They see the supreme vision of
love, wherein God is all in all,! realized within them ; and, in
proportion as some fragment of the wall of separation falls,2

1 Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus (1 Cor. xv. 28).
? Medium parietem maceriæ solvens (Eph. ii. 14

126 THE INTERIOR LIFE

they triumph with fresh joy. Their sorrow is their greatest
joy. Blessed are the poor, blessed are those that mourn,
blessed are the clean of heart, blessed are they that suffer
persecution, blessed are the reviled and persecuted and
calumniated. The Saviour has said it, and they enjoy it.
All the beatitudes are in them. O supreme happiness of the
saints! O ineffable pleasure of suffering! O holy blessed-
ness of death! Beats mort! . . . Whoever has not had
some taste of such things knows nothing of joy nor of the
true meaning of happiness.

19. The rational man.—The saint who has reached this
supreme conclusion of all holiness is the only man who is
really and entirely rational. He is, indeed, the only one to
draw all the true conclusions, to gather all the consequences,
from the great fundamental principle which should guide
every human life ; he is the only one to reach in an absolute
manner that end for which he was created. Alone he has
seen the consummation of every end, and the end of every
consummation ;! alone he knows the infinite breadth of the
great command to see, love, and seek God in all things.

And if he has had to pass through numberless experiences
of denudation and destruction, he feels that nothing of his
real being has perished in these agonies ; that nothing which
ought to live has been lost. On the contrary, his life, his
true life, has become emancipated in its purity and freedom ;
it is a bath wherein his body has left its defilements behind ;
it is a crucible in which the gold has shed its dross. Here
again is one of the seals of true holiness ; its penances are able
to immolate what ought to be sacrificed without doing any
harm to what is really vital. How many of the mortifications
of the saints are health-giving, first of all for the soul, and then
even for the body! Diabolical exaggeration always ends in
destroying what ought to be preserved, and in preserving
what ought to be destroyed. The saint, being led by God,
strikes where he ought, destroys where it is fit to do so, and
builds up with wisdom. He is the absolutely rational man
par excellence.

i Omnis consummationis vidi finem, latum mandatum tuum nimis
(Ps. cxviii. 96).

THE END: THE SUMMITS 127

20. St. Francis of Sales’s wish.—‘‘ O my daughter l”” writes
St. Francis of Sales to St. Jeanne de Chantal, “ how much I
desire that we may one day be altogether reduced to nothing-
ness in ourselves so as to live wholly unto God, and that our
life may be hidden with Jesus Christ in God! Oh, when
shall we ourselves live, and yet not ourselves, and when will
Jesus Christ live wholly in us? I am about to make this the
subject of a little mental prayer, and I shall pray the royal
heart of the Saviour for ours.’’!

CHAPTER V
Purgatory

ar, Nothing defiled enters into heaven.—22. The duration of purga-
tory. — 23. Purification and glorification. — 24. Glorification
stopped.—25. Purification continued.

21. Nothing defiled enters into heaven.—How earnestly
should I make the desires of St. Francis of Sales my own!
For this entire purification of human nature, this complete
transference of my whole self to the rule of the love of the
Son of God, which renders me worthy and capable of entering
into participation with the company of the saints in light,
must be wrought and fulfilled in me before I enter into heaven.
None shall enter there until this work has been accomplished.
What has not been done in this world will be done in pur-
gatory ; at all events, if the work has been already begun, for
mortal sin remains eternally the spoil of hell, We must pass
by death to reach life.

Yes, all this almost infinite work of the purification of my
being, this stripping off of the created, this annihilation of
false adherences, this transformation of the human, has to
take place as a preliminary condition of entering heaven.
Flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God, neither
shall corruption inherit incorruption, says St. Paul. The
corruptible must be clothed with incorruption, and the mortal
must put on immortality. Until it has been entirely purified,

1 Letters, Book IV, Letter 106, Ed. Léonard.

128 THE INTERIOR LIFE

says St. John of the Cross, the soul cannot possess God on earth
in the pure transformation of love, nor in heaven in the beatific
vision.l If God cannot in this world consummate with the soul
that complete union which is called the mystical marriage, until
the human has been totally annihilated, how can He consum-
mate the eternal union of glory in heaven without this ?

22. The duration of purgatory.—O God! what then will
purgatory be? ... What! must the flames burn up every-
thing in me ? ... not only my sins ?... not only my imperfec-
tions ? but also all the human? ... all the created? ... and
that in all adherence which is apart from God? ... Have
they to bring about the complete transformation of my being ?

If even in the saints in this world, these operations are
so long and so painful ; if so many crosses and tribulations are
required to accomplish them ; if the stripping off of everything
in their case makes me shudder ; then, O my God, what will
purgatory be tome!...

Now I understand how few souls enter directly into heaven,
and the doctrine of the Church as to purgatory, and her extra-
_ ordinary insistence on making us pray for the dead. When
I shall take a time, on the threshold of eternity, says the Lord,
I will judge justices.2 Such is the judgement of justices.

23. Purification and glorification.—So far as interior purifi-
cation is concerned, all souls will be on the same footing in
heaven ; one will not be more pure than another, since all
must be absolutely pure. From this point of view, all have
the same vocation, all are called to attain the utmost height.
In this sense, the command which binds me to love God with
my whole being has the same absolute breadth for me as for
saints and angels. The word of God in His great command-
ment, ex toto, has no limit to its strictness. No spot, no im-
perfection, no speck of dust, may remain in my soul any more
than in an angel. I am then called to perfect purity, to the
supreme consummation.

But here we must recall a distinction. There are, indeed,
in the work of the interior life and in its ascent through the
five degrees of piety, two parts: one negative, which is that

1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book I, ch. iv.
2 Cum accepero tempus, ego justitias judicabo (Ps. Ixxiv. 3).

THE END: THE SUMMITS 129

of purification ; the other positive, which is that of glorifi-
cation. During this mortal life, these two parts of the divine
education are never separated. All purification is accom-
panied by an expansion of soul and by an increase of merits.

24. Glorification stopped.—I have just seen in what measure
purification takes place in going through the five degrees of
piety, since these five degrees are indeed characterized by the
progress made by interior purification. But the measure in
which the soul increases its divine capacities and eternal
merits is God’s secret. I know what are the miseries of which
I strip myself, but I do not know what are the riches which I
am acquiring. What may be the height of virtue reached in
me, what may be the extent of my merits, what may be the
level attained by my soul, what its place in heaven will be:
all these mysteries will only be revealed to me in the brightness
of the life to come.

I know that in this world, grace is given to every one
according to the measure of the giving of Christ.1 I know
that in the next life, glory will answer to the measure of the
grace which I shall have turned to good account here below ;
I know that in eternity, I shall possess that amount of growth
that I have reached in time ; I know that in getting my evil
defilements washed away, I increase at the same time ; and
this is all I know.

I am mistaken, I know something more. I know that here
below each one has his own measure, and that in heaven,
among the elect, star differeth from star in glory (1 Cor.
xv. 41); I know that the work of growth and glorification
ends irrevocably with death, and that each one will be left
eternally with the amount of merits in his possession at the
time of his passing away.2 I must work the works of Him that
sent me, whilst it is day : the night cometh when no man can
work (John ix. 4).

25. Purification continued.—Consequently, of the two
works which go on simultaneously during the time of our
earthly existence, one stops instantly and absolutely at death,

1 Unicuique autem nostrum data est gratia secundum mensuram
donationis Christi (Eph. iv. 7).

_ # Si ceciderit lignum ad austrum aut ad aquilonem, in quocumque
loco ceciderit, ibi erit (Eccles. xi. 3).

9

130 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and this is the work of glorification ; the other, if necessary,
continues beyond the grave until its supreme completion, and
this is the work of our purification. Its operations are carried
out in a place determined by the merciful justice of the
supreme Judge, a place which has therefore been given the
name of purgatory. What there takes place is a purification
which is altogether barren of any increase of merits or of
being, without any other benefit than that of the purification
itself. Purgatory will lead me to the degree of absolute
purity required for my appearance before God, and on leaving
it, I shall have the same degree of merit as I had on entering.
Ah, how important it is for me to come to an agreement with
my adversary betimes, whilst I am in the way with him in
this world, and before he delivers me to the judge, and the
judge delivers me to the officer, and I am cast into prison !
Once there, I shall not go out from thence till I have repaid
the last farthing. How mad and faithless must I be if I
condemn myself to such rigorous confinement and to such
an unprofitable expiation while it is still possible for me to
gain so much by becoming more holy !

CHAPTER VI
A General View
Unity

26. Unity.—27. Simplicity.—28. Strength.—29. Division.—30. The
three struggles.—31. Nothing to give unity.

26. Unity.—In this first principle of my creation I find the
real foundation of my spiritual life; the whole building of
holiness rests entirely upon it. The ultimate consequences
of the most perfect heroism as well as the first beginnings of
the avoidance of sin are conclusions from this first principle.
It is the centre of everything in the spiritual life. All truths,

1 Esto consentiens adversario tuo, cito dum es in via cum eo;
ne forte tradat te adversarius judici et judex tradat te ministro et in
carcerem mittaris. Amen dico tibi, non exies inde, donec reddas
novissimum quadrantem (Matt. v. 25, 26).

THE END: THE SUMMITS 131

even those which appear to be most fundamental, can be
reduced to this principle and deduced from it. It is, indeed,
easy to see that the spirit of faith, the love of God, zeal,
purity of intention, conformity to the will of God, etc., hu-
mility, self-denial, mortification, etc., are but the conclusions
from, or applications of, this principle.

When I have attained to the full light of this truth, which
is the mother and mistress of all the rest, I seem to have
ascended to the top of the mountain of God ; and from this
height, I can begin to comprehend, with all the saints, what
is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth (Eph.
iii. 18). This light illumines more fully the truths of the
faith and the Christian virtues. How much better can I
fathom with its help the texts of Holy Scripture, the utter-
ances of the Church, and the writings of the saints! No
other truth is as general, universal, and central. It gives me
the key of all spiritual doctrine. Without it, I can only con-
fine myself to some particular and more or less important
truth, which can never be the all of my interior life. The first
fruit I gather from it is therefore unity ; unity of thought,
unity of aspiration, unity of effort, unity of my whole life,
which is directed towards this one end.

27. Simplicity —Unity engenders simplicity ; unity of view
implies unity of way and unity of means. Thus disappear
the manifold complications of devotional practices, the in-
coherent and tiresome details of exercises, in the maze of
which the soul fails to find guidance, light, and life. Oh how
complicated is an ill-instructed piety, and how simple is that
whichis true! This will be seen still more clearly when I have
to speak of devotional exercises.

28. Strength.—The fairest fruit of unity is strength. The
great source of interior weakness is disturbance and division.
Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to
desolation (Luke iii. 17). The soul which is dispersed and
divided amidst the thousand anxieties of the senses consumes
its powers in detail and wastes them. But when these are
concentrated in unity and in God, what strength do they
possess! Seek ye the Lord, and be strengthened : seek His

face evermore (Ps. civ. 4). Seek ye God, and your soul shall

132 THE INTERIOR LIFE

live (Ps. Ixviii. 33). Thus saith the Lord to the house of
Israel : seek ye Me, and ye shall live (Amos v. 4).

No power is comparable to that of a soul unified in the
vision, love, and seeking of God. First of all, I get the initial
strength that comes from the very gathering together of all
the powers of my being. Who can measure the power of one,
all of whose faculties are entirely united in the same effort ?
When the intelligence, the will, the passions and powers of
the body, are concentrated and as it were compressed together
upon the same object, no earthly might is comparable to it.
And when this strength is reinforced by God’s, for in con-
centrating himself in God man acquires God’s strength, how
can we be astounded at the prodigious sway exercised by the
saints ? How can we be astounded at the potency of their
prayer and at the might of their action? O my God! when
shall I thus be wholly united in Thee, so as to be strong by
Thee? ... I will keep my strength to Thee (Ps. Iviii. 10) ;
and Thou, O God, who art wonderful in Thy saints, Thou the
God of Israel art He who will give me Thy power and strength
(Ps. Ixvii. 36).

29. Division.—We need not look further than our inward
division for the amazing weakness with regard to the good
which is in our midst. If it may be said with truth that the
strength of the wicked is the weakness of the good, what is
the cause of this weakness ?—Division and want of unity.
Not only the division which separates man from man and
which hinders any unity of view, any cohesion of will, and any
concentration of effort. This division is but the product of
another which is still deeper and more lamentable: the
division that exists in the depths of each soul. It is often
enough to enter into the inner state of a single soul to
appreciate the state of society. For the general state of
society is but an outward reproduction, and the pattern in a
lower sphere, of what takes place in the higher region of piety.

30. The three struggles——I have considered my soul, and
what have I found therein ?—My tastes and whims as the
practical rule of my thoughts, my determinations, and my
conduct. But what suits me is not the rule followed by
God in His governance of the universe. Hence, by this fact

THE END: THE SUMMITS 133

I am divided in thought, will, and action, so far as God is
concerned. This is the first struggle.

Then, what suits me is not the rule laid down for my fellows
and followed by them. Each one has his whims and his
notions, and if each one finds his rule in himself, this means a
universal division of thought, resoiution, and effort. This
is the second struggle.

Lastly, what suits me is not the rule laid down for my own
life. My tastes are unstable: momentary whims are not
abiding, bodily needs are not those of the soul, manifestations
of passion cross one another and are endlessly multiplied ;
and this means inward division. On the other hand, my
whims cast me outside of myself to seek the creature with its
infinitely multiplied divergencies. And all this still more
divides my mind, and causes my feelings to scatter and struggle
with one another, and gives my actions incoherence and pre-
cipitancy and disturbance and feverishness. The soul wastes
at every pore; it is like a pair of bellows full of holes, a well
that leaks and lets out the water at every stone, a machine
out of order in every part. I am divided and fighting against
myself. This is the third struggle.

31. Nothing to give unity.—Where is the thought of God
to control and concentrate all these ideas ? the love of God
to control and concentrate all these affections ? the seeking of
God to control and concentrate all these actions? The
thought of God, the love of God, the seeking of God, these are
but a small section, which has its place amidst all other
fragments that make up life, which works and struggles with
them, and is scarcely any more than they. This means
division without end, and the multiplication of weakness to
the last degree.

Disunion and impotence become the state of each one, and
are the state of all together ; and they are the state of all
together because they are the state of each one.! The
barrenness of the efforts of each individual as to himself and
as to all as a whole ; the impotence of one’s work upon one-

1 Here I repeat a remark made at the outset. The words “all”
and ‘‘ each one ”’ must be taken in a sense broad enough to allow for
numerous exceptions which are our consolation in the present and our
hope for the future.

134 THE INTERIOR LIFE

self and upon society: the cause of all this lies in inward
division. I make a number of efforts, and yet I am always
going backwards ; such is the complaint of many souls. What
a quantity of efforts are made on behalf of society, and yet
society daily goes backward. O piety, thou divine unity,
give us back the ascending steps of life! O my God! grant ©
that in me and in all others the splendid promise of Thy
prophet may be fulfilled : that Thy glory may gather up and
restore and restrain all our life in unity !1

CHAPTER VII
A General View

Peace

32. Liberty.—33. Equanimity.—34. Peace.—35. Glory and peace.

32. Liberty.—When God becomes my one thing needful,
He also becomes my one sole Lord. I know that when I
become anyone’s slave to obey him, I am the slave of him
whom I obey, whether it be of sin, unto death, or of obedience,
unto justice. Now I am made free from sin, and am become
the slave of God only.2 What do creatures matter to me?
What do happiness or sorrow matter, peace or suffering,
abundance or want, honour or contempt, health or sickness,
life or death? What do they matter? None of these things
are my necessary end, I am free from them all, above
them all.

The all of my life is higher, and all creatures, whether agree-
able or disagreeable to me, are equally the means of my reach-
ing my one necessary end. I know that God will always
afford me these means as far as they are necessary to the one
end of my life. I therefore cast all my care upon Him, for

1 Gloria Domini colliget te (Is. lviii. 8).

? Nescitis quoniam cui exhibetis vos servos ad obediendum, servi

estis ejus cui obeditis, sive peccati ad mortem, sive obeditionis ad

justitiam ? . « « Nunc vero liberati a peccato, servi autem facti Deo
(Rom, vi. 16-22).

THE END: THE SUMMITS 135

He makes it His business to care for me.4 And I have only
to take what He gives me; I make use of it as far as I need
it ; and when it is of no more use, I throw it away. I am
master. Thus I am not the slave of any being or event; I
am independent of them, indifferent about them. When
truth is revealed in me, the truth which is the highest term of
piety, it sets me free, truly and totally free.2 When the
truth, by way of charity, issues in liberty, piety is complete.
O holy liberty of the children of God! are all the toys of
vanity too high a price to pay for thee? These toys are like
the meshes of the net in which I was caught. The bird
escapes from the net: the snare is broken, and I am de-
livered.?

33. Equanimity.—Along with liberty, I win equanimity
and peace. My soul’s affections being transferred to God, my
one necessity, are no longer drawn hither and thither by
being divided amidst creatures ; disturbances from below can
no longer affect my soul, which is disengaged from them and
dwells in a higher region. They may be manifested in the
lower sphere of the senses and of the sensibility, which border
on the inferior part ; but they never rise to the higher part of
the soul, which lives in God and dwells in the region of tran-
quillity. Through all things, whether pleasant or the reverse,
my soul preserves its equanimity of temper and action. Now
that all brings it that increase of life which is its sole ambition,
now that by means of piety it has learnt to make use of every-
thing in view of the one end, human vicissitudes cease to
communicate to it those interminable tossings hither and
thither from which we suffer while we are lost in the crowd.

34. Peace.—When piety has established order in every-
thing,’ I rest in that tranquillity of order which is peace. And
this is real peace, deep peace, the peace of God, which rises
far above all that belongs to the senses. This is the peace

1 Omnem sollicitudinem vestram projicientes in eum, quoniam ipsi
cura est de vobis (1 Pet. v. 7).

2 Cognoscetis veritatem, et veritas liberabit vos; si ergo vos Filius
liberaverit, vere liberi eritis (Joan. viii. 32, 36).

3 Anima nostra sicut passer erepta est, de laqueo venantium.
Laqueus contritus est et nos liberati sumus (Ps. cxxiii. 7).

* Pax est tranquillitas ordinis (S. Aug., De Civ. Dei., I, 19. § 13).

5 Pax Dei que exsuperat omnem sensum (Phil. iv. 7).

136 THE INTERIOR LIFE

which Jesus Christ calls His own, and which infinitely differs
from that of the world.i When I have done what is just,
giving to God what is God’s, and to the creature what belongs
to the creature, justice brings forth its fruit, which is peace.?
I cross over the hills of justice to get to the mountains of
peace The Angels proclaimed it at Bethlehem: man's
peace ever follows upon God’s glory.

Peace : this is the last word of man’s happiness. It is the
final summing up of the divine promises, the last hymn of the
Church’s triumph sung at the grave of her children. When
one of the faithful leaves death behind to enter into life, the
representative of God and of the Church says in the name of
God and of the Church three words which are the connecting-
link between time and eternity : Reguiescat in pace. Rest in
peace!... What words, what a wishishere!... Itis the
wish of eternity, for peace will not be ultimately realized
except in heaven.

35. Glory and peace.—And, in the last analysis, this is how
my life comes to be summed up in the two words which were
sung by the Angels over our Lord’s crib, as the full message
of His coming into the world : “‘ Glory to God in the highest :
and on earth peace to men of good-will.” There, indeed, is
the whole purpose of the Incarnation and of Redemption : to
procure and to repair the glory of God and the peace of man.
Glory is all that man can render to God, and peace all that
God gives to man. Glory means man dwelling in God:
peace means God dwelling in man. For there is this double
indwelling of man in God and of God in man, and the one is
inseparable from the other and always follows the other.
Abide in Me: and I in you, says the Lord (John xv. 4). He
that abideth in charity, says the Apostle of charity, abideth
in God, and God in him (x John iv. 16). I must abide in
God by glory that God may abide in me by peace. And this
abiding, this interchange of glory and peace, this is my life
for time and for eternity.

1 Pacem relinquo vobis, pacem meam do vobis; non quomodo
mundus dat, ego do vobis (Joan. xiv. 27).

2 Et erit opus justitiæ pax (Is. xxxii. 17).

3 Suscipiant montes pacem populo, et colles justitiam (Ps. Ixxi. 3).

4 Gloria in altissimis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bone voluntatis
(Luc. ii 14).

THE END: THE SUMMITS ie

CHAPTER VIII

For Priests

36. The duel between the ministry and spiritual exercises.—37. The

* priest seeks self. — 38. He also seeks the good of others.—
39. Destroy the common enemy.—40. Centre and circumference.
—41. Exhortation.

36. The duel between the ministry and spiritual exercises.—
This principle further throws light upon an important point
in the ministry of the priest. Is it not a strange paradox that
an ecclesiastic should be hindered in his interior life by the
work of the ministry? ... The ministry of the priest is
essentially spiritual, it has to do with nothing but the things
of God and with such as lead to God. All day the priest,
devoted to his ministry, is given up to the service of God, and
occupied with supernatural work. The normal effect of this
employment should be to unite the priest deeply, intimately,
and constantly, to God. How does it happen that it keeps
him at a distance ? for it is impossible to disguise the fact that
such is the too common result of his work to-day.

Whence comes this antagonism, I was about to say, this
duel to the death, between exercises of piety and the ministry,
the one killing the other ? How can two things which are so
much alike contradict one another? Their reconciliation is
a difficult problem, and counsels and recommendations recur
year by year on this capital question without securing any
entirely satisfactory conclusions. In order to stop the strife,
priests are advised to assign to each its share in a careful
manner, and not to allow the one to infringe on the domain
of the other. Nothing is so unstable as this factitious equi-
librium, since it rests upon convention and not upon principle.

37. The priest seeks himself.—To go to the root of things,
there can be no setting up of a reconciliation or harmony
between two things which are absolutely alike. Would it not
be wiser to look for a common enemy, who slips in between
them and divides them, and kills both? For the ministry is
no better off than the exercises of piety ; as soon as one suffers,

135 THE INTERIOR LIFE

the other suffers with it ; the evil that befalls the one, comes
to the other as well. This mortal enemy may be discovered
by the help of a principle which I have already meditated
upon.

What, in fact, does the priest, whose piety is becoming
paralyzed, look for in his ministry ? what has he in view ?
what does he love ?—Two things. The first is himself. He
sees, loves, and seeks himself far too much. He is far too
much in the front rank in many of his intentions. How many
are his personal seekings and views! ... How many of his
ideas are neither those of God nor of His Church! ... how
many customs and practices there are, which are not exactly
in the spirit of the liturgy and of discipline! ... And then,
there are the joys of success, the satisfactions arising from
gratitude, the want of praise, and all kinds of other things.

A host of different kinds of self-seeking. All this tends
to get the upper hand within, and what is inspired by this
spirit does not go towards God.

38. He seeks the good of others.—In the priest’s views as
to himself, his eye does not keep enough to the simplicity and
clearness which make the whole body full of light. But, as
is plain, he also looks at others. And he has to look at so
many souls . ..and so many things!... Since his eye is not
simple enough, he does not know well how to reduce all this
multiplicity to the great centre of unity, and he allows him-
self to get divided. God is no longer so clearly seen in souls,
nor are souls so clearly seen in God, as is demanded by the
ascents of the divine glory. The very idea of salvation to
be procured assumes a sort of aspect which is too utilitarian
and human ; it becomes mingled with a crowd of other ad-
vantages and considerations which are more or less temporal,
the direction of which is finally set too much towards the
creature. Certainly, the priest cannot remain totally apart
from any of the interests of human growth, since it is his
function to set them towards God. He must not be uncon-
scious of what he has to direct. But let him take care, in
busying himself as to this, not to get himself set in the direc-

tion of the creature instead of directing the creature towards
God, hPa - |

THE END: THE SUMMITS _ 139

From the moment I regard the creature, is it to be won-
dered at, if I find what I am looking for? Seek and you
shall find (Matt. vii. 7). As soon as I make the least little
slant away from the one way, I set myself in a wrong direction,
and the farther I go, the more I get astray ; and this is fatal.
And if sometimes it happens, ut cum spiritu cœperitis, nunc
carne consummemini (Gal. ill. 3), this terrible misfortune
does but prove that those who end thus have gone on in the
wrong way until the utmost. And to what do those who have
been preserved from this owe it ?—Solely to getting themselves
wound up from time to time by the exercises of a retreat.
To get wound up is the term used, and how significant it is !

And yet, if we were in the right way, on the one way,
we should not need any winding up, but only have to go
straight upwards.

39. Destroy the common enemy.—If one sought God, one
would find Him. Here again we have perverted our way,
the secondary has taken the first place, order has been sub-
verted. What then must be done ?—There is clearly no
reconciliation to be brought about between the exercises of
piety and those of the ministry : they are not enemies. One
thing need not be sacrificed to the other, the one does not live
at the expense of the other. Get rid of the common enemy,
self-seeking and looking at the creature, which kills both the
ministry and exercises of piety.

Let there be unity within, look at God, and love God:
seek God, God and His glory before all else, both in your
ministry and in your exercises : when you have reached the
centre, you will see how everything converges there. The
ministry will then strengthen your exercises, and your exer-
cises will stimulate your ministry. They will be various acts
of the same work. Instead of being drawn hither and thither
in opposite directions, your soul will pass from the one to the
other without shock, without effort, without distractions,!

1 Distraction means being drawn hither and thither in different
directions. How many souls complain of distractions in their prayers !
Do they know the reason of this? Distractions are the inevitable
condition of a soul which is away from its centre. In proportion as it
returns to the central unity of its life, distractions vanish. Conse-
quently, the most thoroughly effective means of escape from being
drawn hither and thither is to draw towards the centre of unity.

140 _ THE INTERIOR LIFE

in the deeper etymological sense of the word. Then prayer
will be nourished by the ministry and the ministry will be
kind/ed by prayer, and you will see and find God in the
_ ministry as well as in prayer: this wonderful unity will be
the truth, apart from which the soul is perpetually divided
and weakened.

40. Centre and circumference.—Therefore, regard God more
in souls and souls more in God. In the words of Jeremias,
see in the high and glorious throne from the beginning the
place of all sanctification.! Seek your satisfaction and
contentment less; rest in God, not in yourselves, nor in
creatures ; there is your centre, and then all, all will converge
towards the same end. Towards this point converge all the
points of the circle. This one point is the sole bond of all
the rest. Directly the centre is left, there is no more union
or concentration. In piety, too, there is but one centre, one
point, which draws all, unites all, binds all together : the pure
and single view of God and His glory. If I abide at this
one point, if I am established at this one centre, all con-
verges and finishes there. The infinite multiplicity of the
points of the circumference, in other words, the manifold
anxieties of the creature, all end in God and His glory.
Nothing draws me away from it, all brings me back to it.
Apart from that, there is no unity, all is division.

Oh, remain, remain at the centre, and thus the ministry
will have the same effective result as prayer, every one of
the external occupations will be as sanctifying as prayer,
and then, what potency of sanctification there will be! All
the day’s acts concurring in the same end and producing the
same result, the soul is borne to God simultaneously on the
two wings of work and prayer. What ascents and what
progress flow from this! Oh, how soon would the priest be
sanctified, if he thus understood his ministry !

Thus was it understood by the saints. They were observed
passing without any transition from prayer to action and
from action to prayer, hardly making any difference between
them, because in both they found God. God was sought and

1 Solium gloriæ altitudinis a principio locus sanctificationis nostræ
(Jer. xvii. 12)

THE END: THE SUMMITS 141

found in the necessary succession of different occupations,
but in the unity of a single view.

41. Exhortation.—O priests of God! see and hearken. . ..
There, indeed, is the secret of your strength, the treasure of
your power. ... Oh,if you only knewit!... Be then united
and unified in God, and nothing can stand against you.
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world : and
this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith
(zx John v. 4). O priests, if you only willed it! ... Faith,
the vision of God, the seeking of God!... Then you would be ©
invincible! ... Against a single soul unified in God, the
whole world can do nothing; alone it is stronger than the
world. Against it all powers are powerless, all strength is
weak. Learn where is wisdom, where is strength, where is
understanding: so that you may know where is length of
days, the true food of the soul, victory and peace.! O priests !
if you only knew it !—if you only willed it! ... Faith, the
vision of God, unity . .. and victory is yours....

1 Disce ubi sit prudentia, ubi sit virtus, ubi sit intellectus, ut scias

simul ubi sit longiturnitas vite, et victus, et lumen oculorum et pax
(Baruch iii. 14).

CONCLUSION

Here, then, is what St. Paul calls the goal of our supernal
vocation in Jesus Christ. It only remains for me to fling
myself into this career after the example of the great Apostle.
“ But the things that were gain to me,” he says, “‘ the same
I have counted loss for Christ. Furthermore I counted all
things to be but loss, for the excellent knowledge of Jesus
Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ.
... Not as though I had already attained, or were already
perfect : but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend,
wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus. Brethren,
I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing
I do [for the sake of this anity,] . . . forgetting the things
that are behind [the secondary], and stretching forth myself
to those that are before [the main things], I press towards
the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in
Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be
thus minded : and if in any thing you be otherwise minded :
this also God will reveal to you. Nevertheless whereunto
we are come, that we be of the same mind, let us also con-
tinue in the same rule. Be followers of me, brethren, and
observe them who walk so as you have our model ”1 (Phil.
ili. 7-17).

1 Unum autem, que quidem retro sunt obliviscens, ad ea que sunt
priora extendens meipsum, ad destinatum persequor, ad bravium
supernæ vocationis Dei in Christo Jesu.

he Vulgate is given of that part of the above quotation in which

the author has inserted the gloss printed in brackets. The rest is
from the Douai version.

142

PART 1:
THE WAY

PRELIMINARY
The Will of God

1. Who must mark out the way ?—2. The kingdom of heaven.—3. The
two entrances.—4. The two wills of God.—5. The two dwellings
of the Holy Ghost.—6. Their union.—7. The division of this
Part

1. Who must mark out the way ?—I know the goal of my
supernal vocation, the one end of my life; I know where I
have to go, and whither my efforts must tend. But to get
there, there is a way to follow, a path from which I must not
deviate, unless I would miss the end. This way is one, like
the end to be attained. What is it ?

In the Pater noster, I saw that the way is the will of God.1
It is this will that marks out for me the path to take. In
the manifold variety of spiritual and corporal creatures,
some are useful for my end, others are harmful ; some are
more useful than others. There is, then, a choice to be made.
How am I to make it ?

If I wish to make it myself, I can only make it according
to my own tastes and ideas, and this will be a fresh disorder :
myself before God, the disorder to be avoided at all costs.
On the other hand, what do I know as to what there is in
creatures ? How am I to know what is useful for the service
of God, and what is not so? God, who made the creature,
alone knows what it has in it. It is, then, for Him and His
will to determine what creatures I must use for His glory.

2. The kingdom of heaven.—Not every one that saith to
Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven:
but he that doeth the will of My Father who is in heaven,
he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven (Matt. vil. 21).
The kingdom of heaven is that in which is sung the glory of
God, for it is the characteristic of heaven to shew forth the

1 See Part I, Book I, § 51.
145 10

146 THE INTERIOR LIFE

glory of God!1 Wherever the praises of God resound, there
is the kingdom of heaven. Heaven begins here below in holy
souls, and is continued in its fulness in the splendours of
eternity. The kingdom qe heaven is, then, the kingdom of
the praise of God.

And what is the entrance into this kingdom ?—It is the
beginning of the praise of God. When I begin to glorify
. God, I enter into the kingdom of heaven, and each time I
begin a new praise, a new manner of glorifying God, it is as
it were a new entrance, or rather, an entrance into a new
mansion of the kingdom ; for in the kingdom of the heavenly
Father, there are many mansions.2 The last entrance will
be that which establishes me for eternity in the mansion
where I shall praise God unto the end of the ages.

3. The two entrances.—But there are two kinds of entrances
into this kingdom : either I enter into it, or it enters into me.
Our Lord, in fact, says two things. I enter into it, when I
procure the glory of God ; and in this way, I begin here below
to live in heaven,‘ since here below I begin to sing the glory
of God. It enters into me, when I receive the gifts of God.
Thus it is that Our Lord says: ‘‘ Lo, the kingdom of God
is within you ” (Luke xvii. 21) ; and thus it is that in the
Pater noster He makes me say “ Thy kingdom come.”
Already here below, the kingdom of God enters into me and
I enter into it. And when the hour of eternity strikes, then
I shall finally and totally enter into it to praise God through
eternity, and it will enter into me to flood me with endless
felicity.

But how and in what way does this entrance come about ?
—Our Lord says that it is not by prayer. Prayer is not the
way: later on, I shall see that it is a means, and a great
means, but a means which is only of use if I am on the way.
Outside of the way, he who takes this means and says,
“Lord, Lord,” shall not enter. What then is the way ?—It
is one only, it is the will of God. He who does the will of
My Father, it is he who will enter, he alone, and no others.

1 Cœli enarrant gloriam Dei (Ps. xviii. 1).

2 In domo Patris mei mansiones multe sunt (Joan. xiv 2).
3 In sæcula seculorum Jaudabunt te (Ps. Ixxxiii. 5).

4 Nostra autem conversatio in ccelis est (Phil. iii 20).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOD 147

4. The two wills of God.—This is the road I must take and
follow. But to take and follow it, I must know it. The
will of God is one ; ‘‘ but,”’ says St. Francis of Sales, “ although
His divine Majesty has but one very singular and simple will,
yet we denote it with different names according to the various
means whereby we know it, a variety which obliges us to
conform to it in ways as various.”’4

All the varieties of the manifestation of the divine will
may be reduced to two, which are like the two hands of
God. With one hand, God indicates to me the rules of what
I have to do; He sets up the barriers, He keeps the channel
which has to confine, protect, and contain my vital move-
ment. This is the fixed part, the statical element of the
supernatural life. All laws, rules, directions, and institutions,
the use of which is to direct and contain my action, belong
to that divine will which is called the will signified. It is
thus called, because it puts along my path signs which indi-
cate the line I have to follow.

With His other hand, God acts within me: He stimulates
and animates me, He impresses upon me the impulse of a
supernatural movement. This is the motive power, the
dynamical element of my divine life. All that comprises
inspiration, right movement, God’s inner action, belongs to
this side of His will which is called His will of good pleasure.
It is thus called, because, in its vivifying action upon me,
God manifests the good pleasure of the mercy and loving-
kindness which inspire His will.

5. The two dwellings of the Holy Ghost.—And, at bottom,
what are these two manifestations of the divine will but the
twofold dwelling of the Holy Ghost, promised by the Lord
to His Church? The will is the peculiar attribute of the

Holy Ghost. And in announcing His mission, Our Lord said

to His Apostles: “‘ The Spirit of truth shall abide with you,
and shall be in you” (John xiv. 17). He shall abide with
you, this means dwelling in the house which is the Church.
This is the public, external, official presence, whereby the
Spirit of truth maintains the laws, and guides the persons
who interpret the laws of God. He will be in you, this

1 Treatise of the Love of God, Book VIII, ch. iii.

149 THE INTERIOR LIFE

means the inward dwelling, the personal indwelling of the
Spirit of holiness, acting in the soul and producing in it the
mysterious seething of eternal life.

Hence on the one hand, there is a regulative power which
gives me the outward form of what I have to do : and on the
other hand, there is a stimulative movement, imparting
internal activity to me. On the one hand, social authority,
intended to contain ; on the other, individual action, intended
to vivify. On the one hand the body, and on the other the
soul of Christian life.

6. Their union.—Consequently, it is plain that these two
sides of the divine will, these two hands of God, these two
dwellings of the Holy Ghost, cannot be separated in the
formation of my life. My activity must be at once contained
on the one hand, and animated on the other, by the Spirit
of God. Whilst the rules of the signified will, being stable,
fixed, and firm, act as an external mould, the living, mobile,
and varied operations of the will of good pleasure animate,
knead, and transform the dough, and make it enter into all
the shapings of the mould. It is thus that the two hands of
God combine to confine and to arouse my movement.

7. The division of this Part.—Here then are three things :
the external rules of my action for God, the internal secrets
of God’s action in me, the living combination of the two
elements which form my life. Consequently, I have three
questions to put to myself here: 1. What rules are laid
down for my action by the will signified? 2. What part
does the action of the sovereign good pleasure play in my
life ? 3. How do these two actions come to unite and com-
bine? The three Books that follow will be entirely devoted
to answering these three questions. When I know what my
action ought to be, what God’s action is, and what the union
of my action with God’s should be, I shall know my way, I
shall know the road whereby the soul rises to glorify its
Creator. :

Thus it is that Part II is divided into three Books entitled :

I. The Will Signified.
IT. The Will of Good Pleasure,
III. The Concurrence of the Two Wills.

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOD 149

It is well to remark that if the need for clearness necessi-
tates this division of the three ideas, and their separate
explanation, it does not follow that the will signified can
appear apart from the will of good pleasure, since, in the
living reality of my progress towards God, they are allied and
united as is steam to the pipes that contain it, and as is the
stream to the channel in which it runs. Nor must it be in-
ferred that piety which is active and piety which is passive,
as they will be here understood, are two successive states of
the soul. They are two factors of the same movement. In
order to understand them better, I shall first study each of
them separately, as it were by the method of analysis ; and
after the partial consideration of each in two distinct Books,
in the third Book, I shall come to see their living synthesis.

BOOK !
THE WILL SIGNIFIED

It is this will that lays down duty, that marks out the
way of right in which man has to walk, and which protects
him from the by-ways of evil, which he has to avoid. It is
this which marks out the road to heaven, and indicates both
the direction to be taken and the barriers that must not be
crossed. Its indications are indispensable to man, poor lost
wanderer in the wilderness of the world, for, without them,
he would be incapable of finding his way to the fatherland.

Two points must be considered here. First, where and
how is this will of God manifested and expressed? Next,
now must I answer and correspond thereto? Hence, in the
first place, there is the manifestation of God, in the second,
the answer of man: the manifestation of the divine orders
and desires, the rule of my activity ; the answer of my activity
and of my life to the orders and desires of God. In other
words : on the one side, the signs of the divine will ; on the
other, active piety : such are the two things I have to meditate
upon in this first Book.

151

CHAPTER I

Commandments and Counsels

1. Divine manifestations.—2. The commandments of God.—3. The
commandments of the Church.—4. The counsels.

1. Divine manifestations ——God, who at sundry times and
in divers manners spoke in times past to the fathers by the
prophets, last of all in these days hath spoken to us by His
Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom
also He made the world (Heb. i. 1). God has spoken, and He
speaks ; for He never leaves Himself without testimony.!
He hath spoken by His prophets and by the men He has
inspired ; He has spoken Himself by coming to live our human
_ life, and He continues to speak by His Church. This word of
life, which God in His goodness has multiplied in so many
ways and at so many times, is practically condensed in
matters of conduct in the Commandments of God, the Com-
mandments of the Church, and in the Evangelical Counsels.

2. The commandments of God.—They manifest to me the
most general and the most absolute will of God my Father.
This will applies absolutely to all. Therein is the source
and rule of all obligations, It is what is binding on piety
in quite the first place, and the other manifestations of the
will of God only help to explain, to determine, and to apply
the general prescriptions laid down by the commandments,
The commandments of God, then, are the primary and
fundamental rule of piety, and their observance is the first
duty.

In the commandments there are two parts, written formerly
by the finger of God on the two tables of the law: the first,
the rule of the interests which are divine ; the second, of the
interests which are human. God and man, divine relations
and human relations, these constitute the whole of religion.
And the commandments govern that which concerns God

i Et quidem non sine testimonio semetipsum reliquit (Act. xiv. 16).
152

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 153

and that which concerns man ; they are finally summed up
in the love of God and in the love of our neighbour. Not
only what God has written on the two tables of Sina, but all
_ that He has said in the law and the prophets is ultimately
condensed into these two precepts.+

3. The commandments of the Church. —They are the voice
of my mother, explaining to me and determining certain
points of the will of God my Father. It is the mission of the
Church to adapt to times and persons the divine prescriptions,
and, according to necessity, to specify certain of their prac-
tical details and certain particular applications. Here is
the second rule of piety.

Since complete piety is at once truth in the mind, charity
in the heart, and liberty in action, the Church, whose office
it is to mark out and to protect her course, has at once the
magisterium of truth, the sway of charity, and the discipline
of liberty. By virtue of this triple power, which is infallible,
she promulgates the laws of her dogma, her morals, and her
discipline, and these three categories of laws are at once the
rule and the protection of piety. By the laws of her dogma,
the Church is the guardian of truth for my mind, and lays
down its ways. By the laws of her morals, she is the guardian
of charity for my heart, and shows it the path. By the laws
of her discipline, she is the guardian of my liberty of action,
and determines my use of it. By her commandments, the
Church is then the fosterer and guardian of my piety. And
if I would have truth in my mind, charity in my heart, and
liberty in my actions, in a word, if I would have piety in my
life, I must conform to the laws of the Church. Piety is only
kept in truth, charity, and liberty by the protection of Holy
Church, my mother.

4. The counsels.—God is not only manifested by His
absolute declarations of will, binding under pain of sin ; He
also condescends to make known His wishes. And as the
commandments express His absolute will, the counsels indi-
cate His wishes. The commandments determine what is
the evil to be avoided and what is the good to be done. The

1 In his duobus mandatis universa lex pendet et prophetæ
(Matt. xxii. 40).

154 THE INTERIOR LIFE

counsels, being based in the first place on the commandments,
rise above them and mark out the way of the better and of
the perfect. They reveal to man the secrets and the higher
ascents, and they mark out for him the paths by which he
may rise to consummation in God.

The way of the commandments is obligatory, in such a
way that every voluntary deviation becomes a formal diso-
bedience to the supreme Master. The paths of the counsels
are free in the sense that negligence in going forward in them
does not constitute an offence properly so-called against the
divine Majesty, and remains a simple coming short of the good
and a diminution of perfection.

The counsels are numerous, for they exist interiorly for
all states of the soul, and exteriorly for all social positions.
They are extensive, for they reach as far as the highest point
of the mystical marriage of the soul with God. That is to
say, that all are not adapted to all, that they vary according
to the external position of different souls, and that they are
graduated even for the same soul according to the level of its
interior ascents.

CHAPTER II
The Duties of One’s State of Life

5. Twofold object.—6. The application of the commandments.—
7. The choice of counsels.—8. For priests.—9. For religious.—
10, For laymen.

5. The twofold object.—Practice requires an application of
the commandments, a choice of the counsels. There is no
choice to be made between the commandments, since they
must all be kept ; but they have to be applied, and this applica-
tion is as various as are one’s external conditions and interior
disposition. As for the counsels, since all of them cannot
be carried out by all, a choice has to be made.

What is it that determines both the necessary application
of the commandments and the fitting choice of the counsels ?—
The duties of our state of life. These duties are not a category
of obligations or of directions distinct from those which are

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 155

contained in the commandments and the counsels. Their
proper object is to specify in a very concrete way the practical
mode of execution, and what personally applies to each
individual.

Hence their object is twofold. It is in them that I find
these two things determined: 1. The proper and personal
manner in which I have to practise the commandments ;
2. the special part of the evangelical counsels which it is
possible and a good thing for me to conform to. :

6. The application of the commandments.—Though identical
for all and absolute in substance, the commandments cannot
be practised by all in the same conditions. The principle is
general, its application must be special. The precept pro-
claims the general principle, the duty of our state of life deter-
mines the special application.

The fourth commandment, for instance, which has authority
for its object, universally applies to all men. For, in our
social organization, no one can exist without having some
amount of authority to exercise or to submit to. Hence the
commandment is indeed universal. But, as to its fulfilment,
what a difference there is between master and subject! And
for masters: fathers, professors, heads, superiors, chiefs of
all kinds, what differences there are in the exercise of their
manifold social authorities! And for the subjects: children,
pupils, servants, workmen, inferiors of all sorts, there are as
many varieties in the conditions of their obedience to
authority ! All have to observe a general precept, and each
one does this differently according to his state of life. The
laws and special rules of each state tell each one how he
must adapt himself to the common precept.

So much for authority. And it is the same with regard
to the adoration, reverence, and worship of God, and charity,
chastity, justice, and truth, governed by the other command-
ments, and practically determined by the duties of each state.

7. The choice of counsels.—With regard to perfection and
the ties by which one may be engaged thereto, men may be
classified into three states: priests, religious, laymen. There
are doubtless counsels, such as those of patience, humility,
gentleness, etc., which are fitting for all these states. Many

156 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of the general principles of the spiritual life may be studied
and meditated on in the same books by priests, religious,
and laymen. Nevertheless, the practice of these counsels
cannot be separated from the surroundings of professional
duties with which they must be in accord.

But there are also, especially in the matters of prayer
and detachment, counsels which are quite peculiar to each
state. Sacerdotal, religious, and laic perfection does not
strip off the human and go towards the divine by the same
way in each of these states. Nor do all priests fulfil the
same functions, nor do all the religious follow the same con-
stitutions, nor do all laymen practise the same professions.
And the practice of the principles of perfection has necessary
variations, and they are often fairly characteristic of the
different specialities of sacerdotal functions, religious con-
stitutions, and social professions.

8. For priests.—The duties of his state in the case of the
priest are contained in ecclesiastical laws. These laws are
of two kinds: liturgical laws, and disciplinary laws. The
liturgical laws, and the word is here taken in its broadest
sense, govern his relations with God ; disciplinary laws govern
his relations with the creature. One set strips him of himself,
the others lead him to God. Here there are two operations
which, in reality, are only one, and which refer man to the
glory of God. |

It is the liturgical rules that determine for him the sense
of the three commandments, as well as of the counsels, which
have to do with his relations with God, and it is these rules
that give them their sacerdotal form. And in the same way,
it is canon law that determines the commandments of the
second table, and the counsels which govern his relations
with creatures, in such wise as to give them their sacerdotal
form. It is, then, in this twofold classification of the laws
which properly belong to his state that the ecclesiastic must
look for the rule that touches clerical piety most nearly, and
for its most appropriate form.

9. For the religious.—The duties of their state are expressed
in the Rule. It contains the authentic collection and the
complete form of the obligations which are specially binding

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 157

on them. God has shown a loving care, even in the smallest
details, to indicate His will to them. Two essential parts
sum up the Rule of the religious, whatever it may be: one,
which is ritual, governs their offices with regard to God ; the
other, which is disciplinary, strips man of himself and of all
that is created, in the degree and in the manner which are
peculiar to each institution. Here, again, we have the two
fundamental operations of all piety.

Precepts and counsels, then, in the case of the religious
also, are fused into and become embodied in his Rule, in
order to assume that special form which imparts its proper
character to the religious life. And the piety of the monk
will be manifested in its true religious form, if he is able to
find in his Rule the most immediate law of his advance towards
God.

10. For laymen.—The duties of their state are laid down
for them by the professional rules which belong to each person.
The magistrate has his rules of duty, the soldier has his
regimental orders, the merchant, the doctor, the workman,
the father of a family, the mother, the children, all and each
in their several positions have obligations specially belonging
to them, and which are marked out for them by rules which
are more or less explicit, or by unwritten customs having the
force of law.

These professional obligations are the nearest rule for the
piety of laymen. If the piety of the priest only becomes
sacerdotal by its conformity with ecclesiastical laws, if the
piety of the monk only becomes religious by the observation
of his Rule, the prety of the layman is only real in and through
the practice of his professional duties. Thus each state has the
form which properly belongs to its piety, and this form is
willed by God, in such a manner that the piety of the priest
is not that of the religious nor of the layman, and that of the
layman is not that of the priest nor of the religious.

158 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER III
The Knowledge of Duty
The General Obiigation

11. Practical piety.—12. Knowing, loving, executing.—13. The
necessity of knowing one’s duty.—14. Ignorance.—15. Illusion.

11. Practical piety.—Such is the general will of God. To
this will correspond the obligations which constitute what
I may call the practical part of piety, since they determine
what I ought to do, and they point out to me the portion of
personal action which God asks of me in the work of His glory
and of my own sanctification.

I must, in fact, act and exercise my faculties in the execu-
tion of God’s orders and desires. I must walk in the way
that is marked out for me. And how can I walk ?—By means
of the three groups of faculties within me. I can know,
and love, and execute. But I have seen that when the direc-
tion of my sight, my love, and my seeking is set towards
God, that is called piety.! The part of this direction which is
brought about by the concurrence of my personal activity
must then be called piety in action, or the practical part of
piety. Hence, practical piety is the part in action which I
have to develop in seeing, loving, and seeking God.

12. Knowing, loving, executing.—If I have to know my
end, I must also know my way ; if I ought to love my end,
I ought also to love the road thither ; if I must try to attain
the final summit of my life, I must also follow the paths which
lead me thereto. Now, I have seen? that the glory of God,
which is my end, requires: that my intelligence should know
it; that my will should be attached to it; that my action
should seek it. This triple obligation is equally binding so far
as the will of Godis concerned. My intelligence must know it ;
my will, respect and love it ; my action, execute it. The seeing.
. loving,seeking the glory of God, constitute the essence of piety;
the seeing, loving, seeking the will of God, constitute its way.

1 See Part I, Book II ch. ii. 2 Ibid, ch. i.

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED rs0

13. The necessity of knowing one’s duty.—I must first of
all know the will of God. I must know it, if I desire to follow
it and not to walk in darkness,! and if I desire not to be entirely
wanting in prudence and wisdom.? Knowledge is here again
the first condition of the good. I must ask God to fill me with
the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual under-
standing, so that I may walk worthy of God, please Him in
all things, be fruitful in every good work, and increase in the
knowledge of God.3 As the eyes of servants are on the hands
of their masters, and as the eyes of the hand-maid are on the
hands of her mistress ; so must my eyes be fastened on the
Lord my God,‘ so that I may inquire for and come to know
His will in all things. |

14. Ignorance.—There are two evils to be feared : ignor-
ance which does not see, and illusion which sees amiss.
First of all, there is culpable ignorance which is not at
all anxious to refashion its feelings anew, but which, con-
forming to the world, does not try to ascertain what is
the will of God, leading from the good to the better and
the perfect. Next, there is the ignorance composed of dis-
tractions and frivolities, which cannot stay to give thought
to anything and lets its life glide with the stream. Finally,
there is involuntary ignorance, the fruit of the darkness of
our weak intelligence, and against which we have to struggle
our whole life long, asking God above all to set His light
in the little lamp of our minds, and to enlighten our
darkness.®

1 Qui sequitur me, non ambulat in tenebris (Joan. viii. 12).

2 Nolite fieri imprudentes, sed intelligentes que sit voluntas Dei
(Eph. v. 17).

Orantes et postulantes, ut impleamini agnitione voluntatis ejus,
in omni sapientia et intellectu spiritali, ut ambuletis digne Deo per
omnia placentes, in omni opere bono fructificantes et crescentes in
scientia Dei (Col. i. 9, 10).

* Ecce sicut oculi servorum in manibus dominorum suorum, sicut
oculi ancillæ in manibus dominz sue, ita oculi nostri ad Dominum
Deum nostrum, donec misereatur nostri (Ps. cxxii. 2).

5 Et nolite conformari huic sæculo, sed reformamini in novitate
sensus vestri, ut probetis que sit voluntas Dei bona et beneplacens
et perfecta (Rom. xii. 2).

8 Quoniam tu illuminas lucernam meam Domine; Deus meus,
illumina tenebras meas (Ps. xvii. 29).

160 THE INTERIOR LIFE

15. Illusion.—Illusion is perhaps the commonest evil.
We are so fond of feeding ourselves on illusions!... Indeed,
we live in them... and we also diein them!... To feed
oneself up with illusions is the great need and the constant
anxiety of self-interest. It is so skilful in manufacturing
them! ... But nowhere are illusions so frequent or so
fatal as concerning the will of God. It is so much to our
interest not to see too much of it, or to see just enough of it
to quiet our conscience without overloading it!...

I am so accustomed to looking at things through the prism
of self-interest and to brinigng my obligations into harmony
with what suits me! Before God’s will, I consult my own
interests: they are so near and so insistent! Their voice
makes itself heard so readily, and the noise they fill my ears
with deadens the sound of God’s voice, which no longer quite
reaches me. And when my eyes perceive the divine will
through the distorting prism of my sensual instincts, my
vision is perverted, things no longer appear as they really
are, and I fall into illusions. And how often does this
-happen!... My loins are filled with illusions (Ps. xxxvii. 8).
My loins, 1.e., my carnal nature; there is the reservoir, a
reservoir which is always full. ... And what an abundance,
O my God! of illusions!... How I need, O God, to keep
my loins girded so that the reservoir may not allow its sad
fulness to overflow into my soul, and to have in hand my
lamp always burning,! so that I may be able to see plainly !
Lord, make me to see ! 2

1 Sint lumbi vestri præcincti et lucernæ ardentes in manibus vestris

(Luc. xii. 35).
2 Domine ut videam (Luc. xviii. 41).

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 161

_ CHAPTER IV
The Knowledge of Duty
Special obligations

16, Knowing the commandments.—17. The spirit of the command-
ments. — 18. Knowing the commandments of the Church.—
19. Knowing the counsels.—20. Knowing the duties of one’s
state.—21. The necessity of direction.

16. Knowing the commandments.—I ought to know my duty,
and I therefore ought to know the manifestations that define
it for me. And since the will of my Master is manifested in
the commandments of God and of the Church, and in the
counsels, I must be diligent in acquiring a knowledge of the
precepts that are binding on me and of the counsels that
concern me. And since precepts and counsels for me are
defined and determined by the duties of my state of life,
I ought above all to give myself to getting a clear, enlighten-
ing, and exact knowledge of the duties of my state of life.
I shall be more or less enlightened as to my duty, according
to the light that is given me on these four points.

Knowing the commandments of God, learning the divine
law, knowing the obligations it lays upon me, getting a
knowledge at least of its essential points: my piety will
depend necessarily on my knowledge of all this. If well
instructed in my duties, I have an enlightened piety ; whereas
if my duties are dim, my piety is left in darkness and error.
True piety loves the light, because he that doth truth, cometh
to the light (John iii. 21). I now know what doing the truth
means.l

17. The spirit of the commandments.—But we must know
their spirit more than their letter. It is both a great mistake
and a great weakness to know nothing but the external
details of the law, to see the material side of the prescription,
without taking account of the motive that inspires it, and
the end towards which it tends. When one only knows the

1 See Part I, Book II, § 9.
It

162 THE INTERIOR LIFE

law in this fashion, one observes it with a mechanical and-
pharisaical fidelity which imparts no life to the soul. I know
that the end of the law does not come under the law;! but
I know also that the law is not laid down for the just, but for
the unjust.2 If then I am attached to what falls under the
law, I fall under the law myself, and I am convinced that I
am not in justice. But if I am not led by the spirit, then I
come under thelaw.2 We know that the law is good, if a man
use it lawfully according to its spirit.4 In fact, if I submit
as it were by necessity, and by constraint of will, to external
obligations, I am a slave of the detail that fetters, a victim
of the letter that killeth.6 And if I am killed by the letter,
what life is left in me? ... The spirit alone giveth life.

18. Knowing the commandments of the Church.—Piety
which is truly right seeks to know the laws of the Church as
much as possible ; it takes pleasure in studying them, knowing
that the Church, assisted by the Spirit of God, has the office
of throwing such light as times and needs demand upon the
way Christians have to go. The voice of the Church is the
shepherd’s voice ; the sheep know the voice of the shepherd ;
and they follow him because they know his voice; but a
stranger they follow not, because they know not the voice of
strangers. The true sheep who have real piety willingly |
listen to the voice of the Church ; any other voice sounds false
in their ears. This predilection for the Church’s voice, this
need of hearing it and hearkening to it, this repugnance for
any particular voice and spirit, is one of the most character-
istic signs of true piety. It is a mark that never misleads.
It is one of the worst signs, when it is wanting.

19. Knowing the counsels.—Had I no other anxiety than
to know the formal precepts, I should no doubt know enough
to avoid sin; but I should not know enough to rise to the

1 Finis legis non cadit sub præcepto (Axiom),

2 Scimus quia lex justo non est posita, sed injustis (1 Tim. i 9).

3 Quod si spiritu ducimini, non estis sub lege (Gal. v. 18).

i age autem quia bona est lex, si quis ea legitime utatur
6 Litters occidit, spiritus autem vivificat (2 Cor. iii. 6).

6 Oves illum sequuntur, quia sciunt vocem ejus. Alienum autem

non sequuntur, sed fugiunt ab eo, quia non noverunt vocem alienorum
(Joan. x 4, 5).

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 163

heights of virtue. I might manage not to offend God too
seriously, but I should be unaware of the great secrets of how
to please Him. I should be just about able to succeed in
keeping my soul from sickness and death, but I should not
know how to take it to the great fountains of life. I should
know the grand lines of God’s designs as to myself, but the
heights of His thoughts, the magnificence of His desires,
would remain hidden from me. If, like the saints, I would
know them in all their breadth and length, in all their height
and depth, above all, if I would know the charity of Christ
which passeth all knowledge, and thus attain to all the fulness
of the life of God,! I need to meditate on the counsels : I must
meditate on them to grasp their divine meaning and their
infinite scope.

