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CHARACTERISTIC VIRTUES—CHARITY
WORDS OF ST. VINCENT
CHARITY.—The second virtue recommended to you as Sisters of
Charity, is charity itself. The Rule that inculcates the practice of this virtue, tells you,
Sisters, that you must be what your name implies. If you inquire the
meaning of the word charity, I will tell you, my dear Sisters, that,
in the first place, it is the love of God above all things, and in
the second, the love of our neighbour, our Sisters particularly, for
the love of God. Yes, the love of our neighbour requires you to love
and support one another in infirmities. But this is not enough, your
charity must extend even to the poor, whom you must serve with love.
Charity is the mark by which our Lord tells us His disciples may be
known, for He declares that by our love for one another all men
shall know that we are His disciples. If there are any that have not
this distinctive mark, though they may style themselves His
disciples, they are not so, any more than was the miserable disciple,
Judas. In the same proportion, as charity reigns among you, your
Company will give edification; but, if it is wanting, and Sisters
are found to disagree in a parish, be assured such as do so, are not
Sisters of Charity. How can they be, since they are without humility
or charity? If they possessed these virtues, they would treat one
another as their state requires; that is, they would be equally kind
towards all. You are called to the love of God, and of your neighbor.
Particular Friendships.—Persons living in Community are subject
to either one or other of these different kinds of love—the love of
their neighbor for the love of God, or a mere love of inclination,
which may be more properly called, an animal love, as the Blessed
Bishop of Geneva tells us. Now, while the latter kind of love
inclines us to particular friendships, the former, being holy in
nature, inspires us with a universal charity. It is with such love,
my dear Sisters. that God commands you to love your Sisters, your
neighbor, and particularly the poor. He forbids you to love any one
through inclination, and when such preferences exist in Communities,
very pernicious consequences ensue. A plague could not bring a
greater misfortune on an establishment, than do the frivolous
conversations of such as are led away by this kind of love. For, as
their inclinations alone actuate them, they converse about their
companions just as they please. They are apt to sow discord not only
among their Sisters, but among the officers. Led by the same
impulse, they speak against the Superiors or the officers, and of
the manner in which the establishment and the whole Company is
governed.
They murmur, too, when anything displeases them. Now, do not
testify any more affection for those that you feel inclined to love,
than for those that are disagreeable to you; in order to overcome
your attachment, you ought to be more reserved in their regard, and
never allow them to perceive that you feel any preference for them.
If you find that you are attached to any one of your Sisters, say
to yourself: By the help of God's grace, I will overcome this
inclination, at once; I will see this Sister less frequently, and
whenever we chance to meet, I will speak only on edifying subjects.
Slander—You must always speak well of your Sisters, but, to
avoid flattering them in their faults, you ought, when a thing
appears wrong to you, to say so; still, you must beware of finding
fault with a Sister, on account of the little defects or
imperfections you perceive in her. Even the just man falls seven
times a day; so there is no one without some failings. If you
are convinced of this, you will not find it difficult to excuse your
Sisters; therefore, when you hear their imperfections spoken of, you
should say: The same may be said of me. A Sister may speak thus, for
instance: It seems to me, such a Sister is not modest, or she
appears proud. The one who speaks in this manner might better say to
herself: Poor creature that I am, do I not see that my own interior
faults surpass those that I remark in my Sister? Let us study
ourselves, my Daughters, and our actions, and we shall soon be
convinced that our faults are greater than those of our Sisters.
If we avoid all detraction, and truly love one another, we shall
enjoy a foretaste of Paradise, for, my Daughters, do not the Blessed
live thus? They are so replenished with charity that they rejoice as
much on account of the glory enjoyed by others, as for their own.
Beware, then, of making the failings of your Sisters the subject of
your conversation, going about whispering to one another, that such
a one did or said such a thing, for you would dwell in the outskirts
of Hell, as it were, for, wherever detraction is found, charity is
wanting.
FRATERNAL CHARITY
To build a house it is not enough to lay the
stones together; they require to be united with good cement. In the
same way, we must use cement of a superior quality to build up the
perfection of the Religious state. The cement of superior quality is
that fraternal charity which should reign in every Religious house;
because a Community being composed of persons who all aspire to
perfection, it ought to be a most loving and closely united family.
All the members have, as it were, been cast in one mould; all
recognize the same Founder; all obey the same General Superior;
pursue the same end, and by the same means; all in fine live the
same kind of life; there should then be in all but one heart and one
soul or spirit. Our Divine Lord says: Love one another as I have
loved you; by this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if
you love one another.
