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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Fraternal Charity, by Rev. Father Valuy
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Title: Fraternal Charity
Author: Rev. Father Valuy
Release Date: September 10, 2010 [EBook #33701]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FRATERNAL CHARITY ***
Produced by Michael Gray, Diocese of San Jose
</pre>
<p align="center">
FRATERNAL CHARITY
</p><br>
<br>
<br>
<h1>
FRATERNAL CHARITY
</h1>
<h3>
BY
</h3>
<h2>
REV. FATHER VALUY, S.J.
</h2><br>
<br>
<p align="center">
AUTHORIZED TRANSLATION
</p><br>
<br>
<br>
<p align="center">
NEW YORK, CINCINNATI, CHICAGO
</p>
<h3>
BENZIGER BROTHERS
</h3>
<p align="center">
PRINTERS TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE<br>
1908
</p><br>
<br>
<p>
<img src="images/nihil.jpg" alt="Nihil Obstat"><br>
F. THOMAS BERGH, O.S.B.,<br>
<i>Censor Deputatus.</i>
</p>
<p>
<img src="images/imprimatur.jpg" alt="Imprimatur"><br>
GULIELMUS,<br>
<img src="images/cross.jpg" alt="A cross"><i>Episcopus
Arindelensis,<br>
Vicarius Generalis.</i>
</p><br>
<br>
<p>
WESTMONASTERII,<br>
<i>Die 7 Feb., 1908.</i>
</p><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<p align="center">
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
</p>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>HE name of Father Valuy, S.J.,
is already favourably known to English readers by
several translations of his works, which have a large
circulation.
</p>
<p>
The following little treatise is taken from one of his
works on the Religious Life, and is translated with the
kind permission of the publisher, M. Emmanuel Vitte, of
Lyons. The subject is so important a factor in
community life that I feel confident it will supply a
want hitherto felt by many.
</p>
<p>
Though specially written for religious, it cannot fail
to prove beneficial to seculars in every sphere of
life, as love, the sunshine of existence, is wanted
everywhere.
</p><br>
<br>
<h1>
Contents
</h1>
<table>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
I.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#1">CHARITY THE PECULIAR VIRTUE OF
CHRIST</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
II.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#2">FIRST FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
III.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#3">SECOND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
IV.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#4">THE FAMILY SPIRIT</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
V.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#5">EGOTISM, OR SELF-SEEKING</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
VI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#6">FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF
FRATERNAL CHARITY</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
VII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#7">SECOND CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
VIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#8">THIRD CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
IX.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#9">FOURTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
X.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#10">FIFTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#11">SIXTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#12">SEVENTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#13">EIGHTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XIV.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#14">NINTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XV.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#15">TENTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XVI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#16">ELEVENTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XVII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#17">TWELFTH CHARACTERISTIC</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XVIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#18">EXTENT AND DELICACY OF GOD'S
CHARITY FOR MEN</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XIX.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#19">EXTENT AND DELICACY OF THE
CHARITY OF JESUS CHRIST DURING HIS MORTAL
LIFE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XX.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#20">FIRST PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#21">SECOND PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#22">THIRD PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#23">FOURTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXIV.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#24">FIFTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXV.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#25">SIXTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXVI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#26">SEVENTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXVII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#27">EIGHTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXVIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#28">NINTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXIX.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#29">TENTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXX.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#30">ELEVENTH PRESERVATIVE</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXXI.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#31">MEANS TO SUPPORT THE EVIL
THOUGHTS AND TONGUES OF OTHERS</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXXII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#32">SECOND MEANS TO BEAR WITH
OTHERS</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
XXXIII.
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#33">CONCLUSION</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>
<p>
APPENDIX:
</p>
</td>
<td>
<p>
<a href="#34">THE PRACTICE OF FRATERNAL
CHARITY</a>
</p>
</td>
</tr>
</table><br>
<br>
<br>
<h1>
FRATERNAL CHARITY
</h1><br>
<h1>
<a name="1">I</a>
</h1>
<h2>
CHARITY THE PECULIAR VIRTUE OF CHRIST
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">O</font>UR Divine Saviour shows both by
precept and example that His favourite virtue, His own
and, in a certain sense, characteristic virtue, was
charity. Whether He treated with His ignorant and rude
Apostles, with the sick and poor, or with His enemies
and sinners, He is always benign, condescending,
merciful, affable, patient; in a word, His charity
appeared in all its most amiable forms. Oh, how well
these titles suit Him!—a King full of clemency, a
Lamb full of mildness. How justly could He say, "Learn
of Me, that I am meek and humble of heart"! His yoke
was sweet, His burden light, His conversation without
sadness or bitterness. He lightened the burdens of
those heavily laden; He consoled those in sorrow; He
quenched not the dying spark nor broke the bruised
reed.
</p>
<p>
He calls us His friends, His brothers, His little
flock; and as the greatest sign of friendship is to die
for those we love, He gave to each of us the right to
say with St. Paul: "He loved me, and delivered Himself
up for me." Let us, then, say: "My good Master, I love
Thee, and deliver myself up for Thee."
</p>
<p>
Religious, called to reproduce the three great virtues
of Jesus Christ—poverty, chastity, and
obedience—have still another to practise not less
noble or distinctive—viz., fraternal charity. By
this virtue they are not called to rise above earthly
or sensual pleasures, nor above their judgment and
self-will, but above egotism and self-love, which shoot
their roots deepest in the soul. They must consider
attentively the fundamental truths on which charity is
based and its effects, as also the principal obstacles
to its attainment, and the means to overcome them.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="2">II</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FIRST FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH
</h2>
<h3>
<i>We are all members of the great Christian family</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">C</font>HARITY towards our neighbour is
charity towards God in our neighbour, because, faith
assuring us that God is our Father, Jesus Christ our
Head, the Holy Ghost our sanctifier, it follows that to
love our neighbour—inasmuch as he is the
well-beloved child of God, the member of Jesus Christ,
and the sanctuary of the Holy Ghost—is to love in
a special manner our heavenly Father, His only-begotten
Son, together with the Holy Spirit. And because it is
scarcely possible for religious to behold their
brethren in this light without wishing them what the
Most Holy Trinity so lovingly desires to bestow on
them, acts of fraternal charity include—almost
necessarily at least—implicit acts of faith and
hope; and the exercise of the noblest of the
theological virtues thus often becomes an exercise of
the other two.
</p>
<p>
Thus it is that charity poured into our hearts by the
Holy Spirit, uniting Christians among themselves and
with the adorable Trinity whose images they are, is the
vivid and perfect imitation of the love of the Father
for the Son, and of the Son for the Father—a
substantial love which is no other than the Holy Ghost,
and makes us all one in God by grace, as the Father and
Son are only one God with the Holy Ghost by nature,
according to the words of our Lord: "That they all may
be one; as Thou, Father, in Me, and I in Thee: that
they also may be one in Us."
</p>
<p>
Such is the chain that unites and binds us—a
chain of gold a thousand times stronger than those of
flesh and blood, interest or friendship, because these
permit the defects of body and the vices of the soul to
be seen, whilst charity covers all, hides all, to offer
exclusively to admiration and love the work of the
hands of God, the price of the blood of Jesus Christ
and the masterpiece of the Holy Spirit.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="3">III</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SECOND FUNDAMENTAL TRUTH
</h2>
<h2>
<i>We are members of the same religious family</i>
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>O love our brethren as
ourselves in relation to God, it suffices without doubt
to have with them the same faith, the same Sacraments,
the same head, the same life, the same immortal hopes,
etc. But, besides these, there exist other
considerations which lead friendship and fraternity to
a higher degree among the members of the same religious
Order. All in the novitiate have been cast in the same
mould, or, rather, have imbibed the milk of knowledge
and piety from the breasts of the same mother. All
follow the same rules; all tend to the same end by the
same means; all from morning to night, and during their
whole lives, perform the same exercises, live under the
same roof, work, sanctify themselves, suffer and
rejoice together. Like fellow-citizens, they have the
same interests; like soldiers, the same combats; like
children of a family, the same ancestors and heirlooms;
and, like friends, a communication of ideas and
interchange of sentiments.
