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 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924031188117 
 
MONSEIGNEUR MERMILLOD 
 
 SUPERNATURAL LIFE; 
 
 CONFERENCES DELIYEREDj IN RETREAT, 
 TO THE LADIES OF LYONS, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH, 
 WITH A PREFACE, 
 
 By lady HERBERT. 
 
 LONDON: 
 R. W ASHBOURNE, 1 8 PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1874- ^(. 
 
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 jpST Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of 
 God ; thou whom the Church calls 
 by the sweetest, the tenderest 
 names ; thou who art both a Virgin Im- 
 maculate and the Mother of the Redeemer ; 
 thou whom the Saviour has preserved from 
 •original sin ; thou who wast born without 
 stain, who didst live without blemish, and 
 die without pain ; thou Queen of souls; under 
 thy protection do we place the fruit of our 
 retreat. Under thy white banner will we 
 serve the cause of God, of thy Son ; we will 
 be the servants of charity and of virtue. 
 We have been told to purify, to supernatu- 
 
Iv Dedication to Mary. 
 
 ralize our life, to fulfil the law of sacrifice, of 
 self-immolation, and of duty; following thy 
 example, we will become generous, courage- 
 ous, willing to suffer. 
 
 O Virgin Mary, amongst the crowd at 
 thy feet there are many hearts who suffer \ 
 comfort them, O thou consoler of the 
 afiflicted ! There are contrite hearts who 
 have wept and mourned, but who have risen 
 up again, strengthened by the Saviour's 
 blood ; help and support them. There are 
 pious and devout souls ; cheer and elevate 
 them. Succour all Christian souls.' Turii 
 thine eyes upon the spouse of Jesus Christ, 
 and upon us who belong to thee. Look 
 upon those who are in distress and suffering'; 
 upon sinners ; upon the wandering sheep of 
 Christ's Fold ; upon all poor heretics. May 
 thy blessing descend upon us, that we may 
 learn so to understand and to sanctify our 
 earthly life, that we may one day enjoy a 
 life in heaven with thee in the glories of 
 eternit)'. Amen. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 |HE " Retreat," of which a translation has 
 been made in the following pages, 
 forms, as it were, the second part of a 
 series of conferences on the end and aim of human 
 life, given on two separate occasions to the ladies 
 of Lyons. 
 
 We believe that there never was a time when the 
 impressive words of this holy and illustrious bishop 
 were more needed than the present. 
 
 The struggle which formerly was confined to 
 certain places and certain minds, is now going on 
 all over the world. I mean the struggle between 
 God and the devil ; between Faith and unbelief; 
 between those who still revere the Word of God, 
 and the entire .negation of all divine Revelation, 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 Religious subjects are now discussed everywhere 
 with a dangerous facility. There is scarcely a daily 
 newspaper which does not devote a leader to some 
 disputed point in faith or morals. The reviews, 
 follow in their wake. In every corner of the earth 
 the evil spirit of doubt and scepticism is prowling 
 round our homes, suggesting to one, this religious 
 difficulty ; to another, that ; flattering the pride of 
 youth by persuading him that there is something- 
 new and original in the line of independent thought 
 which he has struck out : that it was all very welL 
 for his father and mother to believe so and so, but: 
 that these are old-world ideas, unsuited to the 
 present day, and to the present higher range of 
 intellectual culture. 
 
 Tell a young man or a young woman of the 
 nineteenth century that the poorest and most 
 illiterate person who really loves and serves God> 
 will have a higher place in heaven than the wisest 
 and cleverest of their heroes (unless they also have 
 a like grace), and the said young man or woman 
 will simply smile upon you a smile of scornful 
 pity for your ignorance and narrow-mindedness. 
 With a presumption, which would make one laugh 
 
Preface. vii 
 
 if one were not more inclined to cry, they discuss 
 the deepest mysteries of the Christian faith at all 
 times and at all seasons. They walk boldly where 
 even angels fear to tread. Everything in the 
 heavens above and in the earth below is treated by 
 them as an open question, to be subjected to the 
 criticism of their unschooled minds, and to be 
 tested in the crucible of their own limited yet con- 
 ceited apprehension. 
 
 One marvels more and more at the patience of 
 God in bearing with this ignorance and folly, when 
 one hears the youth of both sexes thus laying down 
 the law, and inventing a new Christianity for them- 
 selves, while they sneer at what they term the 
 narrow-minded prejudices of those who still keep 
 to the old paths of faith and duty. Hence, too, 
 arises contempt of parents; disobedience to au- 
 thority ;., and all the evils which follow in their 
 train. 
 
 Take again the popular literature of the day. I 
 do not mean the novels, though they are bad 
 enough, but the multitude of clever and interesting 
 works, treating on these very subjects of human 
 reason and faith, literature and dogma, with, I had 
 
viii Preface: 
 
 almost said, a diabolical charm. They are written 
 in beautiful language ; they are full of admirable 
 descriptions and delicate imagery, and are, in many 
 cases, imbued with a thoroughly poetic and artistic 
 spirit, which makes them specially attractive to 
 cultivated minds. But under these fair flowers 
 the serpent lurks— the serpent of scepticism and 
 unbelief. And the worst of it is, that even with 
 good people, people who would shrink with horror 
 from the idea of denying their faith, the doubts 
 suggested in these books stick and leave a bad 
 impression. Oh ! the devil knows what he is about ; 
 and the poison spread by him is well and skil- 
 ■ fully laid ! And although any one conversant with 
 theology could, in a moment, overturn all their 
 apparently beautiful fabric of error, and demon- 
 strate its folly, yet the misfortune is, that to do so 
 requires a deeper and fuller treatment of the subject 
 than suits the taste of such readers : and so the 
 answers to these dangerous books are simply laid 
 aside unread, with, perhaps, the careless or con- 
 temptuous reply : " Such works are not in my 
 line." 
 
 But Mgr. Mermillod has gone further, and shown 
 
Freface. ix 
 
 how the tempter, with consummate skill, has 
 ■actually succeeded in convincing men of his own 
 non-existence, in order the better to work out his 
 nefarious purposes. The devil is now considered, 
 ■by young men especially, as simply a "humanly 
 invented Bogie " — I am quoting the very words of 
 a well-known writer — meant only to frighten women 
 and children. 
 • Point to the Bible — show them the history of 
 the two greatest temptations the world has ever 
 known — that of Eve in the Old Testament, and 
 •of the second Adam in the New. Strive by these 
 records to prove to them the devil's personality — 
 and they will say, "Oh ! yes. But we don't believe 
 the Bible is anything more than a garbled version 
 of the Indian or Persian ' Vedas.' " 
 
 What is to be done with minds in this state ? 
 — One only hope is left to us, and that is prayer. 
 On women especially, is this duty laid — to pray — 
 to suffer — to immolate themselves — so that their 
 prayers and their sacrifices may mount up to 
 heaven and intercede for their husbands, their 
 ■children, and their brothers, before the throne of 
 God. 
 
X Preface. 
 
 Most beautifully has Monseigneur de Mermillod 
 shown us the three fundamental points on which. 
 Christianity must rest — Bethlehem, Nazareth, and 
 Calvary — ^poverty, work, and suffering. And he 
 has told us, likewise, how we may practise these 
 three things — even though we may be, of what are 
 called the " upper classes " — by lives of self-devo- 
 tion and self-sacrifice. 
 
 We may practise poverty, by denying ourselves 
 all superfluous luxuries. Work, by labouring for 
 the sick, the sorrowful, the widows, the orphans — 
 by our personal service — by our influence — by the- 
 employment of all those talents which God has. 
 given us on their behalf Suffering, not only by 
 offering up to God for others ■ whatever pain He 
 may be pleased to inflict, but also by voluntarily 
 taking upon • ourselves such expiation as may be 
 possible to us, for the sins of unbelief, the blasphe- 
 mous words and thoughts of those near and dear to- 
 ns, or around us. 
 
 Looking in these days at the youth who are 
 growing up, and living day by day in utter denial 
 of God's revealed truths, we are tempted sometimes. 
 
Preface. xi 
 
 to despair and to exclaim: "When the Lord 
 Cometh shall He find Faith on the earth ?" 
 
 Yet, let us not lose heart. God is on our side. 
 And if we be but in earnest, persevering and faith- 
 ful to the duties of that great apostolate to which 
 Mgr. Mermillod considers all women are now called, 
 we shall win in the end. But to ensure this, we 
 must first cleanse our own hearts. We must be 
 united to God in love and in prayer. The whole 
 secret of our influence over the souls of others lies 
 in this — without it our words will be unprofitable 
 and vain. 
 
 Such is the teaching of the book before us — such 
 its great and holy lessons. May we all lay them to 
 heart, and endeavour, each in our different spheres, 
 to labour for souls. " Da mihi animam !" was the 
 cry of St. Francis Xavier, thirsting for the glory of 
 God through the salvation of men. And this thirst 
 we, too, must feel, if we would be the children 
 of the same Father, partakers of the same promises, 
 and heirs together of the inheritance of the saints 
 in light. 
 
 MARY ELISABETH HERBERT. 
 
 London, Easter, 1874. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 DKDICATION TO MARY ...... iii 
 
 FIRST CONFERENCE. 
 THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE .... .1 
 
 SECOND CONFERENCE. 
 
 SUPERNATURAL LIFE THROUGH JESUS CHRIST . 34 
 
 THIRD CONFERENCE. 
 
 THE OBSTACLES TO THE SUPERNATURAL LIFE . . 59 
 
 FOURTH CONFERENCE. 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF EGOTISM QI 
 
 FIFTH CONFERENCE. 
 
 THE TEMPTER ........ 120 
 
 SIXTH CONFERENCE. 
 
 LIFE OF FAITH 149 
 
 SEVENTH CONFERENCE. 
 LIFE OF SACRIFICE 177 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 EIGHTH CONFEREKCE. 
 
 XIFE OF UNION WITH GOD 1 99 
 
 NINTH CONFERENCE. 
 THE LIFE OF SELF-DEVOTION 224- 
 
 TENTH CONFERENCE. 
 THE COMMUNION 252 
 
 ELEVENTH CONFERENCE. 
 THE VALIANT WOMAN. — THE VIRGIN MARY . . 266 
 
^hc Supcntatttral %xiz. 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 " To me to live is Christ." — Philippians i. 21. 
 
 |W0 years ago, my sisters, I told you why 
 there was a special retreat for you : it is 
 because the word of God, as it is 
 generally preached from our pulpits, however elo- 
 quent, however devoted and zealous the preacher, 
 is often fruitless, because it is addressed to every 
 one ; because it has no speciality. You, my sisters, 
 require something more intimate, something more 
 applicable to your different positions ; and even 
 that is not enough ; often you want something yet 
 more individual, something which will touch your 
 hearts ; and it is in the hope of satisfying this 
 double necessity that the retreat now about to 
 commence is given. 
 
 It is not> therefore, my intention to preach to you 
 
 I 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 the great truths of Christianity, such as you hear 
 them in your own quiet parish churches when you 
 go to hear the word of God. My wish is to complete 
 now the instructions I began two years ago, and 
 thus to revive and renew, so to say, your fervour 
 and your zeal. 
 
 And retreats are of great use to you, my sisters ; 
 every soul requires them, from time to time. Jesus 
 Christ, and He is our great example, passed thirty 
 years of His life in retirement and three only in 
 activity. And you, my sisters, you have but a few 
 days of retreat in the midst of years of activity ! 
 After our Lord's death, the Holy Spirit entered 
 into the tabernacle and into the life of the Church. 
 That is the silent life of retreat. Secular clergy, 
 priests, spouses of Jesus Christ, all ought to 
 withdraw themselves every year for a certain 
 time behind the cloister walls, in order to refresh 
 their souls and reflect on the solemn truths of 
 religion. 
 
 And you, my sisters, still more require the 
 wonderful discipline of silence. That power of 
 silence ! Do you know that it is said in the Scrip- 
 tures that silence is the devotion of the just } Have 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 you ever noticed the eloquent power of silence ? 
 Of course you can never have entered a Trappist 
 monastery ; but if you have ever been on the 
 threshold of their cloister, you may have seen pass 
 before you on his road to the fields, a man clothed 
 in serge, bearing on his shoulders some implement 
 of labour, his lips sealed as if with a signet ring of 
 silence, and his eyes raised to heaven with that 
 grave, recollected look which proceeds from I know 
 not what depth of soul. 
 
 Silence has passed by ! That man is conversing 
 with God alone ; he lets the bustle of the wor^d die 
 away at his feet; he sees his fellow-men expire 
 before him. Oh ! there is indeed great strength in 
 silence ! 
 
 During this retreat, my sisters, let me entreat of 
 you to try' to have this strength ; learn to be silent, 
 turn a deaf ear to the voices of the world around 
 you, listen to the holy word of God. 
 
 Two years ago when speaking to you my thoughts 
 were summed up in these words : " On the under- 
 standing and direction of life." I then told you that 
 the question was how to understand and to govern 
 your lives, and I tried to explain to you these two 
 
 1—2 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 ideas. There is a third point which is as it were a 
 step in advance ; I have already prepared you for 
 it. It is not only necessary that you should under- 
 stand the great object of your lives ; you must also 
 sanctify them. And it is on the subject of a holy life, 
 or to make use of a theological expression which 
 will explain my meaning, it is on the subject of the 
 supernatural life that I propose to speak to you now. 
 
 Yes, my sisters, God requires from us a super- 
 natural life. Two years ago I said to you : " What, 
 after all, is life? a flame, burning rapidly away 
 between the cradle and the grave." 
 
 Have you from time to time meditated seriously 
 on the mystery of life ? It is a subject on which 
 science is powerless ; and philosophy even suc- 
 cumbs, wandering on from doubt to doubt, and 
 from inquiry to inquiry. In poetry, life takes the 
 form sometimes of a funereal dirge, sometimes of a 
 smile, sometimes of a shining star, sometimes of a 
 passing cloud. .But real life ! — ^who has ever ex- 
 plained it } To you, for instance, does it not pre- 
 sent itself as a profound mystery ? 
 
 God takes possession of us in a state of chaos, 
 without asking for our consent ; He calls us into 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 life and casts us for a moment upon this grain of 
 sand which we call the earth ; we appear on it, and 
 we endeavour to shine and to distinguish ourselves. 
 God then takes us back, He lays His hand upon 
 us : where will He send us to ? Will it be to the 
 chaos out of which He called us? will it be to a place 
 of torment ? or are we to be for ever united with 
 Him ? Human reason gives way in the face of this 
 unfathomable mystery, and like a child who falls on 
 its knees it clasps its hands and cries out to God : 
 " O my God, reveal to me the secret of life !" 
 
 But, my sisters, it is not enough to understand 
 life, we must utilize and govern it ; we must, so 
 to say, take it up in our hands, we must organize 
 it, and make it into a note which shall be in unison 
 with the general harmony of creation. We must 
 so fashion our life that it may not be like a shell, 
 which bursts and then disappears, like a light which 
 only shines for a moment, or like a dead leaf which 
 the wind carries away. 
 
 Do you know what it is which always strikes me 
 at the hour of death > for it has often been my lot 
 to assist those who are struggling in the agonies of 
 the last great battle. It is to see what a fund of 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 understanding there generally is in the human soul, 
 what a passionate desire it possesses of love and 
 devotedness, and how all this has often remained 
 fruitless and useless, like a roll of stuff in the corner 
 of a shop which has remained untouched by any 
 one. 
 
 Yes, at the hour of death, one again and again 
 finds souls which are indeed like rolls of stuff 
 (forgive me the familiarity of the simile), souls who 
 have never felt, but who ought, so to say, to have 
 been unrolled and expanded by their own natural 
 and legitimate development. And thus life, when 
 it is neither directed nor understood, is rendered 
 useless ; it then becomes an empty and a barren 
 life, and this is a terrible thing to think of. 
 
 By the side of these marred and incomplete lives, 
 we must, however, confess that we do find some 
 which have been thoroughly and masterfully under- 
 stood and regulated. We find souls who know how 
 to control their passions, and to conquer their 
 weaknesses j still these are not sanctified lives. 
 
 How many empty souls are there not in our own 
 time 1 There are souls which allow themselves to 
 be engrossed with the merest trifles ; by some 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 slight annoyance, some pleasure, or even an article 
 of dress. These things are enough to satisfy them. 
 And if you deprive them of what seems to be the 
 object and the aim of their existence, you will find 
 nothing but a void. 
 
 My wish, therefore, in this respect is to teach 
 you how to employ your lives by filling them with 
 Almighty God, and with the supernatural strength 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 God requires, as I have said, a supernatural life 
 in our souls. Why is this ? And what, especially 
 in these days, are the chief obstacles to this super- 
 natural life .'' These are the two points upon which 
 we will meditate together. God requires this supers 
 natural life, because God had a divine plan. God 
 does not act by caprice, God is Infinite Wisdom, as 
 He is the one Infinite Being ; He is beauty, as He is 
 goodness ; He is love, as He is light. When God 
 acts exteriorly, when He makes use of His creative 
 power. He has a plan. He leaves His eternal silence. 
 He calls forth the world by His omnipotent word, 
 and, stretching the sky as a tent over our heads. 
 He places us between heaven and earth. He has . 
 willed that man should be created to glorify God. 
 
The Supernatural Life, 
 
 Man exists only in order that he may glorify Him. 
 Every other aim of humanity is a deception and a 
 snare. Humanity was only created in order that it 
 might become a sort of hymn of praise to God, 
 You, my sisters, only exist to form, as it were, 
 individual notes in the eternal concert, taking up, 
 so to say, the' chant which every blade of grass, 
 every star, the sun, and all the luminaries of the 
 firmament, are for ever and ever repeating in their 
 daily rotation, " Glory be to God !" 
 
 Every created being who does not recognize this 
 one great object of life is a being out of place. You 
 must often have met in the world, in these days 
 more than ever, beings such as these. Who has 
 not again and again come across these sickly and 
 miserable existences, souls weighed down by the 
 battle of life, by the struggle against poverty, souls 
 full of boundless aspirations and insatiable cravings .' 
 When an existence has not God and His glory for 
 its aim it is an existence out of place, it is no longer 
 in harmony with the divine plan. God only created 
 the world in order to further His glory. Therefore 
 it is that the saints had the thought of eternity ever 
 before their minds. 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 " We only exist for God," they were wont to say, 
 " and for His glory alone ; that is the supreme aim 
 of our lives." 
 
 Doubtless, God acts for our happiness ; but our 
 happiness is also His glory. And when, turning 
 away from happiness by the use of that fatal privi- 
 lege, the law of our own liberty (a law as terrible as 
 it is glorious), we refuse to glorify Him, we still 
 show forth His glory, inasmuch as we manifest His 
 justice. 
 
 God requires no other object in His work than 
 Himself. We are creatures sprung from His omni- 
 potence in order to be united to Him eternally : we 
 go from Him to Him. Our life ought to be as a 
 flame detached, in one sense, from this central fire 
 of life; rapidly it runs along, and returns to it 
 again. God is the Beginning and the End : in the 
 words of Holy Scripture, He is the Alpha and 
 the Omega. Such is the scheme devised by divine 
 wisdom. 
 
 It is a sad delusion, my sisters, not to understand 
 this divine scheme, and the place which you occupy 
 in it. When God made, the world. He heard the 
 .voice of the soul, the sounds of the lower spheres ; 
 
10 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 but you have not understood this. And yet, this 
 cry of the soul, the cry of the child, saying, " My 
 father ;" the cry which rejoices the mother's heart, 
 when, some few months after its birth, she sees the 
 fragile creature to which she has given life awaken- 
 ing to consciousness, and restless and unquiet, until, 
 out of the depths of its being, comes forth this cry, 
 "My mother!" This is the first throb, the first 
 engendering of a thought. And, my sisters, God 
 willed, likewise, to hear the beatings of the soul; 
 He desired to come into contact with creation in 
 the depths of the harmony of the universe. God 
 created man that He might listen to the human 
 voice ascending on high above the stars, and cry- 
 ing, "My Father!" God, therefore, inclined His 
 ear ; He bowed down the heavens ; He willed to 
 hear, and He heard. 
 
 But, inasmuch as it was not God's Will that this 
 voice should be a solitary one. He called forth 
 woman that she might be united to man. One 
 who was both a poet and a very eloquent bishop 
 has expressed this idea most admirably as follows. 
 God created both the major and the minor key, he 
 says, for He joined together power and weakness. 
 
The Supernatural Life. ii 
 
 strength and tenderness, that from them might 
 come forth the great, hymn of humanity singing the 
 praises of God. Woman was intended, in one 
 sense, to take her share in the accomplishment of 
 this design. She was to carry it out, and to be 
 nian's helpmeet and his partner. Both, in fact, 
 being created by the divine hand for the one 
 object of giving glory to God ! 
 
 To give glory to God ! What a grand vocation ! 
 Do you not feel that therein is one of your greatest 
 joys ? I appeal to your maternal feelings, to the 
 recollections of a mother's heart. If it has ever 
 happened to you to see one of your children praised 
 and honoured, do you not remember the pure and 
 overwhelming joy which came over you ? When, 
 for instance, in a distribution of prizes, you 
 watched your child, at the age, perhaps, of twelve 
 or fifteen, timidly advancing from amongst his 
 companions, looking round to catch his mother's 
 eye, and then, with a hesitating, faltering step, 
 coming forward to receive the little laurel crown 
 awarded to his diligence or his good conduct, oh, 
 how your mother's heart beat, and how happy you 
 were at the triumph of your son ! And it is some- 
 
12 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 thing, certainly, to have been instrumental in the 
 honour and glory of one's own child ; but to give 
 glory to our Father, to Him Who created us, to 
 Him Whom the whole universe adores, to glorify 
 Almighty God, such is our grand, our sublime 
 vocation. 
 
 But besides giving glory to God, it is also our 
 duty to act and to work. It is a very great mistake 
 to think that before the Fall we were not meant to 
 labour. Before the Fall we were destined to work, 
 and you, therefore, women of the world, who do 
 nothing, you are not living according to the law 
 either before or after the Fall ; you are outside the 
 existence of the terrestrial paradise, and of the 
 existence of humanity ; your lives are neither in 
 accordance with primitive humanity, with fallen 
 humanity, nor with' humanity restored. 
 
 Idleness is the most terrible thing in the world. 
 Everything in nature has its own work to do. The 
 ^rain of sand seeks its cohesion with another grain ; 
 the spider weaves its web ; the eagle sores into the 
 3ky; the sap rises in the plants; the sun sends 
 forth his rays upon the most elevated regions of the 
 globe. All nature is at work ; and in the midst of 
 
The Supernatural Life. 13 
 
 this universal activity we dare not be idle. We 
 were created to glorify God and to labour for Him. 
 
 In this primary design of God you were meant 
 to develop your understanding, yoUr character, 
 your heart, your soul — you were intended to 
 work ; and this was the work which God would 
 accomplish through and in you. This was His 
 original design ; you were to see God face to face. 
 Not, indeed, that He created us to attain unto Him 
 by our own strength ; we do not know Him, and as 
 I proceed I shall have to show you that one of the 
 gr6at sorrows of the priesthood of our own time is 
 to feel that Christianity is so little understood, so 
 little appreciated, and especially that it penetrates 
 so little into the depths of the soul. Remember, 
 God created us for Himself; but another element 
 beyond the human element was necessary. We are 
 not only creatures with a physical organization, 
 endowed with living souls, but above and beyond 
 the body which contains thd living soul, there is a 
 supernatural element, i.e., grace. 
 
 A holy father used to say, "A Christian is a soul 
 within a body, and God within a soul." 
 
 As a body without a soul becomes a corpse. 
 
14 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 which goes on from one state of decay to another, 
 from corruption to corruption, until it becomes tha.t 
 for which human language has no name, so a soul 
 without God is a soul, which is no longer Christian. 
 
 There is an element which comes directly from 
 God, an element which man cannot produce by his 
 own will or wish : this element, which is a graftm- 
 tous gift of God, is grace ; it is God in us ; It is 
 Jesus Christ in us. That which makes the life of 
 my body, that which kindles my eyes, that which 
 gives power to my hands, which moves my lips, and 
 which trembles on my tongue, is the soul within 
 me. . . . My soul can reach your souls. Had 
 I no soul, I should return to silence and to imnio- 
 bility. The soul that is without God, is not alive, 
 but is void, dead or dying. Such is the super- 
 natural element which God has given us; God 
 within us, this is the supernatural life. 
 
 And not only is this the original design, but at 
 the same time it is the end of our being. 
 
 You may do what you will, my sisters, you have 
 known it again and again, and your own weakness 
 has surely borne witness to the fact that rest is not 
 for this earth ; that this life is not the final aim ; 
 
The Supernatural Life. 15 
 
 life, even the most eventful, is not the real end of 
 existence. You have felt this — life is not life — ^we 
 are but travellers here below ; everything wearies 
 us ; everything brings uncertainty and satiety. 
 But the day will come when the soul, having 
 accomplished the end for which she was destined, 
 will at length see God. When, like a veil of flesh, 
 this body shall be put ofif, and the soul forced from 
 her mortal shroud, shall pass from the darkness of 
 this world to eternal light, then shall she see God 
 face to face. This heart, this poor, inconstant, 
 palpitating heart shall feel its God, and shall drink 
 in the intoxicating stream of supernal joys of 
 entrancing delight. 
 
 We are destined to see God, to love Him, and to 
 possess Him, just as your eyes are in possession 
 of light, your heart of affection ; just as your body 
 possesses the nourishment which is the aliment of 
 your existence. You are destined to live in God. 
 Your real life is a supernatural light, it is something 
 altogether apart from this world. Hence do we 
 find everywhere trouble and anguish and pain and 
 universal complaining. 
 ■ You well know the cry sent forth by the whole 
 
1 6 . The Supernatural Life. 
 
 of nature, and which has so well been called mel- 
 ancholy. This melancholy exists in everything 
 throughout creation. For here below our existence 
 is incomplete, and even when we have attained to 
 the supernatural life, we still see it but dimly and 
 hazily through the veils and shadows and mysteries 
 of our poor humanity. 
 
 Have you ever come in contact with souls who 
 were leading a supernatural life .' Have you ever 
 seen a saint .' I have known saints. Oh, if you 
 could but have seen their life ! 
 
 When, as you were wont, you went a few miles 
 from here to visit that venerable old cur4 whose 
 life was a living miracle, in his presence you felt 
 the power of the soul piercing through his thoughts, 
 and under that tongue, rude and uncultured as it 
 might be, you still heard the seethings of the fire 
 within that mighty heart ; you felt that here was a 
 soul living in God and through God. 
 
 What do we mean by the supernatural life ? 
 
 It is said of the venerable Pontiff, who governs 
 
 the Church, that he lives entirely in the supernatural. 
 
 The noise of men, the turmoil of this world, have 
 
 no power to move him. A few months ago I was 
 
The Supernatural Life. ' 17 
 
 with him — at his feet — listening to the beating of 
 liis heart. But one idea absorbed his mind, and 
 that was to know whether saints were now being 
 formed in the world. 
 
 We are full of excitement, and therefore we believe 
 that we have life ; we see modern society struggling 
 in feverish activity ; we fly over distance on our 
 iron roads ; we torture this little globe of ours ; we 
 gain great victories over matter ; we make great 
 advances in trade ; all this is true. But is this all ? 
 God sees our efforts. He hears the noise of our 
 machinery ; but do you know what He will do with 
 this poor earth if, at His coming, He finds on it none 
 that are saints .' He will take it and break it in 
 pieces like a potter's vessel. 
 
 The earth only exists to bring forth saints. 
 Centuries roll on only in order that saints may be 
 formed. Saints are the effect of the supernatural 
 life in the soul, the result, in fact, of God's divine 
 plan. You cannot change this admirable design 
 of the supreme Ruler. Consequently, the end of 
 your creation, the whole order of things, is super- 
 natural life within you. 
 
 Have you ever thought much of this .' Listen to 
 
 2 
 
1 8 t The Supernatural Life. 
 
 the turmoil of the world. Are there many Chris- 
 tians in our days ? The women of our time, they 
 have a certain life, it is true ; they have a religious 
 faith' which shows itself in activity, and in self- 
 sacrifice ; but women in general, if you will allow 
 me the expression, may be said to let themselves 
 live rather than to live. They give way to the 
 passing impressions of each day, to every fresh 
 emotion of the heart ; fickle and inconstant they 
 are perpetually influenced by whatever happens to 
 move or to strike them ; in a word they let them- 
 selves live rather than live. Or, do they live that 
 life of the understanding which aims at knowing 
 God through faith, that life of the affections which, 
 tries to know Him through love, that love of the 
 will which seeks to know Him through grace and 
 through conscience, which desires His divine pre- 
 sence within the soul ? 
 
 I implore you to consider this ; now is the time 
 for saints, for holy souls. More than ever God 
 calls you ; He invites. He entreats you to come to- 
 Him! 
 
 Oh! I know full well the objections, the diffi- 
 culties which present .themselves ; I know how the 
 
The Supernatural Life. « 19 
 
 world and the devil may attack you. Remember 
 what a holy priest once said to a woman of the 
 world, who was hesitating between God and 
 vanity : 
 
 " My child, do what you will, and try what you 
 will, the world will ever be against you." 
 
 And so, indeed, it is, my sisters. If you are 
 Christians the world will call you devotes ; if you 
 are worldly, it will still find fault with you. The 
 world is for ever complaining ; for its business is to 
 accuse and to insult ; never can it be a soil which 
 will bring forth great souls. 
 
 And you must co-operate in this divine scheme. 
 If you do not sing God's praises, if you do not give 
 Him glory, if you are at war with Him, sooner 
 or later He will take possession of you in spite of 
 yourself; no longer, indeed, will it be through the 
 liberty of your will, but through the tortures of 
 your conscience ; then will you be, so to say, a dis- 
 cord, but a discord which He will compel to enter 
 into His divine composition ; you will glorify Him 
 in spite of yourself. 
 
 But you have come here to seek your sanctifica- 
 tion ; you wish to have the supernatural life within 
 
 2 — 2 
 
20 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 you. It is your aim in this retreat. Let me, then, 
 tell you what are the obstacles to this supernatural 
 life within you. 
 
 I know not if I have already alluded to a fact 
 which has again and again been repeated to me by 
 men of the world. They maintain that this is 
 a moment of great mental conflict, of great intellec- 
 tual struggle. It is terrible to think of the suffer- 
 ings produced by all the uncertainties, the wearing 
 investigations, and the often fruitless researches in 
 which men involve themselves in matters of faith. 
 
 I know nothing which is at once so great and so 
 sad as such a moral strife in the souls of men ; 
 there is nothing greater than to see a soul make 
 effort upon effort, and rise again at last, in spite of 
 repeated falls, for to fall is human, to rise again 
 angelic. The soul emerges from the deadly figh't 
 crushed and bleeding ; and the heart, tortured as it 
 has been by the miseries and the disappointments 
 of this world, is henceforth yielded once for all to 
 Jesus Christ. Doubtless this is a supreme effort, it is 
 the grand side of the work of Christians. 
 
 But side by side with this, there is a sadder spec- 
 tacle ! There are doubting, questioning souls, souls 
 
The Supernatural Life. 2i 
 
 who are for ever saying, " Could I but believe ! 
 happy are you who have Christian convictions!" 
 How often in every class of society do we not hear 
 this lamentable cry : " Happy are you who have 
 faith !" 
 
 It is the same cry that issued from the lips of one 
 who, we are told, returned from Paris to his native 
 valley in the Jura, He had tasted the pleasures of 
 worldly success, he had been the object of admira- 
 tion to a delighted audience, who could not suffi- 
 ciently applaud his learning and his philosophy ; 
 yet what are his reflections on finding himself once 
 more in his own village ? 
 
 " I went to Mass on Sunday," he says, " and as 
 I sat down on the tottering, time-worn wooden 
 bench, my heart was moved ; nothing was changed ! 
 It was the same congregation, the same good old 
 priest who preached from the pulpit, his hair had 
 whitened, but he taught the same faith, said the 
 same Credo, and was listened to by the same 
 audience ; the same simple pictures hung on the 
 walls of that village church, the same heads were 
 bowed down to receive the priestly benediction ; 
 nothing was changed, only over my own heart a 
 
22 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 change had come. . . . When I was fifteen I 
 believed; one day the wind of incredulity blew 
 upon me, and my life of faith, so happy, so serene, 
 was destroyed." 
 
 What a dreadful moment! he looked into his 
 soul . . . there was nothing of which he could 
 take hold ; then bursting into tears he fell on his 
 knees, and, clasping his hands, exclaimed, 
 
 " How miserable all this learning has made me ! 
 for it has taught me to reason, and to reason is to 
 doubt, and to doubt is to suffer. My soul is filled 
 with sadness, so that neither the beauty around me, 
 nor the flowers, nor the sweet songs of the birds 
 have the power to touch me. Oh ! my God, give 
 me my mother's faith 1" 
 
 Such is, more or less, the universal cry of 
 humanity ; everywhere around us are lamentations 
 and complaints ! 
 
 Ond great objection which I often hear brought 
 forward in religious discussions, by those who have 
 not our faith — by Protestants — is this : 
 
 " Your Christianity," they say, " does not pro- 
 duce solid fruit ; you have, it is true, many zealous 
 religious, you often give us examples of wonderful 
 
The Supernatural Life. 23 
 
 self-sacrifice ; but has Christianity really pene- 
 trated into the soul, is the root very deep ?" 
 
 Nor can we deny that there is something true in 
 this. People ar^ terribly superficial in these days ! 
 their life is one of sentiment or of activity ; 
 Christianity has not penetrated deeply into their 
 heart. It is often only a juxtapo.sition between 
 the soul and Christianity ; whereas Christianity 
 ought to be the very sap and marrow of the soul. 
 
 My sisters, you believe in two fundamental facts, 
 which are the basis, so to say, of all that ever 
 happened in the world ; you believe in the fact of 
 the Fall, and in the fact of our Redemption ; you 
 believe that man fell, and that he was redeemed. 
 
 Are these two all-important facts the very com- 
 pass of your life } Are they its light and its 
 brightness .■' Do you form your judgments by the 
 light of these two facts } Do you believe that 
 there is a curse upon man, that there is a curse 
 upon the earth.? Do you believe that man was 
 redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ? Are 
 these two great events in the history of humanity 
 your starting points, and do they influence all that 
 you do and think } 
 
24 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 But there are objections, you say, to all this. 
 True, there are ordinary objections and obstacles, 
 and again such as belong especially to the present 
 time. Now ordinary obstacles may be said to 
 exist in every living soul, and the first, according to 
 my judgment, is religious ignorance. Religious 
 ignorance is a terrible feature in our own time. 
 How few haye really had proper instruction in 
 religious doctrine ! Do you want a proof of this ? 
 
 I have been an attentive listener to the recent 
 decree of our Holy Father the, Pope. You know 
 what disturbance it created throughout the world — 
 in France, in Italy, in Russia, in America — every- 
 where. Well, when I saw this decree so misunder- 
 stood, I said to myself: 
 
 " Where, after, all, is Christianity, when pontifical 
 words can be so misconstrued, so little appre- 
 ciated .'" 
 
 , Many there are who do not in the least under- 
 stand the meaning of the decree ; and yet our Holy 
 Father the Pope has but announced the fact that 
 there is no kind of society, just as there is no 
 human soul, which can exist without Jesus Christ. 
 
 It is a most simple, we might almost say, a com- 
 
The Supernatural Life. 25 
 
 monplace thing ; and yet the enlightened Christians 
 of the nineteenth century, the Christians who 
 think so much of progress, of development, the 
 Christians who wish to direct the bishops and the 
 whole papacy, do not understand this one primary 
 lesson : that Jesus Christ must be the life of souls, 
 as He is the life of nations ; the corner-stone of our 
 families, as well as that of our consciences. This 
 simple truth has been ignored. Oh ! my sisters,, 
 what ignorance there is in the world ! 
 
 And this ignorance extends itself even to ques- 
 tions which may be found in the catechism. Who, 
 now-a-days, has any belief in the supernatural t 
 Hardly any one. And yet every life, in order to be 
 a true one, ought to be a supernatural life ! 
 
 Now, it is the object of this retreat to bring once 
 more before your minds primary truths such as 
 these. 
 
 Real Christian truth is a noble and a grand 
 thing — who shall deny it ? Yet I speak with sad- 
 ness ; for how often do I not see people — women 
 especially — giving their whole heart, their feelings,, 
 their entire devotion to some ideal, beautiful and 
 poetical, it is true, but which yet bears upon it the 
 
26 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 stamp and impress of humanity ? But you, my 
 sisters, must not rest there. Look above, take 
 your flight on high, rise to the incomparable gran- 
 deur of Christian truth; take your flight on high. 
 "Sursum corda." Lift up your hearts and learn to 
 study the wonderful splendours of Christianity. 
 
 If you would destroy the effects of religious 
 ignorance, devote yourselves to the study of Chris- 
 tianity, which contains unequalled beauty. 
 
 The idea that the grand traditions of Christian 
 and of domestic life should, as it were, find their 
 expression in the divine liturgy and in the pages of 
 Holy Writ, is no longer understood by any one. 
 
 Religious ignorance is, therefore, evidently one 
 great obstacle to an understanding of the super- 
 natural life. If I descend to familiar and 
 practical details I might ask who, amongst 
 the women of the world, has even re-read 
 her catechism (except the catechism of perse- 
 verance) ; this catechism which your bishops 
 labour at so carefully ; this book once so popular ; 
 this book which used to be found in every home, 
 and which every mother formerly taught her child 
 herself? And yet, my sisters, you are the guar- 
 
The Supernatural Life. 27 
 
 dians, the natural protectors of your families. If 
 •Christian truth declines in your own souls, it will 
 be the same in the hearts of your sons and of your 
 brothers. I repeat, therefore, the first and the chief 
 ■obstacle to the supernatural life is religious igno- 
 rance. 
 
 The second obstacle, which I will define by a true 
 but sharp word, is the cowardice of our hearts. 
 
 The heart is full of cowardice, a cowardice which 
 it justifies, which it excuses even ; a cowardice 
 which takes many forms, but which is still cowardice. 
 
 Our Master has said, 
 
 " Deny yourselves, mortify yourselves, forsake 
 yourselves; he that will be My disciple, let him 
 take up his cross and follow Me." 
 
 Which of us is not a coward in following this 
 rule of Christian life ? You, who some years ago 
 returned to God, instead of ascending to the super- 
 natural, have been dragging on listlessly, feebly, 
 tepidly along the path of duty. You did but 
 •exchange one kind of weakness, one kind of cowar- , 
 dice for another ; when you belonged to the world 
 you were cowardly towards it ; now you are 
 ■cowardly towards yourselves. You will be cowardly 
 
28 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 in old age if you are cowardly in maturity and 
 in youth. You must arm yourselves with holy 
 energy, with real strength, with saintly courage for 
 the battle of life. Cowardice of heart is a great 
 obstacle ; we must compel our heart to rise ; we 
 must, as it were, take hold of it with both hands. 
 
 I know that cowardice grows upon us rapidly, 
 and with cowardice comes illusions. We some- 
 time hear it said, 
 
 " It is enough for me to have the lesser virtues, 
 to be quiet and easy-going ; enough if I lead a 
 harmless life, and do no great wrong; it is not 
 every one who can aspire to heroic virtue." 
 
 Virtue, my sisters, is of every state. Take St. 
 Francis of Sales as your light, your guide ; he 
 preached renunciation. It is not the renunciation 
 of happiness which I am recommending — self- 
 renunciation is not the renunciation of happiness. 
 You yourselves are often the chief obstacle to your 
 own happiness ; it is not always those who are 
 around you. You complain that it is your children, 
 your husbands, your relations ; no, you are your- 
 selves the obstacle to your own happiness. There 
 are hidden weaknesses within you ; you are want- 
 
The Supernatural Life. 29 
 
 ing in bravery of heart. This is the one great work 
 you have to accomplish in order that you may 
 acquire the virtues of which you stand in need. 
 
 The third obstacle may, perhaps, proceed from 
 your family. 
 
 I have already said that, in the divine scheme, 
 you were to be united to man in order to promote 
 God's glory. But, alas, man does not help you in 
 this ; man has too much to do. See what domestic 
 life is in the present day ! People in the world are 
 •quite ready to help you when it is a question of 
 deciding on a stuff for a dress, or of arranging a 
 party, or of settling about your children's future ; 
 but will they help you when it is a question of 
 serving God ">. When, in a Christian family, you 
 ibegin to speak about working for the glory of God, 
 you are met with smiles, and looks of bewilder- 
 ment. You might be talking about some unknown 
 thing in a strange tongue. 
 
