Forty-second point. His assiduity in the confessional

Her answer on the, forty-second point was :

Our Blessed Founder was absolutely incom parable in the zeal and charity which he dis played in the Confessional. He gave himself up absolutely to this sacred work, with no measure or limit save the necessity of those who had recourse to him. For them, knowing how great a profit this Sacrament brings to souls, he put aside whatever else he was doing — unless, indeed, he happened to be occupied in some business still more important to the glory of God. Numbers of people, noblemen, ladies of rank, citizens, soldiers, maid-servants, peasants, beggars, sick persons, even those afflicted with the most loathsome and revolting diseases, came to him on Sundays and Festivals, and were received by him

200 Saint Sane $. to CijantaPs with no distinction of persons, but with equal love and gentleness. Indeed he never refused to see any one, however mean and wretched, but on the contrary, I firmly believe he felt a deeper affection for such, treating them more tenderly than the rich and fortunate, for this, he said, was true charity. Even children were not denied an audience by our Blessed Founder, and he received them so kindly that they delighted to come back to him again and again.

He gave his penitents all the time and oppor tunity which they desired in order to explain themselves clearly and fully. He never hurried them. Besides the above-mentioned seasons, at whatever day or hour they asked for him, he left everything to go to them, sometimes even giving up going to recite Office in the Cathedral, or de laying the saying of Mass although he was ready vested, or getting up from his meals, to the vexa tion of his servants, who vainly tried to dissuade him from so doing.

At the great Festivals, Jubilees, and similar occasions he was often obliged to hear confessions day and night. One day I saw him overwhelmed with fatigue. " These days," he said to me, " are worth their weight in gold to me, I am hearing so great a number of confessions." In order to give confidence to his penitents he used to say to them : " Make no difference between your heart and mine; I am wholly yours, our souls are one."

He wept with some over their sins, and treated his penitents so gently that they melted before him. On one occasion he wrote to me thus : " We have had a great Jubilee here, which has kept me very busy, but much consoled by the hearing of many general confessions, and by promises of amendment from my penitents, which I have gathered in with tears, partly of joy, partly of love."

Another time he wrote thus to me : " Four days ago I received into the bosom of the Church and to Confession a gentleman, twenty years of age. 0 Saviour of my soul ! what joy it was to hear him so devoutly accusing himself of his sins, and by so doing revealing so clearly those hidden springs and motions of the Provi dence of God, which in so admirable and sublime a manner had lifted him out of the mire ! I felt almost beside myself with joy. How many kisses of peace I gave him."

When he knew that, either from shame or fear, his penitents found it difficult to express them selves plainly in Confession, he tried by all possible means to open their hearts and increase their confidence. " Am I not your father ? " he would say to them again and again until they answered : " Yes," and then would go on to say : " Do you not really wish to tell me everything ? God is waiting for you to open your hearts, His arms are extended to receive you. You see that I am in the place of God, and you are ashamed to be plain with me; but apart from that I am a sinner, and if you had committed all the crimes in the world I should not be astonished at them."

202 Saint 5ane JF+ te (JHjantar* depositions

He even, with the greatest gentleness, helped them to explain their sins, when he saw that fro^m ignorance or shaine they had difficulty in telling them.

After Confession he spoke such-like cheering words : " Oh ! how dear your soul and all its revelations are to me ! Now the angels are re joicing and exulting over this action, and I join with them in congratulating you upon it; but you must promise Our Lord and me also not to fall back again."

When he saw that there was no real contrition accompanying the confession he would elicit it by a few short words, such as : " You wish that you had never offended God, do you not ? " And some times he would cause the penitent to repeat some thing of which he had accused himself in order to overcome the repugnance felt in declaring it.

He gave very slight penances, and used to say : " You will do what I tell you, will you not ? then say such and such a thing," naming some vocal prayer which could be easily said, and never giving as a penance meditation on some mystery, or any thing of that kind.

He spoke very little at Confession, unless it was necessary to remove vain scruples or to enlighten his penitents as to what was sin and what was not. What he did say, nevertheless, touched the heart far more than long harangues would have done, and one left him full of courage, and often with much recollection and a deep sense of the presence of God.

Jtots4fecorib Point 203

He liked people to be simple, clear, and artless in Confession, and told his penitents that it was necessary to make it clearly understood what impulses had led to the commission of sins, and that they must not make their confessions in an off-hand way, but must show the Confessor plainly all the moving springs which had brought about such a result, otherwise it would be impossible ever to be thoroughly cleansed from them. By this zeal in purging souls by plain confession, he rooted out many evil passions which others, who did not follow this method, might have left there.

With this extraordinary kindliness he opened hearts the most closely shut, drew out the evil hidden in them, and in its place planted gentle affections and firm resolutions. The decisive character of the solutions he gave was incompar able; he cleared up all doubts and scruples of conscience instantly, and restored peace and calm to the soul.

The same day, at two o'clock in the afternoon :

Continuing the subject of the preceding point (the forty-second), I add that it would be im possible to enumerate all those who by the help of our Blessed Founder were led on further and further in the way of Christian perfection, and that only we, who have seen so many of his penitents beginning a new life and full of ardour, could believe it. In short, every one who came to him in a right spirit left him with great profit

204 Saint Sane $. tie (JHjantar* JBeposittons to their souls and an earnest desire to come to him again, and they encouraged one another in such desires.

In Paris, where he often heard confessions in our Church, and also at Grenoble, I have seen crowds of people of rank of both sexes. God only knows the infinite number of souls won for His Divine Majesty through the medium of this Blessed Founder, for his wide-spread reputation of being unequalled in gentleness and piety, and incomparable in his method of directing souls, brought penitents to him from all quarters.

When it was known that he was passing through a town, or to the country house of any of his friends, he was always called upon to hear general confessions, and, as he used to say, his penitents kept for him the deepest recesses of their con science and the things which they had great difficulty in telling to others. This is true, &c.