In this manifestation of His desires, God has revealed
beauties and grandeurs and riches, which have enchanted the
eyes of saints. Oh, how unknown are God’s secrets! The
eyes of man are no longer familiar enough with this light.
If only I knew how to meditate upon the Gospels, and the
Epistles of St. Paul! If only I knew how to become intimate
with the writings of the great masters of sanctity, who have
said such splendid and wonderful things about the counsels
on which they have lived! What things are to be learnt in
the school of St. Francis of Sales, for instance, and in that
of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa, and the two Saints,
Catherine of Siena and Catherine of Genoa !

20. Knowing the duties of one’s state.—Here we have the
knowledge which is practical par excellence, a knowledge
wherein what we have already learnt comes to be defined and
applied. These unfortunate duties of one’s state of life ! how
often they are unknown!...or misunderstood, or distorted
by the illusions of self-interest !... How often special obliga-
tions are fabricated which are quite unjustified, whilst no care
is taken as to the real obligations imposed by the duties of
one’s state! Ah, if only I knew the duties of my state of life,

1 Ut possitis comprehendere cum omnibus sanctis, que sit latitudo,
et longitudo, et sublimitas, et profundum ; scire etiam supereminentem
scientie charitatem Christi, ut impleamini in omnem plenitudinem
Dei (Eph. iii, 18, 19)

164 THE INTERIOR LIFE

I should not busy myself with creating external ones, I should
not have to bind myself under any obligation of my own
making ; for these duties lay down for me all that is neces-
sary to satisfy the aspirations of my soul.

The duties of one’s state, as I have said,! specify for me the
particular way in which I must personally keep the com-
mandments, and the proper portion of the counsels which I
must personally practise. Why should I then go looking
beyond these ? Do they not contain the whole of God’s will ?
If I go beyond them, what am I trying to find, unless it be my
own will, leaving God’s? A fine advantage, indeed, to put
my own will in the place of God’s! Here are only the devil’s
trickeries and the folly of my own pride. Under the pretext
of a greater good, I am led to do my own will and to lose sight
of the sovereign and single rule, which is the will of God.

21. The necessity of direction.—It is as to these duties of
one’s state, especially in the case of laymen, that direction is
often an indispensable source of light. It does not enter
into our plan to deal with this question ; in this matter we
refer the reader to what has been said by St. Francis of Sales
and other masters of the spiritual life as to the necessity of a
director, and as to how to choose him, and to work with him,
etc.

It must be said again and again, that the one and only way is
the will of God. It alone marks out my action, and all my
actions, forme. Whatever I do, if it is not laid down thereby,
is outside of the way.

CHAPTER V

Love and Practice

22. Loving duty.—23. The divine yoke.—24. Human appearances.—
25. Fidelity in practice.—26. Breadth in fidelity.

22. Loving duty.—It is not enough for the mind to see, the
heart also must love ; for the end of the law is love.

We must love obedience more than we fear disobedience :
this is one of the favourite maxims of St. Francis of Sales.

1 See ch. ii. 2 Finis præcepti est charitas (1 Tim i. 5).

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 165

As soon as I know the will of God, I must be attached to it,
and I must love what helps it to be manifested to me. The
book of holiness is entitled, ‘“‘ Doing the will of God ”’ ; there
I shall find what I must set fast in my will, and it is the law
which has to be planted in the fair garden of my soul.

23. The divine yoke.—The will of God is often painful to
nature, since it runs counter to its perverse tendencies. It is
the yoke we must take upon us, the burden we have to bear.
If I get attached to it, if I love it, the yoke is sweet and the
burden light.Z If I submit to the law under constraint ; if,
as St. Paul says, I am under the law,’ it crushes me; if I
embrace it heartily, it bears me up. It is the precept in the
law that is hard ; it is the obligation that weighs us down,
But it is the will of God that is sweet, and this I know how
to discern and to love in spite of its apparent hardness ; it is
His good pleasure that is light, and this draws me to Him
under its painful exterior.

24. Human appearances.—Hence, my love ought not to
stop short at the outward appearance, but to become attached
to the supremely lovable will of God, which is manifested by
the law. In the same way,I shall love the Church and her
laws, because to me she is God’s instrument. I shall love
my superiors, because to me they are the living interpreters
of the will of God. I shall not stop short at the human
accidents, which may be far from lovable ; but I shall look
beyond at the divine fact which is manifested to me even by
these means. I shall be reminded, according to the fine
thought of a Russian writer, ‘‘ that in the Church, under the
appearances of a visible and human society, is hidden the
divine substance, and that all that may seem abnormal in
the history of the Church belongs only to the human appear-
ances, and not to the divine substance.’’4 Oh, what a sign it is
of a pure and upright heart to know how to discern and love
the divine substance under the human appearances, the will

of God in men full of defects! Unfortunately, it is easy and

1 In capite libri scriptum est de me, ut facerem voluntatem tuam:
Deus meus volui, et legem tuam in medio cordis mei (Ps. xxxix. 8, 9).

2 Jugum enim meum suave est et onus meum leve (Matt. xi. 30).

3 Si spiritu ducimini, non estis sub lege (Gal. v. 18).

* Soloview, La Russie et l'Eglise universelle, Part IT, ch. x.

166 THE INTERIOR LIFE

common to make human defects a pretext for setting oneself
free from the will of God !

25. Fidelity in practice.—Finally, love must result in fidelity
in action: a constant and generous fidelity to all that is the
will of God : fidelity in the least things, not for their own sake,
for this is the mark of small minds, but for the sake of the
great thing, which is the will of God, and which I respect
greatly in little things. It is in this sense that St. Augustine
says: “ Little things are indeed little ; but to be faithful in
little things is a great thing.”’1

Thus, in the sometimes irksome details of the laws of dis-
cipline or of the rubrics, the priest recognizes, loves, and
respects the great and holy thing, which is God’s will. Thus,
in the rather minute prescriptions of his Rule, the religious is
able to see and respect this will, which is always great, always
infinite, even in the most minute details. JIs not our Lord
whole and entire, as great, as living, as adorable, in a small
host as in a large one, in a little particle as in an entire host ?
Do I not receive the smallest particles with the same adoration

as the large host ? And thus is it with the will of God. The -

smallest fragments of my Rule contain it whole and entire,
and therein I adore it and embrace it with the same devotion
as in great things. I will not let slip the least part of this
sacred good.?

26. Breadth in fidelity And just as in Holy Communion,
however small the host may be, I am inc-eased by my contact
with our Lord, thus in my fidelity to duty, however small the
observances may be which I carry out, I feel that I increase
and expand through my contact with God. So great a thing
it is to come into contact with God!... And this is the only
thing I seek in my fidelity in little things : to establish between

God and myself a contact that will be more adequate, more |

continuous, more absolute, in such a manner that at last there
may be no sort of deviation left.

Hence, it is not fidelity to the prescription or to the practice
for its own sake that attracts me, no: for this would be a

1 Quod minimum est, minimum est: sed fidelem esse in minimis,
magnum est (De Doctrina Christ, xiv. 35).
2 Particula boni doni non te pretereat (Eccles. xiv. 14).

ner

THE WAY : THE WILL SIGNIFIED 167

paltry thing ; but it is fidelity to the prescription and to the
practice for the sake of the divine contact, and that is an
infinite thing. Moreover, what breadth, what ease, what
freedom, there are in the souls of the saints! I see them
faithful in all, and at the same time so free in all things. How
one feels that they are attached to God alone, and their soul
clings to nothing but Him! They are exact in everything,
but with a living, broad, and supple exactitude, which yields
to all necessities. They know nothing of pharisaic rigidity,
paltry scruples, and petty fidgets.

When I understand, like them, that my purpose is not to
adjust myself to the prescription, but to God by the pre-
scription ; like them, too, I shall get this breadth with pre-
cision, this ease with fidelity, and this greatness in little things.
Like them, too, I shall feel that I am not imprisoned but
delivered, not stifled but dilated, even in the most insignificant
details of the rules I have to keep. The more I run in the
way of the commandments, the more I feel my heart enlarged.

CHAPTER VI
The Piety of the Priest

27. Vocations.—28. The forms of vocation.—29. Liturgy and canon
law, the form of sacerdotal piety.—30. The good priest knows
this.—31. The liturgical and canonical spirit.

27. Vocations.—In the Church, the mystical body of Christ,
there are manifold functions to be exercised according to the
multiplicity of the necessities of the body. Just as in my
natural body there are various organs to meet the various
requirements of life, so in the Church there are different voca-
tions assigning to each one the special portion of activity com-
mitted to him for the general advantage of the body. Each
person has his vocation, 7.e., each one is called in life to such
and such a position ; in that position, he has such and such a
function to fulfil. God does not create men at haphazard ;

1 Viam mandatorum tuorum cucurri, cum dilatasti cor meum
Ps. cxviii. 32).

_ 168 THE INTERIOR LIFE

in time and space there is a wonderful reciprocity between
souls and vocations.

As we have seen in Chapter II, vocations may be sub-
divided into three general groups. Some, the most numerous
section, have the ordinary vocation of a life taken up with the
duties of family surroundings. Therein occupations are very
various ; but, in general, the care of human interests is the
universal material of them.

Others have the higher vocation of the priesthood, and
become the representatives of divine interests. Others have
the more special vocation of the religious life, and are as it
were prophets of the union between God and man.

28. The forms of vocation.—A special form must correspond
to a special destiny. Not every instrument is fitted for every
kind of work. Hence the soul must receive a training in
conformity with its mission. And what just gives this training
is the laws peculiar to each state. In these laws I find not
only the practical determination of the work I have to do in
my life for God, but also the adaptation of my soul to this
work. IfI earnestly wish not to make any mistake in choosing
my road, and not to lead a useless existence, if I am anxious to
live, I have only to take the laws of my state of life, and they
will plainly mark out for me my personal share of duty, and
they will form and transform me and adapt me to all the needs
of my vocation.

What then is vocation ?—It is the special form in which
God wishes each one to grow up, so as to glorify Him in the
body of the elect. And each one has his own physiognomy,
and all are united together.

29. Liturgy and canon law, the form of sacerdotal piety.—
The truly pious priest takes great pleasure in knowing,
studying, and getting a mastery of the laws of his state,
Does he not find everything in his liturgical and disciplinary
laws? Seeking God, forgetting self: this is the whole of
piety. Does he not find that seeking God is admirably marked
out for him by the liturgical laws ? and forgetfulness of self,
by disciplinary laws? Hence, here he has the entire form of
his piety. Whatever he looks for outside this is mistaken and
misleading ; any other form of piety is not sacerdotal piety.

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 169

Call it worldly piety, modern piety, or by any other horrible
name, but, however much it may desecrate this fine word, it
will never be cutting enough to lash the wretched mania for
hunting after piety where it is not to be found. Sacerdotal
piety is made up of the observance of liturgical laws and
disciplinary laws, all of these, and nothing more.

30. The good priest knows this.—He knows what a wonderful
treasure he has in these grand laws of the Church his mother.
Moreover, he makes them the favourite subject of his medita-
tions, spiritual reading, and silent studies. Therefrom he
draws instructive illumination and abundance of strength.
The books of the Church are the books of his choice ; their
official text is the favourite food of his mind. And where
could he find anything more beautiful or more wholesome ?
Above all, where could . find the voice and will of God
better expressed ?

Oh, what a lovely thing is the piety of the priest !... lovely,
great, and strong!... And how far it surpasses the “ con-
sumptive piety’! of those who go in search of their incentives
amidst all the smart trifles of to-day, which are as empty as
they are dazzling! O priests, you have the fountain of life:
drink deep thereat !... Why should you forsake the fountain
of living water to dig wells for yourselves ? broken cisterns,
that can hold no water ?2 Ah, if only your life were wholly
informed by ecclesiastical laws, entirely moulded thereby, if
only you were to allow no strange thought or habit to dis-
figure it, how great would you be! Your greatest weakness
and your most dreadful punishment are to neglect the laws
of your state. Everything that falls short of this is not up to
your level and lowers you.

31. The liturgical and canonical spirit.—The priest should
make the liturgy so far enter into his relations with God, and
canon law into his relations with men, that he comes at last
to get into the spirit of them. Only the spirit is living, for the
letter is dead. Liturgy and canon law are not forms which
are purely external and dead ; under this rind flows a mighty

1 Vie du Père Aubry, Missionnaire en Chine, p. 210.

2 Dereliquerunt me fontem aque vive et foderunt sibi cisternas
dissipatas, quæ continere non valent aquas (Jer. ii. 13).

170 THE INTERIOR LIFE

sap. And, if it is important to have the rind, it is much more
so to have the sap. Oh, what a consolation for the present,
and what a hope for the future it is, when we see priests, and
especially sacerdotal associations, diligent in reviving within
them this rind in all its integrity and this sap in all its fruitful-
ness! Liturgy and canon law, taken in the letter and in the
spirit, mean sacerdotal life in its fulness of form, the priest
raised above the human and brought near to God, the ministry
of holy things lifted above the lower conditions of humanity
and established in the region of things divine ;1 in a word, it
means that the priest has entered into the fulness of the truth
and power of his vocation.

CHAPTER VII

The Piety of the Religious

32. The piety of the religious has its form in his Rule.—33. The
religious does not overstep his Rule.—34. The rind is hard.—
35. The book to be eaten.

32. The piety of the religious has its form in his Rule.—The
true and holy religious knows that, for himself, the most
faithful and complete expression of his duty is to be found
in his Rule. He, too, desires to go truly to God and to strip
himself of self. Is not this the sole purpose of his becoming
a religious ? Charity and humility are the two virtues which
sum up all for him, if indeed these two virtues be not one and
the same virtue, or rather, two poles of the world which is
called piety. For he can only love by stripping himself, and
he only strips himself to love.

One must go out of oneself to go to God. It is like the two
motions of spiritual breathing, which cannot be separated,
and which, although quite distinct, constitute only one act of
breathing. He ceases to look at, love, and seek himself, to
look at, love, and seek God. There lies his piety, and thus it
is that he goes to God.

But does not he, too, find in his Rule this one and twofold

1 Omnis namque pontifex ex hominibus assumptus pro hominibus
constituitur in iis que sunt ad Deum (Heb. v. 1).

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 171

duty, outiined in its two parts, which he never separates in
action? Charity, seeking God, finds its way, its perfect form,
in that part which contains the rules for the divine offices.
Humility, the stripping of oneself, has its way, its perfect
form, in the part which contains the disciplinary statutes.
There is the form of his piety, such as God looks for it from
him. Any other form is not his, and is not that which God
requires of him. God wills that his humility and his charity,
in other words, his piety, shall be clothed in this form, and He
has taken care to draw its outlinesin his Rule. Consequently,
for the religious, any other form of personal piety is mistaken,
and contrary to God’s will and to his own perfection, Oh,
how sad it is to see a religious go so far astray as to try to find
in particular practices, or in uses unknown to his rule, a
perfection which is merely a hybrid and ill-assorted com-
pound!..

33. The religious does not overstep his Rule.—" There
is,” says St. Francis of Sales, ‘‘ a certain simplicity of heart,
wherein consists the perfection of all perfections ; and it is
this simplicity that brings it about that our soul looks at
God only, and that it keeps entirely gathered up and recol-
lected in itself to apply itself with all the fidelity of which
it is capable to the observance of its rules, without over-
flowing to desire or wish to undertake anything beyond
that.””1

No, the true religious does not overflow to desire or under-
take anything beyond his Rule ; this alone is enough for his
piety, and it contains for him all the will of God, Moreover,
what love he shows in studying it, in meditating on it, in
ruminating over it, finally, in transfiguring it into himself, or
rather, in transfiguring himself into it! He knows that he
will only find God in following the liturgical ordinances of his
Rule ; he knows that he will only strip himself by the pre-
scriptions of the disciplinary statutes. On any other way,
he would not find God, he would not strip himself of self ; and
he knows this. He knows that there, in his Rule, is his
perfection, and nowhere else ; and it is there that he looks for
it with all the energies of his being. Oh, what a power of

1 Entret. Spirit., 13 (Fdit. Annecy, p. 235).

172 THE INTERIOR LIFE

holiness and what a fulness of life there are in the religious
‘who keeps entirely gathered up and recollected in himself ”
to get inspired with the spirit of his Rule, to suck in its sweet-
ness, to extract its marrow, without overflowing to desire or
to undertake any other thing!...

34. The rind is hard.—The Rule, in its expression, usually
keeps a severity of demeanour, a coldness of appearance, which
appeals directly neither to the imagination nor to the feelings.
It is none the less the perfect expression of the will of God,
nor does it contain any the less the essential form of the piety
of the religious. He who knows how to break through this
rind and to discover the substantial fruit beneath, knows what
rich and invigorating and wholesome food is to be found
therein. There are only those who have gone astray in
sentimentalism who are unaware of the treasures of piety
contained in the Rule.

There is nothing in it for the heart, it is said. Well, what
sort of a heart have you? ... Is it only fed upon “ Ohs !”
and “‘ Ahs!’’?.. . and can it do nothing but send up dove-
like sighs ?! If weare to reckon thus, piety would find next to
nothing in Holy Scripture, nothing in the laws of the Church,
and nothing in the writings of several of the great Doctors.

35. The book to be eaten.—"" Take the book, and eat it up:
and it shall make thy belly bitter, but in thy mouth it shall
be sweet as honey!’ (Apoc. x. 9). The angel of the Rule
says this to every religious. The true religious understands
this speech, he hearkens to it, and puts it into practice. He
finds nothing strange in having to eat up a book; he eats it
up. This process of manducation is, indeed, neither easy nor
pleasant, it is dry and hard; but he has been told to “ take
and eat,’’ and he takes and eats. And he has no fear of
bitterness in the belly, in other words, of the work of stripping
himself of self, which is always the first thing done by the
Rule. And he experiences the sweetness of honey in his
mouth, in other words, he finds God, the true honey and the
true sweetness of the soul.

The religious who is a sentimentalist is astonished at having
to eat up a book ; in his opinion, such things are not fit to eat.

1 Vie du Père Aubry, p. 215.

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 173

And then, he is altogether too much afraid of the bitterness in
the belly, which is the first fruit, the first result of such
manducation. Further, why does not God put the honey in
his mouth all at once? Oh! that honey!... this is all he is
in earnest about. Very well: if you will have the real sweet-
ness of honey in your mouth, that is to say, the charity that
relishes God, you must eat the book of your Rule ; and when
you have eaten it, it will first of all be bitter in your belly ;
it will give a severe shock to the lower part of you, to bring
about the stripping of yourself of self; but, lastly, in the
higher part, you will find God, who will be the honey and the
sweetness of your soul.

CHAPTER VIII
The Spirit of Piety

36. The divine encounter.—37. Knowing how to pierce the veil.—
38. Making no distinction between things ordered.—39. Leaving
my own practices for God’s.—40. The children of God are born
of God.

36. The divine encounter.—In fine, what it is most impor-
tant of all to see, love, and follow in the law, is not the law
itself, but the will of which it is the expression. There is
what we have to see, what we have to love, what we have to
seek. If I see that, I see everything ; if I do not see that,
I see nothing at all. If I directly attach myself to God’s
will, I get to my end directly. And what is my end ?—To
go to God and to be united with Him to glorify Him and
to be happy myself. It isin this encounter of my soul with
God that His glory and my happiness are found. But where
is God encountered ?—Where His will is. The union of my
soul with God is a moral union, 1.e., a union of wills. Hence
I encounter Him when my will meets with His ; and I unite
with Him, when my will is united with His. Where I do not
see His will, I do not unite with Him. Inthe sphere of my
union with Him, God is only, so far as I am concerned, where
His will is

174 THE INTERIOR LIFE

The animal man, because he does not understand what
the Spirit of God is,1 sees only the material side of his obliga-
tions ; and his soul, being entirely absorbed by the material.
side, is drawn away from God. Whatever may be the occu-
pation which God demands of me, whatever may be the kind
of work whereto His will calls me, even were the occupation
the commonest, the work the roughest, God is there, because
His will is there. He is there, quite near, transparently clear
behind the thin veil. The soul with dull eyes does not see
Him, it only sees the material obligation, which occupies
and arrests its looks. And when it desires to find Him, it
turns elsewhere to see if it can find Him in a few devotional
exercises. And there it does not find Him, since His will
is not therein : His will is only to be found in the obligation
that presses at the moment.

37. Knowing how to pierce the veil—When I have any
obligation to fulfil, if I knew how to look through the veil,
I should not look a long way back to find God, just when
He was there before me, quite close. If I were to look more
carefully, if I tried to see behind the veil, I should see God
there, calling me: “‘ Come,” He is saying to me, “‘ I am here,
My will is here, My grace is here”’; for His grace is wherever
His will is. How blessed is the man whose help in his work
comes from God ! 2

When I thus understand my obligations, when I see God
present in His will, when I know that I can meet with Him
there, I plunge fully into the fulfilment of my duty in order
to immerse myself fully in God. O God, how blind must
I be not to see Thee in every obligation Thou layest upon
me! A veil is on our hearts : but when we shall be converted
to the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.?

38. Making no distinction between things ordered.—If the
will of God is what I am seeking to know, what I am attaching
myself to, and what I strive to follow, I find it always great,
always perfect, always like itself, always holy and adorable.

1 Animalis homo non percipit ea que sunt Spiritus Dei (1 Cor. ii. 14).

2 Beatus vir cujus est auxilium abs te (Ps. ]xxxiii. 6).

3 Velamen positum est super cor eorum. Cum autem conversus
fuerit ad Dominum, auferetur velamen (2 Cor. iii. 15, 16).

THE WAY: THE WILL SIGNIFIED 175

It matters little whether it be in important matters or in
small details, in dispositions which irk me or are agreeable to
me ; as for me, it is always the same will that I am looking for,
the same will that I find, and the same will that I carry out.
The difference in the importance of the precepts or the counsels
shows me the order I must follow in my observance of them ;
but I adore the will of God in the one just as much as in the
other. Whether God send me to work or to pray, whether
He demand something honourable or the reverse, whether
His law be manifested to me in this way or in that, all these
things may change, but I do not worry about it too much:
I know that HE Himself does not change,! and it is to Him
and to His will that I am attached. ‘‘ Good heavens! how
often are we mistaken !”’ says St. Francis of Sales, ‘ I tell you
once more, you must not look at the outward aspect of your
actions, but at their inner motives ; that is to say, whether
God wills them or does not will them.’’2

39. Leaving my own practices for God’s.—But I never
make a more foolish mistake than when I want to make piety
consist in certain devotions and practices of a particular
nature. What do I look for from practices of my own
choosing ?—Unfortunately, my own will, my own likings and
whims. It is useless for me to put any amount of good-will
into them ; this good-will will never be anything more than
a very indifferent sort of will, since it is not in conformity
with God’s.

“Cry, cease not,” says the Lord to His prophet, “ lift up
thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their wicked
doings, and the house of Jacob their sins. For they seek
Me from day to day, and desire to know My ways, as a nation
that hath done justice, and hath not forsaken the judgement
of their God : they ask of Me the judgements of justice : they
are willing to approach to God. Why have we fasted, and
Thou hast not regarded: have we humbled our souls, and
Thou hast not taken notice? Behold in the day of your
fast your own will is found ”’ (Is. lviii. 3 ff).

40. The children of God are born of God.—The children of

1 Tu autem idem ipse es (Ps, ci. 28)
2 Letters, III., 3rd ed., Léonard.

176 THE INTERIOR LIFE

God are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God (John i. 13). ‘It is as if he
said,’’ says St. John of the Cross,! ‘‘ The power to become
sons of God and to be transformed into Him is given only
to those who are not born of blood, 1.e., of natural dispositions ;
nor of the will of the flesh, 7.e., of the caprice of nature ; nor
even of the will of man. And here, by the will of man, we
are meant to understand all human ways of judging and
estimating according to man’s reason only. To none of these
is it given to become those who are children of God. This
happiness is reserved to those who are born of God.” Thus,
the practices, prayers, or mortifications suggested by our
natural dispositions, caprice of nature, tastes of the human
will, are not in the one and only way of true piety. Piety
is born of God alone and of His will ; it sees, loves, and follows
the will of God, and it is by this road that it procures His
glory.
* The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book II. ch. ¥.

BOOK II
THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE

I now know the rails of the road that leads me to God, I
must next know about the steam. The train cannot move
along the rails without the steam which imparts motion to it.
Hence, after having considered the will signified, which lays
down and maintains the rules of action, I must consider the
will of good pleasure, which imparts the divine impulse.

As to the will signified, I saw two things: 1. how it is
manifested ; 2. how I ought to correspond with it. I have
to look at the same two things with regard to the will of
good pleasure.—How is this will manifested ?—It is no
longer by words and precepts, but by operations ; it is the
part of God’s action which God reserves to Himself in the
building up of my life.—How ought I to correspond with it ?—
No longer by action, but by submission. Then, what in me
and upon me are the operations of the divine good pleasure ?
this is the first question. How ought I to submit to these
operations by passive piety? this is the second question.
And these two questions make up the whole of the subject-
matter of this Book.

Is there any need to say once more that passive piety is
only one of the sides of complete piety, that it is not a superior
and successive state following that of active piety which has
gone before, that the one and the other are simultaneously
joined together, that they are constantly in combination
and alliance in the progress of Christian life ? Their alliance
cannot be clearly shown until we come to the next Book.

CHAPTER I

Divine Action

1. In God’s arms, and my own little steps.—2. God’s care for me.—
3. The fresco.—4. All works together for the good of the elect.—
5. The wonderful appropriateness of God’s work.

1. In God’s arms, and my own little steps.—“ The rest of
us, Théotime, like little children of the heavenly Father,
can go to Him in two ways. For, in the first place, we can
go to Him walking with the steps of our own will, which
we conform to His, holding all the time with the hand of our
obedience that of His divine intention, and following it
wherever it leads us, which fs what God requires from us by
signifying His will.... But we can also go to our Lord by
allowing ourselves merely to be carried by His divine good
pleasure like a little child in his mother’s arms.”

‘“ For our Lord in our pilgrimage throughout this miserable
life, leads us in these two ways: either He leads us by the
hand, making us walk with Him, or He carries us in the arms
of His Providence. He holds us by the hand, when He makes
us walk in the exercise of the virtues. His divine goodness
gladly leads us and holds us by the hand in our way, but it
also wishes us to make our own little steps, that is to say,
that we for our part should do what we can with the help of
His grace. But when our Lord has led us by the hand...
He afterwards carries us in His arms, and does within us work
in which we seem to do nothing.’’?

Thus speaks St. Francis of Sales. In studying God’s will
signified, I saw how God wishes me ‘‘ to make my own little
steps.” Now, in studying His will of good pleasure, I shall
see how “ He carries me in His arms.”

2. God’s care for me.—God cares for each one of us.2 Are
not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them

1 Treatise of the Love of God, Book IX, ch. xiv.
2 Sermon on the Presentation. 3 Ipsi cura est de vobis (1 Pet. v. 7).

178

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 179

is forgotten before God? Fear not therefore: you are of
more value than many sparrows (Luke xii. 6, 7). This care
of God’s is that of the hen for her chicks,! of the shepherd for
his sheep,? of the mother for her child. I will carry you at
My breasts, and upon My knees will I caress you ; as one
whom the mother caresseth, so will I comfort you.? Can a
mother so forget her infant, as not to have pity on the son
of her womb ? and if she should forget, yet will I not forget
thee !4

This will of God, always busied with my sanctification,§
follows me in all the details of my life to lead me to the supreme
end of my creation. There is so much to be done in my soul
that God works in it without ceasing. Thus, it is not I alone
who work for the glory of God with the help of grace ; it is
much more God who works Himself in me for His own glory,
and who works in me without me, and sometimes in spite
of me.

These divine operations more than anything else work to
realize holiness in my soul. What I do in the way of practical
piety is but little with regard to my sanctification. It is
not in this way that I make great progress. Therein I am
making my own little steps ; very small ones in reality, and
such as help me forwards but little. My great progress is
made when God carries me in His arms. It is the action of
His good pleasure which is the principal means of my interior
progress. Here, there are no longer my own little steps, but
the great strides of God Himself. He carries me much more
than I walk.

3. The fresco.—A splendid fresco was covered with rough
plaster. A fortunate accident one day made the plaster fall
off, and the fresco appeared in all its beauty. But what a
quantity of spots of the remains of the plaster were left
behind! Who was to take them away ? Who was to touch

1 Matt. xxvii. 37. 2 John x.

3 Ad ubera portabimini et super genua blandientur vobis. Quomodo
si cui mater blandiatur, ita ego consolabor vos (Is. Ixvi. 12, 13).

# Numquid oblivisci potest mulier infantem suum, ut non misereatur
filio uteri sui? Et si illa oblita fuerit, ego tamen non obliviscar tui
(Is. xlix, 15).

5 Hæc est voluntas Dei, sanctificatio vestra (1 Thess, iv. 3).

180 THE INTERIOR LIFE

up the little details, and to restore the freshness and finish
of the original design ?—Here an artist was needed, an artist
possessing the skill of the original designer. Any other would
run the risk of doing irreparable injury to the picture by his
touches.

My soul is the likeness of God: a splendid portrait, in
which God has portrayed His own image.! By original sin
at the outset, by mortal sin afterwards, the image of God has
been covered up, His likeness destroyed. Once Baptism,
and later on Penance, brought out afresh the features of the
divine likeness. But, alas! what a quantity of tainted details
are left! how many spots remain! Who is to get rid of
them ?—He alone who made the portrait * he alone is skilful
enough to touch the picture. And He reserves the right of
doing so to Himself: no one but God can touch the soul.
He who first made it alone can restore it.2

4. All works together for the good of the elect.—If I would
know the general mode of such action, I have only to recall
the Apostle’s words: “ All things work together unto good to
such as God’s will calleth to be saints.’ ‘ All things,” this
expression is quite absolute ; all things, and therefore, all the
details of the movements of the world, whether physical or
moral ; the influences put forth by all beings, angels, men,
animals or plants, on the very smallest developments of my
physical, moral, intellectual, and supernatural life, work
together in this operation. God acts by all these instru-.
ments ; for if creatures are my instruments, much more are
they God's. !

If I would know to what extent all things work together
for the good of the elect, I have only to compare the text
of St. Paul already quoted with the words of the Saviour:
“ But a hair of your head shall not perish ’’4 without the per-
mission of your heavenly Father. The falling of a hair is

* Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram
(Gen. i. 26).

? Quem ipse creavit ut homo sit, eum ipse operatur ut justus sit
(S. Aug., De Genesi ad litt., viii. 23).

3 Omnia cooperantur in bonum iis qui secundum propositum vocati
sunt sancti (Rom. viii. 28).

* Capillus de capite vestro non peribit (Luc. xxi. 18),

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 181

certainly not an event which takes up a considerable place
in my life. Well, even this event, about which I do not care
in the least, is a matter of God’s care ; He calculates things
to such a nicety, that the very hairs of my head are all num-
bered.t So thorough is His care.

God never ceases acting upon my soul; His care for it is
unceasing ; He makes use of everything for purifying and
dilating it. And with what wonderful delicacy does He
proceed! All is so tempered, and so infinitely measured, in
what He does! He always gives just the right touch at the
happy moment, and in the happiest manner. If I accept His
action, He proceeds rapidly and increases the number of
His touches ; if I repel Him, He withdraws gently, waits with
patience, and returns at another time and in another way.
Sometimes He uses gentleness, sometimes strictness.

5. The wonderful appropriateness of God’s work.—He knows
how to adapt Himself to all the states of the soul, how to use
all possible means, how to choose the happy moment, how
to take all the best ways. He that keepeth Israel shall
neither slumber nor sleep (Ps. cxx. 4). He is never inatten-
tive nor careless. He pursues the execution of His plans
without interruption. He has laid down the scheme of my
life, and He guides it towards fulfilment without ever being
turned aside by anything, unless it be my want of corre-
spondence, which runs counter to His work and designs.
Oh, what wonders will there be to be contemplated, when
God, on the great day of eternity, reveals the secret springs
of His action on the soul!... How beautiful will it be, how
infinitely and eternally beautiful, to contemplate in detail
how all things have worked together for the good of my
sanctification! ... It will be one of the delights of heaven,
one of the themes of eternal praise. 3

Here below, God shows very little, and as it were regret-
fully, the secrets of His action. My eyes are too dull to see
beneath the surface, to discern anything beyond the outward
reflected glitter of human movements. But what do we know.
of the design which God is fulfilling, of the divine springs
that set in motion and guide us, of the divine action which
orders and directs all things for the sanctification of His elect,

1 Vestri autem capilli capitis omnes numerati sunt (Matt. x. 32}.

182 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of the mysterious depths in which He hides the movements
of His wisdom from our observance? I can hardly see any-
thing except outward appearances which mislead me and
seem to be incoherent, because I do not know their origin
or order, nor their purpose. Oh, what an ecstasy will thrill
me, when there shall be revealed in the full light of God in
all their detail both the truth and grandeur of the words:
“All things, yes, all things work together for the good of
those whom the will of God hath called unto holiness! .. .”

If the fulness of light is reserved until the day of the great
revelation, it is still none the less true that God has a mind
to reveal to me, even now, according to what my progress
may require, some of the mysteries of His action. He means
me to see them so that I may correspond with them. And
I can see them and ought to be on the look out for them,
so far as He pleases to reveal them to me, and for the purpose
of bringing my action into harmony with His.

CHAPTER II

The Purpose of the Divine Operations
6. God’s action.—7. His idea.—8. His desire.—g. Ipse faciet.

6. God’s action.—One has already entered into some under-
_ standing of the gift of God, when one has intuitions which
make one feel or anticipate God’s action in the outward and
inward events of life. Nevertheless, it is possible and it is
good for me to enter more fully into the understanding of
this divine mystery. If, indeed, God acts within me, it is not
for the mere sake of acting. His action is no passing play,
bearing no fruit, it is intended to have an effect, and it has
a purpose ; and it is intended to have an effect, because it has
a purpose.

In itself it is transitory ; some of God’s touches are as
flashes of lightning, and those that last longer have an aim.
My life is an uninterrupted succession of incessantly changing,
incessantly fresh occurrences, wherein the action of the divine
good pleasure is unfolded concerning me. And my soul must

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 183

yield and adjust itself to this fugitive, changing, and manifold
action; I must indeed get to learn, to recognize, to welcome,
and to submit to it.

7. His idea.—But, must I ultimately adhere to, stop at,
and rest in this transitory side of my relations with God ?—
No: what passes away, passes away ; and it passes away to
go on to eternity. Beyond the temporal side, there is the
eternal side. In this action of God’s which passes like the
time wherein it takes place, there is a germ of eternity. When
He acts, God always has a desire and an idea; He acts,
because He is urged by the desire to realize His idea. If I
mean, as far as it is permitted and possible, to understand
and follow His action, it is a good thing for me to know
what is the desire which makes Him act.

And to know His desire, I must come to what He thinks.
It is His idea which is eternal. And here, since I am especially
taken up with His action on myself, it is His actual desire
so far as I am concerned, and His eternal idea so far as I am
concerned, which I need and intend to know.

His eternal idea concerning me is that which governed
my creation ; and I saw it at the outset, in the preliminary
chapter of Part I of this book. His idea is, that I should
live : live by Him, for Him, and in Him.

I am to live, that is to say, I am to grow up to the full
measure of knowledge, love, and being for which He has created
me, and according to which He intends me to glorify Him in
the body of the elect and to find happiness in Himself. His
idea is to realize this building up of my being in charity, to
form the one and living whole which is piety. There is His
idea. And never for a single moment, nor in any one of His
operations concerning me, is He diverted from this idea,
the realization of which He pursues by all means and at every
encounter in which He meets with me.

8. His desire.—God’s idea concerning me is, then, a general
idea, since it extends to my whole life, the entire plan of which
it comprehends. It is this that inspires, directs, and links
together the events of my whole existence. But in detail,
in each event, at each moment, there is a particular desire.

1 ...In ædificationem sui in charitate (Eph. iv. 16).

184 THE INTERIOR LIFE

It is this desire that determines and marks the extent of His
special action at any given time. And what is this desire ?—
It is to lay in the edifice of my life the stone which is there
and then needed, which is demanded by the plan, according
to the actual state of the building. This stone may be—in
the mind, for instance, a view to be corrected, or created or
completed ; in the heart, a habit to be amended or to be got
rid of, a virtue to be aroused or strengthened ; in the senses,
a purification to be effected, or an energy to be exercised,
etc. And God knows well the actual state of my piety, and
what is wanting in it ; He sees what must be done, and what
can be done. He yearns, wants, and is tormented, as the
saints say, to bring His work to completion. And, urged
by this yearning, He acts in each event, proceeding accord-
ing to the ductility or resistance I offer Him. Ah, if He were
only always free to find His satisfaction in me!... If He
could only follow up and accomplish all His desires! . .. and
realize all His ideas!...

9. Ipse faciet.—Throw open the way for God, have faith
in Him, and He will do [it].1_ HE witr po [11]: I am struck
by this verb ; it is absolute, and has no object to confine its
sweep and to limit its application. He will do, not this or
that, not now or at another time, but everything and always :
everything, 1.e., all His work, which is His own, in the fulness
which befits Him. And His work, His own work, is life : life
comes from Him. He will bring life to pass.

He will do it, Himserr. He will busy Himself with it,
and make it His care ; He will carry it through, beginning and
completing it : it will be His work. He has the idea of it, and
the desire of it, and He acts. The work is so great ! and He
so much desires to carry it through to the end! And how
mighty is His operation, and how great is the progress of
those who put no opposition in the way of His designs! The
proof of this is the life of the saints.

And what about myself? ... His idea concerning me is so
lofty, His desire so urgent, His action so incessant!... IfI
only knew this! if only I understood it! at least, if I only
understood it as much as is possible and necessary !

1 Revela Domino viam tuam, et spera in eo, et ipse faciet
(Ps. xxxvi 5).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 185

CHAPTER III
The Two Modes of God's Operation

10. Putting off and putting on.—11. Consolations and trials.—
12. God’s intention.—13. The divine effects of Joy and sorrow.—
14. The divine witness of love.

10. Putting off and putting on.—It is possible in fact, and
it is indispensable, to know at least a few of the great main
lines of the sovereign Artist’s work. Now, as I saw in Part I,1
there are two things to be done, if I am to bring about this
development of life within me: I must leave death and go
towards life ; I must get rid of the evil by the purification, and
build up the good by the glorification, of my being. Hence
God, who works to lead me to life, has two simultaneous
operations to carry out, until His work in me is completed.
He has to put off and to put on : He has to put off the human,
and to put on the divine in me. And He cannot put on the
one without putting off the other. When the wheels of a
machine are encrusted or rusty, cleaning must be done. There
must be taking away, detaching, and purification. Then,
when the metal is clean and bright, a suitable amount of oil
or other lubricant is applied to make the wheels move with
ease and rapidity. This is just what has to take place in me.
The corruption ot pleasure in creatures has more or less deeply
rusted the wheels of my faculties, adherence to creatures has
made my soul cling to them; there is cleaning to be done.
Then comes the oil of sweetness which imparts ease of move-
ment and power to go forward.?

And the two operations must take place in all my faculties,
and touch my being at every point, until my life is completely
finished and finally realized.

1 See Book IV, § 23.

2 It is well to note that there is this difference between machines and
men, that machines must often be stopped for cleaning, whereas the
purifying operations of God do not cause a moment’s hindrance, but,
on the contrary, always stimulate my own action; since, according
to what has been already said, and as will be still more fully explained

in the next Book, passive piety is constantly united with active piety
to animate the latter.

186 THE INTERIOR LIFE

11. Consolations and trials.—It is in this twofold work that
God makes use of the instruments which He hasin hand. All
the creatures which come in contact with me are manipulated
by Him for the carrying out of this work. These contacts are
manifold and infinitely varied ; for the divine procedure is
immeasurably diversified according to souls and according to
their state. Nevertheless, since the touches of the eternal
Artist and the strokes of His instruments have no other
ultimate object than the purpose of liberation and imparting
an impulse, the different impressions received by the soul on
which God is working may be reduced almost universally to
two : suffering and consolation. It is under these two modes
that I can classify and consider all the proceedings of God’s
action. There are creatures He makes use of to try me by
detaching me from them, and there are others He gives me
for my consolation and encouragement.

And He alternates and combines these two ways of acting,
intermingling sorrow more or less with joy, prolonging a
pleasure or a suffering, replacing the one with the other, just as
in the material sphere, He makes sunshine follow rain, the
calm succeed storm. And, in fact, I shall see in the next
chapter how the divine operations are almost always an
alternation of gifts which console, enlighten, and kindle, and
of deprivations which bring desolation, blindness, and impo-
tence. But the most delightful mystery involved in these
operations is the sweetness that springs out of bitterness, the
honeycomb in the lion’s mouth.1 In Chapter VIII, I shall
see how the torrent of joy can break forth from amidst the
waters of bitterness.

12. God’s intention.—Why, then, do God’s instruments,
directed by His own hands, bring about in me, some of them
sorrow, and others sweetness? What is the reason of the
joys and trials of my life? He does not send consolation,
indeed, for the puerile purpose of amusing me, nor does He
send suffering for the cruel purpose of torturing me, God
acts neither as a child nor as an executioner, He acts as a
Father ; His conduct towards me is always that of one who is
serious and fatherly. Essentially at heart He keeps a purpose,

1 De forti egressa est dulcedo (Judic. xiv. 14).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 187

from which as a Father He cannot depart, He intends to be a
Father to me in all things, that is to say, He wishes to give me
His life. And to lead me unto life, He is bent upon liberating
me and encouraging me. He is bent upon liberating me, and
this is the chief reason of my sufferings. He is bent upon
encouraging me, and this is the chief reason of my consolations.
It is His intention that no creature shall inflict sorrow upon
me except so far as detachment, expiation, and reparation
are necessary for me: and no creature brings me joy, except
so far as I need heartening up. Sufferings detach one from
creatures, and consolations attach one to God. This is His
intention.

13. The divine effects of joy and sorrow.—And what effects
holy joy produces! ... and also sacred suffering ! ...in a soul
in which God’s operations do not meet with too many volun-
tary hindrances! ... Joy imparts such energy and vigour,
such heartiness and ardour for the good! It results in such
a flow of generosity and zeal, such a desire for elevation and
growth: it is the sun of life. It enters into the very bones
and marrow,! and carries with it a sense of well-being and
imparts fruitfulness.

And does sorrow go less deep? Of a truth, we may ex-
claim : How does it divide asunder soul and spirit, joints and
marrow, even to the innermost depths of the heart’s inten-
tions! It is all-powerful for the sundering of ties, the puri-
fying of defilements, and the purging of dross. It is this that
brings to the soul the holy freedom of denudation, the robust
energy of self-denial, and the masculine heroism of self-
sacrifice. How beautiful and great and precious are the fruits
of trial, at least such fruits as it brings me from the hands
of God !

14. The divine witness of love.—In joy, it is not too hard
for nature to recognize one of God’s smiles. The soul which
is consoled by God thinks that He is pleased with it, and it
is pleased with Him. It is indisputable that consolation is,
on God’s part, a proof of His love. But what of suffering ?...
Ah, suffering! . . . the supreme mystery of love! Suffering

1 Auditui meo dabis gaudium et letitiam, et exultabunt ossa
humiliata (Ps. 1. 10).

188 THE INTERIOR LIFE ©

in all its forms: interior and outward suffering, suffering of
the mind, the heart, and the senses: all this is but one more
witness of the love of Him who loves me so deeply !

God never loves me more than when He sends me suffering.
It is not at all difficult to be convinced of it. Among friends,
is it not the highest proof of affection, the climax of friend-
ship, to render to one’s friend, out of loving devotion, a
service which will give him pain, but which is necessary for
him? To please and to flatter do not in any way demand
more than can be asked of the most foolish feelings. But
to speak a painful truth, to tell a crushing piece of news, to
give a disagreeable warning, to ask for a heart-rending sacrifice
—and to do all these as a friend and because friendship
gives one not only the right but also the strength to do them,
this is the last word of friendship! And thus it is that God
acts with regard to me. It is love that induces Him to make
me suffer ; His love urges Him thereto, and constrains Him
thus to act. It is an operation which is necessary for my
purification and for the expansion of my life, and His love
will never allow Him to let me waste away far from Him,
without using every means of making me live in Him. So
far does His love for me go. O my God! how little do I
understand Thy love!

CHAPTER IV

The Progress of the Divine Work

15. The needle and the thread.—16. The threefold outward denuda-
tion.—17. The threefold inward denudation.—18. Its corre-
spondence with the five degrees of piety.—19. God’s gifts becoming
hindrances.

15. The needle and the thread.—And now, if I would take
some account of the manner in which God intermingles joy
and sorrow, and of the way in which He makes the soul
advance, I must study the progress of the divine work. No
one, I think, has given a more profound summing up of it
than Father Antony of the Blessed Sacrament! in his Ten

1 The Works of Père Antoine du Saint-Sacrement (Poussielgue).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 189

Days’ Retreat. I am going to follow his teaching in what
I now write.

God alone is God ; His gifts are not Himself, they are but
the instruments of His operations. The gifts themselves,
which enter into and penetrate the soul, enter into it as the
fore-runners and preparations of the place they have to make
ready for God. Hence, they are not intended to remain,
but to pass away. They can only be the means by which
God enters ; and if they remain in the soul, they take God’s
place. According to the graceful comparison of St. Francis
of Sales,! as long as the needle remains in the stuff, the thread
cannot pass into it. The needle only goes through the stuff
to drag the thread afterit. Thus, the gifts of God must merely ©
pass through the soul to make God enter into it. Conse-
quently, every gift must be annihilated to make room for a
higher gift. “If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to
you”’ (John xvi. 7). It is the function of that which is a
fore-runner to vanish to let God increase.?

16. The threefold outward denudation.—The first gifts,
whereby God begins His operations in the soul, are usually
consolations. They are intended to subdue the inferior part
of the soul, the sensible part, and to detach it from creatures
and to attach it to God. When this result has been obtained,
consolations disappear, so that the soul may no longer be
attached to them, for they arenot God. Ifthe soul is attached
to them, it stops all the work of the divine life. This is why
consolations must disappear in times of dryness, which comes
to annihilate this first gift of God’s.

When dryness has accomplished its work, 4.e., when it
has sufficiently denuded the soul of all attachment to con-
solations, God sends a higher gift: this is the enlightenment
intended to subdue the intelligence, to detach it from crea-.
turely views, and to give it the view of God. The soul then
gets profound views as to the mysteries of faith. When its
intelligence has been strongly established in the faith and
turned away from creatures, the enlightenment vanishes,
and darkness supervenes ; this is a fresh denudation.

1 Treatise of the Love of God, Book XI, ch. xvi.
4 Illum oportet crescere, me autem minui (Joan, iii. 30).

190 THE INTERIOR LIFE

The darkness, which has displaced enlightenment, is
followed by great yearnings and burning ardours, the mission
of which is to subdue the will to God. The soul, under their
influence, is devoured by a yearning for the glory of God, it
has vast designs for the salvation of souls and for the spread
of the Church. When they cease to opcrate, these ardours
give way to distaste and impotence.

When this new denudation is finished, God grants the
soul a greater potency of action, a great readiness to do
what it had previously desired. But the soul might become
still self-satisfied in this readiness for action, it might stay
in it, and become attached thereto, and this is a danger.
Without taking it away, God takes away the joy of it; the
soul retains no joy in its actions, because it has neither calm-
ness nor peace. God, in fact, is making it pass through fresh
denudations.

17. The threefold inward denudation.—By the gifts already
given, God has successively acted upon the sensibility, the
intelligence, and the will. He has detached them from
creatures and attached them to Himself. He has stripped
them of perversities of vision, of love, and of seeking creatures
to, bring them back to the vision, the love, and the seeking
of Himself, that is to say, to piety. Now He is about to
shake and jolt these powers, to test the solidity of His work ;
and He will set about underpinning it in order to complete it.

These powers, indeed, are quite detached from creatures,
but they are not yet detached from themselves. They still
retain deep traces of the vision, the love, and the seeking of
self apart from God. And the falsehood, the vanity, and the
servitude of this egoism must altogether disappear in order
that piety may attain its supreme fulfilment.

God is going to work for this. He begins by stirring up
the lower part by dreadful temptations of impurity, anger,
and all sorts of other things. All is upset in the region of
the passions.

After that, God goes further still. He devastates the in-
telligence and the will by darkness, weariness, and inward
burdens. There is no peace to be found anywhere.

The work of annihilation goes still further. God now

TT ala a a ai aad

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE. Io1

deprives the soul of active virtue, I mean of the readiness for
action which it had kept throughout the former storms.
At this time, there is a total impotence of acting. The soul
has only one power left ; it is that of suffering and receiving.

This power of suffering and of receiving, or passive virtue,
will also be taken away. The poor soul, annihilated, ground
to pieces, no longer has, in itself and by itself, the power
of enduring and of accepting them ; it has not, in its human
capacity, the energy to accept them. It can do nothing,
absolutely nothing. It is deprived of everything, everything
is destroyed and annihilated. Of itsclf, it produces no
thought or feeling or action. It has no human movement,
no purely natural life, left ; this is mystical death. All is
consummated. At this moment, every hindrance to God’s
entrance has disappeared ; He enters and takes possession
of the soul by mystical marriage, which realizes the state
of unity.

In this state, the soul has no movement but God’s; no
natural movement takes place in it enabling it to determine
any action of itself, at least effectively ; they are all deter-
mined by the will of God, who is the one and sovereign
motive power of its faculties. It is God who performs all its
works init. Its faculties are absolutely disengaged from the
tyranny of creatures and from the tyranny of their own in-
dependence, and they are now fully free, supremely full of
activity, in the one movement of the will of God.

18. Its correspondence with the five degrees of piety.—
These different operations of God’s cause the soul to ascend
by the five degrees of piety. Consolations come at the
beginning of the spiritual life, and very usually correspond
with the two degrees of avoidance of sins. Enlightenment
often accompanies the third degree of perfection. Great
yearnings and readiness in action are given at the fourth.
The other operations, which sometimes begin in the fourth
degree, occur for the most part only in the fifth.

It is a good thing to consider this course of holiness, even
to the highest summits. In this way, I get a little insight
into the lives of the saints, I see more clearly the distance

1 Omnia opera nostra operatus es nobis (Isa. xxvi. 12).

192 THE INTERIOR LIFE

between myself and them, and I acquire an appetite for the
substantial food of renunciation, which should give me the
strength to follow in their train as far as the mountain of
God.

19. God’s gifts becoming hindrances.—But what it is of
the utmost importance for me to remember is, that the very
gifts of God are a hindrance to His entrance into me, if I get
attached to them. So rigid is the fundamental principle of
piety : seeing, loving, seeking God alone! ... To such an
extent is my becoming attached to any creature apart from
God a disorder! ... I must see God alone before all else,
love Him alone before all else, seek Him alone before all else.
His gifts, even the most spiritual gifts, even those most
directly destined to make me advance towards Him, become
a hindrance to my advance, if I get attached to them. And
that I may not become attached to them, they have to be
annihilated. Nothing better proves to me how far order is
an essential thing, and how far the fundamental principle of
my creation is the one foundation of holiness.

Moreover, how luminously clear stands out the distinction
between the gifts that pass, and the glorification of the
Name that abides! Thus I get a deeper knowledge of the
fact that my sole good is to adhere to God alone. I see,
too, that God’s operations are the only-ones which lead my
soul to that adherence with Him, which constitutes piety
And consequently, it is upon this work of God’s that all hope
of my advancement must rest. Yes, indeed, my own good
consists in adhering to Him, and in putting my hope in the
Lord my God.?

1 Surge, comede : grandis enim tibi restat via. Qui cum surrexisset,

comedit et bibit, et ambulavit in fortitudine cibi illius usque ad montem
~Dei (3 Reg. xix. 7, 8).

2 Mihi autem adhærere Deo bonum est, ponere in Domino Deo spem
meam (Ps. ]xxii. 28).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 193

CHAPTER V

Passive Piety!

20. Keeping open —21. Acceptance.—22. Recognizing, welcoming,
submitting.—23. Simple acceptance.—24. Peace in acceptance.—
25. Rest in God.—26, The definition of passive piety.

20. Keeping open.—To correspond with this will of the
divine good pleasure, whicn operates so mercifully within
me, what must I do ?—The direct and 1mmediate correspona-
ence of my soul does not here lie in my action, it lies in accept-
ance. To the will signified, I have to answer directly and
formally by making the little steps of active piety. What
the will of good pleasure demands in the way of proper and
immediate correspondence is to let myself be carried in
God’s arms. Leave the way open to God, trust Him ; and
He Himself will do it. While He Himself is acting, I must
correspond with Him. And my correspondence with His
action consists in trusting Him, in leaving the way open
to Him, in giving Him liberty to enter into and act within
my soul,—What is keeping the way open for Him ?—No
doubt, on the one hand, it is doing what He requires of me by
His will signified, giving Him the share of action which He
expects of me, making the little steps along with Him, which
constitute active piety. It is, indeed, clear that unless I
do what God requires, I cut myself off from His action, since
I am in opposition to Him. And it is not less evident, on
the other hand, that when I am doing His will signified,
I am thereby wide open for the ulterior operations of His
good pleasure. The correspondence between my soul and
Him is set up. Hence, there is here an opening. Therefore,
this is one of the results of active piety, and it is its most
sanctifying effect, that it renders the soul accessible to divine
influences, that it gives free entrance to the inspiring and

€

1 In view of Leo XIII’s animadversions on the expression “ pas-
sive’’ in his Epistle De Americanismo, Jan. 22, 1899, it should be
noted that the word is used throughout as implying ‘‘ voluntary accept-
ance.”

13

194 THE INTERIOR LIFE

vivifying impulses of grace. But this opening has been
already preceded by a divine movement.

21. Acceptance.—For finally, and this will be explained at
length in the next Book, my action does not precede God’s,
The first and the principal opening is not, then, made by
my action, but by my acceptance. To accept the divine
good pleasure, to submit to what God does within me and for
me, it is this above all and before all that opens the way to
God, it is by this that I give free entrance to His action, and
free course to His operations. My part, then, is passive ;
it is confined to acceptance, to yielding, to letting myself be
borne and led, to adoration and thanksgiving. God carries
me in His arms, and I go to sleep in them in all confidence.
To leave the way free for God, to accept His action, to deny
Him nothing, this is what I call passive piety, or the passive
part of piety. The one and essential disposition is sub-
mission : loving submission, without reserve, without anxiety,
without curiosity, without murmuring, to all God’s action,
to the whole of His will, to His entire good pleasure.

22. Recognizing, welcoming, submitting.—But how does
this acceptance come about ? In what does this submission
consist ?—It consists in my mind recognizing, in my heart
welcoming, in my senses submitting, to the happenings of
the divine good pleasure ‘‘ as operations of God.” When, in
events ordained of God, my mind can recognize, my heart
welcome, and my senses yield submission to God’s operation,
there is then a perfect acceptance of the sovereign good
pleasure.

And what must be recognized, welcomed, submitted to,
in such a way as to become attached thereto is not the thing
in itself, as, for instance, a consolation, an illumination,
a trial, etc. The thing is but an instrument of God’s; and
I have seen in the preceding chapter, that it is just this
kind of attachment to the instrument that becomes a hindrance
to God’s action. To take consolation for consolation’s sake
is to waste away in what is merely entertaining ; to submit
to trial for its own sake is to condemn oneself to being
crushed ! but to accept consolation or trial as a divine opera-
tion, or rather, to accept God’s operation in the consolaticn

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 195

or the trial is to get an impulse towards growth. Hence,
what is to be accepted in the thing, what must be adhered
to in everything, is God’s action ; providential events must
be recognized, welcomed, and submitted to as divine operations.
Happy is the soul which, while not staying too much in its
natural impressions of joy or sorrow, begins to perceive,
to relish, and to understand God’s need of working within it !
In the measure in which one becomes insensible to the human,
one becomes more alive to the divine. When the mind is
able to leave creatures behind, it succeeds in perceiving and
getting a glimpse of the idea of the Creator in what it meets
with providentially. The heart, which wishes to become
freed from natural affections, succeeds in relishing the desires
of God in circumstances. Even the senses, when they are
hardened to joy as well as sorrow, feel that they are under-
going an operation which purifies and gives life. Oh, how
beautiful are the secrets of life! And how beautified is our
very existence, when seen, relished, and felt in this divine
radiance !

23. Simple acceptance.—Certainly, it is not always neces-
sary for me to have a clear view of God’s designs, and to take
account of His reasons and ways of acting. Often He will
be pleased to reveal them to me; but He also acts without
telling me His reasons. Then it is enough for me to know
that He is acting according to His own mind and desire, and
to yield to His action purely and simply because it is His,
and in order to conform to His desire and to realize His idea.
Let me kiss His hand and adore His designs ; let Him be free
to modify His operation according to the designs of His good
pleasure, without being irked by any attachment of mine to
a joy or any shrinking of mine from a trouble. Let Him do
as seemeth Him good, according to His actual desire and His
eternal idea: I accept any action of His, solely because it
comes from Him and goes to Him. This is true and perfect
acceptance.