 And yet your family should be a help to direct 
 you in the best way of glorifying God, a stay to 
 support and strengthen you when you lament your 
 failures in His service. Again, in your family you 
 ■ought to find encouragement in this service. But, 
 
30 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 alas ! you do not always find these things. The 
 place in the divine scheme assigned to woman 
 exists no longer in its completeness; you have 
 neither help, nor stay, nor encouragement. It is 
 sad to say this. Supernatural light has penetrated 
 but little into Christian families. 
 
 There is a fourth obstacle. 
 
 Society is built up irrespective of the super- 
 natural. For the last three centuries it has been 
 formed irrespective of Jesus Christ. Laws and 
 customs have been constituted without regard to 
 Him. Men have rejected the supernatural in the 
 construction of society, they have rejected that 
 which alone could bind it together. You live in a 
 thoroughly human, in a thoroughly earthly atmo- 
 sphere, of which you inhale the poisonous breath. 
 Therefore is it that a time of retreat is necessary 
 for you. In these few days of silence and recollec- 
 tion you will understand the greatness of the super- 
 natural life in the soul. I hope to implant within 
 you a strong purpose for good. 
 
 At the end of the last retreat, there were some 
 who thoroughly understood that their lives must 
 be sanctified and transformed under the action of 
 
The Supernatural Life. 31 
 
 divine grace ; that life, in fact, can only be com- 
 plete when the soul is under the influence of God. 
 
 I will conclude by an illustration taken from the 
 " Confessions " of St. Augustine. I have often 
 quoted some of his beautiful words during his in- 
 tercourse with his mother. There are some admir- 
 able passages in his " Confessions." 
 
 When St. Augustine was himself hesitating and 
 vacillating, undecided whether to give himself to 
 God or to the world, one hand uplifted to heaven, 
 the other still pointing to the earth — and which of 
 us has not had moments of uncertainty, of hesita- 
 tion and indecision, when one seems, as it were, to- 
 halt between God and the world ? — it was at the 
 very moment, I say, when St. Augustine was in one 
 of those hours, which are often the crisis of a man's 
 eternal destiny, that God granted him a vision. 
 
 When the soul has been faithful and true, God 
 often comes to her aid in some unexpected manner.. 
 There appeared to Augustine a woman of dazzling 
 brightness, bearing on Jier head a crown, and in her 
 hands a sceptre. Behind her followed a solemn 
 procession. There were children, young girls» 
 young men, and old men. This woman was eternal 
 
32 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Tvisdom. Augustine understood this, and she called 
 him to her. "I drew near to her," he tells us, 
 ^'prostrating myself before her, yielding to the 
 fascination of her look ; the magic of her words 
 entranced me. This woman said to me, ' Augustine, 
 these children, these virgins, these youths, these old 
 men, have struggled as much as thou hast. They 
 have learnt to overcome ; but thou, thou art a 
 coward.' " Terrified and crushed by these words, 
 Augustine rises, clasps his hands, and says, " I will 
 do what these have done!" And, with rapid 
 strides, he rushes forth into the paths of holiness 
 and truth. 
 
 My sisters, you will hear from my lips the voice 
 of eternal wisdom, the words of Jesus Christ Him- 
 self. He will reveal to you your weakness, your 
 hesitations, your uncertainties, and you will have 
 the courage to arise and say, " My soul shall be no 
 ■longer void, my life shall be no longer useless. My 
 «oul shall be no longer dead. My life shall be full, 
 my soul shall live. Not upon a handful of earth, 
 not on a dream, an ideal, but on a reality, on the 
 •fulness of God." 
 
 May you, then, my sisters, live upon God ; may 
 
The Supernatural Life, 
 
 33 
 
 you understand this holy life ; may it be poured 
 out upon you abundantly at this present time ; and 
 may you ever have courage to carry out the sweet 
 and blessed requirements of the divine life. 
 

 "Vivit in me Christus'' — "Christ liveth in me." — Gala- 
 tians ii. 20. 
 
 j|Y sisters, I have said, that for us, the one 
 great mystery is life. That life which 
 we almost always use amiss ; God gives 
 it to us rich in seed, and we return it to Him 
 marred and without fruit. We mingle tears with 
 its smiles, and often we make it as empty as our 
 own souls. The highest knowledge is the compre- 
 hension and the mastery of life. And what, after 
 all, is this but a purely human and natural attain- 
 ment ; an earthly science, in fact ? for the heathen 
 themselves thought they understood the object of 
 life, they wished to render it useful. 
 
 But, since the coming of Jesus Christ, since the 
 word of God has bowed the everlasting hills, since 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 35 
 
 the time when He took upon Him our flesli, there 
 is for us an onward step to be made. It is no 
 longer enough to understand the meaning of life, 
 and to govern and utilize it ; we are also called 
 upon to sanctify it. Every soul which does not 
 take this step is still outside the circle of Christi- 
 anity, outside of its teaching, an alien from the law 
 of Faith, and from the Blood of Redemption. You 
 must therefore sanctify your lives. 
 
 The order of things into which God has called 
 us is a supernatural one. The divine plan does not 
 consist merely in a terrestrial organization ; it is a 
 power above created things ; it is a supreme goal, 
 a final term which has no solution in this world. 
 There still remains that which I have called the 
 supernatural, the order increate ; and although 
 modern science, and that contemporary incredulity 
 which arrogates to itself the dignity of criticism, 
 has dared to say, in every kind of way, " The super- 
 natural does not exist because it is outside of the 
 things of sense," it is none the less true, that 
 beyond the natural world, and the laws of the 
 natural world, the supernatural does exist ; it is 
 the power of the uncreated, a power above what is 
 
 3—2 
 
36 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 created, even as God is above man ; God Who is 
 ,the essence of supernatural being. 
 
 God is Himself the end of His own works. 
 For since the world is of His own creation, it fol- 
 lows that He is the object of His own operations, 
 .He must therefore of necessity be their final aim, 
 for He can only act for Himself. What indeed 
 can be the end of God, but Himself 1 As we come 
 forth from Him, so must we return to Him. 
 
 In calling us into this world, His primary inten- 
 tion was that our existence should be devoted to 
 His glory and to the fulfilment of His purposes. 
 It is but an illusion to imagine that before the fall 
 we were not intended for action ; but that life in 
 the terrestrial paradise was to be a state of m^re 
 passive immobility, that, in fact, Adam and Eve 
 were destined to perpetual contemplation. 
 
 No, the full powers of their mind, of their whole 
 organization were to be called into play, and thus 
 by the complete development of their being to 
 give glory to God. They were to be united, Adam 
 being the head, representing strength; Eve, the 
 helpmeet, or weakness : and thus was formed that 
 first family on earth, which was to give a name 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 37 
 
 both to the herb of the field and to the stars of the 
 firmament. 
 
 Such was the object of creation. This object 
 was destroyed, and the original plan cast asidei 
 Then God came and made it anew ; hence He is 
 our Redeemer. He took up the ruins and formed 
 thereof a new order of things, wherein was to 
 be a harmony for which no human tongue has 
 any name ; the soul was clothed with Jesus 
 Christ, and received power to sing the glory of 
 God. 
 
 It is of this power of Jesus Christ within you, 
 my sisters, that I would speak this morning. This 
 evening and to-morrow, we will examine the 
 obstacles which either your own minds or the 
 spirit of the world oppose to it. But what I wish" 
 to impress upon you to-day is, that the aim of your 
 life must be to put on Jesus Ch'rist. 
 
 If I can but make you understand this great 
 truth you will be raised above the earth, you will 
 accomplish your sursum corda, you will take your 
 flight, soaring above to those fair regions so rich in 
 beauty and in sweetness, and taste the fulness of 
 their entrancing beauty. 
 
38 Tlie Supernatural Life. 
 
 Let man then, in imitation of the angels, ascend 
 again to God, and seek" to grasp Him in intimate 
 union, until in Him he finds happiness and strength ; 
 until in fact he has, so to say, made God His 
 own. 
 
 I spoke yesterday of the primitive plan. God's 
 first thought was the glorification of His own Being, 
 but man's first thought was rebellion against God, 
 All history may be summed up in these words : the 
 voice of God requiring man to serve and praise 
 Him ; and the voice of man refusing to obey. The 
 great conflicts of this world, the great battle-fields 
 of the earth, the ceasless strife of opinions, all these 
 are but repetitions of the ever-recurring struggle 
 for mastery between the divine and the human, 
 between Jesus Christ and man. 
 
 The first step of man was the fall, that fall which 
 with a smile we may deny, but which none the less 
 we see imprinted everywhere on creation, indelibly 
 stamped thereon by the ravages and the convulsions 
 of ages. 
 
 The fall is written in unmistakable characters 
 alike upon the body and upon the soul. Upon the 
 body in the diseases to which it is subject ; upon 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 39 
 
 the soul in the sorrows of the heart, the tortures of 
 •conscience, the terrors of the imagination, and the 
 anguish of sensitive feelings. Again, the fall shows 
 itself in our homes in the disappointments we meet 
 with ; in society by the internal storms which rend 
 it; in the world by the struggles which it necessi- 
 tates ; in souls by the eclipse of faith which is the 
 forerunner of the end of all things. 
 
 It may be said that the world and the soul are 
 two pages of one great book wherein may be read 
 the fall of man and the decadence of humanity. 
 Now, when you have thus apprehended the fall, 
 you come to another problem, the restoration of 
 the ruin. You feel that you yourself are but a 
 ruin ; you would not destroy it, and yet you 
 are unable to rebuild the edifice according to 
 the original plan. The architect must descend 
 and come forward ; and this ' architect is Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 That I may make this thought intelligible to 
 you and bring it home in a way which shall be 
 both luminous and tangible to your understandings, 
 let me take an illustration from human life. 
 
 We will suppose that you are twenty : you look 
 
40 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 around you; you feel isolated. The affection of 
 your mother, the charms of society no longer 
 suffice you. You feel that you have a family right 
 to a place in the world, and you demand it. You 
 are in search of four things : a head, first of all, 
 because we are not placed in this world to be inde- 
 pendent. Next, you seek an ideal ; it has been 
 your dream from the earliest dawn of your life. 
 You look for a stay upon which you may lean ; and 
 lastly, you look for a friend, into whose heart you 
 may pour forth the treasures of your own. This 
 is what you feel the want of when first your heart 
 awakens ; you long to wing your flight to another 
 home from that in which your first years of child- 
 hood and youth were spent. You seek, I repeat, 
 these four things ;. a head, an ideal, a stay, and a 
 friend. 
 
 I do not say that you have met with them. Yet 
 do we constantly find the sweet name of sister and 
 of spouse applied to woman in holy writ. God 
 grant that she may consider herself the spouse of 
 Jesus Christ ! We do not give this flame only to 
 those who, in convents or before the altar, forsake, 
 all that they have, and by one supreme sacrifice 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 4t 
 
 devote themselves to poverty and virginity: al- 
 though such are indeed the spouses of Jesus Christ. 
 But all Christian souls are spouses of the Living 
 God ; you confess it sometimes yourselves in the 
 words used at communion, in that prayer which 
 seems like an echo of the words of the liturgy. 
 
 Jesus wills to be the spouse of every human soul, 
 presenting Himself to us in this fourfold form; 
 as a head, an ideal, a stay, a friend. Thus does 
 Jesus Christ offer Himself to each one of us. 
 
 Well, my sisters, this is what you do not find in the 
 world. Does this world even offer to you a head 
 capable of governing or of understanding you ? An 
 ideal ! You think to have formed one — a few short 
 hours — and it falls from its pedestal. A stay} 
 How often does not the arm fail you on which you 
 hope to rest. A friend ? No, it is but the juxta- 
 position of two lives ; not the intimacy, the trans- 
 fusion of two hearts ; and if there be no such trans- 
 fusion, your heart must have its sorrows. 
 
 The human soul is an orphan in this world. 
 Who can understand the soul ? — ^the mother ? the 
 husband ? Some brilliant and fleeting gleam of 
 the mind may sometimes be understood, or some^ 
 
42 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 gentle affections of the heart ; but the soul, who 
 shall understand her ? The soul is ever more or less 
 orphaned, more or less widowed in this world ! The 
 soul, in fact, needs a head, for the orphan and the 
 widow need a head ; and this head is Jesus Christ. 
 He came into this world to be its Sovereign and its 
 Ruler — He came to reign. In His very cradle, and 
 even before He was called blessed in His mother's 
 womb, He was sung by the prophets, "He shall 
 come the Son of David ; He shall sit upon His 
 throne ; He shall be King !" 
 
 The prophets had called Him King ; as King 
 the angel announces Him ; and when guided by 
 the star the magi seek Him. When the star dis- 
 appears they still inquire, 
 
 " Where is the King of the Jews ?" 
 
 And when on the cross, still the title is written 
 over Him — He is, indeed, the King — He must 
 reign, opdrtet ilium regnare. When the people 
 would give Him a crown, a fleeting royalty in this 
 world. He withdraws to the desert ; for He would 
 reign only over souls. He wills no other sovereignty. 
 The human soul rriust be the subject of Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 43 
 
 , The soul cannot be independent. It is an illu- 
 sion to believe in the independence of the soul. It 
 must always depend either upon a person or upon 
 a thing. 
 
 You live for an affection if you do not live for 
 your ball-dresses. We often seem to trail our 
 souls, just as that king of the air, the majestic 
 eagle, trails his wing when maimed by some cruel 
 shot. He falls ; a slender thread suffices to hold 
 him captive, and he drags himself wearily along in 
 the mud or the dust of the road reddened with his 
 blood. 
 
 Thus the soul, liruised by sin, falls like the royal 
 bird from the heights, where, in the days of her 
 innocence, she had dwelt ; and held by the fetters 
 pf human weakness, she, too, lies grovelling in the 
 low places of the earth, profaning her noblest 
 faculties. 
 
 You have within you an inherent weakn'ess which 
 keeps you dependent ; you cannot be independent ; 
 you are always under the dominion of some ruling 
 fascination ; you always will have a master ; it 
 may be the world, perhaps the most capricious of 
 any j it may be vanity ; it may be pleasure ; but 
 
44 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 be assured of this, to some one sovereignty you 
 must be subject. 
 
 Well, then, Jesus Christ claims this sovereignty; 
 and when He wills to take possession of a soul 
 what are not the struggles, the conflicts, the angmsh 
 through which He leads her! How does He 
 at first trouble her, and having troubled, bruise and 
 crush her ; until at length He lifts her up again,- 
 and then the struggle over, the wounded soul 
 regains her peace. If it Has ever been our privilege 
 to look into a soul of which Jesus Christ has takeni 
 possession, we have been conscious of something 
 passing our comprehension, but which has been dimly 
 revealed to us in the life-history of some of God's 
 saints. Saint Paul, struck down on the road to 
 Damascus, blinded, bruised, prostrate in the dust,- 
 lifts up his head and cries : 
 
 " Who art Thou .?"— " I am Jesus of Nazareth !" 
 
 Then the scales fall from his eyes; he is bap- 
 tized and henceforth becomes one of the heroes 
 of Christianity. 
 
 In the same way St. Augustine was drawn by the 
 fleshly garment, as I reminded you yesterday. 
 
 Jesus Christ claims the sovereignity over us, but 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 45 
 
 Jle will have it absolute ; He will accept no 
 divided sovereignty ; none of the semi-allegiance 
 of hearts given indeed to God, but given partially ; 
 hearts which content themselves with offering Him 
 the garment of outward profession, the showy 
 formalism of religious observances ; He claims an 
 absolute sovereignty over the hearts of His crea- 
 tures. 
 
 , Has Jesus Christ this sovereignty over your 
 thoughts ? Does He regulate them ? Is He the 
 law of your understanding ? Has He entire empire 
 over your heart ? Is He the source, the sap of 
 your convictions ? Does He rule your will, and is 
 your will one with His ? 
 
 Does He reign over your family, and through 
 you does His rule embrace the circle of your influ- 
 ence, like an instrument of which the sound vibrates 
 within the radius which surrounds it ? 
 
 How rare is this sovereignty of Jesu§ Christ ! 
 How few souls accept His rule and His authority ! 
 There are even those who are frequent communi- 
 cants, who consider themselves pious, who overdo 
 themselves with devotion, and with devotional 
 practices, yet the sovereignty of Jesus Christ is 
 
46 The. Supernatural Life. 
 
 for them naught but a deception and a falsehoodi 
 There are even those who in the morning will go to 
 Him for pardon, for a few moments' consolation, 
 and who in the evening will bow down before other 
 sovereignties, other masters more congenial to their 
 weakness. How many are there, I repeat, who thus 
 divide their lives ? 
 
 There is but one royalty, the royalty of Jesus 
 Christ ; He must reign, oportet ilium regnare. 
 You must accept this royalty ; it is the first word , 
 of redemption, of the supernatural order. Jesus 
 Christ must reign over our hearts \ 
 
 Think of this, my sisters, in these day of silence 
 and recollection. Have you accepted the royalty 
 of Jesus Christ ? Is He the spouse of your soul ? 
 and do you glory in this sovereignty ? To accept 
 His reign, is to reign, as the Scriptures tell us, this 
 alone is peace, this alone is happiness. He only 
 has said these words : 
 
 " My yoke is sweet, and my burden light." 
 
 Everywhere else the yoke is hard and the burden 
 heavy. 
 
 You are a heavy burden to yourselves ; you 
 often find it difficult to bear with yourselves. 
 
Superiiatural Life through Jesus Christ. 47 
 
 Jesus Christ alone is the true Head, the true King, 
 the true Sovereign ; He alone has spoken these 
 words of tenderness and peace : 
 
 " My yoke is sweet, and my burden light." 
 
 But it is not enough that Jesus Christ should 
 be our Head ; He must also become to you the 
 type of your ideal, and your example. 
 
 God has created us for this supernaturnal end ; 
 He has implanted this need within our inmost 
 souls, and has placed before our eyes these words, 
 so high in their requirement that I might well-nigh 
 call them despairing : 
 
 " Be you, therefore, perfect, as also your Heavenly 
 Father is perfect." " Be ye holy, even as I am 
 holy." 
 
 We must accept this divine likeness, even though 
 it be enough to make human nature despair. For 
 we need an example, an ideal ; we need something 
 which we 'can imitate. We need an ideal which we 
 can love. Did we not feel this even in childhood > 
 I appeal to the recollections of your girlhood, in 
 your day-dreams, harmless, ifinocent, pure as they 
 were, did you not always picture to yourselves 
 some unapproachable ideal .' 
 
48 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 You decked it with all the riches of your imagi- 
 nation, the treasures of your heart ; with fruitless 
 and impotent efforts you vainly felt after this 
 ideal, which you were ever pursuing and never able 
 to reach. 
 
 We cannot find in ourselves all the beauty and 
 satisfaction we look for ; we are compelled to turn 
 to an ideal which we may reproduce. It is neces- 
 sary to us to reproduce it, for our nature is essen- 
 tially imitative. Man will not be imitated, for he is 
 proud ; he is poor and his virtues are but limited ; 
 he imagines himself to be impoverished if he is re- 
 produced, and in fact to rob him of his origi- 
 nality is to impoverish him. 
 
 Who, then, in this world shall be the ideal of 
 humanity? Nowhere have you found it. You 
 have seen, as Bossuet forcibly expresses it, that 
 there is an imperfect side to all human wisdom : an 
 imperfect side to all human beauty; you have 
 found out that in all human intelligence there is 
 ever a certain degree of obscurity ; that there is 
 some selfishness in all human affection ; you 
 have never, in fact, found perfection. In the 
 Lord Jesus alone is the ideal, To me the ideal is 
 
Supernatural Life through jfesus Christ. 49 
 
 the all-purifying fire of the Divinity, an idea to 
 which I may return — I only hint at it now. 
 
 Have you ever reflected upon this strange 
 mystery ? When a painter is taking a portrait, he 
 seeks to hide, to veil, to soften certain faults in his 
 model-; he tries to embellish the real features of 
 the face .of which he wishes to make a picture. 
 Why } Because his model is human, and humanity 
 is always imperfect. But when the subject is Jesus 
 Christ, admirable as the painting may be — the 
 production, perhaps, of the highest genius, of a 
 Rubens, a Raphael — yet will the very peasant, as 
 he gazes at it, exclaim, " It is grand, but it is not 
 Jesus Christ." 
 
 Humanity is ever fairer in a picture than in 
 reality. With Jesus Christ it is different ; there 
 you have an ideal above all humanity, something 
 which never can be grasped, a sovereign power 
 placed before our eyes in order that we may be 
 perpetually striving to imitate it. An everlasting 
 model, so perfect that it might almost make angels 
 despair. And yet, when these celestial spirits con- 
 template the beauty of the Son of God, they are 
 filled with feelings of tenderness and admiration. 
 
 4 
 
50 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 I 
 
 But they do not feel discouraged. And this it 
 is which proves the divinity of Jesus Christ. Be- 
 cause He is God, therefore did He take , upon 
 Himself our humanity, bringing Himself down to 
 our level, to our comprehension, to the measure of 
 our stature. We can imitate His meekness, we can 
 follow the example of His mercy, we can practise 
 His simplicity, we can share in His trust, w^ can 
 try to identify ourselves with His devotedness. 
 Oh, how beautiful is this ideal, how touching, how 
 consoling ! 
 
 How great is the privilege of endeavouring to 
 imitate, to copy Jesus Christ ! Have you studied 
 this imitation of. Him.' Is it the foundation, the 
 basis of all your meditations, the one ideal of 
 your life? Do you study the actions of Jesus 
 Christ .'' Do you read His Gospel ? Do you 
 strive to reproduce Jesus Christ within your own 
 souls .'' 
 
 Oh, my sisters, were this indeed so, how would 
 it not ennoble you, for your every thought would 
 lift you up to God. 
 
 See, how paltry and earthly are the thoughts of 
 the world. Even the great men of this world have 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 5 1 
 
 their pettinesses and their weaknesses ! By striving 
 to reproduce Jesus Christ within you, your thoughts 
 will rise, your heart and your feelings will be en- 
 nobled, your actions will be fruitful and generous ; 
 your whole life will be elevated, and raised above 
 this world ; you will find God, and it will be peace 
 — peace in the forgetfulness of the past, while your 
 heart and conscience will regain quietness and 
 trust. 
 
 You see sometimes a storm sweep over the hea- 
 vens, the tempestuous wind driving before it the 
 ■clouds, and stirring up the waters on the surface of 
 the earth. Suddenly the wind falls, a solemn still- 
 ness succeeds, and the troubled waters are calmed 
 — they are once more limpid, transparent, clear as 
 crystal, the sky is bright, and the image of the sun 
 shining in the firmament is reflected in the splen- 
 dour of the waters. The soul which has found her 
 ideal in Jesus Christ is in the full enjoyment of 
 peace ; no clouds are above her, only the Sun of 
 Righteousness. Look into the depths of that soul. 
 You will see there reflected the image of Jesus 
 Christ. Can aught be fairer ? Great is the loyalty 
 of the saint, great that of even the humblest 
 
 4—2 
 
52 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Christian, whose life reflects the image of Jesus 
 Christ! 
 
 Look at that young girl, grown up in an humble 
 position. She is but a simple country maiden ; she 
 cannot even read ; she knows nothing of the world ; 
 its voice has not reached her ears, nor did she listen 
 for it. But how great is her soul, how wonderful 
 her thoughts ! She has understood the aim of life ; 
 her heart is at rest : Jesus Christ abides with her 
 even in the very homeliness of her existence. She 
 is like the still waters, and the sun is reflected in a 
 drop of water, as well as in the ocean. A soul may 
 be as a drop of water in the world, or as an ocean, 
 through its influence, if it animates a S. Genevieve, 
 or a Joan of Arc ; for the entire image of Jesus 
 Christ is reflected in it. 
 
 Such, my sisters, is the ideal of humanity. 
 
 You search everywhere for your ideal! Well, 
 you will be disappointed in youth as in old age. 
 You pursue it everywhere, and nowhere will you 
 find it save by the well of Jacob, where it was found 
 by the woman of Samaria. You will find it also at 
 the door of the Tabernacle, whence you will hear a 
 voice, saying : " Oh, did you but know the gift of 
 
Supernatural Life through yesus Christ. 53 
 
 God ! Did you but know Jesus Christ, were He 
 your model, then would you know real power, real 
 strength." As Jesus Christ claims to be the guide 
 and the model of your life, so would He be its 
 stay. 
 
 ' We cannot bear to be alone ; isolation weighs us 
 down, solitude oppresses us. You are afraid of 
 silence, you have a dread of encountering it face 
 to face with your own selves. And it is, perhaps, 
 this very horror which we have of isolation which 
 induced Jesus Christ when on this earth to leave us 
 Himself as our support ere He departed from it. 
 ■ He desires to be to you a stay ; such as a hus- 
 band should be to a wife, or a father of a family to 
 the members of his own household. He invites 
 you to lean on His arm, so that you may bravely 
 and valiantly pursue the path of duty and of right, 
 and thus, in the end, gain your crown. Jesus 
 Christ has given you what He caVls grace ; that is, 
 an element uncreated and supernatural, which, in 
 the divine order of things, may be compared to a 
 ray of sunshine in the natural order. If the sun 
 sends down a ray of its light into a dark room, 
 every object in that room is lighted up ; so is it in 
 
54 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 a soul, grace is the light which illuminates it, the 
 heat which revives it : it is the one power which 
 constitutes our stay and our support, and which 
 directs us in the way of life. Such is the grace of 
 God. 
 
 And this grace our Lord will ever give us. Do 
 not trust to your own strength. You must have 
 learnt this by sad experience. You fell into errors 
 because you were left to yourselves. But our Lord 
 will be even more than our support. He will be to 
 us a friend. 
 
 Sometimes when I have been conversing with 
 people who do not admit the truth of revelation, 
 who do not believe, who recognize nothing but 
 natural religion, I have said to them : 
 
 "But after all, what does natural religion give 
 you ? It can give you neither an ideal, nor a stay, 
 nor a help ; still less can it give you a friend." 
 
 Oh for a friend who understands friendship t 
 This has been the theme of poets in all ages. I 
 will not appeal to the glorious witness borne to 
 this by heathen poets ; let me rather quote from 
 Christian literature, which will supply us with some 
 admirable illustrations. 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 5$ 
 
 " Happy is he who has found a true friend ! he 
 has found a treasure." 
 
 " A friend is the strength of life, and the strength 
 of immortality." 
 
 And Saint Augustine exclaims : 
 
 " What is there more valuable, what sweeter and 
 rarer, what more sought after and yet harder to 
 find, than a true friend .'" 
 
 Such are the words he uses : 
 
 " What is sweeter and rarer than a true 
 friend ?" 
 
 And then listen to that illustrious Frenchman, 
 ■who, after spending thirty years in a foreign city, 
 exclaimed : 
 
 "I lived there thirty years without finding a 
 single friend." 
 
 Such had been the experience of his heart during 
 his exile; he had not formed one affection on 
 which he could rely. 
 
 But it is objected that independently of the 
 supernatural order, it is possible to find friendship, 
 and it is thus defined : community of intellect in 
 the mind, and community of heart in affection. It 
 is further said : 
 
56 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 "Friendship with our fellow-men may exist 
 according to the natural order of human feeling ; 
 but God is so far off, so high above the world, 
 how shall man reach unto God and live with Him 
 in intimate communion ?" 
 
 The day will come when on your deathbed you 
 will exclaim : 
 
 " I ought to have learnt to live with God." 
 
 When the master of the household calls the out- 
 casts of the city to his table ere he takes them by the 
 hand, he bids them be transformed, and, laying aside 
 their soiled garments, put on the nuptial robe. In 
 like manner must the human soul be transformed 
 ere it can ascend to God. The soul must lay aside 
 her earthly garments to take part in the banquet 
 of the friend whom God has given to her, to receive 
 the Lord Jesus, Who is coming to her, and to take 
 the hand which He holds out to her, when He 
 asks for her love. 
 
 To whom, indeed, will you go if it be not to 
 Jesus Christ } Where, save in Him, will you find 
 your stay and your strength } 
 
 You drag along wearily in the dark valleys of 
 the earth, like flowers which fade away for want of 
 
Supernatural Life through Jesus Christ. 57 
 
 light and sunshine ; your life wastes away, your 
 soul languishes. Oh! come, come up upon the 
 mountain, and behold this wonderful gospel scene. 
 
 One day three disciples of Jesus Christ, Peter, 
 John, and James — zeal,' purity, and martyrdom — 
 ascend a steep mountain ; they climb it laboriously, 
 but when the top is reached they see before them 
 a bright cloud ; the cloud opens, and they behold a 
 countenance shining with light, garments whiter 
 than snow, and from the midst of a glory inde- 
 scribable, a voice is heard saying — 
 
 "This is my beloved Son in whom I am well 
 pleased ; love Him ! He is your ideal ; He is love, 
 purity, sacrifice." 
 
 And the disciples exclaimed : 
 
 " It is good for us to be here !" 
 
 Well then, my sisters, do you also take with you 
 the spirit of zeal, of purity, of love, and of self- 
 sacrifice ; mount up to the summits of the Christian 
 life ; go forward until you reach that spring of 
 cleansing water; then shall you see the shining 
 cloud, and the cloud will open and the transfigura- 
 tion of Jesus Christ will appear to you. He is your 
 Head, your ideal, your stay, your Friend ! Leave 
 
58 
 
 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 the earth ; go to Jesus Christ, and armed with 
 purity, love, and self-sacrifice, you will be able to 
 say : 
 
 " How good it is to be here." 
 
Ik ©bstacIcB to the Supernaturd ^Ul 
 
 THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD. 
 
 " We have received not the spirit of this world, but the 
 spirit that is of God."— i Corinthians ii. 12. 
 
 HAVE alfeady said, my sisters, that the 
 whole secret of Christianity consists in 
 the understanding and the ordering of life. 
 I have further endeavoured to fill up this idea by 
 adding that it is not enough to understand and to 
 know how to rule over our lives. The understandihg 
 and the government of life might, to a certain 
 degree, be apprehended even by a heathen, or by 
 the natural man ; but we Christians have a further 
 step to make ; we must have the supernatural 
 element, the life of grace — God within us. The 
 supernatural is an uncreated strength ; it is God 
 dwelling and abiding in the soul. 
 
6o The Supernatural Life. 
 
 This morning, I explained to you the way in 
 which this supernatural life was carried on in our 
 souls; how God had, as it were, taken up the 
 ruins of our fallen nature, willing that out of 
 these very ruins should be worked out our restora- 
 tion. God has become our model, the ideal which 
 we must imitate, the ideal which we meet with 
 nowhere else ; and that we can only find in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 And this imitation of our Lord will call forth 
 our noblest thoughts, our tenderest, purest, and 
 deepest feelings, it will lead us onwards and 
 upwards to a spirit of entire devotedness and 
 generous self-sacrifice. 
 
 I have said also that in Jesus Christ we should 
 find not only an ideal, but a stay, inasmuch as 
 our weakness requires support; and a friend, 
 because our hearts need affection to strengthen and 
 ennoble them. 
 
 But although our Lord Jesus Christ should be, 
 as we have seen, the Alpha and the Omega of the 
 human soul, yet are there, both within and around 
 us, many obstacles to the realization of this object. 
 When speaking to you on the understanding and . 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 6r 
 
 the government of life, I said that frivolity or sin 
 was one of the chief obstacles to the attainment of 
 perfection. * 
 
 But what are really the obstacles to our putting- 
 on Jesus Christ ; to the establishment of the super- 
 natural order in our souls ? They are, in the 
 language of the church, three ; the spirit of the 
 world, the spirit of self (the /), and the spirit of 
 evil. 
 
 I purpose to examine these three obstacles one 
 by one, and to show you both their weakness and 
 their strength — their weakness, because you may- 
 conquer them ; their strength, because they may 
 easily overcome your good resolutions. Let us this 
 evening consider together what is meant by the 
 spirit of the world. 
 
 What, then, is this spirit of the world ? What is 
 its power ? The two thoughts which I wish espe- 
 cially to bring before you, are, that the world can 
 never give you that which we saw this morning was 
 given you by Jesus Christ ; that it can offer you 
 neither a model, nor an ideal, nor a stay ; that the 
 world is essentially opposed to the spirit of Christ,. 
 to Christian thought, and Christian practice ; that 
 
■62 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 if you have the spirit of the world you cannot be 
 ;good Christians. You may live in the world, and 
 still be Christians, without increasing the number 
 •of your communions. The whole secret of the 
 ■Christian life lies in the heart. Is your heart given 
 'to the world, or to Jesus Christ } You cannot serve 
 "two masters ; and yet you generally strive to do so, 
 and almost always it is Jesus Christ who has the 
 second place. You hold out one hand to the lord 
 -of this world, the other to the Lord of heaven, and 
 the world gets the best of it. My sisters, what I 
 ^earnestly wish is to turn you away from this love 
 ■of the world, and from its dangerous if not sinful 
 compromises, and to show you that, next to your 
 -own selves, as we shall see to-morrow, your greatest 
 ■enemy is the spirit of the world. She who is filled 
 with the spirit of the world is, in truth, no.t a 
 Christian, for this spirit is not that of Jesus Christ. 
 You know with what ingenuity the world pleads its 
 •own cause, how it advocates it with the prestige of 
 a, seductive and insidious eloquence. The world 
 attacks you in two ways. First it says, " People 
 preach against the world. Who are they who do 
 .so ? The priests. But what do they know about 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 6$ 
 
 it ?" Then it adds, " Is there any harm in the 
 world ? The world ! it must exist ; without it 
 society would be impossible ; and were there no 
 organized society, the whole earth would be one 
 vast cloister, peopled only with hermits. But it is 
 not so ; the world does exist." 
 
 This is true ; but, as I said in a former retreat, 
 the world is neither evil itself, nor is it the principle 
 of evil, but still it is the atmosphere in which evil 
 is propagated, the ambient air in which it floats, 
 the power which gives to it a double strength. The 
 world has a sort of external fascination which is 
 always attractive, and therefore it is that in the 
 world there is ever that danger of which Jesus 
 Christ spoke when he said, " Love not the world, 
 nor the things of the world." 
 
 Therefore St. Augustine, Bossuet, and all the 
 great doctors of the Church,' have anathematized 
 the world. 
 
 In the world, there is your danger ; ?ind why ? 
 Because in it you will not find those three things, 
 after which yearn alike your heart, your imagina- 
 tion, your feelings, and your whole being. You 
 want an ideal ; you are seeking it everywhere ; you 
 
64 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 look for it in your dreams, in your homes, in your 
 literature, in your sensational romances, in your 
 theatrical representations. Everywhere, and in 
 everything, you seek an ideal, and ever do you 
 return with heart and mind alike void and unsatis- 
 fied, for nowhere is it to be found. Nowhere, as I 
 have already said, but by the well of Jacob. In 
 vain will you search for it in the tainted cisterns of 
 this world. You will find it only in Him out of 
 whom flows the well of living water, springing up 
 unto everlasting life. Cast away your illusions, go 
 to the well of Jacob, and you will hear these words, 
 " If thou knewest the gift of God!" 
 
 Can we, indeed, find our ideal in the world .' No, 
 for there is in it neither beauty, nor goodness, nor 
 heroism, and no great work can ever be done in the 
 world without these three things. One of these 
 three, apart from the others, may, indeed, exist. I 
 mean beauty. The painter sees manifestations of 
 beauty scattered here and there, and he gathers 
 them together, and seeks to embody them on his 
 canvas ; but this plastic beauty is but the vision 
 which his imagination has pursued, the creation of 
 his own mind : it is an ideal. 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 6$ 
 
 Goodness ! The unselfishness which seems to 
 live but for others, which is ever giving, which is 
 ever sacrificing itself. This, too, is an ideal, not to 
 be found except in those who live above this 
 world. 
 
 Heroism ! In this vale of tears, we still find here, 
 and there some generous hearts, who seem to exist 
 for the performance of great and noble deeds ; but 
 it is only on the wings of religion that they can 
 attain to the sublime heights of heroism. 
 
 ' But do these three things exist in the world ? 
 
 In the first place, there is no real beauty, such as 
 appeared in our Lord Jesus Christ. He was the 
 fairest among the children of men ; His was true 
 beauty, beauty which is of the intellect, and of 
 the heart, and soul. 
 
 _What does the world offer you .' Nothing but 
 illusion, nothing but frivolity, humiliation, and evil. 
 
 After all, what is the world "i I refuse to draw a 
 picture of it, to come down to the commonplace 
 details of that petty mundane existence, whose 
 horizon extends only from a toilette to a jewel, 
 from a banquet to a f^te, from the excitement of 
 an evening party to the weariness of the following 
 
 S 
 
66 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 morning. What, then, is there in the world, but 
 utter frivolity ? 
 
 If you could bijt look into the heart of a 
 thoroughly worldly woman (I am not now speaking 
 of one who is constrained by the obligations of her 
 position to go into the world), what would you find 
 there ? Can there be one single high aspiration, 
 can there be any largeness of mind, in one whose 
 whole life is absorbed by the preparations for some 
 fete, some ball, in which she hopes to create a 
 sensation, and whose highest aim is the invention 
 of a new toilette ? I ask, then, what is such a life, 
 but one of utter frivolity — frivolity in dress, frivolity 
 in conversation, frivolity in feeling ? It is nothing 
 else. 
 
 And yet, side by side with these frivolities, in 
 spite of the prestige of fashion, and of the varnish 
 of external fascination, there are things in the 
 world which are to the last degree humiliating. 
 There are criminal transactions, compromises of 
 conscience, sins of the tongue, perhaps culpablei 
 weakness of heart. We find cowardice of heart, 
 treason to the sacred rights of truth, to the virgin 
 orthodoxy of the Church ; and hence proceed, as I 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 67 
 
 have said, compromises more or less humiliating, 
 intellectual degradation, and a sort of moral 
 timidity, supposing even such a career stop short 
 of actual sin. Remember, my sisters, that too 
 often the path is slippery, and the descent rapid, of 
 that road which leads from frivolity to humiliation, 
 and from humiliation to ruin and to sin. 
 
 You think it easy to stand always upright in the 
 world ; you trust to your virtue, to your tempera- 
 ment ; you have faith in your Strength of will ; you 
 shelter yourselves behind your personal dignity, and 
 believe that it is sufficiently imposing to protect 
 you. But you are standing only upon a pedestal 
 of clay, the clay crumbles beneath your feet, and 
 you fall ; and your fall is ruin. 
 
 The world is not only the absence of the true 
 ideal, the reunion of even frivolity; it has "also 
 at its command its subtle reasonings, its lines of 
 ■demarcation, its ready excuses, perhaps even its 
 falsehoods and its sham virtues wherewith to hide 
 its poverty. I have said that the world has its 
 lines of demarcation. In fact, every one who goes 
 into the world says to himself, "Thus far will Igo, 
 -and no farther;" they trace out limits to them- 
 
 5-2 
 
68 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 selves, and say, " My passions shall not go beyond 
 this point ; the stream may overflow, but I can 
 stem its course." Oh, folly of the youthful heart ! 
 nay, even, it may be, of that of riper years! 
 Look at the barriers which it has raised, both to. 
 the right hand and to the left, and deemed so sure! 
 A drop of water makes an opening, the torrent 
 sweeps everything dpwn before it, and there is 
 nothing left but destruction and devastation. 
 
 Such is the world ; we build up barriers for our* 
 selves, but they are carried away again. There is 
 but one strong enduring barrier, and that is the 
 spirit of earnest faith ; it is the heart full of the 
 love of Jesus Christ ; it is the lofty nobleness of 
 duty. Without these you cannot avoid evil. You 
 may, perhaps, escape external evil, but there will 
 still be the ravages of sin in the innermost heart, 
 and conscience. And is not this misery } 
 
 Oh, the emptiness, the frivolity of the worldly 
 heart — a heart whose aim should be eternity, a soul 
 which should, if I may so express it, be a chalice 
 filled with the Spirit of God, a chalice out of which 
 to drink fully of eternity. Oh, how can such souls; 
 give themselves up to the intoxication of vanity 
 
The Obstacles to tJu Supernatural Life. 69 
 
 and luxury ? Are not such things unutterably- 
 sad? 
 
