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may remain fixed in our holy choice, we are confirmed in our resolution of leading a more perfect life, even in the midst of adversity and persecutions, and at the sacrifice of health and reputation, if necessary, by the example of Jesus suffering.

(4.) Finally, encouraged by the glory of Jesus arisen from the dead, and buoyed up with the hope of the many rewards reserved for us, we are sweetly transported by charity to the love of God, to an intimate union with Him, and to an absolute conformity of our desires with His Divine will, in which consists all our perfection and our happiness, and which is the only end aimed at in this Retreat.

III. What has been said explains sufficiently the plan of the Exercises, and I shall only add that the Directory styles the first week the basis and foundation of the others, and says that it must never be omitted on any account. From which we may infer with what fervour we ought to attend to the Exercises as signed for that week, since the happy results of the entire Retreat depend upon it. The object aimed at during this week, as well as the fruit to be derived from it is threefold, viz. :—1, an absolute indifference to all the means by which God shall be pleased to conduct us to our last end; 2, an intense sorrow and detestation for the sins which have caused us to stray so far from this our end; and 3, a thorough knowledge of ourselves; that is, of the passions which hold sway in our hearts, of the vicious habits which enslave us, and of the source whence spring those defects which insensibly draw us aside from the pursuit of our end, and are our greatest stumblingblock in the path of perfection (a).

(a) Directory, ch. 11 and 12.

SPIRITUAL EXERCISES

ACCORDING TO THE METHOD OF

SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA.

TO THE READER.

Those points of the Meditation which cannot be gone through within the hour marked out for that Exercise, may be taken up at whatever other time is found most convenient. The matter assigned for Spiritual Lecture will not be found inconveniently long, especially if a portion of the afternoon, as well as of the forenoon, be devoted to it, or it be substituted for the "Lives of the Saints." An entire hour should be employed in the consideration, and during this time it should engross our undivided attention. What regards the examination of our state, may be read after the evening meditation, or at some other convenient hour. For the rest, whoever wishes to observe the recommendation laid down by S. Ignatius, of not reading, or meditating upon anything except what has relation to the subject of the exercises, will find in this little book alone quite enough of matter to occupy his thoughts during the entire eight days of the Retreat.

26

First Day.

FIRST MEDITATION.

On the end of Man.

FIRST POINT.

You have been created by God. Now, examine yourself, and reflect who it is that has created you, whence He has drawn you, what it is He has made you, and with what love He was influenced in bestowing upon you your existence? 1. And in the first place, it was not one of the Angels or of the Powers, neither was it one of the Principalities, or of the Cherubim who created you, but it was God Himself -that God who has no need of any one, and who is infinitely rich and happy in Himself. 2. And He created you from nothing, calling into action (so to speak) on your account all the Omnipotence of His power; for, since there is an immeasurable distance between a state of existence and of mere possibility, it needed all the infinite power of God's arm to bring you into existence when as yet you had no being. 3. And He has created you "to His own image and likeness" (a); stamping you, as it were, with a ray of His divinity, endowing you with a form which rivals that of the most Holy Trinity, and making you little less than the angels (b). In a word, that God, who is all-sufficient to Himself, (b) Psalm viii. 6.

(a) Genesis iv. 26.

has not created you devoid of feeling, nor a brute beast, nor lacking the use of reason; but He has formed you full of life and intelligence, and capable of enjoying everlasting happiness. 4. And this He has done with an infinite and eternal love, loving you with His entire powers from all eternity, in preference to innumerable other beings who would have served Him in a more perfect manner. He has left them in their nothingness, and in their stead He has created you; selecting and embracing with that benign affection of His, without any antecedent merit on your part, you a most ungrateful sinner; nay more, He has fostered you as His child in His paternal bosom, caressing you, and protecting you with singular Providence. Therefore, pay particular attention to the consequence, therefore you are bound to serve God.

It is from God you have received those faculties of your soul, those intellectual powers which you possess, those human feelings with which you are endowed, and the members which constitute your body. They are treasures, then, entrusted to you with a bountiful hand, that you may traffic with them. Therefore, you are bound to employ them in the service of God. You might have been born lame, deaf, blind, dumb, an idiot, or crazy. Wherefore, since, through the bounty of your Creator, you are in the enjoyment of those natural gifts, you are bound to employ them in the service of God. Who if he be not an unbeliever, will dare to question these truths?

SECOND POINT.

You have been created by God to serve Him in this life, and to enjoy Him in the life to come.

To serve

God is man's paramount business, and his essential end. God might, if He chose, have left us eternally buried in our nothingness; but having been pleased to create us, it was impossible that He could bestow life upon us for any other end. No one has been created to the end that He might abound in riches, honours, and pleasures; that he might gain friends, or store up knowledge, or win himself a name in the world; but he has been created to serve God: "For this is all man" (a), namely to be essentially the servant of God.

2. To serve God is man's sole end, and his only business even though he should have managed with the greatest applause the affairs of the entire world ; though he should have governed all its kingdoms, and counselled all its princes and emperors; though he should have accumulated immense wealth, attained to exalted rank, and acquired power almost beyond limit; yet, if he have not rendered to God that service which is His due, he is, in the judgment of heaven, but a cypher, and a useless burthen upon the earth. On the other hand, even though a person should have in nowise laboured for the world, though his lifetime should have been spent in a sick chamber, or he should have lain hidden away in some obscure corner, unnoticed or despised by all, yet, if he have only served God, he has done enough, because he has conducted to a successful issue that work for which alone he was created.

3. To serve God is our last end, and is an affair of such importance that, if brought to a successful termination, it is of itself sufficient to tranquillize our

(a) Ecclesiastes xii. 13.

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