24. Peace in acceptance.—But here arises an important
question: God is working in me incessantly: must I be
incessantly making acts of acceptance ?—By no means. In
the first place, it would be impossible; for, if I wished to

196 THE INTERIOR LIFE

answer definitely with an act of submission to every detail
of the action of the divine good pleasure, every breath I drew
would not suffice. Here, under the name of acceptance,
we must not bring back that human agitation, which is one
of the great hindrances to God’s action. God loves tran-
quillity,1 and His place is in peace (Ps. Ixxv. 3). What His
action requires of me is repose. Has the child, who is borne
in its mother’s arms, any need of fidgeting, in order to remain
in the arms of her who is carrying it ?

One of man’s two great infirmities is agitation ; and one
of the things he can do least is to keep quiet in trustfulness
in God’s hands. Even when I am required to repose, I go
on trying to find out what I must do to secure repose ; and I
begin to make efforts to succeed in getting it. The only well-
known way to secure repose is not to begin to worry. And
this is just what is required here. We must go to sleep, say
the mystical writers, in the divine good pleasure. I will
fall asleep and take my rest in a peace that cannot be dis-
turbed, because Thou, O God, hast established me in un-
wavering hope.’

25. Rest in God.—But this means rest in God, in God’s
action, in the life of God. It is not careless, idle, selfish,
pleasure-loving rest in myself and in creatures, a rest which
wants to do nothing, which shrinks from activity, which is
disorder,? and which is the other form of human infirmity.
No, indeed ; it is not this sort of rest ! this kind of rest is a
waste of life ; whilst rest in God is the first condition of life,
which is made up essentially of repose and motion. In fact,
the soul which opens for Him and trusts in Him, is entered
into by God: He penetrates it, animates it with His breath,
and fills it with His life ; He sets all its springs in motion,
He guides it, He maintains it, and He makes it produce true
acts of holiness.

He who abideth in Jesus Christ ought himself also to walk,
even as He walked (1 John ii. 6). If I know how to abide in

1 Non in commotione Dominus (3 Reg. xix. 11).

2 In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam, quoniam tu, Domine
tingulariter in spe constituisti me (Ps. iv. 9, 10).

3 See Part I, Book IT, § 35.

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 197

Him in the rest of true acceptance, He will abide in me by
His action, and will make me bear much fruit.) When I
understand and practise real rest in God, my soul is like an
engine the tap of which is wide open. The steam is able to
enter into it and circulate throughout it, and to put everything
in motion. But when I am agitated or rest outside God, the
tap is closed ; God remains at the door of my soul, but His
action does not enter into me, and His desire and mind are
not realized.

26. The definition of passive piety.—The first condition of
my life is, then, to keep the way open for God, and this
opening is called passive piety. It is the receptive side, the
passive part of Christian piety.—Then, what is passive
piety ?—It is a disposition of spiritual receptivity, which
makes the soul accessible to divine influences, so that it may
be animated and led by the operations of the divine good
pleasure to do the works which belong to the supernatural
life. I shall see more at length, in the next Book, how this

_ passivity leads to true activity, and how both the one and the

other only compose one piety.

CHAPTER VI
Waiting for God

27. The state of expectation.—28. Returning to calmness.—29. When
God’s work is to be known.—30. Avoid curiosity.—31. Attention
and submission—32. The spiritual director.

27. Thestate of expectation.—Therefore I have to establish
myself in a general, unique disposition or state of soul, or
rather, I have to let it be established in me by God Himself ;
since, according to the words of the Psalmist, I only sleep and
rest in virtue of the hope in which God has established me.?
Unless you become as little children, you shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven (Matt. xviii. 3). O God, how hard

1 Qui manet in me et ego in eo, hic fert fructum multum (Joan. xv. 5).

2 In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam, quoniam tu, Domine,
siagulariter in spe constituisti me (Ps. iv. 9, 10).

198 THE INTERIOR LIFE

it is for self-love to become as a little child! If, in spite of
my efforts, I have so far entered but a little way into the
kingdom of heaven, is it not because I have constantly gone
astray in my activity and agitation, and have not been able
to become a little child in God’s arms ?

This is how St. Francis of Sales! speaks of this supreme
degree of indifference and abandonment of oneself to God’s
good pleasure: “‘ It seems to me,” says he, “‘ that the soul
which is in this state of indifference, and which has no will
of its own, but allows God to will as He pleases, must be said
to have its will in a state of simple and general expectation ;
inasmuch as waiting is not doing or acting, but remaining in
dependence on some event. And if you look carefully, the
expectation of the soul is really voluntary, and nevertheless
it is not an action, but a simple disposition to receive what
may happen; and when the events have occurred and have
been received, expectation turns into consent or acquies-
ence ; but before they happen, the soul is really in a state
of simple expectation, indifferent as to everything which it
may please the will of God to ordain.”

28. Returning to calmness.—Such is the degree of calmness
to which one must come in the acceptance of God’s good
pleasure. It is a singularly energetic calm, mighty in ex-
pectation, which lifts up its eyes to Him who dwelleth in the
heavens. As the eyes of servants are on the hands of their
masters, as the eyes of the hand-maid are on the hands of
her mistress, so does this calm keep my eyes fixed upon God
in expectation of His mercy.?

Evidently, I cannot at a single step attain to it in its com-
pleteness. It is a work of time, and lasts all the longer, the
further I have to return. I have gone astray in the ways
of self-will and agitation and distraction ; I have been unable
to hearken to God’s voice, to give Him my attention, to
irterrogate Him ; and He has let me go according to the

1 Théotime, Book IX, ch. xv.

2 Ad te levavi oculos meos, qui habitas in ceelis. Ecce sicut oculi
servorum in manibus dominorum suorum, sicut oculi ancillæ in manibus
dominz suz, ita oculi nostri ad Dominum Deum nostrum, donec
misereatur nostri (Ps. cxxii. 1, 2).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 199

desires of my heart, and walk in my own inventions... From
there I have to come back. How am I to get this calmness
of attention ?—By degrees. Piety begins little by little ©
and slowly, with the avoidance of sin, and then rises towards
its consummation. Since the will of God is the way that
leads to piety, it is quite clear that the way is related to this
end. If there are degrees in reaching the end, there must
be degrees on the way.

Hence, at the outset I shall only be able to accept God’s
action very imperfectly: my passions, my habits of self-
seeking, my incurable illusion of desiring to act by myself,
will often cast me out of God’s arms. What must be done ?
—From time to time I must make an act of acceptance to
restore to my soul a little of the watchful calm? and trustful
self-abandonment which are the distinctive stamp of passive
piety. These acts, which at first will be few and imperfect,
will become more numerous and perfect by degrees, and the
general disposition of accepting everything from God’s hands
will broaden and get stronger.

29. When God’s work is to be known.—Hence, I must make
an act of acceptance to restore myself to submission, if I have
departed from it; I must also make such an act, if I am
tempted to depart from it. God performs many of His
operations in me without making any other demand upon
me than for my passive consent ; but His action sometimes
becomes more urgent ; there are some blows that fall upon
my soul, while it is yet but little established in passive piety,
and run the risk of being misunderstood, warded off, and as
it were deadened by my resistance, or else turned to the
advantage of my own satisfaction and to the detriment of
God’s glory. It is therefore sometimes necessary to have
a more express knowledge of some of the special character-
istics of God’s action upon me, in order that I may be able
at least not to misjudge it. When necessary, God manifests
it to me. He knows how to speak; and when He speaks,

1 Et non audivit populus meus vocem meam, et Israel non intendit
mihi. Et dimisi eos secundum desideria cordis eorum, ibunt in adin-
ventionibus suis (Ps. Ixxx. 12, 13).

* Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat (Cant. v. 2).

200 THE INTERIOR LIFE

He can make Himself understood. The soul which is simply
desirous of keeping submissive to God’s will knows quite well
when God speaks, and it knows quite well when He denies
it something. Whether He speak by attraction or by remorse,
by events or by impressions, by the voice of superiors or
by sufferings, His word is always clear enough to be grasped
by a soul which is docile to God’s teachings! God always
is acting, and His action requires the most simple submission ;
He speaks less frequently, and when He speaks, to understand
Him it is enough to show that amount of attention which is
produced in every soul by the desire for progress and of
submitting to God.

30. Avoid curiosity. — In order to understand God well,
a soul which is animated with good desires must be on its
guard against curiosity. I must therefore be forewarned
against a certain distrustful or proud curiosity, which makes
a kind of pretence of supervising the work of God, and next,
against the vain and sensual curiosity which seeks to feed
and satisfy itself. God does not reveal Himself to pride or
to sensuality ; He does not like being suspected, nor to give
up His secrets to be the food of folly. And besides, He
has His own reasons and seasons for the revelation of His
mysteries : we must be able to respect His silence, and to
wait for His illumination.

I must not try to find out what is above me, nor to fathom
what is beyond my depth. Let the care of my thoughts be
bestowed upon what God recommends to my attention by
His general will, which constitutes active piety ; as for the
rest of His works in me, I must be on my guard against
curiosity. In fact, it is not at all necessary for me to see
with my eyes what is hidden from me. I must flee from the
multiplicity of desires which lead me to wish to know what
is unnecessary, and from the curiosity which fain would
fathom the works of God.?

1 Et erunt omnes docibiles Dei (Joan. vi. 45).

2 Altiora te ne quesieris et fortiora te ne scrutatus fueris; sed que
præcepit tibi Deus illa cogita semper, et in pluribus operibus ejus ne
fueris curiosus. Non est enim tibi necessarium ea que abscondita sunt
videre oculis tuis. In supervacuis rebus noli scrutari multipliciter
et in pluribus operibus ejus non eris curiosus (Eccles. iii. 22-24).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 201

31. Attention and submission.—O my God, I think I am
truly desirous of living according to the requirements of Thy
good pleasure. Grant then, I implore Thee, that my desire
may correspond with Thine ; grant me to know it and to submit
to it as far as it is Thy will to declare it. It is Thy will that
I should know Thitie action in some degree, and that I should
submit thereto without measure. Give me sincerity of
attention and simplicity in submission. Through sincerity
of attention I shall not be unaware of anything Thou desirest
to reveal to me; through simplicity in submission, I shall
not seek after anything which Thou wouldst conceal from
me. By being attentive, my desire will be in conformity
with Thine, and my eyes open to Thy light ; by being sub-
missive, my action will be made to correspond with Thine. .
By attending, I shall attain to that which I so much need,
the divine meaning of the events of my life ; by submission,
I shall get a calm assurance of rest in hope. Sincerity of
attention will enable me to avoid the deviations that arise
from carelessness and distractions, and from cowardly negli-
gence ; simplicity in submission will keep me from indiscreet
curiosity and troublesome agitation. O my God, grant that
I may understand Thee and follow Thee.

32. The spiritual director.—Further, to remove all causes
of disquiet and illusions, God has appointed official inter-
preters of His word. It is the mission of the spiritual director
to recognize and explain God’s calls. If I would not misjudge
any of them, I need only survey myself within with calmness
and care, and give an account of the result to my director ;
the word will come to me from him. When our Lord cast
Saul to the ground on the road to Damascus to transform
him into St. Paul, it was an extraordinary sign of His special
will with regard to him. The ravening wolf! thus flung to
earth understood it. ‘‘ Lord,’ he asked, ‘‘ what wilt Thou
have me to do?” “Go into the city, and there it shall be
told thee what thou must do.’ God does not even explain
His will to him, He sends him to the man whose mission it
was to explain it.

1 Benjamin lupus rapax (Gen. xlix. 27).

_ ? Domine, quid me vis facere ? Et Dominus ad eum: Surge et
ingredere civitatem et ibi dicetur tibi quid te oporteat facere (Act. ix. 6)

202 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VII

Joys and Sufferings

33. The difficulty of accepting consolation well.—34. St. John of the
Cross advises its rejection.—35. The difficulty of accepting suffer-
ing well.—36. Ask for nothing : refuse nothing.

33. The difficulty of accepting consolation well.—In practice,
it is a good thing for me to consider the two modes of God’s
operations separately, and to see how I ought to accept the
one and the other. Both are rather hard to accept well.
I do not say to accept ; for consolation is easily accepted ;
but to accept it rightly is not an easy matter. Really, upon
the whole, I know not if the very pure acceptance of con-
solation is not harder than that of suffering. When God
sends some consolation, it is not at all common for God’s
hand to be seen therein before everything else, for it to be
loved above all as God’s operation, and to stop only at the
spiritual fruit which God wishes to produce by means of the
consolation. My first impulse is to stop short at the con-
solation, to find satisfaction in it, and to confine my liking
to the joy it gives me. What I thank God for is the pleasure
He sends me, which I feel and enjoy, and in which I rest.
But I scarcely think of thanking Him for His own action,
nor above all for the spiritual fruit which He wishes to bring
forth in me, and which means my advancement towards Him.
Thus, consolation becomes to me the end, and ceases to be
a means. This, again, means disorder, and the subversion
which is so well known and so common.

If I would avoid this disorder, I must accustom myself
not to be so eager for consolation, knowing that it is not God,
but only one of God’s instruments ; I must do nothing to
seek it directly ; put up with the loss of it generously, when
it is demanded of me; receive it with simplicity, when God
pleases to give it me, so as to enjoy it without agitation and
see it vanish without regret ; keeping my eyes fixed solely
on the one thing necessary, the glory of God, which ought
to be the goal of all consolation !1

1 See Part I, Book III, § 36.

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 203

34. St. John of the Cross advises its rejection.—St. John
of the Cross goes further still. Unceasingly he works to
persuade the soul that consolations are not God, but an
instrument in the hands of God for the production in me of
mysterious ascents towards His glory. The quicker the
instrument passes away, the more does the spiritual effect
abide alone in its purity and completeness. Further, he
advises the rejection of consolation and its renunciation and
refusal, even when one is quite sure that it comes from God.
In this way, says he, one never runs the risk of becoming
attached thereto rather than to God, nor of being deceived
by the false consolations of the devil.! Thus to refuse con-
solation presupposes more energy and mortification, and
doubtless leads to more rapid progress ; to accept it with all
simplicity requires more humility, because humility alone is
able to keep clear of the illusions of self-seeking in consola-
tion.

35. The difficulty of accepting suffering well_—If I am too
prone to allow myself to make a wrong use of joy, I am also
woefully discouraged and irritated by trouble. Often, quite
a little shock is enough to cast me down, a slight bitterness
quickly fills me with distaste ; and if some trial of crucifying
sharpness falls upon me, I am crushed. I am a frail flower
which dreads every touch of wind and rain, of sun and frost.
The habit of pleasure has given my soul an effeminate tempera-
ment, which is incapable of enduring anything. And thus
God’s purifying operations, instead of bringing forth in me
the fruits of progress, through my fault only contribute to
increase my evil.

Or else, I become embittered and irritated, and revolt
against pain. If I submit to it, it is too often against the
grain, murmuring ; and I do not notice that by thus showing
ill-will, I repulse God and His love. How dreadful is this
habit of seeing everything in the light of the senses, and
of estimating everything according to my own satisfaction !
Thus, I come to misjudge the love of God! . .. to repel it,
even to insult it ; for is not murmuring an insult to love ?
Oh, how often have I made barren the efforts of this love

1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, passim, specially ii. 11, iii. 36.

204 THE INTERIOR LIFE

hitherto!... How frequently have I repelled God, just when
His love was coming to me in its most austere and yet none
the less merciful guise! ... O my God, had I only under-
stood Thee! . . . Shall I understand Thee better hence-
forward ?

36. Ask for nothing: refuse nothing.—Under whatever
guise it comes, all suffering is from God. Coming from God,
it has a mission to fulfil in my soul ; it comes to purify it,
to set it free, to uplift it. It is sent by God, and I ought to
welcome it, and to allow Him to fulfil His work. To accept
it is my whole duty. One must never ask for it. Unless
there be some special inspiration of the Spirit of God, which
is but rarely given before one reaches the fifth degree of
piety, it is always a matter of presumption, and conse-
quently a danger, to ask for trials. Ask for nothing, refuse
nothing: this is a favourite maxim of St. Francis of Sales,
and it may well be a prescription for the Christian life amidst
desolations and consolations.

There is, moreover, a very long road to be traversed before
one reaches the entire, loving, and grateful acceptance of
everything sent by God, without ever refusing anything.
Am I not incessantly taken up with avoiding such sufferings
as I can get rid of? Is not my principal anxiety this?
Constantly I am fleeing from pain ; how many means I make
use of, how many precautions I take every day! There is
nothing in which I show more skill and eagerness. I do not
say that it is a bad thing to try to avoid certain sufferings,
which it is possible to spare oneself. To use for this purpose
the means which God has provided, may even be an act of
virtue.1 In fact, I ought, as far as I can, to protect my being
from fatal injuries ; the care of my bodily and spiritual health
for God is a duty It is also a good thing fur me to keep
at a distance certain sufferings which, without being an injury
or a danger, are nevertheless a real hindrance through the
burden they impose on my best faculties. Hence, there are
sufferings against which I can and ought to provide.

But after all, if I have any desire for suffering, there are
thousands of occasions for it without asking for any from

1 See Part I, Book II, §6; Book III, § 27.

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 205

God. When I remember that St. Francis of Sales never had
a fire in order to feel the cold as God sent it, or else let the
flies sting his bald forehead without driving them away ;
St. Benedict Labre keeping the vermin, and so on ; I can under-
stand what an infinite field lies open to me for the pure and
simple acceptance of daily sufferings. It is, however, a good
thing to remember that love of sufferings is proportioned to
the degree of the soul’s elevation, and that, apart from cases
which are exceptional, only souls raised to a high state of
holiness are able to face heroic sufferings.

CHAPTER VIII

“I Thank Thee”

37. How to say “ I thank Thee.”’—38. The torrent of joy.—39. Pain
extinguished.— 40. A wonderful power for progress.

37. How to say ‘ I thank Thee.”’—But how must we accept
suffering ?>—I reply at once: with thankfulness ; I say, with
thankfulness, not with joy: joy often does not depend upon
me, but God gives it me as a reward ; still, the reward always
depends upon me. In the first place, for a soul which is not
accustomed to it, it may seem hard to come to be thankful
in the embrace of suffering. Really, I believe it is easier to
say a resolute ‘‘ Thank Thee” than to groan in patience.
To say it requires an outburst of generosity. I say an out-
burst ; because it is only well done, when done as it were by
a leap of the heart.

When suffering comes, I resolve to make an act which is
very short and generous : “‘ My Gop, I THANK THEE!”’ That
is all. There is no need to dwell upon the act, to repeat it
feverishly, as if to establish by violence some permanent and
steadfast state of joyful thankfulness all of a sudden. No, I
need only be satisfied with the act itself, with the ‘‘ Thank
Thee,” quickly and earnestly uttered. When you give a .
present, you receive a simple and cordial ‘‘ Thank you,”
and this “ Thank you ” is enough to testify gratitude for your
kindness, for it assures you that love appreciates your

206 THE INTERIOR LIFE

generosity. And thus it is that I must act towards God,
when He vouchsafes to give me His great present, which is
suffering. “My Gop, I THANK THEE!’ How eloquent is
this “‘ Thank Thee!’ ... It tells God that I understand
His action and His love. A word between friends says so
much!...

38. The torrent of joy.—And what results are effected in
my soul! It seems as if this ‘‘ Thank Thee,” in springing up,
has made the deeps to open. But this takes place so deep
down within me, that never before had I any notion of the
vastness of my being. Here the senses have no part what-
ever. Hence, in these deeps, which had been hitherto un-
known to me (it is the “ Thank Thee ” that reveals them to
me), through some mysterious opening (apparently it is the
“Thank Thee” that opens it up), I perceive a fountain
spring forth which was until now unknown, a fountain which,
sometimes at a single spurt, sometimes slowly, fills the inmost
depths within me. The soul is flooded with pleasant water,
with joy so sweet, so calm, so penetrating, that no other
joy coming from without can compare with it. :

Whoever drinks the water of external joys will still thirst.
On the contrary, whoever drinks of this deep water shall not
thirst for ever. ‘‘ But the water that I will give him, shall
become in him a fountain of water springing up into life
everlasting!”! And it is this ‘‘ Thank Thee”’ that has made
it spring forth! ... As for him that believeth, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water? No, nothing can
compare with this sweetness ; and, when one has tasted it,
one begins to understand the inebriation of the saints with
suffering.2 In them we find torrents of this living water ;
they drank of the torrent, and it was this that made them so
triumphant.4 No doubt, the first ‘‘ Thank Thee” will not
make the stream of the river of joy to flow ;5 but what at the

1 Omnis qui bibit ex aqua hac sitiet iterum ; qui autem biberit ex
aqua quam ego dabo ei, non sitiet in eternum, sed aqua quam ego
dabo ei, fiet in eo fons aque salientis in vitam æternam (Joan. iv. 13, 14).

2 Qui credit in me, sicut dicit Scriptura, flumina de ventre ejus
fluent aque vivæ (Joan. vii. 38).

? Superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione nostra (2 Cor. vii. 4).

# De torrente in via bibet, propterea exaltabit caput (Ps. cix. 7)

5 Fluminis impetus letificat civitatem Dei (Ps. xlv. 5).

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 207

outset is only an imperceptible rivulet is not long in growing
to be a stream, a torrent, and a river. All you that thirst,
come to the waters (Is. lv. I).

39. Pain extinguished.—Another result of this “Thank
Thee ”’ is to make the soul invulnerable to pain thus accepted.
The body will continue to suffer, if the pain is a corporal one ;
but the soul does not suffer, it enjoys : the water which floods
it drives away all pain. The soul has, as it were, recovered
a part of its original impassibility. And if the pain is purely
inward, such as an insult, a calumny, a humiliation, etc.,
the feeling of suffering is as it were done away with. If any
bitterness remains, this bitterness is pleasant, because it is
this that brings joy.

The “‘ Thank Thee ” is like the tree the Lord showed to
Moses, and which turned the bitter waters into sweetness.
Thus I am in peace in the most bitter of my bitternesses ;?
and every bitterness becomes sweet to me from the moment
that it opens to me the sealed fountain, the waters whereof
make as it were a paradise of flowers to bloom within me.’
And thus comes about an indescribable mingling of bitter-
ness and sweetness, of joy and suffering, in which the bitter-
ness gives rise to the sweetness, and the sweetness is kept
amidst the bitterness. This is the only true joy, for all
joy that is not born and is not kept in bitterness quickly
becomes corrupt and corrupting. But this kind of joy is
strong and vivifying, and permeates the very marrow of my
bones with life ;4 it is never corrupt or corrupting ; it is the
strength and life of my soul. In this way, my sorrow becomes
joy, and thus the grateful acceptance of suffering becomes the
true means of not suffering. To enjoy suffering is the great
secret of the saints ; it is the sealed fountain in the enclosed
garden.

40. A wonderful power for progress.—Nothing perhaps is
so mighty as this ‘‘ Thank Thee ”” for the spiritual advance-

1 At ille clamavit ad Dominum, qui ostendit ei lignum quod cum
misisset in aquas, verse sunt in dulcedinem (Ex. xv. 25).

2 Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima (Is. xxxviii. 17).

3 Fons signatus, emissiones tue paradisus (Cant. iv. 12, 13).

* Gaudebit cor vestrum et ossa vestra quasi herba germinabunt
(1s. Ixvi. 14).

208 THE INTERIOR LIFE

ment of my soul; nothing carries life so abundantly and
impetuously into the lowest depths. This is because nothing
opens the way for God so widely. This practice alone would
suffice to sanctify my soul in a very short time ; it would be
a guarantee for all my virtues, and the condition of their
improvement. Oh, if I only knew it!... if I only willed it!

But the devil is so clever in arousing my sensibility, and in
driving it to rebellion! ... He is so well able to exaggerate
the demands of nature!... Thus he succeeds both in drying
up the fountain of my joys which are purest and deepest,
and at the same time that of my most rapid progress and of
my most precious merits. The ruthless robber! Under the
pretext of sparing me the pains of the journey, he strips me,
belabours me with blows, and leaves me half dead by the
way! This is all that I gain by trying to escape from suffer-
ing. Oh, how priceless is a good ‘‘ Thank Thee !”

CHAPTER IX
The Aloes

41. Look trial in the face.—42. Chew the aloe.—43. Shun imaginary
suppositions.—44. One’s eyes on God, and one’s feet on the
ground.—45. Cast all care upon God,

41. Look trial in the face.—Another practice which is very
useful for the right acceptance of suffering—for since suffering
is the most common and the most mighty mode of God’s
action, it is well to give it closer attention—another very
useful practice is to look at it in its most aggravating aspect,
and to accept it beforehand. I hold stoutly, says M. de
Maistre,? to my everlasting maxim of always anticipating
evil, and of allowing myself always to be taken by surprise
by the good. When I am threatened by some trial, I allow
my imagination to be stirred up, my sensibility to be exas-
perated without fear, and I instinctively permit myself to be

1 Incidit in latrones, qui etiam despoliaverunt eum, et plagis impositis,

abierunt semivivo relicto (Luc. x. 30).
2 Letter to Mlle. Constance, Sept. 6, 1817.

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 209

carried away to hope for the best of results. Thus, I allow
myself to go along with the reckonings that gratify me, without
thinking of resting in the will of God, which ought to be my
sole rule. When my imagination is over-excited and my
sensibility stimulated, if the evil I dread comes to pass, I
suffer under it a hundred times more, since I have taken the
trouble to multiply it a hundredfold by the fears which I
have allowed to carry me away.

If only I knew how to rest in the will of God, trial would
find me calm and strong. Now, the true means of resting
in the will of God, in such a way that nothing may be able
to trouble my repose, is this practice of accepting in any
actual situation its most aggravating side, if it should please
God to lay it upon me. When, in any threatened trial, I
have courageously made a survey of the darkest aspect ;
when, having fathomed my heart, I feel that it is ready for
everything by God’s grace ; when my sacrifice has been made,
and made fully, and with all the breadth which God may please
to put into His action ; when I ascertain that I have in me
an energetic resolution to take the chalice from God’s hands
and to drink it to the bottom, to the very dregs, without
hesitation or reservation ; and if, above all, I can gaze stead-
fastly upon the chalice without any wavering, then—God be
praised !—nothing further can do me any harm. Then, verily,
I feel that love is as strong as death, and zeal as hard as hell.
Neither fear, nor disquiet, nor trouble, have any hold upon
me> I have an even mind and an assured heart, which cannot
be perturbed.

42. Chew the aloe.—A young pupil of fifteen years of age,
on whom his mischievous companions had played the trick
of putting an aloe in his mouth while he was asleep, was so
filled with disgust and anger that he vowed vengeance.
Finding no other vengeance worthy of him, he bought some
aloes, and forced himself to chew them for a week, until he
could taste them no longer. ‘‘ Come now,” said he to them,
“ this taste has no effect on me.”

_ If I only knew how to chew my aloe! . . . in other words,

À Fortis est ut mors dilectio, dura sicut infernus æmulatio,
(Cant. viii. 6). :
14

210 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to look upon trouble, until the taste of it no longer affected
me!—It is the roughest and the sweetest of remedies. The
soul which chews its aloe, which has foreseen a suffering, until
it can no longer perceive the taste, such a soul is ready for
everything, disengaged from everything, insensible to every-
thing. I believe that no one really knows what peace is, until
he has traversed this part of life’s road. No one knows as
well as he, how far resting in the will of God imparts strength
to the soul.

43. Shun imaginary suppositions.—This has been practised
by the saints; St. John of the Cross recommends it. No
doubt, this practice presupposes a real energy of soul : but it
is, nevertheless, only a logical inference from the principle
which has been meditated upon throughout this Part II:
‘ The rule of conduct is God’s will, and not my own tastes.”’
Further, it is not to be confounded with another practice,
which has been rightly condemned by spiritual writers, and
which consists in representing to oneself imaginary evils,
in exaggerating them, in asking oneself if one could endure
them, in order to discover whether one really loves God above
all things. Such things are but dangerous reveries of the
imagination.

Here, there is nothing of the kind. Here, we must begin
by silencing the imagination and the sensibility to make our
appeal to cool reason and energetic will. There are no
imaginary suppositions ; the position is an actual one, which
must be looked at in a dry light ; the issue is a probable one,
and must be accepted with a calm will. It is the will of God,
which must be embraced with both the arms of my intelligence
and my will, and nothing must be allowed to separate me from
it. ‘‘ Who then,” cries St. Paul, ‘ shall separate us from the
love of Christ ? shall tribulation ? or distress ? or famine ?
or nakedness? or danger? or persecution ? or the sword ?
(As it is written : For Thy sake we are put to death all the day
long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.) But
in all these things we overcome because of Him that hath
loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any

THE WAY: THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE 211

other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord ” (Rom. viii. 35 ff.).
‘I am sure,” says St. Paul. How he had measured all these
things with a single eye!... How calm and sure he is as to
his triumph! ... It is true that the Apostle could speak
from experience: he had been through all these difficulties
O my God ! give me the wisdom to imitate him !

44. One’s eyes on God : one’s feet on the ground.—To sum
up: passive piety consists exclusively in submission to all
that comes from God’s good pleasure. It is especially in this
way that piety is formed within me ; thus it is that I mainly
come to see, to love, and to seek God in all things, since His
willisinallthings. If, then, I have my advancement at heart,
my attention must be chiefly brought to bear on this habit
of practical submission to the will of the divine good pleasure
in all things. My eyes are ever towards the Lord, says the
Psalmist. Very well, says St. Augustine,? if your eyes are
thus ever raised to God, what are you doing with your feet,
since you are not looking straight before you ?—As for my
feet, says the prophet, God Himself undertakes to pluck
them out of the net. As for me, I have only to fasten my
eyes upon God and His will ; God undertakes to look after
my progress and advancement.

45. Cast all care upon God.—O my God! when shall I be
fully and perfectly conformed to Thy whole will ?3 When
shall I be able, like a little child, to let myself be carried in
the arms of God’s good pleasure, “ not entertaining myself
with wishes and desires for things, but allowing God to will
and do them for me, according to His own pleasure ; casting
all my care upon Him, since He careth for me, as the Apostle
saith.4 And note that he says, ‘ All our care,’ whether it
be that of accepting what happens, or that of wishing or not
wishing. ... No, Lord, I do not wish for any event, for I

1 Oculi mei semper ad Dominum, quoniam ipse de laqueo evellet
pedes meos (Ps. xxiv. 15).

2 Et quasi diceretur illi: Quid agis de pedibus tuis, cum ante te
non attendis ? Quoniam ipse evellet, inquit, de laqueo pedes meos
(Enarrat., in Ps. xxxi. 21).

3 Ut stetis pleni et perfecti in omni voluntate Dei (Col. iv. 12).

# Omnem sollicitudinem vestram projicientes in eum, quoniam
ipsi cura est de vobis (1 Pet. v. 7).

212 THE INTERIOR LIFE

allow Thee to will them for me entirely as Thou pleasest ; but
instead of wishing for events, I will bless Thee for having willed
them. O Théotime, what an excellent employment of our
will is this, when it gives up all care of wishing for and choosing
the consequences of the divine good pleasure to praise and
thank the good pleasure itself for such consequences |’ 1

1 Théotime, (Book IX, ch. 14).

BOOK III
THE CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS

Since I have my own action and God has His, they must be
united.—How are they to be united ?—This is what we now
have to see, and it is a question which is above all vital and
practical. The proper subject of this Book, then, is the
union of the human movement with the divine, so that the
progress of my piety may have a single movement, of which
my acts will be the body and God will be the soul. Hence,
the question is now, to show the accordance of the will
signified with that of God’s good pleasure, the correspondence
of active piety with passive piety, so as to exhibit in its
progress the living unity of piety as a whole. The question
is to establish union and to oppose separation. Separation
makes the human. I saw, in the order of the end, how the
separation of my satisfaction from the glory of God brings
forth human enjoyment, which has to be striven against
and destroyed. In the order of work, the separation of my
action from God’s results in human movement which must
also be striven against and destroyed.

Separation makes the human, and union makes the Chris-
tian. In the order of the end, the union of my being with
God’s, of my life with His, of my happiness with His honour,
realizes the goal of the Christian life. In the order of work,
the union of my activity with God’s constitutes Christian
movement ; and it is this union that must be preserved and
realized in all things. Hence, to exhibit union and to combat
separation will be the whole object of this Book.

. 213

CHAPTER I

The Necessity of Concurrence

1. Harmony is necessary.—2. It is God who worketh.—3. By His
will of good pleasure.—4. In us.—5. Both to will.—6. And to do.

1. Harmony is necessary.—God has His action, and He asks
me for mine. God’s action is the principal thing, mine is
secondary. Both concur in the same work; but how, in
what proportion, and in what order do they unite? The
common result of the two actions is the formation within
me of that one disposition, that one view, which is piety.
It is of supreme practical importance to know how my action
must be united with God’s. If I know not that, I run the
risk of injuring His action and of substituting mine for it;
or else, by not giving mine in the measure He wishes of me,
of hindering His action. If my action is not in harmony with
His, the work of piety necessarily suffers; for, where two
acts concur in one effort, they only issue in a useful result in
proportion as they are in harmony. Further, nothing I do
outside of the divine movement properly belongs to piety,
which is essentially a supernatural life wrought in me by God.
Hence, how is active piety united with passive piety ? what
are their relations to one another? what is their organic
connexion ?

2. It is God who worketh.—If we would enter a little into
the mysteries of the spiritual life, we must always return to
St. Paul, the great theologian who came back to earth from
the third heaven. Though he says he is unable to reveal
its secrets, each of his words nevertheless seems to re-echo
voices from the depths of eternity. ‘It is God,” he says,
‘who, by His will of good pleasure worketh in us both to
will and to do.”’1 It is God who worketh. These words of
the Apostle possess a depth of infinite meaning. He does

1 Deus est enim qui operatur in nobis et velle et perficere pro bona

voluntate (Phil. ii. 13).
214

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 215

not only say : It is God who giveth us the means to will and
to do. He says with still more energy: “‘It is God who
worketh.”’ Here, St. Paul is not merely considering grace,
which is the means put at my disposal by God and the result
of God’s operation. I shall consider this means later on; I
have not yet come to the means, and am still in the way.
With St. Paul, I am here considering the actual working of
God in its essential source.

It is God who worketh, God Himself. He it is, says the
Apostle : Deus est. Hence there is no work which He has not
worked, nothing is really living, if He does not enter into it
and vivify it. Where He worketh not, nothing is done;
and where His work gives animation, life is only to be found
in that which He sets in motion. There could not be any
life apart from this.

3. By His will of good pleasure.—How does God work ?—
By the will of His good pleasure, says the Apostle. It is
His goodness, His will to do His creatures good, which is
the determining cause of all the vital operations which He
wills to work in me. In the work of creation, He did as He
willed, in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the
deeps.1 In the work of providence whereby He governs what
He has created, and in the very inward work whereby He
vivifies souls, He only consults His own will.? He has pre-
destinated us unto the adoption of children through Jesus
Christ unto Himself, according to the putpose of His will.
And all these various works of holiness, one and the same

. Spirit worketh, dividing to everyone according as He will.4

4. In us.—And where does God work ?—He worketh in
us. Hence His operation is a personal matter. What God
does in me, He does for me, and He only does it in me and with
me. He wills to raise up the building of my life according

1 Omnia quecumque voluit Dominus fecit in cœlo, in terra, in mari
et in omnibus abyssis (Ps. cxxxiv. 6).

2 In quo etiam et nos sorte vocati sumus, prædestinati secundum
propositum ejus, qui operatur omnia secundum propositum voluntatis
suze (Eph. i. 11).

3 Qui predestinavit nos in adoptionem filiorum per Jesum Christum
in ipsum, secundum propositum voluntatis suze (Eph. i. 5).

4 Hec autem omnia operatur unus atque idem Spiritus, dividens
singulis prout vult (1 Cor. xii. 11).

216 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to the plan of my vocation which He has laid down. And the
plan of my vocation is quite a personal matter, for each one
has his own proper gift. Thus God is careful to conduct
the operations of building for eternity in each person accord-
ing to the requirements and the measure of his life. |

And this operation is an inward operation. It is the
interior life, the divine life, which God works to build up.
He wishes to reach even to the most secret powers of the
soul, and to make the supernatural vigour circulate through-
out the deepest channels of my being. The instruments
of this action may be external: I saw! how God makes use
of all creatures, spiritual and material, as the instruments
of His operations. But whatever the instrument may be,
His operation always aims at what is inward, and that is
where it reaches, if it be not stopped short. What God wishes
to build up in me is the interior life of piety.

5. Both to will.—And what is it that God worketh in me ?—
Two things, says St. Paul. First of all, He worketh to will,
and then He worketh to do.

He worketh to will, this is the first effect of the action of
His good pleasure. It is God’s preparatory action, which
determines, animates, and sets my action in motion. And
what St. Paul calls “ willing ” is the first movement of my
action. And this first movement will only be a movement of
the supernatural life, will only be a true act of piety, so far
as the action of the divine good pleasure has imparted an
impulse to it. The starting-point of the divine life, the
first origin of supernatural animation, is, therefore, in this
preparatory action of God’s. The true fruit-bearing of active
piety only begins with the seething of the divine sap. What
takes place apart from this influence can only be human
willing, and therefore, barren and dead.

6. And to do.—The action of God’s good pleasure secondly
operates in doing, but doing up to the point of its perfect
accomplishment ; such is the inference from St. Paul’s words :
perficere. My soul, which’is the life of my body, is wholly
in the whole of the body, and wholly in each one of its parts.
Thus God, who wills by His action to be the life of my soul,

1 See Book II, § 5.

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS. 219

is wholly in all my acts, and wholly in each one of them.
And just as the whole body, and just as each of its members
only possesses life in so far as it is animated by the soul,
thus all my acts and each one of them only partake of the
divine life in so far as God’s action enters into them. My
action throughout is measured by the concurrent action of
God ; it is sustained, guided, vivified, kept going, and com-
pleted by it. My life in general, as well as each act in par-
ticular, possesses the amount of perfection and supernatural
vitality which it gets from the operation of God’s good
pleasure. Consequently, I traverse the five degrees of the
ascent of piety, according as God’s operations are able to seize
hold of me and to animate me in such a way as to bear me
towards the heights.

CHAPTER II

The Nature of the Concurrence

7. The origin and the measure of my action.—8. The meeting.—
9. Union.—10. Electricity.—11. The divine contact.

7. The origin and the measure of my action.—Part I showed
me a twofold relation of origin and subordination between
my satisfaction and God’s glory. God’s honour is anterior
and superior to my happiness. The same relations exist
between God’s action and mine. The divine action is anterior
and superior to mine, so that the origin and the measure
of mine are to be found in God’s.

There is its origin ; for no supernatural act can arise, except
it be from the inspiration of God. It is the divine impulse
that determines, animates, and sets in motion any of my
faculties.

There is its measure. My action is kept up, maintained,
guided, and measured by God’s. I can neither anticipate,
nor outstrip, nor leave the divine movement, without falling
back altogether or in part into the fatality of a purely human
and natural agitation.

But, in this movement of piety, my part of the activity

218 THE INTERIOR LIFE

is what I have called active piety ; God’s share of the activity,
or rather, the correspondence with God’s activity, is what
I have called passive piety. Hence it follows, that the
origin of active piety and its measure are to be found in passive
piety. It is this that gives active piety its primary impulse,
and animates and determines its primary movement. It is
this, too, which afterwards sustains, preserves, measures,
and guides the movement which it has created.

It is thus that these two parts of piety unite, and they
cannot ever be separated. Separation would mean death,
and in death there is no piety. Union is life, and piety is a
life. Hence, there are no life and no piety, unless there
is union between active piety and passive piety ; and this
union presupposes that passive piety will animate active
piety, just as the soul animates the body.

8. The meeting.—And this is how the growth of this union
proceeds. God anticipates me, He acts upon me by one of
the acts of His good pleasure: the act may be interior or
outward, a consolation or a crucifixion ; for instance, a sug-
gestion or an accident, a word or a chance meeting, etc. ;
in a word, any one of the providential acts which are con-
stantly occurring tome. What will this action, which operates
on me but without my initiative, which anticipates me and
is in a manner imposed upon me, do to me ?—It is like a
stimulus, an invitation, a solicitation. It suggests an idea, !
a feeling, or an action. And what does this first movement
demand of me ?—To accept it, 4.e., to recognize it with
my mind, to welcome it with my heart, to yield to it the
submission of my senses, as if I were being shaped by a divine
operation. This is what I saw was the duty of passive
piety. Itis this first perturbation, which is, properly speaking,
actually preventing grace, the grace which works in us to
will.

As to this stimulus, my liberty may be used in two ways:
I may shut it out, or open the door to it. If I shut it out,
if, being too sensitive to my natural impressions, I am re-
fractory under trials or allow myself to be diverted by con-
solations, if outward dissipation or inward apathy deadens

1 See Book II, § 22.

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 219

me to God’s touch, there is no correspondence with God’s
action. In this case, I remain cold, void, without spiritual
animation, easily forgetful, or disinclined, or incapable of doing
my duty. I remain in falsehood, vanity, and in the servitude
of my own inertia or of my purely human activity; my
thoughts and feelings and actions are not taken possession
of by the divine influence to which I am closed. There is
neither passive piety nor active piety ; since submission is
a failure, so is duty.

9. Union.—But if I lay myself open to the divine invitation
by frank acceptance, I then enter into effective communica-
tion with the Author of my life. The operation, whereby He
has anticipated me, will be prolonged in me; it will accom-
pany me, sustain me, and fortify me, until I have completely
carried out the duty for which this help was given me. And
thus, duty is seen in the light of God, loved in the movement
of God, and carried out in the strength of God. Then it is
that duty gets a finished perfection, if, at least, I do my best
to keep in that state of correspondence which enables the
divine movement to have free course, and to bring forth its
effect. This help, which is thus given me, by the working of
Providence, is nothing else than concurrent actual grace.

These divine incentives are constantly renewed through-
out the occurrences of life, and they are increased in propor-
tion to my duties, so that no duty is left without some pre-
paration, and without the concurrence of supernatural opera-
tions.

When the preparations and concurrence have brought me
near enough to God to realize the conditions of justification,
the flow of holy animation which circulates within me leaves
behind it a kind of divine sap which transforms my being
inwardly, and properly communicates thereto supernatural
life. This is sanctifying grace. It is thereby that my acts,
my feelings, and my ideas are transformed ; it is thereby
that my activity is really as it were fused into the divine
activity ; it is thereby that my faculties are qualified, adapted,
and raised to the supernatural height of the Christian duty
of the interior life. But, as I have said, this is not the time
to give an actual estimate of those altogether divine means,

220 THE INTERIOR LIFE

which are preventing or concurrent grace, and sanctifying
grace ; that will be done in Part III. It is enough to have
pointed out here the connection of the means with the opera-
tions.

Here, then, is how I am led to vital union with God, how
my mind becomes united with His views, my will conformed
to His will, my action harmonized with His action, my life
mingled with His life.

Thus it is that the union of active piety with passive piety
takes place, and that my piety is one, sole, most unique
and vivifying operation, of which God is the promoter and
I am the co-operator. It is God’s life in me, and my life in
God. He is in me by His action, and I am in Him by my
action, and thus I bring forth the fruits of piety in abund-
ance.l

10. Electricity.—Although He is everywhere present by
His power, His knowledge, and His substance, nevertheless
God, for the realization of my vital union with Him, is only
accessible to me at one single point, that of His actual opera-
tion upon me. That is the point of contact which I must
come to and touch, if I would have the current of supernatural
life circulate in me. ‘“ No man can come to Me,” says the
Saviour, ‘‘ except the Father, who hath sent Me, draw him”
(John vi. 44). Go to God we must, it is the duty of active
piety. But for going to Him, there is a preliminary condi-
tion ; we must be drawn. To be drawn is the characteristic
of passive piety. To be drawn, and to go: this is the whole
of piety. But to be drawn, there must be two things : 1. God
must act ; 2. I must come into contact with this action of
God’s. How does God act ?—By His good pleasure. How
am I first to come into contact with this action ?—By accept-
ance. At the very moment of my acceptance, I touch God ;
and I shall be in contact with Him all the time, while, by my
co-operation, I remain stayed upon Him. But, just when
I am at the point of contact, communication is established,
and there is a thrill of divine electricity. And as long as I
am stayed on Him, the supernatural flow continues, and,
circulating in me, it causes me to act in a supernatural manner.

1 Qui manet in me et ego in eo, hic fert fructum multum (Toan xv. §).

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 221

I have no power of myself to put myself in contact with God,
it is He who anticipates me and leads me thereto, if I am willing
to do my best not to hinder Him.

Electrified by God, I am uplifted, and carried away to fulfil
present duty. Whatever the divine operation may be,
whether a trial or a consolation, as soon as I accept it and
lean upon it, being ready to co-operate with the divine move-
ment, I feel circulating within me the vital energy which is
supernaturally necessary and corresponds with the obligations
of actual duty. And the divine current w:l only be broken
off, when I cease to correspond with God, and deviate ; it will
be restored as soon as a fresh acceptance has re-established
the contact and renewed my co-operation.

11. The divine contact.—And this contact is established
in its full perfection by the “‘ Thank Thee ” which accepts, by
the penetrating “ Thank Thee,” which, in consolation and
suffering, is able to discern the divine operation ; and which,
dominated by no fascination of pleasure nor apprehension
of suffering, is straightway attached to the work wrought by
God, and to the result which He intends. The more this
“Thank Thee” passes through what is sensible to reach
God’s operation and thought directly and solely, the more
intimate is the contact. And then, what activity results! .

Hitherto, I have too foolishly allowed myself to be enter-
tained by consolations, to be too faint-heartedly crushed or
irritated by desolations: and why ?—Because, being too
sensitive to self, not comprehending God’s action, I have
been unable to set up contact with Him. Thus pleasure
has enervated me, and suffering has been my undoing.

When at times I have been able to say a more intelligent
“Thank Thee,” what an impulse it has given me towards
my duty ! what light to know it! what heart to love it ! what
readiness to perform it! In such moments of enthusiasm
no duty seems to cost too much: it is so well seen and loved
and performed! The divine electricity uplifts the soul.

But above all, when the stroke of some trial is met. with
a heart-felt “ Thank Thee,” oh, then! . . . I have already
spoken? of the joy that leaps up; here we must speak of the

1 See Book II, § 38.

222 THE INTERIOR LIFE

strength that uplifts, of the ardour that carries away, of the
light that floods one. It is this strength that goes to make
martyrs triumph in their sufferings, this ardour that carries
away apostles in their devotion, this light that at last fills
souls who suffer with such deep intuitions. All the heroism
of duty, that which is calm and hidden as well as that which
is enthusiastic and striking, springs from the great “ Thank
Thee”’ which is uttered amidst suffering. It is because
nowhere is the contact with God more intimate and powerful.
Nothing opens the soul so fully to the circulation of the
divine life. All that is most sublime in sacrifice is within the
reach of those who are able to set up this contact, and to make
this opening. Oh, Lord, if men only knew it! This is what
the saints call correspondence with God, which they recom-
mend in so many ways.

Doubtless, this correspondence does not lead at every
moment to things so sublime, because such things do not offer
themselves at every turn ; but it always leads to the perfection
of an action, because perfection becomes every Christian
action.

CHAPTER III

The Divine Alliance

12. Solicitation and union.—13. Union grows and becomes complete.
—14. Nisi Dominus.—15. Surgite postquam sederitis.—16. Natural-
ism, Quietism, Christianity.—17. Acceptance.

12. Solicitation and union.—In fine, a real marriage has to
take place between my will and God’s, between my soul and
God. By a primary action of His good pleasure, God solicits
my consent. That consent once given, union takes place.
The union which has been contracted is consummated in
action, and this mutual action of the two wills united produces
offspring, which are acts of piety.

13. Union grows and becomes complete.—But this marriage
is not at all complete at the outset. It is renewed, and, by
being renewed, it improves at each invitation of God’s and at
each acceptance of mine: thus it is that the inward man is

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 223

renewed day by day, until my will, being swallowed up in
God’s, at last loses its own (propre) action in God’s just as
the bride loses her name in that of her husband. It is just
when God’s will has succeeded by its successive operations
in swallowing up and in entirely transforming mine, that
what the saints call the mystical marriage is finally con-
summated and celebrated. This is the state of unity. In
human marriage, they are two in one flesh ; in the mystical
marriage, we are two in one spirit? Here we may recall
St. John’s words: “ But as many as received Him, He gave
them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe
in His name; who are born, not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God ” (John iii.
29, 13).

14. Nisi Dominus.—In Psalm cxxvi David has wonder-
fully celebrated the marriage between the human will and
the divine, their mutual co-operation, and the offspring of
their union. Unless the Lord build the temple, he says, the
work of the human builder will be in vain. His work will be
only man’s work, work without God, and devoid of God, and
therefore vain, abiding and ending in vanity; since every
creature, which is not filled with God, is void and vain.

If the Lord keep not the city of human satisfaction to
preserve it from disorder, vain too will be the human vigilance
that watches over it.

Yes, in vain will you rise before light to put your own will
before God’s, and your own action before His. This is indeed
vanity ; for man’s action, taking precedence of God’s, excludes
God’s. The human is but vanity and nothingness, so far as
piety is concerned,

O ye who eat the bread of sorrow, ye in whom God’s good

1 See Part I, § 36, for the definition of “ propriety.”

2 Erunt enim, inquit, duo in carne una. Qui autem adheret Deo
unus spiritus est (1 Cor. vi. 16, 17).

3 Nisi Dominus ædificaverit domum, in vanum laboraverunt qui
ædificant eam. Nisi Dominus custodierit civitatem, frustra vigilat
qui custodit eam. Vanum est vobis ante lucem surgere: surgite post-
quam sederitis, qui manducatis panem doloris. Cum dederit dilectis
suis somnum, ecce hæreditas Domini, filii, merces, fructus ventris.
Sicut sagittæ in manu potentis, ita filii excussorum. Beatus vir qui
implevit desiderium suum ex ipsis, non confundetur cum loquetur
inimicis suis in porta (Ps, cxxvi).

224 THE INTERIOR LIFE

pleasure worketh, for it worketh usually more potently by
means of sorrow, ye whom God feeds with this substantial
bread, take heed. Before rising from your action, rest in
the acceptance of God’s action. After abiding in the accept-
ance of passive piety, you can arise with assurance and
profit to engage in the work of active piety.

Therefore, be not so agitated and eager. Know that God
must give your will, His well-beloved spouse, the sleep of
death ; your will must fall asleep in His. When He has given
it this sleep, oh! then will arise God’s heirs and your sons.
These will be the acts of life and vigour which belong to true
piety, living and fruitful piety. They are both the reward
of God who worketh in you, and the fruit of your womb, of
yours who work with Him.

These acts of piety, the children of your union, the offspring
of your denudation and death, will be mighty and strong, like
arrows in the hand of the mighty.

Oh, happy is the man who can fill the one quiver of his one
desire with such arrows! (When I come to speak of the rapid
glance of the examination of conscience in Part III, I shall
see what this one quiver is, and how it is to be filled.) When
this quiver is full of arrows, enemies may appear at the gate
of the city of man to disturb its satisfaction and to stay the
work of the glory of God. Let them come: these arrows will
keep them back in respect, and hinder them from entering
into the city, and bar the approaches to the temple against
them.

15. Surgite postquam sederitis.—Here is the first word, the
primary secret of piety: acceptance. Acceptance of the
action of God’s good pleasure: this is the starting-point
and beginning of everything, all depends upon this. Surgite
postquam sederitis ; we must be seated before we can rise up,
and we must rise up after being seated. These three words
perfectly characterize, at this point, both Christian truth,
and the falsehood of the extremes which are opposed to it.
Naturalism says : Surgite, rise up” ; and it takes away what
follows. Quietism says: “ Sederitis, sit still” ; and it omits
what goes before. Christianity says: “ Surgite postquam
esderitis, rise up after you have sat still”; and it neither

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 225

omits nor takes away anything. Naturalism denies God’s
action, Quietism gets rid of man’s action, Christianity demands
the union and submission of man’s action to God’s. Anda
wonderful thing is this sitting down and this action, this
repose of leaning upon God and this acting with God: they are
ever allied and combined to form the divine life in me, which
is essentially made up of repose and action. Is not all life
action in repose ? |

16. Naturalism, Quietism, Christianity.—Further, Natural-

ism and Quietism are not merely errors of the way, they are
also mistaken as to the end, and as to the means. Here,
a short parenthesis may perhaps not be wasted in describing
in a general way these two errors which gather up the divergent
tendencies of human fallacies.
As to the end, Naturalism gets rid of, or tends to get rid
of, God’s glory, leaving nothing but human pleasure behind.
As to the way, it does away with, or tends to do away with,
God’s action, reckoning almost entirely upon human action.
As to the means, it destroys or tends to destroy grace, and
puts all its hope in human expedients. God more or less
banished from man’s life and work and instruments, such is
Naturalism and such are all of its tendencies,

Quietism, on the other hand, annuls, or tends to annul,
man’s part in the hope of his salvation, leaving behind nothing

but God’s glory as the end. It annihilates, or tends to
- annihilate, human activity, to leave behind nothing but
God’s action, as the way. It suppresses, or tends to suppress,
spiritual exercises and means, to allow nothing but grace to
work as a means. Man lowered, and mutilated as to his end
and activity and means, such is Quietism and such are all
the tendencies that belong to it.

The specific idea of Christianity is to be the union, un-
impaired yet subordinate, of the human with the divine.
Man’s salvation united with and subordinate to God’s glory,
as the end; man’s action united with and subordinate to
God's action, as the way ; man’s devotional exercises united
with and subordinate to God’s grace, as the means—such is
Christianity. And it is just these three parts of the co-
ordination and of the subordination of the human to the

15

226 THE INTERIOR LIFE

divine which make the subject-matter of the three Parts of
this work.

17. Acceptance.—My action must, then, be united with
that of God. Just as the soul is united with the body without
consuming or impairing it, but gives it, on the contrary,
its own perfection by animating and governing it, so God
desires to become the soul of my soul, the life of my life.
He wills, by His action, to animate and govern mine and,
by animating and governing it, to unite it with His own as
closely as my bodily action, in my natural life, is united with
that of my soul.

But, in my body, it is its receptivity of the soul’s action
that gives to it its own action; the body acts in proportion
as it receives the soul’s influence. Thus is it with God and
myself. My active piety is living and acting, in proportion
as, by the acceptance of passive piety, the action of God’s
good pleasure succeeds in animating and governing it. And
the great word of acceptance is that ‘‘ Thank Thee.”

I have already described how the “ Thank Thee” opened
up the great fountain of joy, and I showed next how it became
a great spring of great activity ; in reality, then, it is the great
key which opens up the entire way of piety. If, in fact, I
accept it fully, God’s action has its full effect in me, and my
action can also have its full effect. If I only accept it in part,
God’s action is hindered in part, and mine is lessened at least
as much, and generally still more. For if my acceptance does
not correspond with the whole of God’s action, my action
will hardly correspond with all my acceptance. Lastly, if I
do not accept it at all, God’s action is paralyzed and mine
killed ; I fall back into the void of my own vanity.

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 227

CHAPTER IV

God’s Action and Man’s Action

18. God’s action is just and eternal.—19. Man’s action is false and
mortal.—20. Nonne homines estis ?—21, Christian action.

18. God’s action is just and eternal.—God’s action is always
true, fully and adequately true, because it is totally in harmony
with God’s mind and thoughts, which are true. Being always
in harmony with these thoughts, it is always just and
adequate ; it is in every way in accord with all the needs of
my soul, as well as with its external conditions. In God’s
action there is nothing violent, or hesitating, or incomplete ;
there are no approximations, or inconsistencies, or contra-
dictions. All is interwoven and reciprocal, all is consecutive
and mutually sustaining. Further, God’s thoughts are
eternal, and all that is in conformity with them participates
in their eternity. God’s action, therefore, is eternal: what
He does has not to be done over again or to be touched up;
it abides for eternity.

19. Man's action is false and mortal.—But man’s thoughts
are false. Man, so far as he is human only, only sees the
creature, the human, the lower, the passing advantage, the
lying interest of what is created. Every man is a liar
(Ps. cxv. 2), God alone is true.”

Man’s action, so far as it is in conformity with man’s
thoughts, is as false, lying, and vain as they are. It is never
entirely just and adequate, it is always wanting in some
respect, and in many respects. When it seems to be all right
in one way, it is often all wrong in every other way. ©

Man’s false ideas are necessarily prone to wane, and in-
evitably comes a day in which they all perish.3 And with
them perish the actions which are in conformity with them ;
for the actions share in the perishable character of the ideas.
Consequently, as long as I remain human, I am forced by

1 Veritas Domini manet in æternum (Ps. cxvi. 2).
2 Ut cognoscant te solum Deum verum (Joan. xvii. 3).
3 In illa die peribunt omnes cogitationes eorum (Ps, cxlv_ 4).

228 THE INTERIOR LIFE

falsehood into decadence; all that is human is condemned
to die. Thought and action, all that is of human origin, must
perish : all passes away, and nothing abides.