 And nothing can move such a heart. Not the 
 fear of a husband who points to a tottering fortune ; 
 nor pain, nor sorrow, nor apprehension of remorse, 
 nor even the sight of a child just growing up, 
 already perhaps coveting the vain and sinful suc- 
 cesses of her mother. Oh, frivolous soul, how 
 great is thy ruin ! 
 
 And there is something sadder still. In the 
 world the soul may be said to be turned into a 
 theatre, for the soul of a Christian woman, who 
 cares only for the vain success and pomps of the 
 tarth, is nothing else than a theatre. The fear of 
 sin, the word of God, the complaints of a husband, 
 the good examples which a young girl requires on 
 her entrance into life, the Blood of Jesus Christ, the 
 mysteries of the Incarnation, and of redemption, 
 the terrors of eternity, none of these things have 
 power to move this earth-bound soul ; it is carried 
 here and there like a leaf before the wind, which 
 at last falls to this earth, to be picked up by the 
 first comer ; and this first comer will always be the 
 devil. 
 
yo The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Thus, my sisters, you have seen that the world is 
 not our true good— it cannot be your model. And 
 if, instead of the picture I have myself drawn for 
 you of the world, I had painted it according to your 
 own individual appreciations, and your own inti- 
 mate experience, you would have realized the truth 
 of my words still more vividly and sharply. 
 
 And, next, does the world offer you a stay? 
 There , are three occasions on which the soul needs 
 strength and support. First, in the time of temp- 
 tation^ in moments of hesitation, struggle, un- 
 certainty, when she stands face to face with a 
 grievous peril, and is on the verge of falling. 
 Secondly, the soul needs a stay which shall streng- 
 then her for duty, when that duty is before her^ 
 hard, painful, monotonous, perhaps intolerable 
 Again, the soul requires a stay in the hour of 
 sorrow, when the heart is bleeding, and tears, bitter 
 and scalding, gather in the eyes. 
 
 Is the world a stay in temptation .' Nay, indeed 1 
 The world removes the barriers which might arrest 
 you ; it opens its arms to you, sows flowers along 
 your path, veils instead of revealing the abyss 
 beforfe you. Far from offering you a support; 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 71 
 
 against temptation, the world is itself a living temp- 
 tation, subtle and treacherous. 
 
 Does the world help you in the fulfilment of 
 duty ? Duty, duty would teach you not to make 
 so much display in your attire ; not to wear on 
 your heads the bread of the poor, not to put — I 
 was going to say upon your shoulders — but on 
 them you wear little enough ! It would teach you 
 not to carry upon your fingers, upon your arms, 
 that which might perhaps be the support of a 
 church, or furnish the sacred vessels to the poor 
 missioner. 
 
 Does the world afford you a stay in duty when 
 you leave your home, and go away in all your 
 splendour and light-heartedness into the whirl of 
 society, abandoning the care of your child to the 
 hands of a hireling ? The child grows up, and 
 looks for the tenderness of a mother's heart ; but 
 the heart of the woman of the world is cold, and 
 she forgets that she is a mother. Alas ! the time 
 will come when she will bitterly rue the hours once 
 wasted in vanity and pleasure. 
 
 Will the world be your stay in the day of sorrow ? 
 Does the world go to the house of mourning ? No, 
 
72 TIte Supernatural Life. 
 
 it turns away. Ah ! I know full well that the 
 world has its own modes of comfort, its sympathiz- 
 ing words, its graceful and pleasant courtesies. A 
 man of the world, whose life had been spent in the 
 turmoil of large capitals, once said to me : 
 
 "Nothing is stranger than our Paris life. We 
 hear that some one is dead ; we meet the son or 
 the brother of the departed ; we go up to him, 
 shake his hand, and say: 'You have lost your 
 father, your brother, what a misfortune !' Then we 
 talk of the news of the day, of the papers, the races, 
 of some party of pleasure, of other things. We 
 shake hands again and part." 
 
 This is something like what happens on board 
 ship, when some one dies ; the body is cast into the 
 sea, and the ship goes on its way. 
 
 The world, my sisters, will give you a few senti- 
 mental tears for a moment; but it will never be 
 your stay in the hour of sorrow. I repeat it — the 
 world is neither an ideal, nor is it a stay. Is the 
 world a friend ? does the world care for you ? 
 Yes ; it does sometimes care for you, as it cares for 
 a musical instrument, for a drawing-room flower, 
 for a passing ornament, which sheds lustre on its 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 73 
 
 ■entertainments, a unit increasing its crowd. Once 
 more, the world cares for you, because you adorn it 
 with your charms ; when these charms are a little 
 faded it delights in scorning and rejecting you. 
 Has the world any heart ? Is it not full of cruelty 
 and hypocrisy > The world has taken hold of 
 innocent hearts, crushed out with sinful hands their 
 purity, and having done this, casts them away as 
 "dead bones, fit only for the charnel-house. All that 
 the world requires are whitened sepulchres. When 
 -once vice shows itself in all its hideous reality, and 
 becomes public, the world turns scornfully away ; 
 it holds out no pitying hand ; it has no mercy. In 
 that one grand incomparable scene of the Gospel 
 we have the most vivid picture of Christianity and 
 of the world. Look at that poor woman, guilty, 
 according to the Jewish law. The world is the 
 Pharisee ; he asks but for one thing — let the sinner 
 be stoned : let this poor fallen woman suffer yet 
 more crushing humiliation ; let her sink under her 
 misery and her desolation. But Jesus draws near ; 
 He consents to be the Stay, the Friend of this soul, 
 forsaken by all the world. And then, to those 
 around her, He launches forth these words : 
 
74 'J^he Supernatural Life. 
 
 " Let him among you, who is without sin cast the 
 first stone at her " — " Qui sine peccato est vestrunty 
 primus in illam lapidem mittat" \ 
 
 The Gospel adds that they all went away, begin- 
 ning by the oldest. 
 
 When a poor woman has fallen, the world, if it 
 knows it, points the finger of scorn at her; she 
 meets with nothing but condemnation, reproaches,, 
 and opprobrium. Jesus Christ alone comes near 
 to this soul, and says to it : 
 
 "The world has condemned thee because thoa 
 hast sinned, but I will not condemn thee ; I will 
 raise thee up again." 
 
 Christ absolves and blesses this soul ; He is the 
 sole Stay — the true Friend of the fallen — of those 
 whom the world has bruised and humbled ; He is. 
 the last Friend of those whom the world hates ; for 
 the world does not and cannot love. 
 
 It is a fact, then, that in the world there exists, 
 for us neither a true ideal, nor a friend, nor a stay. 
 
 My sisters, let me speak plainly to you. Are not 
 many amongst you essentially opposed to the Spirit 
 of Jesus Christ .'' That which seems strange to us,, 
 priests, is to hear it said : 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 75 
 
 " Why all this condemnation ? Are not the 
 words of the Gospel exaggerated ? Does not the 
 preacher still further enhance their meaning in 
 the high-flown language of the pulpit ?" 
 
 This is, indeed, to defend the world ; but it is 
 defending it without an adequate knowledge of the 
 cause of its condemnation. The world stands con- 
 demned, because, beyond anything else, it saps the 
 very foundation of Christian principles. Christian 
 morality, and Christian virtue. For, in very truth, 
 Christianity is based upon three supreme facts: 
 Bethlehem, or poverty ; Nazareth, or work ; Cal- 
 vary, or suffering. 
 
 These, my sisters, are the three fundamental 
 corner-stones of Christianity. 
 
 You may make to yourselves according to your 
 own fancy, your own caprice, another Christianity, 
 enfeebled, enervated ; but it will no longer be the 
 Christianity of our Lord Jesus. In our day every- 
 thing is called Christianity (to use the words of 
 Bossuet), everything, save only the Christianity of 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
 The fundamental ideas of Christianity, I repeat 
 it, are Bethlehem, Nazareth, and Calvary. You 
 
76 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 cannot alter it, God has bowed the heavens, He has 
 come down, and has laid these three as the funda- 
 mental basis of our faith : the manger, the work-' 
 shop, and the cross — poverty, work, and suffering. 
 Poverty ! suffering ! what has the world to do with 
 these ideas ? Does it even understand them ? Does 
 it care for them ? Is it not true that in these days 
 the necessity of growing rich has taken the place of 
 the idea of poverty. 
 
 Who cares for poverty, when in our own days a 
 poor man whose daily bread depended on the alms 
 given him by the roadside, was exalted by the 
 Sovereign Pontiff, until the very rags which covered 
 him became, as it were, his robe of glory ? When our 
 nineteenth century, infatuated as it is by its modern 
 naturalism, was expected to admire in this beggar 
 the impersonification of purity and simplicity of 
 soul, then the Christian world smiled and could not 
 understand it ; and why ? Because the world has 
 invaded Christianity and thoroughly permeated it. 
 
 Modern society knows but one need, it has but 
 one desire, one ~ craving, one aim; for its whole 
 current gravitates round the golden calf, the passion 
 for money gains ground everywhere ; money is 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life, "jj 
 
 coined out of everything, as it was in the days of 
 ancient Judaism. Provided only that certain meshes 
 of the law are avoided, no one cares for either 
 society or conscience ; the multitude rushes on 
 headlong in the race after wealth. The idea of 
 poverty has vanished. And work ! In what esteem 
 does the world hold work ? What, work ! Stain 
 those white delicate hands ! — that is left to the poor ! 
 
 And many is the Christian woman, exalted in 
 fortune, birth, nobility, and power, and filling a 
 high place in this world, who feels herself tempted 
 to say with the nobleman of ancient days : 
 
 "Surely God will think twice before damning 
 one of my race !" 
 
 But will God indeed think twice before damning 
 that high-born wealthy woman ? No, for is she not 
 of the same clay as that poor woman who labours 
 from sunrise to sunset, and often too from sunset 
 to early dawn, in order to earn for her children 
 their scant and bitter bread ? Who would believe 
 that an age which proclaims with pompous phrases 
 the glory of equality "should draw distinctions such 
 as these ! You are the favoured of fortune, it says, 
 you were not bom to work ! 
 
78 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Beware, my sisters ; this worldly principle is 
 spreading fatally, and if your lives are devoted to 
 idleness (I know not why I bring together these 
 two words), it is because you have not the spirit 
 of Christianity. 
 
 And the idea of suffering! We shrink from 
 every sort of constraint or annoyance ; the whole- 
 spirit of the age is antagonistic to it. The laws of 
 the Church, in spite of the numberless dispensations 
 which she grants, will soon be little more than a 
 tradition of bygone ages, an old curiosity, fit only 
 for a museum of antiquities. Our Christianity 
 must be no constraint to us. 
 
 And yet, my sisters, there is a .dominion, far 
 more despotic, more constraining ; I mean the 
 world. Were I to draw a parallel between the 
 spirit of the world and the spirit of Christianity, 
 you would see that the real tyranny is that of the 
 world. 
 
 The world, remember, is the destroyer of the 
 spirit of Christianity. Go into our large towns, it 
 is to these especially that I allude ; is it only the 
 preaching of error with which the world contents 
 itself "i Does it not also with unblushing audacity^ 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 79 
 
 presume to sit in judgment upon the doctrines of 
 the Church ? 
 
 The words of the Sovereign Pontiff, are they not 
 received with a smile which is responded to from 
 -every quarter of the globe ? Is it not the same 
 ■with the words of your priests, and your bishops, 
 I10W are they received ? How are they esti- 
 mated ? 
 
 Some particular book, it may be a pamphlet, a 
 novel, is circulated in your drawing-rooms, and 
 from these you form your judgment of Christianity; 
 -one might almost suppose that it was the object of 
 the age to decoy the Church into some alliance 
 with the vanity and interests of the world so as 
 more surely to compass her ruin. 
 
 Again, in what esteem do men now hold the 
 ■Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist ! How 
 low our Christian standard has fallen. And after 
 •nineteen centuries of Christianity we look in vain 
 for Christian society, for Christian homes, or even 
 ■for Christian life. I have sometimes asked myself 
 whether, if some heathen were suddenly brought 
 into one of our great European cities, and turning 
 to a priest were to inquire where he could see 
 
8o The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Christianity, the priest could point to anything- 
 except individual Christianity. 
 
 Vain would it be to seek for social Christianity 
 in the fashionable world ; we must go to the 
 humbler classes where the domestic hearth is still 
 sheltered by Christian principles. Nowhere else 
 are they to be found, and when we see how well 
 the world knows how to defend its frivolity and its 
 vanity, we may well take up the words of a great 
 orator when speaking of the fewness of the elect : 
 
 " What remains then for Thee, O my God ?" 
 
 The world has no thought for God; on the 
 contrary, the spirit of the world tends to enfeeble 
 Christianity, because, as I have said, the spirit of 
 the world is the antipodes to the spirit of Christi- 
 anity, and what of Christian observances ! On 
 Sundays you vouchsafe to God the favour of your 
 presence at a low Mass ! You come with hurried 
 devotion to exhibit even in church the splendours 
 of your position. During the week, you kneel per- 
 haps, for one half hour before the altar, and our 
 Lord may think Himself honoured and you expect 
 His blessing. 
 
 And fasting, self-discipline, what do you know of 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 8 r 
 
 these ? Do you carry out the law of labour ? Let 
 us see how your day is spent ! You do not leave 
 your bed till the sun is already high in the heavens. 
 Your morning is often begun by harsh words to 
 those around you, domestic quarrels ensue ; wearied 
 at heart, you go into society in the hope of for- 
 getting your annoyances ; the evening comes, and 
 you have no thought but for the world and- its 
 admiration. Such is your life ! 
 
 Now, I ask you, my sisters, is this the life of a 
 Christian woman ? I implore you to think of it 
 seriously and to question your own hearts. You, 
 who have sisters or daughters, could ypu be satis- 
 fied that their hearts should be thus empty and 
 careless in the sight of God ? 
 
 In our days the strictness of Christian life is in 
 fact destroyed and done away with. I know, 
 indeed, that in some places, as at Lyons for instance, 
 the grand traditions of Christianity are still pre- 
 served; but on every side breaches are being made, 
 you are destroying not only the ancient fortifica- 
 tions of the town, but, if I may so say, the fortifica- 
 tions of your own souls. And those venerable 
 traditions of antiquity, how do we see them fall 
 
 6 
 
82 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 beneath the ironical sneer, and the insidious attacks 
 of your journalists and modern historians! The 
 clamorous echo of their words reaches even to the 
 foot of our mountains. 
 
 In our Protestant city of Geneva, which has re- 
 tained a Puritanism, exaggerated it is true, but 
 possessing still, together with its strict sense of 
 duty, the feeling of a Christianity, which although 
 mutilated, still preserves a certain grandeur and 
 majestic severity which we cannot ignore — in this 
 city even, I say, we hear the vibrations of your 
 worldly literature. Most true it is that modern 
 
 society is no longer Christian ! Persons 
 
 whose very degradation is the cause of their noto- 
 riety are openly discussed and admired; some- 
 times even you go so far as to copy the language, 
 the habits, the customs of their ignoble lives. Take 
 care ; your models will at last, in their turn, force 
 their way into your drawing-rooms, and claim their 
 share of your enjoyments and of your position. 
 
 My sisters, remember that you are the guardians 
 of Christianity, the defenders of its bulwarks. If 
 you suffer these bulwarks to be overthrown, if you 
 lend yourselves to their destruction, it is at the 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 83 
 
 price of your own honour; your dignity, your 
 influence, your power, come to you solely through 
 Christianity, for it alone teaches the reverence, the 
 respect due to women ; from the moment you once 
 cast off the sacred veil of its protection, from that 
 hour, I say, the days of paganism will return ; you 
 will be but a plaything, a toy in the hands of man, 
 to be broken and dishonoured at his will, and cast 
 off when he is weary of you. 
 
 Such, my sisters, are the great lessons, the true 
 teaching of Christian faith ; you must understand 
 and comprehend them. I am not exaggerating; 
 I am but trying to throw myself into the spirit of 
 the age, into the depths of the human heart, hence 
 to deduct some practical conclusions and advice. 
 Whilst I speak I invoke the gentle memory of St. 
 Francis of Sales, in whose great and noble soul no 
 exaggeration could find place. If, then, what I have 
 said be true, if the world cannot be for you either an 
 ideal, a stay, or a friend, if it be, in fact, the destroyer 
 of Christian principle, ought you to mix in it ? 
 
 Yes, for legitimate reasons oblige you to do so. 
 First, there are duties of position, and these duties 
 are imperative. 
 
 6—2 
 
84 - -. The Supernatural Life. 
 
 God has organized society ; He has created the 
 social hierarchy ; there must therefore be the possi- 
 bility of good and innocent society, and such 
 society may be yours if you will but take your part 
 in it with true, honest, Christian hearts. 
 
 Your influence may be the leaven which will 
 Christianize society. It may therefore be a positive 
 duty to your families, to your position, and to your 
 husbands, to go out into the world. 
 
 And yet when we listen to your husbands — it is 
 true that they may exaggerate — they complain of 
 your overweening love of luxury, of your extrava- 
 gance" in dress, of the whirl of gaiety which has its 
 fascination equally for them, but for which their 
 dislike to restraint keeps them away, for in these 
 days we hate the restraint which the world requires 
 of us ; there is np slavery like that of the world. 
 We hear of fortunes crippled by your love of osten- 
 tation, by your lavish expenditure; we hear of 
 your reckless exposure of health in the pursuit of 
 pleasure, nay, that you do not hesitate to risk your 
 very lives rather than forego the excitement and 
 amusement of a single evening. 
 Whatever truth there may be in these reports 
 
TJie Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 85 
 
 which reach us from the world, this much is cer- 
 tain ; that by such conduct you ruin, if not youf 
 health, at least your fortune, your children's future. 
 The powers of your mind are wasted on vanity and 
 trifles, your heart and affections are frittered away, 
 holy inspirations neglected ; the life of God within 
 you is destroyed. Such are the points I would 
 beg of you to think over. 
 
 Go, -therefore, into the world, if your position de- 
 mands it of you, or in compliance with the legiti- 
 mate wishes of your husbands, and for the further- 
 ance of the future interest of your families ; go into 
 it even for the sake of innocent recreation ; God 
 allows this. There may be even circumstances 
 when this is a positive duty ; only take with you a 
 spirit of faith.' 
 
 It is a woman who has written these remarkable 
 words : 
 
 " It is not every woman who can leave the world, 
 but every woman can conquer it." 
 
 Go into the world, my sisters, but go there with a 
 true knowledge of it ; remembering that behind its 
 brilliant feasts it hides secret temptations and 
 passions, and that the fell serpent of vice is con- 
 
86 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 cealed beneath the flowers on which you tread. 
 Go into it full of the love of duty, not with hearts 
 weakly ready to give expression to the vexations 
 and the trials of your domestic hearths ; do not 
 seek there a comforter who can understand you ; 
 who, beneath your diamonds and your flowers, will 
 see your secret tears. 
 
 You are too ready to believe in sympathy, to 
 make confidences. A woman does not hide her 
 tears, and then she imagines herself to be under- 
 stood. She is pitied, flattered, encouraged. 
 
 Every young man of twenty has now his senti- 
 mental phrases at command ! And the woman, 
 who would laugh at the friend who came to her 
 with stories of her domestic grievances, believes 
 in such sympathy for herself just as Eve believed in 
 the serpent. Women are all daughters of our first 
 mother ; they trust too little in God, and too much 
 in the serpent! Each one imagines herself to 
 be an exception ; she thinks that she is especially 
 understood, that she has a peculiar individuality , 
 and she prides herself upon it. 
 
 Thus is the seed sown for future misery. The 
 day must come when the heart awakes to the con- 
 
The OMtcicUs to the Supernatural Life. 87 
 
 sciousness of its own emptiness. Silence and dark- 
 ness gather round it ; remorse sets in ; the veil 
 falls from her eyes ; the delicate bloom of a 
 woman's fair fame is touched, and she is forsaken 
 by all. Then, in this hour of her desolation, her 
 eyes are opened, and she sees- Ijerself as she is — 
 the whited sepulchre of which our Lord speaks. 
 
 Think of these things, my sisters. Go into the 
 world with your hearts full of the love of God, of 
 the love of duty, of the love of your children, 
 giving due and sufficient care to your outward 
 appearance, but ever remembering that modesty is 
 a Christian woman's best ornament. Happy the 
 Christian mother who, before she goes into the 
 world, kneels down to pray for her child, invokes 
 its guardian angel, and making the sign of the 
 Cross as she bends over its cradle, only leaves it 
 that she may for a few moments give to her 
 friends the comfort of her presence and her 
 syjnpathy. 
 
 She does not turn night into day, but returns early 
 to iier home, happy in the consciousness of having 
 done her duty. Her spirit has not been ruffled by 
 the sight of diamonds finer than her own; by 
 
88 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 smiles not intended for her ; she has not writhed 
 under the torture of that jealousy which poisons the 
 life of so many women ; no wounded feelings dis- 
 turb or harass her on her return home. 
 
 The queens of society — I will riot give them the 
 name applied to them, that belongs to the Queen 
 of the Desert — the queens of society believe in 
 their own triumphs ; but in their dreams by night, 
 or rather by day, for night is not their time for 
 sleep ; they see themselves crushed and vanquished 
 by a rival ; they perceive only the smiles and the 
 applause which has not been for them, they are un- 
 happy, and their life is miserable. 
 
 And this shows you, my sisters, that if you are 
 obliged to mix in the world you must do so in 
 a Christian spirit. And be assured that society 
 may be made Christian, that society is chiefly what 
 women make it by their own imagination, their 
 own tongues, and their own conduct. 
 
 Let me illustrate my meaning. Imagine your- 
 selves on one of those iron roads which are the 
 annihilation of space. A few drops of water which 
 the action of fire has turned into steam, havC' 
 sufficed to set in motion the powerful engine which 
 
The Obstacles to the Supernatural Life. 89 
 
 is hurrying you along, and distance is now but 
 a word. 
 
 Well, my sisters, in the onward march of Chris- 
 tian society — on the railway of the world — woman 
 is that drop of water, that magnetic influence which, 
 vivified and purified by the fire of the Holy Spirit, 
 has power to set the social train in motion. Im- 
 pelled by her, it hastens safely along the line of 
 progress, and advances steadily towards its eternal 
 destiny. 
 
 But if, instead of being this drop of water of 
 Jieavenly grace, woman, on the contrary, becomes 
 a stumbling-block, then we have dreadful catas- 
 trophes, fearful shocks, explosions, ruins ; whole 
 lives are destroyed. 
 
 The misery worked by the vanity, the petty 
 coquetry of a woman of the world, the hearts she 
 has broken, the souls she has ruined, the maledic- 
 tions she has drawn down upon herself, she may 
 not herself yet know ; but in the day when all shall 
 be made manifest, when the veils of earth shall be 
 torn asunder, then shall the devastation she has 
 worked rise up against her on her right hand and 
 on her left, curses will be poured out upon her, the 
 
90 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 condemnation of the whole world will be upon 
 her. 
 
 Let me entreat you, my dear sisters, to reflect 
 seriously upon what I have said ; do not imagine it 
 to be exaggerated. Consider my words in the 
 clear light of life and in the yet clearer light of 
 death. 
 
 Receive the blessing of Jesus Christ, which give'th 
 more joy than all the false promises of the world. 
 
B^ 
 
 ^^'^^^^J 1 ^'"tBS^A 
 
 iP 
 
 Swi''i|S 
 
 1^^ 
 
 H^^^si 
 
 ^SH^-^^jTii 
 
 ^^i 
 
 
 ^^^|j^» 
 
 CnkHfe 
 
 
 S^Kb 
 
 
 ^^OU3 
 
 i;hc Spirit of (Egotijsm. 
 
 " If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself."— Mark 
 viii. 34. 
 
 iY sisters, the birth and development of 
 the supernatural life should be the end 
 and a,im of our existence. But the soiil 
 can only attain to the fulness of this supernatural 
 life, by the observance of the laws traced out for 
 us by our Lord. Now these laws are hard, and we 
 find within ourselves many obstacles toward their 
 fulfilment. The first obstacle is our earthly spirit ; 
 the spirit of passion, which burns like a consum- 
 ing fire ; the spirit of illusion, which darkens the 
 clear-sightedness of our intelligence ; in a word, the 
 spirit of the TTorld. 
 
 I endeavoured yesterday to make you understand 
 •what the world really is, rather, I should say, to 
 
92 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 show you what is its spirit. I told you that you 
 would find in it neither the stay which you need, 
 nor the ideal which you seek. 
 
 The world cannot give you a stay, for it cannot 
 give you love. There is no heart in the world, 
 there is only passion. I say again, this evening, 
 what I have often said before, that passion is no 
 more affection than tyranny is government, or 
 force power. There is the same difference between 
 passion and affection as between brutal despotism 
 and temperate government. Passion and despotism 
 are selfish. The world is made of selfishness, 
 taking everything and giving nothing. It succeeds 
 in occupying and absorbing your minds with its 
 frivolities and its trifles, but it deserts you in the 
 hour of duty, in the hour of danger, in the hour of 
 temptation, still more in the hour of sorrow, for the 
 world is heartless. 
 
 You cannot find your ideal in the world, for the 
 true Ideal is Jesus Christ, it is Christianity. 
 
 Now the world is opposed to Christianity, which 
 can never flourish in its bosom. Christianity is a 
 plant brought down from heaven ; it is an exotic, 
 fragile, delicate. How, then, should it live in so in- 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 93 
 
 clement a climate, in a temperature so harsh and 
 ungenial ? 
 
 Christianity is built up upon poverty, labour, and 
 sorrow. The world, on the contrary, lives but for 
 gain, for show, for self-indulgence, and for idleness. 
 It holds in abhorrence labour, suffering, and want, 
 and looks down on Christianity with contempt and 
 neglect. The world, therefore, cannot be the home 
 of the ideal ; and here we have the first obstacle to 
 the supernatural life ! 
 
 Yet have we seen that there are certain posi- 
 tions, certain obligations, certain lawful amuse- 
 ments, which may give you a right, nay, even 
 which may make it your duty to go into the world. 
 But, my sisters,' you must do this warily, remember- 
 ing that you are treading on dangerous ground. 
 
 You must go there, not in search of excitement, 
 but for the sake of doing good ; not in quest of 
 that which perhaps may be wanting in your home 
 life, but that you may come to the rescue of those 
 who are in peril, that you may carry comfort to the 
 broken-hearted. 
 
 You must go into the world to fulfil a duty, 
 to carry out a mission, an apostolate. 
 
94 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 The second obstacle to the supernatural life is one 
 of which I wish to speak to you this morning 
 as simply and as familiarly as possible, in the hope 
 of bringing before you some practical appreciation 
 ■which may benefit your souls. And this obstacle 
 you will find, my sisters, is, next to the world, in 
 yourselves ; your own selves ; your own inmost 
 being. 
 
 Nothing is so difficult as, through self, to rise up 
 to God. Self, then, is our great obstacle. There- 
 fore is it that there are those (whose heroism is not 
 always understood) who thirst for God, who, if I 
 may so say, are home-sick for heaven ; who, before 
 knowing the world, already feel a sad and ineffable 
 weariness of life ; and who, like the' eagle, take 
 their flight and soar high above the dust of this 
 earth. To no created being has their love been 
 given, their aspirations have risen higher, and their 
 Spouse, the Chosen One of their heart, is none but 
 God Himself ! Their one aim in life is to destroy 
 ^'self;" first, by tearing asunder whatever bonds 
 may bind them to the earth ; then by offering up 
 upon the altar of purity and poverty all that is of 
 this world, content to possess nothing, not even the 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 95 
 
 grain of sand on which they tread, not even their 
 own bodies which they have immolated ; yes, such 
 as these may wing their flight to the supernal 
 heights ; they have renounced self. 
 
 And now, my sisters, let me try to explain to 
 you in what consist the chief perils of this " self," 
 and what are the best means we can employ in en- 
 deavouring to renounce it. I would show you the 
 obstacles which "self" offers to our sanctification, 
 and how we may in time learn to overcome it, cast- 
 ing it like a grain of incense into the censer of 
 praise which bears the fiomage of our souls even 
 unto the throne of God. 
 
 My sisters, there is a deep mystery here below — 
 a mystery, not greater, indeed, but as great, per- 
 haps, as the inscrutable mysteries of faith. This 
 impenetrable mystery, which in vain we try to 
 solve, is the mystery of the human heart, the 
 mystery of the heart of each one of you. It is the 
 terrible struggle ; the strong impulses for good, and 
 yet the lax indifference; the mixture of heroism 
 and of weakness, the infirmities which humble us 
 to the dust, and yet the yearning to rise above 
 them ; the proneness to fall under the first trivial 
 
96 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 temptation, and yet the courage, the devotedness 
 reaching even to martyrdom ; all this it is which 
 make up that strange contradiction — ^the heart of 
 man. 
 
 And how is this ? Alas, it is because we are like 
 a broken harmony, a harp of which some strings 
 are cracked and broken, and whose music is but a 
 discord. God created us, originally, to ascend to 
 Him ; but we have succumbed to the fascination of 
 our own hearts, and the heavy weight of self-love 
 chains us down to earth. 
 
 We are, so to say, in our present existence, pulled 
 two ways. In the world all things oppress us, and 
 weigh us down — business, cares, toil, anxiety — and 
 the life of man is a life torn in two between the 
 claims of heaven and the attractions of earth. It 
 is a fight between God and man ; a battle all the 
 more agonizing, that in it, every way, the heart 
 must bleed, wounded alike whether it be given to 
 God or man. 
 
 There is a great deed for us to do, the mastery 
 to be won over self In the original divine scheme 
 man was created for the exercise of two distinct 
 powers : the power of joy or happiness, and the 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 97 
 
 power of sovereignty. We are essentially created 
 for happiness as well as for sovereignty ; we are to 
 be happy, and we are to rule. Holy Writ teaches 
 us that when the reconstruction of the divine scheme 
 shall be accomplished, these two faculties shall be 
 restored in all their fulness to us in heaven ; then 
 we shall be happy, and we shall reign. It is said 
 that the apostles shall sit upon thrones judging all 
 the nations of the earth. 
 
 When God placed man upon the earth, He 
 caused every living thing to pass before him. He 
 showed him the herb of the field and the stars of 
 heaven, and said, " All these things are thine, thou 
 shalt have rule over them." 
 
 God placed woman by the side of man. She 
 was to be united to man, and subject to him. 
 
 Then came a day of rupture. Woman desired to 
 command. She employed seduction. But God 
 manifested His anger ; He said, " Woman shall 
 submit ; she shall conceive in sorrow ; she shall 
 bow her head in obedience." And since then 
 it has been her constant aim to re-establish 
 her sovereignty, to lay hold again of the sceptre 
 which has fallen from her ; so that, as man lives 
 
 7 
 
98' The Supernatural Life. 
 
 but for ambition, so does woman live but for 
 dominion. 
 
 Unable to rule by strength, woman rules by her 
 weakness and by her art. She endeavours to re- 
 gain her power, not by any open attack, but by 
 dexterous manoeuvres ; she does not erect barri- 
 cades and proclaim a revolt, but prepares a subter- 
 ranean mine, of which the explosion shall destroy 
 the throne of him who rules over her and perinit 
 her to resume the sceptre of government. 
 
 My sisters, the love of power is strong within 
 you ; it is, in fact, the paramount desire of your 
 heart. Well, this love of power is but the love of 
 self, the exaggeration of your own individuality. 
 You wish to command those around you. For 
 what woman has not aspired to rule, were it but 
 over the mind 1 what woman has not cherished the 
 dream of reigning supreme in one heart .' And if 
 she has obtained this, is she not proud of her 
 power .' And beholding this heart, this little world 
 at her feet, does she not say, with Caesar, that she 
 prefers being first in a village to second in Rome ? 
 Yes, she prefers sometimes being first in a heart 
 debased and vile, a heart which has already yielded 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 99 
 
 •allegiance to many such capricious sovereignties, 
 rather than content herself with sharing with a child 
 •or a mother the pure, calm affection of her husband. 
 I know not what wretched infatuation takes hold 
 •of such a woman ; she is possessed by the craving 
 for power and for dominion. And this dominion 
 she tries to obtain by finesse and address, using the 
 many means of shining, and especially of pleasing, 
 which are at her command. 
 
 For these, my sisters, are your weapons, this the 
 strategy of all your warfare. You are coquettes 
 from your birth. ' Were I not in this sanctuary, I 
 might venture upon an illustration — rather far- 
 fetched, you might think, perhaps. We have 
 heard it said that at your very birth your first 
 movement is to put your hand to your forehead to 
 arrange your hair ! And so the instinct of vanity 
 is born with you and grows up with you ; you find 
 in it your sole strength and power, your one desire 
 is to please and to shine. 
 
 Now, my sisters, all this is simply pride, vanity, 
 an exaggerated estimate of your own personality, 
 the "/" claiming to reign supreme. Now, as Jesus 
 •also claims to reign within you, and as He cannot 
 
 J— 2 
 
TOO The Supernatural Life. 
 
 accept your self-rule — for He is the Sovereign 
 Master, and will not consent to be placed on a level 
 ■with self in your heart — it is a struggle between 
 you and God. Oh, you want to be the idol of 
 others, because you are the idol of your own selves ; 
 your mind is absorbed with your desire of pleasing, 
 your thirst for admiration, your talent for fascina- 
 tion, so that the power of the grace of Jesus Christ 
 and the sweetness of His divine tenderness can find 
 no entrance into your souls. 
 
 Now what is the result, what the consequences 
 of all this .? 
 
 That from this self-love, this exaggeration of 
 your own personality, result three great evils : 
 
 1st. Obscurity, darkness, error, or illusion, they 
 are all one. 
 
 2nd. Discomposure of mind, or restlessness. 
 
 3rd. Weakness, or discouragement. 
 
 Indecision of mind, restlessness of heart, dis- 
 couragement of the will, these are the three conse- 
 quences of self-love — I will not say the consequences 
 of pride, for, as an author of unhappy celebrity has 
 said, there are few who are lofty enough for pride. 
 
 All minds, nearly, are more or less narrow, more; 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. lOI 
 
 or less mean, for vanity is common enough ; it is 
 the strongest current in the stream of life. Pride 
 would have more serious consequences than this 
 restlessness, uncertainty, and discouragement ; 
 pride leads farther ; it leads to cruelty, to intoler- 
 able tyranny ; it tramples upon every obstacle, and 
 knows no pity ; for the proud brook no opposition, 
 no hindrance, which shall check their course. But 
 the three chief results of vanity are these : rest- 
 lessness of mind, or intellectual error ; disquietude 
 of heart ; and infirmity of will. 
 
 We see, then, that the first consequence of self- 
 love and of vanity is restlessness of mind, or intel- 
 lectual error. You deceive yourselves about others ; 
 you deceive yourselves about yourselves. 
 
 With a skill that is truly feminine, Satanic even 
 at times, how you excel in the art of lowering 
 others and exalting yourselves ! With what incred- 
 ible penetration do you not perceive the faults of 
 those you dislike, and even of those you like ! How 
 you watch, ho,w you dissect them ! What tact you 
 display in this ! How clearly, in the light of some 
 antipathy which you have conceived, do you dis-^ 
 cern the faults and weaknesses of another, to whose 
 
102 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 good qualities you are blind or indifferent ! There 
 is in every human heart an innate love of detrac- 
 tion, which makes us impatient of the praise given 
 to others, and tempts us to efface some one letter 
 of the inscription engraved on their monuments. 
 
 How different it is when you yourselves are con- 
 cerned ! And, after all, who can be said really 
 to know himself! One of the most intelligent 
 men of our time, in speaking to me about his own 
 powers, attributed to them the very opposite cha- 
 racter to that which they really possessed. It is 
 often thus. The poet believes himself an orator ; 
 the orator affects to be a statesman ; the stern be- 
 lieve themselves gentle, the gentle passionate — we 
 are all great at self-deception. 
 
 We see ourselves through the mirror of our own 
 self-love, and self-love is a glass which magnifies or 
 diminishes; magnifying our good qualities, and 
 diminishing our faults until we behold them only in 
 miniature. Thus is it that we are perpetually 
 liable to error and delusion. 
 
 The second result of self-love is disquietude of 
 soul, and this is one of the great ills of humanity. 
 In the world, my sisters, you are full of dis- 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 103 
 
 quietude. I do not know whether I said yesterday 
 — I cannot always remember what thoughts I have 
 actually put into words, but you will forgive me if 
 I repeat myself — I do not know whether I said 
 yesterday^ that, in the world, a woman finds it 
 harder to yield to evil than to give herself up to 
 good ; for evil brings with it the necessity of con- 
 cealment, the wearisome struggle for self-justifica- 
 tion, the vain attempt at self-delusion. Such is her 
 life! 
 
 In the world there is anxiety everywhere. Even 
 the most delicate and sensitive consciences, the 
 purest and best souls, are moved at times by a dis- 
 quietude of heart, which is as the shrinking of an 
 angel from evil, but which with them takes the 
 form of tormenting scruples. Our poor heart is 
 like a pool of troubled water ; our thoughts, our 
 joys, our triumphs, our struggles, alike torment us ; 
 we tremble at the spectre of the past, at the trials 
 of the present, at the uncertainty of the future. 
 This fear is innate in every human heart, and this 
 it is which caused St. Francis of Sales to exclaim, 
 " Oh, my Father, there is always something in me 
 which trembles and is not satisfied." 
 
I04 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 And this feeling never leaves us. We are for 
 ever trembling, most of all when we build upon our 
 self-love instead of building upon God, when we 
 know not how to build upon that sure foundation 
 of peace, that city of Jerusalem, of which the Holy 
 Scriptures speak. 
 
 Self-love is always anxious and troubled, fore- 
 seeing grievous misfortunes under circumstances 
 which a little courage and faith would overcome. 
 Self-love is envious, and exaggerates to itself the 
 success of others ; it dwells on its own sensitive- 
 ness, and is jealous of its own dignity. And the 
 heart thus absorbed in self is for ever disturbed and 
 restless, especially if we are living only for ourselves 
 and for our own self-love. 
 
 The third effect of self-love is discouragement. 
 And this, my sisters, is indeed a terrible conse- 
 quence. We cannot deny that in our own day we 
 see more weakness of character than ever. 
 
 Does this arise from our system of education, 
 from the relaxation of home discipline, from our 
 milk-and-water Christianity ? or is it that the holy 
 energy of faith, the grand inspirations, and the 
 convictions of grace have lost their power ? Any 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 105 
 
 way, weakness of character is one of the features of 
 the present age. 
 
 I will not comment on this movement, which is 
 thus aflfecting all classes of society; but I ask, 
 where do we now find vigour and strength of cha- 
 racter ? Of course, it may be said, " Who is strong 
 as the Lord?" But may it not also be added, 
 " Who is weak as man ? a leaf shaken by a breath, 
 a reed broken by the wind!" Who is weak as 
 woman? Instead of the saying of Holy Writ, 
 "Who shall find a valiant woman ?" — "MuUeremfor- 
 tem quis inveniet?" — may we not rather say, "Where 
 shall we not find a weak woman ?" Yes, you are 
 weak, you are open to every passing impression, 
 any trifle takes hold of your mind ; you are weak 
 through the nervous susceptibility of your senses, 
 weak through the restlessness and terrors of your 
 imagination. You are weak through the childish 
 credulity of your hearts, which a few soft words or 
 smiles can captivate; you are weak through the 
 inequalities of your temper; you make generous 
 resolutions, which you are all impatience to carry 
 out, but you soon give way, and do not keep them# 
 Again, you are weak in your moments of depres- 
 
io6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 sion, and you suffer yourselves to be overcome by 
 them. Weakness may, in fact, be traced throughout 
 your whole life. During your early years, just after 
 your First Communion, when everything seemed 
 smooth to you, how strong did you then believe 
 yourselves! There was plenty of enthusiasm 
 within you at fifteen or sixteen, and holiness and 
 self-sacrifice seemed so easy that you imagined 
 you had but to stretch out your hand to seize hold 
 of and practise them. But when experience had 
 taught you many a painful lesson, when year by 
 year you saw your illusions fade away and vanish, 
 you were at last compelled to say to yourselves t 
 "I made resolutions, but I always broke them. 
 My life has been unfruitful. I have fallen again 
 and again, and after each victory has come defeat." 
 Life is one perpetual race through a labyrinth of 
 difficulties ; your existence is but a succession of 
 weaknesses. Then some day, when your self-love 
 has been wounded, you suddenly exclaim, "There 
 is no longer any hope of success for me. I be- 
 lieved myself to be something, and I find that I 
 am nothing but a heap of ruins." 
 