Of Religious especially it is true that they shall be known to be
Religious, not by the habit and veil which they wear, nor by the
same vows or virtues they practice, but by the love which they have
for one another. The spirit of the Religious family requires us to
forget ourselves in order to think only of the common good, valuing
the general interest of the Community before any particular one; to
do nothing, and to desire nothing simply for our own sake, which we
would not be ready to do or desire for all the members of the
Community. The Religious who is animated by this family spirit acts
as follows:
1. She has interiorly a great esteem for all her Sisters,
habituating herself always to view them in the most favorable light,
shutting her eyes to their defects, in order to edify herself with
their perfection.
2. She treats them with respect, frankness, and cordiality,
avoiding what might displease them, and endeavoring to do what is
agreeable to them with that politeness—the flower of Charity— which
gives grace to the countenance, benignity to the lips, affability to
the eyes, sweetness to the voice, and an indescribable air of
urbanity and delicacy to the exterior deportment on every occasion.
3. When the Religious is associated with her Sisters in the same
employment, she is attentive to treat all their susceptibilities
very cautiously, neither blaming nor despising those who pursue a
course different from her own; and she would always rather suffer
than cause suffering.
4. She accommodates herself to the different characters of her
Sisters, bearing patiently and silently with the most odd and
contrary tempers, out of a spirit of humility, as if she were
without eyes or ears.
5. She takes upon herself what is most arduous.
6. She foresees the wants of her Sisters to relieve them.
7. She compassionates their trials, which she softens by sharing
them with her sympathy.
8. She excuses the faults of others, says nothing about them, and
retains no unpleasant feelings against any one so ever on account of
them.
9. When the humble violet is trodden under foot, it never proudly
raises its head; and he who crushes its lovely bloom or bud only
knows that he has done so by the sweetness of its perfume. This is
an excellent picture of a truly charitable Religious.
10. She knows nothing about recrimination, uncharitable lies,
ill nature, contradiction and sharp words.
11. She is most kind and careful in attention towards the sick
and infirm, the aged, and those in need of her help; these being the
objects of her tenderest favor and delicate care.
12. Lastly, she faithfully preserves the memory of her departed
Sisters, calling to mind their virtues in order to edify herself
with them, and she never forgets them in her prayers.
WORKS OF CHARITY
If the duty of teaching has to be performed in a particular spirit
and surrounded by a rampart of prayer in order to render it safe and
profitable to our souls, the same may be said of every kind of
active work of charity. These works must spring from some more
supernatural principle then mere benevolence, in order to harmonize
with Religious life. They must be performed with an intention more
divine and spiritual than the love of usefulness; and they must be
steeped in a spirit altogether different from the human spirit which
often prompts the like work in persons of the world.
Undoubtedly the first principle which moves Religious men and
women to work and suffer for the bodies and souls of others is the
personal love of Him who has chosen the poor for His
representatives. We may boldly say that, were there no Incarnation
and no Passion, there would be no Religious. It is Jesus Christ
crucified and the memory of Him that has created the Religious life,
and in an especial way it is the love of Him which has made
Religious leave the desert, to seek Him in schools and hospitals, in
prisons, and streets, and garrets, wherever poverty and suffering,
ignominy and contempt are reproducing, all over the world, pictures
of the ignominies and sufferings of Jesus.
A Religious must, therefore, have something of this love in her
heart to enable her to undertake any active work in the Religious
spirit. As far as possible, she must get rid of any notion that she
is a hospital nurse or a schoolmistress; and she must work only
because, as the spouse of Jesus, He calls her in His love to
minister to Him.
But, besides this, which is evidently the foundation stone of
Religious active work, it is very necessary for us to gain spiritual
and supernatural views of the right way in which all work must be
undertaken. Perhaps no one can be a safer guide on this subject than
St. Vincent of Paul, pre-eminently the saint and apostle of active
charity, whose life is less marvelous for the miracles which he
performed in the way of charitable work than for the altogether
superhuman spirit in which he always labored.
Now throughout his life there was one idea which he strove by
every means to infuse into all whom he trained to works of charity.
It wag this: that our work is useful or useless exactly in
proportion as self is taken out of it and God made to take the place
of self. He cared not a straw for great abilities; he repeated again
and again that the real grace which makes a soul do great things for
God depends not on natural gifts, but on the completeness with which
that soul has been made an instrument of God. God communicates a
particular force and energy to the words and deeds of those who do
His Will. He pours His special benediction on the works which they
undertake for Him; He accompanies their holy enterprises by His
grace; and hence all their actions are a source of edification to
those who behold them. Those whose talents are of an ordinary kind
are in general more suitable instruments in the hands of God for
procuring the salvation of His people than great geniuses, because
they have less confidence in themselves; they recur to God with more
humility, and they attribute to Him alone the success of all their
labors.
