the day that prayer of the Psalmist, "O Lord, teach

me to do thy will" (a). Secondly, we must discover that particular vice or failing which is the source whence our other faults spring, in order to pluck it out from the very root. Thirdly, we must determine that particular virtue of which we stand in greatest need, that we may afterwards plant it carefully in our souls. To these matters, as to a double end, we ought to direct all our meditations, reflections, and spiritual lectures. Remember that this counsel is of paramount importance.

III. We ought to enter upon the Exercises, in the first place, with a most thorough conviction that we need them very much; that our future spiritual progress depends entirely on the use we shall make of them; and that we are about to undertake a matter of the very greatest importance. The greater

the esteem we entertain for them the more earnest will be our endeavours to perform them well. Secondly, we ought to commence them with a humble distrust of our own strength; because God rejects the proud, and bestows his heavenly favours upon the humble only. Thirdly, we should commence them with a soul prepared to act in a generous manner with God, and firmly resolved to deny Him nothing; to place no limits to His grace; to make no exceptions in our own favour; but generously to sacrifice all things, and to perform or to avoid whatever it is God's will that we should perform or avoid, with an absolute indifference to everything-being very careful, however, not to form incautiously any resolution which we would be unwilling to abandon after

(a) Psalm cxlii., 10.

wards. Fourthly, we ought, moreover, to commence them with a firm hope that the infinite goodness of God, which has granted us the will to enter upon this holy Retreat, will grant us, likewise, the grace to perform it in a proper manner, since He wills our sanctification. To commence the Exercises with such a preparation as this, will be, assuredly, a happy presage of the choice favours and sublime virtues which we shall acquire through their means.

IV. Since venial sins and an over-due engagement of our thoughts in temporal affairs are an obstacle to heavenly graces, which God withdraws from the sinful and worldly-minded, we ought to cultivate a singular purity of conscience and great recollection of spirit, not only during the actual period of the Exercises (for at this time even a slight fault would prove a serious obstacle to the reception of God's favours), but also in the course of the preceding day.

It not unfrequently happens, even in the case of religious persons, that the day preceding the Retreat is given up to a certain kind of dissipation, as if this were a necessary recreation for the mind before entering on so many days of meditation. This is a most insidious artifice on the part of the devil, who gains very largely by causing the first days of the Retreat, on which the success of all the others may depend, to be spent fruitlessly and in a state of tepidity.

§. III. Counsels regarding the external arrangement of our affairs.

I. On the day previous to our entry into Retreat, we should arrange all our affairs in such a manner

that they be not afterwards to us an occasion of distractions. We should put our apartment in order, and remove from it everything-even our bookswhich might distract us, so that (as far as possible) it may contain nothing except what is of service for the purposes of the Exercises.

II. We should prepare two small blank books, one for the purpose of writing down the lights and inspirations with which God may favour us, and the other to contain the resolutions which we may form for the future, together with the motives which impelled us most strongly to adopt them. This counsel is of the greatest importance. Remember, however, that (as the Directory observes) these manuscript notes should be very brief, and not extended into diffuse essays, thus appropriating to this purpose the time which has been allotted to other occupations (a).

III. We must beg of the Lord, by frequent and fervent prayer, grace to derive good fruit from the Exercises, frequently visiting the Most Holy Sacrament for this purpose, reciting the Office or the Rosary with this intention, and with more than ordinary devotion, and selecting some heavenly advocates under whose guardianship we may place ourselves in a very special manner during those days.

IV. Even though the person who performs the Exercises should be (as the Directory remarks) himself a man of learning and prudence, and skilled in the direction of souls, nevertheless, during those days he should not trust at all in his own prudence

(a) Directory, ch. 2 and 3.

and learning, but should place himself without reserve in the hands of his director. He should regard him absolutely as the instrument of the Lord, sent for his guidance. Wherefore, he should neither conceal nor dissemble anything, but sincerely lay open before him his entire heart. Let him be obedient to him in all things, and use no other meditations except such as he shall prescribe, and in the same order in which he shall direct him to use them. The same rule must be followed when there is question of practising mortifications or other penances. In a word, let him be persuaded that the more diligently and exactly he follows the counsels of his director, the better will he dispose himself to receive more abundant graces from God, since God is highly pleased with such humility and simplicity, and loves to hold converse with the soul which is adorned with these virtues. Such is the doctrine of the Direc

tory.

§. IV. Counsels to be observed during the time of the

Exercises.

I. During the entire time of this Retreat we must continually cherish a strict spirit of recollection. To attain this end, we must first of all keep a jealous guard over our senses-principally over our eyes, by not fixing them upon any person; over our ears, by excluding all news, letters, messages, &c.; and over our tongues, by scrupulously observing a most rigorous silence. Secondly, we must restrain our imagination, by not entertaining any thought whatever which is foreign to the Exercises, acting, in fact, as if we had no other business on earth outside of them. To such an extent should we practise this restraint,

that we ought to shut out from our minds even pious thoughts, when they have no connection with the subject matter of the past or the coming meditation. Thirdly, we must rigidly observe solitude, by not leaving our apartment without necessity, and by holding ourselves absolutely disengaged from every other occupation; so that not only during the course of the day, but even after our meals, we should refrain from reading, or writing, or meditating on anything, except what may have been marked out for that day, or may happen to be connected with the Exercises, or with the object to which they are directed. Nay more, we ought to abstain also from those manual labours which fatigue the body too much, and render the mind dissipated (a). Wherefore, S. Ignatius writes, "the more detached anyone is from all his friends and acquaintances, and from every human care, the greater will be the progress which he will make. And the more secluded and solitary the soul is, the better disposed will she become to seek and to find her Creator" (b).

In truth, we ought to imitate that celebrated minister of the German emperor, who having received, while making the Exercises in the Jesuit College at Spire, a letter from his sovereign, bade the attendants not deliver it to him, saying, that the business which he was just then transacting with the King of kings would not permit him to bestow any thought upon an earthly monarch.

II. We ought to perform the meditations, firstly, ina reverential posture, particularly during that portion

(a) Directory, ch. 2.

(b) S. Ignatius, Lib. Exerc. ad n. 20.