 Like the man who sees the materials with which 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 107 
 
 he was laboriously building his house borne away 
 by the tempest, so you feel yourselves powerless 
 before your own nothingness. And then discour- 
 agement seizes upon you. You had built on your 
 own self-love. You depended on yourselves ; and 
 nothing remains to you but melancholy, and dis- 
 appointment, and hopelessness. In vain do you 
 seek forgetfulness of your troubles in the intoxica- 
 tion of pleasure. You are a burthen to yourselves. 
 That is the very essence of self-love. And as you 
 have not the courage to lay your burthen at the 
 feej: of Jesus Christ, you take it into the world. 
 
 And the world mocks at your discomfiture ; the 
 world sees and recognizes it, but without giving 
 you even what you so much desired, the satisfaction 
 of pity for your self-love. Thus you remain, a 
 burthen both to yourselves and to the world. Oh, 
 the world is sharper than you, and its self-love is 
 wiser than yours ; for it knows the very hour in which 
 it will desert, abandon, and betray you — and that 
 hour has already struck. You may still believe in 
 your own conquests, whilst the world is already sit- 
 ting in judgment on your defeat and your disgrace ! 
 
 This study of the human heart, and of our inner 
 
io8 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 self, might be prolonged indefinitely ; for the 
 human heart is truly a labyrinth, of which the 
 mazes are endless. We might almost compare it 
 to the subterranean catacombs of ancient Rome, 
 those vast excavations so celebrated in the early 
 Christian ages, of which the dark paths could only 
 be explored by the aid of a lamp. 
 
 In like manner, when the brightness of revelation 
 and the light of faith are brought to bear on the 
 human heart, we marvel at the web of intricacies 
 and contradictions which is then revealed to us. 
 
 This study may last a lifetime ; and even then, 
 at the hour of death, when the last gleams of light 
 reveal the soul to itself, even then we may exclaim, 
 ^' I am a mystery to myself." 
 
 I cannot but smile at the sceptic, who refuses to 
 believe in the mysteries of faith ; as if he were not 
 a mystery to himself. His heart, his soul, his very 
 being, even as yours, my sisters, is all a mystery; 
 and a mystery so unfathomable, that only at that 
 hour when death shall have destroyed our body, 
 and brought us face to face with God and the 
 judgment-seat of Jesus Christ, only then shall we 
 see all things naked and uncovered. 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. lo^ 
 
 What, then, is the way to overcome self, so that,, 
 instead of being an obstacle to the supernatural 
 life, it shall rather become a means which shall 
 help us to attain to it ? 
 
 In order to do this, we must act in direct opposi- 
 tion to self-love. Self-love disguises you to your- 
 selves, it disquiets and discourages you. The life 
 of faith, the supernatural life, must teach you to 
 know yourselves, to bear with yourselves, to over- 
 come yourselves. These are the three conditions 
 essential to interior peace. Then, my sisters, will 
 life become to you light and strength and joy. 
 
 To know yourselves, my sisters. Ah! here is 
 the great difficulty. Our Lord has given us two 
 means of doing so, which, in fact, may be resolved 
 into one : 
 
 It is a word from within, and a word from with- 
 out ; it is you yourselves looking at self, and God 
 looking at you. 
 
 It is the action of this twofold insight, united 
 together in the study of the deep and dark 
 labyrinth of the human soul In one word, the. 
 only way to know yourselves, is to see yourselves,, 
 and to let yourselves be seen. It is sad to say so,. 
 
no TJte Supernatural Life. 
 
 but the truth is that, although you often look at 
 yourselves, you seldom see yourselves. You look 
 at your face, you study it, you notice every fresh 
 wrinkle, you are skilful in seeking to hide and 
 •efface them ; but the wrinkles of your soul, the 
 stains of your conscience, all those things which 
 are more or less questionable, do you ever look at 
 them ? Do you perform this act, so small and yet 
 so essential, which we recommend to you so often ? 
 No ; who practises self-examination, who scrutinizes 
 their conscience ? And so it has come to pass that 
 we have but a surface Christianity; we might 
 almost call it a Christianity for outward show. 
 And yet self-examination is the most important 
 thing in life. Priests are bound to it ; and religious, 
 in the solitude of their monastery, examine them- 
 selves twice daily — at midday on their predominant 
 passion and their besetting sin, and again at night 
 as to how they have fulfilled their duties or given 
 way to their weaknesses. And you, my sisters, in 
 the midst of a life full of agitation arid turmoil, 
 amid all the uncertainties and storms of the world, 
 you never have the courage to kneel down, and to 
 give if but three minutes to this all-important 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 1 1 1 
 
 duty! and yet you can devote whole hours in 
 decking out and embellishing this wretched habita- 
 tion of clay, which the eternal Architect may per- 
 haps destroy to-morrow — this body which so soon 
 will be in its coffin ! 
 
 The great business of life is to look into our- 
 selves, but this requires both courage and strength. 
 Ah ! how well Jesus Christ knew the mysteries of 
 the human heart ! He knew that man would never 
 look into himself if it were not commanded ; if 
 confession were not the rule. Outside the Catholic 
 Church it is rare to find men who search their 
 consciences. And yet some few have had the 
 energy to do it. 
 
 - Franklin, for instance, had the courage to condemn 
 himself to write down daily upon a sheet of paper 
 the faults which he had committed, and at the end 
 of the week to cast up the account. A strong 
 character might be capable of. this, but you, my 
 sisters, you cannot do it without the aid of confes- 
 sion, and even then before you present yourselves 
 at the tribunal of penance, you cast but a rapid 
 furtive glance of a few -minutes over your con- 
 science; you see nothing but the broad outline. 
 
112 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 and you go to confession without having discovered '' 
 the dark points of your life and without having 
 studied them. 
 
 Real self-knowledge is very rare ; therefore you 
 require the kind, friendly, affectionate, paternal 
 glance of the physician who has the diagnosis of 
 your soul, and who is able to reveal it to you. 
 There is nothing greater than this Sacrament of 
 Confession, which is like a bright light to the 
 human soul. 
 
 Independently of confession there remains still 
 something that might be done ; it has often struck 
 me whilst reflecting on the various means of chris- 
 tianizing the heart. I have said to myself: 
 
 " Would that in married life, husbands and wives 
 could learn in a real spirit of self-devotion mutually 
 to help each other in the discovery of their faults 
 and failings, pointing them out lovingly the one to 
 the other, instead of bringing them up as subjects 
 of angry and bitter discussion. Would, in fact, 
 that they could thus affectionately enlighten each' 
 other, so as to advance together in the task of self- 
 examination." 
 
 I once saw an instance of this in a young married 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 113 
 
 couple. Theirs was a perfect union ; the husband 
 and wife prayed, examined themselves together, con- 
 fessed together. They made their self-examination in 
 common ; they studied each other, and thus together 
 strove to advance in holiness. How deep the union 
 of heart, how deep the peace of conscience where 
 such confidence exists ! Nothing is more attractive 
 than an open and confiding heart which has nothing 
 to conceal ; nothing is grander than a soul which 
 reveals itself. 
 
 Learn then to show yourselves to yourselves, 
 my sisters ; learn to accomplish this great work of 
 self-knowledge by self-examination and confession. 
 You will then have made the first step and acquired 
 a new power ; you will know your enemy, and a 
 known enemy is a vanquished enemy ; no danger 
 is easier to destroy than a danger which is seen, 
 and when you shall have acquired this self-know- 
 ledge you will no longer be to yourselves an 
 obstacle in the way to the supernatural life. 
 
 Your second duty is to support yourselves. To 
 support oneself! What a wonderful thought i 
 Support ! We make use of this word in speaking 
 of things that are physical or material ! A wall i$ 
 
 8 
 
1 14 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 in danger of falling, we prop it up ; we give it a 
 support, and thus prevent its ruin and its fall. To 
 support oneself, to understand that we are but a 
 ruin ! For this, we need the intelligent appreciation 
 of our own infirmity, the acknowledgment that by 
 reason of the primaeval fall our nature has become 
 a ruin. This fact once established it becomes easy 
 to bear with ourselves. 
 
 But how hard it is to bear with oneself! how 
 heavy the burthen ! When our Lord sent forth 
 His apostles to conquer the world, He gave them 
 the secret of power in the command : 
 
 " Possess your souls in peace." 
 
 That is to say, "Learn to bear with your- 
 selves." 
 
 This is our Master's teaching. 
 
 And you who will not bear with yourselves, you 
 expect others to bear with you ! or rather you 
 almost flatter yourselves that they have nothing to 
 bear with from you. And this is one of the great 
 mistakes you make ; you imagine that you are 
 obliged to bear with every one artd that no one is 
 obliged to bear with you. You think that it is 
 you who have to endure everything ; the impatience 
 
The spirit of Egotism. ' 115 
 
 nad the ill-tempers of him who is the companion 
 of your life ; the caprices of your children ; the 
 faults of your servants ; the fickleness of your 
 friends ; the various trials of your position. And all 
 the while it is you who oblige others to endure 
 your ungoverned nature, your impetuous temper, 
 your too prominent personality ; you would like to 
 bring every one to your own ideas, to bend every- 
 thing to your own will. 
 
 You, who know not how to bear with yourselves, 
 yet wish to rule over others ! The secret of Christian 
 perfection, as all the saints, from the beginning of 
 the world down to St. Francis of Sales, have again 
 and again told us, is to know how to bear with 
 oneself. 
 
 Learn also to overcome yourselves ; this is the 
 means of annihilating self. 
 
 Self-conquest, self-renunciation. Do not shrink 
 from this idea like those weak and timid souls to 
 whom the. word represents but an array of penances 
 and austerities. No, self-renunciation is simply to 
 renounce the humbling superfluities in which our 
 nature indulges. 
 
 Look at that tree, that majestic oak, towering in 
 
 8—2 
 
1 1 6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 vigorous growth on the mountains. Its foliage 
 gives shade, but on its wide-spreading branches 
 parasitical plants are growing; take them away 
 and the tree will be more vigorous still, and the 
 leaves will expand yet more, and flourish more 
 luxuriantly. And so it is with the soul: to re- 
 nounce yourself is to renounce the parasitical plants 
 of your life ; to cast away whatever the devil and 
 sin have brought into it ; to mortify your senses in 
 order to be able to govern and master them. You 
 are not, for instance, to give up your imagination 
 so as to destroy it ; but so as to enable you to rule 
 and direct it. 
 
 It is the same with your heart and its affections ; 
 we do not ask you to petrify and to stultify them, 
 but merely to guide them that they may be in 
 harmony with a truly Christian spirit. Your mind 
 is not to be crushed and put in bondage, but it 
 should be directed in such a manner that it may 
 not be exposed to the caprices of your intellect. 
 Neither do we call upon you to renounce happi- 
 ness, for self-renunciation is happiness and joy; 
 there alone is Jesus Christ to be found ; self-renun- 
 ciation is self-conquest, it is the putting aside of all 
 
The spirit of Egotism. ri/ 
 
 that depresses and weighs down the soul, so that it 
 may become like unto some pure vessel of gold, a 
 fit dwelling-place for Jesus Christ, Who will then 
 come and take possession of it, saying : 
 " My yoke is easy and My burthen light." 
 Thus, my sisters, will you learn the wonderful 
 secret of a Christian life. To know yourselves, 
 bear with yourselves, deny and overcome your- 
 selves. 
 
 A great man once made his appearance in the 
 world, a man who knew by experience all the 
 struggles and the needs of an ardent and a pas- 
 sionate heart ; he knew, and had felt the desire for 
 glory, the pining for affection, the craving to love 
 and be loved, the longing for self-gratification and 
 pleasure ; and when this man, when St. Augus- 
 tine (for it is of him and his confessions that we 
 are speaking), conquered at length by his mother's 
 tears and by a voice from above, forsaking his life 
 of self-indulgence and dissipation, recovered purity 
 of heart and holiness of mind, there was ever on 
 his lips one beautiful and incomparable prayer. 
 After that hymn of joy and thanksgiving in which 
 he said to God : " O beauty ever ancient, yet ever 
 
ii8 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 new, too late have I loved thee !" he made each 
 day this prayer : 
 
 " My God, grant that I may know Thee and 
 know myself!" 
 
 And this cry came from his very soul : " Grant 
 that I may know myself, that I may know my in- 
 firmities, that I may govern my senses, that I may 
 regulate my imagination, that I may rule my heart, 
 that I may raise my mind, that I may infuse into- 
 my soul supernatural desires ; grant that I may 
 mistrust myself, my imagination and my passions. 
 If I really know myself, I shall know the very 
 essence of infirmity and misery. And if I know 
 Thee, O my God, I shall know true beauty, true 
 loveliness, true grandeur, the source and origin of 
 all power and splendour." 
 
 May you then, my sisters, learn to know your- 
 selves and to know God. And if, during this 
 retreat, I can succeed in teaching you these two 
 great secrets, I shall have taught you the two things 
 most essential for obtaining peace and joy and 
 holiness in life. I shall have taught you to know 
 yourselves and to mistrust yourselves ; to know God 
 
The Spirit of Egotism. 
 
 119 
 
 and to trust in Him: and these are indeed two 
 great secrets ; for in ourselves there is naught but 
 peril and sadness and misery; but in God is 
 strength and joy and everlasting life. 
 
Ik l^ftnpta. 
 
 " Et accedens tentator dixit ei." — " And the tempter coming, 
 spoke to Him."— St. Matthew, chap. iv. 
 
 SPOKE to you this morning, my sisters, 
 of the two great existing obstacles to 
 the Supernatural Life, which prevent 
 God's grace dwelling within the soul, Jesus taking 
 possession of our consciences ; we saw that these 
 obstacles were : first, the world, and secondly, that 
 love of self which brings with it delusions of the 
 mind, disquietude of heart, and discouragement of 
 the will. 
 
 But this is not all, my sisters. IJow numerous 
 are the hindrances which are constantly impeding 
 us ; how are we encompassed on all sides by 
 enemies who seem to press round and about us ! 
 And there is one enemy of whom no one thinks, 
 
The Tempter. rzi 
 
 especially in these days. I hesitate, almost, to 
 mention him ; I mean, the devil, the tempter. For, 
 the tempter exists, not only the visible tempter, 
 whom you know, whom you have met, whom you 
 find sometimes in your own homes, in the sufferings 
 and the reminiscences of your own hearts ; but the 
 tempter, whose presence is real, although it be 
 invisible. Therefore is it that I have quoted 
 these words : " And the tempter coming, spoke to 
 Him." 
 
 No one can escape this universal law of holding 
 converse with the tempter ; he has the power of; 
 speaking to every soul ; he draws near to every 
 conscience, and he speaks to each. From the soul 
 lost in the depths of the lowest grade of creation 
 to the one placed on the uppermost heights of. 
 the social hierarchy, one and all must undergo the 
 approach and the wiles of the tempter. 
 
 I would speak to you this evening, my sisters, 
 about this great obstacle to the Supernatural Life. 
 I have spoken about the spirit of the world and the 
 spirit of egotism ; I am now going to speak to 
 you about the evil spirit ; I ought courageously 
 to say the devil; but I say the evil spirit on 
 
122 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 account of the over sensitiveness of the age we 
 live in. 
 
 You are intelligent beings, my sisters ; you are 
 clever, or at least you believe yourselves to be so ; 
 well, then, confess honestly that you marvel that I 
 should tell you so crudely this fact that " the devil 
 exists." 
 
 Do you not rather look upon it as a legend, a tale 
 of olden time .' Is it not to you like some story of 
 the Middle Ages, some tradition of the past, which 
 you think ought almost to find its place in a 
 museum ? 
 
 No, my sisters, the tempter exists; the devil, 
 Satan, exists, and neither your smiles, nor the denial 
 of the world, nor incredulity, nor doubts, have power 
 to destroy his existence, any more than the breath 
 of a child would have power to blow down the 
 walls which now surround us. It is certain that he 
 exists ; I will not do you the injustice to believe it 
 necessary that this should be proved to you ; yoU' 
 are too christian not to allow it, although your 
 Christianity may sometimes be rather sugar and 
 water. 
 
 In our days people would like a Christianity 
 
The Tempter. 125 
 
 without miracles, without grace, without the super- 
 natural, without punishment, and without the devil; 
 they desire a comfortable Christianity ; something 
 mild, sweet, soft, and agreeable, a Christianity suit- 
 able to the dreaminess of our nature, something 
 which shall embrace a certain element of secular- 
 ization ; a Christianity, in fact, weakened and cur- 
 tailed. 
 
 There is, however, a slight difficulty in this, and 
 it is that Christianity was made neither by you nor 
 me ; neither by the Episcopacy nor by the Priest- 
 hood, neither by the Pope nor by the Church. 
 Christianity was made by God ; if you complain 
 of it, as it is, you must ask God to alter it. We 
 dare not be faithless to our duty ; from the Pope 
 down to the last of his priests, none dare whisper 
 in your ears, pleasant words which might soothe 
 you, or which would feed and flatter your imagina- 
 tion and your heart ; for they would be contrary to 
 truth. We can but say to you : " This is Christi- 
 anity in its naked reality." 
 
 The devil exists ; there is incontestable proof 
 of it in two pages of that Book which is the source 
 9f all light. The first page of the Old Testament 
 
124 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 opens with a conversation between the tempter and 
 Eve in the terrestrial paradise. In one of the pages 
 of the Gospel we see how the tempter approaches 
 the Head of the human race, Jesus Christ. In 
 order to deny the existence of the tempter, we 
 should therefore be obliged to destroy the annals 
 of the world. 
 
 There is no nation on the earth that has not 
 believed in the existence of the evil spirit ; some 
 have even exaggerated this belief, and gone so far 
 as to imagine that there is a good deity and a bad 
 deity, who are perpetually waging war against each 
 other here below. 
 
 Again, the existence of the tempter is proved by 
 two phases in the history of mankind which are 
 daily developing themselves more clearly. 
 
 Think of those terrible moments in life when 
 every soul, even the best and the holiest, is ex- 
 posed to temptations so violent as to be well-nigh 
 overpowering ! Then, does the soul feel itself to 
 be in a grasp which is not that of man ; some- 
 thing stronger and more invincible than any human 
 power. There is no child of sixteen who has not 
 felt this revolt, this turmoil of the soul. Go and 
 
T]te Tempter. 125 
 
 stand on the summit of a high rock, and look 
 down into the abyss before you — your head 
 swims, your sight is troubled, you are seized with 
 giddiness, according to the common saying. 
 
 Well, there are times when conscience, looking 
 down from the heights on which she sits en- 
 throned, sees the abyss of temptation yawning 
 before her, and feels the approaching whirlwind 
 which shall envelop and overthrow the soul 
 wherein she dwells. Surely then there is a power 
 stronger than that of man ; there is an evil which 
 is supernatural. 
 
 Another proof, still more convincing, of the- 
 existence of the evil spirit, of the devil, is to b6 
 seen in those dreadful crimes, in those fearful tra- 
 gedies which occur from time to time in social life. 
 Every now and then there comes an explosion, 
 which betrays the depth of the evil that exists ; 
 then we are appalled, and say : " No ! to such 
 lengths of iniquity man alone would not go ; it is 
 beyond mere human wickedness." 
 
 Look at one of the " Little Sisters of the Poor,"' 
 the impersonification of heroic self-devotion ; she 
 is often a person of high birth and of large fortune,. 
 
126 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 who has had a luxurious home at her com- 
 tiiand. But the hour of sacrifice comes ; and all 
 is given up, and in the midst of her youth and 
 strength she goes forth, it may be to some distant 
 land, and submitting herself to the yoke of obedi- 
 €nce, she envelops herself in a poor black cloak, 
 and begs from door to door for the maintenance of 
 the old men and women of whom she has become 
 the servant and the friend, watching over them in 
 their sickness, living upon their leavings and often 
 receiving from them, for all return, complaints and 
 murmurs and ingratitude ; and for forty or fifty 
 years, perhaps, she will carry on this heroic life ; 
 her name, her birth, will remain unknown to all ; 
 she may be in a non- Catholic country, or even in 
 a Catholic one ; she will be seen passing along in 
 the street ; but men will not understand her won- 
 derful self-oblation ; and they will heap abuse upon 
 her, and will even dare to insult her ! 
 
 Now, for the last nineteen centuries the Catholic 
 Church has been this " Little Sister of the Poor." 
 You do not know, my sisters, what an implacable 
 hatred there is in the world, at the very core of 
 humanity, against the Catholic Church, against 
 
The Tempter. 127 
 
 that Church whose mouth opens but to bless, 
 whose hands are ever stretched out to give bread 
 to the poor, who is for ever pleading the cause of 
 those who suffer, ever enlightening the souls that 
 lie in darkness, ever drying the tears of those who 
 weep. There exists, in fact, a spirit of the most 
 inveterate hatred against the Catholic Church ; and 
 the desire to insult and calumniate and abuse her 
 may be traced in innumerable publications, in 
 books even with the most gorgeous bindings ! 
 Do you believe that man was created thus to 
 hate and to abhor? I myself do not believe in 
 man's power of hatred. Man has always a heart, 
 and in every heart, even the most hardened, 
 there still may be found some cord which will 
 vibrate with feelings of affection and tender- 
 ness. 
 
 In order, therefore, that man should have arrived 
 at such a pitch of hatred against the Catholic 
 Church, he must assuredly be impelled by some 
 supernatural and evil power. What is it which 
 keeps up and sustains the self-devotediiess of the 
 Priesthood, of Missioners, of the " Little Sisters," 
 of all religious communities under every name and 
 
128 The Supernatural L ife. 
 
 form? It is supernatural life, that source and 
 mainspring of all the devotion, the self-abnegation, 
 and the charity which we find in Christianity. 
 Jesus Christ gives us the power to love ! On the 
 other hand, the devil, the , tempter, by insinuating 
 himself into the hearts of men, gives them the 
 power to calumniate, to insult, and to hate. 
 
 Do not tell me, therefore, that the devil does not 
 exist ! These facts, these manifestations, prove it. 
 When I see the sun's rays, I believe in that great 
 luminary of the world. When I see the power and 
 the malice of hatred, I believe in the devil, in the 
 tempter, in the great enemy of mankind. And 
 what is it, my sisters, which goes on between the 
 tempter and man .■' It is a real drama. In the 
 world you have often been at a play ; you have 
 sought therein excitement and emotion ; your 
 eyes have been filled with tears for artificial sorrows ; 
 your hearts have beat for fictitious woes ! Well ! 
 between you and the tempter a drama takes place. 
 A drama which opening in the terrestrial paradise 
 is continued in the desert, when, as the Gospel tells 
 us, the tempter dared to draw near to our Divine 
 Master; and throughout the course of centuries 
 
The Tempter. 129 
 
 has this drama been carried on. The devil comes, 
 and with him comes temptation. 
 
 Remember, however, my sisters, that if there is 
 great danger for us in being tempted, there is also 
 great glory. In permitting us the use of our 
 liberty, God has allowed us to be exposed to great 
 danger, and yet it is also an incomparable privi- 
 lege. Together with our existence, God has given 
 us our free will in order that we may thus have the 
 merit of trial, of temptation, and of conflict. Man 
 only becomes strong through trial ; the man who 
 has never been tempted is weak. What can that 
 man do who has never struggled ? what can he 
 know of himself? Trial is the secret of man's 
 strength. 
 
 If the homage offered by creation to its Maker, 
 were but that of the silent hills, the fragrant 
 flowers, and the glorious sun ; were there but 
 the universe to sing the praises of God, it were 
 but the homage 'of inanimate nature, not the 
 homage of man freely tendered to his Creator. 
 Man is free to love as he is also free to hate ; he 
 has freedom to render homage, or to refuse . it. 
 Thus has God willed it ; only, together with, this 
 
 9 
 
130 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 liberty of action, He has permitted the existence of 
 the devil. The devil, therefore, draws near ; in what 
 consists his art ? And first, what is the meaning 
 of the word devil. In Latin diabolus means calum- 
 niator. In the primitive translations we find only 
 the word calumniator, A calumniator means some 
 one who conceals what is true, or one who gives 
 out what is false for truth. The great art of the 
 devil is to conceal what is evil, to gild over appear- 
 ances, and to make them attractive. If you saw 
 evil in its fearful reality, you could not love it, and 
 you wQuld never allow yourselves to be seduced 
 by it. There is not one amongst you, however 
 badly disposed, who would follow after evil were it 
 seen as it really is. Evil must be disguised. For 
 this reason it is that in our own language we so 
 often say that there is a serpent beneath every 
 flower. Something attractive or fascinating is re- 
 quired, a lovely flower, some sweet and intoxi- 
 cating perfume ; when the tempter has designs on 
 a soul he does not come openly with his face un- 
 covered ; no, he comes with a mask, with deceptive 
 ways ; thus is seduction concealed and dissimu- 
 lated. 
 
The Tempter. 131 
 
 With Eve he enters into conversation. He ap- 
 peals at first to her senses ; and her senses are 
 very impressionable, for her nature is quick and 
 soon moved ! He points out the fruit — she looks 
 .at it ; she had never thought of it before ; now she 
 sees that it is pleasant to the eye, her senses are 
 ^wakened, she gathers it. Then, how clever is the 
 tempter! he begins a discussion with Eve, not at 
 iirst denying anything, but simply suggesting an 
 'Uncertainty, a simple doubt ; he says : " Why has 
 •God commanded you that you should not eat of this 
 .tree f" He knows the reason full well ; but it is 
 his policy to make this subtle and perfidious ques- 
 tion. And later on he adds : " God doth know that 
 in what day soever you shall eat thereof your eyes 
 shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good 
 xind evil." 
 
 Mark the progression : a look cast upon a seduc- 
 tive object, an insidious question, then a falsehood, 
 then a fall. Such is the history of every tempta- 
 tion. In the world temptation appears under a 
 threefold form ; temptation of the senses, or con- 
 cupiscence ; temptation of the intellect, or pride ; 
 temptation of ambition, or of the will ; whether it 
 
 9—2 
 
132 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 be ambition to possess the goods of this world, or 
 ambition to possess a heart, it is always ambition. 
 
 Temptation often comes to you in this way. 
 
 A woman, we will say a married woman, is in 
 her home ; that home which ought to be her very 
 paradise of delight ; but alas, this paradise she 
 seeks elsewhere. God chose her in the springtide 
 of her young womanhood, and by His creative 
 power gave her a soul destined to be united to 
 that of another ; by an eternal predestination He 
 created them for each other, and foreordained 
 their union ; she the more sensitive, he the less 
 disciplined, perhaps, but each destined to help for- 
 ward the other in promoting the glory of God. 
 But instead of thus carrying out the designs of her 
 Creator, this woman consents to listen to the voice 
 of the tempter ; and he fills her mind with visions 
 of other pleasures, other enjoyments ; he places 
 before her the fascinating attractions of the world, 
 and then he says to her : "Why should you thus 
 bury yourself at home? You are sad, why not 
 accept the comfort and the sympathy of a heart 
 t;hat can understand you .-" I know that you are 
 tied to a being thoroughly uncongenial to you;: 
 
The Tempter. 133 
 
 you are misunderstood ; you are sacrificed to a 
 man who is both coarse and stupid ; why not then 
 listen to one who knows how to appreciate you, to 
 
 one who loves and adores you who asks but to 
 
 die at your feet in the ecstasy of his devotion ?" 
 
 And what more, my sisters, you know better than 
 I, such like high-flown and romantic phrases, to 
 which I ought hardly to allude — here — ^in presence 
 of the Tabernacle. 
 
 Thus, however, does the tempter draw near to 
 you, and soon you yield to the seduction. You 
 allow it to sink into your hearts ; it reappears in 
 your dreams; you dwell upon it when you are 
 awake ; when you are uneasy and discontented it 
 comes to you as something pleasant, as a ray of 
 sunshine in your life, as a consolation, a refresh- 
 ment, an innocent friendship. You set yourselves 
 a boundary, and say you will go no farther ! 
 Alas ! you have parleyed with the tempter ; there 
 was your first danger ; and from this parley, that is 
 from the temptation to the. fall, there is but a step, 
 and that step is sooii taken ! 
 
 Eve fell ; and her fall was terrible. When the 
 tempter addresses himself to a woman, he has on 
 
134 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 his side the cleverest and the most insidious ac- 
 complices : her quick and impressionable nature, 
 her imagination so easily excited, so eager to 
 be fed. 
 
 Tell a woman that she is miserable, and misery- 
 will appear before her with an appalling reality ; 
 promise her happiness, and a vision of untold joy 
 springs up before her. 
 
 Again, the devil takes as his accomplice our hearts 
 — our hearts which are so often sad, suffering, and 
 desponding ; for our hearts suffer ; it is the nature 
 of all hearts. We are not created for what is 
 perishable, for the things round about us, imperfect 
 as they ever are on one side or on another ; we are 
 created for the infinite, and as long as we do not 
 possess what is infinite, we shall possess but a drop 
 of troubled water. 
 
 Go forth in search of a brighter sun, a purer 
 sky, of keener affections, you will ■ always end by 
 saying : 
 
 "The sun is dim, the sky is overcast, I am 
 wretched, my heart is void." 
 
 You might take the whole mass of creation, you 
 might press it in your hands, and, extracting its 
 
The Tempter. 135 
 
 very essence, drink it down at a single draught : 
 still would not your heart be satisfied, because the 
 world is finite, and your heart needs the infinite. 
 Between your heart and the world there exists, if 
 you will permit me an expression of every-day use, 
 a " manage de convenance" " de raison," that is to 
 say, an alliance between people not suited to one 
 another. You are suffering : your heart seems to 
 require something different from what you have ; you 
 listen to the tempter, and your heart thus becomes 
 the accomplice of the devil. 
 
 Besides the heart, the mind, the imagination, and 
 the senses, the devil has, as his accomplices, your 
 passions. By nature every woman is full of passion. 
 You essentially want equilibrium, ballast ; in your 
 life, in your whole organization, there is always 
 something which is in excess ; now passion is in 
 excess. The devil, therefore, takes advanti^e of 
 your passions. I do not say, indeed, that you 
 must destroy these passions, but you must govern 
 and wisely direct them; you must, as St. Theresa 
 says, "Take hold of your heart and transform it ;" 
 and we know how she " took hold of her heart ;" 
 how she gave all its affections to God, and how 
 
136 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 He, in return, rewarded her by an abundance of 
 celestial sweetness. 
 
 We see, then, how the devil makes use of our 
 passions ; so clever is he that he appeals to every 
 part of our nature. He does more, he induces you 
 to commit a fault, and when it is done, when you 
 have really fallen, when you come to see how your 
 soul has offended God, when you feel that the 
 purity of your conscience is sullied, when you have 
 lost sight of the Divine Majesty, then, only, do you 
 look at yourselves, and, like Eve, you see your 
 misery, and j-ou blush for it. 
 
 The first consequence of the fall is shame, or 
 remorse. And happy is it for us that God has still 
 left in the depths of the human soul the angel 
 which we call remorse ; for a time, indeed, he may 
 sleep ; but the hour comes when he will shake oif 
 his stupor, and come and knock at the door of our 
 hearts. 
 
 Remorse, shame ! sorrow for having fallen ! Ah ! 
 happy will it be for you if this angel of remorse 
 can wring from you tears of real repentance ; not 
 tears of offended pride, of mere sensibility, or of 
 crushed and humiliated self-love ; but tears such 
 
The Tempter. 137 
 
 as St. Augustine shed, when he exclaimed : 
 "What sweetness, O my God, is there in 
 weeping !" 
 
 I have said that between temptation and the fall 
 there is but one step, there is but one more from 
 the fall to despair. Despair may follow on remorse; 
 despair! that most terrible word in the whole 
 human language; that word which is the very 
 embodiment of all evil ; that one feeling which the 
 devil desires to infuse into mankind. 
 
 Thus Eve, flying before the voice of the Eternal 
 and the angel's flaming sword from the earthly 
 Paradise, entered upon the path, along which she 
 was to find, lying in the dust, the lifeless body of 
 her son ; and then did despair seize hold of her, 
 and she wept because of the innocent blood that 
 had been shed. 
 
 , The last resource of the tempter is despair, 
 despair at having fallen. When the soul has fallen, 
 when she has lost her innocence and her honour, 
 when she has lost her God, then does she despair. 
 
 If it be a man of the world who has parleyed 
 with the tempter, discussing with him important 
 •questions of doctrine or of Christianity, then his 
 
138 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 intellect becomes the prey of scepticism. How 
 often have I come across men who had thus been 
 ruined, minds who had lost their faith, and yet 
 were seeking it, seeking it, however, in the pride 
 of their intellect, instead of in the humility of faith, 
 and by the blessed means of prayer. And souls 
 such as these are ever ill at ease, and in their 
 agony they exclaim : 
 
 " What is there beyond the grave, beyond 
 death .?" 
 
 This is death drawing nigh to an intellect which 
 despairs, when it is .not only the intellect, but 
 conscience, which exclaims : 
 
 " I am tarnished, I have lost my baptismal inno- 
 cence, I have crushed all that was noble and good 
 in me, I have defiled myself." 
 
 Then this conscience, beholding so sad a picture 
 of herself, is tempted to sit down beside the ruins 
 of her lost virtue and, amidst the tears of her 
 agony, to cry : " I despair !" 
 
 Despair is also the punishment reserved by God 
 for those hearts who have abused their affections, 
 and who are no longer capable of loving. The 
 dead no longer hear the song of life. Some hearts 
 
The Tempter. I39 
 
 seem, as it were, to have " gone out." They despair j 
 no longer able to love, all that remains to them is 
 a sort of cold selfishness, and, it may be, some 
 kind of animal passion. They are what we might 
 call petrified hearts, who seem to have been cast 
 down into the dust without more power to rise up 
 again than the bird, whose wing has been broken 
 by a ball, has power to extricate itself from the 
 mud of the road where it has fallen. 
 
 Despair, therefore, is the tempter's one great 
 resource. The tempter is the very impersonification 
 of despair. It is despair which makes hell. When, 
 after some sad fall, a soul, contemplating the 
 ruins of her former self, exclaims : " I despair !" 
 she has said all that is most terrible in the 
 language of humanity. Dante, that great Italian 
 poet, could find no inscription more appropriate, 
 more fitting, to place on the gates of his " Inferno " 
 than the words : 
 
 " Ye who enter here, leave behind you all hope !" 
 
 When St. Theresa was once questioned about 
 
 the devil, she gave an answer full of incomparable 
 
 beauty, revealing, at the same time, the angelic 
 
 tenderness of her own heart. 
 
J40 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 "The unfortunate one," she said, "he can no 
 longer love !" 
 
 Despair destroys truth in the mind, faith in the 
 conscience, and affection in the heart, and the 
 tempter's one great aim in the world is to lead 
 men to despair. 
 
 Does their hope no longer exist? I will tell 
 you in a few words. 
 
 You are so accustomed, my sisters, to have re- 
 lated to you the great truths of Christianity, that 
 they often come before you without making any 
 impression. The scenes of the gospel are quite 
 familiar to you ; you have grown up with these 
 stories of your childhood; they have been repeated 
 to you both by your mothers and by your priests. 
 And yet there is in the gospels one passage of 
 which I must remind you ; I alluded to it at the 
 beginning of this meditation ; it is when the devil 
 approaches our Divine Master in the desert. The 
 first phase of Christianity is the victory over 
 temptation ; the first phase of humanity was the 
 victory of temptation. 
 
 Our Lord went into the desert. Observe this 
 word " desert," my sisters. It is a grand thing to 
 
The Tempter. 141 
 
 go sometimes into the desert ; I mean into retreat. 
 You only go into the desert when you are tired of 
 the world, or when the world is tired of you ; you 
 only seek for solitude either when tired of your 
 fellow-creatures, or when they are tired of you j 
 then do you feel the need of solitude. There are 
 certain moments in your life when, like David, you 
 exclaim : " O solitude ! O solitude." 
 
 To be in solitude, in retreat, is to be above 
 humanity. 
 
 Our Lord began the salvation of mankind by a 
 retreat in the silence of the desert. For the sake 
 of fortifying and strengthening the souls of men, 
 He would not be exempt from temptation. He 
 knew that His life was to serve as a model for 
 mankind, and in order that mankind might not 
 flinch before any obstacles, He chose to give an 
 example of temptation really vanquished. And 
 the devil approaches. I can understand that the 
 devil should dare to approach if concealed by- 
 flowers, or that he should crawl along the ground,, 
 and address himself to a poor weak woman-, 
 although still encircled by her virgin innocence, 
 and by all the grandeur of her primitive origin x 
 
142 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 but that he should dare to speak to Eternal Beauty, 
 to Eternal Truth ! The greatest commentators of 
 theological science have in vain tried to compre- 
 hend how the devil should have dared to approach 
 God. 
 
 But if he did indeed draw nigh to Him, yet 
 was it in a spirit of uncertainty. The devil has 
 not infinite knowledge; he cannot see into futurity; 
 he has, perhaps, suppositions which may be more 
 politic and more cunning than those of this world ; 
 but he has no prophetic vision ; he has sufficient 
 insight to know how to attack and to tempt us, 
 but he cannot conquer us, unless we consent. 
 
 Now the devil knew that the great mystery of 
 the Incarnation was to transform the world ; that 
 it was to be the means of bringing into it such 
 virtues as would wage war against the kingdom 
 of hell. 
 
 Therefore it is that he approaches Jesus : he 
 wishes to make sure that He is the Son of God ; 
 and he speaks to Him — he dares to speak to our 
 Lord ! — he says to Him : 
 
 " If Thou be the Son of God." He suggests a 
 •doubt, just as he had once said to Eve, " Where- 
 
The Tempter. 143 
 
 fore" He comes to Jesus with a doubt : " If Thou 
 be the Son of God, command that these stones, be 
 made breads 
 
 Jesus had fasted forty days and forty nights, but 
 He answers with simplicity, for falsehood is always 
 conquered by simple and naked truth : 
 
 " Not in bread alone does man live;" that is to say, 
 " Thou art trying to tempt Me through the senses 
 because I am in want of food, because I am ex- 
 hausted by fasting ; but," He adds, " man lives by 
 every word that proceedeth from the mouth of 
 God." 
 
 Then the devil is immediately vanquished. 
 
 But the tempter is not content with words; he 
 dares to draw still nearer to Jesus, and he carries 
 Him in his arms. And this is truly one of the 
 most striking things ever permitted by God ; we 
 marvel that it should have been allowed that His 
 eternal Son, the Word made flesh, His own glory 
 revealed to humanity, should have been taken by 
 the devil, first on to the top of the temple ; then on 
 to the summit of a mountain. The most sublime 
 poetry, the grandest paintings, have failed in depict- 
 ing this scene but of the temptation of Jesus Christ. 
 
144 7^^ Supernatural Life. 
 
 — the source of all beauty and of all peace — in con- 
 tact with him who is the impersonification of hide- 
 ousness and disorder. 
 
 After the temptation of the senses comes that of 
 the intellect. The devil says to Jesus : 
 
 " If Thou be tJie Son of God, cast Thyself down, 
 for it is written that He has given His angels charge 
 over Th£e, and in their hands tJuy shall bear Thee up" 
 
 This is the temptation of the intellect, of the 
 reason — a temptation to rashness which disbelieves 
 in danger. But the Master answers : " It is written, 
 again, TJiou sJialt not tempt the Lord thy God!' 
 
 Then on the summit of the mountain comes the 
 temptation of ambition. The devil shows Jesus the 
 kingdoms of the world, and says to Him : 
 
 " All these will I give Thee, if , falling down. Thou 
 wilt adore me.'' 
 
 He demands adoration, and this is the last 
 crowning act of his presumption. And yet it has 
 been known that men have existed who have com- 
 mitted the frightful sin of worshipping the devil. 
 Our Lord answers Satan : 
 
 "It is written. The Lord thy God only shall thou 
 adore'.' 
 
The Tempter. 145 
 
 When the scJul is weak she worships the devil ; 
 for how often in life, in the exaggerated language 
 of passion, in the language of romances and of the 
 drama, we find the words " adoration" " adoring^ 
 Have not created beings told you that they adored 
 you ? And this the veil behind which the devil 
 hides himself, in order that creatures may be pre- 
 ferred before the Creator. Jesus answered : 
 
 " TJte Lord thy Godshalt tJiou adore, and Him only 
 shalt tJiou serve." 
 