A soul must, therefore, be fitted to become God's instrument. Not
every movement of zeal, not every natural capacity, not mere human
prudence and knowledge of business fits us to do God's work, but
habitual dependence on Him and the willing withdrawal of our own
interests and our own glory. In proportion as we despise and
mistrust ourselves, we are capable, and in proportion as we esteem
and think much of ourselves, we are incapable of doing God's work.
Hence the Saint's beautiful maxim, that none are fit for the work of
God, but those who have profound humility and a sincere contempt of
themselves.
Now, perhaps the first step to acquire this spirit is to get
thoroughly out of one's soul the idea that it is I who do this
particular work. Were I doing it in the world, it would be my
individual work; but in religion, when I renounced my worldly name,
I renounced also my worldly individuality. The Community labors and
uses me as an instrument; the I is merged in the whole body. And I
must seek to love this obscurity, and with jealousy to avoid
appropriating to myself the smallest particle of glory in the fruit
of my labors. Provided God be glorified, it matters little whether
it be by means of this person or that. If He ever grant us the favor
of being in heaven, we shall see that under the reign of perfect
charity there will be no mine and thine.
The next thing is, when we set to work, not to trust to natural
powers and gifts. This does not mean that we are not to use them,
but not to trust to them for success. When a Superior, a preacher,
or a professor of learning relies on his own prudence and knowledge,
says St. Vincent, God withdraws from him and permits him to act
alone. In such a case, all his attempts will end in nothing. His
fine genius, his experience, his powers of influence and command,
his eloquence, his education, his advantages of what ever kind will
be of no avail. He will have a great failure instead of a great
success. God acts in this way in order to convince him by his own
experience that all his talents are nothing without the help of
heaven. Paul planteth and Apollo watereth: but God alone must give
the increase (1 Cor. III. 6). Hence, too, the Prophet teaches us
that the secret of strength is dependence on God's help. In silence
and in hope shall your strength be (Isaiah xxx. IS). And St. Vincent
says: The most assured means of succeeding in any enterprise is a
total abandonment of oneself to Divine Providence and an entire
dependence on its arrangements. Elsewhere he says: Those who believe
themselves to be the authors of the good they have done, or who
flatter themselves with having the least share in the world in it,
or who take complacency in such thoughts, lose more than they gain,
even when the works on which they are engaged are good and
holy.
But not only must we avoid self complacency in our labors and a
direct dependence on our own abilities; there is another phase of
nature which the Saint is equally anxious to exclude. He would have
our work altogether Divine, and, in order to render it so, he bids
us restrain anything like a spirit of eagerness and impetuosity.
When we feel ourselves moved by a vehement desire to perform any
important and even holy work, we should defer it till another time
and wait till our heart is more tranquil and indifferent, in order
that self-love may not sully the purity of our intention. Nature
often desires that things should be done at once and quickly. This
we should repress, in order to accustom ourselves to the practice of
holy indifference and to leave to God the care of manifesting His
Will; being assured that, when God wishes an affair to succeed,
delay will not injure it; and that the less industry there is on
our part, the more there will be of the wisdom and power of God.
What folly in the language of the world and the sense of the
world is there in these words! What! the best way to do a work of
charity is not to do it; the best way to overcome a difficulty is to
take no pains! the best way to accomplish much is to sit idle! St.
Vincent was certainly not the man to be charged with want of
industry; and yet so little was it that to which he looked for
success that he even dares to speak as though it were more hindrance
than help. The less of man, he would have us understand, the more of
God.
Another most essential point in religious work is to choose
humble ways of working, humble beginnings, a want of show and of
what appeals to mere human esteem. A slow, steady progress is one of
the marks of the Spirit of God. His works in general are
accomplished by degrees.
They have a beginning and a progress. We should not, therefore,
attempt everything at once, or give up everything as lost because
it promises little at first and requires some pains. Our part is to
proceed step by step and to address frequent prayers to God. Real
prudence consists in performing our actions in the manner, at the
time, and for the end which is most conformable to the Will of God.
Then again, to be discouraged at the crosses and hindrances which
are sure to arise in the beginning of any good work is absolute
folly. All that we suffer in any good work which we have undertaken,
says St. Vincent, merits for us the grace necessary for its success.
Undertakings begun in simple, ordinary ways are more favored by God
than those in which we use extraordinary and remarkable means. The
works of God generally proceed by very slow degrees. When God
employs us in them, we must use the means suggested by the Spirit of
Jesus Christ and conformable to the maxims of the Gospel, not the
maxims of the world. Believe me, three workmen will do more than ten
when God puts His hand to the work; and He always does so when He
seems to deprive us of human means and places us under the necessity
of doing things which are above our strength. When we have done all
in our power to ensure the right issue of an affair, we should
preserve our tranquility and peace, whatever may be the result, for
the result will be in God's hands alone.