</p>
<p>
If our Lord said to Christians in general, "This is My
commandment, that you love one another as I have loved
you. By this shall all men know that you are My
disciples, if you have love for one another" (John
xiii.), can He not say to the members of the same
religious Order: "This is My own and special
recommendation: Before all and above all preserve
amongst you a mutual charity. Have but one soul in
several different bodies. You will be recognized as
religious and brethren, not by the same habit, vows,
and virtues, nor by the particular work entrusted to
you by the Church, but by the love you have one for the
other. Ah! who will love you if you do not love one
another? Love one another fraternally, because as human
beings you have only one heavenly Father. Love one
another holily, because as Christians you have only one
Head. Love one another tenderly, because as religious
you have only one mother—your Order"?
</p>
<p>
It is impossible for religious to love their brethren
with a true, sincere, pure, and constant love if they
do not look at them in this light.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="4">IV</a>
</h1>
<h2>
THE FAMILY SPIRIT
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">B</font>ASED on the foregoing
principles, fraternal charity begets the family
spirit—that spirit which forgets itself in
thinking only of the common good; which makes
particular give way to general interests; which forces
oneself to live with all without exception, to live as
all without singularity, and to live for all without
self-seeking; that spirit which, binding like a Divine
cement all parts of the mysterious edifice of religion,
uniting all hearts in one and all wills in one, permits
the community to proceed firmly and securely, and its
members to work out efficaciously and peacefully their
personal sanctification and perfection; in fine, that
spirit which gives to all religious not only an
inexpressible family happiness, but a delicious
foretaste of heaven, which renders them invincible to
their enemies, and causes to be said of them with
admiration: "See how they love one another!"
</p>
<p>
Writing on these words of the Psalmist, "Behold how
good and pleasant it is for brethren to live together
in union," St. Augustine cries out: "Behold the words
which make monasteries spring up! Sweet, delightful,
and delicious words which fill the soul and ear with
jubilation."
</p>
<p>
Yes, certainly the happiness of community life is great
and its advantages inappreciable; but without the
family spirit there is no community, as there would be
no beauty in the human body without harmony in its
members. Oh, never forget this comparison, you who wish
to live happy in religion, and who wish to make others
happy.
</p>
<p>
A community is a body. Now, as the members of a body,
each in its proper place and functions, live in perfect
harmony, mutually comfort, defend, and love each other,
without being jealous or vengeful, and have only in
view the well-being of that body of which they are
parts, so in the community of which you are members and
in the employment assigned to you. Remember you are
parts of a whole, and that it is necessary to refer to
this whole your time, labour, and strength; to have the
same thoughts, sentiments, designs, and language,
without which there would no longer exist either body,
members, parts, or whole. If you wish, then, to obtain
and practise the family spirit, study what passes
within you. Your actions bespeak your sentiments.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="5">V</a>
</h1>
<h2>
EGOTISM, OR SELF-SEEKING
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">E</font>GOTISM, taking for its motto
"Every one for himself," is very much opposed to
fraternal charity and the family spirit. It never
hesitates, when occasion offers, to sacrifice the
common good to its own. It isolates the individuals,
makes them concentrated in self, places them in the
community, but not of it, makes them strangers amongst
their brethren, and tends to justify the words of an
impious writer, who calls monasteries "reunions of
persons who know not each other, who live without love,
and die without being regretted."
</p>
<p>
Egotism breeds distrust, jealousy, parties, aversions.
It destroys abnegation, humility, patience, and all
other virtues. It introduces a universal disgust and
discontent, makes religious lose their first fervour,
presents an image of hell where one expected to find a
heaven on earth, saps the very foundation of community
life, and leads sooner or later to inevitable ruin.
</p>
<p>
As the family spirit causes the growth and prosperity
of an order, however feeble its beginning, so, on the
other hand, egotism dries the sap and renders it
powerless, no matter what other advantages it may
enjoy. If the one, by uniting hearts, is a principle of
strength and duration, the other, by dividing, is a
principle of dissolution and decay. Sallust says that
"the weakest things become powerful by concord, and the
greatest perish through discord." Whilst the
descendants of Noah spoke the same language the
building of the tower of Babel proceeded with rapidity.
From the moment they ceased to understand one another
its destruction commenced, and the monument which was
to have immortalized their name was left in ruin to
tell their shame and pride.
</p>
<p>
On each of the four corners of the monastery religion
or charity personified ought to be placed, bearing on
shields in large characters the following words: (1)
"Love one another"; (2) "He who is not with Me is
against Me, and he who gathers not with Me scatters";
(3) "Every kingdom divided will become desolate"; (4)
"They had all but one heart and one soul."
</p>
<h1>
<a name="6">VI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FIRST CHARACTERISTIC OF FRATERNAL CHARITY
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To esteem our brethren interiorly</i>
</h3>
<p>
"<font size="+1">C</font>HARITY, the sister of
humility," says St. Paul, "is not puffed up." She
cannot live with pride, the disease of a soul full of
itself. It willingly prefers others by considering
their good qualities and one's own defects, and shows
this exteriorly when occasion offers by many sincere
proofs. It always looks on others from the most
favourable point. Instead of closing the eyes on fifty
virtues to find out one fault, without any other profit
than to satisfy a natural perverseness and to excuse
one's own failings, it closes the eyes on fifty faults
to open them on one virtue, with the double advantage
of being edified and of blessing God, the Author of all
good. Since an unfavourable thought, or the sight of an
action apparently reprehensible, tends to cloud the
reputation of a religious, charity hastens before the
cloud thickens to drive it away, saying, "What am I
doing? Should I blacken in my mind the image of God,
and seek deformities in the member of Jesus Christ?
Besides, cannot my brethren be eminently holy and be
subject to many faults, which God permits them to fall
into in order to keep them humble, to teach them to
help others, and to exercise their patience?"
</p>
<h1>
<a name="7">VII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SECOND CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To treat brethren with respect, openness, and
cordiality</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">E</font>XTERIOR honour being the effect
and sign of interior esteem, charity honours all those
whom it esteems superiors, equals, the young and the
old. It carefully observes all propriety, and takes
into consideration the different circumstances of age,
employment, merit, character, birth, and education to
make itself all to all. Convinced that God is not
unworthy to have well-bred persons in His service, and
that religious ought not to respect themselves less
than people in the world, it conforms to all the
requirements of politeness as far as religious
simplicity will permit; not that politeness which is
feigned and hypocritical, and which is merely a sham
expression of deceitful respect, but that politeness,
the flower of charity, which, manifesting exteriorly
the sentiments of a sincere affection and a true
devotion, is accompanied with a graceful countenance,
benign and affable regards, sweetness in words,
foresight, urbanity, and delicacy in business. In fine,
that politeness which is the fruit of self-denial and
humility no less than of charity and friendship; which
is the art of self-restraint and self-conquest, without
restraining others; which is the care of avoiding
everything that might displease, and doing all that can
please, in order to make others content with us and
with themselves. In a word, a mixture of discretion and
complaisance, cordiality and respect, together with
words and manners full of mildness and benignity.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="8">VIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
THIRD CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To work harmoniously with those in the same
employment, and not to cause any inconvenience to
them</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">W</font>HY should we cling so
obstinately to our own way of seeing and doing? Do not
many ways and means serve the same ends provided they
be employed wisely and perseveringly? Some have
succeeded by their methods, and I by mine—a proof
that success is reached through many ways, and that it
is not by disputing it is obtained, nor by giving
scandal to those we should edify, nor, perhaps, by
compromising the good work in which we are employed.
The four animals mentioned by Ezekiel joined their
wings, were moved by the same spirit and animated by
the same ardour, and so drew the heavenly chariot with
majesty and rapidity, giving us religious an example of
perfect union of efforts and thoughts.