 The temptation was conquered by these words — 
 Jesus was victorious. In order to overcome the 
 devil, what is needed is to be simple, true, and 
 straightforward. 
 
 But the surest way of overcoming temptation is 
 to avoid it ; to fly from it, not to encounter the 
 danger. Believe me, there is always danger for 
 you whenever you think there is danger ; and you 
 know it yourselves far better than your confessors 
 do. There is always danger for you in any position 
 which is in any way compromising, whether you are 
 strong or weak ; learn to keep out of the way of 
 peril, and do not play with edged tools. Recollect 
 what is written in Holy Writ, "Separate yourselves I" 
 
 10 
 
146 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 It is by flying from danger, by keeping aloof 
 from it, by not going near temptation, that you will 
 be victorious. 
 
 And then, should you ever have the misfortune 
 to give way, if you should fall, do not let your soul 
 give way to despair. Despair ought to have no 
 place in this life ; its place is only on the threshold 
 of eternity or of death. Even were your soul all that 
 is most benighted, your conscience all that is most 
 base, your heart all that is most vile, still would 
 one great resource be left open to you. For the 
 transformation of a soul, one glance from Almighty 
 God suffices ; one tear which, falling from our eyes, 
 is seen by Him ; for when God sees the soul 
 through a tear, the soul recovers its beauty and its 
 glory. Therefore, in order to escape despair, you 
 have but to find the path of repentance ; you have 
 but to send forth a cry which shall reach to God, 
 saying : 
 
 " Lord, have mercy on me, I am miserable, my soul 
 is humbled^ 
 
 The voice of the soul of man is very powerful 
 with God. 
 
 If, on the contrary, you have not allowed your- 
 
The Tempter. 147 
 
 selves to be overcome, if prayer has given you 
 
 ■strength and saved you from falling, then shall you 
 
 te full of joy. , We are told that " the desert 
 
 was there, but angels approached it and it was no 
 
 longer a desert." 
 
 The devil's great art consists in persuading you 
 
 that if you will listen to him your life will no 
 
 longer be overshadowed by darkness, that your 
 
 heart will be free, your imagination no longer held 
 
 in bondage, that you will no longer be fettered by 
 
 penitential practices. 
 
 Not so, my sisters ; if you can learn to overcome 
 I 
 temptation, far from being in darkness, your life will 
 
 be one of brightness and of light. How grand it is 
 
 to see a soul which has triumphed over temptation ! 
 
 To her the gates of heaven are opened ; she sees on 
 
 either side the rejoicing angels and the Spirit of 
 
 God Himself comes over her, filling her with a 
 
 sweetness and a joy unknown, undreamt of. Go, 
 
 then, with Jesus into the desert, and you will see 
 
 whether the fulness of joy is not yours. But let the 
 
 serpent allure you to make trial of the paradise of 
 
 delight, and be sure that it will be your ruin. You 
 
 must make your choice ; the desert with Jesus, 
 
 10 — 2 
 
148 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 where you will find angels and joy, Or the paradise 
 of earthly delight with its flowers, and the serpent 
 which is concealed beneath them ; and these 
 flowers are thorns, remorse, too often despair. 
 
 You stand between Jesus and the tempter — be- 
 tween the flowers which fade and the angels who 
 draw near ; leave, then, the flowers of this world,, 
 they are dead and fit but to be burned. Wing your 
 flight above, soar higher and ever higher until you. 
 reach unto the angels, even unto God. 
 
fife of Jaith. 
 
 " The just shall live by faith."— St. Paul. 
 
 jY sisters, I have already said that if you 
 are to have within you the supernatural 
 life, it is necessary that you should not 
 only understand and appreciate, govern and utilize, 
 your existence, but also, and above all, that you 
 should sanctify it. Now, the sanctifi cation of life is 
 nothing less than the dwelling of God within us ; 
 Jesus Himself thinking, feeling, acting within the 
 soul. Holiness is the Gospel put into action. We 
 have been meditating on the various obstacles to 
 this supernatural life; the spirit of the world ; the 
 ego or self-love ; and, lastly, the tempter, the evil 
 spirit, on whose baneful influence we dwelt yester- 
 day evening. 
 
5p The Supernatural Life. 
 
 We have seen that all things, both within and 
 without us, lend themselves as ready accomplices 
 to the tempter. In the original scheme of creation 
 everything was intended to lead the human soul 
 upwards unto God ; from the ground on which we 
 tread, from the flowers springing up around us, to 
 the stars above our heads — everything spoke of 
 God. 
 
 But since the Fall all things have become instru- . 
 ments in the hands of the tempter ; he makes use 
 of science to deny God ; he presents history to us 
 as the result of purely human causes, to the ex- 
 clusion, even to the defiance of Providence ; he 
 makes use of our personality, of our imagination, for 
 our seduction ; of our senses, to lead us astray ; he 
 betrays us even through our heart, bidding tempta^ 
 tion take the form of a sacrifice offered to us, or re- 
 quired from us. 
 
 Again, the devil, makes use of relig'ion, of piety, 
 of certain merely conventional observances which 
 delude even the most fervent; of petty abuses 
 which intrude themselves into the most holy things ; 
 he does not even scruple to make use of the altar, 
 of the sacraments, of confession, of the Holy 
 
Life of Faith. 151 
 
 Eucharist ; for, as we know, he leads the soul on to 
 sacrilege, and makes, so to say, of God Himself an 
 occasion of temptation. 
 
 In the midst of such dangers, what prudence 
 should guide your steps, what vigilance direct your 
 actions ! 
 
 Hitherto, my sisters, we have but reached what 
 may be called the threshold of the supernatural 
 life. 
 
 Let us now advance a step farther, and consider 
 together the elements of its very existence. If my 
 body were separated from my soul, it would imme- 
 diately fall into a state of immobility, because it 
 would no longer have within it any principle of 
 action; and were it necessary that it should be moved, 
 the impulse must be communicated from some 
 eternal agency. Life consists in an internal spring 
 of action. The stone has no life, for, in order to 
 give it movement, it must be taken up into the 
 hand and thrown to a distance. 
 
 To live by faith, is to make of faith the principle 
 of action within the soul ; and as in the soul there 
 are many distinct impulses, such as the action of 
 the will, the action of the heart, the action of the 
 
I S 2 The Supernatural L ife. 
 
 intellect, so faith must be the principle from which 
 these several actions spring. In physical life, the 
 blood circulates through all the vessels of our 
 system, flowing from the extremities to the heart ; 
 and as the heart is in communication with the ex- 
 ternal air, the blood returns, renewed and vivified 
 to the most distant arteries of the body. 
 
 So faith, if it be indeed the life of the soul, 
 must circulate through the veins of the intellect 
 and of the will ; and as through the heart faith 
 brings us into immediate communication with the 
 Holy Spirit, so is it the vital stream constantly 
 carrying renewed light and warmth into the in- 
 most chamber of our being. We do not see the 
 blood, yet ,it is always circulating through the 
 human body, invisible, yet everywhere giving life. 
 In like manner, the life of faith is not seen ; it is 
 impalpable, intangible, but it vitalizes the human 
 soul. 
 
 Therefore, I do not like the faith which we see 
 in some people, who attitudinize their piety, and 
 court the attention and admiration of others. This 
 is not the life of faith. To have the life of faith is 
 to have within the soul the principle of faith — a 
 
Life of Faith. 153 
 
 principle invisible, indeed, as is our guardian angel, 
 but which yet is ever inspiring us with good 
 desires. 
 
 This life of faith, do we often meet with it among 
 men ? In the first place, faith itself is not always 
 to be found. We live in an age where there is a 
 great deal of piety, but very little faith. It is a 
 strange fact ; it may even appear a paradoxical 
 one ; but never, perhaps, were little books of devo- 
 tion more numerous, never were religious practices 
 more widely spread, never was the garb of religion 
 more freely worn ; and yet, I ask, does faith in 
 these days penetrate deep into the souls of men, 
 and become the essential principle of their life 1 
 
 Take, for example, those who are best known to 
 you ; your husbands, brothers, relations. Is faith 
 the mainspring of their lives .' Is it not, even in 
 those who are the strictest in complying with the 
 external requirements of religion, a mere outside 
 robe, suited just for Sundays and holidays.' 
 Whilst, with others, faith is but a recollection of 
 childhood, the echo of a mother's teaching — 
 nothing more. 
 
 And women of the world, what is their faith ? 
 
154 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 They still, indeed, believe in the catechism. They 
 know that it is a little book transmitted from one 
 generation to another; they hear their children 
 stammer through it : but they never dream of 
 reading it themselves. Faith, with them, consists 
 in a sort of vague idea. And yet they pronounce 
 boldly upon important religious questions ; they 
 discuss doctrines and dogmas with wonderful 
 fluency, and with incredible audacity and presump- 
 tion scruple not to sit in judgment upon the Sove- 
 reign Pontiff, the priesthood, and upon the laws 
 and the teaching of the Church. 
 
 Even sincere Christians, women who are fre- 
 quent communicants, are not really imbued with 
 faith. It stands, as it were, in juxtaposition, side 
 by side, with their daily life. They know that 
 there is an eternity, another existence ; but faith is 
 not the vital principle, the motive power which 
 inspires and influences them. 
 
 My sisters, it is only when faith is really living 
 in the soul, that we can live by it. Faith must be 
 the very essence of life ; it must be to the soul, 
 what the soul is to the body. It has been said by 
 a holy father — and the definition is a grand- one — 
 
Life of Faith. 155 
 
 a Christian is a soul in a body of which the Holy- 
 Spirit forms a part. The life of faith is, not tO' 
 have the Holy Spirit intermittingly, by occasional 
 communications, by fitful gleams, but to have this 
 same Holy Spirit, the grace of God, abiding in the 
 heart, so that Christian belief may thus become the 
 ruling, enlightening, and inspiring source of life. 
 
 I am not going to discuss the necessity of faith 
 during this retreat. I take it for granted that yoa 
 believe in the truths of Christianity. Nay, I am 
 sure you do. Moreover, you know the words of 
 our Lord, " He that believeth not shall be damned. 
 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words 
 shall not pass away." 
 
 When our Lord met with some object of com- 
 passion, or when He purposed to work a miracle,. 
 He always asked, " Dost thou believe T 
 
 "Dost thou believe these things?" He says to 
 the sister of Lazarus. And, in giving His blessing 
 to the poor woman of Canaan, He exclaims, " I 
 have not found such great faith, no, not in Israel." 
 
 Faith, then, is the first condition of the super- 
 natural life. To have faith is to give the adhesioa 
 of the mind, of the intellect, to revealed truth ; and 
 
JS6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 this because it is the truth of God and the teaching 
 •of the Church. We must bow our intellect before 
 ±h,e word of God and the mouth of the Church. 
 We must believe upon the faith of the Eternal 
 Word. The object of our faith is not the word of 
 man, but the Eternal Word, the Word of God. 
 Our faith is in God. What can be higher, grander .' 
 Paith is the brightest light of the world. The soul 
 that does not believe is without light. It is faith 
 that gives light ; by it we know whence we come, 
 and whither we go ; we know the source of our 
 life, the end of our being. 
 
 The seed buried in the bowels of the earth 
 knows the way traced out for it through the upper 
 •crust of soil in order that it may at length ger- 
 minate and blossom; the eagle knows his path 
 through the air ; the star its course through 
 myriads of worlds in the measureless depth of 
 space. To each is there a way appointed ; and 
 shall there be none for man ? Shall man alone 
 call upon God, and cry, " Show me my way," and 
 God not hear ? 
 
 No, my sisters, I believe in God as in a Father 
 speaking to His child, as in One Who has drawn 
 
Life of Faith. iST' 
 
 near to me, Whose ears have heard the beatings of 
 my heart, Whose eyes have beheld my tears. I 
 believe in the word of God, because I, a poor feeble 
 child lost in the catacombs of creation, need the 
 sound of a voice which shall direct me, and I know 
 that so loving a Father cannot have implanted in 
 me one single need for which He has not also' 
 supplied au abundant satisfaction. 
 
 By the clear light of faith we are able to see how 
 this life is but a road, a journey, a struggle ; in 
 three words, faith gives us the secret of every exist- 
 ence, telling us that it is for each one of us a duty 
 to be fulfilled, a cross to be borne, an apostolate to- 
 be exercised. Life is a preparation for eternity, 
 where life will be full, perfect, abundant, nay, even 
 superabundant. Faith is, therefore, the grand 
 light of life, as it is, also, the true light of society. 
 We see nations rise up and disappear ; we see a. 
 providential movement in everything. Every soul 
 who believes, writes, as it were, afresh, that won- 
 derful book, entitled " A Discourse upon Universal 
 History." To the true believer, the hand of Provi- 
 dence is everywhere visible ; to him all things are 
 clear and light, and, standing on the mountain- 
 
158 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 tops, he contemplates all that passes in the plain 
 below. The torch of faith solves the great pro- 
 "blems of humanity to the little child as to the aged, 
 to the poor and ignorant as to the learned. And 
 •outside of faith, what uncertainties and questionings 
 beset the human mind! Look at the problems 
 Avhich are forced upon the attention of man, and 
 for the solution of which reason cries aloud : 
 " Whence is man 1 whither does he go ?" 
 Human reason, bewildered and confounded, may- 
 be compared to the benighted traveller, wandering 
 wearily along in the darkness of the night. Lean- 
 ing on his staff, he gazes eagerly into the vast ex- 
 panse of firmament/ Nothing is to be seen but 
 clouds, and it is a star for which he is seeking. 
 Human reason has but the gropings of the intellect 
 to direct it. It is without the clear light of the 
 .sun, which belongs only to faith. 
 
 Again, faith is the one great strength of life. 
 There is no strength like that of a deep conviction. 
 It is often said, " Happy the man who believes 1" 
 And again, " The man who has the greatest power, 
 is the man of one idea." When the idea of the 
 eternity of God has entered into the mind of man, 
 
Life of Faith. 159 
 
 when this truth has taken hold of the conscience, 
 what strength and power does it not impart! 
 Therefore is it that you see some heroic souls taking 
 refuge in cloisters, in cells, throwing themselves 
 into every field of self-devotion. Faith has, in 
 them, attained its fullest development ; their one 
 aim is to live under its inspirations. Faith is not 
 only the brightest light of this life, and its greatest 
 power ; it is also its sole real consolation. There 
 is nothing sadder than a soul who does not 
 believe. 
 
 I said yesterday that despair was the climax of 
 all your falls, of all your sorrows. It may also be 
 said that the climax of all human sadness is dis- 
 belief, distrust of everything. Distrust is want of 
 faith ; it is the parent of doubt, of scornful incre- 
 dulity, of moral questionings. When, perhaps, 
 some family affection disappoints or fails you, 
 directly you lose your faith in love, you are filled 
 with suspicion and distrust ; and the human heart 
 knows no greater sorrow than feelings such as 
 these. If you distrust every one, even God ; if you 
 have no longer faith in God, then is your isolation 
 complete, your sorrow absolute. You have no 
 
i6o TIte Supernatural Life. 
 
 longer the one great consolation of life. I do not 
 understand any consolation without faith. 
 
 Men of the world, who have experienced the 
 trials of life, look with envy at the serenity of a. 
 Catholic sanctuary, and exclaim : 
 
 " I should be quite happy if I had faith." 
 
 It is ever and again the example I have already 
 quoted of the man, who, in spite of all his learning, 
 of the fame attached to his name, said, on returning 
 to his native village, and hearing once more the 
 prayers, the hymns, the creeds of his childhood : 
 
 " Alas for us ! we reason ; but to reason is to 
 doubt, and to doubt is to suffer." 
 
 The great consolation of life is, therefore, faith. 
 When faith is not the mere assent of the intellect, 
 but also its life, then all things become clear ; we 
 comprehend not only life in general, the march of 
 society, but we can measure the particular events 
 of our own individual history. We know that 
 there is a God Who numbers the hairs of our head ; 
 we believe in the government of Providence; we 
 have faith in our Father, Who is in heaven ; we are, 
 at peace ; naught can befall us but what He 
 allows; if He permits sorrow or anxiety to fall 
 
Life of Faith. l6i 
 
 upon us, it is because He loves us yet more than 
 before. 
 
 The story is told of a king who, meeting a 
 young shepherd, inquired what he earned for 
 keeping his flock. The youth fixed his eyes upon 
 the king, and replied : 
 
 " Sire, I earn the same as you do." 
 
 "Hovirso.? why?" 
 
 " Because, by the conduct of a flock, as by the 
 government of men, I win heaven or hell." 
 
 Such, indeed, is the true meaning of life; the 
 clear light of faith revealing itself to you, and 
 showing ypu that all is summed up in striving to 
 gain eternity. 
 
 When once this light has illuminated your souls, 
 you will comprehend the beautiful words of the 
 poor beggar, lately beatified by the Sovereign 
 Pontiff. 
 
 One day Blessed Labre was walking along one 
 of the roads leading to Rome ; after a while he sat 
 down by the wayside. He was clothed only in 
 rags, and his food was but a morsel of dry bread, 
 with muddy water, out of a wooden bowl, for his 
 drink. Soon a joyous crowd passed by^^ mar- 
 
 II 
 
1 62 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 riage party on their way to the wedding-feast. 
 They stare at the poor beggar and, with a mixture 
 of pity and disdain, exclaim : 
 
 "The unhappy wretch!" 
 
 But he rises up, and, with the dignity of the 
 Christian who, though he may be covered but with 
 rags, and scarce have bread enough for his daily 
 sustenance, yet possesses within his soul the trea- 
 sures of eternity, he says : 
 
 " You call me unhappy ; I am very happy be- 
 neath the sunshine of the good God ; none are 
 unhappy but those who are on their road to 
 hell." 
 
 They were grand and noble words, born of faith. 
 When everything is judged by the standard of the 
 supernatural, there is perfect harmony between the 
 affections and the will ; the whole human soul 
 becomes, so to say, a hymn of praise to God. 
 
 My sisters, who are there among you who live 
 by faith ; who think that poverty is a higher good 
 than riches ; that sorrow is a greater treasure than 
 joy ; who take the gospel literally, and do not look 
 upon it as a mere legend, a traditionary record of 
 ideal heroism >. And yet all your words and 
 
Life of Faith. 163 
 
 feelings ought to be inspired by faith. You must 
 be able to say, with St. Francis of Sales : 
 
 " My God, if there be aught in me which is not 
 inspired by faith, I will instantly root it up, and 
 cast it out." 
 
 Your will, also, my sisters, must be brought 
 under the control of faith's divine inspirations. 
 The great misfortune of your life is that you do 
 your own will, and not the will of God ; then you 
 become a discordant note in His creation, instead 
 of a hymn of praise to Him. If you understand 
 the life of faith, you will show forth the praises 
 of God. 
 
 Live, then, by faith. In this city of Lyons, 
 where Christian traditions are still preserved, where 
 the blood of martyrs still rises as incense to 
 heaven, shedding the protection of its sacred per- 
 fume upon your families, let there be a living, a 
 vigorous faith. 
 
 And now let me explain to you, my sisters, 
 what are the duties you owe to your faith. 
 
 Your first duty is to preserve it ; and observe, 
 never, perhaps, has faith more needed preservation 
 than in our own days ; never have there been so many 
 
 II — 2 
 
164 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 I 
 
 and such powerful causes at work, the tendency of 
 which IS to destroy faith. These affect every one, 
 and you especially. 
 
 You live essentially by feeling, by sentiment; 
 faith with you is a feeling, rather than a conviction \ 
 you hardly ever act under the austere and strong 
 inspiration of faith ; rather are you the slaves of an 
 idea. Your natures are impulsive and uneven ; a 
 trifle elates you, a trifle casts you down. With 
 many of you, faith is but a sensation or a remem- 
 brance : a remembrance, it may be, of your First 
 Communion. Often it is but as a flower, of which 
 -the perfume only reaches you ; or it is the fleeting 
 impression made on you by a retreat, by some 
 voice which for a moment held you captive ; it is 
 not the power of earnest conviction penetrating 
 into the very depths of the soul. 
 
 But side by side with this danger from within, 
 which you may avoid, there is also danger from 
 without. 
 
 How foreign, how antagonistic, even to faith, 
 are the ideas and opinions of the present day! 
 Men will have nothing now but the exterior of 
 Christianity. They like Christian civilization — ^the 
 
Life of Faith. 165 
 
 varnish of Christianity, so to say — but they do not 
 rest upon its fundamental basis. 
 
 Look at what is now going on in the world. 
 What is the reading of the day ? It frightens me 
 to see the bad books, the godless papers, the 
 dangerous publications, whidi cover the tables, and 
 fill the book-shelves of Christian women. Every- 
 thing against the Church is greedily welcomed. The 
 consequence is, a deterioration of the intellect to an 
 extent that causes abuse of the Church to be but too 
 easily believed, and her bitterest enemies courted 
 and praised. With a marvellous facility, these 
 books and pamphlets diffuse themselves, carrying 
 with them a certain familiarity with divine things, 
 which penetrates into every grade of society, ap- 
 pealing to every intelligence, and fastening itself 
 upon every soul! We must confess that the virgin 
 purity, the strict orthodoxy of faith exists no more. 
 The exquisite delicacy of truth is no longer under- 
 stood. 
 
 One thing, in these latter days, has deeply 
 humiliated us, Christian bishops and priests,, who 
 love the Church with all her conflicts, all her 
 greatness, all her virtues and good works ; it has 
 
i66 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 humiliated us to see to what an extent a simple 
 word which fell fr6m the lips of the Sovereign 
 Pontiff has been misunderstood. The Head of 
 of the Church did but say this : 
 
 " That Jesus Christ must be the corner-stone of 
 society, that Jesus Christ has rights, that the 
 rights of God are somewhat higher than the rights 
 of man." Nothing more than this ; the common 
 teaching of the catechism. 
 
 And behold ! the world calls it a modern dis- 
 covery, a strange invention ; the cry is taken up 
 and sung in every key. And we see not only 
 doctors of science, but even Christian women, who, 
 perhaps, have been in the morning with veiled 
 faces to receive Jesus Christ in Holy Communion, 
 going forth in the evening, and citing before the 
 bar of their childish intelligence and feeble reason, 
 the words of the Father of the faithful, to question 
 and too often to contradict them. 
 
 Is there not danger to faith in such things } 
 
 Therefore, my sisters, it is that you must pre- 
 serve your faith by abstaining from dangerous 
 and harmful reading. 
 
 A woman, very reprehensible, on account of the 
 
Life of Faith. 167 
 
 books which she has published, and who, by the 
 seductive brilliancy of her style, has worked, grie- 
 vous mischief both in the hearts and the intellects of 
 her readers — this woman writes in one of her novels: 
 " Faith enters into the Soul that suiifers, and doubt 
 draws nigh to the soul that dreams." 
 
 These words are most true. Suffering, it may 
 be said, is often the road to faith ; but doubt takes 
 possession of the soul of the dreamer. 
 
 Women, nowadays especially, love day-dreams, 
 unhealthy reading, fantastic imaginations, exagge- 
 rated conceptions, everything, in fact, which pro- 
 duces excitement ; and, instead of confining them- 
 selves to solid, substantial reading, they feed on 
 books which endanger their faith, and lead them 
 on to ruin. . 
 
 My sisters, remember these words : 
 
 "Faith descends into the soul which suffers; 
 doubt draws nigh to the soul which dreams." 
 
 Let then the choice of your reading be such as 
 will conduce to the preservation of your faith, and 
 I add also, be careful for the preservation of 
 your faith in conversation. It is impossible to 
 escape the influence of the words we hear, and 
 
1 68 TJie Supernatural Life. 
 
 grave is the responsibility of those who utter 
 them. 
 
 Few minds are rich enough to live upon their 
 own resources ; upon the ideas they have acquired, 
 the greater number feed only upon what they hear. 
 If an objection, an accusation against the faith be 
 laid down, they are at once subjugated or fascinated 
 by it. You give little heed to this : but everywhere 
 around you, anti-Christian ideas are rife ; the hus- 
 band to whom your life is linked, your sons, your 
 brothers, perhaps even your sisters are more or less 
 impregnated with these heterodox views upon 
 religion and the Church. You live in this atmo- 
 sphere, you have to carry the fragile plant of faith 
 in a vase more fragile still, and without continual 
 watchfulness, this faith will fade and die. Pray then 
 with the apostles^" Lord, increase my faith." 
 
 St. Francis of Sales, who had been compelled to 
 spend his life in the midst of the conflicts of heresy, 
 used to say : 
 
 " My God, I thank Thee that I have been able 
 to pass with a firm step, and without failing, through 
 all these deleterious doctrines." 
 
 And when asked on his death-bed whether he 
 
Life of Faith. 169 
 
 had ever had any doubts, he replied : " Doubts ! 
 no ; I have always believed with the simplicity 
 of a child ; it was my delight to believe ; I die 
 in the same catholic faith which I have loved, 
 which \ have preached, for which I would give my 
 life." 
 
 Such is the one cry of strong and vigorous souls ; 
 amidst the dangers of their existence they have 
 preserved their faith. But there is a second duty 
 before you ; you must nourish your faith. I have 
 already said that in these days there is piety, but 
 not much faith. Together with many admirable 
 works of Christian literature there appear every 
 day little pious books full of notes of admiration 
 and of interrogation, of vapid phrases and high- 
 , flown exaggerated expressions, books I mean such 
 as you open and sometimes use in your thanks- 
 givirtgs after Communion. 
 
 Too many souls are fed on such — I will not call 
 them mental products, they do not deserve the 
 name — but on such wretched trash only tolerated 
 because it is on a par with the intellect of the age. 
 Devout souls are thus reduced to a poverty of 
 intellectual food, the shallowness of which can 
 
170 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 hardly be concealed by the sonorous words and 
 pompous phrases and expressions with which these 
 publications abound. 
 
 Such is the present state of things, my sisters. 
 There is much activity and excitement about in the 
 world ; you will find in some a sort of angular 
 piety perhaps, but solid, earnest, intelligent faith is 
 the one thing wanting. 
 
 Formerly, faith was a family tradition. Mothers 
 read the good solid books which teach the science 
 of Christianity ; men belonging to secular profes- 
 sions, magistrates, savants, even, studied the Holy 
 Scriptures and theology along with the works treat- 
 ing of their own particular branch of learning. In 
 our days, theological studies have been abandoned, 
 nothing remains but a profound ignorance of the 
 things of God in the soul of man. 
 
 I want to convince you, my sisters, of the neces- 
 sity of preserving your faith, and of giving it a real 
 comprehension of holy things. Religion is the 
 essence of all that is true and beautiful and good. 
 Read good books ; read the works "of the saints ; 
 drink in the manly vigorous force of their thoughts. 
 Never indulge in dangerous reading; Say in the 
 
Life of Faith. 171 
 
 words of Holy Scripture : " Give me understanding, 
 Lord, and I shall live." 
 
 May God grant you the gift of faith. 
 
 Do you really understand the Christian doctrines, 
 the holy teachings of the Liturgy ? Oh ! did you 
 but comprehend the grand lessons of faith ! They 
 contain treasures of which you are utterly ignorant 
 I was reading over, for instance, the other day, for 
 my own private edification, the ritual of the ad- 
 ministration of the sacrament of holy orders ; I 
 know of no prayers more full of poetical inspira- 
 tion, of life-giving beauty. Why do Christians 
 allow such things as these to lie by unknown? 
 Why do they not seek therein the light and 
 the fire which would give strength to their own 
 souls ? 
 
 Feed your minds, then, with solid reading; attend 
 the sermons in your parish churches ; go sometimes 
 even to the catechisings. CThese things are not 
 intended only for children and servants. You may 
 be in greater need of them perhaps than they ; many 
 a poor girl who has attended regularly a course of 
 instruction would be perfectly capable of teaching 
 you many things of which you are ignorant. 
 
T72 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Catholic truth is so full of marvels, it may be 
 studied ever and again without being exhausted ; 
 it is like the well of Jacob, of -which the waters 
 spring up into everlasting life. Listen with sim- 
 plicity to the Word of God ; and thus you will 
 nourish your faith. 
 
 Your third duty is to propagate your faith. I do 
 not mean that you must set yourselves up as 
 preachers, or arguers ; but you may both defend 
 and propagate the faith by your activity, by your 
 good works, by your self-devotion, and especially 
 by the earnestness of your own convictions. 
 
 A believing soul is like the sun behind a cloud ; 
 in spite of the darkness which hides and over- 
 shadows it, its rays yet shine through the clouds 
 and give them brightness and light. Thus does 
 the inward presence of earnest faith within the soul 
 seem to clothe even the outward form with some- 
 thing of its own light and beauty. 
 
 There is nothing more sweet, more exquisite, 
 than a soul thus revealing itself through the mani- 
 festation of faith, for faith is the charm, the perfume 
 of life. And therefore the power which carries 
 conviction is not always- that of words, and of 
 
Life of Faith. 173 
 
 demonstration ; it is that of a living, of an incar- 
 nate faith; that of a Christian woman wearing 
 Christianity nobly, understanding how to live upon 
 the great and grand traditions of Jesus Christ, and 
 then to impart them to others. 
 
 During the terrible wars which have of late 
 devastated the United States, events took place 
 which are but little known, and which yet have in 
 them much which may serve for our edification. A 
 considerable number of Protestant soldiers, wounded 
 on the field of the battle, and carried into the 
 hospitals, there became Catholics. 
 
 The Bishop of Charlestown told me that out of 
 twenty Protestant Soldiers brought into the hos- 
 pitals eighteen died Catholics, converted by conver- 
 sations they had held with the sisters of St. Charles 
 and of St. Joseph who had nursed them ; and the 
 same prelate related to me a very encouraging and 
 touching fact. 
 
 An old officer was brought into the hospital in a 
 dying state; he had never thought of religion. 
 The sister said to him : 
 
 "You are going to die, turn your thoughts to 
 God." 
 
174 "^f^ Supernatural Life. 
 
 He replied : " I have never thought of Him for 
 forty years, what do you think He can do with 
 me ? I know Him but little, and He perhaps knows 
 me still less." 
 
 The sister was not discouraged, she added, " You 
 must learn to know God ; He is a Father." 
 
 And she continued to speak to him in the per- 
 suasive words of deep conviction, and then asked 
 him, " Are you a Catholic or a Protestant ?" 
 
 " I do not exactly know," replied the officer, 
 " but I dare say I am a Protestant." 
 
 " Shall I send for a Catholic priest ?" asked the 
 sister. 
 
 The officer answered, " Which is your religion, 
 sister .?" 
 
 " The Catholic religion." 
 
 " Then bring me your priest." 
 
 The sister sent for a priest from Charlestown. 
 He came to the bed of the dying man and asked 
 him, " Do you believe that there is a God ?" 
 
 " Yes, I believe that there is a God, Who created 
 the world." 
 
 " Do you believe in three Persons in one God ?" 
 
 " I do not know." 
 
Life of Faith. 175 
 
 The priest explained, and the dying man turning 
 to the sister, said, " Do you believe this ?" 
 
 "Yes," she said. 
 
 " I do also," said the officer. 
 
 The priest then spoke of the mysteries of the 
 Incarnation and Redemption. At each explana- 
 tion the sick man looked at the sister of charity, 
 asking : " Do you believe this ?" And on her 
 answering in the affirmative he too said, "I believe!" 
 
 All the great Christian doctrines were thus gone 
 through, and the dying man made a complete pro- 
 fession of faith on the authority of the sister of 
 charity whose noble selfrdevotion he had under- 
 stood and admired. There is something incom- 
 parably beautiful in this story ; charity gives birth 
 to faith ; faith lives by charity according to the 
 beautiful words of St. Paul; the Gospel incarnate in 
 the soul of man upon the affirmation of the Church. 
 
 Well ! my sisters, in the terrible medley of con- 
 flicting opinions, in the deadly struggle between 
 mind and mind of which our unhappy Europe is 
 the scene, there are even more souls crushed and 
 wounded, stricken unto death than there were 
 soldiers lying dying and dead on the bloody field 
 
176 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 of America. Oh ! were there but souls full of 
 faith, earnest, loving, living souls, the world would 
 soon be conquered and transformed ; for there is no 
 power in the world greater than that of a soul full 
 of light from abov6, devoting herself for the faith 
 with all the tenderness and the self-immolation 
 which inspired the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. There 
 is nothing more powerful than truth made visible 
 through a life of charity. 
 
 Go forth then, into the world to the conquest of 
 souls. After having preserved your own faith, 
 after having strengthened and vivified it, and made 
 it the loadstone of your life, bear away the light to 
 the souls who have it not, and believe that to give 
 faith is to give more than material bread to the 
 poor, for it is to give the bread of the soul, it is to 
 give joy and comfort to the heart, it is to give the 
 vefy treasure of life, it is, in fact, to give all that is 
 highest and greatest in the world, "hope aild love." 
 
" Ought not Christ to suffer ?" — St. Luke xxiv. 26. 
 
 [HIS morning, my sisters, I endeavoured 
 to direct your thoughts to one of the 
 constituent elements of the supernatural 
 life — I spoke of the life of faith. 
 
 The second element of the supernatural life, fol- 
 lowing upon faith, is sacrifice; and this evening, 
 my sisters, I would speak to you of the life of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 The word is, indeed, a fearful one to human 
 nature. It provokes reason to indignation, the 
 senses to rebellion. Sacrifice ! Yet is it the great 
 law of heaven and of earth ; and, since the fall, the 
 one supreme law. Before the fall even sacrifice 
 existed ; not bloody, not painful, but existing, even 
 as labour existed, for man, in the midst of the joys 
 
 12 
 
178 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 of the earthly paradise, was not condemned to 
 sterilfe immobility. Neither shall we, when we 
 come to the ecstasy of heaven, be sunk in barren 
 and unfruitful idleness. The soul is essentially 
 active, even as God, Who is absolute activity, pure 
 action. 
 
 Work and sacrifice existed before the fall. To 
 offer sacrifice to God, is to recognize His sove- 
 reignty, to acknowledge Him as Master. 
 
 It would seem an easy thing, my sisters, to 
 acknowledge that God is the Master, to accept 
 His rights, to confess His pre-eminence. To say 
 that God is our Master, who is there who does not 
 do it .' Who dares to dispute His sovereignty, His 
 supreme authority over us .'' Who dreams of ques- 
 tioning this .' ' No one apparently, every one really. 
 When you withhold the thoughts of your heart 
 from Him ; nay, more, when you go farther, and 
 allow your heart to stray away after dangerous 
 and forbidden affections, you' are refusing to God 
 His sovereignty over you. Sin is nothing else than 
 the soul setting itself above God, destroying His 
 original scheme, rejecting the harmony which He 
 has established, not accepting the sovereignty of 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 179 
 
 His laws. Every sinful act denies, contests, and 
 sometimes attempts to overthrow, the sovereignty 
 of God. 
 
 Yet God demands the acknowledgment of His 
 sovereignty. You yourselves, my sisters, in your 
 own homes, unless you are deplorably weak, unless 
 you go down upon your knees before your children, 
 and are governed by little majesties of fifteen ; 
 even you do not allow your authority to be con- 
 tested and discussed, you know how to make it 
 respected when it is infringed upon by those who 
 ought to obey. You are right in not allowing your 
 sceptre to fall into these childish hands. And God, 
 God the Father of the human family, God the 
 Creator of the universe, can you admit that His 
 sovereignty should not be acknowledged .' The 
 sovereignty of God is acknowledged only through 
 sacrifice. It may, indeed, be said that since the 
 fall, death alone has borne witness to this sove- 
 reignty. When man has been able to offer his 
 life, and laying it down at the feet of God, has said, 
 " This life, I immolate it. I would pour it out. It 
 is but a drop of water on the sands of immensity. 
 Thou art, O God, the Lord of the world, the Lord 
 
 12 — 2 
 
1 8o The Supernatural L ife. 
 
 of my being, Thou hast right over me!" The 
 means of confessing the sovereignty of God, is 
 death ; sacrifice, which is but the passage from life 
 to death. 
 
 In the old world, the heathen themselves instinc- 
 tively, in virtue of that tradition imbedded in the 
 heart of man, brought victims to the altar, and put 
 them to death, to the glory of God. What was 
 there in this act of destruction, in the blood thus 
 shed within the temple ? There was a hymn of 
 praise confessing the sovereignty of God. .Sacrifice 
 is the acknowledgment that God is Lord. Do you 
 want a proof of this t Whenever sacrifice ceases 
 to be, when it is put away, the rights of God are, 
 little by little, forgotten and denied. In our days. 
 Christians are alarmed at the audacious, the de- 
 structive, let me even say, the fatal, negations with 
 which men assail our Lord and God ! Why are 
 the rights of God thus disregarded, why is God 
 Himself, as it were, put aside as some far-fetched 
 ideal, only fit for the cradle of ancient generations ?■ 
 It is because, in non-Catholic doctrines, there is. 
 neither sacrifice nor altar. When sacrifice exists, 
 no longer, when the altar is destroyed, and the 
 
Life of Sacrifice. i8i 
 
 divine Master banished, God, His rights, and His 
 sovereignty are no longer acknowledged. 
 
 There is a fatal progression in error ; the rights 
 of God are denied when sacrifice ceases to exist. 
 There is but one indestructible society, holding a 
 divine, a blessed mission, preserving, proclaiming, 
 defending, affirming the rights of God ; it is the 
 great Catholic commonwealth, going on its way 
 through time and space, bearing everywhere the 
 sacrificial victim, and chanting ever the glory of 
 God. 
 
 The attestation of the rights of God is sacrifice. 
 When the time came that these rights were to be 
 affirmed and made manifest to the eye of humanity, 
 then did the Son of God come down from heaven 
 upon the earth. He said to His Father, "A vic- 
 tim is necessary ! here I am." And he gave Him- 
 self up to die on the Cross. 
 
 And henceforth sacrifice in man is seen in its 
 true greatness, and all human actions in their real 
 significance. Let a man, be he ever so poor, ever 
 so miserable, if he is ascending the road to Calvary, 
 bringing with him, it may be, but a straw ; yet if this 
 straw be laid upon the blood-stained Cross of the 
 
i82 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Redeemer, that man will obtaia power and glory 
 which will win for him an everlasting crown. If 
 we cast into this crucible, this sacrificial fire, but 
 one tear, one sigh, one prayer, one secret immola- 
 tion, some one innermost self-annihilation — all 
 these shall have their echoes in eternity, and await 
 us in everlasting glory. 
 
 Sacrifice is the great law, the fundamental law of 
 Christianity, and every soul desirous of regenera- 
 tion, every soul that wills to live the life , of Christ, 
 or to have in itself the supernatural life, must build 
 its existence upon sacrifice. 
 
 In our days, do people think of building upon 
 sacrifice .' of giving this tendency to education 1 
 No ; they are only pre-occupied with the wish of 
 putting away all sorrow and all care. And that is 
 why many young girls enter upon marriage, and 
 after two or three years of domestic life exclaim, 
 " Oh, if I had but known that marriage had so many 
 great sorrows and sacrifices, I would never have 
 joined my hands and bowed my head to receive 
 the nuptial benediction." This is because you, 
 mothers, have educated them with the idea of the 
 pleasure, the triumph of ruling a house, but not 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 183 
 
 with the idea of sacrifice. This is how you mould, 
 so to speak, your children in their early years. 
 You give way to their caprices ; you leave their 
 natures uncontrolled. You do not understand that 
 you ought to form, to discipline them to sacrifice ; 
 that if you do not, the day will come when they 
 must be disciplined through a sorrow sharp and 
 terrible, which they will hardly be able to endure, 
 because they have not been prepared beforehand 
 for the great trials of life. 
 
 The law of sacrifice is the fundamental law of 
 Christianity, the true law of life. The soul that 
 would live must fulfil this law in its own being. 
 
 Our Lord said to His disciples, when He en- 
 trusted them with His divine mission, " Unless the 
 grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself 
 remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth 
 much fruit." 
 
 To learn to die to oneself, this is the power which 
 can fertilize and regenerate. To die to oneself, to 
 annihilate self — this is the great law of Christianity. 
 Who consents to offer sacrifice ? We are afraid of it. 
 We are afraid of dying to ourselves. We are afraid 
 of self-immolation. We will not sacrifice ourselves ! 
 