The illusions which creep into charitable labors did not escape
the Saint's notice. He repeatedly exposed the mistake of those who
seem to be laboring for God's glory and the salvation of souls, when
secretly they are laboring for self.
Many good works, he would say, are undertaken on motives
altogether human, concealed under the pretext of seal for God's
glory; but God is not the author of such works and His wisdom will
not crown them with success. Of these human motives the principal
are, the desire to attract applause, renown, and the esteem of men,
the gratification of our own restless and busy nature, and a certain
incapacity to be hidden and, as we deem it, worthless in a
community. Self-love covered with a veil of charity often makes us
believe we are serving God, when in reality we are seeking our own
gratification. We are flying from the weariness of inaction into the
distraction of a busy life. It is of such souls that St. Vincent
adds: Often those who labor for the salvation of others ruin
themselves. They go on well when concerned with their own salvation,
but neglect their own souls when caring for the souls of others.
That soul only that is guided by the Spirit of God is capable of
extraordinary things.
The Saint departed from his usual gentleness when condemning
those who sought by renown and human esteem. O cursed love of
display! he exclaims; thou art the cause of men pulling down what
Jesus Christ built up. There is nothing that will ensure the success
of any undertaking, but humility and the pure intention of doing it
for His glory. It would be better to be bound hand and foot and cast into the fire than to perform good works with the design of
pleasing men.
In the same spirit he directs people not to take too much care to
use eloquence, and show off their abilities in the work of teaching
and preaching. He preferred a humble and simple style as more likely
to drawn down God's blessing, and he quotes the example of our
Divine Lord, who might have given the sublimest instructions and yet
preferred using common and homely parables about a laborer, a
vineyard, a woman sweeping her house, a grain of mustard seed, and
the like, to teach us the humility of teaching. We should retrench
everything that is merely brilliant and serves only to attract to
ourselves the applause of then. Our discourse will thus be more full
of the spirit of Christ; and the heart which makes this sacrifice is
most pleasing to Him Who delights in humility and simplicity in word
and work. It is not study or eloquence which contribute to the
salvation of souls. Simplicity and humility in the teacher are far
more powerful instruments for disposing hearts to receive the
operations of grace.
Another very obvious essential in works of charity is
perseverance in prayer. Indeed, in any work which is directed in any
way to the conversion of souls this must always be the chief
instrument.
St. Vincent adds another means which he says is equally
efficacious. If you have to treat with others on spiritual things,
he says, begin by a conversation with God and a renunciation of your
own judgment, your own views, and your own opinions, that you may be
wholly filled with the Holy Ghost, Who alone is our true light.
Perhaps these quotations may be enough to show what was deemed by
this great Saint to be the spirit of active work. It is a spirit of
entire self renunciation and most simple dependence on God. It looks
on the human means employed as altogether subordinate to the
superhuman guidance. It is not only different from, but
diametrically opposed to mere human prudence. In this respect it
resembles all teaching based on the principles of the Gospel. Those
Divine principles which contain the whole essence and kernel of
Religious life are not merely distinct from the maxims of the world;
they are their contrary. The Gospel is the world turned upside
down. If the world says it is good to be rich, the Gospel says it is
good to be poor. If the world seeks to be thought well of, the
Gospel teaches us to love contempt. If the world seeks to be wise
and prudent, the Gospel will have us become fools for Christ.
If the world praises a consciousness of power and brilliant
abilities, if it admires and fawns upon greatness in every shape,
the Gospel teaches us to become great by becoming little, nay, to
seek our true spiritual life and being in continual self
annihilation.
People often shrink from the severe and trenchant sayings of the
Saints as though they were pious exaggerations; but nothing they
have ever said equals the severity of our Lord and His Apostles. We
have but to read the Epistles of St. Paul, who repeats again and
again that the world by wisdom knew not God (1. Cor. I. 21), that to
confound them in their fancied wisdom God chose, not the mighty, not
the noble, but the foolish things of the world . . . . to confound
the wise, and the weak things .... to confound the strong; and the
base things and things contemptible, yea, things that are not that
He might bring to naught things that are (Ibid., 27., 28). If any
man seem to be wise, he says again, let him become a fool that he
may be wise (Ibid., III. 18). How he glories not in his gifts, but
his infirmities! How he crushes down all possibility of vain
complacency in mighty deeds by those oft-repeated words, Not of
works, that no man may glory (Eph. II. 9).