</p>
<p>
Charity avoids haughty and contemptuous looks,
forewarns itself against fads and manias, and in the
midst of most pressing occupations carefully guards
against rudeness and impatience. Careful of wounding
the susceptibility of others, it neither blames nor
despises those who act in an opposite way. Religious
animated by fraternal charity are not ticklish spirits
who are disturbed for nothing at all, and who do not
know how to pass unnoticed a little want of respect,
etc.; nor punctilious spirits, who find pleasure in
contradicting and making irritating remarks; nor
self-opinionated spirits, who pose themselves as
supreme judges of talent and virtue as well as
infallible dispensers of praise and blame. Neither are
they suspicious characters who are constantly
ruminating in their hearts, and who consider every
little insult as levelled at themselves; nor
discontented beings, who find fault with the places
whither obedience sends them and the persons with whom
they live, and who could travel the entire world
without finding a single place or a single person to
suit them.
</p>
<p>
Charitable religious are not those imperious minds who
endeavour to impose their opinions on all and refuse to
accept those of others, however just they may be,
simply because they did not emanate from themselves,
nor are they those ridiculing, hard-to-be-pleased sort
of people who do not spare even grey hairs. Finally,
they are not those great spouters who, instead of
accommodating themselves to circumstances as charity
and politeness require, monopolize the conversation,
and thereby shut up the mouths of others and make them
feel weary when they should be joyful and free.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="9">IX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FOURTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To accommodate oneself to persons of different
humour</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>HEY who are animated by charity
support patiently and in silence, in sentiments of
humility and sweetness, as if they had neither eyes nor
ears, the difficult, odd, and most inconstant humours
of others, although they may find it very difficult at
times to do so.
</p>
<p>
No matter how regular and perfect we may be, we have
always need of compassion and indulgence for others. To
be borne with, we must bear with others; to be loved,
we must love; to be helped, we must help; to be joyful
ourselves, we must make others so. Surrounded as we are
by so many different minds, characters, and interests,
how can we live in peace for a single day if we are not
condescending, accommodating, yielding, self-denying,
ready to renounce even a good project, and to take no
notice of those faults and shortcomings which are
beyond our power or duty to correct?
</p>
<p>
Charity patiently listens to a bore, answers a useless
question, renders service even when the need is only
imaginary, without ever betraying the least signs of
annoyance. It never asks for exceptions or privileges
for fear of exciting jealousy. It does not multiply nor
prolong conversations which in any way annoy others. It
fights antipathy and natural aversions so that they may
never appear, and seeks even the company of those who
might be the object of them. It does not assume the
office of reprehending or warning through a motive of
bitter zeal. It seeks to find in oneself the faults it
notices in others, and perhaps greater ones, and tries
to correct them. "If thou canst not make thyself such a
one as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have
another according to thy liking? We would willingly
have others perfect, and yet we mend not our own
defects. We would have others strictly corrected, but
are not fond of being corrected ourselves. The large
liberty of others displeases us, and yet we do not wish
to be denied anything we ask for. We are willing that
others be bound up by laws, and we suffer not ourselves
to be restrained by any means. Thus it is evident how
seldom we weigh our neighbour in the same balance with
ourselves" ("Imitation," i. 16).
</p>
<h1>
<a name="10">X</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FIFTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To refuse no reasonable service, and to accept or
refuse in an affable manner</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">C</font>HARITY is generous; it does
everything it can. When even it can do little, it
wishes to be able to do more. It never lets slip an
opportunity of comforting, helping, and taking the most
painful part, after the example of its Divine Model,
Who came to serve, not to be served. One religious,
seemingly in pain, seeks comfort; another desires some
book, instrument, etc.; a third bends under a burden;
while a fourth is afflicted. In all these cases charity
comes to the aid by consoling the one, procuring little
gratifications for the other, and helping another.
Without complaining of the increased labour or the
carelessness of others, it finishes the work left
undone by them, too happy to diminish their trouble,
while augmenting its own reward. "Does the hunter,"
says St. John Chrysostom, "who finds splendid game
blame those who beat the brushwood before him? Or does
the traveller who finds a purse of gold on the road
neglect to pick it up because others who preceded him
took no notice of it?" It would be a strange thing to
find religious uselessly giving themselves to ardent
desires of works of charity abroad, such as nursing in
a hospital or carrying the Gospel into uncivilized
lands, and at the same time in their own house and
among their own brethren showing coldness,
indifference, and want of condescension.
</p>
<p>
There is an art of giving as well as of refusing.
Several offend in giving because they do so with a bad
grace; others in refusing do not offend because they
know how to temper their refusal by sweetness of
manner. Charity possesses this art in a high degree,
and, besides, raises a mere worldly art into a virtue
and fruit of the Holy Ghost.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="11">XI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SIXTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To share the joys and griefs of our brethren</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">A</font>S the soul in the human body
establishes all its members as sharers equally in joys
and griefs, so charity in the religious community
places everything in common content, affliction,
material goods driving out of existence the words mine
and thine. It lavishes kind words and consolations on
all who suffer in any way through ill-humour, sickness,
want of success, etc.; it rejoices when they are
successful, honoured, and trusted, or endowed with
gifts of nature or grace, felicitates them on their
good fortune, and thanks God for them. If, on the one
hand, compassion sweetens pains to the sufferer by
sharing them, on the other hand participation in a
friend's joys doubles them by making them personal to
ourselves. Would to God that this touching and edifying
charity replaced the low and rampant vice of jealousy!
</p>
<p>
When David returned after he slew the Philistines, the
women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and
dancing to meet King Saul. And the women sang as they
played, "Saul slew his thousands and David his ten
thousands." Saul was exceedingly angry, and this word
was displeasing in his eyes, and he said: "They have
given David ten thousand, and to me they have given but
a thousand. . . . And Saul did not look on David with a
good eye from that day forward. . . . And Saul held a
spear in his hand and threw it, thinking to nail David
to the wall" (1 Kings). Thus it is that the jealous
complain of their brethren who are more successful,
learned, or praised; thus it is that they lance darts
of calumny, denunciation, and revenge.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="12">XII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SEVENTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Not to be irritated when others wrong us</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">W</font>E must pardon and do good for
evil, as God has pardoned us and rendered good for evil
in Jesus Christ. It is vain to trample the violet, as
it never resists, and he who crushes it only becomes
aware of the fact by the sweetness of its perfume. This
is the image of charity. It always strives to throw its
mantle over the evil doings of others, persuading
itself that they were the effects of surprise,
inadvertence, or at most very slight malice. If an
explanation is necessary, it is the first to accuse
itself. Never does it permit the keeping of a painful
thought against any of the brethren, and does all in
its power to hinder them from the same; and, moreover,
excuses all signs of contempt, ingratitude, rudeness,
peculiarities, etc.
</p>
<p>
Cassian makes mention of a religious who, having
received a box on the ear from his abbot in presence of
more than two hundred brethren, made no complaint, nor
even changed colour. St. Gregory praises another
religious, who, having been struck several times with a
stool by his abbot, attributed it not to the passion of
the abbot, but to his own fault. He adds that the
humility and patience of the disciple was a lesson for
the master. This charity will have no small weight in
the balance of Him Who weighs merit so exactly.
</p>
<p>
Charity gives no occasion to others to suffer, but
suffers all patiently, not once, but all through life,
every day and almost every hour. It is most necessary
for religious, as, not being able to seek comfort
abroad, they are obliged to live in the same house,
often in the same employment with characters less
sympathetic than their own. These little acts of
charity count for little here below, and they are
rather exacted than admired. Hence there is less danger
of vainglory, and all their merit is preserved in the
sight of God.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="13">XIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
EIGHTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To practise moderation and consideration</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>ELL-TALES, nasty names, cold
answers, lies, mockery, harsh words, etc., are all
contrary to charity. St. John Chrysostom says: "When
anyone loads you with injuries, close your mouth,
because if you open it you will only cause a tempest.
When in a room between two open doors through which a
violent wind rushes and throws things in disorder, if
you close one door the violence of the wind is checked
and order is restored. So it is when you are attacked
by anyone with a bad tongue. Your mouth and his are
open doors. Close yours, and the storm ceases. If,
unfortunately, you open yours, the storm will become
furious, and no one can tell what the damage may be."
If we have been guilty in this respect, let us humble
ourselves before God.
</p>
<p>
"The tongue," says St. Gertrude, "is privileged above
the other members of the body, as on it reposes the
sacred body and precious blood of Jesus Christ. Those,
then, who receive the Holy of Holies without doing
penance for the sins of the tongue are like those who
would keep a heap of stones at their doors to stone a
friend on arrival."
</p>
<p>
In order to keep ourselves and others in a state of
moderation, we must remember that all persons have some
fad, mania, or fixed ideas which they permit no one to
gainsay. If we touch them on these points, it will be
like playing an accompaniment to an instrument with one
string out of tune.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="14">XIV</a>
</h1>
<h2>
NINTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Care of the sick and infirm</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">C</font>HARITY lavishes care on the
sick and infirm, on the old, on guests and new-comers.
It requires that we visit those who are ill, to cheer
and console them, to foresee their wants, and thereby
to spare them the pain or humiliation of asking for
anything.
</p>
<p>
Bossuet says: "Esteem the sick, love them, respect and
honour them, as being consecrated by the unction of the
Cross and marked with the character of a suffering
Jesus."
</p>
<p>
Charity pays honour to the aged in every respect,
coincides with their sentiments, consults them,
forestalls their desires, and attempts not to reform in
them what cannot be reformed. Charity receives
fraternally all guests and new-comers, and makes us
treat them as we would wish to be treated under similar
circumstances. It also causes us to lavish testimonies
of affection on those who are setting out, and warns us
to be very careful of saying or doing anything that may
in the least degree offend even the most susceptible.
</p>
<p>
Religious must ever feel that they can bless, love, and
thank religion as a good mother. But religion is not an
abstract matter; it is made up of individuals
reciprocally bound together in and for each other.
</p>
<p>
Alas! how many times are the sick and the old made to
consider themselves as an inconvenient burden, or like
a useless piece of furniture! In reality what are they
doing? They pray and do penance for the community, turn
away the scourge of God, draw down His graces and
blessings, merit, perhaps, the grace of perseverance
for several whose vocation is shaking, hand down to the
younger members the traditions and spirit of the
institute, and finally practise, and cause to be
practised, a thousand acts of virtue.
</p>
<p>
Did our Divine Lord work less efficaciously for the
Church when He hung on the Cross than when He preached?
We must, then, do for the sick and the old who are now
bearing their cross what we would have wished to do for
Jesus in His suffering.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="15">XV</a>
</h1>
<h2>
TENTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Prayer for living and deceased brethren</i>
</h3>
<p>
"<font size="+1">W</font>E do not remember often enough
our dear dead, our departed brethren," says St. Francis
de Sales, "and the proof of it is that we speak so
little of them. We try to change the discourse as if it
were hurtful. We let the dead bury their dead. Their
memory perishes with us like the sound of the funeral
knell, without thinking that a friendship which
perishes with death is not true. It is a sign of piety
to speak of their virtues as it urges us to imitate
them."
</p>
<p>
In communities distinguished for fraternal charity and
the family spirit the conversation frequently turns on
the dead. One talks of their virtues, another of their
services, a third quotes some of their sayings, while a
fourth adds some other edifying fact; and who is the
religious that will not on such occasions breathe a
silent prayer to God and apply some indulgence or other
satisfactory work for the happy repose of their souls?
</p>
<p>
Charity also prays for those who want help most, and
who are often known to God alone—those whose
constancy is wavering, those who are led by violent
temptations to the edge of the precipice. It expands
pent-up souls by consolations or advice; it dissipates
prejudices which tend to weaken the spirit of
obedience; it is, in fine, a sort of instinct which
embraces all those things suggested by zeal and
devotion. Can there be anything more agreeable to God,
more useful to the Church, or more meritorious, than to
foster thus amongst the well-beloved children of God
peace, joy, love of vocation, together with union
amongst themselves and with their superiors? It is one
of the most substantial advantages we have in religion
to know that we are never forsaken in life or death; to
find always a heart that can compassionate our pains, a
hand which sustains us in danger and lifts us when we
fall.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="16">XVI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
ELEVENTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To have a lively interest in the whole Order, in its
works, its success, and its failures</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">R</font>ELIGIOUS who have the family
spirit wish to know everything which concerns the
well-being of the different houses. They willingly take
their pens to contribute to the edification and satisfy
the lawful curiosity of their brethren. They bless God
when they hear good news, and grieve at bad news,
losses by death, and, above all, scandalous losses of
vocation.
</p>
<p>
Those who would concentrate all their thoughts on their
own work, as if all other work counted for nothing or
merited no attention, who would speak feebly or perhaps
jealously of it, as if they alone wished to do good, or
that others wished to deprive them of some glory, would
show that they only sought themselves, and that to
little love of the Church they joined much indifference
for their Order.
</p>
<p>
Charity, by uniting its good wishes and interest to the
deeds of others, becomes associated at the same time in
the merit. It shares in a certain manner in the gifts
and labours of others. It is, at the same time, the
eye, the hand, the tongue, and the foot, since it
rejoices at what is done by the eye, the hand, the
tongue, etc., or, rather, it is as the soul which
presides over all, and to whom nothing is a stranger in
the body over which it presides.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="17">XVII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
TWELFTH CHARACTERISTIC
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Mutual Edification</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">B</font>E edified at the sight of your
brethren's virtues, and edify them by your own. In
other words, be alternately disciple and master.
</p>
<p>
Profit by the labours of others, and make them profit
by your own. Receive from all, in order to be able to
give to all. Borrow humility from one, obedience from
another, union with God, and the practice of
mortification from others.
</p>
<p>
By charity we store up in ourselves the gifts of grace
enjoyed by every member of the community, in order to
dispense them to all by a happy commerce and admirable
exchange.
</p>
<p>
As the bee draws honey from the sweetest juices
contained in each flower; as the artist studies the
masterpieces to reproduce their marvellous tints in
pictures which, in their turn, become models; as a
mirror placed in a focus receives the rays of
brilliancy from a thousand others placed around it to
re-invest them with a dazzling brilliancy, so happy is
the community whose members multiply themselves, so to
say, by mutually esteeming, loving, admiring, and
imitating each other in what is good.
</p>
<p>
This spontaneity of virtues exercises on all the
members a constant and sublime ministry of mutual
edification and reciprocal sanctification.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="18">XVIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
EXTENT AND DELICACY OF GOD'S CHARITY FOR MEN
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">I</font>N order to excite ourselves to
fraternal charity, let us try and picture that of God
for us. After having had us present in His thoughts
from all eternity, He has called us from nothingness to
life.
</p>
<p>
He Himself formed man's body, and, animating it with a
breath, enclosed in it an immortal soul, created to His
own image. Scarcely arrived on the threshold of life,
we found an officer from His court an angel deputed to
protect, accompany, and conduct us in triumph to our
heavenly inheritance.
</p>
<p>
What a superb palace He has prepared for us in this
world, supplied with a prodigious variety of flowers,
fruits, and animals which He has placed at our
disposal!
</p>
<p>
We were a fallen race, and He sent His Son to raise us
and save us from hell, which we merited. The Word was
made flesh. He took a body and soul like ours, thus
ennobling and deifying, so to speak, our human nature.
Before ascending to His heavenly Father, after having
been immolated for us on the Cross, for fear of leaving
us orphans, He wished to remain amongst us in the Holy
Eucharist, to nourish us with His flesh, and to infuse
into our hearts His Divine Spirit as the living promise
and the delicious foretaste of the felicity and glory
which He went to prepare for us in His kingdom.
</p>
<p>
Truly, O God, You treat us not only with a paternal
love, but with an infinite respect and honour; and
cannot I love and honour those whom You have thus
honoured and loved Yourself? Why do not these thoughts
inflame my charity in the fire of your Divine love? My
brethren and myself are children of God and members of
Jesus Christ. My brethren have their angels, who are
companions of my angel. One day my brethren will be my
companions in glory, chanting eternally the Divine
praises. It is but a short time since, with them, I
partook of the heavenly banquet of the Most Holy
Sacrament, and to-morrow shall do so again.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="19">XIX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
EXTENT AND DELICACY OF THE CHARITY OF JESUS CHRIST
DURING HIS MORTAL LIFE
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">L</font>ET us now admire the charity of
our Divine Saviour while on earth.
</p>
<p>
If wine was wanting at a feast; if fishermen laboured
in vain during the night; if a vast crowd knew not
where to procure food in the desert; if unfortunate
persons were possessed by devils or deprived of the use
of their limbs; if death deprived a father of his
daughter, or a widow of an only son, Jesus was there to
supply what was wanting, to give back what was lost, or
to sweeten all their griefs. Sometimes He forestalled
the petition by curing before being asked, or by
exciting the wavering faith. He generally went beyond
the demands of the petitioners. He was always ready to
interrupt His meal, to go to a distance, or to quit His
solitude. Nicodemus, as yet trembling and timid, came
to find Jesus during the night, and He did not hesitate
to sacrifice His sleep by prolonging the conversation.
The Samaritan woman was not beneath His notice,
although He was fatigued after a long journey. He
lavished with prodigality His caresses on the children
who pressed around Him. When the crowd was so great
that the poor woman with the flow of blood could not
come within reach of His hand, He caused an
all-powerful virtue to set out from Him, and a simple
touch of the hem of His garment supplied instead.
</p>
<p>
With what charming grace His benefits were accompanied!
"Zacheus, come down quickly, for I will abide this day
in thy house." Who more than He excelled in the art of
making agreeable surprises? In His apparitions to
Magdalen, to the holy women, to the disciples at
Emmaus, did He not pay well for the ointment, the
tears, and the perfumes, and the hospitality He
received from them? Who is not moved with emotion when
he sees his Lord preparing a meal for the Apostles on
the lake-shore, or asking Peter thrice to give him an
opportunity of publicly repairing his triple denial,
"Lovest thou Me?"
</p>
<p>
Who would not be moved when he hears what St. Clement
relates having heard it from St. Peter that our Lord
was accustomed to watch like a mother with her children
near His disciples during their sleep to render them
any little service?
</p>
<p>
O Jesus! the sweetest, the most amiable, the most
charitable of the children of men, make me a sharer in
Your mildness, Your love, and Your charity.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="20">XX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FIRST PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>How to fortify ourselves against uncharitable
conversations, the principal danger to fraternal
charity</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>O meditate on what the Holy
Scripture says of it: "Place, O Lord, a guard before my
mouth" (Ps. cxl.)—a vigilant sentinel, well
armed, to watch, and, if necessary, to arrest in the
passing out any unbecoming word—"and a door
before my lips," which, being tightly closed, will
never let an un charitable dart escape.
</p>
<p>
"Shut in your ears with a hedge of thorns," to
counteract the tongue, which would pour into them the
poison of uncharitableness, "and refuse to listen to
the wicked tongue."
</p>
<p>
"Put before your mouth several doors and on your ears
several locks"—<i>i.e.</i>, put doors upon doors
and locks upon locks, because the tongue is capable, in
its fury, to force open the first door and break the
first lock. "Melt your gold and silver, and make for
your words a balance"—weighing them all before
uttering them—"and have for your mouth solid
bridles which are tightly held," for fear that the
tongue, getting the better of your vigilance, will
break loose and do mischief in all directions.
</p>
<p>
Considering these many barriers and formidable checks,
must we not see the necessity of burying in a
well-fortified prison that most dangerous monster, the
tongue? "Ah! truly death and life are in the power of
the tongue" (Prov. xviii.). "And although the sword has
been the instrument of innumerable murders, the tongue
has at all times beaten it in producing death" (Ecclus.
xxviii.). "It forms but a small part of the body, and
has done mighty evil: as the helm badly directed causes
the wreck of a fine ship, and as a spark may enkindle a
forest. . . . Unquiet evil, inflamed firebrand, source
of deadly poison, world of iniquity" (St. James iii.).
</p>
<h1>
<a name="21">XXI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SECOND PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To meditate on what the Saints say</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">S</font>T. BONAVENTURE relates that St.
Francis of Assisi said to his religious one day:
"Uncharitable conversation is worse than the assassin,
because it kills souls and becomes intoxicated with
their blood. It is worse than the mad dog, because it
tears out and drags on all sides the living entrails of
the neighbour. It is worse than the unclean animal,
because it wallows in the filth of vices and makes its
favourite pasture there. It is worse than Cham, because
it exposes everywhere the nasty spots which soil the
face of religion—its mother."
</p>
<p>
St. Bernard goes further: "Do not hesitate to regard
the tongue of the backbiter as more cruel than the iron
of the lance which pierced our Saviour's side, because
it not only pierces His sacred side, but one of His
living members also, to whom by its wound it gives
death. It is more cruel than the thorns with which His
venerable head was crowned and torn, and even than the
nails with which the wicked Jews fastened His sacred
hands and feet to the Cross, because if our Divine
Saviour did not esteem more highly the member of His
mystic body (which is pierced by the foul tongue of the
slanderer) than His own natural body formed by the
operation of the Holy Ghost in the chaste womb of the
Virgin Mary, He would never have consented to deliver
the latter to ignominies and outrages to spare the
former."
</p>
<p>
Now St. Francis and St. Bernard are here speaking to
religious. Is it possible, then, for backbiting to
glide into religious communities? Yes, certainly. And
it is by this snare that Satan catches souls which have
escaped all others.
</p>
<p>
St. Jerome says: "There are few who avoid this fault.
Amongst those even who pride themselves on leading an
irreproachable life, you will scarcely find any who do
not criticize their brethren."
</p>
<p>
Rarely, without doubt, but too often, nevertheless, we
calumniate at first secretly or with one or two
friends, afterwards openly and in public. We speak of
the mistakes, shortcomings, and defects, great and
small, and sometimes transmit them as a legacy.
Sometimes we use a moderate hypocrisy by purposely
letting ourselves be questioned, and sometimes brutally
attack our victim without shame.
</p>
<p>
"Have I, then," may the religious thus attacked say,
"in making my vows renounced my honour and delivered my
character to pillage? Has my position as religious, has
the majesty of the King of Kings, of whom I have become
the intimate friend, in place of ennobling me, degraded
me? You call yourselves my brethren, and yet there are
none who esteem me less! You would not steal my money,
and yet you make no scruple of stealing my character, a
thousand times more precious. You pay court to your
Saviour and persecute His child! The same tongue on
which reposes the Holy of Holies spreads poison and
death! Is this to be the result of your study and
practice of virtue? Has not Jesus Christ, by so many
Communions, placed a little sweetness on your tongue
and a little charity in your heart? By eating the Lamb
have you become wolves? as St. John Chrysostom
reproached the clergy of Antioch. And you, who fly so
carefully the gross vices of the world, have you no
care or anxiety about damning yourself by slander?"
</p>
<h1>
<a name="22">XXII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
THIRD PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To guard the tongue</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>HIS must be done especially in
five circumstances: (1) At the change of Superiors. Do
not criticize the outgoing Superior nor flatter the new
one. (2) When you replace another religious. Never by
word or act cast any blame on him. Inexperience, or a
desire to introduce new customs, sometimes causes this
to be done. (3) When you are getting old. Because then
we are apt to think— erroneously, of
course—that the young members growing up are
incapable of fulfilling duties once accomplished by
ourselves. (4) When religious come from another house
do not ask questions which they ought not to answer,
and do not tell them anything which might prejudice or
disgust them with the house or anyone in it. Lastly, in
our interviews with our particular friends we must be
very cautious. There are some who, when anything goes
amiss with them, always seek the company of their
confidants. These should seriously examine before God
whether it is a necessary comfort in affliction or a
support in weakness, or the too human satisfaction of
justifying themselves, giving vent to their feelings,
or getting blame and criticism for the Superior or some
one else. They should also examine whether on such
occasions they speak the exact truth, and whether they
seek a friend, who knows how to take the arrow sweetly
from the wound rather than to bury it deeper.
</p>
<p>
The way to find out the gravity of the sin of
detraction is—(1) To consider the position of him
who speaks and the weight which is attached to his
words; (2) the position of him who is spoken about, and
the need he has of his reputation; (3) the evil thing
said; (4) the number of the hearers; (5) the result of
the detraction; and, lastly, the intention of the
speaker, and the passion which was the cause of it.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="23">XXIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FOURTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To be on our guard with certain persons</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">T</font>HERE are six sorts of religious
who wound fraternal charity more or less fatally, (1)
Those who say to you, "Such a one said so-and-so about
you." These are the sowers of discord, whom God
Almighty declares He has in abomination. Their tongues
have three fangs more terrible than a viper. "With one
blow," says St. Bernard, "they kill three
persons—themselves, the listeners, and the
absent." (2) Those who, obscuring and perverting this
amiable virtue, possess the infernal secret of
transforming it into vice. Is not this to sin against
the Holy Ghost? (3) Those who skilfully turn the
conversation on those brethren of whom they are
jealous, in order to have all put in a bad word. They
thus double the fault they apparently wish to avoid.
(4) Those who constantly have their ears cocked to hear
domestic news, who are skilful in finding out secrets
and picking up stories, whose trade seems to be to take
note of all little bits of scandalous news going, and
to take them from ear to ear, or, worse, from house to
house. Oh, what an occupation! What a recreation for a
spouse of Christ! (5) Those who, under pretext of
enlivening the conversation, sacrifice their brethren
to the vain and cruel wantonness of witticism by
relating something funny in order to give a lash of
their tongue or to expose some weakness. Alas! they
forget that they ruin themselves in the esteem and
opinion of the hearers. (6) Critics of intellectual
work. On this point jealousy betrays itself very easily
on one side, and susceptibility is stirred on the
other. The heart is never insensible nor the mouth
silent when we are wounded in so delicate a part. It is
evident, besides, that in this case the blame supposes
a desire of praise, and that in proportion as we
endeavour to lower our brethren we try to raise
ourselves. All these religious ought to be regarded as
pests in the community.
</p>
<p>
If we call those who maintain fraternal charity the
children of God, should not those who disturb it be
called the children of Satan? Do they not endeavour to
turn the abode of peace into a den of discord, and the
sanctuary of prayer into a porch of hell?
</p>
<h1>
<a name="24">XXIV</a>
</h1>
<h2>
FIFTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To be cautious in letter-writing and visiting</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">G</font>REAT care must be taken never
to repeat anything at visits or in letters which might
compromise the honour of the community or any of its
members.
</p>
<p>
Never utter a word or write a syllable which might in
the least degree diminish the esteem or lower the merit
of anyone. Every well-reared person knows that little
family secrets must be kept under lock and key.
</p>
<p>
St. Jane Frances de Chantal writes: "To mention rashly
outside the community without great necessity the
faults of religious would be great impudence. Never
relate outside, even to ecclesiastics, frivolous
complaints and lamentations without foundation, which
serve only to bring religion, and those who govern
therein, into disrepute. Certainly, we ought to be
jealous of the honour and good odour of religious
houses, which are the family of God. Guard this as an
essential point which requires restitution."
</p>
<h1>
<a name="25">XXV</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SIXTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Caution in communication with superiors</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">I</font>N communications made to
Superiors say the exact truth, and for a good purpose.
Do not speak into other ears that which, strictly
speaking, should only be told to the local Superior or
Superior-General. With the exception of extraordinary
cases, or when it refers to a bad habit or something
otherwise irremediable, there is generally little
charity and less prudence in telling the
Superior-General of something blameable which has
occurred. Do not reveal, even before a Superior,
confidences which conscience, probity, or friendship
requires to be guarded with an inviolable seal of
friendship. If we write a complaint about a personal
offence, lessen it rather than exaggerate, and
endeavour to praise the person for good qualities,
because nothing is easier than to blacken entirely
another's reputation.
</p>
<p>
Pray and wait till your emotion be calmed. When passion
holds the pen, it is no longer the ink that flows, but
spleen, and the pen is transformed into a sword.
</p>
<p>
Before speaking or writing to the Superior it would be
well to put this question to ourselves: "Am I one of
those proud spirits who expose the faults of others in
order to show off their own pretended virtues? or
jealous spirits who are offended at the elevation of
others? or vindictive spirits who like to give tit for
tat? or polite spirits who wish to appear important? or
ill-humoured, narrow-minded spirits, scandalized at
trifles? or credulous, inconsiderate spirits who
believe and repeat everything—the bad rather than
the good? In fine, am I a hypocrite who, clothing
malice with the mantle of charity, and hiding a cruel
pleasure under the veil of compassion, weep with the
victim they intend to immolate, as though profoundly
touched by his misfortune, and seem to yield only to
the imperative demands of duty and zeal?"
</p>
<h1>
<a name="26">XXVI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SEVENTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Caution in doubtful cases</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">A</font>CT with the greatest reserve in
doubtful cases where grave suspicions, difficult to be
cleared up, rest on a religious superior or inferior,
as the case may be.
</p>
<p>
The ears of the Superior are sacred, and it is unworthy
profanation to pour into them false or exaggerated
reports. To infect the Superior's ears is a greater
crime than to poison the drinking fountain or to steal
a treasure, because the only treasure of religious is
the esteem of their Superior, and the pure water which
refreshes their souls is the encouraging and benevolent
words of the same Superior.
</p>
<p>
Some, by imprudence or under the influence of a highly
coloured or impressionable imagination which carries
everything to extremes (we would not say through
malice), render themselves often guilty of crying acts
of injustice and ruin a religious. What is uncertain
they relate as certain, and what is mere conjecture
they take as the base of grave suspicions. Several
facts which, taken individually, constitute scarcely a
fault, they group together, and so make a mountain out
of a few grains of sand. An act which, seen in its
entirety, would be worthy of praise, they mutilate in
such a fashion as to show it in an unfavourable light.
Enemies of the positive degree, they lavish with
prodigality the words <i>often, very much,
exceedingly,</i> etc. When they have only one or two
witnesses, they make use of the word <i>everybody</i>,
thereby leaving you under the impression that the
rumour is scattered broadcast. On such statements, how
can a Superior pronounce judgment?
</p>
<h1>
<a name="27">XXVII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
EIGHTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>To check uncharitable conversation in others</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">W</font>HEN you see charity wounded by
an equal call him to order.
</p>
<p>
If to say or do anything scandalous is the first sin
forbidden by charity, not to stop, when you can, him
who speaks or acts badly ought to be considered the
second.
</p>
<p>
When the discourse degenerates, represent Jesus Christ
entering suddenly into the midst of the company, and
saying, as He did formerly to the disciples of Emmaus:
"What discourse hold you among yourselves, and why are
you sad?" Recall also these words of the Psalmist: "You
have preferred to say evil rather than good, and to
relate vices rather than virtues. O deceitful,
inconsiderate, and rash tongue! Dost thou think thou
wilt remain unpunished? No; God will punish thee in
everlasting flames." After having thus fortified
ourselves against uncharitable conversation, we ought
to try and put a stop to it.
</p>
<p>
St. John Climacus tells us to address the following
words to those who calumniate in our presence: "For
mercy's sake cease such conversation! How would you
wish me to stone my brethren—me, whose faults are
greater and more numerous?"
</p>
<p>
A holy religious replied to an uncharitable person: "We
have to render infinite thanks to God if we are not
such as those of whom you speak. Alas! what would
become of us without Him?"
</p>
<p>
The philosopher Zeno, hearing a man relate a number of
misdeeds about Antisthenes, said to him: "Ah! Has he
never done anything good? Has he never done anything
for which he merits praise?" "I don't know," he
replied. Then said Zeno, "How is that? You have
sufficient perception to remark, and sufficient memory
to remember, this long list of faults, and you have had
no eyes to see his many good qualities and virtuous
actions."
</p>
<p>
St. John Chrysostom says: "To the calumniator I wish
you to say the following: If you can praise your
neighbours, my ears are open to receive your perfume.
If you can only blacken them, my ears are closed, as I
do not wish them to be the receptacle of your filthy
words. What matters it to me to hear that such a one is
wicked, and has done some detestable act? Friend, think
of the account that must be rendered to the Sovereign
Judge. What excuse can we give, and what mercy will we
deserve—we who have been so keen-sighted to the
faults of others, and so blind to our own? You would
consider it very rude for a person to look into your
private room; but I say it is far worse to pry into
another's private life and to expose it.
</p>
<p>
The calumniator should remember that, besides the fault
he commits and the wrong he does to his neighbours, he
exposes himself, by a just punishment of God, to be the
victim of calumny himself.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="28">XXVIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
NINTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>How to check uncharitable conversation in superiors,
etc.</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">W</font>HEN we see charity wounded by
persons worthy of respect, keep silent, in order to
show your regret, or relate something to the advantage
of the absent. If necessary, withdraw.
</p>
<p>
It is related in the life of Sister Margaret, of the
Blessed Sacrament of the Carmelite Order, that when a
discourse against charity took place in the house she
saw a smoke arise of such suffocating odour that she
nearly fainted, and fled immediately to her Divine
Master for pardon.
</p>
<p>
St. Jerome, writing to Nepotian on this subject, says:
"Some object that they cannot warn the speaker of his
fault without failing in the respect due to him. This
excuse is vain, because their eagerness to listen
increases his itch for speaking. No one wishes to
relate calumnies and murmurs to ears closed with
disgust. Is there anyone so foolish as to shoot arrows
against a stone wall?" Let your strict silence be a
significant and salutary lesson for the detractor.
"Have no commerce with those who bite," said Solomon,
because perdition is on the eve of overtaking them; and
who can tell the disaster and ruin with which the rash
detractor and equally blamable listener are threatened?
</p>
<p>
If it be true, according to the testimony of a
religious who was visitor of the houses of his Order,
that the virtue against which one can most easily
commit a grievous sin in religion is charity; and,
according to St. Francis de Sales, sins of the tongue
number three-fourths of all sins committed; cannot it
be said with equal truth that to refuse to listen to
detractors is with one blow to prevent the sin and
safeguard charity?
</p>
<p>
In many cases one can adroitly make known the good
qualities and virtues which more than counterbalance
the defects related by the defamer. To act thus is to
spread about the good odour of Christ.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="29">XXIX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
TENTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Be cautious after hearing uncharitable
conversation</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">A</font>FTER having heard uncharitable
words, observe the following precautions given by the
Saints:
</p>
<p>
1. Repeat nothing.
</p>
<p>
2. Believe all the good you hear, but believe only the
bad you see. Malice does the contrary. It demands
proofs for good reports, but believes bad reports on
the slightest grounds. Out of every thousand reports
one can scarcely be found accurate in all its details.
When, as a rule of prudence, Superiors are told to
believe only half of what they hear, to consider the
other half, and still suspect the remaining part, what
rule should be prescribed for inferiors?
</p>
<p>
When the act is evidently blameworthy, suppose a good
intention, or at least one not so bad as apparent,
leaving to God what He reserves to Himself the judgment
of the heart; or consider it as the result of surprise,
inadvertence, human frailty, or the violence of the
temptation. Never come to hasty conclusions—
<i>e.g.</i>, "He is incorrigible; as he is, so will he
always be." Expect everything from grace, efforts, and
time.
</p>
<p>
3. Efface as much as possible the bad impression
produced on the mind, because calumny always produces
such.
</p>
<p>
The recital of something bad about a fellow-religious
based on probabilities has sufficed to tarnish a
reputation which ample apologies cannot fully repair.
The detractor's evil reports are believed on account of
the audacity with which he relates them, but when he
wants to relate something good he will not be believed
on oath. We know by experience that evil reports spread
with compound interest, while good ones are retailed at
discount.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="30">XXX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
ELEVENTH PRESERVATIVE
</h2>
<h3>
<i>Not to judge or suspect rashly</i>
</h3>
<p>
<font size="+1">E</font>XPEL every doubt, every
thought, likely to diminish esteem. They amuse
themselves with a most dangerous game who always gather
up vague thoughts of the past, rumours without
foundation, conjectures in which passion has the
greatest share, and thus form in their minds characters
of their brethren—adding always, never
subtracting—and by dint of the high idea they
have of their own ability conclude that all their
judgments are true, and thus become fixed in their bad
habit. St. Bernard, comparing them to painters, warns
them that it is the devil who furnishes the materials,
and even the evil conceptions, necessary to depict such
bad impressions of their brethren. We read in the "Life
of St. Francis" that our Lord Himself called in a
distinct voice a certain young man to his Order. "O
Lord," replied the young man, "when I am once entered,
what must I do to please You?" Pay particular attention
to our Lord's answer: "Lead thou a life in common with
the rest. Avoid particular friendships. Take no notice
of the defects of others, and form no unfavourable
judgments about them." What matter for consideration in
these admirable words!
</p>
<p>
Thomas à Kempis says: "Turn thy eyes back upon
thyself, and see thou judge not the doing of others. In
judging others a man labours in vain, often errs, and
easily sins; but in judging and looking into himself he
always labours with fruit. We frequently judge of a
thing according to the inclination of our hearts,
because self-love easily alters in us a true judgment."
</p>
<p>
Rodriguez tells us to turn on ourselves the sinister
questions, etc., we are tempted to refer to others
<i>e.g.</i>: "It is I who am deceived. It is through
jealousy that I condemn my brethren. It is through
malice that I find so much to blame in them. Finally,
the fault is mine, not theirs."
</p>
<p>
Even when reports more or less true might depreciate in
your eyes some of the community, may they not have,
besides their faults, some great but hidden virtues,
and by these be entitled to a more merciful judgment?
St. Augustine says beautifully: "If you cast your eye
over a field where the corn has been trampled, you only
perceive the straw, not the grain. Lift up the straw,
and you will see plenty of golden sheaves full of
grain." The simile is very applicable to a poor
religious beaten down by foul tongues. We blame the
defects of our brethren, and perhaps we have the same,
or others more shameful still. We usurp the right of
judgment, which God reserves to Himself, and forget
that He will punish us by leaving us to our own
irregular passions. Ah! is it not already a very great
misfortune to have these contemptuous, slanderous,
distrustful thoughts, and many other sins, the result
of malicious suspicions and rash judgments, rooted in
the soul?
</p>
<h1>
<a name="31">XXXI</a>
</h1>
<h2>
MEANS TO SUPPORT THE EVIL THOUGHTS AND TONGUES OF
OTHERS
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">W</font>HAT must be done in those
painful moments when, being the victim of a painful
calumny, the object of suspicion, the butt of domestic
persecution, we are tempted to believe that charity is
banished from the community, and so to banish it from
our own heart? Recall the words of St. John of the
Cross. "Imagine," says he, "that your brethren are so
many sculptors armed with mallets and chisels, and that
you have been placed before them as a block of marble
destined in the mind of God to become a statue
representing the Man of Sorrows, Jesus crucified."
Consider a hasty word said to you as a thorn in the
head; a mockery as a spit in the face; an unkind act as
a nail in the hand; a hatred which takes the place of
friendship as a lance in the side; all that which
hurts, contradicts, or humiliates us as the blows,
stripes, the gall and vinegar, the crown of thorns and
the cross. The work proceeds always, sometimes slowly,
sometimes quickly. Let us not complain. We will one day
thank these workmen, who, without intending it, give to
our soul the most beautiful, the most glorious, and the
noblest traits. We ourselves are sculptors as well as
statues, and we will find that, on our part, we have
materially helped to form in them the same traits.
</p>
<p>
"If all were perfect," says the "Imitation," "what,
then, should we have to suffer from others for God's
sake?"
</p>
<p>
It is not forbidden us to seek consolation. But from
whom? Is it from those discontented spirits whose ears
are like public sewers, the receptacle of every filth
and dirt? They increase our pain by pouring the poison
of their own discontent instead of the oil of the Good
Samaritan. They will take our disease and give us
theirs, and, like Samson's foxes, spread destruction
around by repeating what we said to them. May God
preserve us from this misfortune! If we cannot carry
our burden alone, and if we find it no relief to lay
our griefs in the Sacred Heart of Jesus, let us go to
him whom the rule appoints to be our friend and
consoler, our confidant and director, and who, as St.
Augustine relates of St. Monica, after having listened
to us with patience, charity, and compassion, after
having at first appeared to share our sentiments, will
sweeten and explain all with prudence, will lift up and
encourage our oppressed heart, and by his counsel and
prayers will restore us to peace and charity.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="32">XXXII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
SECOND MEANS TO BEAR WITH OTHERS
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">R</font>ECALL the words of our Lord to
Blessed Margaret Mary: "With the intention of
perfecting thee by patience I will increase thy
sensibility and repugnance, so that thou wilt find
occasions of humiliation and suffering even in the
smallest and most indifferent things."
</p>
<p>
What would be considered, when we were in the world, as
the prick of a needle, we look upon in religion as the
blow of a sword. What we looked upon in our own house
as light as a feather, becomes in community life as
heavy as a rock. An insignificant word becomes an
outrage, and a little matter which formerly would
escape our notice now upsets us, and even deprives us
of sleep and appetite. Is not this increase of
sensibility and repugnance found in the religious state
only to form in us the image of our crucified Lord? If
Christ alone has suffered interiorly more than all the
Saints and Martyrs together, was it not because of this
extreme repugnance of His soul, which multiplied to
infinity for Him the bitterness of the affronts and the
rigour of His torments? Religious may expect for a
certainty that, like their Divine Master, there are
reserved for them moments of complete abandonment,
those agonies intended for the souls of the elect, in
which Nature seems on the point of succumbing. No
consolation from their families, which they have
quitted; nor from their companions, who are busy in
their various employments; nor from their Superiors,
who do not understand the excess of their grief, and
whose words by Divine permission produce no effect.
</p>
<p>
The solemn moment of agony with our Divine Saviour was
that in which, abandoned, betrayed, and denied by His
Apostles, and perceiving in His Father only an
irritated face, He exclaimed, "My God! My God! why hast
Thou forsaken Me?" Such will be for religious the last
touch which will complete in them the resemblance of
Jesus crucified, provided they will render themselves
worthy of it.
</p>
<p>
When will be the time of this complete abandonment? How
long will this agony be prolonged? This is a secret
known only to God.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="33">XXXIII</a>
</h1>
<h2>
CONCLUSION
</h2>
<p>
<font size="+1">P</font>OVERTY, chastity, obedience,
and charity—such are the virtues suitable and
characteristic of the religious. In this little
treatise we have endeavoured to trace the features of
the last.
</p>
<p>
In every community we can distinguish two sorts of
religious— those who mount and those who
descend—those whose face is towards the path of
perfection, and those who have turned their back to it.
Perhaps amongst these latter some have only one more
step to abandon it altogether. Now we mount or descend,
proceed or retrace our steps, in proportion as we
practise these four virtues or neglect them.
</p>
<p>
A religious Order is like a fire balloon, which
requires four conditions in order to rise into the
clouds amidst the applause of the spectators. First,
the rarefaction of the air by fire. This represents the
vow of poverty, which empties the heart through the
hands, and substitutes the desire of heavenly goods for
those of earth. Second, release from the cords which
bind it down. This represents the effects of the vow of
chastity, which, by breaking human attachments, permits
us to soar towards God with freedom and rapidity.
Third, a man who will feed the fire and moderate the
flight of the balloon upwards. This represents the
right which the vow of obedience places in the hands of
the Superior, to nourish the sacred fire, and direct
the sublime movement of the soul and foresee dangers.
Fourth, the union of its component parts. This
represents the operations of charity, in causing all
the members of a community to have but one heart and
one soul.
</p>
<p>
Possessing these four virtues, a religious Order soars
in the heights of perfection; but if one of these be
wanting it falls helplessly, and is no longer an object
of edification, but of scandal and ridicule.
</p>
<p>
When it happens that some members, losing the spirit of
their state, abandon their holy vocation, we may say
with St. John: "They went out from us; but they were
not of us. For if they had been of us, they would no
doubt have continued with us: but that they might be
made manifest that they are not all of us" (1 John
ii.). They appeared to have the religious virtues, but
in reality one or all were wanting to them.
</p>
<p>
O God, do not permit that lukewarmness or an
uncontrolled passion will ever make me waver in my
vocation. During life and at death I wish to remain a
faithful religious, so that I may find the salvation
which Thou hast promised by procuring Thy glory. As
good grain improves by pulling up the weeds, and the
body becomes healthy when purged of bad humours, pour
into my soul the grace and unction which others refuse,
in order that, practising more perfectly from day to
day poverty, chastity, obedience, and charity, and
redoubling my ardour and zeal to my last hour, I may
obtain the priceless treasure promised to those who
have quitted all to follow Thee. Amen.
</p>
<h1>
<a name="34">APPENDIX</a>
</h1>
<h2>
THE PRACTICE OF FRATERNAL CHARITY (FATHER FABER)
</h2>
<p>
1. <font size="+1">O</font>FTEN reflect on some good
point in each of your brethren.
</p>
<p>
2. Reflect on the opposite faults in yourself.
</p>
<p>
3. Do this most in the case of those whom we are most
inclined to criticize.
</p>
<p>
4. Never claim rights or even let ourselves feel that
we have them, as this spirit is most fatal both to
obedience and charity.
</p>
<p>
5. Charitable thoughts are the only security of
charitable deeds and words. They save us from
surprises, especially from surprises of temper.
</p>
<p>
6. Never have an aversion for another, much less
manifest it.
</p>
<p>
7. Avoid particular friendships.
</p>
<p>
8. Never judge another. Always, if possible, excuse the
faults we see, and if we cannot excuse the action,
excuse the intention. We cannot all think alike, and we
should, therefore, avoid attributing bad motives to
others.
</p>
<p align="center">
CHARITABLE RELIGIOUS
</p>
<p>
They have a disregard of self and a desire to
accommodate others. They rejoice with their companions
in their joys and recreations, and grieve with them in
their afflictions.
</p>
<p>
They try to bring all the good they can to the
community and to avert all the evil. They begin with
themselves, by being as little trouble as possible to
others.
</p>
<p>
With great charity and affability they bear with the
faults and shortcomings of others, careful to fulfil
the law of Christ, which tells us to bear one another's
burdens.
</p>
<p>
They dispense to others what they have for their own
advantage; more particularly do they give spiritual
assistance by prayer and the other spiritual works of
mercy.
</p>
<p>
They never contradict anyone. They never speak against
anyone. They are convinced that charity, holy
friendships, and concord form the great solace of this
life, and that no good ever came from dissensions and
disputes.
</p>
<p>
They consider that God is ever in the midst of those
who live united together by the bonds of holy love.
</p>
<p>
We will do likewise if we consider the image of God in
the souls of our brethren. As we form one body here and
one spirit in the same faith and charity, let us hope
not to be separated hereafter, but to belong for ever
to that one body in heaven when faith and hope shall
disappear, but where charity alone shall remain, and
remain for ever.
</p>
<hr>
<p align="center">
<i>R. & T. Washbourne, Ltd., 1, 2 & 4
Paternoster Row</i>
</p>
<pre>
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