184 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 The priest to whom you have revealed the state of 
 your soul, asks of you, perhaps, some small sacri- 
 fice. He asks it in that spirit of fatherly tender- 
 ness which God has put into his heart, and often 
 he has even to dispute with you whether your soul 
 shall belong to Satan or to God. You say, " We 
 are incapable of such sacrifices." You will not re- 
 nounce the frivolities, the trifles which make up 
 your life ; you think you have done a great deal if 
 you have diminished the width of your skirts by 
 an inch, if you have cut off a little of the splendour 
 of your dress, if you have done God the honour to 
 bow down before Him for a few minutes, and 
 uttered a careless sigh in His presence. 
 
 These are the sacrifices which some make, and 
 call themselves Christians ; they fancy they have 
 understood the meaning of life, and have pene- 
 trated into the very depths of Christianity ! It is 
 enough to make one smile with pity, if not weep 
 with compassion, to behold souls thus needing to 
 be led back to the great law of Calvary, to the 
 one only fruitful, the one only true law, the law of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 But there are treasures of mercy in God. He 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 185 
 
 knows that you will not, of yourselves, consent to 
 sacrifice, to self-immolation, that every step of the 
 ground in your heart has, to be disputed, ere He 
 win to Himself the surrender of your prayers, of 
 your reading, of your luxury, of your actions, even 
 of your family devotion. Then how does God 
 work ? He says, " This soul is sick, it must go to 
 the hospital." 
 
 What is that hospital whither God sends the 
 souls that are sick ? It is that of suffering. He 
 takes you there, He makes you lie down upon 
 that bed of blessing, the bed of suffering. Until 
 now, you looked upon suffering as a curse ; 
 you murmured at it when it visited you ; you 
 understood not that God then vouchsafed to 
 descend from His eternity, and, like the good 
 Samaritan, to take you in His arms, to tend and 
 heal you ; for it is through the mighty power of 
 suffering that God brings sanctification, and life, 
 and salvation to the soul. 
 
 Let me show you, my sisters, the mysterious 
 relations, the coincidence between sacrifice and 
 suffering. It is most certain that sufferings exist 
 around us ; that they fall upon us, swifter, thicker 
 
l86 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 than flakes of snow on a winter's day. Suffering 
 bears a message from God to him who endures it ; 
 suffering is the great power of God, the medicine 
 wherewith He heals the soul. 
 
 What is it that we need in life ? I have said it 
 already ; we need light and strength, in other 
 words, we need sanctification. When God sends 
 suffering, He sends that which is, after faith, the. 
 great light of life, and often suffering is the high- 
 way to faith. I quoted this morning a very worldly 
 author, a woman who yet found in the inspira- 
 tion of her own thought these words, " The soul 
 that suffers is nigh to faith ; the soul that dreams is 
 nigh to doubt." Yes, suffering may become the 
 great highway that leads to faith. 
 
 Look at that man of the world. Everything has 
 succeeded with him ; he has been nurtured in 
 health and wealth ; his affairs have prospered ; 
 God has given him a wife who is the delight of his 
 life ; his children are growing up around him in 
 health and happiness ; he has all the joys, all the 
 honours of life ; he is honest and upright ; his 
 integrity wins him public esteem ; there is room in 
 his heart for all, his children, his family, those who 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 187 
 
 are in any way brought into relation with him ; he 
 is ever forward in good works. He has a thought 
 for everybody, everything, excepting God ; He is 
 the great forgotten one. To Him he never looks 
 in the morning ; to Him he never turns at night ; 
 he ignores God ; he never thinks of Him. 
 
 And yet, what is there which has not spoken to 
 him of God ? In childhood, when he came into 
 the world, he saw the sun declaring the glory of 
 God ; he played upon that green carpet of the 
 earth, where grew the flowers which his infant 
 hands delighted to pluck ; his mother watched 
 over his early years, she taught him to kneel down 
 and to pray to his Father in heaven. Later on he 
 came to the priest, he heard the voice of the 
 Church, he learned the doctrine of Christ. Yet God 
 is still the One Being forgotten. And if you go 
 through the cities of this old Europe of ours, how 
 many men will you not find for whom God is the 
 one Thing forgotten, forsaken ! Neither the 
 thunder of heaven, nor the events of earth, nor the 
 anxious cares of the clergy avail to bring them 
 back to God. 
 
 But a day comes when God overthrows the 
 
1 88 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 fortunes of this prosperous man ; death carries off 
 one of his children, clouds gather upon his brow ; 
 he becomes sad, depressed, desolate ; he murmurs 
 at times, until at length memory awakens, and the 
 instinctive cry of suffering nature bursts from him, 
 "My God! my God!" Suffering is indeed for 
 , many the only light which leads to life. 
 
 Or else, it may be, that we see a frivolous soul, . 
 one who does not, indeed, forget God, but who 
 does not love Him ; who gives Him but a vague 
 and passing thought, and no real love or tenderness 
 of heart. Well, all has been in vain to recall this 
 soul to God : the loving entreaties of children 
 or friends, the warnings of the preacher, the 
 threatenings of eternity, all are in vain. God 
 smites her, and she too cries out, " My God ! my 
 God 1" True light has come to her, showing her 
 the fragility of all earthly things, and revealing to 
 her, beyond present anguish, the brightening dawn 
 of eternity. Sorrow is the great light of life, shining 
 upon the souls, which, through it, are being made 
 ready for willing sacrifice. 
 
 And by suffering God gives also strength to the ^ 
 5oul. • Of what is that soul capable which has 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 189 
 
 never suffered ? What does it know of the provi- 
 dential laws of Christianity ? What of life ? only 
 its joys. What of its own strength ? it has never 
 battled, never been tried. What does it know of 
 self, of life, of God ? The soul which has never 
 suffered knows nothing, it has no strength, it hai 
 passed through no struggles, no trials. 
 
 I am obliged to hurry on, only giving you the 
 heads of thoughts. 
 
 Suffering is also the expiation of sin. We too- 
 easily forget that God demands expiation. Jesus- 
 Christ has bequeathed to us His sufferings, that 
 we may be made capable of expiation. You have 
 offended God ; do you think there is nothing re- 
 quired of you .' Do you think that the rapid abso- 
 lution which just soothes your conscience is enough, 
 to bestow sanctifying grace upon your souls ? Do 
 you think that the consequences of evil, the effects- 
 of sin, need no expiation ? And so, because we are 
 cowardly, because we are without strength, without 
 energy for self-revenge, God takes upon Himself 
 the care of the expiation we owe to Him. 
 
 Therefore He lays upon us the providential 
 penance of suffering. Oh, did you but know* 
 
190 T}ie Supernatural Life. 
 
 how to accept suffering, how grand is such an 
 expiation ! 
 
 If the woman who feels that her life is broken, 
 whose heart is sinking under the daily conscious- 
 ness of being misunderstood, whose soul is sorely 
 tried, whose conscience, perhaps, is burdened : if, 
 instead of parading her griefs, of decking herself 
 as a victim, she were to offer her sufferings to God, 
 to mingle her tears with those of Jesus, how great 
 would be her power of expiation, not only for 
 herself, but for those around her ! 
 
 And supposing, even, that you are innocent 
 yourselves, it may be that those you love have 
 offended God, and if they do not return to the 
 paths of virtue, it is, perhaps, because you have not 
 as yet suffered enough. 
 
 All suffering is an altar, upon which we may 
 become, as it were, a victim for the souls of others. 
 How many hearts have had the courage of self- 
 immolation that they might atone for the faults of 
 those they loved. 
 
 To suffer is to expiate ; to suffer is to merit ; to 
 suffer is yet more, to love. 
 
 Yes, to suffer is to love. When Jesus Christ 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 191 
 
 was born in a stable, in the manger, when He 
 suffered, when He gave Himself to the cross : 
 it was out of love for His Father ; He was thus 
 uttering the cry of divine''tenderness, " I love Thee, 
 Father !" And when our Lord said, " My God, 
 why hast Thou forsaken Me ?" it was, as it were, 
 the cry of despairing tenderness. In suffering there 
 is love. 
 
 Is there any love in our careless prayers } Have 
 you ever made one earnest act of love to God, save 
 when you have performed some deed of sacrifice, 
 or come to the holy Table, and taken the sacred 
 Substance into your hearts 1 Oh, yes ! then, 
 indeed, did you fulfil one great act of love. 
 
 None may escape the law of sacrifice, any 
 more than the law of death. Death is the 
 great sacrifice ; suffering is as inevitable as death. 
 The truth is, we do not believe in death ; death is 
 for all, excepting for us ; we delude ourselves ; in 
 vain does one funeral procession after another pass 
 before our eyes ; we persist in fancying that death 
 is going farther away from us. As the child climbs 
 the mountain, believing that he will at last reach 
 the blue sky, so you, as you advance in life, be- 
 
192 TJie. Supernatural Life. 
 
 lieve that death is farther from you. It is said 
 that the earth moves through space with a rapidity 
 that is appalling ; well, then, death is approaching 
 us with no less rapidity — ^with a rapidity exceed- 
 ing, if I may so express myself, that of a railway 
 train rushing onwards with headlong speed. 
 
 You are one of a crowd which is hurrying 
 on to death, to eternity ; you cannot escape this 
 great law, any more than you can that of suffering. 
 Suffering is the beginning of death, as death is the 
 completion of sacrifice. As in the Mass there is 
 the preparation and the completion of the sacrifice, 
 so in suffering there is both the preparation and 
 the consummation. 
 
 If you do not suffer for Jesus Christ, you will 
 suffer in opposition to Jesus Christ. The history 
 of Calvary will be the blessing of him who suffers 
 for Jesus ; it will be the curse of him who suffers in 
 opposition to Christ. 
 
 There are three places whither God sends suffer- 
 ing ; three tabernacles of sorrow, if I may so say. 
 There is the tabernacle where suffering has no 
 merit, because then human liberty has ceased to 
 exist, grace is exhausted, and the fate of the soul 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 193 
 
 has been fixed for all eternity ; it is hell, the first 
 tabernacle of suffering, which still forms part of 
 the divine plan, glorifying the justice of God, in 
 those who have refused to glorify His goodness. 
 There is the tabernacle of purgatory, where the 
 souls who will be hereafter summoned to glory 
 perfect their expiation, and acquire that purity 
 which shall fit them for heaven. Lastly, there is 
 the tabernacle of earth, where the value of suffer- 
 ing is well-nigh infinite, because it moves the heart 
 of Jesus Christ. 
 
 Thus great is the power of suffering, even in 
 this life. You obtain more by one tear than by 
 orders and authority. Your tears are the symbols 
 of your power, for you employ them to secure 
 your dominion. The tears- shed by hum9,nity, 
 and ascending to God, have in them the mighty 
 power which wins heaven. To know how to 
 suffer is the great secret of life ; it is to 
 understand the law of Christianity, the law of 
 sacrifice. 
 
 I repeat it : you cannot escape this law, and if 
 you do not suffer for Jesus, you suffer against 
 Him. 
 
 13 
 
ip4 "^^ Supernatural Life. 
 
 Does not the world, my sisters, exact sacrifices 
 from you ? . The sacrifice, it may be, of your health, 
 of your fortune, the sacrifice of your time, the sa-. 
 crifice even of your happiness ; you are for ever 
 wearing yourselves out in seeking to please the 
 world ; I have often thought that an essay might 
 be written, a satirical one indeed, but a most amus- 
 ing one (if you will forgive the word), drawing a 
 comparison between the Lent of the world and the 
 Lent of God ; and it would then be seen on which 
 side there were, in reality, the greatest sacrifices. 
 
 Ah ! I know how easily you cast aside the sacri- 
 fices of the Church's Lent. But this just proves 
 that you refuse to accept the law of sacrifice, the • 
 law of suffering. And yet the more you give 
 yourselves up unreservedly to the world, the more 
 will you have of secret' sufferings ;. the more 
 will your feelings be wounded, your sensitiveness 
 aggrieved ; the more will you be tormented by the 
 stings of jealousy, and tortured by anxiety and 
 remorse. None may escape the law of suffering 
 and of sacrifice. 
 
 Learn then to accept the law of sacrifice ; to let 
 yourselves be disciplined by God ; this law is God's 
 
Life of Sacrifice. I'gS 
 
 discipline, the discipline of suffering. What is the 
 burden laid upon uS, priests ? We try by the sword 
 of the Spirit and the hammer of Christian doctrine, 
 to drive the truth into souls called by God to the 
 participation of heavenly joys ; but we are power" 
 less, for you oppose yourselves to our success, and 
 make our efforts vain. 
 
 And yet the soul only becomes great through 
 suffering. The higher, the more sensitive the soul, 
 the greater is she, and the greater is her capacity ' 
 for suffering. Women are formed to suffer more 
 keenly than men, from the greater susceptibility of 
 their nature. Learn then, my sisters, to suffer in a 
 spirit of holiness. 
 
 Two instances recur to my mind : one relates to 
 St. Frances of Romagna. She was rich, and won- 
 drously beautiful ; when still young she became a 
 widow and lost all her wealth. Thus smitten by grief 
 she could yet say with exquisite tenderness to God : 
 " Lord, Thou gavest me all ; Thou hast taken all 
 from me ; Thy name be praised." This was her 
 chief prayer. 
 
 The other relates to that noble woman, whom 
 the Church has for a century venerated as a saint, 
 
 13—2 
 
196 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 and whose gentle memory is recalled by this day's 
 solemnity — Madame de Chantal. Her youth, too, 
 had been brilliant, her fortune considerable ; a 
 widow at thirty, she retired, with the children she 
 had to bring up, to the castle of one of her re- 
 lations. There mortification in its most trying 
 aspect meets her ; she finds herself insulted in the 
 home, at the table, which should have been her 
 own, ill-treated by the inferiors of the household. 
 Ten years did she remain in this position, never 
 complaining, ever gentle and kind. Last year I 
 made a pilgrimage to that home, still redolent with 
 the perfume of her sainted memory. A little path 
 was pointed out to me, along which she was wont 
 to pass, carrying help to the sick and desolate in 
 their wretched homes. The people about said to 
 me : " You are come to visit the memorials of 
 our good lady!' For nigh upon three centuries 
 this name has survived through all changes, alL 
 vicissitudes ; she is still called " the good lady'' I 
 went and knelt down in the little church where she 
 had worshipped God. There is still there an altar- 
 cloth which is the work of her hands, and I was 
 told " the good lady " did this. God beheld her 
 
Life of Sacrifice. 197 
 
 working here with other ladies who were also the 
 glory of the Church. 
 
 Nothing is great save through sacrifice and suf- 
 fering. The whole of Christianity is contained in 
 sacrifice. In the liturgy there is a word which is 
 identical with sacrifice, it is the word action. Do 
 you think that the priest exists only for preaching ? 
 Too often you make us into mere preachers, into 
 stage orators. We do not exist only to preach, 
 but to go up to the altar to offer sacrifice, to bow 
 down, to do that which in Catholic language is so 
 well called the action, to take the victim, to confess 
 the sovereignty of God, and to offer Jesus to Him, 
 for the salvation of souls. 
 
 Every Christian woman may be a priest in her 
 own family ; she has an altar to which she may 
 ascend. This altar is her heart ; and there, as she 
 presents her offerings of self-sacrifice, of self-devo- 
 tion, will she obtain blessings without number, 
 without compare. 
 
 When the Church is in peril, when in the midst 
 of the desolations of the age we behold the tide of 
 unbelief rising, we stay ourselves upon the taber- 
 nacle, we take Jesus Christ, and we find strength. 
 
1 98 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Were there in the world but one priest with the 
 bread for consecration and the wine for transub- 
 stantiation, this priest would still hold the greatest 
 power on earth ; fortune, power, the authority to 
 command, nothing equals the power of the priest, 
 even although alone, lost, isolated in the depths of 
 catacombs, or in the desert, when in his hands he 
 bears Jesus Christ. All else is earth ; Jesus is 
 heaven. 
 
 My sisters, you mistake your true power. You 
 believe it to be pleasure ; you think it lies in your 
 dress, in your features, in your wit, your drawing- 
 rooms, your books ; you believe, in short, that 
 power is enjoyment ; remember that enjoyment 
 leads to death, and sacrifice alone to life which 
 shall be everlasting. 
 
%i(z of Union toitk ^ob. 
 
 " I will pour out upon the house of David the spirit of grace 
 and supplication." — Zach. xii. lo. 
 
 |Y sisters, we have now been studying to- 
 gether the constituent elements of the 
 Christian life, of the supernatural life 
 in tlie soul. I have shown you how to overcome 
 the obstacles to this life, the world, self, and the 
 evil spirit ; and I have proved to you that the first 
 element of this supernatural life is a spirit of faith, 
 of a living, firm, holy, austere, and ardent faith. 
 People are apt to content themselves with piety, 
 and to stop short of faith. Faith must be living, it 
 must be active within us ; it must be the guiding 
 compass of the frail bark of your life ; the light 
 which enlightens, the power which protects it. You 
 must guard your faith from any books or conversa- 
 
200 TJte 'Supernatural Life. 
 
 tions which might undermine it ; and you must 
 propagate your faith by imparting to the souls of 
 unbelievers the happiness' of your own convictions. 
 
 I added that the second element in this life was 
 the spirit of sacrifice. Christianity is built upon 
 sacrifice ; the world, since its regeneration, rests 
 only on sacrifice ; in all things, progress is developed 
 only by sacrifice. The germination which gives 
 fecundity to the grain of corn, as Jesus Christ tells 
 us, springs from the fact that it dies unto itself in 
 the bowels of the earth. 
 
 This law of sacrifice is but the perpetuation of 
 Calvary ; but this perpetuation of Calvary would 
 be insufficient unless it were referred to Jesus ; un- 
 less you yourselves are in direct communication 
 with Him. Were Jesus alone, you would have no 
 participation either in His beauty or in His glory, 
 Jesus desires to put Himself in communication with 
 you by the sacraments in which He meets you, by 
 the sacrifices which He imposes upon you ; He 
 desires that every soul should be, in some sort, 
 a Calvary. Every soul is a tabernacle. When you 
 go to Communion, our Lord leaves the silence 
 in which He is enshrouded, and passes into your 
 
Life of Union with God, 201 
 
 souls ; then are you in direct, intimate, living com- 
 munication with Him. Yet is this not enough, you 
 must have a Calvary within yourselves; Calvary 
 must be perpetuated, applied, individualized within 
 you. You cannot escape the law of sacrifice, which 
 is fulfilled by suffering. 
 
 I said yesterday that were a comparision to be 
 drawn between the sacrifices imposed upon you by 
 the world, and those demanded from you by Jesus 
 Christ, it would be seen that the world's sacrifices 
 are incomparably more numerous, incomparably 
 heavier, harder, and more trying than those asked 
 of you by Jesus. 
 
 Well, indeed, might the spirit of the world be ex- 
 : pressed by the words : " My yoke is hard, and my 
 burthen heavy." 
 
 The yoke of the world is hard, for it demands the 
 sacrifice of your intellect, which it nourishes only on 
 frivolity ; of your heart, which it delivers over to 
 passion, holding up to scorn every innocent, pure 
 and holy feeling ; the -world will even take from 
 you your reputation, and your home affections ; 
 lieavy, indeed, is the yoke, intolerable the burden 
 laid upon you by the world. 
 
202 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Jesus asks of you only the sacrifice of that which 
 is unlawful within you, of that which lowers, de- 
 grades, tortures you ; and in asking this, Jesus is 
 working for you and for your happiness, whereas 
 the world is always against your real interests; 
 This is what I showed yesterday. , 
 
 Oh ! did you but thoroughly understand the life 
 of faith and the life of sacrifice, you would be true 
 and earnest Christians. The soul that has within 
 it the light of faith, the spirit of sacrifice, is both 
 great and generous. 
 
 This morning I desire, if possible, to go yet 
 deeper into the practice of the Christian life ; to 
 make you realize, if possible, what is the life of 
 union with God. 
 
 This is the third step in the supernatural life. 
 
 Did I but preach to you faith, it were insufficient, 
 just as sacrifice would often be too crushing for 
 your weak nature ; the two, must, as it were, be 
 linked together and crowned by one great supreme 
 consolation — union with God. 
 
 Let me, then, tell you what is this life of union 
 with God. It is the first step in your eternal life, 
 in eternal union, in eternal joy. Would you not 
 
Life of Union with God. 203 
 
 make of this world the beginning of heaven ? 
 Would you not be creatures prepared for. eternity, 
 seeds of paradise ? For we are destined to be 
 the seeds either of everlasting joy, or of everlast- 
 ing misery. If within us there be but the sap of 
 this world, we become the dry, accursed wood, 
 which bears no fruit, but will be cut down for ever- 
 lasting fire ; but if we imbibe the sap of grace, 
 we shall grow, and flourish unto everlasting hap- 
 piness. 
 
 You must, then,'have this union with God, which 
 is heaven begun on earth. I purpose to show 
 what this life of union really is, adding that it 
 needs but to have a little more love in our hearts to 
 move us to give ourselves to God, and to our Lord 
 Jesus Christ. There are three terms in the life of 
 union with God ; the vision of God, intercourse 
 with God, and at the same time the adherence, 
 so to say, of our nature to Him, or union with 
 God. 
 
 My sisters, I already hear the objections which 
 many amongst you will immediately raise. "What ! 
 see God ! But God is the Invisible, how shall we 
 attain to Him .' how take hold of Him ? We may 
 
204 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 try to follow Him in our dreams beyond the clouds ; 
 but it is a vain pursuit in the fields of the ideal, in 
 the realms of fancy. How can we see God ? 
 
 The Gospel gives a sublime answer, which in 
 itself is a whole revelation : " Blessed are the pure 
 in heart, for they shall see God." 
 
 Purity is the eye which reveals God to us. The 
 world does not see God, because the world is not 
 pure ; the angels are pure, and they see God. The 
 want of purity causes a cloud to rise between the 
 eyes of the soul and God, between the Sun Eternal 
 and the light of the intellsct : when a cloud passes 
 over the sun it is no longer seen. 
 
 Can we on this our earth see God ? Yes ; not, 
 indeed, as in heaven, as we shall see Him beyond 
 the grave ; but we see God darkly, as in a glass, 
 says St. Paul. As th e fiery glow of the sun is seen 
 in the water, so may we, even through His creation, 
 apprehend God. 
 
 Purity is the eye which beholds God. The 
 purer the soul, the more will she see God; the 
 more we are able to detach ourselves from self, 
 from the flesh, from the affections which draw the 
 heart down to earth, the more we can ascend 
 
Life of Union ivith God, 205 
 
 the divine heights of purity, the more shall we be 
 able to see God, and to realize the beautiful words 
 of Holy Scripture : " Blessed are the pure in heart, 
 for they shall see God." 
 
 Purity is the dominion of the soul over all that is 
 earthly ; the government of the spiritual over the 
 material; the supremacy of the intellect over 
 matter. As the soul ascends more and more to the 
 heights of purity, she draws nearer to God ; from 
 purity she derives a strength which is superior to 
 all other — the very intellect of the pure in heart 
 gains fresh expansion. Would that you, like the 
 Church, could study the marvels which take place 
 in the world of souls. How often does the priest 
 fall on his knees in humble thankfulness for the de- 
 monstration of Christian truth which has been given 
 him! 
 
 You are often troubled by doubts ; questionings 
 torment you ; faith flits before your eyes, it has not 
 the clearness which you need, you crave for more 
 certainty, more demonstration. As for me, since 
 God has blessed me by bringing me into intimate 
 contact with the souls of others, I have vividly- 
 apprehended the truth of eternal realities. 
 
2o6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 There is not a word in the Gospel which has not 
 its own living demonstration incarnate within the 
 soul. " Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall 
 see God." 
 
 I am not speaking of the great minds which have 
 been illustrious in catholic theology, and who, as 
 they have grown in purity, have penetrated deeper 
 into the essence of God ; but I might mention the 
 Angel of the schools, who possessing so pre-emi- 
 nently both faith and divine learning, raised in their 
 honour that noble monument which has been the 
 admiration of ages. St. Peter's at Rome, the 
 Cathedral of Cologne, are spoken of as monuments 
 of incomparable grandeur. They are, in truth, im- 
 mense creations, admirable both as wholes and in 
 their details ; they have been erected to the glory 
 of God, to the honour of the Christian faith. Yet 
 grand as these monuments are, they are as nothing 
 bythe side of the "Summa Theologia" of St. Thomas 
 Aquinas. This great man had renounced his 
 wealth, he had concealed his name beneath the 
 cloak of poverty ; he had overcome the temptations 
 which assailed his youth, and God permitted 
 iieaven to open out to him, and angels came down 
 
Life of Union with God. 207 
 
 and girded his loins with the girdle of purity. So 
 then it is purity which built up the greatest, noblest 
 monument of human intellect, that monument of 
 divine science to which none other, as a philoso- 
 pher has said, may be compared. It is the monu- 
 ment of faith, erected by purity. 
 
 There are other pure hearts which have no 
 literary life, no learning, no relations with the 
 world of intellect, who yet leave behind them 
 a witness to the power of purity. Marie Eustelle, a 
 poor, humble seamstress, appeared some years 
 since in the diocese of La Rochelle ; she could 
 barely read or write ; but, having grown up in the 
 spirit of purity and faith, she has left behind her 
 pages which shine, not, indeed, with the marvels 
 and the splendour of literary science, but with the 
 dear light of purity of heart. She apprehended, 
 she understood God ; her purity was to her as the 
 eye of the soul, wherewith she was able to see 
 Him. A great cardinal, in undertaking the pub- 
 lication of the volumes containing the inspirations 
 of this holy maiden, declared that her works were 
 most edifying and theological, showing that, all 
 unlettered as she was, she had yet, through the 
 
2o8 The Supernatural Life, 
 
 splendour of her virginal purity, beheld the essence 
 of God. 
 
 But, unfortunately, we too commonly find this 
 divine power of purity rejected. You have ex- 
 amples of this everywhere around you ; it is as a 
 judgment of God falling upon the human race. 
 When is it that your sons make shipwreck of their 
 faith .'' that they, as, it were, receive the baptism of 
 infidelity .-• Not so long as they are pure. It may 
 be said that in man faith and purity walk ever side 
 by side. They are two sisters, two angels, going 
 hand in hand, with wings entwined — they are in- 
 separable ; for if the one be driven away, the other 
 soon takes flight. They rarely subsist apart : if 
 they do, it is with more or less of diminished power. 
 It is one of the laws of the human heart, one of the 
 laws of human nature, that things supernatural 
 and divine are seen only by purity. 
 
 Doubtless our age has its own splendour and 
 greatness, its virtues and its wonderful works. As a 
 great bishop, in drawing a comparison between the 
 past and present age, once said : " The growth of 
 Christian enterprise in this century is wonderful." 
 Everywhere in the world some manifestation of the 
 
Life of Union with God. ,213 
 
 Church is seen. Yet by the side of that which is 
 good in society, we see the working of evil. Two 
 great sounds alone are now heard in the world; 
 the sound of your concerts, of your assemblies, of 
 your amusements, and the sound of your machinery. 
 Machinery, and the sweat of toil, in order to 
 provide a little bread for the hardworked poor 
 woman; fStes, pleasures, concerts, wherewith to 
 charm the idleness of the rich, cultivated woman, 
 who asks only to enjoy life ! What is to be done 1 
 Our present century is full of clouds. God is no 
 longer known. And so sophists and writers of bad 
 books spring up and spread abroad those audacious 
 anonymous pages which assail the existence of 
 God, and of Jesus Christ. 
 
 When purity no longer exists, God is denied and 
 insulted. There is a necessary relation between 
 purity of soul and the vision of God. 
 
 Unless the heart be pure, it is incapable of 
 loving; and therefore purity is an indispensable 
 condition for seeing and apprehending God. The 
 heart is a delicate plant, living upon the drop 
 of dew which falls from heaven ; if it be dragged 
 down into the coarseness of earthly things, it will 
 
 14 
 
2o8 'j'Jig Stipernatural Life, 
 
 -3roop like a flower which has been bruised; the 
 flower loses its perfume, the colour fades, and the 
 lifeless stem withers upon the ground. The heart, 
 which is no longer pure, loses the power of loving. 
 
 If you have ever believed that impure passion 
 could love you with real love, it was a fearful 
 delusion; for whenever passion exercises its do- 
 minion affection soon disappears. The passion of 
 man loves nothing less than the woman who has 
 been weak enough to yield to him. He sees 
 in woman first the gratification of his passion, then 
 weakness, lastly (he will not, indeed, say, but he 
 will think it), he sees in her naught but a thing to 
 be despised. 
 
 Nothing is more sure to inspire contempt than 
 the woman who has been weak and sinful. You 
 feel it by the power of a single glance, by the 
 intuitive consciousness of your heart, writhing in Its 
 last agony. The end of the indulgence of sinful 
 passion is contempt ; man always ends by despising 
 weakness. 
 
 It is certain that if the heart is to have any high 
 aspirations, it must be pure, and it must be pure if it 
 is to be loved. What are the hearts we should wish 
 
Life of Union with God. ~i '^ 
 
 to gather round us in life ? Ask yourselves, my 
 sisters, what are the hearts, the hearts in sympathy 
 with your own, whom you would fain have as the 
 companions of your own soul, to walk with you 
 along the road of life, on that path which is called 
 the valley of tears ? Would it not be the hearts 
 that have been most pure, the souls most like unto 
 the angels ? You would ask for St. John, who was 
 purity itself; for Magdalen, who recovered her 
 innocence by her penitence ; for St. Augustine, St. 
 Bernard, St. Teresa, St. Francis of Sales ; all 
 these noble hearts, who were so loving only because 
 they were so pure. 
 
 Let me observe in passing, that in meditating 
 the other day upon this point, I felt grieved at the 
 manner in which modern society misconstrues the 
 works of those great Christian minds. In these 
 works men now see only weakness and enthusiasm ; 
 they are incapable of appreciating the greatness 
 that is in them. 
 
 Thesfe pages abound with expressions full of 
 generous fervour, the exuberance of pure hearts 
 ■who lived in the light of divine things. The 
 world, looking only through a prism which de- 
 
 14—2 
 
The Supernatural Life. 
 
 ceives and disfigures, sees therein naught but vul- 
 garity and puerility ; weakness in that which in 
 reality is real greatness. 
 
 When you are no longer pure you lose the 
 appreciation of truth. You instinctively form rash 
 judgments ; you see only evil, and that which is, 
 good is hidden from you. 
 
 The heart cannot love unless it be pure. If it 
 be not pure how should it see God, how should it 
 wing its flight so high ? The great power within 
 the heart, whereby it can lift itself up to God, is 
 detachment from earthly things, purity. This is. 
 the burden of Holy Scripture. " The net is broken," 
 (so sing the pure in heart), " I may wing my flight 
 and mount up to God." 
 
 Naught is so lovely as the pure mind, the pure 
 heart ! And this purity may be felt everywhere ; 
 in the home, in conjugal life ; in the maiden, as 
 beneath the whitened head of the aged woman, a 
 purity which is relative indeed, but a purity which, 
 constitutes the depth, the splendour of the soul ; 
 it is the rising upwards of the soul to God, the 
 realization of the words of the Gospel : " Blessed 
 are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." 
 
Life of Union with God. 213 
 
 This is the first step in the life of union with 
 God. 
 
 But there is a second step, my sisters, for it is 
 not enough to see God. You may see a person, 
 but this does not satisfy you ; you want a nearer, 
 a more intimate relation, you want the spoken 
 word, the conscious glance, the opening lips, some- 
 thing that shall reveal the soul within. 
 
 With God, too, there is a second relation. You 
 see Him by purity, you see Him in the world of 
 faith, in the world of the Bible, even 1 through the 
 things of earth. All great minds have seen God 
 through things visible and tangible. I forgot to 
 say that St. Teresa, she whose heart was so simple, 
 so childlike, and whose writings breathe alike the 
 splendour and the delicacy of her intellect, she 
 through the tiny flower beheld God, saying with 
 exquisite tenderness : " It is the smile of God." 
 
 St. Francis of Assisi, also, in the midst of his 
 hard and austere life, saw God in all His creatures; 
 the bird flapping its little wings, the fish darting 
 through the stream, all furnished him with an op- 
 portunity of rising up to God. The pure in heart 
 always see God. 
 
214 "^^^^ Supernatural Life. 
 
 But I have said, my sisters, it is not enough to 
 see God, we must also speak to Him. We speak 
 to Him in prayer. This honour is conferred upon 
 the soul ; it may call God, and ask for an audience 
 of Him. God comes at the soul's call ; He draws 
 aside, as it were, the curtain of heaven ; He 
 opens out His eternity ! He bows His ear, and 
 says : " There in the depths of creation, in the 
 lowest depths of Jthe universe, there is a soul de- 
 siring to speak to Me; I hear her!" And the 
 eternal harmonies are hushed, and God listens 
 to this soul as though she were alone in the 
 world. 
 
 How great, how incomparable an honour. To 
 call upon God ! God bows down to you ; you may 
 speak to Him, mount up to Him ; you have in 
 your hands this treasure of prayer. Prayer is but 
 the rising up of the soul to God. 
 
 But if prayer is to be more than the mere mur- 
 mur of the lips, more than a passing breath, a 
 vague sigh, a useless, meaningless supplication, the 
 soul must indeed rise up and reach God. Above 
 all, your thoughts in prayer must dwell upon the 
 rights of God, and upon His sovereignty. Your 
 
Life of Union with God. 215 
 
 prayers are almost always selfish ; you think more 
 of yourselves than of God ; you come before Him, 
 ceaselessly pre - occupied with yourselves ; and 
 therefore your prayers are cold and icy ; you 
 have no idea of His majesty, of His greatness; 
 and therefore your prayers have little reverence; 
 you have no idea of the perfections of God, and 
 therefore in your prayers there is but little recol- 
 lection. You do not come before Him with the 
 feeling of your own littleness, and the sense of His 
 infinite power. Recollection of spirit is absolutely 
 necessary before God. 
 
 You must also be humble in God's presence. 
 Humility is truth ; if you are true you must also 
 be humble. To be humble is to see that there is 
 nothing good in us, or that if there is, it is God 
 who gave it to us, and we who have marred it. 
 Humility is to judge oneself truly. If you are 
 just to yourselves, you will have the feeling of 
 your own helplessness, of your own weakness ; and 
 your prayer will be the sincere cry of the publican, 
 from the lowest place in the temple : " Be merciful 
 unto me, O God, I am a sinner." 
 
 This is the true prayer, the only one which- 
 
2i6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 humanity can utter. All others have been given 
 from heaven by God Himself. 
 
 Your romantic phrases, your modern books of 
 devotion, with their pompous periods over which 
 you fall asleep, .or dream, these are not prayers; 
 prayer is the earnest, sincere cry of the heart, a 
 cry ever one and the same, one to which God ever 
 listens, " My God, have mercy upon me, for I am a 
 miserable sinner ; my soul is miserable." This is 
 the true cry of humanity — humility. 
 
 The third feeling is that of confidence. Draw 
 near to God without fear. We are no longer under 
 the law of fear. God is not a tyrant ; He is a 
 Sovereign, but He is also a loving Friend— a 
 Brother. Mount, then, up to Him with confidence. 
 What if your heart be chill, your soul cold, your 
 words spiritless ; what then ! Go to Him with 
 confidence, with a confidence which doubts nothing, 
 with a confidence which will be heard. Often you 
 pray without wishing to be heard ; you must will 
 to be heard. You ask sometimes for your conver- 
 sion, but it is the last thing you really desire ; you 
 want a compromise, not a conversion. You ask for 
 the grace of humility ; but you do not really wish 
 
Life of Union with God. 217 
 
 for it ; you have no real desire to be humble; you 
 are far too anxious to shine, to be of importance, 
 to be looked up to, to have the petty government 
 of some few other minds, some other hearts. You 
 pray for detachment from the things of this earth ; 
 but at heart you are longing for the fine dresses, the 
 outward display of your friends, of those who, per- 
 haps, make more show than you in the world of 
 fashion. You do not wish to be heard ; you pray 
 not to have your prayers accepted by God, but to 
 obtain a compromise. 
 
 Therefore it is that God looks only with, pity on 
 your prayers ; He knows that they are not honest, 
 not offered with faith. Well, still you must trust in 
 God : draw near to Him, Cast yourselves at His 
 feet ; He may let you wait for years ; but, as says 
 St. Francis of Sales, " our trust in God must be 
 boundless." In this world every stay is frail : a 
 reed which breaks in the hand. Were you even ' 
 without any stay, were you left alone as the beggar 
 on the highway, without even eyes wherewith to 
 weep, or hands to stretch forth for the bread of 
 charity; if (forgive me the supposition) you had 
 not even left to you the poor dumb animal which is 
 
2i8 The Supernahiral Life. 
 
 the faithful companion of the blind ; if you were 
 "forsaken, rejected by all — still could you raise your 
 heart on high, and say those blessed words which 
 are at once the cry of the troubled conscience and 
 the solace of the heart : " Our Father, Who art in 
 heaven." 
 
 , How comforting is it to feel that in the heights 
 of heaven we have a Father who numbers the hairs 
 of our head, and in the Tabernacle, a Friend who 
 listens to our cry ! Why are you anxious ? Why 
 make your life a perpetual trouble, a continual 
 agitation ! You have heaven, and you can say, 
 " Our Father !" You have the ever-open Church, 
 where you can say, " My brother, my friend !" 
 Why, then, will you go away ? Can you not under-, 
 stand these out-pourings of humility, of trust, of 
 fervour ? 
 
 It is not enough to speak to God in prayer ; you 
 must be joined to Him by love, that love that 
 makes of the Heart of Jesus and of your own but 
 one heart, by that divine tenderness which bind^ 
 up your life with the life of God. You must 
 realize within "yourselves those words hithe'rtg 
 unknown in the language of men, that saying of tha 
 
Life of Union with God. 219 
 
 apostle, " It is God, it is Jesus Christ Who liveth in 
 me." 
 
 My life is not the life of my troubled, questioning, 
 agitated mind ; not the life of my heart, sad, rest- 
 less, jealous ; not the life of my darkened, burdened 
 conscience ; not the life of my body, subject as it 
 is to pain ; life is not there, or it is but a cold dim 
 life ; but there is that in me which lives really, lives 
 through love ; it is Jesus Christ, the living God. 
 You know that the soul when under the influence 
 of passion is subjugated by it ; it no Ipnger, as it 
 were, lives its own personal life ; its thoughts are 
 the thoughts of another, the beatings of its heart 
 are the beatings of a heart not its own ; it has a 
 fixed pre-occupation. 
 
 Well then, when God enters into a soul, when He 
 takes possession of it, this soul lives by love. Why 
 should we not love God ? Whom should you love ? 
 We ought to love God, first, because He created 
 us ; because He called us into life, and took us by 
 the hand. He created us in His own likeness. He 
 willed that we should be images of Him, reflecting 
 His beauty, His glory. He made Himself in our 
 likeness; at Bethlehem, He made Himself a littl^ 
 
220 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 child ; at Nazareth, He chose to bear the sweat of 
 labour and the toil of life ; in Judea, He under- 
 went the sorrows of existence in the Garden of 
 Olivesj He was borne down by utter loneliness and 
 desolation of heart ; on Calvary, He was scourged, 
 bruised, crucified. He made Himself in our like- 
 ness that we might love Him more, for we love 
 those only who are like unto us, who have a com- 
 mon destiny with ourselves. Jesus has loved us 
 passionately, loved us as none other ever has. 
 
 This is the one great mystery ; I know of no 
 other ; the others may, in one way or another, be 
 easily grasped by the intellect. There is only one 
 mystery. How to us, the miserable creatures of an 
 hour, whose pale, weakly life is like that of the 
 fading flower, waiting only for the evening hour to 
 die, God yet grants this unspeakable favour ! From 
 the heights of His eternity, He, Who the angels 
 adore. He, Whose robe of stars shines more 
 brilliantly than the brightest gems of earth, God 
 deigns to bow down, and to search amidst the dust 
 of the earth for that small piece of money which 
 we call the human heart ! What then is this heart 
 of ours that Jesus should be jealous of it ? Who 
 
Life of Union with God. 221 
 
 is jealous of your heart in the world ? In your 
 family, you meet but with passing affections ; a 
 few years and you are betrayed, earlier still 
 perhaps despised. No one asks for your heart here 
 below, God alone asks for it ! You have a price 
 to pay for the earthly love which fascinates and 
 pursues you ; and think you that God's love exacts 
 nothing ? If you reject the love of God, He 
 will take vengeance, for love that is abused ever 
 avenges itself, and the vengeance of God is His 
 justice. 
 