In this the Apostle is but the imitator of his Lord, who gave God
thanks that He had hidden the secrets of His will from the wise and
prudent and revealed them to little ones (St. Matt. xi. 25), and
pronounced His eight Beatitudes on all those states and conditions
which the world most shrinks from and despises. The first, He says,
shall be last and the last first (St. Matt. xix, 30). If a man seek
to be great, let him become as a child (St. Matt. xviii, 3). And
when He was about to perform one of His greatest miracles, that of
opening the eyes of the blind, we read that the means which He used
were the most humbling to the pride of reason. He spat on the
ground, and made clay of the spittle, and spread the clay upon his
eyes (St. John ix. 6).
It is, therefore, clear that our ideas on the subject of works of
charity, whether for the bodies or the souls of others, should be
altogether reformed and cleared of the worldly and human taint which
infects mere natural motives. We must not grudge time spent
apparently in idleness, if the idleness be humbling us and killing
our sense of self importance. In proportion as it does so, it is
making; us fitter instruments for the work of God. We must not
be dissatisfied or discontented if we are never set to any active
work for souls, but believe that we do the work by our obedience as
much as though we were actually engaged upon it.
In a community some only are chosen to come in contact with the
souls of others; and those are chosen who are most filled with the
spirit of God, that through them that spirit may be breathed out
over the hearts of those to whom they minister. A Religious in whom
self-love is not mortified would he an unfit instrument for any work
for others. She would infuse her own spirit, not the spirit of God.
On the other hand, experience daily exhibits what we can only call
one of the ordinary miracles of grace. You will find some soul
altogether deficient in mental power or advantages of any kind, a
lover of silence and retirement, one who seldom comes out before the
eyes of others, and who never in any way teaches or directs. Yet, if
such a soul be clothed interiorly with certain supernatural
qualities, her grace and beauty cannot be hid. Every one is
conscious of the influence of such a one; her mere presence is a
benediction to the good and a reproof to the irregular; she goes
about and virtue seems to flow out of her; for the simple reason
that she is full of the spirit of God. Contrast such a soul with one
endowed with talents, power and the gift of words, and see how
infinitely inferior is the influence of the one to that of the
other; because the power of the one is God's power, and the power of
the other is human and nothing more.
In a word, it is emptiness of self which makes us fit to be
filled with the power and spirit of Christ and in Him to be made
capable of all things. He works in us; but He cannot enter within us
to work there whilst we are filled with self. Perhaps the most
astonishing thought by which we can bring home this truth to our
hearts is the fact that the greatest work ever accomplished on earth
was wrought by self annihilation.
Indisputably, no human work, however great, can be put in
comparison with the redemption of the human race. Yet how was it
accomplished? St. Paul gives the answer in those simple and
wonderful words wherein he tells us that the Word made flesh, Who
wrought our salvation, emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant
(Phil. ii. 7) Who was it Who thus emptied Himself? Even He in whom
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead corporally (Col., ii. 9).
Then, as St. Thomas says, the world was saved by the humility of God
Incarnate. O model of all work for souls! He who would follow in the
footsteps of Christ must follow, not only in His labors. His
preaching, His thousand ministries of love, but, far more than all
this, in His Divine emptiness; and must believe in his heart that it
is when free from the corruption of his own spirit that he will
become fit to be a vessel of the Spirit of God.
Let us conclude by one of St. Anthony's modes of teaching, a
parable out of the book of nature. When you graft a rosebud upon a
wild thorn, to make the graft live and flourish you must cut off
every sprout of the wild stock. If you do this, all the sap and
fruitfulness will flow into the engrafted bud. But some day, you
will perhaps come to look at your rose tree and will marvel to see
your engrafted shoot withered and dead. What can be the cause? Every
bud of the thorn seems to have been nipped away; it looks like a
mere barren stock. Look a little more attentively and you will see
that Nature has her subtleties in plants as well as in souls. The
poor thorn, finding it hopeless to put forth buds and leaves on the
upright stem, has struck a sucker into the earth, which, all
unperceived by you, has crept underground for several yards, and
then has thrust its head upwards, and is flourishing there as though
it were a strong young plant, defying all detection of belonging to
its parent stem. Even so, souls which have been subjected to the
sharp pruning knife of spiritual discipline, sometimes fall into a
snare of self-love, which finds its vent in secret gratifications,
the nature of which they conceal even from themselves. But, be sure
of this; where self has its vent, no matter in how hidden a shape,
the result will be always the same; the spiritual and supernatural
work will languish and die. Its life depended on the cutting down of
the natural stock; and the free growth of natural tastes, natural
motives, and natural reason has been the signal for its destruction.
STUDY
The duty of study is nothing less than a duty of charity in the case
of those for whom it is appointed by obedience and is pleasing to
God as such, even though you never come to use what you acquire.
Considering how large a portion of our time is given to this
occupation, it is certainly important for us often to meditate how
the duty can be well done and made a spiritual action. In itself it
is not spiritual, any more than working in the kitchen or washroom
would be spiritual, if done without a spiritual intention. Nay, more
than this, it is quite certain that intellectual labor in itself is
more likely to become unspiritual than manual labor, because it is
more absorbing to the mind and engages the thoughts almost
necessarily upon itself; because we are more likely to become
attached to it; because it lays our mind open to attacks of vanity
and interrupts the silence of our soul.
We need not, however, on this account infer that study cannot be
made spiritual when followed in its proper order. In fact, probably
the safest of all principles is to be quite sure that no occupation
and no way of life need ever be distracting or dangerous if it is
followed in the way of duty. There is no state in which a man is so
free from temptation, says St. Vincent of Paul, as that in which
God has placed him. If he be not safe there, he will be safe
nowhere. And as this office of studying is evidently one of our
ordinary religious duties, it only remains for us to see how it can
be made safe and profitable to our souls, and especially how it can
be made to tell for our work as Sisters of Charity.
St. Vincent Ferrer has said everything in a few pages of his
Treatise on the Spiritual Life, when he reminds us always to season
study with prayer. He would have us, when we study, form the habit
of breaking off every now and then, in order gently and for a moment
to raise our hearts to God. Many words are not necessary, he says;
it is enough for some in their simplicity to hide themselves in the
clefts of the rock. The reply made by St. Bonaventure when asked
from what books he had derived all his knowledge is well known. He
answered by pointing to the Crucifix. Perhaps, however, one may
venture to doubt whether the full force and significance of the
reply is always understood. It is certain that St. Bonaventure was
an eminently learned man, and that he studied and read as well as
meditated. When he said that he had learnt all from the Crucifix, he
evidently meant that it was studying with Christ in his heart and
Christ before his eyes that earned him the fruits of study. It was
this continual taking refuge it the holes of the rock, that is, the
wounds of Christ, that made study profitable to him.
The following passage from a very different source will perhaps
be of service to some whom duty may engage in study as a distinct
occupation. There are several simple tests by which you may always
know whether any internal disorder has crept into your soul out of
these occupations:
1. If you find a hankering after it when duty puts you to other
things. 2. If you have a restless desire to get to it again. 3. If
you find it interfering with your spiritual and interior exercises
(as for example, making you unpunctual, doing it at wrong times or
preoccupying your thoughts in the chapel or during Meditation). If
not, all is safe.
Intellectual work, apart from the action of the heart, has some
effects quite peculiar to itself. It dries up the soul. Just think
what the result of a life of letter writing is, in which one's head
is wearied and worn out and one's heart has nothing to do.
Invariably, even when quite innocently pursued, it produces a
certain degree of aridity. Mental fatigue always results in dryness.
This is why inexperienced people who begin to meditate with their
heads only and make their heads do all the work, find they cannot
pray.
On the other hand, we may take it as an axiom, that the action of
the heart never tires or wears one out. Therefore, the grand secret
is to find out how we may make our head work into heart work. And of
course, this is best done by the exercise of a pure intention. If we
do our mental work for the salvation of souls and as an offering of
love, the heart will have its share. And then, as St. Augustine
beautifully says: Labor will be without pain, because the labors of
those who love are not overwhelming, but rather delightful; for pain
suffered for an object beloved is either not felt, or, if felt, it
loses its nature and is turned by love into joy.
TEACHING
In a little book drawn up for the use of the Ursuline Novices we
find one or two useful rules on the spirit in which we should set
about the work of teaching, which we will arrange in the form of
maxims, adding one or two spiritual advices from other sources.
A great zeal for souls, and love of unwearied labor should
inflame the Religious devoted to the teaching office, which is truly
an Apostolate for the formation of tender hearts in the virtues of
piety and religion, which should be instilled both by word and
example into the hearts of children. Religious who have charge of
schools should try to meet the requirements of the managers and
accurately observe the duties laid down by them.
All partiality—that is, favoring some children more than
others—should most scrupulously be avoided, as well as all words or
actions by which the tender feeling's of children are hurt. A
Religious who endeavors to imitate her Divine Spouse will endeavor
to speak and act towards children as Jesus did when He said: Suffer
little children to come unto Me, for of such is the Kingdom of
Heaven; therefore, frequent corporal punishment, harsh, sarcastic,
unkind, or injurious words, will never be heard in the school taught
by Religious.