20. Nonne homines estis ?—What! ought I not to be
human ?—No. St. Paul reproaches the Corinthians with
being men. ‘“‘ Whereas there is among you,” he says, “* envy-
ing and contention, are you not carnal, and walk according
to man? For while one saith, I indeed am of Paul; and
another, I am of Apollo; are you not men ” ? (1 Cor. iii. 3)
‘ And what would he have them to be ?” asks St. Augus-
tine. ‘If you would learn, listen to the Psalmist: ‘I have
said: You are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High’
(Ps. Ixxxi. 6). It is to this that God calls us, to be men no
more. But we cannot raise ourselves to this higher state,
in which we shall be no longer men, unless we begin by recog-
nizing that we aremen. It is by humility that we shall ascend
to such a height; for if we come to think ourselves to be
something when we are nothing,! not only shall we not
get that which we are not, but we shall lose that which
we are.’

I must cease to be mere man, to be isolated and to waste
away in the human ; my thoughts, feelings, and actions must
no longer be man’s thoughts, feelings, and actions. And
what is needed for this? They must be united with the ideas,
desires, and action of God.—And how are they to be united
therewith ?—By accepting God’s action. Passive piety is
the gate of life to me.

21. Christian action.—As soon as life enters by this gate,
my action is taken possession of and governed by God’s. It is
no longer I who am determining and directing within myself
a purely human activity. I cease to be merely human, and

1 Nam si quis existimat se aliquid esse, cum nihil est, ipse se seducit
(Gal. vi. 3).

2 Quid volebat eos facere, quibus exprobrabat quia homines erant ?
Vultis nosse quid eos facere volebat ? Audite in Psalmis: Ego dixi:
dii estis et filii Excelsi omnes. Ad hoc ergo vocat nos Deus ne simus
homines. Sed tunc in melius non erimus homines, si prius nos homines
esse agnoscamus; 7.¢.,ut ad illam celsitudinem ab humilitate assurgamus;
ne cum putamus nos aliquid esse cum nihil sumus, non solum non

accipiamus quod non sumus, sed et amittamus quod sumus (S.
Aug. Tract. in Joan. i. 4).

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 229

I become Christian. The Christian is the man who is united
with God. Christianity is the union of the human with the
divine; a vital union without deterioration or division; a
union wherein man preserves and perfects his activity. And
when the whole of the human activity is united with the
divine movement that controls it, then a man is perfectly
Christian. Then he may say, like St. Paul: “I live, now
not I ; but Christ liveth in me ”’ (Gal. ii. 20).

Hence, the ideal for me is to let myself be invaded by the
operation of God, until that point of perfection is reached,
where all my powers will be possessed and governed by
God and guided by Him to work in the fulness of their
activity.

Then my knowledge will not consist of purely human, low,
and false views; but, enlightened by divine illumination,
it will comprise truer and truer and more lofty intuitions of
life. Then my virtues will not be shabby natural and self-
interested qualities; but, permeated with eternal warmth,
they will be the rich fruits of holiness. Then my actions
will not follow one another at haphazard, like empty and
disconnected and commonplace things ; but, taken possession
of by supernatural activity, all of them, even the most
ordinary ones, will have an infinity of meaning and worth.

CHAPTER V

Divine Guidance

22. God requires duty.— 23. The whole of duty.—24. Nothing but
duty.—25. Extraordinary ways.—26. God performs all our works.
—-27. Not a fatalist nor a quietist.

22. God requires duty.—If I am able to abandon myself
frankly and generously to the divine guidance, I am sure of
always being borne on by the operation of the supreme good
pleasure to do, and to do well, in the measure and at the time
required, what God asks of me. What He asks of me is the
fulfilment of the duties of active piety, 1.e., the observance
of the commandments and counsels in the duties of my state

230 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of life. For the priest, this means fidelity to ecclesiastical
laws ; for the religious, conformity to his Rule ; for the layman,
zeal in the duties of his profession. God requires this ; duty,
the whole of duty, and nothing but duty.

_ He demands duty, and He demands it absolutely. For,
if He works within me, it is not to relieve me of working, but
to make me act with Him and by Him. The honour He does
me is that of associating my action with His.

23. The whole of duty.—He asks for the whole of duty,
not all at once. It is just the characteristic of the action
of the divine good pleasure, in each circumstance, to make
allowance for, and to give the amount of, what the general
will of God requires. By His will signified, God does not
determine and specify the exact moment, when some par-
ticular obligation has to be fulfilled, nor how far it is possible
in practice. It tells me in a general way the knowledge I
must obtain, the virtues I must practise, the acts I must
perform, according to the demands of my calling. Thus it
is that their respective rules prescribe to the priest, the
religious, the head of a family, etc., the knowledge,
virtues, and actions, which are obligatory or desirable
for each.

But when and how must this knowledge be acquired, these
virtues practised, and these acts performed ?—This is what
the will signified does not show in detail, and this is just
what the will of God’s good pleasure comes to determine.
It is this that, by ordering events and calling forth occasions,
obliges me to look at, to know, or to learn any particular part
of my duty, forces me, or puts me in readiness, to practise
any particular virtue, and leads me to perform any particular
action. It is this which, at the proper moment, lays upon
me or suggests to me such renunciations or services as I am
capable of offering, and such as correspond with God’s designs
concerning me. And if I am ready to follow it, it will guide
me one after the other to the most refined details and to the
greatest heights of duty, without forgetting anything, or
confusing anything, or causing any disorder or deterioration.
It is equal to everything : God is such a good guide |

And thus, from the first leaving of mortal sin to the end of

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 231

every consummation, the degrees of piety ascend through
an activity which is incessantly aroused and measured by
God’s good pleasure. ©

24. Nothing but duty.—God’s action demands nothing but
that. The observance of the duties of one’s state of life,
of ecclesiastical laws by the priest, of his Rule by the religious,
of the duties of his profession by the layman, this is all that
is demanded of us by God’s guidance of us.—What ! does
God only demand that I should keep the commandments
and counsels which correspond with the duties of my state
of life ?—Nothing else. His action, at least in all ordinary
ways, will not lead me outside of that. That is just the stamp
of God’s action, the characteristic by which it may be in-
fallibly recognized. Any action which takes me outside of
the ways of the will signified is open to suspicion.

God, indeed, does not give divergent directions by means
of the twofold manifestation of His will ; the one is made to
explain the other. With its more external, fixed, and certain
signs, maintained by the infallible authority of the Church,
the will signified always gives me the means of “ trying the
spirits,”1 in St. John’s words, to see if they be of God and
whether the interior impulses I experience are really of His
good pleasure. Thus the will signified acts as a check, a
guarantee, and as an interpreter of the will of good pleasure.
Moreover, this is the general economy of God’s plan in the
organization of the Church, to give me in regard to what is
external: laws, institutions, sacraments, etc., the sensible
means which contains, checks, and guarantees the inward,
living, and invisible elements.

Those who have the misfortune to separate the two sides
of the divine will condemn themselves either to perish in
Phariseeism, by keeping to the will signified only, or else to
get lost in the illusions of illuminism or in the aberrations
of private judgement, by pretending to listen to nothing but
God’s will of good pleasure. But since I wish them to be
always combined, I am sure of having at all times both the
inward impulse and the outward guarantee.

25. Extraordinary ways.—If, however, God is pleased to

1 Probate spiritus, si ex Deo sint (1 Joan. iv. 1).

232 THE INTERIOR LIFE

call me into extraordinary ways, I need only let myself be
led by Him, as soon as I am certain that it is really He who
is leading me. But it is to be noted that these extraordinary
ways, if they are God’s indeed, are never contrary to His
ordinary ways; they are only superior to, and include the
latter. God reveals them to show especially that the letter
killeth where the really life-giving spirit is present. He is
pleased to disengage this spirit from the cloudiness and
impediments of the letter; he makes it shine forth in its
purity and breadth and vigour ; and He shows it thus to souls
who dwell languidly waiting in the darkness and shadows
of the letter. |

26. God performs all our works.—Such then is the union
of the two wills The will signified marks out the way to
follow in a settled and general way for me; the will of good
pleasure bears me along this way, sets me in motion, does a
great deal without me, and heartens me by its activity to do
the little which I have to do, and which it lays down for me
and measures out to me in each case. How I now understand
the prophet’s words: “ It is Thou, O Lord, who hast wrought
all our works in us!”’1 God takes me, bears me, guides me,
marks out the road for me, measures the distance for me,
upholds me, and gives me strength and life. All the time I
abide in His good pleasure, I am sure to advance.

This is how passivity leads on to activity, how my recep-
tivity of God’s action is the vital condition of my own action,
and how, in fine, that unity of activity comes about which is
the highest point of my union with God. I ought, indeed, to
come to this final goal of unity, where God’s movement and
mine are no longer two but one. Unity at last!...

27. Not a fatalist nor a quietist.— What a distance there is
between the Christian acceptance of God’s good pleasure
and the inert resignation of the fatalist ! The fact of accept-
ance, in their case, means death ; in my case, it means life.
They sink under their resignation, I rise through my accept-
ance. The stroke which has fallen leaves them in indifference
and inertia ; the divine touch brings forth in me the vital
energy of duty. They yield to the brutal force of facts ; I

1 Omnia enim opera nostra operatus es nobis (Is. xxvi. 12).

1

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 233

unite with the vitality of the act of providence, whereby
God guides me.

And what a distance there is between Christian acceptance,
as we understand it, and the barren quietism of certain
heretics! They reckon on God so as to have nothing to do
themselves, and I reckon upon Him to have the strength to
do everything by Him. They look for an absorption by Him,
not for an impulse from Him; I wait for the union of my
activity with His action, so as to attain to the union of my
life with His life. Their way of conceiving everything con-
nected with God lowers and annihilates that which they are,
and that which they have from Him; as for me, I conceive
of the divine secret as the source of my uplifting, the per-
fection of my being, and as the cause of my happiness.

CHAPTER VI

Human Resolutions: Their Sterility

28. Broken resolutions.—29. Human activity.—30. Practices of my
own choosing.—31. Ruins.

28. Broken resolutions.—Now, a glance at my past life
and at my present state. In the past, what a number of
barren resolutions! . . . how many endeavours ended badly
because they began badly! How often, after being first
urged by some truly divine impulse, I have fallen back into
the barren fuss of human agitation! During a retreat, for
instance, or a feast, or in certain particular circumstances,
some divine touch may have stirred my heart.. If I had only
been able to correspond simply, faithfully, with the energetic
calmness of a sincerity which would have kept me in con-
formity with God, leaning on Him, and guided by Him!

But I was so quickly carried away with the human im-
pulse! ... I gave up leaning upon God, and straightway I
found myself plunged in resolutions and regulations, in prac-
tices of prayer and of mortification, in which eagerness was
at strife with profusion and confusion, and in which I was
heaping up indiscretion upon inprudence. This torrent of

234 THE INTERIOR LIFE

resolutions had two very grave defects. For, in reality, their
agitation was a proof that their impulse came from self and
had no longer any source in God. I was reckoning on myself,
and I was leaning on my own resolutions to determine the flow
of good: and all this, just as if the least movement of the
divine life had not to be created in me by the anticipations
of life-giving mercy.

Their agitation next signifies that, being born of myself,
this impulse continued to wish to live in myself. I was
reckoning on myself, and I was leaning upon my own resolu-
tions to measure and to sustain God’s action: just as if it
were not God’s action which had to sustain, to contain, and
to measure me.

Thus, through the deceptive impulse of my nature, I was
led to have faith in myself twice over ; my starting-point and
my place of arrival were both set within me, instead of re-
maining in God. This is the twofold weakness of this kind
of resolution.

29. Human activity.—These resolutions have thus cast me
into my own selfish action, into my own separate initiative,
into the sterile commotion of human agitation, neither animated
nor directed by God. It was my own action which took the
upper hand, and claimed to mark out the way, and to set the
limit to God’s action. It meant leaning on myself and trust-
ing in myself. Good God! how everything was then turned
upside down! How could I wonder at the fragility and the
uselessness of all the scaffolding ? It was not of Thy building,
and all my human work was but vanity, in van laborave-
runt.

30. Practices of my own choosing.—And this misfortune
happens to me too often. I try to find penances of my own
choosing, devotional exercises of my own choosing, employ-
ments and virtues of my own choosing ; and, at the same
time, I forget, I neglect, and I refuse to look at and to accept
the penances which God lays upon me day by day, and per-
haps I murmur ; I complain of the sacrifices which He lays
upon me, in changes of weather, in the perverseness of men,
and in corporal infirmities or spiritual trials. Why am I
so taken up with myself, and so little with Him? so anxious

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 235

to make a commotion, and so little careful to correspond
with Him? What a number of touches, impulses, and good
inspirations I misunderstand, put on one side, and make of
no effect! What God sends me is so exactly fitting for my
soul’s needs, and answers so precisely to my wants! What
I choose by natural instinct possesses the double defect of
being in opposition to God’s action and of not being in harmony
with the needs of my divine growth. Thus, what I do under
the pretence of piety is precisely what is in contradiction with
piety within me.

31. Ruins.—Then, am I not to make any more resolutions ?
They must be made, of a truth, but not resolutions of this
kind. For it is a fact, that these resolutions have hitherto
had the effect of casting me into diversity and division, into
being encumbered and agitated, and of giving me over to my
personal action, and of hindering God’s action. The fact is
that too few of these resolutions have been kept, and that
their effect has been quite null. But one result has remained,
and that a very unwholesome one ; it is the habit of breaking
one’s promises to God. How many promises have been made,
renewed, and reiterated, with protestations of fidelity, and
pledging one’s honour in the most solemn circumstances!...
And of all this nothing remains but... ruins! ruined promises,
ruined pledges, and ruined honour! When the will is not
from God, the act of man is worthy of man.

Nothing can be more deplorable. It is better, much
better, indeed, not to make any vow than to make one and
not to keep it. There is nothing that perverts a soul, nothing
that deprives it of reverence for God and sacred things and.
for itself, nothing which dulls every lofty feeling and every
sustained energy, nothing which destroys the keen sense of
faith and of all virtues, nothing that warps uprightness of
judgement and feeling and action, so much as the unfortunate
habit of making promises to-God and not keeping them.
Further, it is not uncommon to find in those who are far from
being religious a foundation of uprightness, an energy of reso-
lution, a keen sense of honour, in which truth works wonders
when it is revealed. It will never work such results in those
who are accustomed to promise much and to perform little.

236 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VII

Human Resolutions: Their Folly

32. The example of St. Peter.—33. God so well knows my needs.—
34. I know so little.—35. Negligence.

32. The example of St. Peter.—Then, how foolish am I!
As soon as God claims the right of guiding my progress and
of carrying me, it is folly on my part to want to act of myself,
before Him, and apart from Him; this is casting myself out
of His arms. It is pretending to remonstrate with Him, to
anticipate Him, and to direct Him. This was St. Peter’s
mistake in the episode already recalled,! wherein, urged on
by his human affection, he allowed himself to be so far carried
away as to remonstrate with his Master. His human impulse
was fatal to him, though he was a man of unselfish sincerity
and unhesitating generosity. It was this impulse which after-
wards led him to his denial, and which in the actual circum-
stances brought down upon him the sharp reproach! “ Go
behind Me, Satan, thou art a scandal unto Me!” (Matt. xvi. 23).
A severe reprimand, and hard words indeed, which show
how the Man-God detests human impulse; words such as
God addresses to every soul which desires to walk by itself,
to anticipate His action, and which is thereby a hindrance
to Him. How often have I deserved such a reproach ?

33. God so well knows my needs.—There is no greater
folly. What! I know that God is my light, my activity,
my strength, and my life; I know that He is my Father,
anxious for my progress, careful of my sanctification, and
desirous of bearing me in His arms ; I know that He tempers
His action according to the actual state of my soul, that He
will never permit me to be tempted beyond my powers, and
that He will only suffer temptation so far as it will be really
profitable to my soul ;? I know that He is infinitely wise, that

1 See Part I, Book III, § 12.
2 Fidelis autem Deus est, qui non patietur vos tentari supra id quod
potestis, sed faciet etiam cum tentatione proventum, ut possitis

sustinere (1 Cor. x. 13).

THE WAY ; CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 237

He sees into my inward state, my needs, the way to lead me,
the happiest means, the dangers to be shunned, the end
to be attained, infinitely better than I ; I know that He desires
my perfection a thousand times more than I, and that this is
the bitter trial of His love ; T know all this... and yet I am
so imprudent, so mad, as to tear myself from His arms in
order to walk by myself! ... Andit is to go to God that I
fling myself out of His arms! ... Can any madness be more
lamentable ? ...

34. I know so little—What do I, indeed, know of the real
needs of my soul? What do I know of the remedies it
requires, and of the food that will do it good? My soul, my
infirmities, my weaknesses, my capacities, what mysteries
are all these to me! ... When I claim to cure myself, to
take care of my soul, to strengthen it, and to raise it, I pile
up imprudence and error and failure one above the other.
But God knows my soul so well, and loves itso much!...
And His care and His action are always proportioned to its
state. ‘‘ Being incapable,” says St. John of the Cross,}
“ of rising by its own strength to the level of the supernatural,
the soul is borne thither and established there by God alone,
when it gives Him full consent. Once more, to act of oneself
is to put a hindrance, as far as one can, in the way of the
communication of God—+.e., of His Spirit ; it is to stop short
at one’s own work, which is quite opposed, and quite inferior,
to the work of the Almighty ; it is what is very rightly called
“extinguishing the Spirit ’”’ (1 Thess. v. 19).

35. Negligence.—Another folly, which is unfortunately
quite as human, and which must be avoided with as much
care as the agitation of forming resolutions apart from God,
is neglecting to form any resolutions, or scarcely any. These
are man’s two excesses: wishing to act apart from God, and
wishing not to act at all with God. If I am not allowed to
misjudge the operation of God’s good pleasure for the fulfil-
ment of His will signified, it is just as little in order for me
to set on one side His will signified, under the pretext of sub-
mitting to His will of good pleasure. The one must not be
separated from the other. I shall not save myself without

1 The Ascent of Mount Carmel, Book III, ch. xii.

238 THE INTERIOR LIFE

God, but neither shall I be saved without myself. As soon
as He signifies His orders to me, it is because He expects
work from me. I must then determine to give it Him. If it
is not a good thing to wish to anticipate God, neither is it
a good thing to hang back. He requires me to follow Him.
Following does not mean going before, nor does it mean stop-
ping where I am. It means that I must act, but in conse-
quence of, and in conformity with an action which precedes
and governs mine. Ah, if I only knew how to follow! . ..
to follow God!... If only, in fine, the two contrary waver-
ings of my nature in the direction of the agitation of pride
which desires to go without God, and in the direction of the
slumber of slothfulness which would let God go forward
without myself, if these two waverings could settle down into
the one vital activity which is called ‘ following God !” ...
To live on God, by God, in God, for God! ...

CHAPTER VIII

Christian Resolutions

36. The ease of the Christian’s walk.—37. God’s yoke.—38. Hope in
God.—39. Sobriety in resolutions.—40. Unity.—41. Fitness.

36. The ease of the Christian’s walk.—O my God! how
much greater is the simplicity and ease of true piety! “ My
yoke is sweet and My burden is light,” says the Master of
piety to everyone. I must always begin by receiving God’s
action, so that my action may be animated thereby ; and keep
hold of His hand, so that my hand may be supported and
guided by His. I shall be diligent to refuse Him submission
as little as possible, so that my submission may enable me
to correspond as much as possible with Him in my actions ;
I shall be on the watch to be animated and guided by Him,
so that I may act by Him, with Him, and for Him. How
simple is such a disposition ! and not only simple, but strong !
What progress one makes, when, like a little child, one allows
oneself to be carried in God’s arms! What ease, what
security, and what vigour there will be in my little steps of

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 239

active piety, when I keep hold of God’s hand by the accept-
ance of passive piety! How fully is the duty of the will
signified fulfilled, when I am led thereto by the working of
the will of good pleasure! How full of life is my action
when it is animated by God’s!

37. God’s yoke.—And it is to this union and to this working
that the Saviour invites me. ‘‘O thou,” He says to me,
‘who hast so many burdens and labours, come unto Me.
Why dost thou remain agitated and isolated in the endeavours
of a work beyond thy powers, and crushed under a burden
that is too heavy for thee ? Come unto Me, and do not remain
within thyself; unite with Me, and stay not alone in thy
trouble and beneath thy load. Leave the yoke, or rather
the collar of thy work, which thou makest for thyself and
puttest upon thyself in thine agitation. That is what is
hard, what injures thee and crushes thee, because thou art
carrying it alone, and because it is not proportioned to thy
strength and thy vocation. Take My yoke upon thee; Mine, I
say, which I Myself have prepared for thee, which I have made
to fit thee, and proportioned to thy strength and thy vocation.

“It is a yoke and not a collar, for I desire to bear it with
thee, I desire it to rest upon Me all the time it is upon thee,
and on Me much more than upon thee. I desire to be with
thee always in thy toil, and I will not unload My burden
upon thee, but thou mayest unload much of thy burden upon
Me. Take My yoke; we will work together, and thou shalt
see how this work, shared between us, becomes easy and sweet.
What rest shalt thou find for thy soul! With My yoke, how
easy is it to move the burdens which I Myself take care in
preparing for thee! For if thou bearest My yoke, thou shalt
also share My burdens. Thou wilt cease to load thyself with
burdens too heavy for thee. I know what thou canst do,
and what thou oughtest to do, and I always proportion thy
task according to thy strength and to the requirements of
thy vocation. Only give it a trial, and thou wilt feel that
My yoke is sweet and My burden light.”

1 Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego reficiam
vos. Tollite jugum meum super vos... . et invenietis requiem
animabus vestris, Jugum enim meum suave est et onus meum leve
(Matt. xi. 28-30).

240 | * THE INTERIOR LIFE

O my God! I am Thine, save Thou me! (Ps. cxviii. 94)....
O my soul, be thou, indeed, subject to God! For He is my
God and my Saviour! He is my helper, I will not go away
from Him. In God is my salvation and my glory: He is the
God of my help, and my hope is in God.

38. Hope in God.—Yes! O my God! I desire to keep
near Thee, and to lean upon Thee, in order to receive life
from Thee. I desire to reckon on Thee and to have faith in
Thee, and my hope shall be living and practical. It shall
not be a vague sentiment, which is general and indefinite,
and without any fixed support. It shall be a concrete reality.
At every moment, I will have faith in the present and living
action of my God; I will have faith in the operation of the
Holy Ghost within me ; I will have faith i in the charity which
God hath in me?

And my faith will be a real and effectual staying of my
whole life on God’s life, of all my action on Ged’s action, and
of each act upon the activity of God.

And with such a definite support, what sureness will my
resolutions have at the outset, and what firmness in their
execution! Illuminated with this light, how precisely will
they correspond with the needs of my soul, how exactly will
they fit in with my plan of life! Animated with this activity,
what decision there will be at the start, and what vigour in
the following up! Sustained by this strength, what energy
will there be in resistance, what steadfastness in perseverance !
Connected with this fountain of life, what fruits of sanctification
will they bring forthin time, and what glorification in eternity !

39. Sobriety in resolutions.—Finally, however, what resolu-
tions are to be taken in practice ? for some must be taken.
If there be no fixed resolution, duty runs a great risk of
remaining nebulous or forgotten. There must be resolutions,
but what resolutions ?—In general, few are necessary ; and
these few must be to the point.

1 Verumtamen Deo subjecta esto anima mea... quia ipse Deus
meus et salvator meus, adjutor meus, non emigrabo. In Deo salutare
(Pe ha i: tte mea: Deus auxilii mei et spes mea in Deo est

? Et nos cognovimus et credidimus charitati quam habet Deus in
nobis (1 Joan. iv. 16).

, THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 241
\

There must be few. There are souls which will always
go to God by little successive and circumstantial details,
which best correspond with the reach of their mind. They
must not leave the road which is good for them. Let them
walk thus in simplicity, they will reach their end easily. But
such souls ought not to overload or to complicate their duties, so
as not to get exhausted. Sobriety is the mother of good health.

40. Unity. — Other souls are specially in need of unity.
In the perpetual variety of providential occurrences and of
professional duties, they require a governing view, a synthetic
idea, by the help of which they may direct their lives. Details
kill them, unity gives them life. They cannot find their way
through the forests ; they love the mountain-tops from which
there is a wide view. They, too, need to see, and to see
practical duty clearly in its details and applications ; they
want to see it, to love it, and to carry it out in its finest and
most delicate circumstances. But they get their view of
things by way of unity. In this light, they see ; apart from
it, they feel that their eyes are dim and defective. Of a truth,
it is to such that this work is constantly addressed. It is
clear that the resolutions of such souls have to be more and
more simplified and to become more and more unified. Since
they are only able to grasp the value of details by contem-
plating them in their organic position and in the connexion
of their functions, it is important for them to acquire that unity
of glance which is necessary to them. The next chapter will
show, more especially for such souls, how this movement
in the direction of unity is carried out.

41. Fitness.—Whatever may be the case, whether one has
to walk by way of details or by way of unity, it is important
that the resolution or resolutions should be really practical
and correspond well with the actually necessary part of one’s
duty. If my resolution does not fall too far short of duty
owing to cowardice, and if it does not overstep it by exaggera-
tion, it will be good and effectual. Let it be, then, on the
one hand proportioned to.my strength, and on the other to my,
ebligations; let it be measured both by what I'can, and by what
I must, do; what I can and must do now in the present state
af; my vital resources. and of my responsibilities. towards God,

&

242 . THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER IX

The Fundamental Resolution

42. The one primary and governing resolution.—43. No uneasiness as
to the present.—44. Nor as to the future.—45. Prayer for confidence.

42. The one primary and governing resolution.—Since I
am persistently searching for unity and I want to advance in
this way, I must above all else take and keep THE ONE
PRIMARY AND GOVERNING RESOLUTION . .. FROM WHICH MUST
SPRING ... IN SUCCESSION ... AT THE PROPER TIME... AND
ON WHICH MUST BE CONSTANTLY SUPPORTED . . . THOSE PAR-
TICULAR RESOLUTIONS... WHICH BECOME NECESSARY ACCORD-
ING TO THE PROGRESS OF THE INTERIOR LIFE.

The one resolution which gives and maintains life, belongs
to passive piety; it is the practical expression of it. The
variable resolutions which arise and are maintained through
the influence of the fundamental resolution, belong to active
piety ; they are its actual and concrete application. Their
mutual union realizes the living progress of piety as a whole.

The one and unifying, living and life-giving resolution is
that which I am beginning to understand a little better, and
the fruits of which I desire to taste; it is that of keeping,
by practical trustfulness, in correspondence with God, of
taking care, by means of acceptance, to lay myself open to
His action, and, in my co-operation, of being diligent to
preserve an effectual reliance upon Him.

This resolution will afford an entrance to the divine
activity ; and through the impulse of its working, I shall be
led at the proper time to take the resolution or resolutions
in detail, which are necessitated by duty. Thus, being born
of God and not of myself, supported on God and not on myself,
these particular resolutions will have all the sobriety and
truth which befits them. Thus I shall avoid overloading,
encumbrance, and illusion. I shall have a better chance of
holding good by God’s help to what I have undertaken by
God’s urgency. In my resolutions, there must be nothing of

4

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 243

mineqfor myself only, nothing of my wandering imagination,
and nothing of self-will. “Ih our life, there is nothing that
comes of man, and that is why all is of God,”’ says the Vener-
able Mother Chappuis.1 What comes of man does not hold
good ; what is of God is alone strong and lasting.

43. No uneasiness as to the present.—And now, so far as
the actual state of my soul is concerned, I see how much
correction must be made in two defects, which are two kinds
of uneasiness: uneasiness as to the present, and uneasiness
as to the future.

As to the present, my good will is easily swayed by a sort
of trembling anxiety, which deceitfully tries to persuade me
that I shall be unequal to doing my duty. I fear that I shall
be too distracted, or too cowardly, or too weak. Yes, of a
truth, I shall always be distracted, cowardly, and weak, if
left to myself. Never can I distrust myself too much, never
can I be too strongly persuaded that duty is above me. But,
after all, is that any reason for being uneasy? Distrust of
oneself is not uneasiness, it is just the opposite. Distrust
of oneself makes its appeal to confidence in God, and con-
fidence in God leaves no room for uneasiness.

What does uneasiness mean ?—It means that I persist in
having faith in myself ; for if I am uneasy, it is only just to
the extent that I feel what a ruinous thing it is to be relying
on myself. Then, whence comes this uneasiness >—It comes
of my incorrigible mania for relying on myself more than on
God. I try to find in myself the enlightenment, the impulse,
and the strength which are indispensable to duty, and I fail
to discover them and become uneasy and full of doubt. When
shall I be able to be straightforward ? When shall I learn to
have recourse first of all to God and to rely upon Him? ...
WE ARE ALWAYS DOING ENOUGH WHEN WE KEEP IN GOD’S
HANDS . . . because from His hands we always receive in
abundance what is necessary for our duty.

44. Nor as to the future.—The disturbing anxiety of looking
ahead on the road, of making up suppositions and arrange-
ments for the future, is also a want of trust. The future is
not yours, Sir, it is God’s. Therefore “ be not solicitous for

1 In a circular of the Visitandines of Troyes, p. 42.

244 THE INTERIOR LIFE

to-morrow: for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Suffi-
cient for the day is the evil thereof ”” (Matt. vi. 34). It is not
my business to regulate my progress. I have to follow God,
so as not to walk in darkness, and to have the light of life.
I need only have one solicitude, if I may have so much as one ;
since St. Paul tells us to be solicitous as to nothing and
St. Peter exhorts me to cast 477 my care upon Him, who hath
care of me The two disciples, like their Master, condemn
uneasy solicitude. But, if indeed there be one calm, grave,
and reasonable solicitude, it is that of the present moment.
Let me be careful to keep in God’s hand ; and, in His hand, to
do my present duty ; that is quite sufficient for my life.

45. A prayer for confidence.—Dear Master, give me the
grace to be able to wait, to understand, and to follow Thine
impulse, to be able to abide in Thee, so that I may act by Thee
and with Thee. Give me the sincerity and the pliancy to
correspond with Thine action. Give me the ability to rest in
confidence, so that I may be sure of my work. Grant that I
may live by Thee, for Thee, and in Thee. Grant that I may
avoid the two great sunken reefs, being agitated apart from
Thee, and resting far from Thee. O God, let there be no
agitation of presumptuous pride in me, nor the repose of care-
less idleness, but let there be a sincere and living correspond-
ence between my action and Thine. Keep me far from the
fits and starts of Naturalism, from the negligent indolence of
Quietism, and give me the living union of the Christian.

1 Qui sequitur me non ambulat in tenebris, sed habehit lumen vitz
(Joan. viii. 12).

2 Nihil solliciti estis (Phil. iv. 6).

3 Omnem sollicitudinem vestram projicientes in eum, quoniam ipsi
cura est de vobis (1 Pet. v. 7).

4
THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 245

CHAPTER X

Concurrence Restored

46. Deviation.—47. The consequences. -— 48. To be accepted. — 49.
Human contrition.—50. Divine detestation.—51. Divine repara
tion.—52. Thank Thee, O God!

46. Deviation.—Desiring to advance towards the end of
my life, I feel how I have to maintain and to improve within
me the state of living correspondence with God’s action.
O God! if I could only keep myself in permanent contact and
in perfect accord with Thee!... But, O dear Lord, how many
are my deviations! How often the impulses or the inertia
of my nature take me away from Thee! And being far from
Thee, I cease to be animated by Thee, and I fall.

When I fall thus, what am I to do? Must I be uneasy ?—
Not at all, this would only be a fresh folly, a new deviation,
and sometimes, a fall within a fall. Uneasiness is such a
wrong to Thee, O my God! What then am I to do ?—The
thing to be done is to accept as frankly and as promptly as
I can the casting away of my sin with all its penal conse-
quences. Certainly, my deviation was never intended by
God, but He has permitted it ; and it is immediately followed
by certain punitive consequences, which are willed by Him.
Often God allows a sin to occur to deduce from it a means of
healing: there are evils which can only be cured by a fall.
“It must needs be that scandals come ”’ (Matt. xviii. 7).

47. The consequences.—The penal consequences of a sin
are, for instance, outward humiliation before other people,
inward humiliation before oneself and God, often very grave
reaction upon one’s soul, which is shaken, weakened, dazed,
and the very extensive reactions that a sin sometimes has upon
the outward events of one’s life, etc.... For I never know
how far or how seriously the echoes of a sin may resound.
These consequences are willed by God; and thus it is that
He shows His detestation of sin. He did not will the sin,
but He willed its punishment. His will, therefore, is in the
latter. The sin is my act; the penal consequences of the

246 ‘THE INTERIOR LIFE

sin are God’s action, the action of His good pleasure, which
immediately avenges the disorder of my act.

48. To be accepted.—In order to destroy the deviation of
my own action, I have only to unite with God’s action ; and
I unite with it by accepting it. To say to God “I thank
Thee ” for the humiliation of my sins, is the true way to learn
the ways of justification! In the consequences that avenge
my sin, is the whole of God’s will. If I accept them, without
worrying as to what they may be, submitting to what, in the
case in point, is God’s good pleasure, I am as practically, as
truly, and as intimately as possible united with God.

In this practice of saying “‘ Thank Thee ” for the humiliation
of asin, there is a potency of repentance and of calmness which
are really divine. All that I could say, ask for, or promise
God, all that I could do under the impulses of repentance and
regret, will never attain to the height of such a simple accept-
ance. All these wonderful fireworks are too often only my
human impulse, my own special way of detesting sin. And this
is not at all the right way ; because what I am led to detest and
regret is just what I ought to accept, that is to say, humiliation.

49. Human Contrition.—And when I detest the conse-
quences of a sin, and the annoyances and discomforts of which
it is the cause, I too often keep up secret attachments with my
inward disorder. This means that, in reality, I am detesting
the avenging action of God, and that I continue to love my
own bad action. Ofa truth, it is a singular sort of contrition,
which would come pretty nearly to irony, were it not for the
existence of human folly, which somewhat excuses such a
grave misunderstanding. This is what may be called my
contrition. It is, indeed, too much mine, for it unfortunately
hardly comes from God.

Is it to be wondered at, if this human contrition results in
such poor fruits of divine conversion? In how many cases is
this so-called contrition a sort of pillow for the conscience,
helping it to slumber in its own evil! I feel that I havea
certain detestation, and without being willing to examine too
closely upon what it is brought to bear, I soothe myself as to

1 Bonum mihi quia humiliasti me, ut discam justificationes tuas
(Ps. cxviii. 71).

THE WAY : CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS 247

my inward dispositions. Thus I remain in a state of soul,
which is rather like that of the thief who has just been caught, -
and who is very grieved, not at having stolen, but at being
caught. This is a dangerous disposition, and, after a sin, it
tends to make barren what God does at once to cure the sin.

50. Divine detestation.—But when I accept the penal con-
sequences of my wickedness, I become permeated with God’s
own detestation of sin ; and if I accept them fully and without.
reservation, I appropriate and make my own all of God’s
detestation for my sin. Thus I detest it, no longer in the way
in which I can detest it myself, but as God detests it ; and not
merely as God detests sin in general, but as He now detests
this particular sin into which I have fallen, and to the same
extent as He detests it Himself. Therefore, when I have been
unable to accept God’s action (hence arise all my sins), I have
only to say: ‘‘ I thank Thee, O God, I thank Thee for this
humiliation,” and at once I find myself once more in the arms
of God, united with Him for penalizing the disorder which has
momentarily separated me from Him. This act fills the soul
with so much peace, that one is almost tempted to sing with
the Church: O felix culpa! .. 3

51. Divine reparation.—By this act of acceptance I am
united with God, not only for the detestation of my sin, but
also for its reparation. Repentance is divine, and so is firm
purpose. Do I say, firm purpose? Here, it is not only a
case of firm purpose to reconstruct in myself the building
of divine glory, which has been broken into or broken down
by my sin; it is, in fact, the work of building, immediately
resumed and restored by the hand of God. He Himself
repairs the breaches of the sin ; and then, what a reparation
is His! He, indeed, knows what harm has been done to the
divine edifice of my life ; He sees it, takes the full measure of
it, and nothing escapes His eye. As for me, I never know
how far the cracks and injuries, the breaches and destruction,
may extend. I see all this so much the less, because the first
result of sin is to blind me. Therefore, I am incapable of
making fitting repairs.

But since God is there, not only punishing but repairing,

1 See L'Art d'utiliser ses fautes, by Père Tissot. Librairie Oudin.

248 ! THE INTERIOR LIFE

I have no more embarassment nor uneasiness. I have only
to accept His action, to unite with Him, and to follow up His
work with my co-operation. And immediately I see the divine
edifice being restored according to the true plan of my crea-
tion ; and very quickly the evil is repaired, not only the
actual evil of the particular sin which I have just committed,
but also the evil source from which it arose. For God knows
how to take advantage of acts to create habits. He is not
satisfied with plastering up the cracks, He starts afresh on
the foundations. For His glory, He is not satisfied with a
tottering building, covered with a deceptive coat of white-
wash. He likes a thing to be solid; what He builds, He
builds upon the rock ; and what has to be repaired, He repairs
thoroughly . . . if we leave Him alone. O my God! when
shall I know how to leave Thee to build? ... When shall
I be able, with a good “‘ Thank Thee ”’ to join in Thy work of
building and repair ? Oh, what reparatory results follow from
a good “‘ I thank Thee!”

52. Thank Thee, O God.—Does this mean that the practice
of saying, ‘I thank Thee,” for the penal consequences of
my sin constitutes the whole of the essence of contrition,
and sums up all that need be done in the way of reparation
due to God?—By no means. In speaking of means in
Part III, I shall see the necessity of the sacrament of Penance,
and the necessity, the nature, and the motives of contrition.
Here I am only anxious as to one thing: to restore corre-
spondence with divine action as quickly as possible. The sin
has interrupted it, and the “ Thank Thee”’ in my case, is the
most swift and simple and just proceeding to bring me back
into contact with God.

O that “ Thank Thee,” that divine “ Thank Thee ! {” how
great it is, how fruitful, how powerful, how holy. pg : -
contains all the treasures of life and strength, of coltrane
and peace. It is the inexhaustible mine, in which I find God.
I will say it, and say it always, in joy, in sorrow, in ascending,
in falling, always and everywhere: “I Thank Thee!” ...

Bonum mihi Domine! ... Thus, O my God, shall I ab de
in Thee and Thou in me, and at last I shall bear fruit, yea,
much fruit.?

1 Qui manet in me et ego in co, hic fert fructum multum (Joan, xv. 5).

PART Ili
THE MEANS

PRELIMINARY

1. The necessity of means.—2z. God’s instruments.—3. My instru-
ments.—4. In Him we live and move and be.—5. What is essential]
and what changes.—6. Division.

1. The necessity of means.—I know the end, I know the
way, and I have a real desire to walk in this way towards
this end ; what do I need ?—Means. For means are required
for journeying by this way to this end. I must eat God’s
bread to follow the way of His will until the coming of His
k ngdom and the hallowing of His name. Knowing the end
and the way, and having the means, I shall possess everything.
And what are these means?

At the very beginning of this work,l the fundamental
principle showed me that, between God and myself, every
being, and every movement of any being coming into contact
with my life, is destined to serve as an instrument of my
growth for the glory of God. This principle had to be declared
at the outset, so as to disengage it from the notions of the
end and of the way. The knowledge of this principle, as
I have been convinced, is indispensable for the understand-
ing of the plan of my life, of order and disorder, and of the
laws of my ascent and work.

But this general notion, which is essential to the direction
of my life, although it may suffice to show me the plan,
does not suffice to realize its execution. The knowledge of
the architect who draws up the plan, and that of the con-
tractor who controls the work, must be completed by the
skill of the workman who handles the tools. After having
studied the plan of my life in Part I, and the rules of working
in Part II, in Part III I have to study the procedure of
execution, the handling of creatures which are the instru-
ments. |

2. God’s instruments.—And whose instruments are crea-
turcs ?—They are the instruments, of the workers who are

1 See Part I, Book I, ch. vi.
251

252 THE INTERIOR LIFE

building the temple of God’s glory. Consequently, they are
above all instruments of God, who is the principal workman ;
and next, they are my instruments, since I am called to be
the underworkman.

God knows the use of the instruments which He employs,
and He knows how to employ them. It is not at all my busi-
ness to control His use of them ; but what is altogether my
business, what to a certain extent is necessary for me, is to
look at the contact and the result upon myself of the work
of these instruments. Now, whatever in fact the instrument
used by God may be, the constant effect of it is grace. With
regard to myself, then, grace is the immediate divine means,
the sole and constant means, and it is this which it is above
all my interest to know, so that at this point of contact I
may succeed in bringing my means into harmony with God’s.

3. My instruments.—As to those creatures which are my
instruments and which I have to handle, it is necessary for
me to know their use, their management, and above all, that
my faculties should acquire an aptitude and facility for
using them well. But, no one is a good workman unless he
has acquired a trained eye and hand, which, combined with
a love for his trade, bring forth excellent work. And to
train the taste, the eye, and the hand, there are in each
trade certain procedures, and certain trade secrets. Such
also there are to form the sovereign aptitude and skill of soul,
which is called piety. What, then, I have to consider, at
least in their general economy, are the expedients and prac-
tices calculated to put my faculties in a position to make a
right use of creatures. I say: “at least in their general
economy ”’; for hitherto, having confined my attention to
the main outlines of the end and the way, I shall continue
to do the same with regard to the means.

What, then, are the practices which will put me in a posi-
tion to make a right use of creatures >—I know that the
work of my divine growth necessitates a twofold operation ;
on the one hand, disengagement from creatures, and on
the other, adaptation to the divine. Hence, there are two
orders of pious practices, the one destined to detach me
from things here below, the others to attach me to things

THE MEANS 253

above. Those which accustom me to detachment are the
practices of penance ; those which accustom me to meet with
God are the practices of prayer. Hence, I shall have to
consider the general principles concerning the practices of
penance and the practices of piety.

4. In Him we live, and move, and be.—I have seen that
the fulness of my essential end lies in the glory of God;
that the sovereign rule of my activity lies in His will; and
I see that my great and vital means lies in His grace. End,
principle, and means, God is all these to me. In Him we live,
for He is the means, the food of our life; in Him we move,
for He is the rule and first principle of our activity ; and in
Him we are, for He is the end in which we rest.l His glory
is the end of my being, His will is the rule of my activity,
and His grace is the means of my life. He is the end, He is
the beginning, He is the middle, He is all My God and
my all.

5. What is essential and what changes.—My satisfaction
is united with and subordinate to God’s glory; and my
personal action must be united with and subordinate to that
whereby He animates and governs me. In the same way,
my devotional practices must be united with and subordinate
to grace. Thus, at the end, on the way, and in the means,
God is everywhere essential, first, and master; and I am
everywhere dependent, secondary, the servant.

Further, I have seen how my satisfaction, at first going
astray from God, returns, gets swallowed up, and is trans-
formed into unity, leaving behind the fallacies of the human
in annihilation. I have also seen how my action, at first
agitated apart from the divine action, returns, gets swallowed
up, and is transformed into that of God, destroying the in-
dependence of human activity. I have now to see how, in
the same way, the multiplicity of my spiritual practices is
concentrated and vivified in the unity of the influences of
grace. In the three relations of the end, the way, and the
means, there is the same movement of subordination, trans-
formation, and union, and there is the same ascent towards
unity.

i In ipso enim vivimus et movemur et sumus (Acts xvii. 28).

254 THE INTERIOR LIFE

God’s glory, God’s will, God’s grace, by making me more
and more supernatural, destroy progressively and annihilate,
in my satisfaction and action and means, all that is born of
myself and that deviates from God ; they swallow up, change,
and unite that which comes from God and that which is
made for eternal union. Thus, I see the three clouds of
my mortality dissolve in the brightness of the broad sunshine
which is shed upon my soul; multiplicity vanishes before
unity, and the creature adheres to its Creator; and thus
God, who was at the beginning Himself first of all, ends by
changing all into Himself. He is all in all.?

6. Division.—This Part will be divided into three Books:

Book I, on the Practices of Penance.

Book II, on the Exercises of Piety.

Book III, on Grace.

1 Tpse est ante omnes et omnia in ipso constant (Col. i. 17).
3 Ut sit Deus omnia in omnibus (1 Cor. xv. 28).

BOOK I
THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE

In the first place I am going to study the means that are
those of man, beginning with the means of correcting my
former conduct, the stripping off the old man, which is the
man of corruption, bad desires, and of error. Next, the
means of spiritual renovation, the putting on of the new
man, who according to God, is created in justice and holiness
of truth The means of stripping off are the practices of
penance, the means of putting on are the practices of prayer.
It is necessary to use these two sorts of means, and it is a good
thing to unite them,” since I must get away from creatures
to rise to God ; and the great operations of the evil spirit in
me are only victoriously striven against by the union of
these two means.

The practices of prayer, or spiritual exercises, will be the
subject of the next Book; in this one, I am about to con-
sider the practices of penance; their value, their function,
and their use.

I consist of mind, heart and senses ; by mind, heart, and
senses, I commit sins which must be expiated, I contract
adherences which must be destroyed, and I undergo degrada-
tions which must be repaired. Hence, I need practices of
penance ; I need them for the senses, and for the heart and
mind. The work of expiation to God and of reparation within
me is done: in the senses, by mortification ; in the heart,
by self-denial ; in the mind, by humility. Therefore penance
is a general necessity: practices of mortification for the
senses, of self-denial for the heart, and of humility for the
mind ; and this will be the subject-matter of the following
chapters.

1 Deponere vos secundum pristinam conversationem veterem
hominem qui corrumpitur secundum desideria erroris. Renovamini
autem spiritu mentis vestræ et induite novum hominem qui secundum
Deum creatus est in justitia et sanctitate veritatis (Eph. iv, 22-24).

2 Bona est oratio cum jejunio (Tob. xii. 8).

255

CHAPTER I

Penance

1. Justice.—2. Penalties. —3. Mercy.—4. Their union.—5. Redemp-
tion.—6. A limpleo quæ desunt....

1. Justice.—According to the remark of St. Augustine
which was previously quoted ; the loveliness of order is so
great that the ugliness of sin cannot endure for a single
moment without being repaired by the beauty of punishment.
Sovereign justice has its rights, which are imprescriptible.
It incessantly adjusts, and cannot exist without adjusting,
the activity of free creatures to eternal order. If I do well,
it immediately answers my action with rewards of merit. In
proportion as I glorify God, I enter into participation of the
beatitudes of time and of eternity. If I do evil, and if I rob
God of the glory which is His due, justice immediately punishes
me for the violation of order ; I become subject to penalties
to the extent in which I have fallen into iniquity. Justice,
then, imposes penance upon me as an expiation of the disorder
of my life.

2. Penalties—But why does justice have recourse to
suffering as an expiation for sin ?—The movement that turns
me away from God is a false impulse towards pleasure in
creatures ; and it is because I desire to enjoy unduly that
I deserve to be brought back to order by chastisement. Evil
is corrected by its opposite. So far as I turn away towards
irregular delights, so far shall I have to undergo torments.”
This is the law of time, and it is the law of eternity. Such
are the demands of justice, which exactly counterbalances the
pleasures of sin with the pains of its punishment ; so that the
injury inflicted upon the divine glory by enjoyment is repaired
by suffering. ‘‘ Man always in the end pays God what he

1 See Part I, Book II, § 44.

2 Quantum glorificavit se et in deliciis. fuit, tantum date illi tar-

mentum et luctum (Apoc. xviii. 7).
256

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 257

owes Him,” says St. Augustine again. “If he does not
pay it by doing what he ought, he pays it by suffering as he
ought ; hence, in one way or another, his debt is paid.” And
justice will never let anyone off paying the uttermost far-
thing.2 It can no more do away with a penalty than it can do
away with a merit. Its inexorable function is to adjust, and
it always exactly adjusts merits and demerits.

3. Mercy.—But God is not only one-handed. All the
ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. xxiv. 10). If
He has a hand of strict justice, which is inflexible in its
adjustments, He has also a gentle hand of mercy, which is
supremely supple in its kindly dispositions : if it be the mission
of justice to ensure the reparation of the essential order of
the divine glory, it is the lot of mercy to repair the soul itself.
Its part is to raise up what is fallen, to make good what has
been destroyed, and to restore what is lost. God willed to
show man mercy, whilst He only did justice to the angels.
He did not repair the angels, but He has repaired man. And
for this restoration mercy has its kindly dispositions, its
delicate invitations, and its infinitely adorable discoveries of
goodness. If nothing deceives justice, nothing tires mercy.
The latter is as unrelaxing in its benevolence as the former
is in its strictness.

4. Their union.—And according to God’s designs with
regard to mankind, His two hands are destined to cross each
other constantly over the head of the sinner. The blessings
of mercy are intended to harmonize with the severities of
justice. God desires that mercy and truth should always be
meeting within me, and that justice and peace should always
be embracing. And it is just on the ground of penance that
the meeting and embracing occur. Justice will relax none
of its penalties ; but mercy takes up these very penalties, and
renders them reparatory of my life, and meritorious of a better

1 Non sinitur anima non reddere debitum. Aut enim reddit bene
utendo quod accepit, aut re idit amittendo quo bene uti noluit. Itaque
si non reddit faciendo justitiam, reddit patiendo miseriam ; quia in
utroque verbum illud debiti sonat (De Lib. Arbit., Book III, § 44).

2 Non exies inde, donec reddas novissimum quadrantem (Matt. v. 26).

3 Misericordia et veritas obviaverunt sibi, justitia et pax osculatæ
sunt (Ps. Ixxxiv. 11). ‘

17

258 THE INTERIOR LIFE

life. At the same time as I discharge the debts of justice, my
being rises once more to the heights from which it had fallen.

Thus every sin demands a penalty, and every penalty is
first of all vindicatory, for such are the requirements of
justice ; and then, it is remedial, for such at least are the
intentions of mercy.

I cannot withdraw from the requirements of justice, but
I am able not to correspond with the intentions of mercy.
And if, as one of the damned, I undergo, in spite of myself,
the penalty of justice, my penance is sterile so far as I am
concerned, since it does not make good the degradations of
my life. When, on the contrary, by my free concurrence, I
adapt myself to redemptive designs, my penance becomes
both expiatory and reparatory, it satisfies God and purifies
my being, it takes away the evil and builds up the good,
it discharges debts and creates merits.

Is it not henceforward a matter of supreme interest for

me to know how to adapt myself to the work of reparation,

so that the vindicatory requirements may never be separated
from the reparatory benefits ? O my God! how I long, not
to expiate as a reprobate, but to make reparation as one of
the predestined !

5. Redemption.—But an intervention of incomprehensible
love was further necessary to facilitate the encounter and
embrace of justice and mercy. It is in the Person of
the Redeemer that this wonder came about, and it was
fulfilled on the Cross. God became man, and He came to
undergo in His human flesh the trials of life and the torments
of death, sanctifying both the one and the other, and by the
merit of His divinity imparting to the one and to the other
an infinite value for expiation and reparation. “ He hath
borne our infirmities and carried our sorrows. He was
wounded for our iniquities, He was bruised for our sins: the
chastisement of our peace was upon Him,and by His bruises we
are healed’”’ (Is. Hii. 4,5). Hence, it is His Cross that imparts
to penalties their true expiatory value and reparatory power.

He has amassed an infinite treasure, and this treasure,
from the point of view of its application, has been still further
expanded by the merits of the Virgin of Sorrows, and of

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 259

the martyrs and saints. There is enough to discharge all
the debts of justice and to secure the triumph of mercy for
all the souls of all the centuries.

6. Adimpleo quæ desunt.—How then shall I succeed in
making reparation as one of the predestined ?—By uniting
with the reparation of the Redeemer.—How am I to unite
with such reparation ?—By filling up in my flesh those things
that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ. His merits are
like a beverage which I must drink up by personal practices
of penance. When I know how to take and accept purificatory
trials in union and in conformity with the Saviour’s inten-
tions and with the mind of God, I complete the work of re-
demption within me, begun for me but not fulfilled without me.

And I may fulfil it, not only in myself and for myself, but
also for others. For in saying that he is filling up in his
flesh the sufferings of Christ, St. Paul adds that he is doing
it for the whole body of the Church. Thus I may have the
consolation of doing a penance that will be efficacious both for
myself and for the Church.

CHAPTER II

Mortification and Its Function

7. Lost ease and vigour.—8. Expiation and reparation.—g. Mortifica-
tion.—10. True and false mortification.—11. The hand of Satan
and the hand of God.—12. The mind of the Church.—13. The
mind of the saints.

7. Lost ease and vigour.—All the powers of my activity
should be kept for God,so as to be placed at the service of
His glory. And, in order to serve Him, my senses require
inward vigour and outward facility : such is the twofold
condition of their liberty and of all liberty. But, so far as ©
they are dominated by the fallacies of pleasure, they in-
creasingly lose this twofold condition of their freedom. First
of all, they become the slaves of creatures which govern them.

1. Adimpleo ea que desunt passionum Christi in carne mea, pro
_ corpore ejus quod est Ecclesia (Col. i. 24).

260 THE INTERIOR LIFE

If they maintain their inward vigour, they are nevertheless
like the prisoner whose hands are chained, and like the bird
with birdlime on its wings. The shackles of pleasure deprive
them of the outward condition of liberty ; they are no longer
at ease in the service of God.

And soon their inward vigour begins to decay. They
become heavy, coarse, slow, and idle; and then, slack,
effeminate, and enervated ; and lastly, degeneracy, infirmity,
and all sorts of sickness are the extreme consequences of the
abuse of pleasure. Degradation destroys the inward part
of their lLberty. They no longer have the strength which
is necessary for the service of the supreme Majesty. Thus
my being is lowered and God’s glory is frustrated.

8. Expiation and reparation.—The man who allows himself
to be cheated by pleasure, feeling that he is lowered in himself
and that he owes a debt to God, perceives the necessity of
discharging his debt to God and of lifting himself up again.
And a deep instinct tells him that pain is the instrument of
expiation and reparation. Every soul that wishes to repair
the human within and to get back to the divine, is mysteriously
impelled to have recourse to sacrifice. And it has recourse
thereto with all the more energy according to the depth of
its experience of the need of coming out of evil and of rising
up in good. The severity of privations and the austerity
of sufferings cast a potent spell over it. The love of the saints
for that which crucifies the flesh with its vices and con-
cupiscences! is a universal characteristic ; they are all crucified
with Christ2 They are nailed to the Cross, to pay their debts to
God and to become free. “We always,” says St. Paul, “‘ bear
about in our body the mortification of Jesus, that the life also
of Jesus may be made manifest in our bodies. For we who
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake: that the
life also of Jesus may be made manifest in our mortal flesh ”
(2 Cor. iv. 10,11). Mortification must be the pathway of life.

9. Mortification.— Mortification means, “‘ Putting to death.”
To mortify means “to put to death.” And what must be
mortified ?—" Mortify therefore your members which are

1 Qui autem sunt Christi, carnem suam crucifixerunt cum vitiis et
concupiscentiis (Gal. v. 24).
2 Christo confixus sum cruci (Gal. ii. 19).

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 261

upon the earth,” replies St. Paul (Col. ili. 5). What! must
we put our own bodies to death ?—Such is the chastisement
which is certainly well deserved by sin ; and, as a matter of
fact, it is a chastisement which the body has to undergo
without any sort of possibility of escape. Nevertheless, it
is a chastisement the dispensation of which God reserves
to Himself. He alone, by way of duty, of illness, of accidents,
or otherwise, understands how to exercise this power of
“ putting to death.”

I have no right of death over that which God has placed
within me; I have only the right of life. But there is in
me something which comes from me and not from God; I
am a man and a sinner. ‘‘ A man and a sinner, two words,”
says St. Augustine,’ “and in these two words there are two
things, one from nature, the other from sin ; one made by
God, the other made by me. And I must destroy what I
have made, in order that God may save what He has made.”
Mortify your members, says St. Paul; and he immediately
defines what has to be put to death. Mortify in your members
fornication, impurity, and evil concupiscenceZ2 What God
wills is not the death of the wicked, but the conversion of
the wicked. It is not the dead who praise God, but it is
the living who bless Him.

10. True and false mortification.—What penetrating dis-
cernment is needed if my mortification is to distinguish
between the man and the sinner in me, between nature and
evil, to destroy death and to save life! The climax of mor-
tification is to know how to break the net and to let the
bird go free, to kill the microbe and to cure the sick man,
to disengage life from death. All mortification is of the true
kind, if it breaks down what ought to be broken down, and
strengthens what ought to be made stronger.

1 Homo es iniquus. Duo dixi nomina, duo nomina : homo et iniquus.
In istis duobus nominibus, unum est nature, alterum culpe ; unum
tibi Deus fecit, alterum tu fecisti. Ama quod Deus fecit, oderis quod
tu fecisti (Ps. xliv. § 18).

2 Mortificate ergo membra vestra que sunt super terram, fornica-
tionem, immunditiam, libidinem, concupiscentiam malam et avaritiam
SS Hale Gorton impii, sed ut convertatur impius a via sua et vivat

(Ezech. xxxiii. 11).

262 THE INTERIOR LIFE

False sorts of mortification, for there are false kinds, strike
without discernment ; and under the impetus of the evil spirit,
they easily succeed in breaking down what ought to be pre-
_served, and in preserving what ought to be broken down.
Instead of crucifying the vices and concupiscences in the
flesh, they kill the man, whilst leaving him his passions, and
often increasing the number of his vices.

11. The hand of Satan and the hand of God.—No sacrifice
is desired for its own sake.l The idea of sacrifice for its own
sake is Satanic, because it is homicidal. It logically ends
in suicide for the individual, and in the abomination of
human sacrifices for social communities. What a host of
aberrations and of monstrosities history reveals in the course
of the ages among all peoples! Everywhere he, whom
St. Augustine? calls “ death’s provost,” sows death. One of
the triumphs that please him most is to take possession of this
notion of sacrifice, which is one of the most fundamental
of religious notions, and to turn it into an instrument of death.
The seal of Satan is infallibly recognized by the fact that it is
derogatory to the dignity and integrity of the members and
faculties of man ; it is destructive of life, and homicidal.

Nothing divine ever degrades. No doubt God sometimes
demands the sacrifice of a member, of a faculty, of health,
and even of life itself, but He demands it for the sake of
one’s general improvement. If He inflicts wounds, they
are wounds that heal; if He sends death, it is to make life
arise out of it. ‘I will strike, and I will heal’ (Deut.
xxxii. 39), saith the Lord. In the case of each man, He
knows when suffering and death are advantageous to his life,
for life and death are subservient to God in the interest of
the life of the elect. He therefore sends them according to
the designs of His justice and mercy ; and, in reality, sickness
and death work for life.

12. The mind of the Church.—How instructive it is to
consult the mind of the Church on this point ! In the building
of temples and monasteries, in her ceremonies and feasts,
in art and science, the Church encourages, exalts, approves,

1 See Part I, Book III, § 26.
2 Diabolus præpositus mortis (De Lib. Arbit., Book III, § 29).

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 263

and blesses all that uplifts and ennobles, all that purifies and
liberates, all that refines and spiritualizes the senses. She
certainly has her own niagnificence, but what a distance there
is between her chants and the music of the passions, between
the rich decoration of a church and that of a boudoir! The
world designs everything to give pleasures that enervate,
the Church devotes everything to bring about a freedom that
uplifts. The object of the world is pleasure, the object of the
Church is elevation. Her encouragement is the same for the
severity as for the sumptuousness that ennobles ; and she has
the same anathemas for the cruelty as for the sensualism
that degrades. Such is her mind. And this is the explana-
tion of all that she authorizes or forbids by her discipline with
regard to the things of the senses. In dwellings and in dress,
in food and in rest, in rejoicings and in relaxations, every-
where her language is that of St. Paul: ‘‘ Brethren, whatso-
ever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever just,
whatsoever holy, whatsoever lovely, whatsoever of good fame,
if there be any virtue, if any praise of discipline, think on these
things ”” (Phil. iv. 8).

13. The mind of the saints.—What, again, can be more
instructive than the mind of the saints ?—They were hard
on their bodies, and the history of the Church testifies how
they were able, in case of necessity, to hand them over to
executioners or to penitential sufferings. Whenever God’s
justice did not demand the sacrifice of health or life, they
took care to look after and preserve the vigour of their
members. I have already observed! how generally hygienic
were their mortifications! Soberness in fasting, simplicity
of food, the use of bitter edibles, if they run counter to our
taste, are yet favourable to purifying the blood ; hard beds,
short sleep, rough hair shirts, coarse clothing, and the stimulus
of the discipline foster its circulation. Thus is the body set
free from the heaviness of the animal life and it is kept from
bad humours, and becomes both a more obedient and stronger
instrument in the service of the soul. Such was the aim of
the saints. And this is why their penances bear the two-fold
stamp of severity and prudence: severity, to repress ill-

1 See Part I, Book IV, § 19.

264 THE INTERIOR LIFE

regulated appetites, sensual instincts, and enervating
pleasures ; prudence, to avoid injuries and disfigurements,
weakness and degeneracy.

CHAPTER III

General Rules for Mortification

14. Love that destroys and hatred that preserves.—15. No cowardly senti-
mentalism.—16. The liberating agent.—17. No degrading cruelty.—
18. Necessary cruelty.—19. The remedy.—20. The will to be healed.

14. Love that destroys and hatred that preserves.—I have
no right to consent to any degradation of my life. But I
may degrade myself, either by an excess of severity, or by
an excess of sensuality. Excess in both directions is for-
bidden. Therefore, in the use of mortifications, I must keep
equally far from cowardly sentimentalism and from degrading
cruelty. He that loveth his life shall lose it: and he that
hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal
(John xii. 25). There is, then, according to our Saviour’s
testimony, a love that destroys and a hatred that preserves
life. Love that destroys is cowardly sensualism ; hatred that
preserves, is wise and prudent severity. Therefore, let there
be no cowardly love and no cruel hatred. If I have a sense
of justice, I shall be able to master the fear of pain with
energy ; if I have any sense of mercy, I shall be able to avoid
striking any destructive blows.

15. No cowardly sentimentalism.—The rebellion of the
senses against the spirit demands that they shall be reduced
to obedience by being treated as slaves. ‘‘ Bread, and
correction, and work for the slave,” says the Huly Ghost.
“Tf he is ‘idle, punish him and put him in irons: if he is
faithful, let him be to thee as thy own soul, and treat him
as a brother.’2 Therefore, let there be soberness in eating,
austerity in correction, perseverance in work, punishment

1 Panis, et disciplina, et opus servo. . . servo malevolo tortura et
compedes ; mitte illum in operationem, ne vacet. . . . Si est tibi
servus fidelis, sit tibi quasi anima tua ; quasi fratrem sic eum tracta
(Eccli. xxxili. 25, 28, 31).

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 265

for unfaithfulness, healthy and devoted affection in faithful-
ness ; for thus it is that the senses are kept and made strong
and sturdy, sound and vigorous, supple and alert. Does
not our daily experience teach us that life is wasted in dis-
orderly passions or loses its balance in infirmities and sickness,
when overfeeding produces bad humours, and when a slack
régime produces enervation, and when work’no longer absorbs
our vital energies ? Man is always punished by that wherein
he sins ; slackness and cowardice are the origin of the greatest
of bodily banes, whilst wise strictness is the guarantee of
solid vigour and of real well-being.

16. The liberating agent.—Being a remedy for the restora-
tion or the conservation of vigour, mortification is also a
liberating agent. It is this which, in restoring or maintaining
soberness of taste, diminishes our needs, and, along with
our needs, our dependence. If I know how to use it to the
purpose, I succeed in not yielding to any factitious need, in
not creating any fresh ones, and in diminishing as much as
possible those to which I am subject. Like St. Paul, “I
have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content therewith.
I know both how to be brought low, and I know how to
abound (everywhere, and in all things I am instructed) :
both to be full, and to be hungry ; both to abound, and to
suffer need ’’ (Phil. iv. 11, 12). Therefore, if I am to be
better guided in the serious and prudent use of mortifications,
I must aim at not being a slave of what I take, or of what I
leave, at not being dejected either through pleasure or pain,
at knowing how to make use of enjoyment and at how to do
without it, at being free in fine, as free as possible, in the use
of all things.

17. No degrading cruelty Whenever the wheels of my
spiritual mechanism require some of the oil of gladness to
improve their going, it must be given them. What a deep
meaning is contained in the essentially Christian words,
recreation, refection, repose! . . . to re-create, re-make,
re-place (1.e., put back in its place)! . . . and this, indeed,
is just the purpose of what ought to be done in the way of
relaxation, food, sleep, etc.... Life needs to be made good,

because its organs get worn out in the exercise of their

266 : THE INTERIOR LIFE

activities. Entertainment as well as sleep, food as well as
medicine, henceforward assume the gravity, the dignity,
and the value of being constructive elements in my life.
How beautiful everything becomes when one is able to conform
with the mind of God! What seems to be in itself, and what
is in fact, for the most part, mere waste of time, becomes to
those who are in earnest one of life’s gains. Just where fools
come to grief, the wise grow strong. What a good thing
it is to know the ways of life !1

18. Necessary cruelty.—Hatred of self must save one’s life,
this is our Saviour’s mind. Therefore I shall never commit
any unhappy act of imprudence or hurtful indiscretion. If,
however, my eye, my hand, or my foot, scandalize me, 1.e.,
if they become a hindrance to my life, I shall know how to
cut them out, according to the precept of our divine Lord,
and cast them from me (Matt. v. 29, 30). One member is
sacrificed to save the rest, the life of the body is sacrificed
to save the life of the soul, just as the cargo is thrown over-
board to save the ship. It is an act of cruelty, but it is a
wise act: it is an act of cruelty, but to fear and to neglect
such necessary sacrifices would be much more terrible cruelty.
Every kind of cruelty is lawful, and it is praised by the
Saviour, when it is preservative of life.

19. The remedy.—In fine, mortification is a remedy, and
in this respect, like all remedies, it must be given in doses,
and measured according to the state of the evil to be cured,
and according to the capacity of the soul and body to which
it is to be applied. Not every mortification suits everybody
any more than every remedy is suited to every disease. There
must be discretion in the use of it. For instance, it is a
mistake, when I am reading the lives of the saints, to think
that I can or ought to imitate all their penances. Certainly,
if God granted me to follow them in the royal way of the
Cross, it would be a remarkable grace. But unfortunately,
I am hardly able to endure the energetic remedies which did
so much good to these great souls.

And since my capacity is insufficient, what do I want ?—
I must accustom myself by degrees to endure bitterness, and

1 Notas mihi fecisti vias vite (Ps. xv. 11).

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 267

set to work to overcome my shrinking from suffering, and try
to keep a little joy amidst the little troubles that are luid
upon me, so that I may at last acquire generosity to make
the sacrifices demanded of me, especially such as are demanded
by the requirements of duty and providential occurrences.
Thus it is, in most cases, that the spirit of penance grows and
that vigour is regained. And by degrees, the senses, especi-
ally when they feel that they have recovered their liberty,
shudder less in fear and pain ; they get hardened and strength-
ened, and inured to the fray. The Spirit of God is then able
to govern the carnal instincts. And, in my own very limited
way, I may succeed: in following the example of the saints
from afar.

20. The will to be healed.—Further, there is nothing like
having the will to be healed in order to enable one to take
the remedies required. He who is more anxious to avoid
suffering than to obtain health will never care for any remedies
except such as are insignificant and soothing. If the one
thing which I will with energy is deliverance, I shall not be
too much repelled by the draught which is indispensable.
Here again, the point of capital importance is sincerity. I
must get to know whether I mean to be entertained, or whether
I mean to live, whether I mean to enjoy myself, or whether
I mean to work for God, whether my rule is that of pleasure
or that of duty. Ah, if one possesses the true meaning of
life, how much stronger one is to withdraw from petty
pleasures and to face beneficent pain and privation! Also,
how much better one understands how to avoid imprudent
excesses! O my God, grant me the grace to walk in the royal
way of the Cross, and to go in the pathway of trial. How
do I desire not to love my soul so as to lose it, but to hate it
so as to save it !

268 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER IV

Special Rules for Mortification

21. Three kinds of mortification.—22. The mortifications of duty.—<
23. Penances occasioned by duty.—24. Providential penances.— ~
25. The acceptance of death. — 26. Voluntary penances.—
27. Penance for others. |

21. Three kinds of mortification.—But it is a good thing to
try to find a few more practical rules. What are the mortifica-
tions which are especially to be practised ?—There are three
kinds, and all three are divine ; and they are the only ones
which are free from danger. There are, first of all, those
which are imposed by duty ; next, there are those demanded
by providential events, and lastly, there are those which are
inspired by the Spirit of God.

22. The mortifications of duty.—In duty, there are two
kinds of penances, those which it imposes directly, and those
which it gives rise to as an occasion.

As to those which it imposes directly : how many pleasures
am I obliged to abstain from, because they are forbidden !
First of all, God’s law prohibits all that is corrupting or
enervating, all that is harmful to myself or to others. What-
ever may be my fancies about it, I shall never have any right
to take a pleasure in any shape, the nature of which is calcu-
lated to be prejudicial to my life or to my neighbour’s interests.
I must abstain and put myself to inconvenience.

Next, the law of the Church imposes upon me certain
days on which I am obliged to abstain and fast; here is
another obligatory mortification. No doubt, this law admits
of dispensations ; but it does not definitely admit of any
dispensation except according to the necessities of my life;
for lam only exempt from the fast or abstinence to the extent
in which their observance would become prejudicial to my
health or professional duty.

‘Lastly, the Rule imposes on the religious his vow of
chastity with all its consequences: the cloister, sobriety,
the austerities of vigils, fasts, the discipline, food, clothing,
sleep, etc.

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 269

All these pains and privations bind as gravely as duty
itself, and it is never allowable to take or leave them at
will.

23. Penances occasioned by duty.—The serious performance
of the duties of one’s state rarely takes place without some
amount of compulsion and weariness. One has often to
tax one’s convenience or one’s sleep, often to go counter to
one’s tastes and to abandon one’s quiet, and sometimes to
risk one’s health or one’s life. Such are the severities of duty,
and they have to be taken just as they come, not giving the
conscience any right to violate duty by trying unduly to
mitigate or to exaggerate them.

This spring of the mortifications of duty, whether they
be great or small, flows abundantly and continuously enough
to provide a first and plentiful satisfaction for the thirst
for sacrifice felt by generous souls. Therefore, love duty
with its train of obligatory troubles, such is the first section
of the practices of mortification.

24. Providential penances.— This first section is often
enough seasoned with the trials which come from events.
Inclement extremes of weather, accidents, sickness, con-
trarieties, etc., often scatter their bitterness throughout
life! ... It is the hand of God that directs these events
and distributes these trials, according to the designs of His
justice and mercy combined. I have already seen! how I
should be able to say ‘‘ I thank Thee ”’ in these occurrences.

Not that the spirit of penance consists in undergoing
adversity, like an animal sinking under the blow that kills
it in the slaughter-house, certainly not. The spirit of penance
consists especially in the courageous joy of suffering some-
thing for God, in virility in keeping faithful to duty during
such a time, in the energy with which it is often necessary to
strive against a sickness, or to circumvent a difficulty, or to
surmount an obstacle, and in the effort made to pass through
a trial and to improve under it. That is true penance, which
neither murmurs nor is impatient, which knows both how to
submit to disagreeables and how to support them, which is
able to discard what is hurtful and to keep what is advan-

1 See Part II, Book II, § 37.

270 THE INTERIOR LIFE

tageous, and finally, which can find a daily renewal of the
inward man, even in those dispositions of inexorable justice
whereby our outward man is gradually led to dissolution : for
that which is at present momentary and light in our tribu-
lation worketh for us above measure an exceeding weight
of glory.

25. The acceptance of death.—Of all the trials of Provi-
dence, the most dreadful is the final one, that of death.
This passing of my being through dissolution is so repugnant
to my natural desire to live! Although the Faith teaches
me that it is only a passing, and that by the merits of the
death and resurrection of the Saviour I shall come with
Him to the final triumph of an immortal life in my glorified
body and soul, nevertheless death keeps its awfulness ; it
remains a penalty, and the great penalty of sin. And
since this penalty must be undergone, is it not a good and
necessary thing to accept it? If I can rise to the level
of a calm, confident, and blind acceptance, fully embracing
all God’s decrees with regard to myself, I practise one of the
most wholesome and meritorious of penances. What a good
thing it is to familiarize oneself with the idea of death! If
I could only succeed in attaining the joy which made the
saints desire to pay this last due to justice, so that they
might be thereupon united with God !

26. Voluntary penances.—Lastly, for generous souls there
is the third kind of entirely voluntary mortifications. Happy
in having to bear the burden of duty, still happier in saying
their “Thank Thee” under providential sufferings, such
souls become daily more ready for little acts of self-denial.
Their attitude in praying grows more humble, their use of
food more temperate and austere, their dress more severely
simple, and they make use of secret means of corporal mortifi-
cation, etc. Hunger and thirst for immolation make them
try to find what may best help them to offer their bodies to
God as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing unto God, while
keeping within the reasonable limits of a service which is

1 Sed licet is qui foris est noster homo corrumpatur, tamen is qui
intus est renovatur de die in diem. Id enim quod in presenti est
momentaneum et leve tribulationis nostræ, supra modum in sublimitate
æternum gloriæ pondus operatur in nobis (2 Cor. iv. 16, 17).

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 271

essentially spiritual. And in truth, how ingenious, how
varied, and calculated to restrain the disorderly appetites
of the senses, are the secret expedients of the saintly!

It is the Spirit of God who suggests these expedients, who
gives the desire for them, and who governs their employment.
It is He alone who _ ust be followed in this way, if deviations
are to be avoided. And in order to be sure of always following
the Spirit of God, the soul should always have its most secret
penances approved by its spiritual director. The rules of
the religious, which embody a subtle knowledge of mortifica-
tions, and are aware of how necessary it is to discern the
spirits to know if they are of God, do not allow any extra-
ordinary practice of penance unless it is approved by the
superiors.

27. Penance for others.—In proportion as it advances in
the way of suffering, and advances in it by being exercised
therein, the generous soul, itself delivered from the manifold
tyranny of the creatures of the senses, feels the need of deliver-
ing from them other souls which it pities. It knows that the
virtue of sacrifice may go out of it, and extend to others.
It knows that it benefits itself from the sufferings of the
Saviour and of the saints. And in its gratitude, it is fain
to pay back a little of what it has received, feeling that it
is a more blessed thing to give than to receive (Acts xx. 35).
It is then that it expiates, repairs, and suffers first of all for
those who are near and dear to it. Then, as its zeal extends,
it wishes to suffer for the conversion of sinners, for missions,
and for the whole Church. It is glad to mingle its sacrifice
with the sacrifice of the Saviour, and, with St. Paul, it feels
the need of filling up in its flesh what is wanting of the
sufferings of Christ for the Church and for His body. How
wonderful is this enthusiasm for sacrifice! O holy folly of the
Cross! O inestimable fountain of reparation! How many
souls, in their secret penances, are redeeming our outrages,
the lightning-conductors of justice, and the guardians of
our lives !

1 Exhibeatis corpora vestra hostiam viventem, sanctam, Deo
placentem, rationabile obsequium vestrum (Rom. xii, 1).

272 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER V
The Function of Self-denial

28. Its necessity.—29. The evil to be avoided.—30. Limits to be
observed.—31. The good to be gained.

28. Its necessity.—My heart possesses both the potency
of affection, whereby it tends to become established and to
rest in its end, and the potency of determination, whereby
it moves towards the place of its repose.

Its life is a co 1bination of movement and repose. I know
that its end, which is the place of its repose, is God, to whom
it must adhere above all and solely by charity. I know that
its life consists in harmonizing and uniting its activity with
the action which God exercises with regard to it, and that this
correspondence must become so close that there must be unity
of action between them. Such is the absolute ideal of the
way and of the end.

Its evil, as I also know, is self-love, which causes the potency
of its affection to stop short at, and adhere to the creature,
and its potency of determination not to harmonize with God’s
action, by going astray in independence of agitation or
inertia. Neither the activity of its life, nor the resting-place
of its end, is fully in God. This is its evil.

And since the fulness of its activity and of its repose must
be in God, it requires practices to withdraw it from its evil
and to restore it to its good. And what are these practices ?—
They are the practices of self-denial.

29. The evil to be avoided.—What, then, is the precise
function of the practices of self-denial ?—They have to get
rid of my heart’s evil and to promote its good. To get rid
of its evil is their first and immediate function. Therefore,
to combat, diminish and destroy adherences to creatures ;
to pursue, efface and annihilate the independent deviations :
of agitated fancy and lax carelessness; and in a word, to
stifle self-love, it is upon this that they must be brought to
bear ; upon this, and upon nothing else. They must not
be allowed to weaken, or to injure or hinder the mainsprings

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 273

of my affective faculties ; on the contrary, they have to set
them free from the mistakes which wear them out or waste
their strength. How much energy is used up in agitation,
or is benumbed by inactivity! How many mistaken affec-
tions bring degeneracy to the best instincts of the heart |
and what a happy deliverance is that which sets me free
from all these causes of weakness and impotence !

30. The limits to be observed.—And here again, discretion
is needed in our way of understanding the matter. It is
quicker work to repress an activity unfittingly than to direct
it, and we may well happen to dry up our capacity for affec-
tion under the pretext of detaching it. Certain procedures
of suspicious supervision, or of harsh restraint, through their
unfortunate results make it all too plain how easy it is to go
wrong on this question. It is by no means everything to
repress, and every kind of repression is far from being the
vital matter. There are repressions which are sustaining,
and these are good ; and there are repressions that stifle, and
these are no use at all.

In the same way, it is by no means everything to practise
detachment. To break chains that bind one is well; but to
break ties that are vital is an unfortunate mistake. The
surgeon who plunges his knife into the living flesh must have
an intimate knowledge of the various tissues ; the least slip
would quickly make him cut out some essential organ. In
such operations, life and death are so near one another!
If he cuts away rightly, he saves a life ; if he makes a mistake,
it means death.

And every case in which one has to cut into the quick, is
somewhat like this. Not all positions are equally delicate
and perilous, but precision of treatment is always required.
In the moral surgery which is called self-denial, precision of
method is of the highest importance to the progress of one’s
life. If I am suitably controlled by practices hindering any
fanciful deviations, if I am stimulated by means that stir
the slackness of my idleness, if I am fittingly detached and
uplifted by a procedure that bears my affections towards God,
my heart will gradually acquire a full development of its
energies and vitality.

18

274 THE INTERIOR LIFE

31. The good to be gained.—To develop moral energy is
the second purpose of self-denial. There is a certain vigour
and virility which is good for the heart. Strength should
infuse one’s gentleness of affection and calmness of resolution.
The man who can renounce himself and his fancies, renounce
his sensuousness and attachments, necessarily becomes a
man of firm character and vigorous in service. It is especially
by self-denial that strength is imparted. Great hearts are
steeped in self-denial ; and their temper is all the finer, the
deeper they are able to plunge into this bath. What a noble
instrument is a heart trained to charity by being tempered
with self-denial! That is the kind of heart that can love
God and its neighbour and itself! ... And am I not to
desire to raise myself to such a valorous kind of charity, the
living centre of all piety ? Therefore, I must use the practices
of self-denial, which will train my heart for such ascents.

CHAPTER VI

The Practice of Self-denial
32. Duty.—33. The Rule.—34. Personal regulations.—35. Detachment.

32. Duty.—In practice, true and prudent self-denial is
formed by faithfulness to duty. It is this that imposes or
suggests, in proper measure, the renunciations and detach-
ments which are necessary or advantageous. And, in reality,
it is within the limits of duty that I must learn how to sacrifice
my independence and my affections. It is to it that I must
yield and submit ; I must subject my person, my time, and
all that is mine to it. It demands laying aside one’s comfort,
conquering one’s caprices, likes and dislikes, and the sacrifice
of one’s preferences and repugnances. What a school of
renunciation is the holy and noble servitude of duty! I
shall be a man of duty, loved for its own sake, welcomed as
God’s will, with its restrictions and restraints, its annoyances
and troubles, its obligations and discomforts: such is the
resolution which is singularly helpful in repressing the wander-
ings of the heart,

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 275

33. The Rule.—And in order to govern the protestations
of nature, and the demands of cowardice, and the outbreaks
of humour more practically, there is nothing like having a
Rule. The religious have one, the detailed presci{ptions of
which bind, restrain, and subject the will to the generous
impulses of duty. Being guaranteed by the vow of obedience,
the Rule masters the deviations of the will which yields to
it. How sure and how full is the self-denial of the religious
who allows himself to be guided by his Rule!

The priest, too, has his rules, less strict, no doubt, than
that of the religious ; but still, how pregnant / as St. Francis
of Sales calls them, if at least, he is in earnest in conforming
to them. And what self-denial is needed to be diligent in
studying them and in following them !

The rules and regulations of professional duty, especially
in certain professions, subject laymen to extraordinary
restraints.

The man who bends his will in a Christian manner to such
requirements, with the breadth and frankness that are fitting,
will acquire self-denial which may amount to heroism. What
fine characters are formed by such a conscientious fidelity !
The student, for instance, the professor, the soldier, and many
others, are bound to a strictness which is often harassing.
Happy are those who are able to submit to such requirements
with the spontaneous energy of a generous will, instead of
being suffocated with discontent under restrictions. Spon-
taneity is so ennobling, acting under constraint is so
depressing !

34. Personal regulations.—Many souls experience a need
of completing the rules of their state of life by some altogether
personal regulations, which are therefore more immediately
adapted to their special needs. And this-is an expedient
which is much to be recommended and truly praiseworthy,
when the garment is well fitted to the figure for which it is
made. A little child cannot wear his father’s clothes, and
a workman setting out to work cannot muffle himself up like
a shivering sick man. This shows how all personal regulations
must be sober, right, and practical, and adapted to one’s
outward and inward conditions. If they are thus laid down

276 _ THE INTERIOR LIFE

and approved by one’s spiritual director, they are a powerful in-
strument for self-denial, and therefore, for spiritual detachment.
35. Detachment.—This is the way to struggle against the
sham independence of self-love. How are mistaken affections
destroyed ?—There are three kinds of ties that weigh down the
heart : man is attached to things, to persons, or to himself.
Disorderly affection for things is broken for the religious
by his vow of poverty ; and for others, by giving alms.
Affection for persons, so far as it is an encumbrance and
a burden, is corrected for the religious and the priest, by
breaking off, more or less completely, family ties, the loftiness
of their vocation calling for a more complete liberation on
their part. And for those who are intended by God to live
in a family circle, exercises of self-denial are not wanting.
There is the practice of mutual toleration ; the habit of self-
sacrifice for the sake of thinking of others, choosing for oneself
what is most troublesome or disagreeable, and leaving to others
what is easy and pleasant ; being careful not to complain or
to give others cause for complaint; patience, gladness, kind-
ness, and meeting everything with equanimity ; pity for the
wretchedness, indulgence for the sins, and forgiveness for the
offences, etc., of others: what a school of self-denial is all
this ! what a purge of one’s affections !
Lastly, for one’s attachment to one’s self, annoyances and -
_ adversities often enough try the heart, and he who endeavours
to control his temper as well as his despondency, gets frequent
and constantly renewed occasions for doing so,

CHAPTER VII

The Practice of Humility

36. Nothing through self.—37. All through God.—38. Nothing for
self.—39. All for God.

36. Nothing through self.—The practices of humility ought
to liberate the mind, just as the practices of self-denial ought
to liberate the heart, and as the practices of mortification

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 277

ought to liberate the senses. My mind is made to see God,
and I am always looking at myself. Humility comes to
correct my vision, And the first thing that humility tells
me is that I have nothing of myself. It does not say that
I have nothing at all, but that I have nothing through myself.
I do not exist of myself, and nothing that I have comes of
myself. Neither my existence, nor any of the gifts of existence
in me, is through myself. What I have of myself is nothing.

Through myself I get sin, the tendency to evil, weakness,
imperfection, and all the miseries the witness of which I bear
in myself.

And humility, which is truth, makes me see and recognize
the nothingness which I am of myself. It does not frown
at the lessons of its own nothingness, which are given to man
in so many of his experiences and in so many shapes. To
acknowledge one’s sins and mistakes, not to persist in one’s
own views, to admit one’s imperfections and shortcomings,
to accept inward and outward humiliations, to draw con-
clusions preferably against oneself and in favour of others,
etc., this is what is suggested by humility.

Pride, indeed, does not like to acknowledge its defects ;
it is vexed at its sins, it looks for reasons which are quite
unreasonable, to persuade itself that it is in the right. It
induces me to lie to myself, and to like others to lie to me or
to pay me compliments.

Humility is sincere with that inflexible sincerity which
dislikes to listen to lies, and which dislikes lying either to
oneself, or to others, or to God. It holds in horror all excuses
and subterfuges, pretexts and trumped-up reasons, and
hypocrisy and falsehood. To humility, whatever is, is;
and whatever is not, is not. It means to see things as they
are, and looks at them with a cold, clear, and impartial regard.
It has no other interest than that of truth, and its one need
is to know it and to recognize it, even when it is disagreeable.

37. All through God.—True humility neither misjudges,
nor denies, nor lessens any of God’s gifts. It too well under-
stands the responsibility for talents received. It recognizes
natural gifts and supernatural gifts, and knows whence they
_ come. And when these gifts, which are recognized by it

278 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and used owing to it, yield their fruits, it knows that these
fruits are to be attributed to the Giver of the gifts that yield
them. It sees so clearly that it has nothing which it has not
received, and it takes good care not to glory in them as if it
had not received them.

The humility which leads people to ignore or to deny
God’s gifts is a craven idleness which tends to bury the given
talent. It is a suffocating and soporific humility, which is
good for nothing except to dry up one’s faculties, to weigh
down one’s soul, to weaken one’s activity, and to lower one’s
vitality.

Very naturally, the gift which is ignored, is not made use
of: as I do not see it, I cannot feel the responsibility that
belongs to it. I have no idea of the advantages that it brings
me, nor of the obligations which it imposes on me. And
thus the holy seed is not cultivated and does not bear fruit.
I must therefore acknowledge the gift of God. If I only
knew this !2

To acknowledge God’s gift does not mean displaying. it
in public. No doubt, there are works which ought to make
our light shine before men, that our Father who is in heaven
may be glorified,3 and such as these cannot be hidden. But
there are some, like prayer, fasting, and alms-giving, for
instance, which our Master, who is sweet and humble of heart,
bids us do as much as possible in secret, and beneath God’s
eyes.4 And humility knows how to make public with all
simplicity what ought to appear, and how to do in secret
what ought to be concealed, aiming in both cases solely at
pleasing God. As its sincerity enables it to acknowledge
man’s nothingness, so does its simplicity make it acknowledge
God’s gifts.

38. Nothing for self—Humility, which turns talents
received to good use, never allows them to stop short at
selfish and interested enjoyment. Must I stop short the

1 Quid autem habes quod non accepisti ? Si autem accepisti, quid
gloriaris quasi non acceperis ? (1 Cor. iv. 7).

2 Si scires donum Dei (Joan. iv. 10).

3 Sic luceat lux vestra coram hominibus, ut videant opera vestra

bona et glorificent Patrem vestrum qui in cœlis est (Matt. v. 16).
* Matt. vi.

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 279

attention and esteem and praise of others at myself ?—No,
says humility. Ought I to stop my own attention and
knowledge at self, and to enjoy myself in self ?—No, says
humility once more; no, nothing ought to stop at myself,
at my selfish interests, at my pleasurable satisfaction. Pride
can only see its own interests everywhere; humility sees
God’s interests above all else, its neighbour’s interests before
its own, and its own interests in God’s. It only desires
reputation so far as it honours God, and as for the rest, it
prefers disgrace and losses. Any view that stops at man
seems to it shortsighted and mean, shabby and contemptible :
it does not like an attitude of soul which is given to brooding
over itself ; it needs uplifting.

39. All for God.—Humility is the great science of knowing
how to forget self, it is also the great preparation for the vision
of God. The less I regard myself, the better am I fitted to
see God. The less my eye is dimmed with the fog of self-
interest, the clearer is its view of the light of heaven. With
my sight thus enlightened, I refer myself, and, with myself,
all things else to God. I see the end, I see the way, I see
the means: and I go forward and get to the goal. The
practices of humility are thus the true means for freeing the
eye from errors and for preparing it for the vision of truth,
the highest of the conditions of piety.

CHAPTER VIII

The Greatness of Humility

40. All and nothing.—41, True greatness.— 42. The humility of the
saints.—43. Humility, holiness, unity.

40. All and nothing. —It is thus that the great virtue
upon which all is based and by which all begins, is completed.
Nothing for me, nothing according to me, nothing through
me ; all for God, all according to God, all through God. In
proportion as I go out of myself, so does God enter into and
transform me into Himself; in proportion as I strip myself

280 ~ THE INTERIOR LIFE

of self, I am clothed with Him. In proportion as He becomes
all in all to me, I become nothing in all things. Thus my
humility increases in proportion as God’s gifts increase; I
disappear to make room for God; He must increase, and I
must decrease (John’ iii. 30) ; until, humility and renunciation
being complete, nothing of self being left in me, and all being
of God and for God, I am consummated with Him in that
blessed unity! which Jesus besought of His Father in His
prayer, and which is the supreme crown of humility and the
supreme end of every human life.

41. True greatness.—How true is it, then, that humility
is my sole greatness, and pride my sole littleness! Humility
transports the whole man into God; should I not say, all
God into man? It expands my poor human heart, and
makes it capable of receiving all God’s gifts, nay, even God
Himself. It makes me a partaker of the divine nature,? as
it makes God a partaker of human nature: exinanivit se-
metipsum (Phil. ii. 7).

Pride reduces man to himself, isolates him in himself,
closes his heart against what is not himself, and disperses
the gifts which might make him greater. So true is the
Saviour’s word : “‘ Humility exalts, and pride abases.’’8

42. The humility of the saints—He who understands
nought of holiness asks himself how it is that the saint, fully
enriched with God’s gifts, and radiant with all the precious
jewels of God’s adorning, can be humble. The truth is that
he alone can be perfectly humble, and that Mary, the greatest,
the most incomparable of all creatures, was the humblest.
What, indeed, is pride, if it be not living by self and for self ?
And what is humility, if it be not living by God and for God ?
Pride claims to hold everything from self and to refer every-
thing to self; humility receives everything from God and
refers everything to God. Therefore, the more it receives,
the greater it is, since it can refer more to God. As for me,
I have but few of God’s gifts, because pride prevents my
receiving them. I think that I have too much of myself,

1 Ut sint consummati in unum (Joan. xvii. 23).
2 Divine consortes nature (2 Pet. 1. 4).

3 Quia omnis qui se exaltat humiliabitur, et qui se humiliat exalta-
bitur (Luc, xiv. 11).

5 ae

THE MEANS: THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE 281

and I know not how to ask or to receive. Next, Iam unable
to refer the little that I have to God ; I keep a large share of
it for myself, and I refer it to my own satisfaction ; and it is
in this that I most show my pride.

The characteristic of holiness is to receive everything
from God, and nothing from self; and to refer everything
to Him, without keeping anything for self. It is he who
receives the most who refers the most ; and this is why the
greatest of saints is necessarily the most humble of men.
He has nothing for himself, nothing which is his own. All
he has is from God and for God. He has received everything :
how can he glory as if he had not received it ? (1 Cor. iv. 7)
He does not deny any one of God’s gifts, nor does he misjudge
any of them ; he knows what he has received, and he knows
the greatness of the treasures within him ; but he also knows
that they are not for his selfish enjoyment, and he dreads to
turn away a single one from its end.

43. Humility, holiness, unity.—Hence, buna is con-
summated in holiness. Holiness! this is the end of its pro-
gress. At the outset, my satisfaction, my will, my means
of acting, predominate. Under the divine action which
causes me to ascend the ladder of holiness, God’s glory takes
the place of my satisfaction and transforms it; His will
replaces mine and absorbs it ; His grace displaces my means
of acting and simplifies them in- the unity of His action,
And this path of justice, as a shining light, goeth forwards,
and increaseth even to the perfect day,! the day of Jesus
Christ,2 in which I have no satisfaction but His glory, no will
but His, no activity apart from His grace. He is my God
and my all. And I live, now not I; but Christ liveth in me
(Gal. ii. 20). O humility! O holiness! ... Ounity!... How
beautiful a thing it is thus to immolate oneself to God’s
glory, to abandon oneself to God’s will, to lay oneself open
to God’s grace! . .. How beautiful is it thus to be thrice
annihilated and sacrificed to God’s glory in God’s will by
God’s grace!...

1 Justorum semita quasi lux splendens procedit et crescit usque
ad perfectam diem (Prov. iv. 18).
? Perficiet usque in diem Christi Jesu (Phil. i. 6).

BOOK II
THE EXERCISES OF PIETY

ÜNDERSTOOD in all its greatness, piety is the entire unity of
my life. The word includes in it the twofold notion of unity
and life. It is this unity and this life that I have hitherto
been meditating upon. According to what was said in the
Preface,l I have not tried in Part I to consider one after
the other the various dispositions or habits that enter into
the constitution of my spiritual being ; I have not regarded
any virtue in particular, either in substance or in practice.
Nor have I, in the second Part, studied any of the rules of
action in detail, nor any of God’s operations. No, I have not
here analyzed any of the parts, but have looked at everything
as a whole, both in its unity and in its life. And this is why,
in contemplating the end, I concentrated my attention solely
and exclusively on that one disposition which is the unity
and the life of all the other dispositions. In considering the
way, I only looked at the general ordering of the laws and
operations of God. Does this mean that, in confining my
attention to the whole, I denied the existence of the parts
that I did not try to consider? Man cannot attend to
everything at once; he can only get a clear view by fixing
his attention, and he only fixes it by definitely singling out
one thing at a time.

In the same way now, I am about to consider the exercises
of piety, not in detail, but only according to the plan which
I have followed hitherto. I shall look at them as a whole,
and in their relations to one another ; and I shall only speak
of this or that exercise according as the necessities of unity
and life may require. Unity and life in the whole body of
exercises, this is the definite subject of this second Book.

Does this mean that the consideration of the whole will
amount to a denial of methods and counsels as to details, which

1 See § 18.
283

284 THE INTERIOR LIFE

are to be found so profitably and admirably set forth in so
many excellent books of devotion ? When did an affirmation
of the whole ever involve a denial of the parts? In truth,
we may say and also repeat, that the methods and practices
authorized by Holy Church are to be venerated, and none
of them in itself can be incompatible with the unity and life
here affirmed. And the general declarations, which I now
desire to consider, are exactly what will help me to make a
fitting use of good practices, good methods, and good counsels,
and to ensure their efficacy.

Therefore nothing will be said which is not in the order
of the two general ideas of unity and life. And in this
Book II, after devoting a chapter to recalling the purpose
of these exercises, I shall look at three defects which run quite
counter to unity and life: pharisaism, which is more especi-
ally opposed to life; isolation, which particularly destroys
unity ; and inconstancy, which hinders both. And after
looking at the defects which divide and dry up, I shall consider
the means which unites and vivifies.

CHAPTER I

The Purpose of Exercises of Piety

1. Their twofold purpose.—2. Means of formation.—3. If badly used,
they are means of deformation.—4. The appetite for God.—
5. Exercises of the mind, the heart, and the senses.

1. The twofold purpose.—I have just seen, in the last Book,
the means of putting off the human ; I must now look at the
means of putting on the divine. These are the exercises of piety.

By exercises of piety, I understand all practices of worship,
which, by putting me into direct relation with God, become
to me channels of His grace and the sustenance of my soul.
Practices, whether public or private, obligatory or optional,
prayers and sacraments, etc., all these are included in the
generic term of practices of piety.

With regard to myself, their function is twofold. In the
first place, there are some the purpose of which is to prepare
my soul, to turn it towards God, and to set up in it the dis-
positions which are necessary for the entrance of grace. There
are others the characteristic function of which is to convey
grace to me, since they are its channels. It is in this twofold
sense that holy practices are the sustenance of the soul;
not that they are in themselves the light and strength which
impart life to me; like John, they are not the light, but
they are there to bear witness to the light. And they bear
it a twofold testimony, because they adapt me to the divine,
and they bring it into me. The practices which especially
convey grace will be considered in the next Book, at the same
time as the means of grace. Here I shall look at the practices
that prepare the soul and form its dispositions, and which
properly retain the name of exercises of piety.

2. Means of formation.—The one fundamental disposition
which ought to govern my life is piety, 1.e., seeing, loving,

1 Non erat ille lux, sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine

one: i. 8)
285

- 286 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and seeking God. The purpose of exercises is to form,
develop, and improve this disposition in me. This is why
they are called exercises of piety, 1.e., exercises calculated to
form piety. They are the means adapted thereto. If they
are means, they are not the end ; if they are not the end, they
are not piety ; for piety, as I have seen,! consists essentially
in the end seen, loved, and sought for. They are the instru-
ments of piety, instruments intended for its formation.

If they are means, their only value is that of being means.
Therefore, if I use them for any other end, or if I make an
_ improper use of them, they lose their value. If I do not
employ them for the end for which they were made, far from
being good for me, they are bad for me. They are only good
for me to the extent in which they help me towards attaining
my supreme end. I must not either love them or use them
for any private fancy of my own, nor systematically for their
own sake, but in view of God’s glory, of which they are to be
my instruments.

3. If badly used, they are means of deformation —When
all my piety consists of religious exercises, and I fancy that
these are piety, I take the means for the end, and stop short
on the road. Thus I feed up my own petty vanity, my need
for satisfaction, my sentimentalism, and alas! all my little
or great passions of pride and sensualism. It is myself and
my own pleasure that I am seeking in the last resort ; and if
I am seeking for God in them, it is often in view of my own
satisfaction. God becomes to me a means of satisfaction.
Order is, indeed, fully subverted, and what I practise under
the name of piety is its counterpoise. This is called false
piety, or false devotion ; and very false indeed it is, since it
is exactly the opposite.

Thus, I sustain my defects with what ought to suppress
them ; and I make that contribute to self-seeking which ought
only to help me in seeking God. Whence comes this disorder ?
—From forgetfulness of the end. I forget that the exercises
of piety are only means, and I no longer use them as instru-
ments which are useful towards my end ; and thenceforward,
they become food for my pride, a most deplorable matter ; for

1 See Part I, Book II, ch. ii.

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 287

there is no worse pride than that which is fed on spiritual
food. Hence, it is of the utmost importance to me not to
look for more in my exercises of piety than is in them in
reality, and not to employ them for anything else than for
what they are adapted, that is to say, the expansion of my
life for the glory of God. They ought to form within me
the one and fundamental disposition which has been so much
dwelt upon hitherto, they ought to sustain, to develop, and
to improve it. That is their sole purpose.

4. The appetite for God.—Therefore my attention and care
should be brought to bear in the first place on this interior
disposition ; it is like the appetite which the sustenance of the
exercises ought both to sate and to excite. It is this appetite, ©
this want of God, this desire for divine sustenance, which
must be kept watch over above all; for the true mark of
spiritual health is to feel within one a supernatural appetite
for God, in the same way as a hearty appetite is the surest
sign of bodily health.

If I feel this divine appetite within me, if it is this that
I sate in taking the nourishment of the exercises, if I feel
that it is increased and strengthened by this food, God be
praised ! my soul’s health is capital, I have only to go on;
and my appetite, constantly sated and stimulated by the
exercises, will continue to increase until the day when it will
only be satisfied to the full by the manifestation of the glory
of God.! But if it gets weaker, it is a bad sign; it must be
aroused and stimulated, and whetted at all costs. If it is
absent altogether, I am dead or at the point of death, and
the nourishment of the exercises will do me no more good than
it would to a dying man or a corpse: unless, indeed, I am
animated with a desire to recover the supernatural life, and
use them with sincerity for the work of my spiritual resur-
rection ; for thus used, they even have power to raise the dead.
“Tam the resurrection and the life,” saith the Lord, ‘ he that
believeth in Me although he be dead, shall live: and every
one that liveth and believeth in Me, shall not die for ever ”
(John xi. 25, 26). Exercises of piety participate in this power
of resurrection and life which is communicated to them by

+ Satiabor cum apparuerit gloria tua (Ps. xvi. 15).

a THE INTERIOR LIFE

our Saviour. When they are made good use of, they can
restore life to the dead, and preserve the living unto life
eternal.

5. Exercises of the mind, the heart, and the senses.—Since
piety is the work of the mind, the heart, and the senses,
there must be exercises adapted to these three kinds of
faculties, and calculated to train them and to lead them
to God. The mind has its own, which train it to see God ;
such, for instance, as sermons, reading, meditation, examina-
tion of conscience, etc. The heart has its own, to train it
in the love of God ; such as exhortations, prayer, and works
of zeal of all kinds. The senses, too, have theirs, to train
them in the service of God ; such as the ceremonies of worship,
devotions, chants, etc.

In the Christian arsenal there is an infinite variety of
weapons and ammunition for the spiritual warfare. I need
not fear any lack of them. The essential thing is to know
how to use them.

CHAPTER II

Pharisaic Regularity

6. Outward regularity.—7. The flowers of the Church’s garden.—
8. My bouquet.—g. Obligatory practices.—10. Practices which
are of counsel.—11. Optional practices.

6. Outward regularity.—When I have a clear idea of what
practices of piety are, I set myself free from three too common
and fatal defects: pharisaic regularity, isolation, and in-
constancy.

When I regard these exercises of piety as constituting the
whole of piety, I put the climax of perfection in a mechanical
regularity of external practices. I imprison myself in a
narrow formalism. Regularity in one’s exercises is a great
and beautiful and holy thing, but when it becomes the real
end of piety, it is nothing but a narrow prison, in which the
soul merely vegetates without air, without expansion, and
without life. It becomes Pharisaism, which strains out the

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 289

gnat, and swallows the camel.1 People make scruples about
little omissions of little observances, and a very secondary
sort of attention is given to their inner being: they become
unaware of and lose life itself.

All the outward and mechanical part of devotional exercises
is a useful accessory, like the ordering of a good meal. The
order of a meal may vary without doing any injury to one’s
health, if one’s appetite is good; and in the same way,
methods, hours, forms of prayer, and outward practices
may vary without doing any harm to the inner life, if one is
really hungry for God.

7. The flowers of the Church’s garden.—If I employ ex-
ercises for their real purpose, I set myself free from useless
practices first of all. Instead of overloading myself with
tiresome details, I only take up those which are really useful
for my advancement. In the Church, the enclosed garden
of the heavenly Bridegroom, there is an almost infinite variety
of flowers, in other words, of pious practices, which corre-
spond with the thousands of various wants of souls. All
these flowers, when they really belong to the Bridegroom’s
garden, in other words, when the practices are approved
by the Church, are very beautiful and very good. The out-
come of the Spirit of God, or fruits of the soul of the Church,
or perfumed blossoms of the saints, they diffuse a sweet savour
of Jesus Christ and impart to souls an odour of holiness.
Oh, how good it is to gather them !

8. My bouquet.—But all are not suited to all. Why is
the variety so rich, if it be not to satisfy the infinitely varied
needs of souls? Amidst this multitude of flowers, each
individual may choose according to his necessities and tastes ;
he is always sure to find the full satisfaction of his desires.
He must make a selection: for to wish to take everything
means to be overwhelmed, and it would be impossible; to
wish to reject everything would be robbing piety of its flowers.
A bouquet must be made, and everyone must make his own.
Thechoice of flowers and the blending of them together depend
on the state of the soul. For this or that exercise may be
good for one and not for another ; and one particular assort-

1 Excolantes culicem, camelum autem glutientes (Matt. xxiii. 24).
19

290 . THE INTERIOR LIFE

ment, though well-adapted to one person’s state, might be
ridiculous for another in a different state. |

But how is this bouquet to be made? What flowers am
I to choose ?—In order to succeed, I should fasten my eyes
upon the supreme end and not allow it to drop out of my
sight, since each flower has no other use except for this end ;
secondly, let me try to find out my soul’s needs, its weak-
nesses, its aptitudes, and its actual condition, so that I
may make the selection and arrangement required ; thirdly,
let me consult my director: for, without him, I shall pretty
often make rather a poor bouquet. If I observe these three
conditions, I am quite sure to make a good selection of
exercises, and a good arrangement of my life; my bouquet
of spiritual flowers will be good for me, it will draw me, and
I shall run after the odour of its perfumes.1

9. Obligatory practices.—But all the flowers in my bouquet
will not be of the same importance : some are brighter and
sweeter than others. In the exercises, some are more impor-
tant than others. Further, such as are obligatory, the sacra-
ments, Mass, and prayer at fixed times for the faithful, Mass
and Office for the priest, the essential points of his Rule for the
religious, come before everything else. These must go with
absolute regularity and invariable love. I must cling to
these with all the powers of my soul. They are binding on
me; they are therefore the necessary nourishment of my
piety ; without it, I should collapse through inanition and
could make no progress on the road I have to traverse.
I allow nothing to pass in my estimation before these
exercises, they hold an essential place in the ordering of
my day. If I am a priest, Mass and Office will have
my best and first care, and it is in these that I shall try
to find the substance of my nourishment. For mental
prayer, too, from them I shall draw the rich material which
the Church has prepared in them for her priests; for the
prayer of the priest will hardly possess its sacerdotal essence
and value, unless it extracts them above all from Mass and
Office.

‘ Trahe me : post te curremus in odorem unguentorum tuorum
(Cant. i. 3).

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 201

10. Practices which are of counsel.—As to those which are
of counsel, such as the ordinary points of his Rule for the re-
ligious, meditation, spiritual reading, fundamental devotions,
etc., I endeavour to be as regular in them as the weaknesses
of my nature permit. After exercises of obligation, I am
more anxious as to practices which are of counsel than any-
thing else; and I take care not to entertain myself with
practices of my own choosing at the expense of the former.
I know that practices of counsel, too, are very fruitful for
the nourishment of my soul.

11. Optional practices.—In our spiritual meals, exercises
of obligation are the chief dishes, practices of counsel are
the accompanying side-dishes. Then, lastly come the
hors-d euvre ; that is to say, the entirely optional practices.
A few may be useful, but they must be few and in good
taste. A solid meal must not be submerged in such trifles.

He who feeds on little side-dishes shows that his health is ~

impaired. Therefore, I shall only make use of optional
practices so far as they may be good for maintaining and
encouraging my regularity in the more important practices.

Further, in what is optional, I shall keep enough liberty
not to bind myself irrevocably to anything. For since the
needs of the soul vary according to its ascent towards virtue,
practices which are good at one time may be harmful later
on ; and practices which are not suitable at the outset become
necessary afterwards.

CHAPTER III

Isolation
General Effects
12. Definition.—13. The drawers.—14. Distaste.—15. Sterility,

12. Its Definition.—The second defect, which is specially
damaging to unity, is isolation. Thus I call the habit of
dividing one’s day into disconnected and separate parts,
each one cut off and assigned to one distinct operation,

293 THE INTERIOR LIFE

so that there is no correspondence between them, no influence
of one upon the others, and no vital bond linking them together.
Here there is no question of the very holy, profitable, and
necessary habit of making a harmonious and living scheme,
in which the place and time of each occupation is fixed accord-
ing to the demands of duty and occurrences. Regularity
is a great and indispensable quality : he who would live for
God must live according to rule. I have given enough
attention to the necessity which binds everyone to conform
to the rules of his state of life It is a necessity which was
once more recalled in the last chapter.

No vocabulary, I think, will be found to give as synonymous
the two words: regularity and isolation. One might as well
say that health and sickness are synonymous terms. Isola-
tion, in fact, is the sickness and death of regularity. To
isolate, to canton, to partition off, means to stop life’s circula-
tion, to set up a fatal separation which acts like a ligature
or the amputation of a limb. Regularity must be liberated
from isolation, if it is to be free and fruitful.

13. The drawers.—A sad sickness, indeed, is this isolation,
a real anatomical dissection! This materialistic perversion
of regularity, this mechanical regulation, makes life a sort
of chest of drawers. At a set time I open one drawer ; this
is meditation: half an hour goes by; I shut the drawer,
and it is done with for the day. I open another drawer ;
this is the Office: three quarters of an hour pass away, and
I shut it up. Thus it is with the other exercises and occupa-
tions: each one has its drawer. In this way the exercises
of piety are cantonned off, each into a corner of the day ;
they are separated from the flow of life, and they have only
a momentary influence on the soul, if they have any atall!...
My life as a whole is disconnected, and without unity.

The thought of God is shut away in a few drawers of
exercises, and it only comes out at fixed intervals, And
even if it does appear, it is by no means as a habit of soul,
it is as a transitory act. It is a fleeting memory or a flash of
the imagination, and not a principle of life. It does not
permeate my being, it does not inspire my thoughts, it does

1 See Part II, Book I, ch. v.

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 293

not form my love, it does not govern my actions. It ought
to be the life of my life, and it is only an accident. It ought
to unify my soul and actions, my affections and ideas, and
my whole life, making it a compact and coherent whole.
But I live too much apart from it ; and in this way, my life
and my exercises become a rather disordered succession of
details, which are often in conflict with one another.

14. Distaste.—Owing to this, the exercises get badly per-
formed. Since they do not guide my life, and are not the soul
of it, they become a burden to me. They are too much out
of keeping with my occupations and anxieties as a whole ;
and my soul, being obliged to do itself violence to stay the
current of its habitual dispositions and to raise itself to the
feelings demanded by these exercises, is eager to put all this
restraint on one side and to have done with them. They
are a burden which I shoulder with difficulty, and which I
abandon with pleasure, and from which I break away as much
as possible. It is thus that I succumb to precipitation and
distaste, which is quite the natural result of this lamentable
fashion of isolating exercises of piety. If, however, I do not
always go as far as this, my exercises nevertheless have no
expansiveness, I only give them just as much time as is
necessary, I do them approximately, and make no progress.

15. Sterility—By isolating my exercises, I sterilize and
annihilate them. ‘True and living religion,” says Soloviev,
‘is no special matter, no separate sphere, no corner by itself
in a man’s existence. Being a direct revelation of the
absolute, religion cannot be merely a thing by itself ; it is all,
or nothing.”’! What Soloviev says of religion, I say of exercises
of piety, which are the application of it in practice. If they
are not all in my life, if they donot permeate it through and
through, they are nothing.

And I am sadly sensible of the truth of all this. Why
do my exercises drag out a kind of dying existence ?—Because,
not being everything in my life, being only a corner apart,
they are no longer anything, they are only at the last gasp,
ever ready to yield it up, and it is a most difficult thing to
keep any breath of life in them. Everything kills them,

1 Soloviev. La Russie et VEglise Universelle, Part 111, ch. xi,

294 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and they kill one another ; because, being disconnected and
detached, they come into conflict with everything and with
one another. All these conflicts are fatal. Later on, I shall
see how they are to be avoided, and how exercises may become
living by becoming everything in my life.

CHAPTER IV

Isolation
Particular Effects

16. Meditation partitioned off.—17. The mental prayer of the ancients.
—18. Living meditation.—19. Distractions.—20. Unity of work
and prayer.—21. The Psalms.

16. Meditation partitioned off.—The encroachment of isolat-
_ ing formalism is nowhere more fatal than in mental prayer.
The saints so splendidly extol this kind of prayer! and they
counsel it so urgently! And, in order to train oneself in it,
the masters of the spiritual life recommend the soul to be
diligent in giving at least half an hour daily to meditation.
It is a salutary counsel, the fruits of which are incomparable
in those who know how to practise it in a living manner.
But then comes in this paralyzing defect: isolation partitions
off meditation into a formal half hour ; the exercise is fulfilled
to enable oneself to assure oneself that one has done it ; it gets
the regular time assigned to it more or less in full, and that
is all. The meditation is considered to be done and done
with, as soon as it has lasted about the stated time ; but it
has little or no practical connexion with the day as a whole.
People fancy that this little exercise, which is too external
and very inferior in character, is about all there is in mental
prayer, and they scarcely know what is meant by a life of
prayer. |

It is by partitioning off meditation in this way that con-
templation has been killed. There are to-day scarcely any true
contemplatives, except a few sincere and upright souls, who,

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 295

without ever having learnt to meditate formally, have sought
God in the simplicity of their hearts. They have kept
themselves with humble fidelity under the guidance of the
Holy Ghost ; and the inner and living action of the Spirit
of life has led them to converse with God without effort, and
by a kind of natural flow of their being.

17. The mental prayer of the ancients.—Formerly, as the
Rules of the old Orders testify,1 people were less formal and
exclusive ; they were more anxious about the unity of exercises
and the circulation of life. First of all, they recited the
canonical Office at the different hours of the day ; this was the
acme of devotion, even for devout laymen. As a private
devotion, they recited the Psalms, and no doubt with more
relish and intelligence than it is done to-day. They took part
in the liturgical functions, and they did so effectually ; the
ceremonies were far from being a dead letter, as they are to-day
in the case of a very large number of souls. And in this
frequently repeated recitation during the course of the day,
and in this participation in the holy functions, the soul
entered into communion with God, and lived in communion
with Him, and it drew thence the wherewithal to nourish
mental prayer during hours of leisure as well as during the
hours of professional duty.

The most living and substantial regularity of this liturgical
sustenance set up a great unifying tendency. Ideas, feelings,
and actions were fed on the same substance, and were trans-
formed and uplifted. And thus it was that the soul went to
God. What, indeed, are the outward prescriptions of worship,
but the regular channel of prayer? When the soul is firmly
set in this liturgical current, and when, on the one hand, it
draws from its original spring divine instruction and feeling,
and when; on the other hand, it remains subject to the influence
of the Spirit which teaches it to pray, how can it help going
to God? Asa matter of fact, souls which were faithful to
such guidance went to Him. Their inward dispositions,
arising from this divine intercourse, became habitual, prac-
tically dominant, and effectively governed their lives ; the soul
lived on them, life was gradually transformed into a per-

4 See Thomassin, De VO fice Divin, ch. iv, 52,

296 THE INTERIOR LIFE

manent meditative state, and finally attained to contempla-
tion.

18. Living meditation.—If to-day the half-hour of mental
prayer, which is customary for any soul which is at all anxious
for progress, were less isolated in formalism; if instead of
being a separate item like the rest, and set in juxtaposition
with them in the course of the day, it aimed more at being
the summing up and the core of the day ; if the vitality of
the other exercises and actions of the day were to gather life
from it ; if, instead of making it spring too exclusively from
what is too often merely a conventional method, and from
books which are too shallow and too much composed of odds
and ends, it were to arise from the soul and from daily life ;
if it made use of Office and Mass and prayers, and of the
incidents and occupations of life, and referred all that it took
from them to God; if it were less confined to its half-hour
and tended more to spread over all the rest of the day, creating
in my heart the need of refreshing myself from time to time
in converse with God, then it would be both more powerful
and more easy. It would cost far less and produce much
more. Isolation kills everything, but nothing so much as
mental prayer.

19. Distractions.— Lastly, it is isolation that keeps up
distractions. My habit of thinking of hardly anything but
myself in my occupations, of acting by myself without giving
God a place in my life, or rather, without putting Him before
everything else, for that is His place, this habit leads to the
altogether false notion that in prayer I must think of God
only. Thus I divide myself into two distinct parts: one, in
which I would live in heaven altogether for God ; the other,
in which I claim to live on earth altogether for myself. And
I flatter myself, or try to do so, that I can make my soul pass
from the one to the other in such a way that, when I am on
one side, I can lose sight of the other. I admit that, when
I am occupied about my own affairs, I too easily lose all
thought of God; and this is because my own occupations
take up so much room in my life.

But when I am praying! ... Am I ever really praying,
O God? ... Distractions swarm... and attack and over-

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 207

whelm me.... My mind falls into them incessantly,1 and
my best endeavours fail to make me lose myself in God. This
is because to do so is indeed something contrary to nature.
The soul does not change its habits like the body changes its
dress. If we only had to take off our working clothes to put
on our Sunday suits, prayer would be an easy matter. But
most happily, it is not thus with the soul. Habits are per-
manent, and the soul wears them everywhere. If I am
accustomed to think of myself and not to think of God, to
think of my work and of all the affairs of my life apart from
God, I shall keep this habit in my prayers; and the one
way of not retaining it, is to change it.

20. Unity of work and prayer.—But how is it to be changed ?
—By unifying my life, and getting rid of the stupid division
into sections which breaks down and spoils everything.
Certainly, I require a scheme of life, just as a tree needs its
bark, just as a soul needs a body. But, if the tree must
have its bark and the soul its body, the bark too must have
its sap, and the body its soul. So the scheme must have its
spirit. What is this spirit, all-pervading and animating every
part of the body ?—I have only to recall the great funda-
mental principle: everything in my life must be directed to the
glory of God. I must accustom myself to see and consult God
in my work as well as in my devotional exercises ; to treat
of my business with Him by transacting it as if I was
praying ; to live with Him in my work as well as in my prayer.

True religion means my union with God; I must live with
Him, through Him, in Him. My work must be no more human
than my prayer, nor my prayer more divine than my work.
I must work with God as well as converse with Him ; expect
Him to direct my work as well as to inspire my prayer ; look
at Him while I am working, and pray to Him about my work.

21. The Psalms.—When 1 think over the Psalms, which
the Church puts daily in the mouth of her priests as the
most perfect form of converse with God, this is what strikes
me. Turn by turn, with scarcely any transition and with a

1 It is not only when praying that I begin to be distracted : I am so,
whenever I act by myself and for myself and apart from God. When
I am praying and try to get back to God, Lobserve that I have long been
subject to distractions.

2098 THE INTERIOR LIFE

wonderful blending, David busies himself with the glory of
God and his own personal interests. He sings the praises
of God, and utters the cries of his own wretchedness ; and
all this is blended and broken up together, and is bound up
into and makes one single prayer. The soul springs from
earth to heaven, and returns from heaven to earth, and all
the time it is in converse with God. In the midst of the
most beautiful outbursts of love and praise, the prophet
intersperses the tale of his miseries and anguish and dangers ;
and he does not consider that the one, any more than the
other, is unworthy of God’s hearing. Such is the prayer
of the prophet ; and one feels that his conduct must have
been in harmony therewith. Thus God and he are only one,
and man’s interests were mingled with God’s; and his. life
possessed oneness.

Why does the Church bid me recite the Psalms daily,
unless it be to say to me: There is your model; thus unite
your life and your prayer. Oh, if I only knew how to do
it! ... If I only knew how to be with God in my work as
well as my prayer!... If I only knew how to treat of every-
thing with Him, to entrust everything to Him, to give Him
the direction of everything ; I should then see all things in
the light of God, and things thus seen would not give rise to
distractions, since they would not turn me away from God.
Thus my actions and my prayers would make up one and the
same tendency, one and the same supernatural life ; this were
piety, yes, true piety. Fiat! Fiat!...

CHAPTER V
Inconstancy

22. The inconstancy of my fancies.—23. And of my too external

procedure.—24. And ef my weakness.—25. The remedy : sincerity
and confidence.

22. The inconstancy of my fancies.—The third defect is
inconstancy. If I seek my own satisfaction in my exercises,
it is very usual for them to vary with the variations of my

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 299

fancy. One day I am regular, because it will please me;
to-morrow I am careless, because it is irksome to me. If I
experience consolation, I am full of enthusiasm: if I experi-
ence dryness, I let everything go. This is being like a weather-
cock in the wind. The division of my mind between pleasure
and duty makes me inconstant in all my ways.!

Or else I flutter from one exercise to another, just brushing
them one after the other, and without settling on any of them.
To follow St. Francis of Sales’s comparison, I shall be like the
wasps which, perpetually worrying and uselessly hurrying,
fly in all directions rummaging, sipping, and pilfering, at last
finding that they have neither any retreat, nor provisions,
nor way to live.2 If, on the contrary, I try to get from the
flowers of my exercises the true honey of real devotion, “I
am like the bees, which only leave their hives to gather honey,
and only combine to make it, and which are eager for nothing
else, their eagerness being regulated, and which in their
houses and monasteries perform only their sweet-smelling
house-keeping of storing up honey and wax. The only
object of their sight and smell and taste is the beauty and
sweetness and fragrance of the flowers ordered on purpose
for them, and, in addition to the nobility of their occupation,
they have a very lovely retreat, most agreeable provisions,
and an exceedingly happy life amidst the stores of their past
labours.’’8

Oh, if I only knew how to settle on the flowers ordered on
purpose for me, and tried to find in them nought but the
wherewithal to store up sweetly-perfumed supplies of the honey
of the divine glory and of the wax of my own sanctifica-
tion, I also should have a very lovely retreat in my own soul,
and most agreeable provisions, and a very happy life ! . ..

23. And of my too external procedure.—When I act in my
spiritual exercises after the manner of wasps, without looking
for the honey of the divine glory, a very little is often enough
to stop my work. In fact, as I only hold to such exercises
externally, any interruption or irregularity will break the

1 Vir duplex animo inconstans est in omnibus viis suis (Jac. i. 8).
2 St. Francis of Sales, Lettres, Book V1, Letter 26 (Leonard).
3 St. Francis of Sales, ibid. |

300 THE INTERIOR LIFE

chain, and then I have nothing left. Thus I am quickly
discouraged, I am easily upset, and my spiritual life is often
thrown into disorder. If, on the contrary, I aim above all
at the inner life, this, since it is a habit, does not disappear
along with a single act or several acts ; in spite of certain out-
ward yieldings or infidelities, I feel that I am still holding on
to the chain, nothing essential is broken off, and I am not
discouraged. I have greater steadiness. My infidelities
may retard my progress, but they do not cast me out of
the way.

24. And of my weakness.—Here then are two causes of
inconstancy : the fancies of my own satisfaction and the
deceptions of my too external procedure. There is a third,
my own weakness : the weakness of my habits, and the weak-
ness of my nature. I have unfortunately allowed my faculties
to be deformed by perverse habits ; and I have lost my strength
in such deviations ; bad tendencies weigh me down with a
crushing tyranny, which never seems so heavy as when I
desire to break away from it.

On the other hand, my nature is weak in itself; and the
devastation of original sin has so lessened my powers and
weakened their energies, and has left in me such a host of the
germs of disorganization and of death! Is there any need to
add that the fascinations that tempt me are numerous and
urgent ?

For all these reasons, I am weak; and because I am weak
I am inconstant. ‘“ For I know that there dwelleth not in
me, that is to say, in my flesh, that which is good. For to
will is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good,
I find not. For the good which I will, I do not ; but the evil
which I will not, that I do. Now if I do that which I will not,
it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I
find then a law, that when I have a will to do good, evil is
present with me. For I am delighted with the law of God,
according to the inward man: but I see another law in my
members, fighting against the law of my mind, and captivating
me in the law of sin, that is in my members. Unhappy man
that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?—
The grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. vii. 18-25).

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 301

25. The remedy: sincerity and confidence.—This weak-
ness arising from my wretchedness makes itself felt and brings
forth inconstancy in all the ordering of my life, and especially
in the use of remedies, such as exercises of piety. How is it
to be got over? By faithfulness in my exercises? But
this presupposes as done what remains for me to do. If I
can be faithful to my exercises, I can also be faithful to my
other duties. If there is no longer any inconstancy in my
exercises, that shows that it is cured.

St. Paul points to a single remedy: the grace of God by
Jesus Christ—What is meant by the grace of God ?—It
means that I must look for strength to God alone ; and look
for it with sincerity and patience. First of all, with sincerity ;
with that full sincerity of faith which reckons upon God
without wavering.! And next, with patience; for the weak-
ness of the child does not give way in a day to manly maturity,
nor do the infirmities of the soul vanish in a single flash of
sincerity. All really vital work is carried out slowly and
gradually. I may be deeply sincere with regard to God, and
yet drag myself along heavily and wearily, and be tossed to
and fro amidst humiliating vicissitudes. Weakness does not
in any way deprive one of sincerity ; I much need to remember
this, so as not to get discouraged. Therefore, however great
my weakness and inconstancy may be, I only need sincerity
to lay myself open to the ways of grace ; and grace will enter
in, and strengthen my weakness and correct my inconstancy.
No weakness and no inconstancy should be able to damp
sincerity. Ah, if only I were humble enough to keep
myself in the sincerity of true contrition, then I should
not need to be groaning long over my inconstancy. And
the power of a wise, sober, firm, and living regularity
would assert itself and appear not only in my exercises, but
in my whole life.

1 Postulet autem in fide nihil hæsitans (Jac. i. 6).

302 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VI

Examination of Conscience

26. Exercises must possess unity.—27. Examination of conscience
is the guiding bond of unity.—28. The means of unity.—29. The
witness of the saints.—30. Acts are transitory.—31. Habits are
the strings to strike.

26. Exercises must possess unity.—I have looked at the
defects, I have now to look at the means of unity. My soul
is substantially one, one and all in the body, and one and all
in each part of the body. It is everywhere throughout the
body, without possessing width and breadth ; it acts through-
out it, without any division of its substance. One in its sub-
stance, it must become one in the action of its powers : such
is the purpose of its life and the goal of its activity. Spiritual
exercises, which are the sustenance of this life and the means
of this activity, ought to lead it to this unity ; they ought.
to establish in it the great and one disposition, which is the
one thing to seek for and the one thing necessary. They
ought to unite all its powers by directing them to the glory
of God ; and to destroy the multiplicity and division which
always exist, when the end, which alone unites everything, is
lost sight of.

But how are they to produce unity, if they are not them-
selves united ? How are they to destroy multiplicity and
division, if they are themselves divided by multiplicity and
incoherence ? Multiplicity cannot create unity, nor does
division promote union. Therefore, it is strictly necessary
for them to be united with one another ; they require a centre
and a common tie. It is absolutely necessary that they should
be directed towards their true end; otherwise, instead of
being means they become hindrances. This is why there must
be one exercise which guides and governs the rest.

27. Examination of conscience is the guiding bond of
unity.—What is the central and guiding exercise to be?
Which, among the manifold variety of devotional practices,
is the one on which the rest depend, and from which they

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 303

get their guidance and their unity ?—One distinctive charac-
teristic will enable me to recognize it. The guiding exercise
must be the one in which there is the least possibility of the
general evil, which is self-seeking, creeping in. It can only be
an adequate and sure guide, if this evil is absolutely excluded
by the very nature of the exercise. If, in fact, it were possible
for self-seeking to creep into it, I should be cast out of the way
and kept at a distance from my end by the exercise intended
to lead me back to them. But is there any exercise in which
it is impossible to nourish one’s vain satisfaction ? In prayer,
in meditation, at Mass and Communion, etc., I may too
easily, through human interest, seek for sweetness and
consolations ; therefore none of them can be the guiding
exercise. But what satisfaction can I get from my examina-
tion of conscience ?

On the other hand, the purpose of devotional exercises
being to lead me to God, the first condition is for me to find
out where I am, whither I am going, what way I am following,
what hindrances and dangers I am meeting with, and what
means I must choose. It is impossible to go forward with
sureness without this. But all this is just what an examina-
tion of conscience will show me. This therefore is the central
and governing exercise.

28. The means of unity.—Therefore I am now about to
consider how examination of conscience is the means which
realizes unity in the exercises, and by unity in the exercises,
the unity of piety. And here especially I must not allow
myself to be dominated by any notion of some new and
particular method. The purpose of these reflections is neither
a method, nor a speciality, nor any novelty. Their purpose
is to secure unity.

As to the examination of conscience, whether I follow the
order of the commandments, or the order of my duties towards
God, my neighbour, and myself ; whether I produce this or
that act, feeling, or reflection ; whether I begin or end with
this or that prayer, invocation, or thanksgiving, etc., these
are all particular applications, which are to be found in great
variety and excellently set forth in a number of capital books.
As to these methods and counsels, I am free to follow

304 THE INTERIOR LIFE

what really corresponds with the requirements and bent of
my soul.

Here I shall consider the examination of conscience under
a more general aspect : its influence upon the unity of exer-
cises. The particular mode of making use of it may vary ;
but what must not vary is its unifying influence. And now
I am about to try to consider how this influence is to be main-
tained paramount and along with all these special ways of
proceeding.

29. The witness of the saints.—The saints have recognized
that the examination of conscience is supremely important
for guidance and vital concentration. It is thus that
St. Ignatius thinks. During a considerable time, he made
use of no other means for the spiritual guidance of his com-
panions than the practice of the examination of conscience
and a frequent recurrence to the sacraments. In the con-
stitutions of his Order, the examination is regarded as being
of such importance that nothing was ever to exempt anyone
from it. Sickness or other grave necessities might excuse
from mental prayer and other exercises, but from the examina-
tion of conscience, never. Reason had already shown its
importance to Pythagoras, who recommended it to his
disciples as the true means of acquiring wisdom. St. John
Chrysostom had a high opinion of it, and this led him to say
that if one did it well for a month, one would become estab-
lished in a perfect habit of virtue.1 St. Basil, in his con-
stitutions, says that before all else, in order to keep oneself
from evil and to make some progress in the good, this exer-
cise is to be set up as a sentinel over our thoughts, so that they
may be checked and guided by the eye of this sentinel2 The
holy Doctors are of one accord in attributing this capital
importance to self-examination.

30. Acts are transitory.—But still we must know how to
do it. Often, by losing oneself in details, one gives oneself
a deal of trouble to make very little progress. Thus one

1 Ex ea re tantum erit emolumentum, ut si id uno mense solo
Poa a in perfecto virtutis habitu nos constituemus (Homil. in

Ss. 1V. .

2 Primum quidem omnibus modis cogitationem continere debemus,
ei pervigilis mentis inspectionem præficientes (De const. monas., c. 2).

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 305

easily gets discouraged, and one comes to omit, or even to
forsake this most important of exercises. If I desire to give
it a really governing and unifying usefulness, it is a good
thing to remind myself of a few theological principles.
Theology, in harmony with philosophy, teaches that an
act in itself is transitory, and that a habit is permanent:
the act passes away, the habit remains. If it is a question of
venial acts, I know that, in a state of grace, they are effaced
if they are followed by an act of supernatural virtue. Hence,
these acts leave no traces behind in a soul which necessarily
produces a pretty large number of supernatural acts in the
course of a day, since I assume that it is in a state of grace.
Hence, what is the good of dwelling in my self-examination
on acts of which no trace remains? What knowledge of
my soul can such a revision of details give me? The Church
teaches that I am not obliged to confess them ; why then should
I spend a long time in making such things the substance of

_ my self-examination ?

All this applies to acts that are quite transitory, and
which have no connexion of a close and essential kind with
any inward habit. For, as to those which depend on a
habit, they can only be wiped out by an act that inter-
rupts the habit and intercepts the influence exerted by the
habit upon the act. I shall soon see how they are to be
examined.

If there be any question of mortal sins, the act is not then
wiped out by any virtue ; perfect charity alone can do that,
still the sin is wiped out by it. No doubt, such an act, even
if wiped out by charity, remains subject to the power of the
keys, and therefore it must be a subject for self-examination ;
but acts of mortal sin do not abound, God be thanked, in a
soul which thinks of its perfection ; and the trace of them
stands out clearly enough to afford no difficulty in one’s self-
examination.

31. Habits are the strings to strike.—The mere knowledge
of acts will never lead me to a deep knowledge of my soul ;
they will never help me to make, in the deepest sense, a real
examination of conscience. To know them may do some good,
it is sometimes necessary, but one must go deeper. Con-

20

306 THE INTERIOR LIFE

science is what is innermost within me and what is most
secret : it is the sanctuary of the temple. If I really desire
to make an examination of conscience, it is this innermost
secret that I must enter into, it is this sanctuary that I must
visit. But, in this sanctuary, it is the habits and dispositions
of the soul that are the thing which abides. When I have
got to know them, I have got to know the state of my soul ;
otherwise not. He who would make progress must bring
the investigation of his self-examination to bear upon this
point.

“Our examination of conscience,” says St. Francis of
Sales, ‘‘ must be reduced to a search for our passions. For,
so far as examination for sins is concerned, that is for the
confessions of those who are not trying to advance. What
affections are a hindrance to our heart, what passions are in
possession of it, in what does it chiefly go astray? For it
is by the passions of the soul that one gets to know one’s
state, by probing them one after the other. For, just as a
lutanist strikes all the strings, and tunes those which are not
in accord by tightening or relaxing them, so after probing
hatred, love, desire, fear, hope, sadness and gladness of
soul, if we find them out of tune with the melody which we
wish to play, which is the glory of God, we may tune them
by means of His grace and with the help of our spiritual
father.”

The important thing, indeed, is that the heart-strings should
be in tune for the melody I desire to play, which is God’s
glory ; and the essential object of self-examination is to show
me whether the strings play that tune well. But my heart-
strings are my interior dispositions ; they are the ones to be
struck to know what tone they give. Do they re-echo God’s
glory, or my own satisfaction? When I know the tone
they give forth, I shall have made a real examination of
conscience,

1 Philothea, Part V, ch vii.

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 307

CHAPTER VII
The Glance

32. Its easiness.—33. Its object.—34. It is the substance of self-
examination.—35. The tap.

32. Its easiness.—But how am I to get at the true state
of my soul? How am I to seize what I may call my heart’s
expression ?—At any moment, if I desire to know where I
am, what is the state of my soul, what tone echoes within me.
I merely ask: Where is my heart? By this question I seek
solely to know what is the dominant disposition of my heart,
which inspires and directs it, and keeps it as it were in its
possession. A number of impressions and yearnings and
feelings throng about the heart: it is an unfathomable reser-
voir ; but whatever be the number and the nature of the
dispositions, there is always one that is in an ascendancy.
It is not always the same, the heart of man undergoes so many
fluctuations! one feeling takes the place of another, one
impression drives out another ; but there is always one that
holds the first place, and gives a direction to the heart and
governs its activity. That is the one, indeed, which gives the
true tone of the soul. That is the one I have to seize before
all else, if Iam to catch my soul’s expression.

In order to seize it, I ask myself this simple question :
“Where is my heart ?”’—but, at the very moment of putting
this question, the answer comes within me. This question
causes me to cast a rapid glance into the innermost centre
of my being, and I at once see the salient point ; I give ear to
the tone echoed by my soul, and immediately catch the
dominant note. It is an intuitive proceeding, and is quite
instantaneous. There is no need for intellectual inquiries,
efforts of will, and ransacking the memory ; I hear and see.
It is a glance, 1m ictu oculi. It is simple and rapid. A soul
must be quite ignorant of its inner self, and quite unaccus-
tomed to enter into itself, if it does not experience this.

33. Its object.—Sometimes I shall see that my dominant
disposition is the want of approbation or praise, or the fear

we: THE INTERIOR LIFE

of reproach ; sometimes, the bitterness that springs from some
annoyance from some harmful project or proceeding, or else
the resentment caused by some remonstrance ; sometimes, the
painfulness of being under suspicion, or the trouble felt through
some aversion; or, it may be the slackness induced by
sensualism, or the discouragement resulting from difficulties
or failure ; at other times, routine, the product of careless-
ness, or frivolity, the product of idle curiosity and empty
gaiety, etc. Or else, on the contrary, it may be the love of
God, the desire for sacrifice, the fervour kindled by some touch
of grace, full submission to God, the joy of humility, etc.
Whether it be good or bad, it is the main and dominant dis-
position that must be ascertained ; for we must look at the
good as well as the evil, since it is the state of the heart
that it is important to know. I must go directly to the
mainspring which sets all the wheels of the clock in motion.

Sometimes it happens that this mainspring is a persis-
tent and continuous disposition, such as some bitterness
or aversion. But, at other times, it is some merely momen-
tary impression, which, however, was strong enough to impress
the heart for a considerable time with some characteristic
impulse ; such, for instance, as the generous acceptance of a
suffering; it was the affair of a moment, yet it imparted
something to the heart, which will set it in motion during one
or several days.

34. It is the substance of self-examination.—When I have
ascertained this dominant disposition, good or bad, my
examination of conscience is substantially finished ; I have
got what is the essential thing, the core of it. In fact, the
dominant disposition, by determining finally the impulses
of my heart, is like a resultant of the powers of the other
feelings, which are practically concentrated and summed
up therein. Hence, strictly speaking, I might be satisfied with
this essential glance; and byit I might strengthen the weak,
heal the sick, bind up that which was broken, bring again that
which was driven away, and seek for that which was lost.

1 Quod infirmum fuit non consolidastis, et quod ægrotum non
sanastis, quod confractum est non alligastis, et quod abjectum est non
reduxistis, et quod perierat non quesistis (Ezech. xxxiv. 4).

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 309

And in fact, if, in the course of the day, I wish to ascertain
the state of my soul, 4.e., make my self-examination, I am
satisfied with this single glance, diving right into the centre
of my heart: “ Where do I stand?” And it is done: I see.
I correct and set straight, if necessary : I humble myself and
give thanks, if all is well. And this I can do at any moment,
and thousands of times ; it is such a simple act ! a look at the
heart, a glance! ...

35. The tap.—And this simple glance has deep results ;
since it retains or restores the resultant of the powers of the
heart in the one way, and directs it to the one end. Asa
matter of fact, nothing escapes from it, since it grasps the
centre of everything. Why need I worry about other details ?
I need not cut the branches off the tree, when it is down;
nor need I follow the course of the streams, when I am at the
source.

When the water spouts forth in profusion from the host of
little holes in the rose of a watering-pot, would it not be a
tedious and troublesome matter to shut up each little hole
one after the other in order to cut off the flow? And if there
were a tap lower down, enabling one to stop the flow by a
single turn, would it not be stupid to tire oneself with trying
to stop all the little holes? and that all the more, because
there is always a risk of their coming open again. He whose
examination of conscience stops at details and outward things,
is passing his time in stopping up the little holes.... The
inward glance turns the tap.... To stop at details and at
what is outward, is to remain at the circumference and to
manœuvre on the surface of the soul. I go straight to the
centre and take possession of my whole soul, when I cast this
penetrating glance at my dominant disposition,

310 | THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER VIII

The Examination into Details

36. The examination into secondary dispositions.—37. The process
of fructification.—38. Self-examination follows and aids the soul’s
progress.—39. It is not a matter of statistics.—40. Hunting up
details.

36. The exarnination into secondary dispositions. — But
will not thinking of nothing but this principal disposition
make me lose sight of the other dispositions of the heart
which will thus grow up in the background, so that I shall
not notice them? There is no danger of that. How are
these dispositions to make their way to the light, since the
tap is turned ? I mean to say, that the principal disposition
of the heart, and thereby all the heart, is turned towards God
as a result of the examination. All the secondary dispositions
are kept in check by this fact. Further, as I have already
remarked, the dominant disposition is far from being always
the same; defects make their appearance, according to cir-
cumstances ; and as soon as they succeed in assuming a
dominating prominence, the examination of conscience takes
hold of them and checks them.

On the other hand, in proportion as defects diminish and
disappear under the influence of self-examination, like ice
under the sun’s rays, those which first of all remained un-
perceived in the depths, covered as they were by the upper
layers of more striking defects, appear on the surface as soon
as those which were above them have disappeared. There
are, in fact, in the soul something like superposed layers of
dispositions, each of them becoming more fine and subtle
the deeper one goes. As in everything else, so in the case of
these layers, my eye only beholds what is on the surface.
I must learn to be satisfied with this look.

37. The process of fructification.—Nature never proceeds
by detail, but always goes from the simple to the compound.
It takes a seed, and concentrates its action on the vital
principle which is hidden in the unity and simplicity of this

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 311

primary element. The beginnings of this action are rather
indefinite ; often they are what appear to be the coarsest
of rough-draughts. But as the vital principle expands, the
outlines come out, the shape becomes more complete, the
different parts are finished, and, at last, the natural progress
of the work attains to the finest perfection of each detail in
the harmonious proportions of the parts and in the living unity
of the whole. Such is nature’s work. Who ever saw a tree
begin with the tips of its leaves ?

Nor does grace follow any other procedure. It is implanted
in me like a seed. “ The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain
of mustard-seed ” (Matt. xiii. 31). This seed starts its growth
with a few elementary endeavours ; these are the beginnings
of the spiritual life, the struggle against sins and greater
defects. In proportion as the process continues, the work
gets to be more perfect, virtues increase, life pervades and
reaches to details, until the time when all ends and is fulfilled
in holiness.

38. Self-examination follows and aids the soul’s progress.—
My self-examination must necessarily follow this development,
since its purpose is both to follow and to aid the work. But
I follow this development, if my self-examination does its
best to lay hold of the soul’s dominant disposition. What,
indeed, does this disposition show me, unless it be the actual
state of grace within me? In ascertaining it, I therefore see just
how the work of the fructification of grace within me stands.
I see the real and actual state of my piety. And since the
beginning of this work is rudimentary and is only accentuated
in its main lines, I shall only be able in my self-examination
to note the broad outlines of my dispositions, the boldest
features which are displayed at any moment. When the seed
is about to send up its first blade, am I to look for the fully-
developed leaves or flowers ?

But in proportion as the work advances, I have merely
to look on : and my attention follows the work and perceives
its details so far as they appear. I dive deeper into my
inward dispositions following the progress of the work of
grace. In this way the saint succeeds in discerning, even
_ in their most delicate distinctions,the most subtle movements

312 THE INTERIOR LIFE

of his heart. The saint can do this, because grace has
reached this point in him. The purpose of self-examination
is, then, to ascertain the state of the work of grace, and to
follow it.

But its purpose is also to aid it. I want to sce, indeed,
in order to facilitate the course of grace, to take away hin-
drances, and to prevent deviations. Such enquiry would
be sterile curiosity, if its purpose were not to develop the
vital principle, the movements of which I am watching.
The twofold work of ascertaining and facilitating is wonder-
fully achieved by the glance of the examination of conscience.

39. It is not a matter of statistics.—Would it be done in
the same way by the mere examination of details ?—By no
means. Let me assume, for example, that in my self-examina-
tion I had succeeded in counting up exactly the number of
my distractions. Will this perfectly exact number, if I am
satisfied with simply recording it, reveal to me the cause
of the evil? On the contrary, if first of all, by a glance into
the depths, I seized the true origin of the evil, what would it
matter, so far as the external manifestations go, whether there
were ten or twenty ? It is of capital importance for mortal
sins, the number of which I must know in order to accuse
myself of them. But, in what is venial, the number is always
an accessory question. Although accessory, it is, however,
a useful question. I must not totally neglect it, so as to pay
no attention at all to outward manifestations ; for often the
external acts reveal the internal situation. Their number
may, therefore, have a revelatory value, and it has such a
value. But, while not overlooking the matter of numbers,
I must not make it the thing of main importance in self-
examination to the exclusion of other things. <~.

I assume again, that in the sphere of the good, I am diligent
in reckoning up the number of little prayers and practices,
and ejaculatory invocations, etc., which are so sanctifying
and much to be recommended. Am I quite sure that their
increase will give the measure of my progress ?—The manias
that afflict too many devout persons testify clearly enough
how illusory is an overwhelming anxiety as to a mechanical
matter of figures. No, one must not stay in externals ; one

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 313

must not suppose that the swelling of numbers shows of itself
an increase of vigour. And it is the condition and the direc-
tion of this vigour which it is so important to further. It is
the disposition of the heart that must be known, far more
than the number of things ; it is a question of testing a situa-
tion, not of drawing up a list of statistics.

40. Hunting up details.—T shall never be persuaded enough
of the necessity, the simplicity, and the efficacy of this inward
glance, which constitutes the essence of self-examination.
O my God! what is it that has so often discouraged me in
this exercise, and led me to give it up? What was it, if it
were not the tiresomeness and uselessness of hunting up
details, and of manœuvring on the circumference? Oh!
that hunting after details! . . . it takes so long, and is so
troublesome and unfruitful: it does not require much of it
to fill one with distaste.

And how much more encouraging is the simplicity of the
single glance! No doubt, it presupposes an efficacious good-
will, and a sincere desire for self-knowledge and improvement.
It presupposes a fundamentally straightforward tendency of
soul, and unbiassed freedom with God and even with oneself,
an imperturbable resolution to see a thing as it is, and not
as my interest would wish to sce it. Hence, falsehood must
be abdicated and a truce made with petty calculations.

If I am afraid of looking within me, if, by instinctive attach-
ment to a sin which I will not give up, I turn away my eyes
for fear of seeing too much, I shall never make my examina-
tion of conscience. But is not this fear of seeing too much
itself already a glance, and does not its terrible necessity
violently urge an examination of conscience upon me, which
is the source of all my disquictude and remorse? If I could
only resolutely decide upon casting a true and sincere glance
within, to check and to purify, I should feel how much less
painful it is to make such a self-examination than to endure
the sense of the above-mentioned urgency.

314 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER IX

Contrition and Firm Purpose

41. Their necessity.—42. Perfect contrition.—43. Imperfect contri-
tion.— 44. Rising from one to the other.—45. Firm purpose
— 46. Union of the three elements of the examination of con-
science.

41. Their necessity.—But can I be satisfied with the
glance? Is seeing everything ?—No, it is not everything,
but it is the beginning of everything. Why do I wish to see ?
—I have already said it :1 in order to second the movement of
grace, the ascending movement towards God, I must correct
the deviations, if any arise ; establish and develop any good
movement that may exist. Hence, seeing should bring with
it contrition and good resolution or firm purpose ; contrition,
which corrects what is wrong ; firm purpose, which establishes
what is good; contrition, which looks at the road already
finished ; firm purpose, which looks at the road that is yet to
be travelled.

42. Perfect contrition.—Contrition should come to be in-
spired with perfect love as its essential motive, the love of
God for Himself and for His own glory. The one all of my
life lies in succeeding in seeking for God’s glory in everything :
incessantly I ought to get nearer to this end. And contrition
is just the impulse which brings my heart nearer to it, by
keeping it away from evil. This impulse would be incomplete,
if it did not tend to this higher end.

Further, God’s glory being the centre and climax of every-
thing, everything brings us thereto, if only we desire to get
there. Therefore, all the motives of contrition and love, all
the means suited to develop them, lead to this end, if I desire
to direct them thereto. The essential thing is to not stop on
the way, but to aim at that, and to ascend those heights.
According to their helpfulness, I may make use of the ex-
pedients suggested by the saints, and the practices recom-
mended for the purpose by spiritual writers ; but it must always

1 See last chapter, § 38.

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 315

be in order to raise my soul to that vision, love, and search
for God, which is the climax of my life.

43. Imperfect contrition.—The motives of imperfect con-
trition, the fear of hell, the desire of heaven, the ugliness of
vice, the beauty of virtue, etc., are good and useful motives ;
the Church approves of them, saints recommend them, God
Himself has recourse to them in His holy Word to make men
determine to glorify Him. It is a good thing for me to
have recourse to them. But how ?—Like a tailor who uses
his needle te make his thread pass. The needle is necessary,
because without it the thread cannot be made to pass. But
also the needle must not remain behind ; because, if it stays, the
thread will not pass. Thus the motives of fear may, and often
must, be used to make the pure thread of pure love pass after
them; but, if they are to help the thread to pass, they must
pass away themselves and leave it behind ; for perfect charity
casteth out fear (1 John iv. 18). I may, then, ask God to pierce
my flesh with the needle of His fear, the fear of His judge-
ments :1 and this will be a beneficial wound, if it lets out the
humours of evil and lets in true piety. Yes, let fear enter in,
and introduce love.

44. Rising from one to the other.—Therefore, it is a good
thing for me to have recourse to the fear of the judgements
of God ; for they contain a mighty remedy against evil, they
are a piercing thorn which helps me to give it up, and an
energetic preservative against falls. But further, how much
should I be on my guard against the selfish and narrow
notion, which would make me only sensible of the loss of the
pleasures of which sin deprives me! If I were thus to bend
back upon myself, I should condemn myself not to make any
progress. I should remain crushed by fear, solely anxious
about myself ; in God I should see nothing but severity, and
I should yield to constraint only, and my life would be an
agony threatened by God on the one hand, and by sin on the
other. Thusit is that people come to think religion is some-
thing burdensome and tiresome.

But when the soul expands with love, when it rises to real

1 Confige timore tuo carnes meas, a judiciis enim tuis timui
(Ps cxviii. 120).

316 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and great piety, when contrition brings it back to the vision,
love, and search for God, then, if repentance continues to have
its thorn which is felt, the thorn brings with it so much sweet-
ness that the pain is as it were swallowed up in an infinity
of happiness. How far must one be one’s own enemy to
condemn oneself to suffer from imperfect contrition, when
one could find so much comfort and expansion in perfect
contrition ? Is there any need to add that the one wipes out
by itself all sin, while the other only wipes it out with the
help of sacramental absolution ?

45. Firm purpose.—Contrition must be concentrated in one
good resolution or firm purpose. I say : one good resolution ;
for here again, we must get back to unity. This resolution,
on whatever particular point it may be brought to bear, must
always be brought back to the one essential thing, that is to
say, to the vision of God, to submission to His will, and to
conformity with the movement of His grace. This good reso-
lution can and must be particularized by being brought to bear
on the special point that stands out in my heart; it must
correct the tendency which deviates most from God, or
strengthen the one that draws most towards Him, and thus
set my heart most fully face to face with God’s glory, under
His will, and in His grace. This is the point to which one
must always get back.

46. The union of the three elements of the examination of
conscience.—Such are the three constituent elements of the
examination of conscience: the glance, contrition, and firm
purpose. But what are these three elements but the con-
stituent elements of piety: sight, love, and search? The
union of these three latter elements in one sole impulse of the
heart constitutes piety ; and, in the same way, the union of
the three elements of the glance, contrition, and firm purpose
in one sole impulse of the heart constitutes examination of
conscience in its integrity.

As a matter of fact, in the rapid acts of self-examination
which I repeat during the course of the day, these three impulses
are not distinct : each act is a single instantaneous impulse,
a glance in ictu ocuh ; and this glance is at once sight, love,
and search ; look, contrition, and firm purpose. These three

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 377

things are only distinguished in the longer self-examination, |
the evening examination, for instance, in which the infirmity
of nature obliges me to separate the impulse into its parts,
to analyse them one by one, to go through them one after the
other, so that each may be as perfect as possible and the whole
as finished as possible.

In reality, what difference is there between the examination
of conscience and piety, except that the latter is a state, and
self-examination an act? It is the life-giving and governing
act which impresses and governs the impulse. And thus a
closer knowledge of piety and of self-examination shows me
that self-examination is really the eye of piety.

CHAPTER X
The Different Kinds of Self-Examination

47. The habitual self-examination.—48. The general self-examina-
tion, its centre and two circumferences.—49. The two funda-
mental questions.—50. The particular examen.— 51. The pre-
liminary examination.—52. The facilitation of confession.

47. The habitual self-examination.—The time has come for
speaking of the different kinds of self-examination, if, indeed,
there are several kinds. Usually distinctions are made be-
tween the general self-examination, the particular examen,
and the preliminary examination. Before these, we ought to
put what I shall term the habitual self-examination. This

habitual self-examination is nothing else than the simple rapid

glance, which, with the simplicity of a single movement, sums
up the three consecutive movements of the examination of
conscience. I think I have sufficiently grasped its nature
and exercise not to have to insist on it any further. If I
desire to make any progress in piety, I must get accustomed
to repeat it frequently. It is the repetition of this act which
will establish the habit of piety in me. The more ready I
become in it, the more my piety will advance towards its full
expansion. In the saint who has attained to the summit,

318 THE INTERIOR LIFE

this act often becomes the one activity of his life, and the
act gets lost in the habit ; he no longer is aware if it is a cus-
tomary act or an actual habit. He thus draws nearer to God,
who is a pure act. O my God! when shall I resemble
Thee ?

48. The general self-examination, its centre and two cir-
cumferences.—So far as the general self-examination is con-
cerned, I have said already, that it is necessary to take the
different parts of the movement to pieces ; or, as St. Francis
of Sales says, to try the strings one after the other. Hence,
I pass in turn from sight to love and search ; in other words,
from the glance to contrition and firm purpose, and I stop at
each part separately.

As for the glance, I make it take in the whole of the day,
and I immediately try to discover what was its dominant
disposition. As a matter of fact, each day has one disposi-
tion, one feeling, one heart’s impulse, which characterizes the
state of the soul as a whole, and gives its tone to the day. I
am soon aware whether my day was a good or a bad day,
and why it was good or bad. That stares me in the face with
the rapidity of a glance. When I have once grasped that,
I have got at the centre of my heart.

From this centre one sees.easily, and almost simultane-
ously, all the points of the circumference. Thus, continuing
to look from the centre towards the circumference, I try to
discover, according to the strength of my spiritual life, on
the first circumference, the secondary feelings of the soul,
those which may have taken momentarily possession of it
without altogether dominating it; they come up under the
dominant feeling. There it is that I see any particular touches
of grace, the temptations of the devil, and the different dis-
turbances of the heart. Then, on the next circumference,
the principal things, words or actions, which arose from these
dispositions. The examination, which is quite complete con-
sidered as a glance, is thus decomposed into three parts; at
the centre, the dominant feeling, which I discover first of all ;
then, on the first circumference, the secondary feelings ;
lastly, on the second circumference, the principal acts arising
from these dispositions,

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 319

49. The two fundamental questions.—To take the measure
of all this with ease and precision, I have to put two questions
to myself. The first looks at my piety on its passive side ;
the second, on its active side. So far as passive piety is
concerned : How have I accepted? So far as active piety is
concerned : How have I acted? In other words, and to go
back to our comparison of electricity, which throws much light
upon the situation, my first question shows me whether contact
with the electrical fountain has been set up ; and the second,
how the apparatus has worked. Therefore, first of all: What
attitude did I hold with regard to God? Was I open or
closed to His action ? And why was I open or closed ? This
shows the dominant disposition, the central point. Next:
How did I see, love, and fulfil the duties of my state? This
is the working of the apparatus, the dispositions and acts sub-
sequent to the dominant disposition.

These two questions are vital, they show me how I have
walked in the way that leads to God ; I thus discover the prin-
cipal incidents of the way, whether they be good or bad. I
say : the principal incidents ; for it is important not to get
submerged in details, which is the ordinary temptation of
people of good-will at the outset. One must only stop at
what is characteristic, at what reveals the state of the soul.
It is much better not to pick all the flowers than to lose one’s
way in the wood.

Thus understood, the answer to these two questions is
quickly made, and in a few minutes I have a deep insight
into my day as a whole, and in detail. I know its living
features, and grasp its vital interdependence. Oh, when one

is able to see! ... The difficulty is not to see, but to open
one’s eyes and to look in the right direction. Oh, if I only
desired to see! . .. Omy God! give me the will to see! ...

50. The particular examen.—Its object is to overthrow
Goliath, the heart’s dominant defect. I do this every time
I make an examination in the way already shown. As soon
as I have cast my glance within, asking myself how I stand,
my particular examen is done. I do not lay down a particular
point beforehand as to which to examine myself, I do not

isolate myself in one corner of my soul. I have no statistics

320. THE INTERIOR LIFE

to compile, but my attention is brought to bear directly on
my heart, and on the disposition actually dominant therein.
What I am confronted with is a living enemy who is there and
acting, and whom I discover and lay hold of, and overthrow.

This chief enemy, this dominant disposition, as I have said,
may vary from day to day, even more, he may vary in the
same day. But these very changes, these waverings of the
heart will teach me to get to know it better, will make me dive
into its depths which I should not otherwise fathom, and will
enable me to discover in the lowest deeps secret causes, the
activity of which can only be perceived by means of the
fluctuations it gives rise to. What I thus analyse and hold in
hand is my heart as it is, my living throbbing heart, with its
alternations of life and sickness. Nothing can be more effec-
tive for getting a real knowledge of the real Goliath, and for
slaying him. In fine, the particular examen is nothing else
than the glance which is the centre and sum-total of every
examination of conscience. |

51. The preliminary examination.—It is to be used at the
beginning of the day to ensure its right guidance, and to
enable me to avoid the deviations to which I am most liable.
If at that hour I use the penetrating look of true self-
examination in such a way as to set my heart really face to
face with God and to establish it firmly in seeking for the
supreme end, the success of my day will be strongly guaranteed.
The electric circuit will be open. Before foreseeing details,
which is a most useful thing to do, it is important to establish
my heart in the search for God and in forgetfulness of self,
two things which comprise all else. The forecasting of the
circumstances in which I have to maintain this disposition
will come afterwards, but it is not the essential thing. Here,
as elsewhere, the essential thing is to regulate my heart.

52. The facilitation of confession.—If I understand what
constitutes the very essence of the examination of conscience,
I see that, in reality, it is one and not manifold. On all occa-
sions, I must go to the bottom of my heart ; and I always get
there in the same way, by the rapid and deep glance which
at once shows me how I stand. Thus it is a very simple thing.

Further, it is a very easy thing. No long round-about

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 321

ways, no weariness of details, but a quick glance as to the state
of the soul as a whole. The greatest hindrance at the outset
is that one always wants to go further than is necessary ; to
look for midday at two a.m., as the saying goes, and to lose
oneself in details. With a little good-will, and as light comes
with the exercise, one succeeds fairly quickly in correcting
this fault.

And it is very efficacious. For thus I really get to see into
my soul and conscience ; I go to the source, and lay bare the
roots.

And how good it is for confession. When I have thus
taken account of my inward state for a week, I go to my
confessor and say to him: During the past week, my inward
dispositions were these, and such are their principal results.

= In a few words, I put the picture of my soul before his eyes.

He can read what I say like an open book; he sees my state
and follows the movement of my heart; he seems to catch,

as it were, the beatings of life in me, and in a few words, he
_ too can give me just the advice that is suited to my needs,
When I get lost in details, my confession is very long and not
at all clear, and always superficial, and is like most common-
place confessions. My confessor is unable to read plainly
enough in my avowals what my inner state is, and is obliged
to give me the sort of counsels that are roughly applicable to
everybody.

CHAPTER XI
The Unity of the Exercises

53. Singleness of eye.—54. Self-examination is the eye of the ex-
ercises.—55. It is the obligatory prelude to meditation.—56. And
of all the other exercises.—57. The presence of God.—58. The
great means of piety.—59. Consult spiritual writers for details
of methods,

53. Singleness of eye.—Now I must see how the examina-
tion of conscience thus made is really the central and governing
exercise, and how the other exercises find therein their guid-
ance and their way, their light and their rule, their bond
| 21

322 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and their unity. I may apply to self-examination thus prac-
tised by a rapid glance what our Lord says of singleness of
eye. ‘‘ The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single,
thy whole body will be lightsome : but if it be evil, thy body
also will be darksome. Take heed therefore that the light
which is in thee, be not darkness. If then thy whole body
be lightsome, having no part of darkness ; the whole shall be
lightsome, and as a bright lamp shall enlighten thee ” (Luke
xi. 34-36). If the eye of self-examination be single and full
of light, all the body of the exercises will be full of light and
excellent ; but if the self-examination is bad, all the exercises
will be full of darkness.

54. Self-examination is the eye of the exercises.—The eye
of the exercises is self-examination. It is not the whole of
the body of the exercises, and it cannot suffice of itself. Nor
is it the heart. which distributes life. The heart consists of
the exercises that produce grace, of the sacraments and prayer,
for thence comes vigour. The sacraments and prayer are
the reservoirs and channels which pour the torrents of the
supernatural life into the soul; they are the heart and the
arteries of the mystical body of piety.

Self-examination is the eye. It is by it that I see and
become enlightened, that I avoid dangers and correct faults,
and that I set my ways right. It is by it that I flood my soul
with light and bring light to bear upon everything ; and thus
I cannot abide in evil, but I am bound to do the truth, that
is to say, to advance in piety; for he that doth evil hateth
the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should
be discovered ; but he that doth the truth cometh to the
light, that it may be made manifest that his works are wrought
in God.1

It is of supreme importance that this examination of con-
science be not darkness ; for if the light that is in me be dark-
ness, how great shall the darkness be ?2 If the examination
is badly made, what will be the state of the other exercises ?

1 Omnis enim qui male agit, odit lucem, et non venit ad lucem, ut
non arguantur opera ejus. Qui autem facit veritatem, venit ad lucem,
ut manifestentur opera ejus, quia in Deo facta sunt (Joan. ili. 20, 21).

2 Si ergo lumen, quod in te est, tenebre sunt, ipsæ tenebræ quante
erunt ? (Matt. vi. 23).

- THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 323

55. It is the obligatory prelude to meditation.—Self-examina-
tion is the obligatory prelude, the indispensable preparation,
of every important exercise. In meditation, for instance, I
shall only escape from such defects as would destroy its value,
if I begin by asking myself: ‘‘ Where is my heart ?”’ Unless
I do that, I may listen to the pleadings of cowardice and
neglect it, or else try to find pasture for my desire of consola-
tion, and thus foster my own fancies and self-love. I shall
not go to God in either of these ways, and my meditation
will be a failure. If I have put my heart right by the rapid
glance of self-examination, these two enemies, my own
cowardice and self-satisfaction, will be turned out ; and then,
what will hinder God from entering in? Clearly, all diffi-
culties will not be got rid of by the mere fact of doing this ;
distractions, dryness, and a host of other miseries will still
remain ; but since none of them is voluntary, they will not
hinder me from meeting with God. These very miseries are
often most profitable to the soul. Hence, the real success
of meditation is assured.

56. And of all the other exercises.—What is true of medita-
tion is true of the other exercises, of Mass, Communion, the
Office, etc. Thus each of them is directed towards its true
end ; dangers are shown, hindrances done away with, the
way made plain, the soul given assurance, and one’s purpose
attained. And not only is each exercise perfected, but all
are united, all converge towards the same end, under the
common influence of a guiding principle. The action of one
is united with the action of another, and sustains and
strengthens it : they support one another, like the stones of a
single arch ; they strengthen one another, like the poles of a
single magnet; and, in fine, their manifold action is one.
How can the soul help being stronger when fastened up in a
single bundle like this ? How can it help going forward, when
it is uplifted by such power ?

57. The presence of God.— And this leads me to make
another remark. Every devotional exercise begins with a
reminder of the presence of God; this is a general recom-
mendation that applies to all of them. Since I wish to con-
_ verse with God, plainly I must begin with putting myself

324 THE INTERIOR LIFE

in His presence. But, the most practical and the most telling
way of putting myself in the presence of God is to examine
my conscience in the way in which it is here understood. If
I am satisfied to remind myself of the presence of God without
entering into my heart to correct it, no doubt such a reminder
will be a good thing ; but it will not amend my ways, and I
may remain self-seeking ; and, although I shall be close to
God, I shall not go to Him. This is just what happens to
some people. They acquire the habit of the presence of God
and of ejaculatory prayers ; they are full of affectionate ex-
pressions and feelings towards God ; and they are at least as
full of themselves, and as infatuated with self-love. This is
not a problematical case. O that self-seeking !

But if I scrutinize my heart to find out where it is; if I
correct my feelings by directing them towards God and His
glory, then I am effectively in the presence of God, I seek
Him in reality, and I go towards Him and meet Him. This
act lays hold of the roots of my soul, it seizes upon the main-
spring of my faculties and directs them towards God ; and if
I acquire the habit of it, I shall succeed in loving, seeing, and
seeking God in everything. I shall be pious!

58. The great means of piety.—To sum up, the glance of
self-examination will be the chief means for the formation
within me of the one and living disposition, which is piety.
To follow the great way that leads to the great end is quite
impossible apart from the great means of self-examination ;
and I shall only follow it with readiness and facility with the
help of this means. The words of St. Francis of Sales are
there to affirm, that he who would advance must examine
into his inward dispositions. Self-seeking is so subtle : it has
entered so thoroughly into our ideas and affections and
habits, and has encroached so far upon our inner life! . ..
It is behind these entrenchments that we must follow it ; we
must cast it out ; and to cast it out, we must enter in. That
is the point to which all we have been saying leads up.

It is easy to see that the constant purpose of our remarks
is to turn away the soul from external interests, to draw its
attention in the main to what is within. To act upon what
is inward, so as to react on what is outward; to make clean

THE MEANS: THE EXERCISES OF PIETY 325

the inside of the cup and of the dish, that the outside also may
become clean ;1 to lift the soul above details, in which it stays
and gets wearied and deceived, to recall it to the first principle
which it forgets ; to restore to its spiritual activity the true
processes of life, the unity and simplicity of the inward work;
and the unity of the end, the way, and the means ; to lop off
too conventional ways of proceeding, the multiplicity of which
comes to impede the work of life ; such is the object we have
been earnestly striving to attain.

59. Consult spiritual writers for details of methods.—And
now what am I to say of other exercises >—Nothing ; for I
think that if their general function in piety is understood,
and if the examination of conscience keeps them in the right
way, they will be excellent, or will not be long in becoming so.
Questions of method are, as I have said, accessory, and neces-
sarily changeable, according to the different needs and disposi-
tions of souls. Since here I only wish to touch upon ques-
tions which are essentially connected with the one main object
of this whole work, I only study the essential relations without
going into matters of detail, as to which, moreover, most
excellent advice is to be found in the writings of the masters
of the spiritual life.

1 Pharisæe cece, munda prius quod intus est calicis et paropsidis,
ut fiat quod deforis est mundum (Matt. xxiii. 26).

BOOK III
GRACE

I know that all creatures, in the hands of Providence and
the Holy Ghost, are instruments for the sanctification of the
elect. But all these means, in the last resort, are only vehicles
of the great means, which is called grace. It is this that is
the vital bond between God and me, this is the real agent of
unity and life, this it is that forms my piety in a truly super-
natural manner, this it is that stimulates and sustains my soul,
accelerating its progress and expanding its vitality ; lastly, it
is this that, when transformed in the light of glory, will be my
life for ever and ever.

I am going briefly to consider its nature, its origin, and its
necessity, my weakness without it, the principal means of its
communication to me, and, in conclusion, casting by way of
assurance a glance of love at the Mother, and at the Author,
of divine grace.

327

328 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER I
The Nature of Grace

1. The necessity of a bond.—2. Its nature.—3. Actual grace.—
4. Habitual grace.—5. The effects of sanctifying grace.—6. The
two kinds of grace combined.

1. The necessity of a bond.—In Part I, I saw how I ought
to adhere to God only, how my life should be identified with
His, and how my being should be united with His being. I
cannot contract any union except with Him: every other
union must be broken off. In the same way, in Part II, I
saw how my action ought to be united with that of God, my
work with His work and my progress with His.— By what
means is so close a union to be realized ?—For He, indeed, is
infinite, and I am finite ; and there is no proportion between the
finite and the infinite. Hence, there must be a middle term
which is related both to the finite and to the infinite, which
touches both man and God. There must be a mysterious and
incomprehensible bond, coming from God, and reaching to
man, and uplifting man to God. God has created such a
means, and it is called grace.

2. Its nature.—What is grace ?—Grace, say the theologians;
is a supernatural and gratuitous gift of God, given by Him
to His reasonable creatures to lead them to eternal life.
Grace is like a supernatural flow of God’s virtue, which comes
to raise man above himself, and to accustom his powers and
his nature to direct union with God in this world and in
eternity. It is essentially and absolutely supernatural, in
such a manner that no creature, whether actual or possible,
has or can have any natural right to grace. It remains
above everything ; above angels and the Blessed Virgin, and
even the sacred humanity of our Saviour ; it is a gratuitous
and entirely supernatural gift. It is the means of super-
natural union with God for Jesus Christ, for the Blessed
Virgin, and for angels and men. It is by it, and by it alone,
that my life is united with God’s, my activity with His.

THE MEANS: GRACE 329

3. Actual grace.—There are two kinds of grace: the grace
that is transitory and the grace that abides, the grace of action
and the grace of union, the grace of work and the grace of life,
actual grace and habitual grace.

Actual grace is that which unites my action with that of
God, it is the passing grace of the way. In what does it con-
sist ?—It consists in a supernatural impulse, in a vital stimu-
lus imparted to my powers in order to make them act with
God. Grace, in my mind, is a light which helps me to see
God, and beings according to God. In my heart, it is a
warmth which leads me to love God, and creatures for God.
In my executive faculties, it is a force which helps me to serve
God, and to make use of things for God. Supernatural light,
warmth, and force, such is actual grace.}

It is thus called, because it is active and urges to action,
and because it is the actual aid of the present moment, and
lastly; because it is given and repeated from act to act. It
is like a push from the divine hand, which is given to assist me
in each act that duty demands.

Thus God’s hand prevents me, to suggest a thought to me,
to inspire me with a desire, and to stimulate me at the begin-
ning of any act I have to do. This is preventing grace.
Next, it upholds my eye in the vision, my heart in the love,
and my strength in the fulfilment of duty, until it is com-
pletely performed ; this is concurrent grace: thereby the
concurrence of my action with God’s is established and main-
tained. Resulting from God’s action, stimulating my own,
it is the medium, the connecting-link, the means of union of
my work with God’s.

4. Habitual grace.—If the stimulus of actual grace stirs to
life, it nevertheless does not give life itself in the strictly super-
natural sense. Its transitory action does not effect a divine
state in the soul. This state is established by another grace,
superior to the former; and it is called sanctifying grace,
because it is this that makes sanctity ; and it is called habitual,
because it is stable and dwells in the soul, and sets it firmly
in a state of grace.

1 Est quidam effectus divinæ voluntatis, in quantum anima hominis
movetur a Deo ad aliquid cognoscendum, vel volendum, vel agendum
(S. Thomas, i , 2, q. 110, a. 2, c).

330 THE INTERIOR LIFE

What is this grace ?—It is that which St. Thomas defines as
“an inflow of the divine Goodness into the soul, whereby it is
assimilated to God, and becomes pleasing to Him, and worthy
of eternal life.”1 It is, properly speaking, the gift of divine
life. It is this that makes the soul live, and by it I live in
God, and God lives in me. It enters into me and transforms
me. It is the divine virtue entering into my soul, and ani-
mating it in the same way as my soul animates its body.

5. The effects of sanctifying grace.—It makes me pure.
It wipes out the defilements and defects of my poor human
nature. It destroys mortal sin, with which it cannot dwell ;
it successively does away with venial sins, imperfections,
and all adherences to creatures; it is the great means of
purification.

It makes me just. It forms within me holy views, divine
virtues, and supernatural habits; it perfects the gifts and
fruits of the Holy Ghost, and it realizes the beatitudes.

It makes me agreeable to God and like God. Adherence to
creatures gives rise to deformities which impair the divine
likeness which was imprinted on me by the Creator. Grace
restores the features of the likeness, and by it I once more
become the object of God’s good pleasure.

It gives my actions a meritorious value. Without it, no act
has any eternal value ; by it, there is no act of my life, how-
ever insignificant, which does not become meritorious from
the point of view of the infinite bliss of heaven.

Hence, it is this that builds up the edifice of my life in God
and for God; it is this that establishes piety in me ; and it is this
that makes me capable of glory and happiness. It is by this that
I expand and increase in such a way as to give God all the glory,
and to gain for myself all the happiness, which are my end. It
is the vigour of the supernatural life, and it goes on growing
and making me grow with every act I do in conformity with
God’s will under the stimulus of actual grace.

6. The two kinds of grace combined.—Before the state of
grace is realized in me, actual grace stirs me up and urges

1 Gratia est influentia divine bonitatis in animam, per quam
assimilata Deo fit ei grata et vite æternæ digna (Opusc. 51 de Sacram.
alt. c. 26).

THE MEANS: GRACE 331

me to do acts which will bring me towards justification. It
is then a preparation of the way of life. When I already
have the happiness of living by the divine life, actual grace
brings into play the powers of supernatural animation which
are implanted within me ; it exercises them, and makes them
grow by exercise. Its continual provocations help me to
progress continually, by causing me to make use of the super-
natural resources within me. It is by the combined influence
of these two kinds of grace that my piety is formed. Both
concur in this work.

The one is more active, and imparts movement ; the other
is more stable, and gives dispositions and facility. The one
is more variable, and goes with the mobile side of life ; the
other is more fixed, and is bound to the permanent side of it.
The one passes, and is specialized on a present act ; the other
is more general, and extends as a fundamental habit to all
our acts. The one rather resembles Martha, and goes to
and fro according to our necessities ; the other is more like
Mary, and keeps the soul closer to God. The one extends
and prolongs the energy of my faculties, by making it possible
for them to perform acts above their strength; the other
modifies and transforms the very depths of my nature, by
giving it a new being, a divine life. One collects the materials,
the other organizes them, and both of them build up.

Thus, aroused and sustained by actual grace, and nourished,
increased, and perfected by habitual grace, my will keeps
within the law of God and is exercised therein day and night.
Thus, I am like the tree which is planted near the running
waters, which shall bring forth its fruit in due season, the
leaves of which do not fall off ; and all that I do furthers God’s
glory and my own eternal happiness.}

1 In lege Domini voluntas ejus et in lege ejus meditabitur die ac
nocte. Et erit tanquam lignum quod plantatum est secus decursus

aquarum, quod fructum suum dabit in tempore suo. Et folium ejus
non defluet, et omnia quecumque faciet prosperabuntur (Ps. i. 2, 3).

332 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER II
The Source of Grace

7. The Saviour’s merits.—8. God’s action.—g. The reservoirs.—
10. My action.

7. The Saviour’s merits.—Being a supernatural gift, grace
is essentially gratuitous. ‘If by grace,” says St. Paul, “it
is not now by works ; otherwise grace is no more grace”
(Rom. xi. 6). Given by the Creator, lost by sin, it was re-
deemed by the Saviour, who came from heaven to seek and
to save that which was lost (Luke xix. 10). This divine
means to the divine life comes to men by Him who is the Man-
God, and who, being God, became man, so that, by partici-
pating in both natures, He might raise human nature to par-
ticipate in the divine nature. In the hypostatic union of the
two natures, He is the link, the mediator between God and
man ;! for by Him God comes down to me, and by Him I
ascend to God. In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-
head corporally, and in Him I am filled with the fruits of
grace? All the graces I receive are the fruit of His blood.
It hath pleased God that in Him should all fulness dwell ;
and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making
peace through the blood of His Cross, both as to the things on
earth, and the things that are in heaven (Col. i. 19).

8. God’s action.—Jesus Christ is the source ; but by what
channels do the streams of grace run into the fields of my
soul ?—T have already seen’ that by the operations of the
divine good pleasure there is a great and constant influx of
graces. Creatures which serve as God’s instruments are then
instruments of grace. In the manifold encounters of all sorts
and kinds I daily experience, I receive a host of supernatural
helps, incessantly changed and renewed according to the needs
of my life,

1 Unus et mediator Dei et hominum homo Christus Jesus (1 Tim. ii. 5).

2 Quia in ipso inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter,

et estis in illo repleti (Col. ii. 9, 10).
3 See Part II, Book III, §§ 8 and g.

THE MEANS: GRACE 333

And not only the operation of God’s good pleasure, but also
the rules of His will signified, are graces to me. In the
Church’s teaching magisterium which maintains the faith, in
the sacerdotal organization which fosters charity, in the
disciplinary rule that guarantees liberty, how many graces
there are! Hence, supernatural helps reach me from both
aspects of the divine will.

9. The reservoirs.—These channels are incessantly open,
and the necessary graces flow through them uninterruptedly.
They do not close, but unfortunately, I may close myself, and
the graces that flow, do not flow into me. If I keep myself
open, I receive, according to my measure, the fulness of what
they contain for me.

But further, our Lord has instituted special reservoirs for
special graces, of which it will be enough to mention the two
greatest: prayer and the sacraments. The one is within
everyone’s reach, and from it everyone can draw at will, at
all times and without stint. The other is in the special
keeping of the Church, who has to administer it, and who
only desires to turn on the overflow and let it run. At the
end of this Book, we shall have something to say of these
two reservoirs.

10. My action.—I cannot, in strict right, merit the first
grace, that is to say, the grace that justifies me in coming
out of the state of sin. This grace is always absolutely
gratuitous. As long as it has not come to transform my
nature fundamentally, none of my acts is so adapted to grace
as to merit it. No doubt efforts made with nothing but the
help of actual grace have a certain merit of congruity, but not
a merit of strict right, to receive more abundant graces.

But when once, on the other hand, the divine life has been
communicated to my soul, each act animated by that life
becomes meritorious for fresh graces. Actual grace and
habitual grace may thus be augmented at every moment, in
proportion as I make the resources of life which are within
me bear fruit.

334 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER III
The Necessity of Grace

11. In general.—12. To see.—13. To will.—14. To act.—15. We are
not sufficient.—16. The new life.

11. In general. My all consists in rising to God. Who
can raise me to Him except Himself ? Without Him, I cannot
go to Him. No creature is on God’s level, and no creature
can raise me to Him. And what can J do ?—Of myself, I
cannot go out of myself. When I rely on myself, I do not
go out of myself, I remain within myself in self-seeking. And
if I am raised by God, and cease to rely on God, and rely on
myself, I fall back upon myself; this is reverting to self-
seeking and disorder.

God alone is my strength, my support, my refuge, and my
deliverance : He is my helper, my protector, my strength and
my salvation.1 ‘I am the vine,” says the Lord, “ you are
the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same
beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing ”
(John xv. 5). He does not say: “ without Me, you can do
very little’; but : ‘ without Me, you can do nothing.”

Without Him, I can neither do little nor much, I can do
nothing.

12. To see.—If I desire to be convinced of my impotence
in detail, I have only to remind myself of what I have to do:
to know, to love, to seek : God as my end, His will as my way.
Now, neither seeing, nor loving, nor carrying out, which con-
stitute piety, is within my own power.

The vision of God, which is my true end, to which I have
been called in the merciful design of my Creator, this is abso-
lutely beyond the natural scope of the eye of my intelligence.
I am speaking not only of the eternal vision, face to face, which
will be the great bliss of heaven, and which will only take
place in the splendours of the light of glory ; but I am speaking

1 Diligam te, Domine, fortitudo mea. Dominus firmamentum
meum et refugium meum et liberator meus. Deus meus adjutor

meus et sperabo in eum. Protector meus, et cornu salutis mez, et
susceptor meus (Ps. xvii. 2-4).

THE MEANS: GRACE 335

of that half-dim vision of faith, of the vision of God as reflected
in beings, and of His action as seen in the enigma of their
movements. This vision I am incapable of catching the
faintest glimmer of, if left to myself.

“We are not sufficient,” says St. Paul, to ‘‘ think anything
of ourselves, as of ourselves ; but our sufficiency is from God ”
(2 Cor. ii. 5). Thus, not only the fulness of knowledge,
but a mere thought, a beginning of a supernatural notion,
does not exist in me, or of myself. To see God supernaturally
and God’s action in the mirror of things and in the enigma of
their movements, I must look at them in God’s light. This
light alone can give my eye supernatural insight, alone it
gives the range of vision which is called faith, with the help of
which divine mysteries are revealed to it.

13. To will.—Can my will of itself rise to that love of God
which is called charity, which is the most divine of divine
virtues, which is the soul of all virtues, and which is the real
link between man and God ?—“ The charity of God,” says St.
Paul, “is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who is
given to us” (Rom. v. 5). It is the work, it is the gift, the
great gift of the Holy Ghost. I know that it is God that
worketh in me both to will and to accomplish.! I know that
man’s will and endeavours do not reach that mark, and that
God’s mercy only can attain it.2, Charity is so much the work
of grace that theologians ask if it is distinct from sanctifying
grace. Therefore, to will God’s good, and to love God’s
glory, I need God’s impulse, without which I get deplorably
lost in self-love and in the selfish love of creatures. Grace,
which is the light of my eye to afford it the vision of faith, is
also the warmth of my heart to impart to it an impulse of
love.

14. To act.—Without grace, I am incapable of doing the
least saving work, and the utterance of a single word even is
beyond my strength. ‘No man,” says St. Paul, “can say,
the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost ” (x Cor. xii. 3). If
the mere invocation of the Saviour’s name, such meritorious

1 Deus est enim qui operatur in vobis et velle et perficere pro bona
voluntate (Phil. ii. 13).

? Igitur non volentis, neque currentis, sed miserentis est Dei
(Rom. ix. 16)

336 THE INTERIOR LIFE

and sanctifying invocation as constitutes an act of piety, if
this simple invocation is so high a thing as to be above the
sole powers of my nature, of what work, of what act, am I
capable ? I can do all things in the strength of God ;1 the
things that are impossible with men, are possible with God
(Luke xviii. 27). Thus in the strength of God, I can carry out
the most supernatural works of my vocation. But in the
strength of my natural powers, I cannot rise to any act of
supernatural piety. My strength needs to be increased and
heightened by the supernatural virtue of grace to adapt it
to the operations of the divine life.

15. We are not sufficient.—By my natural faculties, I can
see, will, and act ; but these things do not constitute that
vision, love, and search which make up Christian piety. Piety
is essentially a supernatural work, and presupposes super-
natural life in the soul. The acts of this supernatural life
are exercised by my natural faculties, but only in virtue of
the supernatural principle which animatesthem. My faculties
lend grace the help of their action ; it is through them that
grace acts, but grace is the principal agent, the essential
motive, and the vital cause. My body only acts naturally
in virtue of my soul, and thus my soul only acts supernaturally
in virtue of grace. The soul brings forth natural acts by
making use of the organs of the body ; and grace brings forth
supernatural works by making use of the powers of the soul.
My soul no more suffices for the operations of the supernatural
life than my body for the operations of the natural life:
both the one and the other possess the primary elements,
and as it were the matter of the life; they lack its form ;?
they are not of themselves sufficient,’ in the deeply significant
words of St. Paul. In the body, the least of vital operations
is impossible without the soul, and in the soul, the same is
true without grace ; because the life of the body is the soul,
and the life of the soul is God.4

1 Omnia possum in eo, qui me confortat (Phil. iv. 13)

2 With this difference, that the soul is a substance which animates
the body, and grace a quality infused in the soul.

3 Non quod sufficientes sumus (2 Cor. iii. 5). i

4 Vita carnis tue anima tua, vita anime tue Deus tuus (S. Aug.
tn Joan. tract. xlvii. 7).

THE MEANS: GRACE 337

16. The new life.—Hence, it is a new and higher life that
I need, a supernatural life ; and I am created for this life by
God, as I am created for the life of the body ; it is a second
creation. For it is grace that gives me salvation by faith ;
and that not of myself, for it is the gift of God ; not of works,
lest anyone should glory. I am His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus in good works which God has prepared for me
towalk in.i For every good work I am created, and made
and drawn out of nothingness. Every good work in me is a
creation, that is to say, something that God draws out of my
nothingness ; for in myself Iam nothingness. I have nothing
in my natural being that can give rise to this life. No doubt,
it is my natural being that is raised to this divine partici-
pation ; but the life in itself is not drawn from me, it is
created by God in me.

Therefore, of myself I am as incapable of any good super-
natural work as I am of my own creation. When once created
to natural life, I can perform its acts ; when once created to
supernatural acts, I can also perform its acts ; but the creation
itself is God’s. This is why St. Paul calls it “‘ a new creature ”
(2 Cor. v. 17), a new life,? ‘‘ a new man, who, according to God;
is created in justice, and holiness of truth ” (Eph. iv. 24).
What he here calls “‘ justice and holiness of truth ” is what he
elsewhere calls “‘ doing the truth in charity ” ; and here we
again have the three terms of piety. For me to have this new
life, the life according to God and like God’s, the life which is
justice and holiness of truth, in other words, if I am to have
piety, I must have been created for it ; everything comes
from grace ; truth, holiness, justice; seeing, loving, and seeking
God ; it is grace that makes Christian piety within me.

1 Gratia eum estis salvati per fidem, et hoc non ex vobis, Dei enim
donum est, non ex operibus, ut ne quis glorietur. Ipsius enim
sumus factura, creati in Christo Jesu in operibus bonis, que præparavit

Deus, ut in illis ambulemus (Eph. ii. 8-10).
3 Ita et nos in novitate vite ambulemus (Rom. vi. 4).

22

338 THE INTERIOR LIFE

CHAPTER IV
My Weakness

17. Relying on myself.—18. In my knowledge.—1g. In my will.—
20. In my activity.

17. Relying on myself.—This new life is given me by the
vine of which I am a branch; my life comes from the sap,
and the sap comes from the vine. Without it I have nothing.
I am nothing, nothing but a corpse. On what am I to pre-
sume ? on what shall I plume myself? If I am to presume
on myself, I cut myself off from the vine, I stop the sap, and
I lose life. The limb which the soul does not animate fully
loses its strength, languishes, and dies.

Is not this just what happens to my piety ? Every time I
desire to rely on myself, to reckon upon and to act by myself,
I feel a languor and weakness, and fall ; I cut myself off from
life. If I knew how to analyse my heart and to enter into
the events of my life, I should find that all my weaknesses
and falls were due to self-confidence ; I was weak or fell just
when I wanted to walk by myself and to let go God’s hand ;
and I fell just as far as I let go His hand. The extent and the
secret of every weakness is to be found there. The soul which
reckons on itself will always fall ; the soul which never reckons
on itself will never fall.

And there, too, are to be found the measure and the secret
of all strength. ‘“ As for me,” says St. Paul, “I will glory
in nothing but my infirmities ; for power is made perfect in
infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, :
-that the power of Christ may dwell in me. For which cause I
please myself in my infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities,
in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ. For when I am
weak, then am I powerful ” (2 Cor. xii. 5-10).

18. Inmy knowledge.—To get to know my infirmity, I must
see how far I rely on myself for knowledge, feeling, and action.

As to knowledge, is it not true that I count especially, and
often exclusively, on the powers of my own intelligence ?
How far do I have recourse to God in my intellectual labours,

THE MEANS: GRACE 339

in my reflections, calculations, and forecasts ? If I am draw-
ing up a plan, if I am studying some branch of knowledge,
even if it be sacred knowledge, if I fathom some consideration,
do I trust in grace more than in myself? Do I recur to it
more than to myself? Is it really a light to illumine and
guide my judgements and knowledge? Is it the mistress
of my intellect? Is it the life of my mind? In fine,
grace has rather a narrow place in the life of my mind. My
mind acts too much of its own accord, it relies more on itself
than on God, more on its own light than on that of grace.
How then can I wonder at my own darkness and ignorance,
and at my mistakes and illusions ? ‘“‘ He that followeth Me,
walketh not in darkness, but shall have the light of life,”
says the Author of grace (John vill. 12). We cannot see clearly
without God’s light.

19. In my will.—It is not much better with my heart so
far as the practical action of grace is concerned. The touches
of grace are not the habitual spring of its impulses. Its affec-
tions, its emotions, and its resolutions are too often only
natural. I count upon myself for willing and deciding; I
get attached to a number of things through purely human
impulses, so that the influence of grace is rarely in the ascen-
dant. How, then, can I wonder at my inconstancy and
cowardice, at my failure and discouragement ? Oh, if only
grace were to enter deeply into my heart once for all, and to
rule and direct it, how strong, and firm and immovable I
should be! But how difficult it is to drive out from the
inmost recesses of the heart that self-confidence that arises
from self-love, and incessantly reverts to it! We cannot will
properly without a divine impulse.

20. In my activity.—Are my actions more permeated with
the influence of grace? I go to and fro, I fuss a great deal,
and worry incessantly, and yet make no progress. This is
the general complaint : the world seems to be all in a fever.
It is the most evident sign of universal materialism. Matter
never acts without noise and disturbance ; the action of the
mind is gentle, calm, and silent. Matter means noise ; mind
means silence. What a noise, what.a bustle, what a disturb-

ance there is all about me! ... And is there any more

340 THE INTERIOR LIFE

calmness within me? . .. Grace is so gentle, so peaceful,
so full of calm and silence, and therefore it is so powerful and
efficacious! ...

Human agitation is merely impotence and sterility : God’s
action is gentleness and power. It has an invincible potency
for reaching the end, and an indestructible gentleness in
making use of the means that are useful for the end.!_ Power
and gentleness, nothing canstay them, and nothing can ruffle
them : nothing can stay their advance towards the end, and
nothing can disturb them in their use of means. Such is the
character of wisdom, that is to say, of grace. When it enters
into me, I am less disturbed, and I do something ; when I act
apart from it, I give myself a deal of trouble, and I succeed
in nothing. What calmness and power there are in the saints!

What disturbance and impotence are in myself! .
When shall I be able to let grace bring me peace and strength ?
How long am I to be like a sick man ravaged with fever? He
tosses, and in tossing, he gets weaker and kills himself. And
his penalty is just! He who only relies on himself gets very
weary and constantly loses ground ; he who relies on God has
but little trouble and goes forward quickly. At last let me
sleep in peace and take my rest in the singular hope in which
Thou hast settled me, O my God?! We cannot act well with-
out God’s strength.

CHAPTER V

Remedies for Weakness

21. St. Peter’s example.—22. Do not wonder.—23. Hope.—
24. Relapses.

21. St. Peter’s example.—My great strength lies in knowing
my weakness, and my great weakness lies in thinking myself
strong. I am nothing, and I can do nothing of myself: the
better I understand this, the better I feel it, the stronger I shall

! Attingit a fine usque ad finem fortiter, et disponit omnia suaviter
(Sap. Vili. 1).

2 In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam, quoniam tu, Domine,
singulariter in spe constituisti me (Ps. iv. 9, 10).

on
4

THE MEANS: GRACE 341

be. The greatest of saints is he who best understands his
own nothingness. ‘Everywhere and in all things, I am
instructed,” says St. Paul, “‘ for I can do all things in Him
who strengtheneth me” (Phil. iv. 9). Man’s most obstinate
illusion is that of wanting to reckon on himself. This pre-
sumptuous confidence is only cured by falls, if it be curable
at all.

What an example is that of St. Peter! He had to descend
to the depths of apostasy to get to the bottom of his own
nothingness and to be cured of presumption : and no doubt he
would not otherwise have been cured. The repeated remon-
strances of our Saviour were powerless to enlighten him ; so
obstinate and blind is presumption! O my God ! how often
have I fallen before now! . . . And how often do I still fall !

I constantly find myself down in the depths of disorder,
which means looking for my own satisfaction at God’s expense !

Into this it is that I am always falling back! ...
And why ?—Because I am always wanting to trust in myself,
and to rely on myself! ... Presumption and pride!...
Have all these falls opened my eyes ? . . . will they one day
be opened ? Am I to fall still lower, in order to see my own
nothingness ? O my God! heal me, and keep me from pre-
sumption.

22. Do not wonder.—Henceforward, I will take care never
to rely on myself in anything. But how am I to succeed in
seeing nothing, willing nothing, and doing nothing, except
under the influence of grace ?—Indeed, it is not the work of a
day : to get to this point is to reach the goal of holiness ; for
where grace alone sows, God’s glory alone reaps.

By the fact of the seat of concupiscence which still remains
in me, by the fact of my habits, especially by the fact of self-
love, I shall again be led to rely on myself, and to act apart
from grace, and I shall fall ; the seeking of my own satisfaction
will drag me more or less deeply into disorder, according as I
have more or less forgotten grace. At any rate, I shall no
more wonder, I shall no more be upset, and I shall no more be
discouraged. Wonder, trouble, and discouragement after
sinning, all this comes from pride. Pride thinks itself good
_ and discovers that it is bad, and it is very vexed and upset

342 THE INTERIOR LIFE

about it. It obstinately refuses to go to the fountain-head,
which alone gives goodness, beauty, and power. If I listen
to pride, it is a still greater evil than the fall itself, since it is
a lower depth in the fall; and pride hinders humility from
deriving from the fall the saving fruits which it can get from
everything, even from sin itself.

23. Hope.—I have fallen ; and I know it is because I have
been leaning upon the bruised reed of self: I have leant upon
it, and it has run into my hand and pierced it.! Instead of
being filled with wonder and irritation and discouragement,
I] shall say to myself: ‘‘ This is a good thing, it will kill my
pride.” And very soon I cast myself into God’s arms, and
He at once heals my wound and by His grace gives me back
goodness, beauty, and strength. I shall next speak to my
fallen soul and say: ‘“‘ Why art thou sad, O my soul ? and
why dost thou disquiet me ? Hope in God, for I will still
give praise to-Him: the salvation of my countenance and my
God ”’(Ps. xl. 5, 6). In this way, my shortcomings will crush
my pride, and will help to bring me nearer to God. :

24. Relapses.—It is another ruse and illusion of pride’s
to persuade one at the end of a retreat, for instance, that
henceforth, owing to the resolutions one has taken, there will
be no more relapses. I made such good promises. I took
such firm resolutions! I feel myself so full of decision and
strength! ... Now, “I will pursue after my enemies and
overtake them: and I will not turn again till they are con-
sumed. I will break them, and they shall not be able to stand :
they shall fall under my feet” (Ps. xvii. 38). These are
splendid words, if they spring from hope in God. The grand
fire of hope would be magnificent, if it had in it no breath of
pride. What an amount of confidence there is in self, and in
one’s own resolutions! . .

Relapses will still occur, since confidence in self still remains.
I shall still be wounded in the fray, and perhaps cast down ;
I ought to expect, and even to foresee this. The roads of the
slave-caravans through the great African deserts are tracked

1 Ecce confidis super baculum arundineum confractum istum ...

cui si innixus fuerit homo, intrabit in manum ejus et perforabit eam
(Is. xxxvi. 6).

/

THE MEANS: GRACE 343

by the remains of human bones, the wreckage of the corpses
of the poor slaves who have fallen by the way. On the road
of perfection, my path is strewn with the remains of my pride,
fallen wherever I have stumbled myself. It is these falls of
mine that are instructive. Often I perceive my own confi-
dence in self only at the moment of my fall. At any rate, in
falling, I am able to see my self-confidence and weakness.
And I must profit by this: it is a great means of progress to
me. And I shall go forward in proportion as I succeed in
transferring my confidence to God and His grace from myself
and my own means. And I shall be fully sure of my road
onward, when divine grace is all my support and all my
strength.

CHAPTER VI
Prayer

25. All exercises are productive of grace.—26. The soul’s aspiration
and respiration.—27. We must pray always.—28. Ask in the
name of Jesus.—29. Why God makes us pray to Him.—30. The
function of prayer in piety.

25. All exercises are productive of grace.—I now must briefly
consider exercises which are productive of grace. I know
how much I need divine grace, without which I can neither
enter into the way, nor advance in the interior life : I therefore
greatly need exercises to produce grace. First of all, it is well
to remark that the exercises that dispose my soul towards
piety, and accustom it to turn to God, to approach Him and
to submit to His action, open up by this very fact sources of
grace. What, indeed, is actual grace but an impress of light;
movement, and energy imparted to my powers bythe operation
of divine action upon me ? All that subjects me to such action
or brings me within range of it therefore contributes to increase
the divine impulses of actual grace with regard to me and
within me. On the other hand, if my soul is justified from
the taint of mortal sin, every act that brings me nearer to

344 THE INTERIOR LIFE

God merits a new sanctifying grace, and in this way, every
pious exercise turns out to be a channel of grace in some sort.

26. The soul’s aspiration and respiration.—But there is
an exercise which is in a manner more divine and substan-
tial, and which has a still greater power of drawing one
nearer to God, and is yet more productive of grace, —and this
is prayer. Prayer, the great means of drawing near, the great
channel of grace! Prayer, the universal means, within
everybody’s reach in all circumstances ! This is the first means
of the soul which desires to rise, the supreme means of him
who would touch the heights of heaven. It is a means of
sovereign efficacy for approaching God and obtaining His grace.

For approaching God.—What is prayer ?—It is the lifting
up of the soul to God.—What is needed, if one is to rise towards
God ?—Two things : to leave self, and to goto Him. To leave
self, I must feel my own wretchedness ; to go to Him, I must
feel His goodness. To feel the wretchedness, the emptiness,
the want, the nothingness of my being, my lack of resources
and of life in myself, to be sensible of my dearth of vital air ;
and then to fling open upon God’s infinity the window which
will let in an influx of divine air to my lungs—this is prayer ;
such are the two movements of aspiration and respiration,
exactly corresponding with the two fundamental movements
of piety, the putting off of self, and the seeking of God.

27. We must pray always.—Further, prayer is the vital
sustenance of piety. The devout soul feeds upon prayer, as
the lung is fed with air, or the stomach with food. ‘ We
ought always to pray, and not to faint,” says the Saviour
(Luke xviii. 1). It is as if He were to say: ‘‘ We must always
breathe, and never stop.” To stop prayer is the same thing
to piety as to stop breathing would be to the lungs, it means
to stop life itself.

If I would live the incomparable life of piety, if I would
expand in it, I must constantly inhale the divine air, and
exhale my soul in God. In whatever way I may do this, by
inward or outward acts, by my own words or by using set
prayers, it matters little; the essential thing is for me to
breathe. This breathing need not be done in any particular
fixed way, it may be done by any of the movements of my

THE MEANS: GRACE 345

vital activity. Every act of the mind, or heart, or senses,
may be a prayer; ought I not to say, must be a prayer ?—
Yes, it should be so, since our Lord says: Oportet—" we
ought.” And what is required that it may be so ?—The act
must be a getting away from self and an approach to God. It
is thus that life becomes a prayer, and that prayer becomes
vital. Forms are only necessary so far as they are ordered
in certain circumstances, or so far as they help to keep up
my divine breathing.

28. Ask in the name of Jesus.—Such is prayer in its func-
tion of the preparation and adaptation of my soul to God. It
also has its part in the production of grace. It obtains it in
virtue of the formal promise of the Author of grace. ‘ Amen,
amen, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father anything
in My name, He will give it you” (John xvi. 23). Jesus
makes a solemn engagement in His own name, and in His
Father’s name: all that is asked for shall be given. But, says
He, only what I ask for in His name. What is the meaning
of “‘in His name ?”’—It means that one must be recognized,
and recommended by Him; and belong to His fold. And
then, it means that the prayer must be made for the same
purpose as that for which He has purchased grace. If I ask
for God’s glory and for my own salvation, I am sure to be
answered. Nothing thus asked can be refused, since, in
praying thus, one praysin Jesus’name. “ Ask, and it shall be
given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be
opened to you. For every one that asketh, receiveth : and
he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall
be opened ”’ (Matt. vil. 7, 8). Ask for strength to act, andit
shall be given you ; seek for warmth for your heart, and you
shall find it ; knock at the door of light for your mind, and it
shall be opened unto you. Yes, O my God, I will ask, I will
seek, and I will knock, for I desire to live. I will ask for
myself and for others, and for all God’s Holy Church. There
are so many and such great interests to pray for. I will
extend my petitions, I will increase the number of my en-
treaties and endeavours, until those designs, to fulfil which
Love means to make use of my life, are realized in me and
through me, according to the entire scope of my vocation.

346 THE INTERIOR LIFE

29. Why God makes us pray to Him.—But why does God
make us pray to Him for His grace ?—Why ? ... Must I
not be near Him, if He is to grant me His gifts ? And is it
not the purpose of my life to go to Him ? Had He not bound
me to pray, I should have remained all the time in myself,
and I should be abusing His gifts far away from Him. Thus
I should be spending my life like the prodigal son ; and as long
as I had any means to waste afar off, I should never return to
Him. It is necessity that brings me back to Him. When I
feel my need and the riches of my father’s house, I rise and
return, that is to say, I pray.

And God waits for me to come quite close to Him to embrace
_ me, that is to say, to give me His grace. This is why He
makes me wait before He answers me. The dilatory means
which He sometimes uses with regard to me are only intended
to make me approach closer still. Oh, how good God is to
make me pray, and to make me go on praying long ; thus it is
that He stirs me to rise towards Him, to press nearer to Him,
and to enter into Him. O my God, when shall I understand
Thy mercy and all the loveliness of prayer ?

30. The function of prayer in piety —What a wonderful
instrument of life is prayer, with its twofold power of uplifting
and intercession! Especially is this the case, when this
instrument is combined with that other of the glance of self-
examination. While the glance sets right, overlooks, and
directs views and intentions and efforts, prayer elevates,
brings near, and establishes that divine contact which is my
whole life.! This contact it is that makes it firm and perfect,
and continuously more intimate, more connected, and more
complete.

And the more the soul is uplifted towards and united with
God, the more it obtains. Its prayer induces an almost
illimitable increase of grace, and the divine current is all the
more intense the more fully it circulates. How many and
great are the currents thus set up in the Church by the potency
of true prayer! What an instrument is this in the hands of
those who know how to use it !

1 See Part II, Book III, § 11.

THE MEANS: GRACE 347

CHAPTER VII

The Sacraments

31. Sensible signs.—32. The seven sacraments.—33. The seeds im-
planted.—34. The rights conferred.—35. The treasures accumu-
lated.

31. Sensible signs.—Here are the great reservoirs and
channels of grace, instituted by Jesus Christ for the super-
natural sustenance of souls : hence is divine life to be drawn,
and hence comes its greatest abundance. The Saviour has
been pleased to make use of these sensible means to inundate
the elect of God with floods of supernatural life. Asin Jesus
Christ, so in the sacraments the two extremes are united.
In Him God and man are joined together ; in the sacrament
divine grace is joined to the sensible sign that effects it.
Why ?—In order to declare and realize, from one end of crea-
tion to the other, the great divine idea which presided over the
great work and determined it—union. God united with man
in the person of Jesus Christ, this was the climax of the divine
work. He unites and incorporates His grace with material
signs, the opposite extreme of creation; and thus every
creature becomes united with the divine current. This divine
supernatural life I draw from creatures which are below me.
Thus was His loving care able, so to speak, to go the whole
round of my being, and to bring back to me, by the lower and
material side of it, the grace which is to spiritualize me.
Starting from the topmost heights, it springs at last from
below me to bear me towards the summits from which it first
arose.

32. The seven sacraments.—There are seven sacraments,
f.c., seven springs of life, answering to the wants of my terres-
trial existence. First of all, the initial sacrament that sows
the seeds of eternity, Baptism, which changes a child of
Adam into a Christian, a child of God, of the Church, and of
eternity. Confirmation fructifies the baptismal seeds by
bringing to the soul the seven gifts of the life-giving Spirit.
The Eucharist feeds the holy growth with a substance which

348 THE INTERIOR LIFE

is none other than the very substance of the Son of God and
the Son of man, the sovereign food of the divine life and of
the human life in the Christian, since Jesus Christ has the
fulness of the divine life and the human life.

Penance repairs what is damaged, and cures what is dis-
eased ; it even brings back from death, since it wipes out
mortal sin, which is the.death of the soul. It is a wonderful
remedy, always healing, never losing its efficacy or disappoint-
ing ; always at hand, and in readiness, adapted to every kind
of disease or death ; only demanding of the sick or dead man
a desire for restoration or revival. Then, there is Extreme
Unction, the last of our earth-life’s consecrations and purifica-
tions, and the preparation for the life eternal, when the soul
is standing on its threshold.

Lastly, there are the two sacraments which continue and
preserve the sacred seed. Holy Order, which consecrates
those who are to propagate the divine life ; and Holy Marriage,
which consecrates those who are to propagate human life:
these are the two social sacraments, par excellence ; the sacra-
ments, not of individual growth, but of social increase. God
has ordained that all life is to increase and multiply.

33. The seeds implanted.—I have received and participated
in the sacraments: have I got any fruit from doing so?
There are three things in the sacraments ; and in these three
things I have not faith enough ; and this is why I do not
obtain from them a satisfactory return, and why I am unable
to have as much recourse to them as I ought. I have not
enough faith in the seeds implanted, nor in the rights accorded,
nor in the treasures accumulated. For the sacraments pro-
duce sanctifying grace with the seeds of the habits that accom-
pany it, sacramental grace with the rights that are inherent in
it, and actual grace with the treasures that flow from it.

The seeds implanted :—all the sacraments produce sancti-
fying grace ; Baptism and Penance create it where it does not
exist ; the other sacraments increase it. To what extent ?—
According to the capacity of the soul into which they enter ;
for, in themselves, the sacraments are illimitable in their
efficacy. It is an ocean from which one may draw without
ever Ciminishing it. It is a holy fountain, always flowing for

THE MEANS: GRACE — 349

everyone, from which everyone may draw according to the
size of the vessel which he brings with him.

With sanctifying grace are connected the infused habits of
the Christian virtues: divine seeds implanted at first in
Baptism, and afterwards swollen with the sap of all the sacra-
ments received. IfI only had a practical faith in these seeds
and in this sap, the soil of my soul would not remain barren,
and I should bring forth to the glory of God other fruits than
those which I bear.

34. The rights conferred.—The sacraments produce sacra-
mental grace. What is this grace ?—It is a right, founded
on sanctifying grace, and in virtue of which I can demand
and receive at the proper time the help of actual grace which
is fitted to increase the fruits of the sacrament. Each sacra-
ment has its own purpose and effects, and this purpose has to
be realized, and these effects are to be ensured. And for all
this, by the very privilege conferred by the sacrament, receive
a right to get the necessary help. In the three sacraments of
Baptism, Confirmation and Holy Order, this right rests upon
an indelible character. Hence, the person who is baptized
has a right to the help needed to maintain him in his dignity
of being a Christian; the confirmed person has a right to
such help as will sustain his strength as a soldier of Christ ;
the penitent has a right to what ensures his cure ; the com-
municant has a right to such assistance as enables him to get
the benefits of the divine food ; the sick man has a right to
what carries on his purification up to the moment of death ;
the priest has a right to the assistance needed for his ministry ;
and the married person has a right to those helps required
for the discharge of his immense responsibilities as a
parent.

If only I knew how to preserve these rights and te fall
back upon them! Assuredly, if God gives them me, it is not
for me to neglect them. He lays duties upon me that I may
fulfil them ; and he confers these rights upon me that I may
make use of them. The rights are correlative to duties: if
I make no use of the former, I shall not fulfil the latter. No,
I have not enough faith in these sacred rights, I am not aware
enough of their value ; I do not think of claiming them nor of

350 THE INTERIOR LIFE

turning them to the best account. And by neglecting
. my rights, I allow the fruits of the sacraments to run to
waste. |

35. The treasures accumulated.— Every time I receive the
sacrament, it effects a wholesome stir in my soul: it brings
light to my mind, warmth to my heart, and strength to my
energies. It is an impulse imparted to my life by God. If I
only had faith in God, faith in His grace, and faith in the
instruments of His grace, should I then be so cold and cowardly
and backward in receiving the two sacraments which should be
more especially my daily food and the restoration of my
inward life ? All the treasures of sustenance and cure are
there. All calls upon me to make use of them : the wretched-
ness that I feel, and the facilities put in my way, and the
exhortations I receive, and the examples that are given me,
and my own experience and the experience of others, and the
desires of the Church, and those of God Himself.

And in spite of all this, I am so cold! Can it be that Iam
so careless as to living for God and according to God! O
holy treasures of piety, should I neglect you so, if I wished
_ to advance in you? He who means to get rich does not
shrink thus when he can take from the store of treasures in
front of him with both hands. Henceforward, let me have
a more living and effectual and practical faith in the seeds,
the rights, and the treasures of the sacraments.

CHAPTER VIII

The Blessed Virgin

36. The Mother of piety. —37. Hatl, Mary !—38. Full of grace.—
39. The Lord ts with thee.—40. Blessed art thou among women

36. The Mother of piety—I know how much I need grace,
and how weak I am of myself; I know to what heights of
humility God calls me, and how far I am from attaining to
them. When such heights rise before one and such weakness
is within one, it is a good thing to feel the hand of God ever

SNe je a

THE MEANS: GRACE 351

near, and ever acting. It isa good thing to trust in this divine
Providence, who by the works of His good pleasure comes to
raise our death to life, to give strength to our weakness, to
encourage us in our cowardice, and to uplift us in our humility.
And how good is it to see on the highest peaks of holiness
a Mother who bends towards me to support me with her hand,
to cheer me with her heart, and to guide me with her look !
Mary is on high close to God, the Queen of humbleness, the
Mother of divine grace, God’s Mother and mine. She bends
towards me to say: “I am the pure Mother of fair love and
fear and knowledge, that is to say, the Mother of piety, since |
these three things constitute piety. And I, too,am the Mother
of holy hope ; for piety which, as thy Mother, I form and feed
in thee on earth, shall only expand in all its fulness in heaven ;
trained on earth, enjoyed in heaven. I am thy Mother in
time and in eternity. For thee I keep all graces, graces of
the way, and graces of the end ; and all hopes, hopes of life
above, and hopes of strength on earth to carry thee to heaven.
O come to me, all ye that desire me ; come, and I will fill you
with the fruit of my womb. My spirit; which will give you
life, is sweeter than honey, and the inheritance to which I
will lead you is sweeter than the honeycomb.’

37. Hail, Mary !—Osweet and holy Mother, I desire to come
to thee: yes, I desire to place my hand in thine, my heart in
thine, and to fix my looks upon thine. I yearn and want so
much to live the life of piety, the treasures of which are in thee !
Hail, Mary! Hail! O Queen and Mother of mercy, thou art
my life, my sweetness, and my hope, hail to thee! A poor
child of death, exiled from the life of God, to thee do I cry.
To thee do I send up my sighs, mourning and weeping in this
vale of tears. O my dear Mother and Protectress, turn thine
eyes of mercy towards me. Bea Mother to me : create in me
that life which I cannot make for myself. Thou canst form
in me this life of God, since thou art the Mother of God;
thou canst create it, since thou dost possess it in its im-

1 Ego mater pulchræ dilectionis, et timoris, et agnitionis, et sanctæ
spei. In me gratia omnis viæ et veritatis, in me omnis spes vite et
virtutis. Transite ad me omnes qui concupiscitis me et a generationibus
meis implemini. Spiritus enim meus super mel dulcis, et hæreditas
mea super mel et favum (Eccli xxiv. 24-27).

352 THE INTERIOR LIFE

measurable fulness ; thou canst create it, since God has bidden
thee be my Mother, and entrusted to thee all life’s riches for
me. O Mother of God, Mother of divine grace, and my own
Mother, make me live by God, with God, and in God.

38. Full of grace.—From the first moment of her immaculate
conception, Mary, preserved from every taint, was adorned
with graces proportioned to her vocation : she was full of grace.
And during the whole of her mortal life she was faithful to
her vocation, and perpetually referred to the glory of the Most
High all that she received from Him. No atom of the sacred
gift was lost or turned aside or unused. The immensity of the
talents entrusted to her bore fruit in its entirety, and no sin
or imperfection, no turning aside, no attachment to creatures,
came to check their increase. Mary from the beginning was
in a perfect state of unity, and at the highest height of sanc-
tity. Preserved from original sin, she never had any need of
purification: none of the divine gifts granted to her were
swallowed up by the needs of self-stripping ; hence, all went
to increase the treasure of her merits, and helped to glorify
and increase her in God. What a life, what merits, and what
holiness! ... She was full of grace. In myself, what soul-
sickness swallows up the resources of life ! in her, nothing is
swallowed up. I allow so much of my time to pass away in
unfruitfulness! she, on the other hand, made use in all its
fulness of every moment God gave her.

Having thus made use of God’s gifts, she can teach me
how to use them. Set at the head of the way, she can show
me how to get there. A perfect model of all virtues, she
can raise her children. A mirror of justice, she can correct
their faults. Yes, I may indeed have confidence in such a
Mother! God made me her child, and I am sure that my
Mother will not allow a child who wishes to love her, to be
near her, and to be like her, to become too far off or too un-
worthy of her. The higher she is, and the more perfect she
is, the better I can hope Mothers do not like being separated
from their children.

39. The Lord is with thee.—No one can be a mother, unless
she gives life: maternity presupposes a communication of
life Mary is a Mother, and she is the Mother of God ; for

THE MEANS: GRACE 353

of her was born Jesus, who was called Christ.!_ She gave life
to Him who is the life of the world. She is thus pre-eminently
the Mother of my life ; for, for me to live is Christ? Christ
came to be the head of the body, of which all the redeemed
become members. Heis the Vine, I am the branch. Mary,
the Mother of the Vine, is also Mother of the branches.

By the privilege of her divine motherhood, Mary’s place in
the divine intimacy is above that of all creatures. Angels
and men, all are inferior to her ; for no dignity, whether angelic
or human, is comparable with the dignity of the Mother of
God. The Lord is with her, and she is with the Lord in a
supereminent way. And, in order to be raised to this dignity,
Mary had a fulness of grace and a fulness of humility, before
which the united greatness of angels and men fades away.
The greatness of the Mother of God! . . . all the ages have
echoed forth its praise, and yet have not told what it is. All
the ages shall proclaim her blessedness, as she has herself
foretold :3 and yet they will never declare it as it is. And no
creature will ever tell what it is to be the Mother of God, and
what were the grace and humility that made her this.

40. Blessed art thou amongst women.—Full of grace in the
incomparable privilege of her perpetual virginity, entering
into the Saviour’s intimacy by the still more incomparable
privilege of her divine motherhood, Mary is blessed amongst
women in the privilege of her human motherhood. The great
benediction of womanhood is motherhood. And Mary
amongst all women is the Mother, for she is Mother of all the
sanctified. It is she who is used by God for the purpose of
giving supernatural life to all the elect ; for He has made her
the universal distributor of grace. He has made her the
channel of graces distributed to angels and men. Our Father,
who is in heaven, willed that all His favours should pass
through the heart and hands of a mother, so that His children
may have all the sweetness of family relationships.

Iam of the family of God.4 God, who is my Father, gives me

1 De qua natus est Jesus, qui vocatur Christus (Matt. i. 16).

* Mihi enim vivere Christus est (Phil. i. 21).

% Ecce enim ex hoc beatam me dicent omnes generationes (Luc. i. 48).
* Sed estis cives sanctorum et domestici Dei (Eph. ii. 19).

23

354 _ THE INTERIOR LIFE

all things through Mary my Mother ; and all together, both
angels and men, participate in the graces of our Father and
Mother. Who would dare to be discouraged, if he only
understood a little the heart of his God and the heart of his
Mother ? O my God, I hope in Thee, I am sure that Thou wilt
sanctify me ;O my Mother, O Mother blessed amongst women,
I fling myself into thy arms, and by thee I hope to obtain all
things, grace and strength, virtue and life, purity and glory.
By thy help I shall become worthy of thee and of God, worthy
to sing with thee the praises of our common Father, and in
Him to enjoy with thee the bliss eternal.

CHAPTER IX
Jesus Christ

41. Invocation.—42. God and man: their union in Jesus Christ.—
43. In myself.—44. In this book.—45. Which is only a Preface.

41. Invocation.—O my Jesus, hitherto I have spoken but
little of Thee. To begin with, it is so hard to speak well of
Thee! and I am so poor a speaker! I would contemplate
Thee and get to know Thee in order to be able to say a little
about Thee. But, like Simon Peter, I am wholly astonished,
and I can only cast myself at Thy feet and say : “ Depart from
me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord !”1

I have said little of Thee, and yet I have spoken only for
Thee. I have only attempted one sole thing: to find the
secret of becoming like Thee. And I have tried to fathom
the depths of this secret, for it is a secret that seems to me
exceeding deep. I did not strive to discover with the saints
what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth? I
am too small to reach to such greatness.

At any rate, I desired to discover something of the depth

1 Simon Petrus procidit ad genua Jesu, dicens: Exia me, quia homo
peccator sum, Domine. Stupor enim circumdederat eum (Luc. v. 8).

2 In caritate radicati et fundati, ut possitis comprehendere cum
omnibus sanctis, que sit latitudo et sublimitas et profundum

(Eph. iti. 17, 18).

THE MEANS: GRACE 355

and to find out the primary roots and foundations of charity,
which will finally succeed in attaining to all this greatness.

42. God and man: their union in Jesus Christ.—In the
Preface, I said that this book was itself only a Preface ; and,
in conclusion, I have to say the same thing. “The real
central dogma of Christianity,” says Soloviev,? “is the inti-
mate and entire union of the divine with the human, without
confusion, and without division.”

For His own glory and for His creature’s happiness, God
willed the union of His creature with Himself. The absolutely
perfect consummation of this union lies in the adorable Person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is both God and man. He is
perfect God and perfect man ; God and man united together
in a personal, indissoluble union ; united without confusion,
and without division. This is the climax of the divine idea.

During seven centuries, the Church strove against heresies
which were perpetually renewed, and which attacked one after
the other every side of this primordial and fundamental
dogma of Christianity. From the first of the Gnostics to the
last of the Iconoclasts, heretics raged sometimes against the
integrity of the divine nature in Christ, sometimes against the
integrity of His human nature, and sometimes against both.
And truth emerged from the darkness, and the union of the
divine and the human in Jesus Christ remained the foundation
of the Christian faith.

Why were there these struggles ? Why was the whole force
of the Church so intensely concentrated on this point through
so many centuries ?—Because Jesus Christ is the foundation
of the human and divine edifice, and because the divine and
human union, if it were broken in Jesus Christ, would be

_ broken up throughout humanity.

43. In myself.—1t is through Jesus Christ, and in His body
and in His likeness, that every man must participate in the
divine union. What is a Christian ?—He is a man who bears
the likeness of Jesus Christ, and is a member of His body.
And how am I to become a member of His body and to bear
His image ?—By realizing within me, as far as I can, that

4 Sce § 3.
2 La Russie et l'Eglise universelle.

356 THE INTERIOR LIFE

union which is the specific idea and the essential characteristic
of Christianity: union with God, without mixture or con-
fusion, without deterioration or lesion, without separation or
division : the union of my being with the divine being, of my
life with the divine life: union through the perfection of my
being and of my life by my uplifting to participate in the divine |
nature: union by the subordination of my being and of my
life to the being and the life of God. For the divine is superior
and anterior to the human; and, in the union of the two, it
is the superior that must govern the inferior. As the soul
governs the body, so must God govern man.

And that is the basis and the substance of the Christian
idea, it is the foundation of the structure, the skeleton of the
body, the root of the plant. If the Christian structure is
wanting in this substance, it will only be a lovely outward
polish. Polish is easily found : substance is more rarely met
with.

44. In this book.—Here I have tried to employ but little
polish, and a great deal of substance. In fact, it seems to
me that I have only desired, pursued, and considered one
thing: divine union, the union of my whole being with God
only. How ?—By disclosing the divine glory as the supreme
end, hovering above, shining down, and attracting ; by liber-
ating my satisfaction and my whole being, separating it from
the fascination of creatures, perfecting it by purification, and
by this process of improvement applying it to the glory of
God ; by reducing creatures and their pleasures to the sole
instrumental function assigned to them in God’s plan :—such
is the purpose of Part I.

And what is the endeavour of Part II ?—To subject the
human activity to the divine, in order that the divine may
succeed in ruling the human absolutely, since the union
between the two cannot exist unless the one is controlled by
the other.

And in Part III, the simplification and the unification of
the exercises of piety, and their relations to grace and divine
activity, also show how far the one tendency of all the means
is towards divine union.

Hence, here there is, indeed, the primary substance of the

RT ra ee

THE MEANS: GRACE 357

Christian life from its first growth to its full expansion, and
the fundamental secret of the formation of the divine-human
life.

45. It is only a Preface.—But here is only the skeleton of
the body, the framework of the building, the root of the tree.
O Jesus, Thou art the vine and I am the branch.! Thou art
the head, and I am the member.? Thou art the corner-
stone and the foundation,’ and I am only a very little stone
in the building. In Thee must I grow, in Thee must I be
built up, for the eternal glory of Thy Father and my Father,
of Thy God and my God. Thus art Thou my end, since in
Thee I am to be consummated in unity. Therefore I ought
to study Thy eternal life in God and Thy mystical life in the
Church, so as to contemplate my end therein.

But Thou art also my way. For Thou camest into our
midst to live our life, doing the will of Thy Father who sent
Thee, so as to lead us in the eternal way®5 by the example
of Thy conduct and by the words of Thy teaching. And no
one goeth unto the Father, but by Thee. Therefore, I ought
to study Thy mortal life and Thy teaching, in order to find
my way therein.

And Thou didst will, in Thy humanity, to become the
mediator between God and men,’ that is to say, to become
our vital means by winning for us the graces of life by Thy
sufferings and death. Therefore, I ought to study Thy suffer-
ings and death, in order to find the means of life therein. .. .

Thou art the vine, and I am the branch; Thou art the
body, and I am the member. The branch lives with the tree
on the life of the tree ; the member lives with the body by
the life of the body. Thus, O Jesus, my life, I live in Thee,
and by Thee. From Thee I receive the divine blood, and the
divine sap ; from Thee I await my growth.

Hence, Thou art my end, my way, and my means. Thou

1 Ego sum vitis, vos palmites (Joan. xv. 5).

Et ipsum dedit caput supra omnem Ecclesiam (Eph i. 22).

Ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Jesu (Eph. ii. 20).

Et ipsi tanquam lapides vivi superædificamini (1 Pet. ii. 5).

Deduc me in via eterna (Ps. cxxxviii. 24).

Nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me (Joan. xiv. 6).

Unus et mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Jesus
a Tim, ii. 5).

I 20e OF

358 THE INTERIOR LIFE

Thyself hast said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life’ (John xiv. 6).

O Jesus, be unto me indeed Jesus, and lead me with Thee
in the ways of piety, wherein I shall serve, love, and see God
in the enigma of this life and in the brightness of the life
eternal. Amen. Fiat!

CHAPTER X

General Résumé

46. Unity.—47. Life.—48. A commandment which lies very close to
me.—49. An easy way.—50. Prayer.

46. Unity.—To sum up : three points stand out very promin-
ently from this exposition as a whole: they are the marks
for piety to aim at : the glory of God, the dominant purpose of
my life ; the “‘ Thank Thee ” in acceptance of the will of God,
ruling the way of piety ; the glance of self-examination, ruling
the means. These three things are interdependent, and
unite piety in one. Thus is all piety reduced to unity : unity
of end, unity of way, unity of means, unity of the whole.
There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, says the great
Apostle. There is only one God and Father of all, who is
above all, and towards whom we must rise, who is in ws all
to raise us to Himself, and who gives us all things as means to
go to Him.

How easy is it for a soul who has understood this to go
forward by this means on this way and towards this end!
Is not piety, of a truth, thus understood, thus delivered from
the manifold complications in the maze of which people so
often get lost, brovght within the reach of all who are eager
for perfection ? It seems to be great, reall y great and infinite,
like God ; and I see more clearly the breadth of our Lord’s
words : “‘ Be ye perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect ”
(Matt. v. 48). But this greatness is so simple in its unity !

? Unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma. Unus Deus et Pater

omnium, qui est super omnes, et per omnia et in omnibus nobis
(Eph. iv. 4, 5).

RC ee ee TS

THE MEANS: GRACE 359

47. Life.—Hence, unity is everywhere, and everywhere,
too, is life. The opening chapter of Part I is headed : “ Life ”
And what, indeed, did I do all through the four Books of
Part I, except meditate on the elements, the organization,
the growth, and the crowning of my life? Part II showed
me the ways of life, and the means of life are the subject of
Part III. The whole work is entitled ‘‘ The Interior Life.”
It is, indeed, this that I have been trying to discover without
stopping or swerving ; life in its first springs, life with God,
the interior life ; not a life of external agitation, and which,
in its separation, is only a waste of existence.

O God, in these meditations I feel that I have found a
real desire to live; to live, which means constant growth,
and growing by every means ; growth in Thee, by Thee, for
Thee ; growth unending, unresting, until I rest in the peace
of eternity.

48. A commandment which lies very close to me.—No, in-
deed, ‘‘ this commandment, that I command thee this day,
is not above thee, nor far off from thee: nor is it in heaven,
that thou shouldst say : Which of us can go up to heaven to
bring it unto us, that we may hear and fulfil it in work ?
Nor is it beyond the sea; that thou mayest excuse thyself,
and say : Which of us can cross the sea, and bring it unto us,
that we may hear, and do that which is commanded ? But
the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that thou mayest doit. Consider that I have set before
thee this day life and good, and on the other hand death and
evil: . . . Choose therefore life, that both thou and thy seed
may live: and that thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and
obey His voice, and adhere to Him—for He is thy life and
the length of thy days”? (Deut. xxx. 11-20). He is thine
everlasting life.

49. An easy way.—‘‘ And a path and a way shall be there.
and it shall be called the holy way : the unclean shall not pass
over it : and this shall be unto you a straight way, so that fools
shall not err therein ”’ (Is. xxxv. 8).

There it lies before me, the path of perfection : there goes
the great way of holiness. It is the only way, the way the
saints have trod. Few there are who find it (Matt. vii. 14);

360 = THE INTERIOR LIFE

for he who is tainted with seeking self and creatures knows it
not. He, indeed, goes by the manifold and hard ways of
creatures, but he is unaware of the way of God.1 The latter is
not hard, it is but one, direct, straight, short, easy, and sure.
One can go forward in it without fear and without danger.
It does not need wisdom of judgement, nor skill in execution.
The most simple, the most ignorant, the most stupid, run no
risk of going astray therein. It is within everybody’s reach.
In conclusion, let us listen to the advice of wise Tobias:
“Bless God at all times: and desire of Him to direct thy
ways, and that all thy counsels may abide in Him ” (Tob. iv.
20).

50. Prayer.—O God, the Father of my life; grant that, in
all the perfection whereof I am capable, to-day and all the
days of my life, docile to the grace of Thy Holy Spirit, and
faithful to the means of sanctification, I may ever conform to
the dispositions of Thy Providence and be true to the duties of
my state of life, in order that for Thee above all, and for Thee
alone, I may grow in Jesus Christ by the working of truth in
charity, and that I may rejoice in the sole and supreme glory
of Thy holy name. Amen.

1 Ambalavimus vias difficiles viam autem Domini ignoravimus
(Sap. v. 7).

et hia at,

55

SUMMARY
OF THE INTERIOR LIFE SIMPLIFIED

PREFACE

To-day there are, unfortunately, too many who, though they
are called to live a Serious life and have serious desires, are
stifling in sentimentalism and becoming dispersed in incoherent
and disconnected practices, sinking beneath the pettiness of poor
ideals. And yet they were made for the heights, and their ascent
would uplift those around them towards the things of God.

It is for such that I would outline the framework of the Chris- |
tian life, showing it from foundation to roof, setting forth its
structure, the work to be done, and the tools to be used. Such
is the aim of this work, which is divided into three parts.

Part I is entitled THE END, and deals with the life to be
lived. Jt gives the building to be erected, and shows the plan.

Part II is entitled THE WAY, and deals with the work to be
done. It gives the mode of erection, and shows the rules.

Part III is entitled THE MEANS, and deals with the instru-
ments to be used. It gives the materials, and shows their use.

This Summary is intended (1) to givea single rapid general view of
the whole of the larger work, (2) to serve as a handy reminder for
retreats, the numbers and titles always enabling reference to be made
for amplification to a corresponding chapter of the complete work.

363

PART 1

THE END
(p. 1)

Life (p. 3).—An examination of all kinds of life shows that life is
nothing else than the development of a vital principle. The
principle is one, its developments are many : the many develop-
ments spring from a single principle.

What is the principle ? what are the developments ? how do
these developments spring from the principle? These three
questions are at the root of all life.

Like all life, the spiritual life is the development of a principle.
What is this principle ?—It is well known ; its developments are
less so, and especially the way in which the developments spring
from the principle is too little known. To consider the principle,
its developments, and their mutual connexion is what I here
propose to do: thus I shall go down to the very roots of the
interior life.

In this Part I, I am going to look at life, which is my end:
and I shall consider it : 1. in its elements ; 2. in its organization ;
3. in its growth ; 4. in its summits. Hence four Books,

365

BOOK I

THE ELEMENTS
(p. 7)

1. The purpose of creation (p. 8).—The fundamental principle
which is developed throughout the spiritual life is that which is
set at the beginning of religion, at the head of the Creed: “I
believe in God the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and
earth.” All flows from this.

God has created everything: all things are the work of His
hands. But if He created them, it was for a purpose ; for He is
wise, and He created them in His wisdom.

God had a purpose, and could have had one only. This purpose
is Himself and His glory. God’s creation was for His own glory.

He could have had no other than this essential end. For had
He referred His action to any other than Himself, He would
have referred Himself to this other, who would have been greater
than He : and then God would not have been God.

God’s glory, which is the one essential end of all beings, is
also their one and only good ; for a being cannot have any true
good apart from its end.

Every being is made to glorify God, and every being finds its
happiness in glorifying God.