 My sisters, draw near to God by faith, by prayer, 
 by love. Go to Him trustingly, whatever be the 
 state of your soul. Even if the deep emotions 
 awakened within you during this retreat should 
 be insufficient, and you still hesitate to give your- 
 selves wholly to God, yet when the supreme hour 
 comes, send forth one last cry to Him, and He will 
 accept you ; one word from out of the depths of 
 your soul is enough ; He is waiting for you. I will 
 conclude by reminding you of a touching incident 
 recorded in the gospels. 
 
 A woman had heard of Jesus Christ, of His 
 goodness, His gentleness. His miracles ; she seeks 
 
222 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 to draw near to Him ; she has a favour to ask of 
 Him; although a stranger, yet she comes, she 
 beseeches Him. The Master shrouds Himself 
 under an apparent severity ; He veils the tender- 
 ness of His aspect. His look becomes stern ; He 
 says to her, "Thou seekest a miracle; it is not 
 right to take the children's bread, and to give it to 
 dogs." 
 
 My sisters, has God ever given you such an 
 answer as this ? He has been silent, perhaps, but 
 He has never answered you thus. 
 
 The poor Canaanite woman is not discouraged ; 
 she falls upon her knees, bowing down and trem- 
 bling she exclaims in words of ineffable pathos, 
 " True, Lord, I am not worthy to receive the bread 
 •which is on the table, but the dogs eat the crumbs 
 •which fall from their master's table ; give me of the 
 crumbs of Thy table." 
 
 The Master beheld her, it was this trusting an- 
 swer He had waited for ; and He answers, " O 
 -woman, great is thy faith ; be it unto thee according 
 as thou hast said." 
 
 And in that same hour her daughter was healed. 
 
 My sisters, let the Canaanite's trust be yours. 
 
Life of Union with God. 223 
 
 To-morrow, you are coming to the holy Table to 
 receive, not material bread, the bread which is of 
 the earth, but the Bread of Heaven. Hardly arc 
 you worthy of the crumbs from the Table of Jesus 
 Christ; but learn to draw near to Him in faith; 
 pour forth the trusting cry of prayer, of love ; and 
 He will receive you as He did the poor woman of 
 Canaan. You will then see that it is better to be 
 united to God than to the world, for you will find 
 in Jesus the Word, which gives light, the Heart, 
 which comforts, and the Power, which alone can 
 bless you in this world and the next. 
 
^hz l^tfc of Sclf-bebotion. 
 
 " Quandiu fecistis uni ex hei fratribus meis minimis, mihi 
 fecistis " — '' As long as you did it to one of these my least 
 brethren, you did it to me." — St. Matthew xxv. 40. 
 
 j|E have now, my sisters, nearly reached 
 the end of our retreat, let us then cast 
 a retrospective glance over all that I 
 have been saying to you, and make a general 
 review of the principles which I have developed in 
 our meditations. 
 
 The fundamental idea was that in the original 
 divine scheme, God created you for His glory. 
 The great end of creation is the glory of God;, 
 this, then, should be the one aim of every exercise 
 of your intellect, of every action of your life ; God 
 must dwell within you. His Spirit must abide in 
 your hearts. 
 
Tlte Life of Self-devotion. "ZZ^ 
 
 I told you also that there were obstacles to this 
 supernatural life, and that they were many. The 
 first is, that spirit of personality, that self-love 
 which insinuates itself into the soul and pervades 
 the whole course of your existence. You have 
 seen how this exaggerated idea of your own value 
 brings with it disquietude, agitation, and uncertainty 
 of mind, I am alluding to the feeling which makes 
 us wish to exercise a dominion over all that sur- 
 rounds us, to tyrannize over others, thus making 
 self the one centre to which we would fain that all 
 things should radiate so that self alone may receive 
 glorification' and honour. 
 
 The second obstacle is the spirit of the world. I 
 have shown you that in the world you will find 
 neither the ideal which you seek, nor the support 
 which you require in your duties, in your dangers, 
 in your sorrows ; neither will you find that affection 
 for which your heart craves. All the habits and 
 the opinions of this world are essentially opposed 
 to Christianity; I have said too, with what pru- 
 dence and circumspection you ought to go into the 
 .world. 
 
 The third obstacle is the evil spirit, the tempter. 
 
 IS 
 
225 TJie Supernatural Life. 
 
 I have shown you the existence of the tempter; 
 how he places himself in communication with every 
 living being, holding converse with each soul, with 
 each individual intellect, drawing near to every 
 woman as he drew near to Eve in the terrestrial 
 paradise, and to our Lord Jesus in the desert ; how 
 he is in fact the tempter, the cause of all spiritual 
 ruin and devastation, leading from temptation to 
 the fall, from the fall to despair. 
 
 I have told you that the remedy against these 
 three evil spirits, self, the world, and the devil, is 
 the life of faith, the clear comprehension of super- 
 natural truth, a life of sacrifice, of self-immolation, 
 of mortification, of self-crucifixion. I assured you 
 that such a life, far from being one of sadness and 
 misery, was in fact the only truly happy one. 
 Supernatural life alone can give happiness. 
 
 I said this morning that the soul becomes united 
 to God by the purity which enables it to behold 
 Him, by the heart which is lifted up to Him, by 
 the conscience which loves Him. Union with 
 God is the ascent of the soul to the vision of God 
 by ^purity and by prayer until it attains to a 
 perfect and intimate communion with Him. 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 227 
 
 The one thing needful is to strive to live with 
 God. 
 
 I know not if you have ever thought of one of 
 the mysteries of Christianity, which to us is one of 
 the profoundest mysteries of our faith. The priest 
 has the incomparable joy, the indescribable happi- 
 ness, of ascending every day to the holy altar with 
 the firm belief both in his heart and conscience 
 that he will then come in immediate contact with 
 Jiis God ! 
 
 A Protestant once said to me, " I cannot believe 
 in the Eucharist." 
 
 I answered, " And yet it is a truth established 
 by divine teaching, by the testimony of the 
 Gospels, by the virtues which flourish in the 
 world." 
 
 " I cannot believe it." 
 
 " Why ?" 
 
 "Because, after ascending to the altar, you can 
 re-descend to the earth. I cannot understand how, 
 after holding every morning half an hour's con- 
 verse with God, you can still hold converse with 
 men." 
 
 And this is true. 
 
 IS— 2 
 
228 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Just as Moses, when he came down from Mount 
 Sinai, where he had been holding converse with 
 God, found the Israelites gathered around the 
 golden calf; so the priest, after having in the 
 morning ascended to the resplendent summit of 
 Mount Thabor and a3sisted at the divine mystery 
 of the Transfiguration, is forced to descend the 
 mountain of this life into the low valleys of the 
 earth, where men in their sordid ingratitude cease 
 not to crowd around the golden calf — I meant 
 minds engrossed and absorbed by all the petti- 
 nesses, the vulgarities, the sensualities of life. 
 
 And herein is a mystery ! When God has given 
 Himself to. us. He requires that we should share 
 Him with others. We are not to be selfish pos- 
 sessors of our faith and of His blessings and love ; 
 the treasure of grace and of eternal truth is not to 
 be hidden wealth. 
 
 Therefore it is that whenever a ^oul has found 
 God, whenever she has entered into real com- 
 munion with Him, and that He has become her 
 food and her life, she feels the desire of giving Him 
 to others, of communicating Him to those who 
 have Him not. The soul where God dwells is like 
 
TJte Life of Self-devotion. 229 
 
 the sun, which cannot contain his rays, but throws 
 them out in burning darts. 
 
 The soul praying in the obscurity of the cloister, 
 the humble maiden shrouded in her habit of serge 
 '' — ^the poor Clare, or the Carmelite — she makes 
 God known unto men, by her prayers and medita- 
 tions if not by her actions. It would seem that 
 souls such as these exhale a sweet dew, which, 
 rising to heaven, falls down again on the earth in 
 blessings for others. 
 
 During this retreat, it is not what I have said 
 which has touched you, and given you the desire of 
 giving yourselves more entirely unto God ; it is, my 
 sisters, that in this city there are those who, in the 
 solitude and silence of their cloisters, have prayed 
 that niy words might be , blessed. Oh, if with the 
 eyes of faith you could but see the blessings 
 which may be gained by prayer ! blessings which, 
 falling upon our poor earth, scorched and parched 
 up as it is by the flames of worldliness, restore 
 to it some degree of life, of freshness, and of 
 bloom. 
 
 Such is the power of those souls who, by prayer, 
 by devotion, by self-sacrifice, and self-immolation. 
 
230 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 have attained unto the possession of God. It is 
 like unto the grain of incense, which, thrown into 
 the censer, re-descends, like a perfumed cloud, on 
 the crowd below ! 
 
 Modern society has no comprehension of the 
 contemplative life ; it can only understand action 
 — exterior devotion. 
 
 What I chiefly recommend to you as the best 
 means of doing good to those around you is to 
 withdraw into solitude, and to pray to God. 
 
 You trust in your power of activity, in the in- 
 fluence of your feminine strategy. Not therein 
 lies your strength; your strength is in prayer. 
 You are anxious about your children ; a cloud 
 passes over your heart respecting your husband's 
 affection ; you are sad, desponding, spiritless. Go, 
 and kiss the feet of your crucifix. Pray — ask God 
 to bless you, and then return to the bosom of your 
 family, to your domestic life; and great will be 
 your power ! 
 
 A great minister, the illustrious Cardinal Ximenes, 
 that once poor monk (whom the wind of fortune, 
 or, rather, the will of Providence, dragged out of an 
 obscure cell, and placed on the heights of social 
 
Tlie Life of Self-devotion. 231 
 
 life, that he might thence rule over a great nation), 
 had one day made an appointment in his palace 
 with the grandees of the kingdom. They were all 
 assembled, expecting him, talking together, and 
 complaining that they were kept waiting. Sud- 
 denly, the Cardinal opened the door of the room 
 which he had just left — a monastic cell, which, in 
 the midst of all the splendours around him, he had 
 reserved for himself — " You are impatient," he said, 
 with dignity, to his assembled guests. " I was at 
 the foot of my crucifix ; remember that to pray is 
 still to govern." 
 
 And this, my sisters, is the one thing which I 
 would impress upon you for the government of 
 your families and for the direction of your whole 
 life in the world. To pray is to govern. Did you 
 but know how to rule by prayer, you would do so 
 far more than by your words ; you would govern 
 by the power of God, and not by your own. 
 
 I must now speak to you of other kinds of self- 
 devotion. I will not dwell on the necessity of self- 
 sacrifice ; I should do injustice both to your own 
 nature and to your heart. Suffering and self-sacri- 
 fice are essentially your portion. You sometinies 
 
232 > The Supernatural Life. 
 
 imagine yourselves to be created for pleasure and 
 enjoyment. It is an illusion. Woman is created 
 only for suffering and self-sacrifice. As long as 
 you do not understand this great end of your life, 
 of your whqle destiny, you will perhaps complain 
 of your place in the order of creation. Yet you 
 need not lament ; for is not your fellowship, of all 
 others, the highest, the most sublime— even with 
 Jesus Christ Himself — ^with Him, Who is essentially 
 " the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief." 
 
 I have said that suffering is your portion, because 
 there is within you a greater power of suffering 
 than in man. Man does not know how to endure 
 suffering. When he is in pain, however slight, 
 however transient, he is overpowered by it, he 
 needs help and protection. He cannot bear sorrow. 
 If there is a coffin in the house, the man is restless. 
 He goes to his business, to his politics, to his books, 
 or to his amusements — anything to distract his 
 mind. The woman, on the contrary, can remain in 
 her honie silent and alone, face to face .with her 
 grief and its memories, tortured in mind, broken 
 down in body, but still strong to endure. Men 
 cannot bear suffering, and therefore do they need 
 
TJie Life of Self-devotion. 233 
 
 that God should grant them more exemption from 
 suffering than women. 
 
 Moreover, my sisters, you have within you far 
 more of the spirit of self-devotion than men. I do 
 not wish to calumniate men, but I must allow 
 that the affection of a man is never thoroughly per- 
 fect and disinterested ; it is almost always selfish. 
 With a woman this is more rare ; she is essentially 
 self-devoted, because she was created only to be 
 man's companion, his helpmate, and his joy. Man 
 suffices to himself; he has the majesty of his own 
 sovereignty. Woman is obliged to lean on man 
 for her support. It would seem as if she had been 
 created both to receive and to give support. Self- 
 devotion is part of her nature. 
 
 Two years ago I quoted to you these words of a 
 saint : " Man is a being who must love ; woman is 
 essentially a being who has a heart to give." 
 
 Such is your life, my sisters. You only ask to 
 give yourselves, to another. To feel yourselves 
 alone, with none near you to claim any share of 
 your heart ; this is for you the great sorrow of life, 
 shaking the foundations of your soul, of your very 
 being. 
 
234 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 When, as young girls, you feel yourselves isolated 
 in life j when, in your widowhood, you have no one 
 on whom you can lean, no one who cares for your 
 aflfection ; when separated, perhaps, from your 
 family, you halt wearily on your road through life, 
 and exclaim, " No one needs me ! Oh, believe me, 
 the greatest misery would be preferable to such 
 loneliness!" you have then to face life's greatest, 
 trial, weariness, lassitude, oppression of heart. 
 
 Your nature, then, is essentially formed for com- 
 panionship, for self-devotion. Does not this prove 
 it ? But this self-devotion must be inspired by 
 Jesus Christ Himself, and not be the mere impulse 
 of caprice or of sympathy. When you are fond 
 of any one, you would throw the whole world 
 at tiieir feet ; but if you dislike them, how quick 
 you then are in finding out their secret failings, in 
 exposing their infirmities, and casting a slur on 
 their characters ! You are influenced only by your 
 sympathies or your antipathies. Yet surely these 
 ought not to be the real causes of your self-devo- 
 tion. 
 
 Your nature requires action ; but you waste your 
 energies on outside things. You are afraid to be 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 235 
 
 face to face with your own selves; you act fever- 
 ishly, breathlessly. That is not self-devotion. 
 
 Sometimes you take up an affection only as a 
 distraction, and because you are a burthen to your- 
 selves. 
 
 Again, your self-devotion must not be ostenta- 
 tious, like the Pharisee, who sounds the trumpet 
 and gives his alms in public, saying, " I am not as 
 other men are." 
 
 Neither must it be a means of escape from the 
 calls of domestic life. Some people throw them- 
 selves into a sort of feverish activity of self-devotion 
 in order to exempt themselves from their more 
 immediate duties. The consequence is that they 
 fail in kindness, in unselfishness, in the accomplish- 
 ment of their primary obligations ; they change 
 the order of God's Providence. How many women 
 will be found guilty because they have neglected 
 to make good Christians of their husbands ! 
 
 When all that was required was a little kindness, 
 a little affection, a certain tact in self-devotion, 
 which would have been thoroughly appreciated, 
 how many women, instead of trying to raise the 
 minds, to elevate the feelings of their husbands. 
 
236 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 have had no higher aim than that of making them 
 the instruments of their own caprices ! 
 
 We read of St. Elizabeth of Hungary, that when 
 her husband went away she put on mourning, but 
 that when he returned she dressed herself in gay 
 apparel. Things are somewhat rather changed 
 since the days of St. Elizabeth ! When your hus- 
 bands go away, you are tempted to put on your 
 best clothes, and when they come back you would 
 often, I think, feel inclined to go into mourning ! 
 The result is, that he is often like a stranger in his 
 own house — like a guest at an inn. There is no 
 domestic intimacy. . You are as strangers one to 
 another. There is no conversation about the future 
 of the children, no community of prayer, of duties, 
 of hopes. You do not know how to influence your 
 husbands ; and yet they, surely, should be the first 
 objects of your love and self-devotion. 
 
 It is all very well, no doubt, to busy yourselves 
 with the salvation of Chinese children ; to dry 
 the tears of unhappy Poland ; to tend incurables. 
 But before the Chinese child, before the destitute 
 foreigner, before the sick of the hospital, your hus- 
 band has a right to your loving care. 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 237 
 
 It is certain that in our own days there are won- 
 derful illusions about the manner of fulfilling Chris- 
 tian duties. What is the cause of this ? I know 
 not whether it springs from a want of faith, or from 
 the want of the spirit of self-sacrifice; but it is 
 positive that therein lies a great peril, and that at 
 the hour of death many souls will see their errors 
 with horror. For it is simply a want of compre- 
 hension of the first duty of life. You might have 
 done good to souls who would thus have ascended the 
 ladder of perfection. By reading together, working 
 together, mutually strengthening each other, good" 
 and holy thoughts and desires are exchanged and 
 communicated. Other men are like your husband ; 
 only you see them through a sympathetic prism - 
 whereas your own husband is viewed by the light 
 of the antipathy which arises out of the difficult 
 position in which you are both placed, and of 
 which the bitterness of your own temper is perhaps 
 the real cause. If you would but bring the whole 
 strength of your will to bear on this difficulty, you- 
 would fulfil a real mission. 
 
 You see, therefore, that your self-devotion must, 
 first be exercised in your own homes. 
 
238 TJte Supernatural Life. 
 
 You must also devote yourselves to your chil- 
 dren. You must be full of kindness, full of real 
 Christian feeling towards them. You must not 
 think only of their earthly career ; you must not 
 lose sight of their life above, of their heavenward 
 road ; you must bring them up in the grand hope 
 of eternal life. Train their young minds so that 
 they may one day become really great ; remember 
 whatever was faulty in your own education, and 
 correct it in them. Do not allow mercenary in- 
 fluences alone to direct the first years of those lives 
 which are so dear to you. Let these little beings 
 begin their existence under the eye of their mother, 
 so that thus, initiated by you into the beauties of 
 religion, and instructed later on by Christian 
 teaching in their own homes, they may become 
 possessors of the great treasures of eternity. Such 
 ought to be your self-devotion at home and in your 
 own families. 
 
 I am often asked, my sisters, to preach charity 
 sermons ; not only at Lyons, but in Paris, at Bor- 
 deaux, everywhere. Well, whenever this happens ; 
 whenever they apply to me for a sermon ; I begin 
 by preaching to them charity at home, in their own 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 239 
 
 families, towards their own relations. For, in point 
 of fact, Christian women are very like worldly 
 women, and worldly women like Christian women. 
 Worldly women make use of society in order to 
 escape from their husbands ; Christian women 
 make use of church or sacristy work as an excuse 
 to escape from their domestic duties. 
 
 The first object of your self-devotedness should 
 ever be in your own homes. 
 
 Self-devotion should not, however, stop here. 
 You are favoured by God in your birth ; your social 
 position ; by the comforts with which you are sur- 
 rounded ; by the blessings He has bestowed upon 
 you. You do not think enough of thanking Him 
 for these things ; you do not forget enough your 
 own little troubles, the pin-pricks of life ! You do 
 not sufficiently look around you. You do not 
 penetrate into those streets where the great masses 
 of the population are heaped up together, where 
 live poor sickly women, deprived, perhaps, of the 
 light of the sun,- and condemned to hard and 
 laborious work in order to earn daily bread for 
 themselves and their children ; poor, half-starved 
 creatures, with helpless infants hanging on their 
 
240 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 breasts, little new-born babes, who in vain seek the 
 food which their mothers cannot give them. And 
 these poor creatures live on day after day, 
 struggling, suffering, and when at night, worn out 
 and wearied, they return to their homes, their only 
 welcome is too often the brutality of their husbands, 
 whose iron hands seem to crush them as easily as 
 you may crush a tender plant. 
 
 And yet these are women, with the natures of 
 women. In the lowest grades of society may be 
 found refined and delicate natures. They may, 
 perhaps, be less sensitive than you ; and yet some- 
 times, when these poor women have opened their 
 hearts to me, I have found some amongst them 
 possessing all the delicacy and refinement of the 
 most educated classes. And yet these, too, were 
 forced to earn their daily bread, painfully, labori-, 
 ously; their lot was that of perpetual suffering, 
 perpetual abnegation. 
 
 Ah! my sisters, you do not sufficiently thank 
 God for the blessings with which He has loaded 
 you. You have had little troubles, perhaps, on 
 your road, but you forget what real, what cruel 
 sorrow there is round about you. 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 241 
 
 God has placed you in your present position in 
 order that you may dispense some of your super- 
 fluity to those who need it. Give alms, then. 
 Give them yourselves ; but do not give themi in a 
 contemptuous manner. Because you are superior 
 in fortune, do not, therefore, look down on those 
 whom you assist. The first essential in self-devo- 
 tion is to love those to whom the devotion is given. 
 If you cannot love the poor because they are in 
 themselves lovable, love them in Jesus Christ. 
 Forget their exterior, which fills you. with aversion, 
 the rags which disgust, the vices which horrify you. 
 Look beyond, into their souls, and do homage 
 to the Divine image of Jesus Christ which you 
 may there find. 
 
 Oh, what power may such self-devotion give you ! 
 A poetical writer once said : " In order to govern 
 the souls of men, you must love them." Love, 
 then, those to whom you strive to do good. 
 
 One of you observed to me that it was impossible 
 to do any good unless the heart gave its co-opera- 
 tion. You must, then, devote yourselves, to the 
 poor, through motives of love, tenderness, and 
 charity. 
 
 16 
 
242 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 How is it that the poor man may sometimes be 
 seen lifting up his eyes to heaven ? It is a subject 
 on which I love to dwell again and again when I 
 am preaching. When a poor man finds himself out 
 of work, when he is obliged to beg for bread for the 
 support of his family ; when wandei'ing about the 
 streets deserted and abandoned, he writhes under 
 the pressure of his misery, then is he sometimes 
 tempted to blaspheme and to cry : " Why is it that 
 so many have riches and fortune, whilst others are 
 dying of hunger ?" 
 
 But, then, one day there comes to this poor man 
 a little sister of the poor, or a sister of charity, and 
 she says to him : " God has not abandoned you, for 
 He sends me to you ; I left my father and mother, 
 all the comforts and the joys of home; I left 
 fortune and luxury, I gave up everything in order 
 that I might become your sister out of love and 
 charitj'; in order that I might take you by the 
 hand and help you along your hard and rugged 
 path ; no, you are not deserted, not friendless." 
 
 And when the sister, with her sweet smile, has 
 thus spoken to him, when at last she takes hold of 
 his hand, then the poor man's heart is touched. 
 
Tlie Life of Self-devotion. 243 
 
 however hardened by misery. His very soul is 
 moved, he looks up to heaven, tears roll down his 
 cheeks, and with a smile on his lips he exclaims : 
 " I will no longer blaspheme. I have a Father 
 in hfeaven. I know it now, since I have found 
 a sister on earth." 
 
 Thus does charity show him providence ; love 
 teaches him to see his God, and all this is revealed 
 to him by the sister's life of purity and self-de- 
 votion. 
 
 The first condition, then, of self-devotion, from 
 the point of view of faith, is to love ; not to treat 
 the poor disdainfully, but to make them feel as if 
 you were one of themselves. It is a great thing for 
 you that God should thus have associated you in 
 the designs of His providence ; but it is a greater 
 thing still that you should be called to minister to 
 Jesus Christ Himself. 
 
 The poor man is Jesus Christ ; you, the rich, only 
 take the place of providence when you assist him. 
 Beneath the rags of the poor beggar, or the squalid 
 misery of the little orphan girl ; beneath all the 
 sufferings of the incurables, and of the wretched 
 ones of the earth, underlying all your good works 
 
 16 — 2 
 
244 ^'''^ Supernaturai Life. 
 
 ■with their manifest fruits, you ought ever to see 
 Jesus Christ. Real self-devotion is, therefore, 
 founded 6n supernatural love. Kindled by this 
 sacred flame, it burns brighter near the tabernacle, 
 and is nourished by the blood of Jesus Christ. 
 
 The second condition is that your self-devotion 
 should be persevering. 
 
 I have said that by nature you have but little 
 stability. One of the elements of your feminine 
 nature is that you are impatient ; you will not wait, 
 you are anxious for a result, for success. When 
 you do good to any one, you think there must be 
 an immediate transformation. You visit poor 
 people, you nurse the sick, you look after old 
 women ; the moment you see no immediate effect 
 you are discouraged, and you complain. 
 
 Are we so successful with you, my sisters 1 
 When that sick nurse of humanity, the confessor, 
 sits waiting for you to go to him, week by week, 
 month by month, or, it may be, year by year, when 
 he has to wait until it shall please you to pour out 
 to him the contents of your hearts, do you not see 
 therein God's mercy and indulgence which thus 
 patiently awaits your conversion twenty, thirty 
 
The Life of Self-devotioti. 245 
 
 years, more even sometimes ? And this holy- 
 patience of God, can you not imitate it with the 
 souls with whom you have to deal ? 
 
 Be persevering, therefore ; but for this you must 
 learn to govern yourselves ; perseverance is the 
 fruit of personal discipline, of bearing with oneself ; 
 you will only learn to bear with ■ others when you 
 have learnt to bear with yourselves. To bear with 
 others is the chief feature of self-devotion. To 
 bear with those about us, to maintain that evenness 
 of temper, that kindliness of heart, that cheerfulness 
 and serenity which so greatly enhance all acts 
 of kindness. This sweetness, this transiiguration of 
 the heart by Jesus Christ possesses in itself a won- 
 derful power ! It is, in fact, that perseverance 
 which will not allow itself to be discouraged, which 
 is happy because it is blessed with a divine benedic- 
 tion. 
 ^ Devote yourselves, then, my sisters, lovingly and 
 perseveringly to those around you. 
 
 And to whom ought you to devote yourselves ? 
 I repeat it, first to those in your own home ; then 
 to all who suffer, to all who weep, to all who here 
 below are in sorrow and need. 
 
246 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 There is a passage in Holy Writ which is magni- 
 ficent in its truth, and which is at the same time a 
 sublime eulogy on you : " Where woman is not, 
 there the poor and the sick languish" — "Ubinonest 
 mulier, ingemiscit egensV 
 
 It would seem as if it were impossible to solace 
 sorrow and woe if woman be not at hand. There- 
 fore it is that in that sublime picture which is the 
 perpetual representation of the source of all conso- 
 lation and strength for the human" race, there was 
 but one man but many women. There were 
 the tears of a poor woman falling upon the feet 
 of Jesus, there, also, was the mother of consolation. 
 
 There exists in woman a great power of consola- 
 tion. 
 
 Every sorrow belongs to you, all suffering is in 
 your dominion ; you have but one province, the 
 province of consolation, the rulership (if I may 
 so say) over sorrow. 
 
 Wherever, then, you find a suffering soul, a 
 sad heart, a wounded conscience, a child in want 
 of bread, a poor man out of work, a soul longing to 
 regain her purity, there ought you to go. There- 
 fore it is that we give you distant missions 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 247 
 
 amongst those who are the most desolate, that we, 
 as bishops, wish to enlist you as collectors for our 
 churches ; that we make you into missionaries and 
 apostles. Your ear should be ever open to hear the 
 cry of suffering; to bind up the broken-hearted, 
 and in so doing you will find your real treasure, 
 your true consolation. 
 
 A Christian woman is, indeed, a grand creation 
 of the Catholic Church ! 
 
 \ And when in my weary fights with heresy I 
 wish to prove to some poor, incredulous souls the 
 grandeur of the Catholic Church, instead of demon- 
 strating this (as of course I might have done) by 
 doctrinal and controversial explanations, I always 
 prefer to direct attention to the Christian woman 
 {and this proof is unanswerable). I point to her in 
 her educational mission in the cloister, or again m 
 the world, fulfilling her duties cheerfully and sweetly, 
 seeking no glory for herself, but bearing her hus- 
 band's name honoured and unsullied, the happiness 
 of her children, the blessing of her family ; the 
 woman who, clothed in her self-devotion and in her 
 supernatural virtue, thinks nothing of leaving the 
 splendours of life to go and console those who suffer, 
 
248 TJie Supernatural Life. 
 
 those who weep. I cited, also, the example of 
 those poor workwomen of whom I spoke just now ; 
 of those simple-hearted girls who make their 
 humble offerings, either for Peter's pence, for the 
 missions, or for other good works ; caring but for 
 one thing, the propagation of the faith, asking only 
 whether the standard of God is advancing in the 
 world. 
 
 In conclusion, you must devote yourselves, my 
 sisters, to whatsoever suffers and mourns here 
 below. Therefore, also, you owe a portion of your 
 self-devotion to the holy Church of God, to that 
 good mother who is often in tears and in mourning. 
 I would I could make you truly love the Church. 
 You only respect and love her for the sake of the 
 halo of Mary Immaculate with which she has 
 encircled your brow, casting on it the reflection of 
 a glory which may be said to have in it something 
 which is both virginal and maternal. You ought to 
 weep over her defeats, rejoice at her triumphs, take 
 part in her joys ; you must be faithful to her, you 
 must love and salute her as a bride and as a 
 queen. 
 
 You must also devote yourselves to our Lord, the 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 249 
 
 Prisoner in the tabernacle, the Abandoned, the for- 
 saken One. In some tabernacles He is destitute of 
 covering ; the poverty of churches in the country is 
 often extreme. Strive to remedy this. 
 ' You must devote yourselves to God, Who is ever 
 seeking for souls ; you must devote yourselves 
 because there are souls who are empty, dying ; 
 hearts without God, consciences going to ruin. 
 
 Is not this truly a field for your apbstolate, rriy 
 sisters ? And you will exercise it by your faith, by 
 your generosity, by the infusion of divine life into 
 the souls of others ; thus giving them the one great 
 help which they need for eternity. 
 
 And in what manner can you devote yourselves "i 
 First by your words. 
 
 I might speak to you of the conversations among 
 young girls who are already anticipating the future, 
 and know already how to make themselves familiar 
 with the dangers and the allurements of the world ; 
 of certain confidential conversations in which young 
 women ought not to indulge ; of the conversations 
 of women more advanced in age, in which the 
 sensualities and the intrigues of the world are 
 ■reealled to the memory ; of the sinful conversations- 
 
250 Tlie Supernatural Life. 
 
 of women with each other or with men ; but this 
 would take a whole chapter, for I should have 
 much to say. I pass it by, therefore ; but remem- 
 ber that a woman's words can be so powerful that 
 they may become as the seed which shall bear fruit 
 an hundredfold, 
 
 A single word said with faith, with simplicity, 
 with kindness, and with sweetness may, if it fall 
 upon a suffering soul, open out to that soul the 
 way to heaven and cause God to descend within it. 
 
 I will add, but without developing the thought, 
 that you may also make your life, your whole 
 existence, your fortune, all that you possess, the 
 means of self-devotion. 
 
 My sisters, I will leave -these reflections with you. 
 Prepare yourself to receive the source, the essence 
 of eternal self-devotion. That which inspires and 
 gives strength to the priest, which clothes the 
 maiden with her robe of purity, gives to woman the 
 courage of virtue, and to the aged Christian hope 
 and calm resignation in death. Prepare yourselves 
 to receive it. 
 
 I will end by suggesting to you an idea which 
 jmay be made into a fruitful source of self-devotion. 
 
The Life of Self-devotion. 251 
 
 I quote the words of a woman, who, crushed by a 
 great sorrow, took refuge in a convent, where she is 
 now happy in her cell : " I learnt," she said, " but too 
 late, that for woman there is but one real sorrow 
 and one real happiness ; the sorrow of having 
 offended God ; the happiness of being a child of 
 holy Church." 
 
%kz (Eomntttnmn. 
 
 " Blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it!" 
 
 |Y sisters, you have had the happiness of 
 hearing the word of God. The divine 
 Master has addressed Himself to your- 
 souls ; He has revealed to you your struggles, your 
 infirmities, your falls, your sorrows, your mission^ 
 your apostolate, your duties, and, at the same time, 
 the glorious destiny promised to you. Great light 
 has been given to you by this divine word, it has. 
 taught you a deeper knowledge of God, a deeper 
 knowledge of your own selves. 
 
 You have learnt to understand the fervent excla- 
 mation of St. Augustin : " My God, grant that I may 
 know Thee, that I may know myself!" And in 
 thus learning to know God you have felt that you 
 may not waste the treasures of your heart, the 
 
The Coinmunion. 253 
 
 riches of your mind, the best feelings of your life, 
 the powers of your imagination, on the futilities of 
 the world, but that you must direct them heaven- 
 wards unto God. 
 
 With this fresh knowledge of yourselves you have 
 learnt how you should mistrust your own strength 
 or rather your own weakness ; you have learnt the 
 greatness of the perils that surround you, and how 
 everywhere, even in your own homes, you are met 
 by the great conflicts and sorrows of life. 
 
 But if I contented myself with showing you your 
 own shortcomings, your difficulties, and your in- 
 firmities, with reminding you of your tears and 
 your sorrows, my ministry would be but a barren 
 and a comfortless one ; only one thing would be 
 left for you to do ; you could but sit down help- 
 lessly and mourn over your own ruin and desola- 
 tion ; but, my sisters, the word of God must have 
 its completion. This word you will doubtless 
 retain within you ; the remembrance of it will be 
 sweet and pleasant to you ; but I repeat, it requires 
 a completion, it needs an ending, a crowning some- 
 thing which shall be more consoling,, more satisfy- 
 ing to your heart ; this completion is the 
 
254 '^J''' Supernatural Life. 
 
 eternal Word, the uncreated Word, the life eternal 
 God, Who deigns to come and dwell within you. 
 
 You feel this in your very innermost being ; 
 while in heaven there is joy incomparable ; and the 
 earth rejoices, also, because of the souls that are re- 
 turning to Jesus Christ. 
 
 You are going to receive our Lord ! Is it a reality, 
 or is it not a dream } Is it a real presence, or is it 
 but a symbol } Is it a life, or is it nothing but a 
 remembrance or a hope ? 
 
 My sisters, our Lord is there, in all His divine 
 truth, in all the reality of His substantial pre- 
 sence, of His presence affirmed by His words, 
 and by His spouse the Church ; He is there, 
 for He has said : "He who eateth My flesh 
 and drinketh My blood hath life, whosoever eateth 
 not My flesh, nor drinketh My blood is dead." 
 
 It is He, too. Who said : " This is My body, take 
 and eat. This is My blood, take and drink." 
 
 And He added : " I am the living Bread that 
 came down from heaven." 
 
 He is present, therefore, and for the last nineteen 
 centuries has the Church been on her knees before 
 Him, in trembling admiration and wondering love ; 
 
The Communion. " 255 
 
 angels bend down before the tabernacle ; priests in 
 their white sacerdotal vestments distribute the 
 sacred bread. Jesus Christ is therefore present. 
 
 But in order that He may enter into your souls 
 a great operation is necessary. Jesus Christ dwells 
 in three tabernacles of which your own hearts must 
 in a manner become the image. 
 
 His first tabernacle is His Mother. His Mother ! 
 She is immaculate and beautiful with a transcen- 
 dant beauty ; but in order that she may be worthy 
 to bear Him for months within her womb, it is 
 necessary that God should mould her from all 
 eternity, that He should make her immaculate in 
 her conception, pure in her birth, spotless in her 
 life, glorious in her death and in her assumption. 
 And because she was thus preserved like a pure 
 white lily, may she receive into her womb this 
 heavenly Pearl, the purity of the Sun of Justice. 
 
 The second tabernacle is in heaven ; since the 
 very origin of all things God has sat on His throne 
 in the splendour of His glory, illuminating with 
 His divine rays the eternal city, pouring forth on all 
 souls treasures of immeasurable love. Of His 
 substance are the elect nourished, angels bow down 
 
256 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 before Him, singing an eternal alleluia ; the ancients 
 swing their censers laden with perfume. The taber- 
 nacle of heaven is one of perpetual purity and love.' 
 
 There is a third tabernacle. God makes use of 
 the hands of man to hew the stone, to build up the 
 arches, to set up an altar whereon to place His 
 tabernacle ; and here, also, do we find purity and 
 love, for this edifice must be consecrated by the 
 bishop, holy oil must be poured upon it, the altar 
 where all that is earthly is to immolate itself, must 
 be surrounded by silence and peace, it must shine 
 with light and be adorned with white ornaments ; 
 there must be gold, that which gives brightness to 
 life in the interior of the ciborium where Jesus dwells. 
 Within the tabernacle, therefore, is also love and 
 purity. In the tabernacle of heaven there is purity 
 and love. In Mary, who is also a tabernacle, there 
 is purity and love. You see, then, how God loves 
 to dwell in purity and love. 
 
 My sisters, is your heart, which is about to 
 become a tabernacle to receive your Lord, suffi- 
 ciently prepared ? 
 
 Is it the abode of purity and tenderness, of good 
 ness, of self-devotion, of light and love ? Yes, for you 
 
The Communion. 257 
 
 have disciplined it in the silence of retreat ; you 
 have nourished yourselves with the holy word 
 of God, you have come in contact with His precious 
 Blood, you have drawn near to the sacred Heart of 
 Jesus by the courage of confession, by the avowal 
 of your faults, by the laborious work of penance, 
 by the sighings of the pure of heart, by the tears 
 from your eyes united with the Blood of Redemp- 
 tion ; thus have you purified your souls. And to 
 this purity you have added love. You hunger and 
 thirst for Jesus ; you cry : " Oh ! when cometh 
 the moment when I shall receive Him ?" You 
 call Him with every voice of your soul, and you 
 repeat with the prophets : " God, make us see the 
 just!" 
 
 There dwell therefore within you purity and 
 love. Jesus has spoken : this incomparable act, the 
 grandest, the noblest, which human language can 
 describe — this act of Communion, is about to be 
 accomplished in you. God is the life of the world. 
 The body lives upon matter^ the mind on the intel- 
 lectual, the heart on affection, the conscience on 
 purity. But the soul, on what shall it feed .? What 
 shall nourish it ? Where shall it find its strength, 
 
 17 
 
258 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 its treasure, its life ? In Jesus alone. The soul 
 must find her nourishment in God ; she comes 
 from Him, He is her source ; she returns to Him, 
 He is her end ; the first page in her life is God, the 
 last is still God ; in the intermediate pages of her 
 existence, must He still be her sustenance. She 
 must consume her God and live on Him, she must 
 find in Him her delight, so that she may exclaim, 
 "It is God Who is about to come into me as my 
 food ; my nourishment is Emmanuel, it is Jesus 
 Himself who said, ' Take, eat, this is My body ; 
 take and drink, this is My blood ; if ye do not eat 
 My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in 
 you.'" 
 
 Our life, our only life is Jesus, we have no other. 
 Humanity can but give us a mortal life ; the earth 
 naught but a fragile and an ephemeral life : the 
 things here below offer us but an uncertain life. 
 There is but one eternal life ; it is Jesus coming to 
 dwell in our hearts. 
 
 My sisters, come unto Jesus Christ in purity and 
 in love, come to Him in faith ; bow down before 
 your God in the tabernacle ; tell Him that you 
 believe in Him, in spite of the revolt of your senses. 
 
The Communion. 259 
 
 in spite of the doubts of your reason, in spite of 
 the questionings of your intellect. Say, not as the 
 inhabitants of Capernium did : " How can He give 
 His flesh to eat ?" 
 
 Jesus would answer: "Verily I say unto you, 
 unless ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man and 
 drink His blood, ye have no life in you." 
 
 You must believe in this affirmation, which Jesus 
 has confirmed by an oath ; you must bow down 
 before it with an entire conviction of soul. Come 
 unto Jesus in humility of heart. " My Father," 
 said the Saviour, " I thank Thee that Thou hast 
 hid these things " . . . . what things } The beauties 
 of heaven ? . . . no — " that Thou hast hid them 
 from the great, and revealed them to the simple 
 and the lowly." 
 
 " My Father, I thank Thee." 
 
 Be then simple and lowly, my sisters ; simple in 
 heart, lowly in your own eyes ; humbled, subdued, 
 detached from your own selves ; humble your- 
 selves ; come in humility. 
 
 One day the Master heard that purest amongst 
 the sons of men, that austere prophet of the desert, 
 the very personification of innocence and purity, 
 
 17 — 2 
 
z6o The Supernatural Life. 
 
 St. John the Baptist, say to Him, " I am not 
 ■ worthy to unloose the latchets of Thy shoes." 
 
 But a moment ago, after having received the 
 sacerdotal vestments with which I was to clothe 
 myself, and asked of God that these vestments 
 might preserve my soul from the stains of earth,, 
 and be unto me as a bulwark of purity, I made my 
 confession to the priest of God at my side, I beat 
 my breast and confessed to heaven, to angels, and 
 to earth, " It is my fault, my fault, pray for me."' 
 Then going up to the altar, I multiplied my ablu- 
 tions, and again and again washed my hands ;, 
 seeking thus external as well as internal purity, 
 and after these successive ablutions, I again beat 
 my breast and cried, "My God, have mercy 
 on me !" 
 
