Preface

In offering this little treatise to the public, two things alone seem to call for explanation. 1. I speak continually of the Confraternity of the Precious Blood. This is because the work was intended as a sort of spiritual manual for the members, not because it is not equally suited for all devout Catholics. 2. While I trust to the charity of my readers to interpret me in all doubtful or obscure passages, as meaning only what approved writers mean, I wpuld especially guard myself against one misapprehension. It may be said, " All these practices and devotions have to do with mere Affective Love, not Effective; " and it may therefore be supposed that I would have people stop at the one without going on to the other. Of course, the oerfection of love is to be effective, and effective love consists only in self-abnegation. There is no high sanctity short of this. But it is not the subject I am treating of. I am not putting forward what is perfect, but what is easy. I am not trying to guide souls in high spirituality; God forbid I should be so foolish or so vain! As a son of St. Philip I have especially to do with the world, and with people living in the world and trying to be good there, and to sanctify themselves in ordinary vocations. It is to

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such I speak; and I am putting before them, not high things, but things which are at once attractive as devotions, and also tend to raise their fervor, to quicken their love, and to increase their sensible sweetness in practical religion and its duties. I want to make piety bright and happy to those who need such helps, as I do myself. I have not ventured to aim higher. If it causes one heart to love our dearest Lord a trifle more warmly, God will have blessed both the work and its writer far above their deservings.

St. Mary's, Sydenham Hill, St. Philip Deri's Day, 1853.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

A large edition of the book having sold off in about a month from its first publication, I have taken considerable pains in preparing this second edition, and I have endeavored to guide myself in, doing so by the valuable criticism with which I have been favored. In thanking both friends and strangers for them, I wish most particularly to acknowledge my obligations to the Bishop of Birmingham for his great kindness to me in this respect. May I venture to use this opportunity to thank him for the same considerate kindness, I had better say indulgence, on other occasions also, when he has turned from his multifarious apostolic toils, to mingle with discerning criticism and wise suggestion such words of affectionate encouragement as he well knew a convert author might require, and whose full value to cheer him, as well as to keep him humble, a convert more than others would sensitively appreciate? In again trusting my little work to the Catholics of England and Ireland, I wish I could say how much I have been affected by the reception it has met with, not as if it reflected credit on myself, but because it has shown that the Name of Jesus could not be uttered without the echo coming, and that to speak of Him, however poorly, was to rouse, to soothe, and to win the heart; and it was more grateful to me than any praise, to feel that my subject was my success.

The Oratory, King William Street, Feast of the Holy Name of Mary, 1853.

PREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION.

In this edition I have made various alterations, for which I gladly offer my acknowledgment to the Bishops of Birmingham and Southwark, the Very Rev. Mgr. Newsham, Father Cardella, of the Collegio Romano, and to an undeservedly kind article in the Dublin Review, which contained a very just stricture on the wording of a particular passage. I have also altered three passages of the book at the request of several superioresses of religious houses, who have laid me under such obligations as I never can repay in the publication of the Lives of the Modern Saints.

With regard to the subject of mortification I have received several objections, which I have only met by guarding my language in one or two places, and by introducing one paragraph, which appeared in the third edition. Readers have kindly taken my book for more than it was meant. It was never intended for a dissertation on the whole spiritual life; but it is a treatise on one section of it, namely, the easy ways of Divine Love. The hard ways of love obviously do not fall within its scope. I cannot consider that a person who practised all my book would be living a high life, or walking in what are technically called the paths of perfection. Far from it. But I would venture to say that, under spiritual direction and with honest souls, the book would lead persons to the practice of austerities, and would not make them comfortable in a lawless life or a self-indulgenced devotion. After long consideration, and after weighing the objections, I decided not to add a chapter on mortification, as it would destroy the unity of the book, and possibly defeat its object. My work lies in the largest, and probably the most luxurious city in the world, and in an age of fearful effeminacy and self-indulgence; and I wrote for a want which I found existing for invalid souls whom light nourishment might save from chronic disease, and so prepare for the strong meat of hearty and generous mortification. To some, therefore, of my dear friends and brothers in the priesthood and in religion, who - have made this objection, and to whose experience and holiness I gladly defer, I would say, There are thousands of hopeful souls who cannot reach you where you stand; let me entice them nearer; it is all I am good for; when they come within arms' length of you, take them through my book, out of it, and beyond it, as quickly as you can; it is what I most wish, and cannot do myself. Or to use another figure, Do you go bravely out, and fish for fine fish in the deep sea; you must let me be content with humbly shrimping in the shallows and the sand.

The Oratory, Brompton, Feast of St. Vincent Ferrer, 1854.