Part I, Chapter IV: The Spiritual Life of the Priest (1): I. Morning Exercise (2)

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sweat of their brow. The word "bread" in this condemnation applies to knowledge, the bread of the mind, as well as to the material bread, which nourishes the body.

Thus, you should undertake study with the proper realization that it is part of your penance, and sanctify it in all humility, remembering that, when you become conceited about science learned the hard way, you are ridiculous. You are little better than the branded criminal who boasts of the prison stripes he wears. Finally, do not forget that the wisest man who ever lived recognized only too well that all knowledge, all science and learning are but vanity. For the creations of man, his arts and science will pass away. "Knowledge shall be destroyed" (1 Cor. 13, 8).

The second effect customarily produced by learning is that it kills devotion. "The letter killeth" ( 2 Cor. 3, 6). It makes man lukewarm and lazy in spiritual exercises and in works of charity and zeal. Consequently, you should not become too deeply absorbed in study, lest it cool your ardor for the service of God. During study periods, you should frequently detach yourself from the actual task before you, and lift up your soul to God, in order to fill your mind and heart with thoughts and affections of piety and devotion.

The third effect is the danger of becoming self-opinionated, or conceited, causing a tendency to belittle others, their views or expressions of opinion. From these faults there develops contention, against which St Paul warns, «Contend not in words, for it is to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers»(2.Tim.14). "Fulfil ye my joy, that you be of one mind, having the same charity . . . let nothing be done through contention, neither by vain glory" (Phil. 2, 2-3). These arguments often offend against charity, creating bitterness which rankles and dispels charity which is indeed the worst loss one could sustain. For St. Paul says: If I should have prophecy and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothings' (1 Cor. 13,2).

It is obvious, therefore, that you should not sacrifice the slightest degree of charity even if in doing so you should become famous for learning. Likewise, your opinions are better sacrificed, for their reten

tion may become the cause of wounding the feelings of others. The prime obligation of the Christian is to love his neighbor as himself, and not to seek to get the better of him, but rather to master himself and to cultivate mutual understanding.

Prayer Before Study

Mitte, Domine, sapientiam de caelis sanctis tuis et a sede magnitudinis tuae, ut mecum sit et mecum laboret, ut sciam quid acceptum sit apud te. Sensum autem tuum quis sciet, nisi tu dederis sapientiam et miseris Spiritum sanctum tuum de altissimis? Da mihi intellectum, et scrutabor legem tuam. Da mihi , Domine, sedium tuarum assistricem sapientiam, et noli me reprobare a pueris tuis; quoniam servus tuus sum ego, homo infirmus, et minor ad intellectum judicii et legum. *Da mihi intellectum ... * Gloria P atri ... * Da mihi intellectum ...

8. the Sacrament of Penance

Preparation for Confession

Adore Jesus Christ in His spirit of penance. He was charged with the burden of your sins, and He undertook to make satisfaction to Divine Justice. Consequently, He practised a most rigorous penance.

Surrender yourself to Him to enter into the true dispositions of penance. Beg Him to make you worthy participators in the divine light which illuminates all your faults and failings, that you, too, may see them. Beseech your loving Saviour to help you to know and share His humiliation and contrition and His intense hatred for sin. Likewise, let it be your constant aim to study His love for His Heavenly Father, a love which constrained Him to choose His Father in preference to Himself, so that, being charged with your transgressions, He might bear them Himself and satisfy the divine wrath.

Examine your conscience seriously. judge and condemn yourself without mercy, that God may judge you with justice and mercy.

Cry out to God and beg through the merits of His wounds and sufferings, by His Precious Blood and Death, that you may understand

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the real spirit of penance. Likewise invoke the assistance of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the saints, that you may detach yourself from sinful habits, from the world and from yourself, and give yourself completely to Our Lord.

Make frequent acts of contrition. Formulate resolutions to avoid sin and the occasions of sin and to follow Christ in accordance with your baptismal promises.

Approach the tribunal of penance as if you were about to face judgment. Think of the priest as taking the place of Jesus Christ Himself. Confess your sins as if you were speaking to the Master in person and as if you were about to die. Receive with humility and thankfulness the instruction given by your confessor. Accept and discharge as soon as possible the penance imposed upon you, uniting it with that penance undergone by Jesus when, scourged and crowned with thorns, He died on the cross to save your soul.

Thanksgiving After Confession

After confession, thank our Saviour for the grace of pardon you have received, realizing that the smallest transgression is a greater evil than the worst temporal injury or misfortune. Remember that the pardon extended to you by God is a greater favor than if He had cured you of the most grievous physical illness. Thus, it is well after confession to say the Gloria Patri several times, in special thanksgiving to the Blessed Trinity. Also recite the Qui natus est de virgine as a gesture of gratitude towards God the Son, and an Ave to thank the Blessed Mother through whom all graces flow to us.