1. Always remember that of yourselves you can do nothing. It is
only by strict and intimate union with God that your work will have
its fruit. Remember the words of Jesus Christ, Abide in Me .... As
the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine,
so neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
2. Remember it is not you who do the work, but the Community. All
the members of the body, says St. Paul, whereas they are many, yet
are one body. Let there be no private spirit, therefore, no
emulation, no desire to excel or to shine, or to be distinguished
above others.
3. Penetrate your soul with a sense of your own nothingness. It
is the disposition best calculated to drawn down God's blessing on
your work. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. And
St. Bernard says: The words of those who instruct others are
effectual only in so far as they breathe the spirit of Divine charity.
4. Always do this sort of work with the intention of discharging
it for God's glory and not your own. Not to us, O Lord, not to us,
but to Thy name give glory. If you do this, your hours in school
will be as profitable to your soul as your hours before the Altar.
5. Cherish a high and spiritual idea of this duty. Remember what
St. Denis says: Among all divine things there is nothing so divine
as to cooperate with God in the salvation of souls and that you do
by teaching.
6. Cast away all human views, all human principles, and human
motives. Do all in God and for God. You are like a moon, shining
only by borrowed light. If your sun is eclipsed, all your light is
gone, for you have none of your own. Your wisdom, your light is in
proportion to your union with God. St. Augustine says that, if the
Angels themselves were distracted for a moment from the vision of
God, they would be plunged into darkness. What then would be the
light in your soul, if not fed from the source of light ?
7. Remember, in the words of St. Denis, that those who teach
others should be holy, if they would make others holy; perfect, to
perfect others; enlightened, that they may enlighten others. A very
holy nun once wrote to her daughters: Religious who instruct
children should themselves be images of the sanctity of God and the
mirror of His perfection. It is necessary to have practiced for a
long time what we wish to teach to others, says St. Vincent; by this
means the word of God, when it proceeds from our mouth, will produce
the hundredfold. Perhaps we may add that attention to one of our
own ordinary Community rules would help as much as anything to the
maintenance of the right spirit in these things; that is, the Visit
to the Blessed Sacrament before and after going to school. It is
probably one of the actions which, if we examine ourselves, we shall
find is most often performed negligently, and as a matter of form.
We are in a hurry. To have to go into the chapel interrupts us in
our little fit of precipitation; we go in in a hasty, slovenly way,
and come out in the same manner; at least, this is a very possible
kind of negligence into which we may fall. Certainly, if we took
pains to infuse into this act as much recollection, deliberation,
and actual intention as we possibly could, it could not fail to
produce an immense result in our interior spirit.
There is a passage in St. Paul's first Epistle to the Corinthians
which describes, in what reads like a beautiful sort of paradox, the
secret which holy souls learn of living in positions dangerous to
sanctity without being injured. The time is short, he says; it
remaineth that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and
they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as
if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed
not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not; for the
fashion of this world passeth away. The Apostle in these words
means, of course, to paint that disengagement of heart from earthly
ties and worldly duties which make all things pass. May not we in
like manner say that our part is to teach as though we were not
teachers? That is to say teaching must not be our life.
Our soul must flow into our work only so far as to animate it for
God. Ourselves must never be poured out on it and wasted. We must
learn to look on our brains precisely as we look on our hands, our
fingers, our money, or our time; as instruments to be used for God's
service, but neither to be taken pleasure in for their own
excellence, nor used in any way for self. To separate oneself from a
love of one's own natural powers and yet to continue to use them is
a difficult, but most necessary kind of detachment. In it there lies
a very large amount of what we call freedom of soul. No man is more
free in heart than he who has learnt indifference to his own
intellect. And we shall grow indifferent if we really regard it as
being merely a tool or an organ, good if used for God, in all other
respects useless.
No one ever saw more clearly or expressed more forcibly the
vanity of mere human cleverness in dealing with souls than St.
Vincent of Paul. Neither philosophy, nor theology, nor all (he
reasoning in the world, he says, will Have any effect on souls:
Jesus Christ must act with us and we with Him. We must speak as He
spoke, and must be united to Him as He was to His Father.
After all, the most ignorant of the devils knows more than the
most profound theologian. Mere study relaxes spiritual fervor. It
is, therefore, most necessary that those who study should take care
to preserve their devotion by means of pious exercises, so that
their understanding may be entirely perfected by the knowledge of
truth.
The Saint was, moreover, accustomed to check his companions when
they praised any one for his learning or abilities, or seemed to
think such a person likely to be useful to the Order merely on that
account. Never expect great things from any one, he would say, who
does not know how to converse familiarly with God. Those only are
fit to execute the designs of God who have a sincere contempt for
themselves. In fact, he abhorred the human notion of clever people
being necessary to advance God's works. God has no need of learned
men for the success of His works, he once said. He more frequently
chooses for His instruments simple, unlettered souls like the
Apostles.
The same great Saint often warned his children against being
discouraged by the stupidity of those with whom they had to deal.
This bearing with the grossness of the poor was, he said, one of the
chief parts of charity. If we regard the exterior or the mental
abilities of some poor peasants, he would say, we shall find them so
gross and earthly that they hardly seem to have the gift of reason.
But look on them with the light of faith and you will see in them
the representatives of God. This warning is one which we should
often recall to mind, assuring ourselves that impatience with the
dullness of others is rather a proof of our own pride than of any
superiority of intellect.
HOSPITAL WORK
1. Purity of Intention.—Living in the presence of God, union with
God by means of ejaculatory prayer, fidelity in performing our
religious exercises, for which there is always time, ways and means,
if we utilize the time lost in useless conversation— then use the
Morning Offering, My God, I offer Thee this day all I think and do
and say, uniting it with what was done on earth by Jesus Christ Thy
Son, making use of ejaculatory prayers going and coming through
corridors, etc., which brings a blessing and preserves recollection
; these are a great help to keep our intention pure in our work as
nurses.
2. Exterior.—Dignity and reserve, absence of frivolity, loving
remembrance that religion is represented to many for the first time
through the impression made by the Religious nurse and that
prejudice is broken down or confirmed by us, this will help us here.
The Sisters of Charity must build up and sustain by every means in
her power that beauteous Church of God on earth of which she is to
be a shining ornament, said Archbishop Connelly. What a glorious and
holy privilege!
We must cultivate perfect cleanliness as to coiffe,
guimpe, apron, hands, nails, every detail. We must do everything perfectly because God sees us, and our
Guardian Angel is always with us, and we are never alone; there are
always two of us. An angelic modesty, therefore, in deportment,
countenance, words, actions, etc., etc., as well as the avoidance of
all familiarities and friendships. Silence and recollection are the
gatekeepers of the soul.
3. Mental Qualifications.—Qualify yourselves thoroughly for the
work entrusted to us by study, observation, industry, desirous to
know all that a professional nurse should or could know in order to
serve God better in His poor suffering creatures, and thus you will
begin to realize, more and more, the supreme humiliation of the Word
Made Flesh. Think how God humbled Himself in taking on Himself this
human body with all its infirmities; hence, respect the human body,
as it is the temple of the Holy Ghost.
4. Moral Qualifications.—These are summed up in the words, a good
Religious. She will be all that can be attained by a creature in
this valley of tears: conscientious, courteous, dignified,
economical (care of dishes, faucets, utensils, supplies), all in
honor of the virtue of Poverty she professes; obedient, from the
same high motive, to rule, superiors, officials, physicians and
others who are placed over her; she will be patient with the poor
sick and with her companions. She will practice self control,
personal neatness, sympathy, tact, truthfulness, unselfishness; she
will be silent in walk, voice and movements; she will avoid
touchiness, be loyal to her Sisters, to the Community, to the
physicians, and be humble and noble and generous with God, with
Superiors, with equals. She will maintain unity of action and ideas
with those in charge. 5. Practice.—Speak of God, His love, His
designs, His mercy, to the patients, but speak tactfully. To do this
effectively you must have Him in mind, be near Him by aspirations,
charity, love, kindness to others. Always be on the lockout for
God's interests; this is why we do this work. Never show annoyance
or impatience; be very gentle in words and handling; control your
countenance; teach patients to unite their sufferings with Our
Lord's suffering and Passion, to suffer for Christ's sake. Make acts
of love—Jesus, My God, I love Thee, etc. Keep before you the lessons
of the Crucifix; use Holy Water.
6. Night Watch.—This arduous duty is most meritorious in the eyes
of God if it be well done. Try not to forget its benefits, and never
be actuated by vainglory; again, avoid giddiness, levity, silliness,
which are unbecoming to a well bred lady of the world. Make an
offering of self in union with the small number of privileged souls
who share with the Angels the honor of offering Him during the
night, a tribute of praise and adoration. These thoughts, to which
the silence of the night lends special weight, naturally arise in
the mind of a fervent Religious who watches by the sick, and are
well suited to strengthen her in the accomplishment of the duties
imposed on her by her profession.
7. The Dying.—The Sisters should consider themselves the visible
angels of the poor dying patients, and should redouble the fervor of
the prayers which they say for them, and leave nothing undone to
secure for each a happy death, being careful always not to annoy the
sufferer at this crisis, when nature is so weak. Acts of Contrition
should be always on the lips of the Sister watching: God be merciful
to me a sinner, etc. Jesus, Mary, Joseph, and the liturgical Prayers
of the Church.
At every visit to Our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament
you should recommend the dear sick to His love and care. |
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