holy spirit of indifference to all things, and remove us from our last end. These S. John calls "the concupiscence of the flesh, the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life” (a). AFFECTIONS. O God, supreme Lord of life and of death! I believe that I shall die, because by Thy command "we all die, and like waters that return no more, we fall down into the earth (b). And we die without a foreknowledge of the time, since Jesus Christ has said: "At what hour you think not, the Son of man will come" (c). I believe that a bad death cannot be remedied. I believe that I shall pass from this world to another, after being stripped of all honour and dignity, and that my body shall be reduced into filthy ashes, since the Holy Ghost tells me "dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return” (d). O Lord, I confess my belief in all these truths and yet I live as if I should never die. I live as if I "had here a lasting city" (e), wholly occupied with the affairs of the world, stolidly vain-glorious I live, alas! the vile slave of the flesh, and so im moderately do I love this food of worms, that I d not blush to sacrifice to its convenience innumerabl degrees of virtue and of glory. I live as unmindfu of my soul, and of its future lot, as if "the death o man and of beasts were one, and the condition them both were equal, and man had nothing mor than the beast" (ƒ). (a) 1 John ii. 16. (d) Genesis iii. 19. (b) 2 Kings xiv. 14. (c) Luke xii. 40 (ƒ) Eccles. iii. 0 my Lord God! I am the food of worms, corruption, filth, and loathsome rottenness: more filthy than the mire, than corruption itself, and, nevertheless, I have dared to raise up my head in pride against Thee, the Omnipotent God. I have dared to make Thee of less account than my body; preferring its lusts, its pride, and its avarice, to Thy most holy will. O Heavens! for the sake of this filthy flesh, then, I have made God angry, have defiled my conscience, and have cast away grace! Ah! I tremble from head to foot when I think of my iniquities. But I repent, O Lord, of my insolence; I am ashamed of my folly. Would that my heart could burst with grief! Yes, I have resolved to proclaim henceforward a most determined war against avarice, pride, and sensuality. Let the lightnings of heaven reduce me to ashes, sooner than I should again offend my Creator. The thought of death at length reveals to me the vanity of the world's goods. Grant to me, O Lord, freed from those three bonds which keep me fixed in the mire, the liberty of the children of God. Grant me to emulate the indifference of a dead body, which permits itself to be moved to any side; equally pleased whether it be clad in purple or in rags, whether it be honoured or despised, whether it be placed in a plain wooden coffin or in a sarcophagus of marble. COMPENDIUM. I. Death teaches us to despise worldly goods. "Thou shalt die the death." You shall certainly die; but you know not when-how-where. Leaving behind you all that you possessed, "thou shalt go into the house of thy eternity," unaccompanied—and stripped of everything. You believe all this, and yet are so much attached to wordly possessions! And you are so covetous of them, and for their sake you stray from your last end! II. Death teaches us to despise worldly honours. Approach: gaze upon that corpse. See how it is despoiled of every honour! It no longer prides itself on illustrious titles; it is nothing but the loathsome food of worms-a mass of corruption—a handful of ashes from which all turn away with disgust. Go, now, and in the presence of all this rottenness, indulge in pride if you can. III. Death teaches us to fly from the pleasures of the flesh. Contemplate in that corpse what will one day be the condition of that flesh through love of which you expose yourself to the risk of damnation. Come, take up that skull; handle those bones; mix those ashes together; gaze upon that creeping mass of worms. Tell me, is it not most extravagant folly on your part to have so many thoughts and so many anxieties for this handful of filth, and, meanwhile, to care nothing for the salvation of your soul? LECTURE. On the Knowledge of Ourselves. I. The purgative way proposes to itself three ends: The first is the detestation of our sins; the second, the extirpation of their roots; and the third, the knowledge of ourselves. If a physician be ignorant of the disease from which his patient suffers, he cannot apply the suitable remedies-hence the necessity of the knowledge of ourselves. If the patient love his ail ment, he will not seek for medicine to remove ithence the necessity for detesting our sins. If the causes of the disease be not removed, a perfect restoration to health is impossible-hence the necessity for extirpating the roots of our sins. Since, then, it is by these helps, principally, that the soul is disposed to produce the holy fruits of every virtue, we see at once how necessary it is to begin the work, and not abandon it until it is brought to a happy conclusion. By considering on yesterday the malice of sin, and its chastisements, we have been led to detest it above all things. Moreover, we have made every effort to eradicate from our souls pride and sensuality, which are the chief roots of all vices. To-day we shall endeavour to arrive at a thorough knowledge of ourselves, in order to attain the third end which the purgative way proposes to itself. In our second meditation on yesterday, which had for its object our personal sins, and in the consideration and examen which followed it, we made considerable progress in this knowledge of ourselves. To-day, however, this object must engage our almost exclusive attention; because the more clearly we see our own nothingness, the greater motive shall we have for selfhumiliation and penance, and so for eradicating from our hearts sensuality and pride, which are the two greatest impediments to the acquisition of the holy spirit of indifference, to serve God in whatever manner He shall please. For it surpasses belief, that any one should have a thoroughly profound knowledge of the wretchedness of his body, and the sinfulness of his soul, without, at the same time, hating and despising himself. II. That this thorough knowledge of ourselves is 66 in reality the third fruit to be derived from the exercises of the first week, according to the mind of St. Ignatius, we learn from the Directory which says: Therefore, the person making the Exercises should direct all his efforts to this-to know his own lowly and vile condition, and to feel it in his heart” (a). S. Ignatius supplies us with three means to help us in attaining this salutary knowledge, viz. : (1) The first manner of making prayer; (2) The examination of conscience; (3) A general confession. The first method of prayer consists in reflecting within one's self on the precepts of God and of the Church, on the seven deadly sins, on the three powers of our soul, and on our five senses; examining successively, in order, whether we have observed the first, whether we have stained our souls with the second, whether we have made good use of or have abused the last. What else is this but to penetrate "into the bottom of the deep, and look into the heart of man, into the most hidden parts" (b). It is self-evident what an efficacious help is found in the double examination of conscience, both daily and general (which precedes confession), to enable one to begin to open his eyes to the knowledge of the sins of his past life, and of the present state of his soul. For this is truly the living light of the lamp that "brings to light the hidden things of darkness" (c). And for this reason, from the very commencement of the Exercises, S. Ignatius proposes both of them to us, desiring that we should carefully perform the daily examen for a quarter of an hour (a) Directory, c. xi, n. 3. (b) Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 28. (c) 1 Cor. iv. 5. |