2. My end (p. 10).—Further I am created by God, and I am
created for God. His glory is my essential end, the reason of my
existence, my only good, my whole self.

My essential end : nothing else in my life is essential.

The reason of my existence: it is the reason of my life, the
reason of my death, and the reason of my eternity.

My only good : J have no other good than this, and than what
leads me to this.

My whole self: if I do not work for the glory of God, I do
nothing, I am good for nothing, I am nothing.

With His own glory God has united my happiness, so that in
giving glory to God Iam made happy in Him. This blessedness
begins here, and is completed hereafter.

3. Union (p. 14).—Amidst the infinite number of ways in which
He might have been glorified in His creature, God chose the mode of
supernatural union, of participation in His divine life. This was
quite a free gift of His goodness! It is by my union with Him,
by the union of my life with His, that I am called to give glory
to my Creator.

This supereminent mode of union is freely proposed to me:

366

SUMMARY 367

I may rise to such a height, just as I may fail to do so. If I do
not attain to it, I shall lose my happiness ; but God will not lose
His glory, which will make good its rights over me by the justice
of punishment. .

4. The order of my relations with God (p. 17).—In this union to
which I am called, there is God’s part, and my part; there is His
glory, and there is my happiness. Are these two things on the
same footing ?—No : His glory is essential, before all, and above
all. It is the first and dominant end.

5. The dependence of my satisfaction (p. 20).—My temporal and
eternal happiness is annexed thereto, as a secondary end. It
is so united therewith_that it springs from it alone. It is sub-
ordinate thereto, so that I may not seek it before God’s glory.
God comes first, self second. é

6. The use of creatures (p. 22).—To secure my end, God has put
means into my hands, instruments adapted for the purpose:
these are creatures:

By creatures, I mean all that has been made, and all that
continues to take place daily, whether in the spiritual order or
in the material order.

All these creatures, 1.¢., all things outside God, are for me
means and instruments, to attain my end. They are this, and
for this only.

Means and instruments for God’s glory, essentially and before
all else : means of satisfaction, secondarily.

7. Satisfactions in creatures (p. 27).—There are in creatures
pleasures which are very varied and agreeable ; spiritual, in-
tellectual, moral, and material pleasures.

Whose work are they ?—God’s.—Why has He scattered them
amongst creatures ?—For me to use them, and not to rest in
them.

What is their function ?—It is the function of the drop of
oil in machinery. Wherever there is a duty, there is a creature
which is its instrument, and a pleasure which makes it easier.
This pleasure is not final, it is only instrumental.

8. The order of my relations with creatures (p. 30).—This is the
order to be keptin the use of the instruments of my life. Pleasure,
subject to utility ; human utility, organized according to the
worthiness of the vital interests, and referred to divine utility.
I must so take things and the enjoyment of things as to increase
my life and to rise towards God.

g. The essential order of creation (p. 33).—God’s glory, the
essential end, first: my satisfaction in God, the secondary end,
annexed thereto: creatures, the means and instruments: their
proper pleasure, an instrumental facilitation. Such is the order of
creation, such is God’s plan.

à an this plan shows me my greatness: all is mine, and I am
od’s.

10. Explanation of the Pater Noster (p. 36).—This plan is summed
up in the Pater Noster. It sums up everything.

368 THE INTERIOR LIFE

Fist petition : in front of al! else ; God’s glory in the sanctifica-
tion of Hisname. This is the supreme end.

Second petition: coming immediately afterwards: my own
Satisfaction in the kingdom of God. This is the end annexed.

Third petition : the will of God, marking out the way.

Fourth petition : God’s bread, which comprises the means of
sustenance of both soul and body. Here, then, we have had the
end, the way, and the means. :

Fifth petition: the removal of sin, which is the hindrance
opposed to the end, and destructive of life.

Sixth petition : the removal of temptation, which is an obstacle
that blocks the way, and hinders work.

Seventh petition : the removal of evils, which deprive me of the
means of sustenance and work.

BOOK II

ORGANIZATION
(p. 41)

1. My obligations (p. 42).—Am I not bound to respect God’s
plan ?—Clearly, all my conduct must conform thereto.

But how is this to be done ? ‘

(a) By considering God’s glory in everything in the first place
as the sole essential end of my life. By considering in creatures
what serves the glory of God. To consider this in the first place
is a primary obligation, an obligation of the mind.

(6) By loving God’s glory above all else, by loving what
glorifies God in creatures, not loving the creature for its own
sake, nor for my own sake, but for God. To love this above all
is the second obligation, an obligation of the heart, 7.¢., of the
will.

(c) By choosing and using all things in the measure, neither
more nor less, in which they serve God’s glory. Thus to employ
and make use of all things is freedom of action: it is the third
obligation, which binds my activity.

Seeing God and all things for Him, is truth ; loving God and all
things for Him, is charity ; seeking God through all things, is
freedom of action, which is liberated from the tyrannical fascina-
tion of being cheated by creatures.

2. The essence of piety (p. 46).—The union of these three
obligations into one constitutes piety.

Piety is seeing, loving, and seeking God in all things, and all
things in God.

An act of piety is made up of these three things: seeing,
loving, and secking God.

St. Paul defines piety: it is our increase in Jesus Christ by
means of all creatures, by doing the truth in charity.

The increase and development of this life of piety proceeds
through five main degrees, which I shall presently consider.

This increase makes use of all creatures, which serve as means
for the purpose.

: An act of this increase is that which does the truth in charity
reely.

Truth in the mind, charity in the heart, freedom in action :
oe are the three elements of piety ; seeing, loving, and seeking

od.

Piety is the resultant of these three things so united that it is
the free putting into practice of the truth in charity.

The first question of the Catechism contains teaching as deep

369 24

370 THE INTERIOR LIFE

as that of St. Paul. Man, it says, is created to know, love, and
serve God, and thus to merit eternal happiness. Here we have
the whole of piety.

3. The virtue of piety (p. 50).—The virtue of piety is the habit
of doing acts with facility and readiness.

Hence, I possess the virtue of piety when I have acquired
facility and readiness in seeing, loving, and seeking God in all
things and all things for God.

Piety is a kind of summing up and putting into practice of all
the virtues. It is the great disposition, which results from the
practice of all the virtues ; it is piety that produces unity in the
soul, by concentrating into a single and general habit all the
particular habits that are proper to the Christian virtues. It is
the great duty which sums up all duties ; the great virtue which
is the resultant of all the virtues; it is life, it is the whole of
man.

4. God’s glory (p. 55).—I can now appreciate the meaning of
these words: to glorify God. The glory of God means the divine
perfections known, loved, exalted. All perfections, each in
particular, or all together, are the object of glory ; every act of
knowledge, love, and honour in isolation, and all such acts united
together, are its form.

In the life of the Trinity, God possesses, knows, and loves all
His own perfections ; this is His inward glory, as infinite as Him-
self.

As for me, I may and must know, love, and honour the divine
perfections which are revealed to me ; this is the outward glory,
in which my life ought to be employed.

5. Zeal (p. 58).—Hence, it is my piety that glorifies God. By
dilating my life in piety, I shall increase God’s glory, my soul will
magnify the Lord. And I shall increase it not only in myself, but
round about me. For God has done me the altogether divine
honour of enabling me to be an author and propagator of life for
Him and along with Him. Zeal for God’s interests will then cause
me to exercise around me all the vital influences belonging to
my vocation. And thus I shall be bound to those I love by the
very bonds of life, both in this world and in eternity.

6. Disorder. Adherence to creatures (p. 61).—Disorder consists
in letting myself be deceived by pleasure in creatures, which,
instead of helping me to pass quickly and readily through
creatures to go to God, makes me adhere to them ; I get stuck
fast, stop short, and rest outside God.

7. Disorder. Attachment to self (p. i Laie Ys myself at
creatures, I also stop them at myself; I use them to entertain
myself with pleasure. And thus I rob God, by appropriating to
myself the use of the instruments and the life that ought to be
directed towards Him.

And thus it is that the selfish spirit is formed, the spirit that
makes me look at everything from the point of view of my own
satisfaction ; self-love, which makes me like things for the pleasure

SUMMARY 371

they give me; and self-interest, which makes me seek my own
convenience in everything. .

The evil does not lie in my satisfaction in itself, but in the
displacement and subversion brought about by my taking as an
end what ought to be merely a matter of instrumental facilita-
tion.

8. Disorder. Its effects (p. 66).—There is the evil. There is
no other evil but that, and what participates in it, leads to it,
and comes of it.

It is the perversion of my life and the subversion of my entire
being. It is falsehood in my mind, which disorder robs of the
truth ; vanity in my heart, which it robs of charity ; slavery of
my senses, which it deprives of liberty ; a wrong to creatures,
which groan under its tyranny ; and, lastly, it is the wastage
and destruction of my life, which gets spent and poured out far
from God.

9. Disorder. Its degrees (p. 71).—There are three great stages
of disorder. First, pleasure in creatures is inclined to be put on
the same footing as God’s glory, as an end; the soul is divided,
life is partitioned, God alone is not my sole end. This is division,
the first stage.

Next, the fascination of pleasure gets the upper hand of God’s
honour, which drops back into the second place: then there is
a subversion, and a preference of the human to the divine is set
up. This is dominance, the second stage.

Lastly, evil pleasure goes to such extreme lengths as to ex-
clude God’s glory, to kill the divine life, and to separate man
from God. This is exclusion, the third stage.

Hence, division, dominance, exclusion, here we have disorder
in its fullest extent.

Piety has to regain possession of the soul in these depths, and
to restore it to the heights of divine union.

First, it removes mortal sin which brings about exclusion,
and restores God to the soul and the soul to God. This is the
first stage.

Then, it destroys the dominance of the human, and restores
its rights of precedence to the divine. This is the second stage,
which comprises two degrees ; the avoidance of venial sin, and
the avoidance of imperfection.

Lastly, it works for the re-establishment of unity, by doing
away with mistaken division between pleasure and God. This is
the third stage, and it, too, compriscs two degrees: holiness, and
fulfilment.

Hence, these three great stages include in all five degrees of
ascent, which are now to be considered.

10. Avoiding mortal sin: the first degree of piety (p. 74).—
The lowest degree of disorder is when I am seeking my own
satisfaction in such a way as to break off with God altogether,
separating from Him, and nullifying His glory. This is mortal
sin, evil in all its horror.

372 THE INTERIOR LIFE

Piety begins with the re-establishment of order in this matter ;
that is to say, in such circumstances as would lead me to break
off with God altogether and to commit a mortal sin, my own
satisfaction must be put below God’s glory, and be immolated
thereto, if necessary, rather than that I should commit this
mortal sin. And even if I had to sacrifice all my own satis-
factions, including life itself, I should do it. This is the absolute
avoidance of mortal sin, the first degree of piety.

BOOK III

GROWTH
(p. 79)

1. Avoiding venial sin: the second degree of piety (p. 80).—
Man still seeks for his own satisfaction before God’s glory in
things that hurt and vex God : this is venial sin : an offence, sub-
version, and dominance of the human, but in a lesser degree.

The correction of this disorder is the second degree of piety,
which is the entire avoidance of venial sin.

This degree is attained, when the heart, mind, and senses are
totally purified from voluntary venial sin, and when the soul
can easily and readily make the necessary sacrifices, even that of
life itself, rather than deliberately commit the slightest venial sin.

This second degree presupposes a virtue which is indeed rare,
but which is still not perfection.

2. Imperfection: the dominance of the human (p. 82).—Im-
perfection is seeking self before God, yet doing this without
any formal offence. It lies in two things: the dominance of
the human ; the absence of sin.

The dominance of the human, known or unknown, intentional
or unintentional, actual or habitual:—the soul is subject to
certain natural instincts and tendencies, which lead it to prefer
its own convenience to the perfect fulfilment of God’s wishes.
This is the first mark of imperfection.

3. Imperfection: the absence of formal offence (p. 85).—It
has a second mark, inseparable from the first, which is that the
dominance of the human never goes to the length of becoming a
formal offence against God. Whether it be that, where some-
thing is formally forbidden, there is an acquittal from sinning
because of want of advertence or consent, and the shortcoming
is then only an imperfection : or else, because the soul, under the
dominance of the human, is carried away so far as to infringe a
counsel only.

When St. Peter testifies his love to our Lord by protesting
against His passion, and the Saviour treats him as Satan for
thus preferring the things of man to the things of God, the
Gospel gives us a striking example of imperfection, and of the
rebuke that it deserves.

4. Imperfection : its evil (p. 88).—In mortal sin, the perversion
of my will separates me from God, and this is death. In venial
sin, there is only a deviation, and thisis a sickness. In imperfec-
tion, the slightness of the matter, the weakness of my will or
mind, bring it about that the deviation is not complete enough,

are

374 THE INTERIOR LIFE

not deliberate and intentional enough on my part, to constitute
a formal offence against God : and this is an uncivility. Such is
the difference between them.

To know the extent of an imperfection, I must remember
that life is almost entirely made up of good and indifferent acts
Occasions of sin are relatively rare; good and indifferent acts
occur at every moment.

It is in these acts that imperfection is to be found ,; and if it
possess tiem all, one’s whole life is a thing of disorder: a dis-
order, without being a sin.

Is not this an alarming thought? I may avoid sin fairly
regularly, and yet live in continual disorder, constantly sub-
verting the plan of my creation by imperfection! O God,
what then must sin be? . ..

5. Perfection: the third degree of piety (p. 90).—Perfection
consists in making good the evil of imperfection, that is to say, in
putting back in its place in the front rank God’s glory in all our
acts, good or indifferent, and in putting our own satisfaction in
the second place and at His service.

Perfection is thus called, because it purifies my actions from
all admixture of the evil of human preference ; it leaves no trace
in them of the disorder of dominance of the human ; and my satis-
faction is never again put before the glory of God. All is put
right, and good is therefore perfect so far as this is concerned.
This is the first kind of perfection, the perfection of ordinary ways.

6. The state of perfection (p. 93).—I shall reach this state, when
my thoughts, affections, and actions have been all put right, in such
a way that tn everything I am quick and ready to see, love, and
seek God’s glory before my own satisfaction. In everything : it
is this everything that is the mark of perfection.

How high is this state, since it affects everything in life!...
It sets everything straight !

This should be the characteristic state of Bishops, since they are
bound, in virtue of their dignity, to be in the state of perfection.

It is the state that befits priests, since they participate to a
large extent, by their priesthood, in the episcopal dignity.

And towards this state the religious is bound to tend by his
vows, since a religious profession binds him to tend towards
perfection.

7. Perfection and sacrifice (p. 95).—Perfection consists in
setting straight, not in sacrifice: it requires me to subordinate
my own Satisfaction, not to immolate it.

Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the
glory of God, says St. Paul.

Thus, perfection does not require me to deprive myself to any
extraordinary extent in the use of food or drink, for instance,
but only that, at least virtually, I should set the intention of
God’s glory before my feeling of hunger or thirst.

When I suppose that perfection consists in sacrifice, two evils
arise : the first, I do not set about making the improvements in

SUMMARY 375

which perfection consists ; the second, the sacrifices in which 1

think that perfection resides, are beyond my strength, and I get

discouraged, and think perfection is impossible.
8. The state of my soul (p. 99).—And now, O my soul, let us

make an examination of conscience |... Let me fathom my mind
. . . let me ask myself what place in my thoughts is given to
the glory of God. . .. See now: I say of any season: it is a

good, or a bad season. What guides me in making an estimate ?
My own advantage, or pleasure. I say the same of my food, or
animals, or flowers, or happenings, or men, or things. I call
that good which is so for me ; that bad, which is bad forme. I
fathom my judgements : God’s glory often has no place in them.

Let me fathom my feelings. I love this person, and dislike
that one, why ?—According to my liking ...I avoid this
person’s company, and I seek the society of that other, I rejoice
in a success, I am cast down by opposition, I want this occupa-
tion, and I dread that one, what someone Says encourages me,
some chance fills me with depression, some deed upsets me. . .
What is the principal motive of these impulses ?—My own
interest. Where does God’s glory come in ?

Let me examine my actions. What makes me act ?—My
own interests. These are too generally the dominant purpose
of what I do, and they determine my conduct. I try to find
those actions whereof God’s glory is really the dominant motive :
are there many of them ?

What place is given to the glory of God in what is called piety ?
—A prayer, a communion, a feast, a sermon, and any exercise
whatever, are only good so far as I am pleased with them. It
is my own Satisfaction that is only too apt to provide me with a
criterion, even in the things of the spirit.

I act for my own interest, I love for my own satisfaction, I think
according to my own interests: such is the summing up of my life.

9. The general state (p. 103).—And this is just the position of
society as a whole . . . human interest is now the universal
motive. History, politics, science, industry, commerce, associa-
tions, families: in all and everywhere, human utility inspires
people’s judgements, determines their likings, and directs their
actions. In practice, God has only a secondary place in society.

10. The state of the evil (p. 106).—That which is deepest in
me, my thinking, is vitiated : it is just there that the evil is most
to be dreaded.

What first demands cure is my thinking, my ideas, my judge-
ments: there before all must the glory of God recover its place
and ascendency.

11. Restoration (p. 108).—O my soul, let it be said squarely.
I have to turn my life upside down, to transform my ideas, to
renew my affections, to reverse my conduct.

Above all, there must be new thoughts... for all, new
affections ...in all, new conduct.... Everywhere God
must take His proper place, the place which our own satisfaction
has deprived Him of. What work there is to do!

BOOK IV

THE SUMMITS
(p. 113)

1. Holiness: the fourth degree of piety (p. 114).—When I can
gain a hundred pounds, am I to be satisfied with fifty ?—Certainly
not. For my own interest I always try to get the best, and that
seems reasonable.

And what about God’s glory? . . . which is essential...
am I to make less of it? Am I to be more unreasonable where
God’s glory is in question than where my own interest is concerned ?

To seek the greater glory of God in all things is the proper and
primary work of holiness.

In the three preceding degrees, the soul was busied in ordering
its own Satisfaction below the glory of God. Now that its satis-
faction is so ordered, the soul no longer thinks of it, but forgets
it. It becomes indifferent as to joy as well as grief, to sickness
as well as health, to contempt as well as praise, all this does not
take up its attention any longer. Forgetfulness of self, indiffer-
ence as to pleasure in creatures, such is the second mark of
holiness.

Hence, forgetfulness of and indifference about one’s own satis-
faction, and care for the greater glory of God, these constitute
holiness.

The state of holiness is established in the soul, when it has
acquired facility and readiness in forgetting itself in all things,
and in seeing in all things the greatest glory of its Creator.

2. Mystical death (p. 117).—All that is human is mortal. My
body is mortal, that is to say, it has to pass through dissolution,
in order to rise again in glory.

In the same way, my thoughts, affections, actions, and human
satisfactions are mortal, that is to say, they have to pass through
forgetfulness and mystical death, in order to be transformed and
to become divine.

In man and his actions, I call that ‘‘ human ’”’ which is with-
drawn from supernatural influence, and which comes from nature.

3. Transformation (p. 120).—Day by day the wall of separation
gradually gives way, the human crumbles, and false satisfactions
disappear. And in proportion as enjoyment ceases to be human,
it becomes divine. Instead of taking my rest and happiness in
creatures, I take them in God. Thus there is a continual transi-
tion from death to life.

The degrees of ascent of piety, in attaining perfection and
fulfilment one after another, witness a gradual falling away of

376

SUMMARY 377

some portion of the falsities of the human before union with the
divine. At the fourth degree, which is holiness, indifference and
forgetfulness have reduced the human to a state of languor
bordering upon death. ;

4. Consummation: the fifth degree of piety (p. 123).—When a
soul has reached this point, what remains for it to do ?—One
thing only : to immolate the last remains of human satisfaction
to the glory of God, in order that the latter, which is the only
source of happiness, may triumph over the débris of creatures and
of disorder.

This is the final but absolutely logical conclusion of the funda-
mental principle of my creation. I am made for God alone ;
His glory is my all. Therefore, the more God is left solely in Him-
self, the more does that which is apart from Him disappear, and
the better do I attain my end. As long as I consider any satis-
faction apart from God’s glory, the latter is not wholly my end ;
there remains something apart from it, and this occupies some
portion of my heart. But nothing must be left behind, my life
must be no longer divided, and I must see, love, and seek nothing
but God : He in me, and I in Him.

Hence, I must immolate and annihilate every satisfaction
which is not included in God’s glory.

The desire for immolation, the thirst for suffering, the love of
the Cross, such are the marks of this state.

When the ascent of this degree is finished, unity is consum-
mated : God only. . . . what a word is this! . . . When shall
I understand it? ...

5. Purgatory (p. 127).—None can enter into heaven until all
the work of self-stripping and purification is over. One must
possess absolute purity to appear before God. Whathas not been
entirely purified in this world will be so in purgatory. Purgatory
is the barest of purification, and does not increase merits : in this
life I win merits while I am purifying myself. This is a great
reason for raising myself as much as possible during my life on earth.

6. A general view: unity (p. 130).—When I seek my own
selfish satisfaction, I am endlessly divided by the hosts of objects
which attract my sight, love, and seeking.

This division is the cause of my weakness, falls, distractions,
and interior indispositions. It is my great evil.

Piety tends towards unity, and works to concentrate every-
thing on one thing only : God, and His glory for His own sake,
and my happiness in Him. And its work is not done until unity
is consummated : God only!...

7. General view: peace (p. 134).—This is why piety imparts
to the soul: strength, from the unity of all its powers ; freedom,
through liberation from creatures; peace, through the re-
establishment of order.

Piety cures all the evils of the soul, gives every kind of good,
and is profitable to all things! ... Glory to God, peace ta
man ; piety gives all things.

378 THE INTERIOR LIFE

8. For Priests (p. 137).—What is your weakness ?—It is seeking
self and seeking creatures. In your ministry, there is much self-
seeking, and a too utilitarian anxiety as to creature interests.
God is not in His place : He is not the sole end. Hence you are
divided ; every one of your anxieties means division and rending ;
each of them takes away a part of your soul. Thus partitioned,
what strength have you ?

_ If you only knew how to keep God in view . . . , to seek God
-.., and Him alone ..., in your prayers..., in your
ministry ..., do you understand? Him alone?... every
one of your occupations, . . . whatever it might be . . . would
become an act of piety. . . . Meditate upon this.

Prayer and work . . . all would bring you back to the sole
eentre | . . . To him who seeks God alone . . . , everything

becomes a devotional exercise. To him who seeks self, nothing
can be so.

Conclusion (p. 142).—Such, then, is the development of the
interior life. Starting from the fundamental principle of my
creation, I am led successively to order, forget, and, lastly, to

immolate my own satisfaction for the glory of God.
| God’s glory, growing through the work of inward cultivation,
constantly dominates, and then absorbs and transforms my
satisfaction.

At the outset, I enjoy contrary to God, and apart from God:
at the end, I enjoy in God only.

At the outset, I live for self and not for God: at the end, I
live for God, and not for self.

The interior life is that transformation whereby my whole
being leaves its natural life and becomes a participator in the
divine nature.

raw. I:

THE WAY
(p. 143)

The Will of God (p. 145).-—To attain the end of God’s glory,
we must follow a way : we must not turn aside to the right or to
the left, but go straight along the right road. What is this
straight road ?—The road that shows the will of God.

It is the will of God which points out to me what creatures
to make use of and what to avoid: for there are some that are
useful, and others that are hurtful.

I cannot choose between them of my own accord; first,
because I do not know what is in the creature, and what its use,
in every case, may be ; next, because the choice which I make of
my own accord will be determined by my likings, and not by the
glory of God.

None will enter into the kingdom of God unless he doeth the
Father’s will ; and entrance into the kingdom of heaven means the
meeting of my soul with God in such wise that I give Him His
glory and He gives me His happiness. God’s glory, man’s
peace : therein is all the kingdom of God, begun in this world,
continued in eternity. By what way, by what gate, does one
enter therein ?—By the way of the will of God. The will of
God is the only way leading to the glory of God.

One in itself, the will of God is twofold in the manner of its
manifestation to me. God wishes to work Himself on the build-
ing up of my life, and this is His will of good pleasure. He next
wills me to do the work which He signifies to me, and this is His
will signified.

And since these two wills ought to be always united and in
accord, I have three things now to consider : 1. the will signified ;
2. the will of good pleasure ; 3. the concurrence of the two wills.
This is the ground and the subject of the three Books of this
Part.

379

BOOK I

THE WILL SIGNIFIED
(p. 151) |

1. Commandments and counsels (p. 152).—The will signified
comprises God’s commands and desires. His commands are con-
tained in the commandments of God and in the commandments
of the Church. His desires are expressed in the Evangelical
Counsels. His commands bind under pain of sin, grave or light :
His counsels bind under pain of the loss of good and progress.

2. The duties of one’s state of life (p. 154).—The dutics of one’s
vocation have the peculiar importance of making known the will of
God in the particular state of life in which I find myself. They
reveal to me: first, the way in which I have to keep the com-
mandments ; second, the part of the evangelical counsels I have
to practise. 7

For priests, the duties of their state of life are laid down by
ecclesiastical laws, and liturgical and disciplinary laws; for
religious, by their Rule ; for laymen, by their professional duties.
Ecclesiastical laws for the priest, his Rule for the religious, his
professional duty for the layman, these are the most immediate ex«
pression and the most practical embodiment of God’s will signified.

3. The knowledge of duty. The general obligation (p. 158).—
For the work of His glory and of my salvation, God, by His will
signified, requires me to do my share of action ; He wills me to
do something, and lays down for me what I am to do. This is
the active part of piety.

What I can do, and what I have to do, is to know, love, and
fulfil. I must know my duty, love it, and fulfil it.

First, duties must be known. Knowing is the primary con-
dition of all things. One cannot do well, if one knows badly.

I must know my duties, and all of them, just as they are,
without alteration, or addition, or diminution ; without allowing
myself to be deceived by looking at my own satisfaction, which
always tends to dim them, and to travesty and lessen them.

I must see in the obligation not merely the outward fact of
its prescription, the letter of the law, but the will of God who
commands it, and draws me to Himself in this particular way.

Oh! how much are ignorance and illusions to be feared:
ignorance which cannot see, and illusions which see amiss! We
are compounded of ignorance, and full of illusions !

4. The knowledge of duty. Special obligations (p. 161).—The
main light of my way being the commandments of God, I shall be
diligent to get to know them in the letter, and in the spirit ;
love of the light is needed in order to do the truth.

380

SUMMARY 381

As a Sheep that is true to the fold, I shall also love to hear the
voice of the shepherd speaking to me by the commandments of
the Church.

And I shall try not to be too mucha stranger to the sublimity
of the counsels, so that, getting some knowledge of the secrets
of God’s wishes, I may be able to approach more nearly to Him.

Lastly, I shall shun illusions and ignorance as to the duties of
my vocation. Ignorance in such a matter is so harmful, and
nowhere is illusion, which springs from self-love, so wide-spread
and so fatal. Unfortunate duties of one’s state of life ! how are
they twisted and mutilated, and moulded by every whim of
self-interest! And thus misshapen and maimed, they only
retain so much of God’s will as to be insufficient to keep the con-
science from being misled.

5. Love and practice (p. 164).—Let me love God’s will before
everything, attach myself thereto whenever I meet it in any obliga-
tion, and instead of dreading the law or my superiors, let me love
them, because they are the organs and the signs of the will of God.

Let me execute this will as faithfully in little things as in great,
in vexatious matters as in those that are pleasing, because it
is everywhere the same, everywhere equally holy and perfect
and amiable.

6. The piety of the priest (p. 167).—If the priest desires to know
his duties, let him study them : in the liturgy, where his relations
with God are formulated ; and in the discipline which determines
his duties towards himself and creatures. The denudation of
self and the seeking of God have their priestly character therein.

The piety of the priest is composed above all of meditation
on, and observance of, the liturgy and ecclesiastical law.

7. The piety of the religious (p. 170).—Its form is to be found
in his Rule. Further, the Rule contains in its two parts the manner
in which it is proper for the religious to strip himself of self, and
to go to God. If only the religious had the spirit of his Rule, and
knew how to live by it, if he could only be satisfied therewith,
and get transformed by it! How real, strong, simple, right, and
divine his piety would be !

8. The spirit of piety (p. 173).—That which has to be seen, loved,
and fulfilled is the will of God ; the law or the superior is only a
sign, a veil, a letter. The sign. veil, and letter are only dead things
in themselves ; if I stop therein, I find no life. But behind the
sign, veil, and letter, there is the will of God, that is to say, God
Himself ; and God is life. There I find Him in His will, and
there only is He to be found.

Oh ! if I only knew how to look for God where He is! Often,
I fail to find Him, because I look for Him where He is not.

God is no more in prayer than in work, no more in contempla-
tion than in action ; He is where His will is. Prayer and action
do not help me to find God, unless I see His will in them : but
as soon as I see the divine will, I find God in work as well as
in prayer.

The way in which we find God is the will of God.

BOOK II

THE WILL OF GOOD PLEASURE
(p. 177)

1. Divine action (p. 178).—Here, it is God who acts within
me : it isno longer my action, but God’s. How does He act ?

He uses everything to work for the good of those whom His
will calls unto holiness, everything, even to the falling of a hair.
All that takes place within me, around me, for me, against me,
all is ordered, calculated, and interwoven with infinite art by
Providence for my advance in the way of holiness.

Nothing happens by chance; even the most insignificant
details of life are all combined for Only one purpose, the glorifica-
tion of God by the holy soul.

It will be one of the wonders of eternity to see how all, abso-
lutely everything, works together for the good of the elect.

2. The purpose of the divine operations (p. 182).—God laid down
the plan of my life before He created me ; and He alone knows it in
its entirety. His will is to realize this plan, and He never loses
sight of it. All His operations, so far as they concern me, are
directed to carry it out. And each particular operation works
to set, at the right moment, a stone in the building in the place
shown on the plan.

Hence, every event in my life, small or great, inward or out-
ward, embodies a thought, a desire, an action of God. His action,
aroused by His desire, works towards the realization of His thought.

3. The two modes of God’s operation (p. 185).—The divine
operations, which work to raise me from evil towards the good,
realize this twofold result by trials and consolations.

The purpose of trials is not to torment me, but to liberate me
from what is low : consolations are not intended to entertain me,
but to raise me towards the heights.

And in fact, when they operate according to God’s design,
how powerful are trials to create detachment by effecting a
spirit of sacrifice, patience, self-denial, heroism, and the like!
How efficacious are consolations in uplifting, and in imparting
life and enthusiasm ! How well will it be, when I can under-
stand all the love of God in consolation, and still more in trial !

4. The progress of the divine work (p. 188).—This is the usual
order in which the operations of God strip a man of self and lead
him to God.

First of all come sensible consolations to detach the senses
from creatures and to attach them to God. When the work of
consolations is done, they give way to dryness.

382

SUMMARY 383

Next comes the great light of the faith to detach the mind
from creatures, and to fix it upon God. When this is done, the
light vanishes in darkness.

Lastly comes the burning ardour of zeal to detach the will
from all creatures and to turn it towards God. When its mission
is accomplished, the ardour dies out in distaste. Thus is external
denudation fulfilled.

Next the soul itself must be stripped. Temptations come to
subvert the senses, darkness to try the mind, the loss of active
virtue, which is the power of acting, and then of passive virtue,
which is the power of suffering, to annihilate all human activity
of the will; and the inner denudation is completed in mystical
death, followed by the marriage of the soul with God.

5. Passive piety (p. 193).—What have I to do to answer to these
operations of the sovereign good pleasure ?—I have only to give
myself up, to abandon myself, to let be. To accept God’s action,
the whole of it, without reservation, without curiosity, without
uneasiness, here is all my duty, the duty of being a little child
in the arms of God. .

There must be no reservation. God may bear me where He
will, send me where He will, give me what He will; I accept
everything, because I know He is only working to make me live.

There must be no curiosity. What is the use of my knowing
why God deals with me thus ? Why does He do this or that ?
I shall not insult God by desiring to check His action, or by
doubting His intentions.

There must be no uneasiness. What danger do I run when 1
am in the arms of God? Whether He bears me through fire
or over precipices, does not much matter: I close my eyes and
fall asleep in His arms.

What the action of God’s good pleasure requires of me is my
acceptance. And it is because acceptance is the direct reply to
make and the first way in which to correspond with God’s opera-
tions, that this part of piety is called passive piety.

To accept means to acknowledge, welcome, and submit to
God’s operation in every event.

6. Waiting for God (p. 197).—In fine, I ought to expect God, to
lay myself open to Him, to receive His action. It is He whois my
life. I ought neither to stir and bustle apart from Him, nor to
rest far away from Him, but to act by Him. And He must enter
into me, if I am to act by Him ; and He enters into me, if my
soul lies open to Him with docility, with sincerity of attention,
and with simple submission, in expectation of the operations of
His good pleasure. And if I am uncertain about these operations,
it is the divine mission of my spiritual director to explain them
to me.

7. Joys and sufferings (p. 202).—Above all, I must know how
rightly to accept consolation and suffering at God’shand. Both

ee from Him, and both have the same purpose, to unite me to
im

384 THE INTERIOR LIFE

Consolation is easy to accept, and difficult to accept rightly.
It is so dangerous to accept consolation for its own sake, to stay
in it, and to be satisfied with it, forgetting that it is only a means
of God’s action.

Further, St. John of the Cross incessantly advises its rejection
and avoidance, in order to preserve in all its purity the spiritual
effect it produces in the soul. Such procedure presupposes great
energy of will and entire detachment. -

Other saints advise the acceptance of consolation with very
great simplicity, seeking thereby to become more closely attached
to God. This presupposes more humility, for humility alone can
avoid the snare of self-seeking in consolation.

The great danger in suffering is that of getting discouraged
or embittered. If I am given to seeking my own satisfaction, I
inevitably fall into one or other of these abysses. :

Here, true wisdom consists in conforming with God, following
the advice of St. Francis of Sales : ‘‘ Ask for nothing, and refuse
nothing.”

8. ‘I thank Thee” (p. 205).—How is suffering to be accepted ?
—As one accepts the present of a friend, by saying ‘ Thank you.”

This “I thank Thee’? must come from the heart: it must
be a simple, generous, and rapid exclamation. ‘‘O God! I
thank Thee |” That is all. There is no need to be constantly
reiterating it, nor to linger much over it.

God hears this ‘‘ Thank Thee,” and it tells Him that His love
is appreciated. And what wonderful effects does this little
exclamation bring about! It opens up in the depths of the soul
a Spring of incomparable joy. He alone who has experienced it,
knows what it is like. What treasures does this little utterance
reveal in suffering ! it is the key of the divine store-house.

And how easy it is to utter! It is more difficult to suffer
patiently than to make this one brief exclamation.

9. The aloes (p. 208).—A youth who had had some powdered
aloes put in his mouth by mischievous companions, forced himself
to masticate aloes for a week in order to harden himself and to
prevent any future unpleasantness from practical joking.

What an excellent remedy it is to harden oneself to suffering !
And how is it to be done ?>—By looking calmly on the bitterest
side of any trial that may threaten me, until I can accept it
without flinching. So too, I may choose for myself what is
painful, leaving to others what is pleasant. Or else, I may feed
upon some actual trouble without grimacing, as long as it pleases
God to inflict it upon me.

This is the way to masticate one’s aloes. The soul which
tempers itself thus soon grows strong.

BOOK III

THE CONCURRENCE OF THE TWO WILLS
(Pp. 213)

1. The necessity of concurrence (p. 214).—On the one hand, 1
know what I must do, and on the other, what God does: on the one
hand, passive piety ; and on the other, active piety. Can they
be separated ?—By no means; for, if separated, neither the one
nor the other would belong to piety, because they would both be
dead. They must be so united as to make a single life.

It is God who, through His good pleasure, worketh in us both
to will and to do, says St. Paul. God’s action precedes and
determines, accompanies and gives the measure of mine. I
cannot begin and finish the acts of active piety without the pre-
venient and sustaining action of God.

2. The nature of the concurrence (p. 217).—In what manner
do the meeting and union of these two activities take place ?

God’s is the principal one, and mine is secondary ; God’s comes
first, and mine comes afterwards ; God’s governs, and mine sub-
mits. And in this manner.

God begins with an act of His good pleasure with regard to me,
and I accept it ; this is passive piety. Having accepted it, the
divine action enters into me, sets me in motion, and I am thus
enlightened, urged, and strengthened for the performance of my
duty. I act thus under God’s impulse, and this is active piety.
Such is their union,

3. The divine alliance (p. 222).—This union is, as it were, the
marriage of my will and activity with God’s. He first invites me,
and I consent ; He enters, and I unite with Him ; next, I act with
Him, and from our union arise complete and living acts of Christian
piety, which are the offspring of my will united with God’s.

At the outset this union is but partial ; my faculties only yield
to God slowly, by degrees, one after the other. As the union
advances, the divine marriage becomes more fruitful, until entire
union takes place in mystical marriage.

4. God’s action and man’s action (p. 227).—Without this union,
my life is unfruitful. For my action, my ideas, impulses, efforts,
and all that is mine is mortal, is death. God’s action is living
and life-giving.

Therefore I must cease to be merely man, and forsake my own
thoughts, and all my human determinations and acts; and all
that is myself must lose its human designation and character, to
take upon itself the name and character of the divine. Thus
it is that I shall live, and do living acts.

385 25

386 THE INTERIOR LIFE

To allow myself to be led by God to do the duties of my voca-
tion, this is the whole movement of piety.

5. Divine guidance (p. 229).—When I unite with God, I am led
by Him to see, love, and perform that part of the duties of my state
of life which is actually necessary and which is possible in prac-
tice. It is God’s guidance that determines what is actually
needed and gives the measure of what is practically possible.
It determines it so aptly and gives the measure of it to such a
nicety ! How wise is it to allow myself to be led by God !

6. Human resolutions : their sterility (p. 233).—Hitherto, why
have there been so many sterile resolutons in my career ?—They
were not born of God, and they did not rely upon Him. Born of
self, relying on self, they possessed a twofold weakness which
deprived them of life. What a deplorable illusion it is to think
one can live without God!

7. Human resolutions: their folly (p. 236).—Why do I want, like
St. Peter, to remonstrate with the Master who knows so well what
I need, whereas I know so little ? No, I must not want to antici-
pee Him, nor must I hang back far behind Him in carelessness }

must follow Him.

8. Christian resolutions (p. 238).—How good it is to rely upon
God, to take His yoke upon one, and to shoulder His burden !
Then it is that resolutions are living, work easy, and labour
fruitful. If I could only trust in God, and make a few and
fitting resolutions, such as are really necessary and profitable !

9. The fundamental resolution (p. 242).—Hence, let there be
above all a single primary and governing resolution, from which
there will arise, at the proper time, and on which there shall
always be based, all particular resolutions that may become
necessary according to the progress of the inner life.

This single resolution is that of trusting in God. The resolutions
that spring from it will be radically living and will bear fruit.
God’s action is.sufficient both for the present and for the future.

10. Concurrence restored (p. 245).—But what if I am not
faithful to divine union, and resist God’s action ?—This is a
fault.—How is it to be made good ?—Very simply.

My fault immediately entails certain penal consequences. The
fault is my own action; the avenging consequences of it are
God’s action ; they are His action which is intended to avenge
and repair mine. Thus it is that God shows His detestation of
my sin, and works for its reparation.

What then must I do to detest my sin myself, and to make
reparation for it ?—I have only to accept its avenging conse-
quences ; by accepting them, I cause God’s vindicatory and
reparatory action to enter into me; and thus it is God Himself
who detests and repairs my sin within me. This is a truly
divine contrition.

In my human contrition, I have a strong detestation of the
consequences, and rather a feeble detestation of my sin in itself.
That is to say, I detest God’s action, and continue to be attached
to my own. A strange subversion |

PART III

THE MEANS
(p. 249)

Two sorts of means (p. 251).—I know the end, and the way :
what more do I want ?—The means to walk in this way towards
this end.

There are two kinds of means, God’s and man’s. God’s means
is His grace : man’s means are the practices of penance and the
exercises of piety.

In Part I, I saw that for me there were two ends : one essential,
which is God’s glory ; the other secondary, which is my satis-
faction. In Part II, that on the way there are two operations
that work together ; that whereby God acts, and that whereby
I act according to the will of God. Here again, I find these two
parts : God’s means, and my means united with God’s.

In all three things, God is the essential, I the secondary ;
in all three things, God increases and I decrease, until His glory
swallows up and transforms my satisfaction, His will swallows
up, transforms, and unites with my will; His grace swallows up,
transforms, and unites with my exercises. At last, God remains
alone, dominant, and ruling ; I have no satisfaction apart from
His glory, will apart from His will, means apart from His grace :
death is swallowed up in victory. This is the work of life.

In Part III, I shall consider : 1. the practices of penance which
strip me of the human ; 2. the exercises of piety which clothe me
with the divine ; 3. grace, which is the divine within me.

387

BOOK I

THE PRACTICES OF PENANCE
(Pp. 255)

1. Penance (p. 256).—As a sinner, I have to satisfy outraged
justice and to undergo a penance. But I may also correspond
with saving mercy, and I do this in accepting expiation voluntarily.

My Redeemer came to make expiation for me, and by His
expiation to provide me with a means of making reparation for
everything. Happy am I, if I am able to unite with His suffer-
ings. I unite therewith by corporal mortification, self-denial of
heart, and humility of mind: such are the three main kinds of
penance.

2. Mortification and its function (p. 259).—-So far as the body is
concerned, it is the mission of mortification, as its name indicates,
to put to death.—To put what to death ?—Not my members,
nor their vigour, which it has to respect and help whenever no
higher necessity requires me to sacrifice my health, or members,
or life. What it must specially put to death and annihilate is the
tyranny of pleasure, which deprives my senses of all outward
fitness and inward vigour.

Satan always would urge the killing of the sinner and not of
his sin ; God, the Church, and the saints know how to save the
sinner and to destroy his sin.

3. General rules for mortification (p. 264).—Mortification must
be practised rightly, reasonably, and according to the capacity of
the body, the healing of which is to be desired ; therefore, avoiding
with equal care the shrinking of the sensitive element as well as
the cruelty of practices which are really degrading. Jesus says
we must hate our souls if we would save them.

4. Special rules for mortification (p. 268).—There are three
kinds of mortifications : official, providential, and voluntary.

I term official the mortifications of duty: first, those which
it imposes directly, for there are forbidden pleasures, and penalties
imposed by divine laws and human laws: next, those to which
it gives rise, for duty is hardly fully carried out without sub-
jection, self-restraint, suffering, loss and other inconveniences,
which we must learn to submit to generously. The mortifica-
tions of duty are those which are most necessary.

Providential mortifications, which arise from events, until and
including death, which is the last event in life, require generous,
bold, and glad acceptance. How they liberate the senses which
are Skilled in yielding to them ! ve

3

SUMMARY 389

Lastly, voluntary mortifications, for oneself and others, the
favourite food of sacrificial souls, who are docile to divine in-
spirations and the suggestions of their spiritual directors.

5. The function of self-denial (p. 272).—Its function is to free
the soul from the deceitfulness of an independence that keeps one
away from God and from affection that attaches one to creatures,
and to restore to it the full energy of its vigour and the true zeal
of charity. Hence, it has to contain, without compressing or
stifling, the power of impulse ; and to detach, without breaking,
the power of affection. It has to restore to their normal play the
spontaneity of energy and the strength of affection—a difficult
problem.

6. The practice of self-denial (p. 274).—The deviations of
spurious independence are contained by the love of duty, faith-
fulness to the rule, and by the habit of living according to a
fixed scheme of one’s own.

Misplaced affection so far as material things are concerned is
corrected by the vow of poverty and by alms-giving ; so far as
persons are concerned, by more or less complete separation from
one’s family, or by duties of maintenance, kind attention, render-
ing service, etc.; so far as self is concerned, by failures, vexations,
and a host of other things that have to be put up with calmly
and cheerfully.

7. The practice of humility (p. 276).—To know that I have
nothing of myself, neither existence nor any of the gifts of existence,
to be satisfied with everything that teaches and reiterates the lesson
of my nothingness ; and at the same time, to recognize the gifts
God has given me, to deny none of them, the better to use them
all; to turn them to good account, not to glorify myself or to
get honour or profit by doing so, but to refer all to God, to whom
alone are honour and glory,—this is humility. ;

8. The greatness of humility (p. 279).—If only once all my life
were in the grace of God, all my activity in His will, all my being
in His glory, I should be fully humble, since I should then Have
nothing for myself, nothing according to self, nothing by myself ;
all would be God’s, all with God, all in God.

Humility does not consist in having nothing, but in keeping
nothing for self. Receiving everything from God and referring
everything to God, that is humility. Therefore, the greatest
saint is the humblest ; and she of all creatures who received the
most was necessarily the most humble.

Oh ! how good it is to be annihilated for the glory of God, in
the will of God, by the grace of God !

BOOK II

EXERCISES OF PIETY
(p. 283)

1. The purpose of exercises of piety (p. 285).—Exercises of piety
are not piety, which consists in the supreme end, seen, loved, and
sought. Nor are they the way, which is the will of God. They
are only the means of piety.

They are my means, since it is I who use them. They are
means in two ways; first, as channels of grace, next, as instru-
ments for the cultivation and increase within me of the one
essential disposition : seeing, loving, and seeking God.

They are means, and the only value they possess is that of
being means ; and this value is relative and variable according
to the state of the soul. An instrument is of no use except for
the work to which it is adapted, and so far as it is good for doing
it, and while it can be used for it. Thus, I must select only such
exercises as are good for my supreme end, and continue to use
them while they are profitable, and leave them off when they
serve no longer.

2. Pharisaic regularity (p. 288).—If I understand this function
of devotional exercises, I avoid three mistakes.

The first is pharisaic regularity. He who thinks that an
exercise of picty is piety gets attached to the exercise for its
own sake ; he becomes bound to the mechanical, external, and -
material side of the exercise, and sees that only ; his piety lies
in fidelity to the letter. When that fails him, and it often does
fail, he fails in everything ; a mere external irregularity breaks
the whole chain of his piety; and he is constantly upset. If
however he hold on, he gets imprisoned in the letter that killeth. -

If my piety is inward, if it lies in seeking God, since exercises
are only a means, a passing irregularity does not destroy anything,
and I ride safely at anchor. I do not fear a gust of wind, and I
am not confined to the point of being stifled, in order to escape
the storm. [I live in God’s open air.

3. Isolation: general effects (p. 291).—The second mistake is
isolation. What a ruinous plan it is to divide up the day into
compartments, as cut off from each other as the different drawers
in a piece of furniture! One exercise is like one drawer, and
another like another. At various times each one is drawn out,
then closed, and itis done with. Life is split up, dead, and without
any unity ; it has neither connexion, nor direction, nor animation.

Each exercise has its own little corner ; it is confined to one

399

SUMMARY 391

thing ; it neither has any life, nor does it give any. The sap of
the exercises ought to circulate throughout the whole structure
of the day, otherwise it will dry up from lack of circulation.
Later on, I shall see how the examination of my conscience should
ensure this circulation.

4. Isolation : particular effects (p. 294).—Isolation is the great -
source of distractions, because of the want of communication
and of unity which it entails between work and prayer. It is the
principal destroyer of mental prayer, which, through being parti-
tioned off, ceases to be the heart of the day’s exercises.

When shall I be able to work and to pray, to pass from work
to prayer and from prayer to work like the saints, and in the
manner shown by the Psalms ?

5. Inconstancy (p. 298).—The third mistake is inconstancy.
When I seek my own satisfaction in spiritual exercises, they are
apt to vary according tomy whims. I take up one and leave off
another, I keep to this and never touch that, I fly from one to
another in agitation, as aimlessly and emptily as a wasp.

If I try to get the honey of divine glory and the wax of super-
natural profit like a bee, I settle on the sweetest flowers, and only
leave them after I have extracted their sweetness.

6. Examination of conscience (p. 302).—Exercises ought to
produce unity in the soul. For this, they must be one ; and how
can they be this, unless one exercise bind them all together ?

Exercises ought to destroy all self-seeking in me; and how
can they do this, if I am self-seeking even in my exercises ?
Hence, there must be one in which I do not seek self, and which
directs all the rest.

Exercises should form within me the vision of God, and how
can they do this if there be not une which shows me where God
is, where I am myself, and which thus sheds light on all the
others ?

This one exercise, which binds together and directs and throws
light upon the rest, what is it ?—Examination of conscience, an
examination of conscience which is well made.—How is it to be
made ?—By a glance ?—Where ?—Directed to the centre of my
heart. To discover what ?—One thing only, its dominant dis-
position.—And what is this dominant disposition ?—The feeling
that sets the heart in motion. For I do nothing unless my heart
is urged to do it by some determinant thought or feeling. When
I ask anyone: Why do you do that ?—He answers: This is
the reason. This reason is the thought that makes me act;
and this thought is the dominant disposition of his heart at the
moment.

Well, it is this disposition, feeling, thought, that examination
of conscience has to lay hold of. Why ?—Because it is this that
sets my heart in motion and determines my conduct. When
I have laid hold of it, I know how I stand, and where I am
going. If I am going straight, that is to say, to God, all is in
order, and I have only to go right on my way. If I am going

392 THE INTERIOR LIFE

crooked, that is to say, to my own satisfaction, I correct my
intention.

7. The glance (p. 307).—But is it easy to lay hold of this feeling,
this dominant disposition ?—Very easy ; it only costs a glance.
Where ts my heart? I look, and I see. I see clearly whether
it is going on right or not, and why it is going right or not; it
is quite plain, if I am willing to look with my eyes wide open.

And is this all there is in an examination of conscience ?—
Yes: at least all that is essential. As long as that is not done,
there is no serious examination of conscience ; when that is done,
the examination is all right.

8. The examination into details (p. 310).— But what about other
thoughts and feelings ? ...and acts ?—Well, it is like this....
Thoughts and feelings which do not dominate are not dangerous.
They are only of serious importance when they dominate and
direct the heart. But when they reach this point, they in turn
must be laid hold of by the glance.

And when, one after the other, I have got hold of the good and
bad (for both sorts must be grasped) feelings which set my heart
in motion, how deeply I know my soul! I know all the main-
springs of the mechanism ; and knowing this, it is easy to govern
them.

As to acts, the knowledge of their number is only important
so far as mortal sins are concerned, in order to confess them ;
the knowledge of the rest is only of importance to guide me toa
knowledge of my dominant disposition.

Is, then, examination of conscience such an easy thing ?—
Nothing can be easier, a simple glance. And I can do it ina
moment, and as often as I like.

9. Contrition and firm purpose (p. 314).—But what about con-
trition and firm purpose ?—When one knows how to use it, the
glance contains all that. I see, I repent, I correct. Itis just like
piety, of which it is the eye. Piety is at one and the same time,
sight, love, and search; the glance of self-examination is the
same thing ; sight, love, search ; look, contrition, firm purpose.

10. The different kinds of self-examination (p. 317).—In the
evening, when I cast a glance over the whole of the past day, I
prolong and separate the three parts of this one action; glance,
contrition, and firm purpose, and I assign to each enough time to
satisfy and enlighten my piety. Such is the general examination
of conscience.

In the morning, a glance as to the deeper bearings of my soul,
and then my day has its course set aright. This is the pre-
liminary examination.

During the day, a single glance shows my dominant feeling
in the light of God ; there you have the particular examen.

Thus, the glance is the vital centre of all kinds of self-examina-
tion, at whatever time and in whatever way I may make them.

11. The unity of the exercises (p. 321).—This glance is simplicity
in itself: no useless and tiresome hunting after details. It is

SUMMARY 393

also eaucacy : I get to the very bottom of my soul. It is the
guide of my life : for I set straight all my conduct; all my acts
are reached, since I get at their cause. It is the eye of all the
exercises : for it prevents them from going astray in self-seek-
ing, and brings them face to face with God. Lastly, it is the unity
of my life : by using it in my prayers, in my work, in whatever
dealings I undertake, and when I am alone, it makes me see,
love, and seek God in all things.

It is the bond of everything, the guide of everything, the
light of everything. It is the great instrument of piety.

And what shall I say of the other exercises ?

Those that are instruments meant to form piety will soon be
perfected by the glance of self-examination, if I am faithful to it.

There is no need to speak of the importance of those which
are channels of grace ; I am about to consider the importance of
grace.

BOOK II]

GRACE ©
(Pp. 327)

1. The nature of grace (p. 328).—Grace is a kind of super-
natural outpouring of the virtue of God, which raises me above
myself, and fits my being and powers for direct union with God.

It is of two kinds: the one, actual grace, is a momentary help
to enlighten the mind, animate the heart, and strengthen one’s
powers for the performance of duty : the other, habitual grace, is
the outpouring of divine Goodness on my soul, which is thereby
transformed, purified, sanctified, and made like God and pleasing
to Him, and deserving of eternal life.

These two sorts of grace join in the supernatural upbuilding
of my life, the one organizing the materials gathered by the other.

2. The source of grace (p. 332).— Jesus Christ’s merits are what
have purchased for me the grace of action and the grace of union :
the grace of action which sets me in motion, and the grace of
union which sanctifies me. This grace is to be found in all the
instruments of divine action, but it is especially accumulated in
the two great reservoirs of prayer and the sacraments.

Further, acts done in a state of grace have power to merit it.

3. The necessity of grace (p. 334).—‘‘ Without Me, ye can do
nothing,” says our Lord : hence, absolute impotence of action.

Neither willing nor doing is of any use, says St. Paul, it is
God who worketh in us to will and to do: hence, entire impotence
of will.

We are not even sufficient to think anything, says the same
Apostle : hence, a radical impotence of knowing.

I can neither understand, nor will, nor act supernaturally :
seeing, loving, seeking God, that is to say, piety, is therefore
impossible to me by myself.

This life is a divine creation within me ; I am created for the
life of piety, just as I am created for natural life : I can no more
give myself the one than the other.

My body gets life only from the soul, and my soul gets its life
only from God. Just as the soul makes use of the bodily powers
for natural life, so does grace make use of the soul’s faculties for
supernatural life. The principal agent of the natural life is the
soul ; of the supernatural life, grace.

Grace, then, must be the vital principle of my thoughts,
affections, and actions. Every thought, affection, and action
which does not come from grace forms no part of Christian piety.

394

SUMMARY 395

Everything I think, love, and do from a purely natural im-
pulse is destitute of the life of piety, and supernaturally dead.

4. My weakness (p. 338).—What are the thoughts and actions
to which grace in me gives rise ?—How much is withdrawn from
any practical influence of grace! And hence, how much death !

All my strength, all my life, lies in grace : in myself I am weak-
ness and death. Whenever I rely on self, and reckon on my
own strength, I fall. Confidence in self is the secret of my
weakness and falling. Confidence in grace is the secret of my
strength and life.

5. Remedies for weakness (p. 340).—Let me not be astonished
in mind at the fact of my weakness, nor uneasy in heart from
its consequences, nor discouraged in action by its results. And
therefore, let me rely on God in all simplicity, since His strength
will suffice to anticipate or to repair any new falls, and to heal my
infirmities.

6. Prayer (p. 343).—It is both a means of drawing near to God
and a channel of grace. It is the sovereign, universal, infallible
means. Prayer is the soul’s breath, which is exhaled in God, and
inhales God. This process of divine breathing must always go
on unceasingly.

And this function of breathing inevitably inhales the air of
grace, because our Lord has undertaken to give this divine air
to those who breathe. Why should I wonder if God makes me
pray to Him, and pray so much, since thus He obliges me to draw
in the air of eternity ? |

7. The sacraments (p. 347).—These are great reservoirs and
channels, set up by Jesus Christ. to minister to the necessities of
my divine life. They are sensible signs which bring down to me
and place within my reach sanctifying grace and infused virtues,
permanent rights and sacramental graces, and the endlessly
renewable treasures of actual grace. What wealth, if I only
knew how to have recourse to it!

8. The Blessed Virgin (p. 350).—Being established by the privi-
lege of her immaculate conception in the perfect state of consum-
mated unity, Mary, full of grace, raised to the honour of divine
maternity and human maternity, from the first moment of her
mortal existence referred everything to the sole glory of het
Creator. She only glorified her Lord, and rejoiced only in God
her Saviour. What a life, what greatness, and what humility !

And for myself, what a model and what hope! She has all
graces of sanctity to communicate to me, all perfections to teach
me. I find in her everything, both an example and strength.

9. Jesus Christ (p. 354).— Jesus Christ is perfect God and per-
fect man, God and man joined together in one Person. Three
things combine to make Jesus Christ: the divine nature, the
human nature, and the union of the two.

And these three same things combine to make the Christian,
in the proportion and in the conditions which are proper to him,
and these three things sum up this whole work. Divine glory, human

396 THE INTERIOR LIFE

deliverance, the unity of man in God, such is the foundation of
the interior life. O Jesus, grant me to know by every means how
to increase in Thee who art the Head of the body whereof I am
called to be a member. Make me live on Thee, through Thee,
and in Thee. Amen.

10. General résumé (p. 358).—To seek the glory of God in the
will of God by the glance of self-examination, such is the centre of
all my devotional activity. Therein I find the full and living unity
Se being, and the sovereign and sole life in God, by God, for

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