Say your penance with the most perfect dispositions of Christ as He completed the divine task of redemption. Offer it up in union with the penances of all holy men and women on earth.

Give yourself anew to Our Lord with a fervent desire to keep the resolutions you have taken, placing your complete confidence in the mercy and goodness of Christ Himself and begging Him to be more faithful in the future.

Recommend yourself again and again to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to the angels and saints.

9. Evening Exercise

Adore God as the beginning and the source of every good and thank Him for all the benefits which have come to you especially today. Thank Him, too, on behalf of the countless creatures who never think of giving thanks to Him for His infinite graces.

Adore Christ as your sovereign judge, and offer yourself in submission~ to His holy will. Bless Him in that judgment which one day He will pronounce upon you. Beg Him to infuse into your heart the celestial light you need to see your sins and transgressions.

Examine your conscience carefully; endeavor to discern every thought, word or deed by which you may have displeased God, especially in matters concerning the good resolutions taken at meditation in the morning.

Ask God for a true spirit of penance, and of humility, similar to His own. Beseech Our Blessed Saviour to make you hate sin as He does, to have the courage to confess your offenses and receive absolution after having made genuine acts of contrition and amendment.

Offer to the Eternal Father the life, virtues, Passion and Death of His Only-Begotten Son, with all the merits of His Holy Mother and of the Universal Church in expiation for your offenses.

Pray to the Blessed Virgin Mary, to St. Joseph and St. Gabriel, to all the angels and saints, begging them to obtain His forgiveness for you, and the grace of true conversion.

Offer to God the night's rest you are about to take, in union with the repose of Our Lord and His Blessed Virgin during their life on earth.

Unite yourself with the praise which will be offered to the Blessed Trinity this night, on earth and in heaven, and for all eternity. Lovingly protest to the Creator that you wish every breath and every heartbeat of your sleeping hours to be so many acts of praise for His divine majesty.

Try to fall asleep with the dispositions and in the state in which you would like to be at the hour of death. Give yourself to Our Lord that you may enter into the dispositions with which He, His Blessed Mother and the saints awaited the hour of death.

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Ask the blessing of Christ and of His Holy Mother. Say with great devotion: Benedictum sit Cor amantissimum et dulcissimum nomen Domini nostri Christi et gloriosissimae Virginis Mariae Matris ejus, in aeternum et ultra. Nos cum Prole pia benedicat Virgo Maria.

While undressing, pray God that He may put away from you the old man and clothe you with the new, saying the words of the Psalmist, "Deliver me, 0 Lord, from the evil man: rescue me from the unjust man" (Ps. 139, 2). Make use of other ejaculations or meditate upon a text of Sacred Scripture.

Before getting into bed, bless yourself with holy water; make the sign of the cross with it upon your bed and renew your baptismal promise. Abrenuntio tibi, Satana. Adhaereo tibi, Christe.

Before falling asleep, listen to the voice of the Holy Ghost which says, "In all thy works remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin" (Ecclus. 7, 40).

Repeat Christ's last words, "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit" (Luke 23, 46). Try to say these blessed words as if they were your last. Give yourself to the Lord wholly that you may enter into the dispositions with which He and all the saints used these very words.

Try to fall asleep with these thoughts in your mind, and with the sweet names of Jesus and Mary upon your lips.

If you awake during the night, make use of some ejaculatory prayer such as, "Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death: lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him" (PS. 12, 4-5). Or say these words, "For though I should walk in the midst of the shadow of death, I will fear no evils, for thou art with me" (PS. 22, 4).

Bless and thank God for watching over you while you sleep. "Behold he shall neither slumber nor sleep, that keepeth Israel" (PS. 120, 4). I will fix my eyes upon thee" (PS. 31, 8).

Realize, too, that, while you have been resting so peacefully, there are many poor souls in misery; there are countless others in agony, in prison, in peril upon land and sea. Recommend all these persons to the mercy of God.

Think also of those countless souls which suffer torments in purgatory. Go down in spirit into hell where countless souls suffer eternal

torments. Humiliate yourself with the thought that by your sins you, too, have merited to be their companion, and that only the goodness of God has saved you from this fate.

Adore the Trinity, with the angels and saints and all the heavenly court. Say the Gloria Patri. Beg Mary's intercession. Recite an Ave Maria. Repeat Avete omnes angeli et omnes sancti et sanctae Dei: benedicti sitis in aeternum et intercedere dignemini pro nostra omniumque salute. Ask Jesus and Mary to bless you with the words: Nos cum Prole pia benedicat Vi~go Maria. 43-