 Do not say, my sisters, that you are not worthy 
 of God ; for who is worthy of Him .' All we can 
 do is to strive to be as little unworthy of Him as 
 we can. 
 
 Come unto Jesus with confidence because He is 
 the eternal Friend of those who are in sorrow, the 
 eternal Purity of the guilty, the eternal Beauty of 
 the soul stained by sin, the eternal Reward of those 
 
The Communion. 261 
 
 who are struggling with temptation, the eternal 
 Affection of those with whom all other affections 
 have failed, the eternal Consolation of those who 
 reject the consolations of this world. Come unto 
 Him, be not afraid ; He is ever the Child of Beth- 
 lehem, the Victim of Mount Calvary, the Trans- 
 figured One on Mount Thabor, the Life, the Breath 
 of the tabernacle. Draw near with confidence ; be 
 not afraid. 
 
 Come especially with love ; bring Him all the 
 treasures of your heart, give Him all your affec- 
 tions. When He shall have passed out of my 
 hands on to your lips, and from your lips into your 
 heart, bow down, adore Him in silence, listen to 
 Him, speak to Him. You will become the taber- 
 nacle of the Virgin Mary, the tabernacle of heaven, 
 the tabernacle of the Church, you will be surrounded 
 by angels, reverent and adoring. You will medi- 
 tate on Him in the depths of your conscience, in 
 the silence of your heart. After having worshipped 
 Him on this altar, you will hear Mass again with 
 Him, you will, so to say, become priests ; you will 
 pray to Him, you will do Him homage, as to the 
 Creator, the Master of the universe ; you will pro- 
 
262 The, Supernatural L ife. 
 
 claim His rights and His sovereignty; you will 
 thank Him for His mercies ; you will beg for grace 
 and you will obtain all that you ask. 
 
 After having adored and thanked Him, after 
 having offered yourselves to Him as a grain of 
 incense, after having consumed yourselves like the 
 lights on the altar, you will say, " Lord, make of 
 me a living soul, a soul which shall no more die !" 
 You will confide to Him your weaknesses, the 
 ruling sin of your life, the chief sorrows of your 
 existence ; you will seek counsel of Him, respecting 
 all things in which you need light and strength, 
 in all things necessary for you in life. He will hear 
 you ; He will divine you. He will understand you. 
 How often you have longed for a heart that should 
 understand your own. He will reveal to you all 
 your infirmities, your struggles, your sorrows, your 
 blessings. 
 
 You will speak to Him also of your family, of 
 your children, of your anxieties and your fears for 
 them, of all that makes the joy and the surround- 
 ings of your life ; even perhaps of some to whom 
 you have given scandal, to whom you may have 
 been the stumbling-block, the occasion of falling. 
 
The Communion. 263 
 
 You will intercede with Him for all whom you 
 ought to love, and to save. 
 
 You will speak to Him with confidence and love, 
 praying for the riches of His blessing upon all. 
 
 You will plead with Him also for the whole 
 Church, for the sovereign pontiff, for the episcopate, 
 for the priesthood ; you will ask of Him that truth 
 may conquer, that Christianity may triumph. 
 
 You will pray also for me that I may be the 
 apostle of our faith, that I may have the joy of 
 bringing souls out of darkness into light. You will 
 pray in faith and love, we shall be united in prayer, 
 as we are in friendship ; Jesus Christ is the sweet 
 and loving bond between soul and soul. Let us 
 therefore unite in loving and adoring Him ; let us 
 pray to Him and give Him thanks, so shall we be 
 associated with the angels of God, we shall form a 
 crown of glory around Him, and honour His holy 
 Name in a canticle of praise. 
 
 I shall repeat to Jesus Christ whkt I said to Him 
 but just now when at my behest He deigned to 
 come down from heaven. Then was it that in the 
 fulness of episcopal power I lifted up my soul to 
 heaven, and the curtains of eternity being with- 
 
264 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 drawn, I dared to look up to the eternal altar and 
 call down the divine Word ; then taking It in my 
 hands and returning to the earth where you were 
 bowed down in adoration, I exclaimed, as I held 
 up the sacred chalice, " O precious Blood of Jesus 
 Christ ! O Heart of my God ! let Thy blessing 
 descend upon these souls ; they have been touched, 
 aroused during this retreat ; there are struggles, I 
 know, in the depths of their hearts, there are 
 tears and conflicts ; oh ! strengthen them in their 
 struggles, comfort them when they weep, pardon 
 wherever there remain the stains of sin ; help and 
 pity them' in their weakness. Oh ! bless these souls, 
 Lord Jesus, that they may be able to keep the 
 eternal Word, that they may lay hold of Thee, 
 and return to the world full of life and of 
 Thee." 
 
 Come then, my sisters, come to your transfigura- 
 tion; soon you will return to your Garden of Olives ; 
 when Jesus Christ has come within you, then, with 
 your heart like a liviilg chalice, a spiritual altar, a 
 burning tabernacle, you once more shall go out into 
 the world. After having received Jesus Christ, 
 there is nothing greater then to give Him ; come 
 
The Communion. 265 
 
 then and receive Him that you may give Him to 
 those you love ; all that Jesus Christ now asks of 
 you is faith, humility, confidence, and love ; He 
 asks for your heart ; give it to Him, He brings 
 you His own. 
 
^ke laliant Monmn.—'Whz IBirgin iHarg. 
 
 " Mulierem fortem quis inveniet ?" — " Who shall find the 
 valiant woman ?" 
 
 jY sisters, if you have reflected on the 
 fundamental idea in the different medi- 
 tations which we have made together 
 this week, you must have seen what our Lord espe- 
 cially demands of you is a co-operation in the divine 
 aim for which God has given you life. I said that 
 you were created to glorify God ; your aim is His 
 glory; your destiny. His honour. And when we 
 studied the obstacles which you might meet with 
 in your endeavours to attain to this end, we found 
 that they were your weakness, your self-love, the 
 exaggeration of your own personality, the spirit of 
 worldliness, the thousand futilities of life, the thou-- 
 sand trivialities with which you are surrounded. I 
 
The Valiant Woman. 267 
 
 told you also that besides your own selves, and 
 besides the world, there was the evil spirit, the 
 tempter ; I depicted to you his prodigious hatred oC 
 virtue, of truth, of all that is good ; I added that 
 sooner or later the tempter drew nigh to every soul 
 as he drew near to Eve amidst the joys of Eden, and 
 to our great Master in the loneliness of the desert. 
 I said that you might overcome this three-fold 
 obstacle, not by a vague sentimentality, not by an 
 exaggerated piety, not by a sort of parade religion, 
 made up of religious observances, but by a strong 
 conviction, based on reason, and especially by the 
 intelligent comprehension of the great truths of 
 religion, of that which I have called the super- 
 natural life within you ; a life better than your 
 mere human life ; a higher life than your terrestrial 
 life ; you must have the conviction of faith, a firm 
 faith, a faith which propagates itself, a faith which, 
 shines on all around you. 
 
 I told you also that in order to overcome the 
 obstacles sacrifice was necessary. It is only by 
 sacrifice that you can erect or construct anything in 
 the world ; the law which rules your life is the law 
 of sacrifice. In the Church, there is but one action. 
 
268 TJie Supernatural Life. 
 
 the sacrifice of the Mass, the immolation of the 
 eternal victim. I said also that the life of faith and 
 of sacrifice was a life of union with God, and first 
 through purity. It is only by the holy light of 
 purity that the soul can attain unto the vision of 
 God. The more you take of your material exis- 
 tence, casting it like a grain of incense into the 
 divine censer, so that it may rise up before God as 
 a cloud of perfume, the more will the soul reach 
 unto supernatural truth. The first step by which 
 the soul must ascend is purity. 
 
 You must also hold converse with God by prayer. 
 Prayer ! that incomparable privilege of the soul, by 
 which she may say unto God, " Let there be silence 
 in the celestial spheres ; let their harmonious sym- 
 phonies be for a moment suspended !" 
 
 And God lends His ear to this poor child of 
 humanity, whose voice rises up to Him from the 
 depths of the earth below ; God hears and answers. 
 Prayer is the one great action of life. You must 
 rise by the union and tenderness existing between 
 God and you ; you must be able to say these 
 heavenly and blessed words : " I live, but my life 
 is not my own ; it is not the failing life of my 
 
The Valiant Woman. 269 
 
 intellect, it is not the wayward life of my heart, the 
 tainted life of my conscience, the withered life of 
 my soul ; there is something better living within 
 me, and that is Jesus Christ." 
 
 And this is the happiness of the supernatural 
 life ; the life which should be in you, a life which 
 consists in self-devotion; and this self-devotion 
 ought to be carried out everywhere, and especially 
 in your own homes. 
 
 I spoke to you the other day of a great evil in 
 the present day ; I did not exaggerate. You have 
 laid down your sceptre in your own homes^ the 
 sceptre of abnegation, of self-devotion, of kindness 
 and of affection. It too often happens that your 
 husbands and your families see nothing in you but 
 capriciousness and intractability; dissatisfied minds,, 
 and hearts without stability of feeling. I told you 
 how you neglected your domestic happiness and 
 your own homes — the worldly amongst you — for 
 society ; the religiously disposed, for churches and 
 sacristies ! How you thus thought to escape from' 
 what is, after all, one of your essential duties, that 
 of befriending that soul, that intellect which ought 
 to be the twin-sister of your own ; of loving that 
 
270 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 heart which should be one with your own ; of help- 
 ing that conscience which should fraternize with 
 your own ; claiming with it a meeting in heaven ; 
 for, God does not disunite in eternity what He has 
 united in time. 
 
 ' I went on to say how this mission of devotion to 
 your homes should find its irradiation everywhere ; 
 how it ought to diffuse itself upon those who weep, 
 upon souls who mourn, upon all sorrowing hearts, 
 consoling, encouraging, reanimating them, such is 
 the true mission of the " valiant woman'.' 
 
 " Who shall find the valiant woman ?" Who 
 shall furnish us with the type, the example of the 
 supernatural life ? I wish, my sisters, to show you 
 this example in the Virgin Mary. This will be the 
 conclusion of our retreat. 
 
 And I would say a few words to you on this 
 "valiant" and incomparable woman. I have no 
 wish to preach to you a discourse on the Blessed, 
 Virgin, such as you often hear, but which passes 
 through your soul as some sort of conventional 
 formulary. In order to bring thoroughly before 
 your minds all that the Blessed Virgin is, and what 
 you may yourselves become by trying to imitate 
 
The Valiant Woman. 271 
 
 her admirable virtues, something more is necessary 
 than mere sentimental phrases. What then is this 
 valiant woman ? How can you reproduce her in 
 your lives ? 
 
 Oh ! may our blessed Mother inspire my tongue ; 
 bless these last words which I address to your 
 souls, giving them the fruitfulness of the eternal 
 seed, so that when you leave here you may, like 
 the Mother of God, shower around you charity, 
 light, and every Christian virtue. 
 
 When we read in Holy Writ the page of the Old 
 Testament which I have quoted, we are touched to 
 find Solomon pronouncing these words amidst the 
 infirmities of paganism and the degeneration of 
 the Jewish people : " Who shall find the valiant 
 woman V 
 
 He paints a portrait which appears ideal, for it 
 is that of a really Christian woman. He seems as 
 it were to have pre-conceived the " valiant woman," 
 for in his picture he describes Mary. There are 
 three things which constitute the valiant woman : a 
 great idea, a great heart, and a great influence. 
 
 Now in Mary we find precisely these three 
 things : a great idea, a great heart, and great 
 
272 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 f ; — — 
 
 influence ; a thought, a feeling, an action. Nor are 
 you, my sistersy made up of aught else ; you are 
 composed but of thoughts, feelings, and actions. 
 Thoughts, often but trivial and light ones, directed 
 perhaps to some personal adornment. Feelings, 
 capricious and mobile according to the various 
 events of life. Actions and influence tdo often 
 made use of, if not so as to endanger the soul and 
 the conscience, at least at the risk of grievous peril 
 to the well-being of others. 
 
 Mary stands out as a prominent figure. From 
 all eternity had God predestined her for her grand 
 mission. God had willed that a woman should be 
 associated in the providential work of redemption. 
 Man, placed in the terrestrial paradise, had fallen ; 
 man, guilty and sinful, degenerated. 
 
 When God willed to put on humanity, when He 
 left heaven, when summoning the angels in His 
 train, He descended into this debased valley of 
 creation, well might He then have taken unto 
 Himself a body formed by angelic beings; and 
 commanded them to mould with their celestial 
 hands the clay of the earth that He might infuse 
 into it a divine life. But He would not ; He took 
 
The Valiant Woman. 2^^ 
 
 ^ '_* 
 
 His place amongst the generations of mankind. 
 He predestined a woman to have the incomparable 
 honour of being His Mother, And just as Almighty 
 God, that Being Who is Himself eternal beauty, 
 that ocean of beauty which hath neither shores nor 
 boundaries, the very plenitude of existence, just as 
 God contemplating the eternal Word, and seeing 
 the splendour of His substance, spoke the ever- 
 living words : " My Son, I have begotten Thee," so 
 Mary, as she reverently gazed at the child lying on 
 the straw in the manger, could say, " My Son, I 
 conceived Thee." 
 
 And these two voices from heaven and from 
 Bethlehem combined to give to the world the man- 
 God, the Saviour of humanity, Jesus, the joy of 
 angels, the ever-living friend of the souls of men. 
 Mary then was associated in this great work ; she 
 had been prepared by God. 
 
 When a painter wishes to depict on his canvas 
 the ideal of his imagination, when he wants to pro- 
 duce a chef-d'oeuvre, he sketches features, a face, 
 which seems to him most beautiful ; but when he 
 comes to contemplate his work and compare it with 
 his ideal, he sees that it is wanting in harmony, and 
 
 I8 
 
274 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 \ — — - 
 
 that he has failed in representing what his mind 
 had conceived. But when God, the Omnipotent 
 Artist, conceives an idea, He is able to represent it 
 exteriorly in all its grandeur. Well, then, God 
 imagined a chef-d'cEuvre, and in Mary He created 
 a chef-d'oeuvre of grandeur. 
 
 And what did He give her ? He gave her all 
 beauty, the superhuman beauty of grace. He willed 
 that she should be immaculate in her conception, that 
 her soul should never be tarnished by the faintest 
 breath ; that she should be beautiful in her birth so 
 that her conscience might not be stained by the 
 slightest blemish ; He willed that she should be 
 sublime in her death, glorious in her triumph, 
 queenly in her assumption. And the angels when 
 they saw her ascend, exclaimed : " How beautiful 
 is she who rises like the sun !" It was the Mother 
 of God ! and she was lovely. 
 
 Oh I I understand how saints and doctors have 
 failed in describing her , grandeur. I understand 
 that from St. John, who spoke of the Virgin arrayed 
 in her beauty, down to the saints of the Middle 
 Ages, who tried to describe her in the most glowing 
 language, all should have remained powerless. And 
 
The Valiant Woman. 275 
 
 -were even worlds cast down at her feet, they would 
 be as nothing to her, for sjie has beheld something 
 greater than any worlds ; she has seen God resting 
 in her arms, she has heard Him say words which 
 are above the song of the suns: "Thou art My 
 Mother." 
 
 It is not therefore wonderful if God has indeed 
 ■made her sublime ; sublime with a sublimity which 
 is above everything else; if He has raised her 
 above every other creature, and made her into a 
 •chef d'oeuvre of creation ! The more she is elevated 
 the less need He abase Himself, and it has been 
 said, that " He did not abhor the Virgin's womb," 
 father indeed did He make of it a throne of purity 
 and of love ;. and these two sweet flowers, purity 
 and love, combined together to form a triumphal 
 arch for Jesus, that He might thus rest in His 
 Mother's womb as in a consecrated tabernacle. So 
 that the Virgin's womb is, after heaven, the only 
 •dwelling-place worthy of containing Jesus, 
 
 Such then is the greatness of Mary, a greatness 
 adorned with grace and beauty. In her favour 
 ■did God multiply His marvels. Mary's life was 
 l>ut one perpetual privilege ; there was no discord 
 
 18—2 
 
276 TJu Supernatural Life. 
 
 in her existence. Privileged in her birth, born with- 
 out taint, she comes into the world without infir- 
 mity ; privileged in her , death, she dies without 
 pain and ascends triumphantly to heaven. Privilege 
 is the law of her existence ; doubtless she is the 
 chef d'oeuvre of divine power. 
 
 And yet although the prophets foretold of her 
 long before; although Moses called her "The 
 woman who was to bruise the serpent's head," and 
 other prophets compared her to the flower of Jesse, 
 to the golden fleece, to the ladder of gold leading 
 up to heaven, still there was to be one more 
 prophecy : herein is a mystery . . . and this 
 mystery, my sisters, touches you particularly^ 
 You have seen this woman created by God, this- 
 chef-d'oeuvre of the eternal Artist to whom all do- 
 honour, you have heard the angels and the prophets, 
 singing her praises on their harps of gold. But at 
 last a prophet, an old man advances, he itjs who is> 
 to end the prophetic train. He sees the Virgin ; he 
 looks at her, and drawing near to her he says: 
 "Thou art a mother, and a sword of grief shalL 
 pierce thy heart." 
 
 This is the finishing stroke of her greatness, the 
 
The Valiant Woman. 2TJ 
 
 Tiighest pitch of her elevation. A sword of grief 
 shall pierce thy heart ! Thou art the chef-d'cEuvre 
 of God, the chef-d'oeuvre of the human hierarchy ; 
 thou art God's greatest conception. But in order 
 "that this chef-d'oeuvre be completed, finished, 
 crowned, thou must thyself become a great sorrow. 
 Pass along then through the world, fulfil thy 
 destiny ; thy brow shall be encircled by privil^es, 
 'but thy heart shall be broken ; yet from thy glories 
 and thy sufferings mingled together by a divine 
 hand shall there spring forth those bright rays of 
 light which we call love, charity, and virtue. 
 
 Yes, my sisters, it is truly a mystery that the 
 only thing which God kept in store for His Mother 
 ■was the capability of suffering. There exists 
 therein something which disconcerts and astonishes 
 even minds accustomed to fathom the mysteries of 
 the supernatural. 
 
 For, never did woman suffer as Mary suffered, 
 and yet I have said how you, my sisters, are pre- 
 eminently destined to suffer; you cannot escape 
 from this law by the pleasures, the distractions of 
 life ; if at first you are not overtaken by the tempest 
 of the world, or sorrows of the heart, still, sooner 
 
278 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 or later will suffering come upon you ; you may- 
 put it out of your minds, but its sharp sword will 
 find you out 
 
 The Virgin, the woman, valiant before all others^ 
 the Mother of Jesus, had to endure more cruelly,, 
 more intensely than any other. Everythii^ in her 
 life was crushed and bruised ; her feelings as a 
 virgin, a mother, a spouse, all her sense of Christian 
 tenderness, if I may so speak, her every feeling, 
 in fact, was crushed and broken like the strings of a 
 harp which gives forth nothing but plaintive sounds. 
 
 When she brings her Son into the world, she has 
 not even what every other mother possesses at so 
 blessed a moment of her life ; she is obliged to take 
 refuge in a stable, and to share with the ox and the 
 ass the straw for the manger ; she is forsaken amidst 
 the hardships of winter ; she is in silence and in 
 loneliness, but she bows her head. True, the angels' 
 song will soon be heard ; true, the star will rise 
 Ov^r the manger so that rich and poor may know 
 the place, but now her desolation is complete. 
 
 Then, when bearing in her arms her newborn 
 babe she comes to the Templfe, it is foretold to her 
 by Simeon that this Son who is now her glory, will 
 
The Valiant Woman. 279' 
 
 become to her a sharp sword which shall pierce her 
 inmost soul, that He will be a "sign which shall be 
 contradicted." 
 
 After these first maternal trials came those of 
 exile ; she is obliged to set out in the middle of 
 the night in order to escape from the storms which 
 threaten her, both from above and below : prose- 
 cuting her on account of her Son ; the two strongest 
 powers in the wofrld, the power of the populace and 
 the monarchical power, combining together to take 
 away her Child from her. 
 
 My sisters, when you are obliged to send your 
 sons to school, how you grieve to part from them, 
 with what tender care do you not surround them. 
 But Mary is poor and desolate, and taking her 
 Child in her arms, she goes into exile without other 
 stay but the old man who is her companion, and he 
 had even for a moment suspected her virtue. Thus 
 does she start on the road for Egypt. 
 
 Exile has never been one of your trials, my 
 sisters, it has never been your fate to listen to the 
 sighs of those who are in banishment. Exile ! No 
 longer to behold the sky under which we were 
 born, the earth which was our cradle, the grave- for 
 
28o. The Supernatural Life. 
 
 which we hoped, the roof which sheltered our 
 childish years, the faces on which our eyes loved 
 to rest ; to be deprived of air to breathe ! for we 
 find that in other lands the air is no longer the 
 same, that the light is other, that the mountains 
 have not the same outline, neither the sky the same 
 aspect. The poor exile ! Not only does he miss 
 these material things, but he has lost the hearts 
 which were dear to him, those hearts which made 
 up the happiness of his life, and his nature requires 
 these affections. 
 
 The Mother then bears away her Son into exile ! 
 She was compelled, as the holy fathers tell us, to 
 live upon alms ; she was obliged to beg her bread, 
 to eat the bread of charity ! she, the Mother of the 
 King of the universe, of Him who stretches out 
 the sky like a canopy over our heads ! she was 
 obliged to live by her own work, to earn by the 
 sweat of her brow the bread which she gave to 
 her holy Child ! Oh ! truly was she " the valiant 
 woman !" 
 
 At Nazareth she undergoes the anxiety and the 
 pain caused by the absence of her Child, when He 
 remained behind amidst the doctors in the Temple 
 
The Valiant Wotnan. 281 
 
 at Jerusalem. Later on, she suffers for several 
 years the pain of separation. True that, for a 
 time, she enjoyed the sweetness of the presence of 
 Jesus Christ. When a mother sees her son return 
 home, even if his face is blackened and soiled by 
 his laborious work, to her he is ever beautiful, for 
 ^he sees his heart, his soul ; Mary is happy when 
 «he sees her Son. 
 
 But when Jesus enters into public life, when He 
 speaks unto souls, when multitudes live on His words, 
 when He performs miracles both by His hands and 
 by His words, Mary is not there. 
 . When the Jewish women cried out : " Blessed is 
 the womb that bare Thee, and the paps which 
 Thou hast sucked !" Mary was not there. 
 
 When upon Mount Thabor, Jesus revealed for a 
 few moments the splendour of His glory; when 
 the Apostles Peter, James, and John, gazing at 
 Him, exclaimed : " It is good for us to be here !" 
 JMary was not there. 
 
 When, in presence of His Twelve Apostles, He 
 took bread to make thereof the bread of eternity, 
 and wine which He was to turn into the blood of the 
 Jife divine ; when He said : " Take, eat and drink ; 
 
282 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 this is My Body, and this is My Blood," Mary 
 was not then there to partake of it. 
 
 Mary had endured the maternal suffering of 
 Bethlehem, the sorrows and the trials of exile, the. 
 grief when forsaken at Jerusalem ; but now she 
 is to undergo the most terrible of all sorrows, 
 that incomparable sorrow, the agony of sacrifice.: 
 Can, indeed, any sacrifice be compared unto- 
 hers ? 
 
 You speak of your own sufferings, of your griev- 
 ances, your sorrows. Beholid that victim ascending^ 
 Mount Calvary ! Mary bears the insults of the 
 crowd, their clamours for Jesus' death ; she sees 
 her Son wounded and pierced. That virgin flesh 
 which she bare in her womb, she sees torn in pieces.. 
 The face of Jesus is bruised, His body is lacerated 
 and disfigured. And Mary longs to take Him 
 from the cross, to fold Him in her arms, and press 
 Him to her heart ; she cannot. She stands erect,, 
 whilst that poor woman who was a sinner, but whom 
 repentance has restored, is bowed down in the- 
 agony of her desolation. Mary stands erect ; like 
 the priest at the altar, like the Pontiff of the living 
 God, she takes the victim offered for humanity, her 
 
The Valiant Woman. 28j 
 
 soul consents to the sacrifice. She say?, Fiat ! so 
 be it! 
 
 She accomplishes this act of Christian resig- 
 nation: "Be it done unto me according to Thy 
 word!" 
 
 She says it when the Saviour is to be conceived 
 in her womb ; she repeats it in order to give to the 
 world the Redeemer, in all the cruel sufiferings of 
 His Passion. 
 
 Then comes to pass that very miracle of sorrow. 
 
 The Son of God begs for' a drop of water from 
 humanity : He has given His blood for mankind ; 
 it is not granted to Him ! the drop of water is 
 refused to Him ; nothing is offered Him but the gall 
 of scorn and contempt ! He invokes His Father ; 
 but He has no longer a Father. He exclaims : 
 " My Father, why hast Thou forsaken Me >" 
 
 It is like a cry of despair. And His Mother is 
 there! unable to give Him a drop of water, to tell 
 Him that she has not abandoned Him ! Yet more, 
 and this is the culminating point of the sacrifice : 
 the Mother has sacrificed the Son ! The Son sacri- 
 fices the Mother ! 
 
 Then the curtain of the Temple is rent in twain ; 
 
284, The Supernatural Life. 
 
 there remains but for humanity to contemplate this 
 stupendous immolation : a Mother sacrificing her 
 Son, a Son sacrificing His Mother ! Thus through 
 a twofold immolation, humanity pure as St. John, 
 restored to grace like Magdalen, may take the 
 Blood of Calvary, the Blood of sacrifice, and steep 
 itself in the tenderness of the Mother, in the divine 
 self-sacrifice of the Son. 
 
 Conceive a chef-d'oeuvre of beauty. Imagine it 
 great above all greatness, pure above all purity, 
 magnificent above all magnificence. Let the sun 
 be its mantle, the stars its diadem, the world its 
 pedestal — still will it not suffice for the glories of 
 Mary. A very prodigy of suffering : as a woman, 
 a mother, a spouse is she tortured ; there is no cor- 
 ner in her heart which is not racked in agony ; yet 
 does she stand erect, suffering to the utmost limits 
 of agony. 
 
 Mary was a grand conception, a grand idea, a 
 grand embodiment of suff"ering ; hence also springs 
 her wonderful power of influence. 
 
 One great thought, one absorbing/eeling, gives 
 great power ; great suffering gives still greater 
 power, therefore did I say, " Of what is that man 
 
The Valiant Woman. 285 
 
 capable who has not suffered ?" There is an incom- 
 parable power in suffering. The lamentations of 
 sorrow are the strength of the world. Tears are 
 more powerful than the sword or genius ; they are 
 the type, the symbol, the insignia of suffering. 
 
 Mary, the chef-d'oeuvre of purity and sorrow, is 
 also the impersonification of influence. 
 
 Who has the influence of the Virgin ? Since she 
 brought her Son into the world, she brought into it 
 life ; she poured out eternal light upon the world. 
 As some poet has said, all light dates from the 
 cradle of the Lord, consequently from the divine 
 child-bearing of Mary. 
 
 She is the protectress of all truth ; since she 
 came into the world every truth of religion has 
 been watched over by her ; she Is the stem on 
 which every truth rests. 
 
 But this is not always understood, although 
 it is part of the divine scheme. I have often met 
 with persons who, on their return to their own 
 Protestant homes, after visiting Catholic cities^ 
 said to me : "I saw little pictures hanging up 
 on the walls, little books of devotion, little carved 
 figures ; I saw people bowing their knees before aa 
 
286 TJie Supernatural Life, 
 
 image; what does it all mean? Are these things 
 signs of idolatry come to life again ?" 
 
 They do not understand that they are simply 
 external marks of devotion, nothing more. 
 
 Nothing stands alone in the world. The Virgin is 
 the guardian of the truth which has been given 
 to man. From the logic of history it is easy to 
 •see how those nations which have ignored Mary's 
 power and banished her worship have lost Jesus 
 •Christ ; and Jesus Christ is truth. 
 
 And, indeed, in these days of heresy, the 
 finishing stroke of three centuries of denial of truth 
 has been to look upon divine truth as a simple 
 historical fact. After having denied the sacred 
 prerogatives of the immaculate Mother of the 
 Saviour, the last stroke has been the denial of the 
 •divinity of her Son. 
 
 Mary protects her Son ; she crushes heresy, as 
 she crushed the serpent. 
 
 There is great connection between Mary and 
 Christianity. The Virgin Mother is the protect- 
 ress, the tutelary preserver of truth in the doctrinal 
 order, as well as in the intellectual. But I will not 
 dwell on this idea. Mary is especially the born 
 protectress of charity. 
 
The Valiant Woman. ' 287 
 
 When you behold that Mother sacrificing her Son 
 for the salvation of the world, how courageous 
 ■ought not you to be, my sisters ; how simple ought 
 not self-devotion to appear to you; how easily 
 should you perform the small sacrifices which may 
 be required of you ! 
 
 Mary is the protectress of self-devotion. 
 
 That wonderful hierarchy of religious orders ; 
 those women who are but too little known, who 
 are mostly seen through the insults and abuse 
 which are heaped upon them ; it is they who are 
 the preservers of Christianity in this our ancient 
 Europe. After the sacrifice of Jesus, after' the 
 daily immolation of the sacred victim, this pre- 
 servation is due to those women who have buried 
 themselves in cloisters, in institutions devoted to 
 -education, to expiation. Yes, it is due to those 
 silent, devoted women, who, forgetful of themselves, 
 by a perpetual self-immolation, offer themselves to 
 Jesus Christ as a voluntary sacrifice. And God 
 beholds this marvellous hierarchy, flying for shelter 
 to Mary, and following her pure and immaculate 
 tanner in order to invoke her to do her honour. 
 
 These women are an example of self-abnegation ; 
 
288 TJte Supernatural Life. 
 
 how self-devotion flourishes under the auspices of 
 Mary, how popular does it become ! If some one 
 of those great men, one of those great minds which 
 might be called the gray dawn of the Gospel, the 
 rationalistic precursors of Jesus Christ ; if a man^ 
 like Plato were to return into our debased andi 
 wretched world, were he to return in this century 
 of treachery, of cowardice, and of selfishness, he 
 could not yet fail to be struck by the beauty and 
 the grandeur of the religious hierarchy ! He could, 
 not but admire the immense amount of self-devo- 
 tion, the craving for self-sacrifice ! 
 
 Look at those "Little Sisters," who hide their 
 name, their fortune, beneath a sombre cloak, and,, 
 forsaking all things, devote themselves to the poor- 
 and to the aged ! 
 
 Look at those women who shut themselves up. 
 in convents, for the sakd of bringing up and edu- 
 cating children ! 
 
 Look at the frequency, the commonness, of such 
 self-devotion among women ; which has become a. 
 thing of daily occurrence. Oh ! it is because 
 Mary watched over the cradle of those young; 
 hearts. 
 
The Valiant Woman. 289 
 
 And innocence ! , To keep your innocence, to 
 preserve it amidst the dangers of temptation, 
 amidst the seductions and the trials of your youth^ 
 when you felt the approach of the Tempter, oh ! 
 did you not then send forth a cry which traversed 
 the universe on its road to Heaven ! And Mary 
 came^ she protected you, she inspired you with good 
 thoughts, and you rose again, stronger, more hopeful. 
 
 Mary, then, is the protectress of innocence. 
 
 And what woman has the influence of Mary? 
 After all, she is but a woman. She is not God,; 
 she is but the mother of Jesus. We do not elevate 
 her to divinity, we do but call her blessed. She is 
 a child of man, like you, my sisters, but she is a 
 chef-d'ceuvre of purity and love, and great is her 
 influence. 
 
 For the last nineteen- centuries, pontiffs have 
 grown gray in theological battles; doctors and 
 priests have struggled to defend the holy, but often 
 much controverted, orthodoxy of the faith. But 
 all, like St. Jerome, like St. Augustine, have first 
 knelt down and invoked the Virgin Mary, begging 
 her to inspire their words, and to protect the 
 Church and the truth. 
 
 19 
 
290 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 Neither were the' monks of old wanting in devo- 
 tion to the Mother of God. Look at the grand 
 figures of St. Benedict, of St. Bernard. They, too^ 
 have recourse to Mary, imploring her blessing on 
 their courageous efforts. 
 
 See, again, St. Francis of Sales; see Bossuet, 
 laden with years and with renown, kneeling before 
 a poor image of Mary, and begging her to bless 
 his words. 
 
 As protectress of truth and of the Church, Mary 
 exercises an incomparable influence, for she is the 
 representative of the supernatural, and this is the 
 strongest influence, the most powerful feeling, 
 which can be brought to bear on the human race. 
 
 I efnd, my sisters, by saying that you, too, in 
 your daily lives, may exercise an immense in- 
 fluence. Upon your grave, as upon your cradle, 
 there will ever be a memento either of good or of 
 evil, of a blessing or a curse. It is your terrible 
 responsibility, but it is also your glory. 
 
 You cannot remain neutral here below. Either 
 you will do good, or you will do harm. When you 
 die, you cannot receive a blessing on the right 
 hand, and a curse on the left. Your looks, your 
 
The Valiant Woman. 291 
 
 -countenance, your heart, your movements, your 
 attitude, your whole life, everything belonging to 
 you, is power, an apostolate ; everything has an in- 
 fluence. If you would influence for good, you must 
 live in the supernatural, the life divine must live 
 within you. You cannot surpass God. To possess 
 God is the best of all things. To have Him within 
 you is to be full of love, full of generosity ; it is the 
 putting-off of your selfishness, of your cowardice, 
 of your day-dreams, of all the meannesses of your 
 life. 
 
 Accept your sufferings, therefore, my sisters in 
 Jesus Christ. Love them ; ascend evert unto the 
 •altar of sacrifice, to receive them as from the im- 
 mediate hand of God, with an uplifted heart, with 
 a courageous soul. Thus to accept the crown of 
 thorns offered to you by God, is the means, not 
 only of sanctifying yourselves, but of being an im- 
 mense influence for good. If you be the embodi- 
 ment of but one grand thought, kindled by the fire 
 •of noble feelings, and disciplined by suffering, then 
 will you have great influence on those around you. 
 And do you not wish to become influential for 
 
 ^ood } 
 
 19 — 2 
 
292 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 I do not know whether, for the last nineteen 
 centuries, there has been in the world's life a more 
 solemn hour than this present one. When the 
 barbarous hordes threw themselves upon the old 
 world in order to destroy it, no doubt it was a 
 solemn moment ; but in those days there were 
 pontiffs, and priests, and Christians, who never 
 rested till these very barbarians became baptized 
 Christians, like St. Clotilde leading Clovis , to the 
 feet of St. Remy, by whom this king of a great 
 nation was baptized. Later on, there were fierce 
 combats to save Jesus from Arianism. In the 
 middle ages the fight was for the deliverance of 
 the tomb of Christ. The sixteenth century was 
 the witness of religious controversy ; in the 
 eighteenth, we see the struggle between irony and 
 virtue, between the smile of scorn and beauty 6l 
 self-devotion. In the nineteenth century, the 
 battle-field is wider, but the fight is reduced to 
 two combatants, God and the devil. Who shall 
 conquer, God or man ?, Jesus Christ, or the 
 tempter } Shall it be the reign of God, or shall it 
 be the reign of the Evil One ? It is an awful mo- 
 ment ? Jesus, seeing the conflict, says : " He who 
 
The Valiant Woman. 293 
 
 is not with Me, is against Me." You cannot escape 
 from this battle. You cannot sit down on a stone 
 by the roadside, and watch the dust of the combat 
 as a mere spectator. You must take your part in 
 it. If not actively, at least by prayer ; for prayer 
 is all-powerful, either when it proceeds from the 
 mouth of the young girl, or from that of the deso- 
 late widow, or the woman tried by suffering ; when 
 the Church is fightirig, the weapon of prayer is her 
 best defence. It is the voice which pleads for 
 victory, and obtains it. 
 
 Strive then, my sisters in Jesus Christ, and 
 devote your thoughts, your time, your influence, to 
 the service of God and His Church. If, besides 
 this, you make use of the power of expiation ; if 
 you learn to pour your sorrows, your sufferings, 
 your tears, not into the trivialities of life, but into 
 the hands of the angels ; if you can offer them up 
 as a sacrifice to God ; if you will co-operate by 
 your self-devotion, by the careful education of your 
 children, by training their hearts and minds so as 
 to prepare them to become both good and great, 
 you may thus co-operate in the Church's mission ; 
 perhaps, even, it may be your privilege some day 
 
294 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 to give Her one of your daughters under the vir- 
 ginal veil, or one of your sons to serve Her under 
 the sacerdotal habit. 
 
 Let me speak to you as a bishop. The upper 
 classes do not generally give their children to the 
 Church ; they are too fond of leaving this honour 
 to the inhabitants of the country — I am not speak- 
 ing of this city of Lyons, which is an exception — 
 but of other large towns of our old Europe. I 
 have already mentioned this from the pulpit both 
 in Paris and Vienna. The real misery of the 
 Church is to see how young men of the upper 
 classes seem to be incapable of anything better 
 than driving fours-in-hand, or applauding an 
 actress. The honour of taking and of holding the 
 blood of Jesus Christ is not given to them. Whole 
 generations often pass away before a family gives 
 one son to the Church. 
 
 Christian women ! your mother's hearts do not 
 burn enough with divine love that their exhalations 
 should bring forth the heart of a priest. Oh ! ask 
 of God that your families may give sons to the 
 Church ; ask of Him that this city of Lyons may 
 bring forth souls who may immolate and devote 
 
The Valiant Woman. 295 
 
 themselves for Him ; ask Him that you, in your 
 turn, may have the courage of sacrifice, and that 
 from you, too, may be born an apostle. To speak 
 to men about God, to enlighten the world, to serve 
 Him at the altar ; is not this, after all, a grand and 
 magnificent destiny ? 
 
 Serve, then, the Church, by your words, by your 
 prayers, by your humble and hidden life. Use 
 your influence for all that is good. Suffer courage- 
 ously. Become imbued with the one great idea of 
 the Supernatural Life, and let this transfiguration 
 shine forth on your countenances, and be felt, like 
 the sunshine, on all around you. 
 
 My sisters, let these my last words penetrate 
 into your ears like a voice of thunder. I am going 
 to return to my own city, where the workers for 
 God are not many ; help me with your prayers, 
 that when the harvest is ripe I may be allowed to 
 reap it. And since the Head of the Christian 
 Church (who is now on His own Calvary, crowned 
 with His threefold diadem and His crown of thorns,) 
 has placed this cross on my breast, since He has 
 sent me into an arid land to work as in the shadow 
 of death, ask of Him that I may become a saint. 
 
ig6 The Supernatural Life. 
 
 that I may, by the means of that influence which 
 attracts souls, propagate in the world those great 
 and holy truths which may lead men to life ever- 
 lasting. 
 
 My sisters, when this nineteenth century, with 
 all its pride and glorious splendour, shall be laid in, 
 its tomb, when the twentieth century shall have 
 risen up to laugh at our grandeurs and our childish, 
 pretensions ; still, over that departed century, will 
 two figures be seen standing forth in broad relief. • 
 
 First, the 'figure of Pius IX., that wonderful 
 Pontiff, that countenance shining with angelic 
 beauty, that privileged soul seeing nought but God 
 and the Supernatural Life, giving to the world so 
 marvellous an example of patience, truth, pardon, 
 and saintliness. Side by side with this great 
 Pontiff, you see rising up the austere, emaciated 
 figure of that poor and simple country priest, in 
 whom dwelt the Spirit of God, whom crowds visited 
 in his humble presbytery — the Cure d'Ars. 
 
 Pius IX. and the Cur6 d'Ars will rise up, bright 
 land shining, amidst the darkness of a degenerate 
 century ; for there is nothing fruitful save the Spirit 
 of God ; He alone is our strength. 
 
The Valiant Woman. 297 
 
 My sisters, if you wish to have real influence, 
 you must become endued with the spirit of holi- 
 ness. 
 
 This is my last, as it was my first, advice. Be 
 
 saints ; and you will then become the noblest, the 
 
 Lpnost powerful influence here below ; the sweetest, 
 
 the best helper of God and His Church. You will 
 
 become the valiant women of the Bible. 
 
 R WASHBOURNE, PRINTER, l8 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON,