Section II. The Saints

I. God blessing the world after Creation how much more was there for Him to love when Mary was born yet she was a weak damsel whom any one might insult whom does He choose to protect her? St. Joseph.

II. There was a Babe in the world, and that Babe was the world s God any one may slay Him, wound Him, trample on Him. God s treasures are now rather on earth than in Heaven who shall protect them? St. Joseph.

III. There can be no humility in God, but this great mystery was to be in God made Man, obedient to His own creature who was born to be the lawful superior of God, and to sanctify himself by thus awfully commanding? St. Joseph.

IV. How the Eternal Father seems withdrawn from gaze! the elect are sons of God, and so represent Jesus: the Spirit acts in us; St. Joseph has imparted to him a shadow, nay a reality, of the Eternal Father s everblessed Fatherhood.

Y. Brief sketch of his life suspicion grief charity Bethlehem Flight into Egypt

Nazareth Three Days Loss rules Jesus and Mary dies between them.

VI. The love of Jesus and Mary meet in him: he was spared the Passion: his office is daily represented in mass, procession, and benediction: devotion to him is a short road to the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary.

VII. His death. How sweet was the happy solitude of the House of Nazareth no secret bower in the shades of Eden was more sweet than that sinless house, that heaven upon earth Would death dare to come where the Lord of life was living? It durst not come nigh His Cross until He bowed His Head in sign that it might come. Yes! death dared to cross the threshold of the House of Kazareth. Joseph was now seventy years of age, Mary forty-rive and Jesus twenty-nine. He was not ill, but his love of God shook him in his old age, as it did St. Philip/ that second St. Joseph, after him. The hour came: he laid himself down to die; and what a death!

VIII. Jesus is on one side of his bed, Mary on the other; he holds the right hand of Mary in his left hand in token of his fidelity, and in his right hand the left hand of Jesus, that with His right Jesus may give him benediction. Mary thought of Bethlehem, and of the desert as they fled to Egypt. She loved him wonderfully: deep thoughts were in her sinless soul as she watched the coming on of death; she looked with love on Joseph, and then she looked over him at Jesus her obedient Son, and she remembered how He \vas the Lord of life He had created and sanctified St. Joseph s beautiful soul He it was Who was now bidding death come and fetch it. mystery of wonder and of love! Joseph need not die, if Jesus would but will that he should not. Mary pressed Joseph s hand she did not pray that he might live but looked at Jesus and adored Him, adored her own Son, who was her God as well. death! thou hast travelled the world over, yet never surely didst thou eome on such a scene as this. God in flesh and blood has fast hold of the hand of him whom thou hast come to seek and to strike. Wilt thou dare? Jesus held the right hand of Joseph He whispered in his ear sweet words of thanks giving for all his care of Him. St. Joseph looked up into the face of Jesus his weak eyes went all over it the hair, the brow, the eyes, the moving lips: yes, bold man, thou wilt see that face once more, how bright and beautiful! And thou wilt be spared the sight of it as Mary will see it, covered with blood and wounds, and mud and filthy spittle. what a strait to choose in! To die for us is to go to Jesus; for Joseph it was to leave Jesus for awhile. He looked up into the face of Jesus he thought how he had dressed Him, washed Him, kissed Him as a little one, protected Him, commanded Him in his poor shop, and he pressed His Sacred Hand, and smiled with love; and God Almighty, the obedient Son, stooped down and reverently kissed St. Joseph s hand. St. Joseph looked to Mary then to Jesus then Lack to Mary then to Jesus again. He looked up into His face; the smile passed away there came a look, most awful, most heavenly, most wonderful he saw the Godhead shine out in the face of Jesus the most profound and ahashed humility passed into his look he made an act of fear, because he was a creature, and an act of love because he was the foster-father both shook his dying frame. He adored Jesus his Creator and his Judge the dying Saint s guardian angel prostrated himself adoringly St. Joseph needed no guardian God was there. Jesus raised His Eight Hand as Judge and blessed him; thus He judged His dying servant even before his death that raised Eight Hand of Jesus had blessed St. Joseph the dying creature whispered softly, Jesus, Mary, the Creator s ear was close and caught the words He stooped and kissed the lips as they pronounced the name of Mary in that kiss of peace the mystery was done the soul of Joseph fled away to rest in Abraham s bosom, to wait till Jesus should have ended four more years, and be ready to carry it with

Him through the blue skies on Ascension Day into the everlasting joys of heaven. greatest! dearest of all the Saints of God!

may we die the death of the just, and may our last end be like to thine!

II. MEDITATIONS ON ST. JOSEPH.

Gustos Amabilis, ora pro nobis. HIS SEVEN DOLOURS.

I. His grief in thinking he must put away our

Blessed Lady.

1. His horror of impurity, and zeal for the love of God.

2. His refraining from judging her.

3. His discreet and charitable deliberation and delay.

II. His seeing the Infant Jesus in poverty and distress.

1. Seeing Him shiver with cold.

2. Hearing Him cry.

3. The hardness of the manger and poverty of the cave.

III. His seeing His Blood flow at the circumcision.

1. His hatred of sin.

2. He adores the love of Jesus in shedding It.

3. He adores His obedience to the law.

IV. St. Simeon s prophecy.

1. His sympathy with our Blessed Lady.

2. His sorrowful meditation on St. Simeon s words.

3. His continual remembrance of them.

V. The flight into Egypt. |

1. The fears, perils, and fatigues of the journey.

2. His watching the sufferings of Jesus.

3. His inability to protect our Blessed Lady.

VI. His hearing that Archelaus was reigning.

1. It dashed the joy of his return from Egypt.

2. His new fears for Jesus and our Lady.

3. His having to live so far from the temple.

VII. His loss of Jesus for three days.

1. The anxiety of the weary search.

2. His self-reproach as being the cause.

3. His misery at seeing our Blessed Lady suffer.

HIS SEVEN JOYS,

I. The angel telling him to take Mary for his wife.

1. His delight at her innocence.

2. The honour he pays to her virtue. 8. Joyous expectation of Jesus.

II. The Ave Maria and Nativity.

1. His hearing the Ave Maria.

2. Seeing the adoration of the shepherds.

3. The homage of the three kings.

III. The holy Name of Jesus.

1. His having to give it to the Child.

2. His first pronouncing of it.

3. His pondering with Mary over the mystery of it.

IV. St. Simeon s words ahout our Lord; that He should be

1. A light to the Gentiles.

2. The glory of Israel.

3. The resurrection of many.

V. The falling down of the idols of Egypt before

Jesus.

1. His adoration of the power of the Son of God.

2. His sympathy with Mary s exceeding joy.

3. His delight at the glory thus accruing to God.

VI. The command of the angel to return home.

1. His joy at returning to the land of the true Church.

2. To better accommodations for Jesus and Mary.

3. At carrying their Messias to the Jews.

VII. Finding Jesus in the temple.

1. Delight at finding Him.

2. Joy at Mary s joy.

3. Adoration of the wisdom of Jesus.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ABOUT HIM.

The love of God the Father for St. Joseph.

1. In imparting to him His paternal character.

2. In trusting His elect daughter Mary to him.

3. In predestinating him to these two offices.

The love of God the Son for him.

1. As His Father.

2. As the careful and kind protector of Mary.

3. In allowing him to kiss, wash, dress, carry Him, &c.

The love of God the Holy Ghost for him.

1. As a singular vessel of most fragrant continence.

2; As guardian of the Sacred Humanity.

3. As earthly hushand of His own spouse. The love of our Blessed Lady for him.

4. As chosen for her hy God.

5. As guardian of her purity.

6. As guardian of Jesus. The love of the angels for him.

7. As so humbly commanding their Lord.

8. As protecting their Queen.

9. In their embassies to him.

St. Joseph model of the Interior Life and Patron of Mental Prayer.

1. Silence.

2. Recollection.

3. Shunning publicity. St. Joseph model for priests.

4. In chastity.

5. Devotion to our Blessed Lady.

6. In handling the Blessed Sacrament. St. Joseph model for the dying.

7. Quiet resignation.

8. On the lap of Jesus.

9. Mary at his side.

St. Joseph model for all the faithful.

1. In ministering to Jesus.

2. In protecting Mary s honour.

3. As a pilgrim with Jesus and Mary in the wilderness.

What our Lady told St. Bridget of him.

1. He was affable, not rude.

2. Defended the absent.

3. Took notice of God s wonderful works. Also,

4. He constantly prayed for the accomplishment of God s promises.

5. Avoided publicity.

6. Longed for death. Also,

7. He was very contented in poverty.

8. Very patient.

9. Continued devotion to the Will of God. Devotion to him.

10. Late gift to the Church.

11. Acceptableness of it to Jesus and Mary.

12. Specially extolled by St. Teresa.

Besides these meditations, many more may be made of the events of St. Joseph s life, especially the eighteen years at Nazareth, whea he saw Jesus working, eating, sleeping, praying, &c.; also of the sojourn in Egypt, the two journeys, his accompanying our Blessed Lady at the Visitation, and many more.

ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

I. State of the Jews.

1. Voluptuousness of higher orders.

2. Spirit of disputation and doubt amid the learned.

3. Unsettlement among the people.

II. Appearance of St. John.

1. His wild appearance.

2. His ignorance of human learning.

3. His preaching unfashionable penance.

4. His rude rebuking of the noble.

5. His making no distinction between high and low, simple and learned.

6. His marvellous power and attractiveness.

III. The causes of his power.

1. His truckling to no human respects.

2. His preaching to the heart.

3. His supernatural austerities.

4. His interior union with God.

IV. Similarity between England now, and Judea then. St. John a model for us

1. In high principles.

2. In cultivating purity of heart.

3. In supernatural faith and perfection, realis ing the invisible world.

4. In leading lives of prayer and union with God.

The day of controversy is wellnigh past. The calmness of Catholics in the late troubles excites wonder now for power with God, and the day is ours; the time will he when men will talk of Protestantism, as they do of the old heresies, as a curse which once was and is now no more!

THE THKEE KINGS: OK, ALL GEACES COME OF FAITH.

If the Bible discloses melancholy possibilities of the sinfulness of man, it also discloses magnifi cences, which perhaps the kingdom of angels can hardly surpass e. g. the Three Kings.

I. The Three Kings. What immense saints they were shown

1. From the singularity of their election.

2. From the special graces they received.

3. From the mystery for which they were used God opening His Church to the Gentiles.

4. From the virtues they practised.

5. From the huge devotion of the Church to them.

II. Their characteristics.

1. They are instances of men who reveal their whole selves in one action; such men are mostly very divine characters; their simplicity is a great power.

2. Moreover they are saints whose characters are so mastered by their one grace as to lose almost their individuality yet their offerings bespeak variety of character.

3. They belong to that little class of God s own private saints, the unknown vastness of whose sanctity He irradiates by only one or two gleams, such as St. Joseph, the Baptist, some of the apostles, and SS. Joachim and Anne. These are the Mary-like saints; for this is also her characteristic.

4. Their virtues were 1. alacrity, 2. courage, especially against human respect, 3. generosity, 4. entireness of heart with God, 5. singular docility, 6. exceeding great joy, as the unexaggerating Bible calls it.

5. But all these six graces came out of one as out of a fountain, namely, out of faith.

III. Lessons to learn.

1. Faith is God s greatest gift on earth, and is necessary for charity.

2. Of all graces it is the one most capable of increase.

3. It is the most prolific of all graces: and gives us most momentum.

4. It is the source of all spiritual sweetness, and of all joy and consolation in religion.

5. How we can best increase it.

6. By cherishing the thought of God, and cultivating His fear.

7. By a filial and reverential devotion to the Church.

The hidden magnificence of the Babe of Bethlehem compared with the hidden magnificence of the Church. As we lose ourselves, our own lik ings and dislikings, our own judgments and criticisms and all the follies of our littleness in the thought and presence of God, so must we lose them also in the thought and presence of His Church. The grand lesson which He sent the Three Kings to teach the Gentiles was devotion to the Church!

ST. THOMAS OF CANTERBURY.¹

What a strange Providence it is, my dear Brethren in Jesus Christ, that we in this poor faithless land of ours, this poor uncatholic England, should be gathered together quietly this day beneath the shadow of our own blessed and glorious martyr St. Thomas of Canterbury, while the Holy City of Catholics, the home of our affections, the threshold of the apostles, the pilgrimage place of Christendom, is lying waste and desolate and in darkness! How strange, passing strange, it seems that we in this fallen land should be met together today to do honour to a name which has been a byeword of scorn and a proverb of reproach in the mouths of generations of our deluded country men, while the Holy City is lying waste, because the visible Presence of God passed from it, when His dear and blessed Vicar fled a fugitive along those Pontine Marshes through which St. Paul journeyed in his bonds to preach Christ Crucified in the streets of beautiful Rome! How much is there in this consideration which leads us, almost in spite of ourselves, to meditate with trembling awe upon the fortunes of God s Church and her most holy faith, and to watch with fearful interest the ebb and flow of that empire of our faith, which, while it loses ground or seems to lose it in one place, gains it in another, until its wearied and baffled foes throw down their arms, cease their calculations, and become stupified at these repeated signs of its hopeless and undecayed vitality. But, my dear Brethren, because things look dark abroad, because there seems to have come down this night upon the Church, a night of storm and of eclipse, the shadow of God s wrath and judgment on the sons of men, even in the most Holy Place, even where the bodies of countless saints and nameless martyrs lie, ought we therefore to lose heart or slacken our endeavours in the cause of God s Church, in other lands or in our own? God forbid! God forbid that we should have so little faith in God, or that we should so distrust the power and heavenly virtue of our blessed faith! No! we lose not heart, our purposes are not unnerved, our spirits do not faint or flag, because we know Whose faith it is, and Whom we have on board while we are in Peter s bark; and though that bark be now storm-tossed and in apparent peril, yet when the hour comes, when our faith has been sufficiently tried and our sins sufficiently chastised, He will rise from out His seeming slumber, and with one word will bid the winds and waves be still.

But while we regard with awe, not unintermingled with hope, and without one shadow of distrust the scenes that are enacting in the Holy Place, how beautiful, how cheering, how elating is the prospect around us in this our own dear native land! If the faith seem faint and feeble and overcast, it is after all but seemingly so; if it appear to be losing ground, and to be ebbing from foreign shores, how fast and freely the tide is flowing in upon our own, and flowing where it ought to flow, not so much upon the palace steps of the noble and the rich, upon the change of the busy trafficker or the hall of the self-wise scholar, but upon the dense untended multitudes of Christ s predestined poor, upon the friendless, the fallen, the ignorant, the grief-smitten! How fast is the faith encroaching! How is it sapping the very citadels of prejudice and bigotry: how are the hearts of sinners coming into the fold by scores and hundreds, like the miraculous draught of old into Peter s net, which at his Master s word he cast forth into the dark unpromising deep! Surely we cannot but feel that God has in these days granted to every one of us, in our own appointed place and fitting way, without distinction of age or sex, a kind of universal commission, whereby every English catholic is con stituted, in his and her place and sphere, a sort of missionary apostolic to spread the faith; and the question, the practical question, for all of us to consider is the manner in which we are to dv our work. It is impossible to look forth on the face of the land, and not to see that the fields are white for the harvest. It is impossible to love Almighty G-od, and not pour out our souls in secret prayer to the great Master of the harvest, that He will send forth labourers thereunto, men of apostolic zeal and apostolic boldness and apostolic mortification, which alone is the source of prayer and priestly charity. It is impossible to avoid seeing that wheresoever the adorable Sacrifice and the rightful priest are to be found in this land of ours, there is the Gospel prophecy fulfilled that where the body is, the eagles will be gathered together.

Yes! the practical question for all of us is how we are to do our work; and surely this feast should be suggestive to every one of us in what way we are to fight the fight: we are to fight it as St. Thomas did of old. Adverse as the times may seem in outward appearance, there never was an age of the Church when circumstances, both within and without, both at home and abroad, more loudly called upon us to take the blessed St. Thomas of Canterbury for our pattern, our model, nay our living, powerful, and helpful guide, and fight the good fight as he fought it in byegone times, even to the shedding of his blood, or to what men find harder to give than blood, the shedding of their good name by pouring it out to waste upon the earth. Let me then ask you this morning to meditate awhile upon the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury, to put him before yourselves as the great exemplar of those grand characteristics of which he is the special Saint, the special Apostle. He is the Apostle of high principle, the Saint whose every word and work was a condemnation of cowardice, of time-serving, of timidity, of pusillanimity, of all unworthy concession, of all trembling in the face of power, of all bartering of principle for peace or gain, of all circuitous roads to a rightful and a godly end; in a word, of every profane weakness that ever afflicted the Church from within or without, from her children or her foes, he was the unflinching enemy and the pertinacious opponent from first to last. It is on this account. that I call upon you to study his life, to ponder on every word, to meditate on every action of this most dear and blessed martyr, whom England gave to the Church of God, and to put him before us, each of course discreetly, in his own appointed sphere, and under the obedience of his spiritual guide, as our model and our patron in the terrible scandal-breeding strife which seems too probably at hand. If ever there was a time or place when and where high, obstinate, clearsighted, and unflinching principle was the sheet-anchor of the Church, that time is now, and that place the land in which it is our lot to live and work.

Let us then look at St. Thomas in three different states in which his romantic life, so full of wisest teaching in its minutest details, presents him to us St. Thomas in the court, St. Thomas in strife, and St. Thomas in exile.

First of all, let us look at St. Thomas in the court; let us look at him after he became arch bishop hut, for his Church s sake, still mingled with the king and the rude barons and fawning courtiers round him. What above all things strikes us in the conduct of this magnificence-loving man is the evidence of calm austerity and of repulsive penance which, amid all the glory and the brilliance that distinguished the court of Henry, broke from time to time through that concealment with which Catholic sanctity is wont to shroud itself. It was said of him, even during his lifetime, that he degraded and sullied the splendour that was round him by the dreadful and unsightly austerities he practised. And is not St. Thomas an example to us even in this very respect, if at least we desire in our heart of hearts to see our beloved country brought back again to God, brought as a modest yet rejoicing wanderer into the one only fold of the One True Shepherd? Oh! it is not a work that is nigh at hand, at least the accomplishment thereof; it is not a work that is light and easy, neither is it a light or a little thing to ask of God. But if we do yearn after this great ennobling end, then must we imitate St.

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Thomas in the very matter now before us. Do you believe that we shall ever convert England, if we are simply common Catholics, common, good, practical Catholics, with no aim beyond a state of grace or an absence of permitted venial sin, moving in the routine of the far off feasts and distant indulgences as though it was a groove out of which our spiritual life would run to nought and perish? Do you in good faith believe that this is the material God will use to upraise a fallen land? Is there here a power of expiation to thrust aside those tremendous arrears of wrath and judgment which have accumulated against the land for three hundred years of augmenting impurity, profaneness, and unbelief? Is this a furnace of love strong enough to burn away all that needs consuming among us? O how weak and wild would it be to suppose that we can do great things, that we have the faith which can remove mountains, and the love which can cast out fear, and the austerity which can exorcise the spirits of evil, if we aim not at far higher things than these. No, my Brethren, it must be something more than the tameness of a common virtue, something higher than the level of ordinary attainments, which will do so great a work for God. We must aim at perfection; we must strive after the arduous heights of Christian holiness; we must endeavour to imitate the Saints of God; we must put before ourselves as possible, aye, and as hopeful aims their devoted and heroic deeds. We must break down all false and puny standards of virtue which would stunt our spiritual growth, and abjuring whatever may seem to have caught by contagion the dominant evil spirit which surrounds us in this heretic land, we must throw ourselves heart and soul into the models which come to us from times which had not lost the faith, or from lauds where amid many hindrances it still reigns supreme. Depend upon it there is a host of sin, a host of God s wrath in arrear, through which we must press our way before we can come to our glorious end; and it is not by coldness, by lukewarmness, by indifference, or even by mediocre virtue that we shall accomplish our purpose, still less by a paltry, bargaining spirit, that would go to market as it were with God, and grant Him little more than the precepts of the Church lay upon the conduct and the conscience. no! it must be a nobler inclination, a more generous spirit, a spirit that must throw itself fervently and confidingly into the arms of God Himself, and must lead us to dedicate ourselves body and soul and spirit to the trampling the world under our feet as the canonized Saints of God have done, not only in times of yore, but up to the threshold of these times of ours. We must be more, ten thousand times more, than common easy-going practical Catholics, if we would convert for God this deluded and benighted land.

This surely is the very first thing we must look to, each one of us to his own practice, each one of us to his own progress in holiness, and to his own advancement along the road of Christian perfec-.

tion. And why is this? Why is it that I put the austerity of St. Thomas, not only among the examples which that blessed Saint sets us, but the very first and foremost of them all? For these reasons amongst others: because austerity and perfection give us power with God. how useless is it for man or woman to go forth into the world, into the social or domestic circle, and hope to influence their fellow-men for good, if they have not influence first of all in the great court and before the great throne which are on high, if they are not known there as persons of constant prayer, of selfdenying lives, of generous sacrifice for the Church and faith of God; and how weak, how powerless, how utterly imbecile will all their most arduous efforts prove to be. Yes! my dear Brethren, we may toil till health of body gives way beneath the burden; but if we have nofc influence with God, if we are not habitually with Him in the implorings and wrestlings of prayer, in meditation and in secret penance, how powerless, how unprevailing will all our labours be! Our hands will be unnerved, our arms will drop from them, when the hour of victory seems nighest, because we seek to have commanding influence over men, before self-humiliation has earned for us influence with God.

Further, we must strive after these heights of Christian perfection, not only because austerity has power with God, but because it seems on that very account to give a mysterious and disproportionate power to all our actions, even those which are trivial themselves. Common words and common things, when they come from one whose soul is in union with God, oh! they are like mira cles, compared with the selfsame words and the selfsame deeds, when thev come from one who is living an ordinary life. There seems to he a power in them which emanates from on high, an abiding presence and unction of the Blessed Spirit in them. The missionary of hidden austerity may look outwardly like any other man; he may not perhaps have human talent, human eloquence, or human influence; and yet there is something in him, something" that goes from him, which bows the hearts of men as the wind bows the reeds when it blows, and they feel the sovereign influence, acknowledge its sovereignty, and bend before the words and deeds which are, as it were, the vessels wherein it is contained.

There is still another truth to be remarked; austerity, like other Christian things, is blamed even by those who are themselves at the moment beneath its influence. While the men of St. Thomas s day found fault with his want of discretion, and blamed him because he allowed his rude, uncouth, grotesque austerities to appear amid the splendours of Henry s court; yet all the while they were allured and attracted by it. There is a marvellous power in a holy life; there is a marvellous influence in austerity, a supernatural power to attract and allure the most alien things towards itself. Look at the great preacher of penance in the days of old; look at that unearthly apparition, that came up from the wilderness after years of inhuman solitude and the companionship of wild beasts, and stood before the eyes of men upon the banks of Jordan. He ap peared, in the aspect of his outward seeming, to have been made only to offend, to disgust, and to repel. Yet to the Baptist s preaching there came, wiled as though by an influence they could neither resist nor divine, the pleasure-loving and sensual officers of the legions from the gay and sinful city; while the cold and sceptic scholars, with their sparkling wit, sarcastic sophistry, and unearnest investigation, were attracted in spite of themselves by this sight of St. John coming up from the wilderness to Jordan s bank, and their eyes were riveted upon him with enquiring awe, although he had no human influence, no show of intellect, nought but the preaching of the most abject penance and undignified humiliation. If there was at that time one object on which, their eyes were more anxiously and intensely fixed than another, it was upon this rude fore runner of our Lord, and they stooped to question him, who he was, and what the proofs of his mission were. So will it always be: men will talk to you, criticise you, condemn you, seem to de stroy your influence by affixing the slur of indiscretion to your name; but after all, things work round, because there is in an austere life, in one whose soul is in union with God, a secret power of attraction which no other power on earth can give, and which imparts to him who lives that life an empire over the consciences of men beyond the reach of all human calculation.

Let this then, Brethren, be the first lesson that we learn from St. Thomas the necessity of girding ourselves up to a more holy life, to a more severe penance, and to a closer union with God.

Let us now turn from St. Thomas in the court, with his uncouth austerities, to St. Thomas in his strife. If we look at the accounts given of him even by his own contemporaries, how he was misunderstood, how he was misjudged, how he was described as of a foreign race whose language worldly men could not understand! No, it requires some hundreds of years to intervene before we are far enough off from the glory of St. Thomas to cast our eyes up to the altitude that was in his noble and sacred character. And what was it, my Brethren, what was it in the manner of his strife, whether with the crowned king upon the throne, or the rude barons, or even, which was harder still, with his courtly brother bishops, what was it that so offended men? It was the seeming hypocrisy, it was the apparent double-facedness of all that he did, it was that holy double spirit which the Church has in her, and which all the saints of God possessed; that he was humble, with what the world called an affectedly servile humility, to the poor and lonely and fallen and little ones of Jesus; but in the face of the rude king, and in the face of human power and intellect, he seemed proud and² arrogant and presumptuous, drawing himself up within himself, and not stooping to make the slightest concession. And here it is that the lesson is for us. We too must be humhle ten thousand times more humble now than St. Thomas was then; our humility must be manly, at the same time that it is meek, to the little ones of Jesus; but in the face of power, in the face of pride, in the face of unbelieving science, in the face of distasteful and conspiring politics, we must be what St. Thomas was, we must be apparently proud, presumptuous, and arrogant.

It may seem that there is no practical lesson for us in this particular matter; but indeed, if we look closer into it, there is a lesson for us every way. For instance, how many of us, in the private, social, and domestic circle, long with our heart s best affection for conversion to the faith of God of those who are near and dear to us both by blood and by love. Yes, Brethren, how many of us are there who must entertain such a feeling even in our own hearts, and what a temptation is there here to play false to the faith of God what a temptation is there here to do the very opposite of what St. Thomas did of old. Beware, in your conversation with others, how you represent the Church of God to those whom you desire to allure within her pale; beware of representing her for one moment as though she were different from what she was in days of old; beware of representing her as abat ing one jot or tittle of the greatest of those pretensions which seemed most arrogant and most preposterous even in the middle ages; beware of representing her as changed one atom in this her temper and her spirit; no, we must adhere strictly and zealously to high principle, disre garding everything that present or temporary advantage may appear to put within our reach. Truth, remember and this is one great distinction between Catholics and heretics truth is not ours, but God s. Truth is not ours to bate and pare down. Truth is God s; it has God s majesty inherent within it, and it will convert the souls of men, even when it seems rudest and most repelling; and. it will do so for this one reason because it is God s truth, and because w r e through the grace of God have boldness and faith to put our trust in it. And again, beware of another evil, that of trying to throw aside or to pare down what seems most faithful and warm in the devotions of foreign lands; do not tell that cruel falsehood, do not tell it to those whom you love, and are longing and yearning to have within the Church, do not tell them that the faith is other here than what it is elsewhere; do not throw aside devotion and sweetness, and worship and affection, as though they were not fit for us, as though God s Church were not one; for this is nothing less in reality than to deny the unity of God s Church. Tell them not this. Take not the bread from between their teeth, to bring them within the pale of God s Church, to find that they themselves have been deceived, and that you, while you wished to attract and allure, have only so much the more effectually repelled them, and have taken from them that which, in a moment of faith and love, they would have most generously embraced. This is, indeed, doing a cruel work, and it is in this very respect that St. Thomas is to us so bright an example. Believe me, dear Brethren, if there be a land if there be a people in which high principle is acceptable from its own intrinsic value, or alluring from the national character of those around us, it is this dear land of ours. Let us have faith, firm, vigorous, unfaltering faith; and, trust me, there is in high principle something which humbles those who hold it. They are never humble who have not high principle. They may be courtly, they may be pusillanimous, but humble they cannot be; for there is in high principles, and high principles alone, that which humbles those who hold them, that which wins those to whom those high principles are put forward; and above all there is in these high principles, and in none other, the plenitude of that heavenly blessing which Jesus has lodged in the bosom of His people.

Let this then be the second lesson that we learn from the life of St. Thomas of Canterbury.

And now let us turn to one more scene in his life; let us turn to the blessed martyr in his exile; let us turn to his bedabbling the floor of his cell at the monastery of Pontigny with his own blood, from the strife of his own chastise- 24 ment; let us turn to him in big Cistercian Abbey, and let us imitate bim in bis exile. Yes, Bretbren, and let us remember that we are exiles here iu the holy faith; that we are pilgrims, exiles and strangers in this very land of ours; and we have a lesson to learn a lesson of cheerfulness and of hard-working diligence, to learn from St. Thomas in bis exile. We have to learn and to lay to heart what we know already: that weakness is the strength of Christians. Look at the Church of God at this moment. Look how dark, how dismal in many ways the prospect seems; how much evil there seems to be at work, how much conspiring to overthrow her; and then again, look at home and see what arduous toil is there, and what disadvantages must daily be encoun tered. Yes, we are weak, but not so weak as some may think we are. They see but the outward seeming, and hear but the outward voice, and they think us weaker than. w r e are: but our weakness is our strength; and the weakness which is strength is humility and love; love, Buffering love, is the Christian s only victory. Bretbren, be not cast down by all that you see and hear around you. Be not troubled by the rumours that come floating across the sea to us, day after day; be not troubled, or cast down, or have your faith fluttered within you. No, but remember that there was a time when Jesus was scorned by His enemies, when He seemed weakest, in the Garden of Gethsemane, when the pale Easter moon was shining down upon the olive-trees, and a band of traitors was round about Him. See how spent He is with His bloody sweat; see how His three hours of agony seem to have exhausted the very strength of His Divina Nature; and there pale, pale exceedingly, with these enemies around Him, He stands as it were betrayed, detected, and surprised. His disciples have fled from Him, and it seems as though He did but remain there that they might lay their rude hands upon their God, and the victory of sin and of evil is complete; and one gentle word from the lips of Jesus one sound of those sweet accents, mild, and gentle, and passionate, and overpowering, caused the rude Roman and the ruder Jews to fall backwards in wonder and amazement. And wherefore was this, dear Brethren, but to teach us that in our weakness is our strength, and that meekness, gentleness, and love are mightier weapons than all else that the world can know beside?

But you may ask me what suffering, what trials, what meekness we shall be called upon to practise or endure in our warfare in the private or domestic circle? We shall have to meet with unkindness and cold looks where we ought to find bright and warm ones; we shall have to come in contact with cold and freezing hearts that ought to be beating with the pure fervour of affection; we shall have to be exiled from the love of those who are bound most of all to love us. We shall be misunderstood if we act on high principles, and scandals must come: remember this is the law of God s Church; it is the law which distinguished the life of St. Thomas, and not his life alone, hut the whole history of the Church, from the day when St. Ambrose humhled Theodosius at his feet, from the day when the Messed Gregory the Seventh humhled his ene mies; and as in St. Thomas s day, and even now, they who act from high principle, must, not perhaps give scandal, hut be prepared to find that others will take scandal from them: hut this must not divert you from the clear path of duty that lies before you. It is the very character of high principles, that the very men who hold them see their way right to the end, they see that their way lies athwart hills and dales, stony places and dreadful deserts, but they turn not either to the right or to the left, they travel steadfastly throughout. Yes, Brethren, and this is the very thing we must do, even if we be exposed to the condemnation.of the good, even if those who are in the bosom of our families, and whom we love and treasure most, think it too arrogant, too enthusiastic, unreal, or indiscreet; still we have the good cause entrusted to us, and we cling to it with a holy obedience under the advice and guidance of our spiritual guides. Let us beware how we betray it. What was the characteristic of St. Thomas? It was that he set at nought the judgment of men; it was that God grew upon him in his contemplation; that God grew upon his soul more and more, until God filled his soul, and there was no room for

OUK BLESSED LADY AND THE SAINTS. $73 man, no room for human respect, no room for love for the creature. Wherever he turned, there was God in the great and in the small, and there* fore he set at nought the judgment of men and exhibited to the world that special characteristic of greatness, that he fought for little things as diligently as he had fought for great ones; and why? Because he was a saint of the Most High; and as in the eye of God there is neither great no-r small, so in the eye of God s saints nothing is small that contains one tittle or fraction of high principle; and so it was with St. Thomas. There were little things, there were scruples, that might seem inatters of etiquette or indifference, that might be waived, especially when a king and his nobles demanded it; but St. Thomas believed that in these little things there was a portion of the same mighty principle, and he clung to them with as much blessed obstinacy, with as much holy pertinacity, as though the very tiara of the sovereign Pontiff had been at stake. It is this very thing that is the special note of greatness; and in it lies the power which God has of;not dividing things great and small. This must be our example. If we doubt for a moment, that our weakness is strength; if we doubt whether or not this lesson could be read to us in these days, look not alone to the picture of St. Thomas in his exile; but look to another dear and blessed exile now; look to our Holy Father the Pope, exiled from his sacred city, driven to the frontiers of another land, or seeking the refuge of a foreign shelter in a seaport of his own rightful states. Look at him, and in your heart of hearts do you not believe that there is strength in our weakness? Was there ever a time when the throne of Peter was more firmly rooted in the affections of the faithful throughout the world? was there ever a time when thoughtful men, even outside the Church, looked on the Vicar of God, and tremhled with more intelligent awe than they do at the present moment? aye, when the rebels gathered round him, even as the rebels of Nazareth gathered round our blessed Lord, and pursued Him to the very cliff on which their town was built, behold, God s Yicar passed through the midst of them, and their eyes were holden, that they could not see him. They knew not how or where he went, because God was with him; and in his exile there went with him fill his strength, and all his holiness. And at the present moment, who, among the enlightened and intelligent of our holy faith, does not see that the sword of Peter is keener and sharper in the everblessed exile s hands than when he Deigned within the walls of the vast Vatican at Borne? This is the same lesson that St. Thomas s exile of old gives to us. Wait, Brethren, but a few weeks, or months, or, if God wills it, it may be years, and then see how woe will come to them; how bitter and dark their end will be; how shameful and ignominious the life of those, whether of us, or not of us, who dare to raise the whispered voice, or the stealthy hand against the majesty of Kome in this her hour of eclipse. Wait and see if this conies true. His word is law now more than ever it was before; and the whisper of his exiled voice speaks now more powerfully to every Ipving and loyal heart, than all the bulls, and briefs, and rescripts, that he issued in the days of his glory and his power. And should there, as amid the apostles, be a Judas, who could raise the whispered voice or the stealthy hand, how dark and bitter will be his end, how dark and ignominious his fate!

No, brethren, in this way weakness is strength. Be not cast down because ye see many things against us. Look, for instance, at that twin- spirit that brother-saint of St. Thomas, the sainted Hildebrand. Look at Gregory the Seventh passing down the sunny shore where the Vicar of God, in his exile, has now passed down visit the city of Salerno where the blue waves beat so gently against the shore, and where all the beauties of nature are gathered together to make a very paradise of peace, a very Eden of delights; and go and see that lowly tomb, the tomb of Gregory, who fell trampled under foot in exile, but whose enemies died in the very hour of victory, in the flush of triumph, so broken and discomfited, that the empire of sin and darkness never rose again.

Yes, my brethren, so it ever is; weakness ia strength. The strength of Christians is in the cross, and the cross was a weakness and a shame to Him who hung thereon; and yet the great apostle of the Gentiles cried, " God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Oh, it was not when St. Thomas was in his magnificence it was not when he was in his glory and his power it was not when he rode through France as the chancellor and amhassador of England, and astonished men with his unheard-of splendour it was not then that he had power that power which lasts to this moment that power which, to this very day, is thrilling and trembling through every nerve and vein of God s universal Church throughout the world: it was not then that that power was the mightiest; but rather when he sank down as his blood flowed on the hallowed pavement of Canterbury, and when in gentle w r ords he commended his blessed soul to God, our Lady, and St. Denis.

Yes, my Brethren, all these lessons are for us. We ought to work hard, and yet not to look for results. It is not God s way; it is not the fashion of God s doing. Think how many times the trumpets of God were sounded round the walls of Jericho ere they fell. We ought to work as though the conversion of our native land was at our very doors, and yet as expecting nothing. It is said that they that sow shall reap; but blessed, aye, blessed we, even if we never live to see that day of splendour and majesty in God s Church. The conversion of the people is as the wind blowing where it will; it comes and goes wheresoever it will. In the days of spring, it woos out the green leaves here and there in wanton w r ays, and seems to have no ruling operation; so is the working of God s Spirit. The two things that we have to lay to heart are gentleness and kindness. Forbearance and forgiiingness, gentle and loving words and affectionate treatment, and, above all, a secret aiming at perfection in our own lives: these are our missionary weapons, and for conversion we may be content to wait.

If we bear this in mind, we shall not lose heart. If to look out upon this empire in its unbelief, its sin, its poor deserted priestless multitude, make the heart sink within us, surely it is not a scene one half so dark as that which the Queen of the apostles saw when she looked from her window over Jerusalem, and over the whole expanse of heathenism that Jesus had given her to convert unto Him. When she and the apostles looked forth on that scene, it was as Noe looked forth from the windows of the ark on the wild and angry waste of waters, and on a tempest-tossed world; on its green things, on its brightness, on its sunshine.

So will it be- with us, if we only try, from this day forth, to cultivate a spirit of love and devotion to that blessed Saint whose feast we this day celebrate. It is said, and it is to me a matter of love and interest, that my own blessed father St. Philip Neri, whenever he met in the streets of Eome the English students who were gathered together beneath the shadow of St. Thomas of England, always saluted them in his own playful way, with the words of the Church s hymn " Salvete flores martyrum." And think you that he, whose every word was pregnant with meaning, did not intend to commend to them the imitation of that blessed martyr, under whose shadow they were gathered together?

Yes, Brethren, we must have devotion to St. Thomas, because he is the q^postle of high principle. Devotion to St. Thomas must be an instinct with us, even as hatred of him was an instinct with the wicked men in the wild and evil days of English apostasy. Why did they hate the name of St. Thomas? Why did they tear down his blessed relics? Why did they erase his name from the calendar? Why did they trample his sacred memory under foot, and leave the other saints of God to go free? Why but because he was the apostle of high principle? because the devil inspired them with a hatred of him as with an instinct, because he knew that the Church was built on a rock, and that all the power of evil should not prevail against it. And even as the ashes, that Moses threw upon the banks of the river Nile, brought down the hateful and degrading plague of blains and boils on the children of men in the land of Egypt, so have the ashes of St. Thomas, scattered to the winds far and wide, brought down God s curse upon the land. They have brought down the curse of littleness, of pusillanimity, a curse, the every characteristic of which is lowering and degrading, even as the curse that came down on the Egyptians land. We must cultivate a special devotion to this mighty saint of God. We must strive as he strove, in all gentleness, in all love. We must grasp his principles, and grasp them firmly, even as the soldier grasps the weapons with which he charges in the fight. We must take St. Thomas as our model and our pattern; and if it be that, in the intervals of his weariness and strife he beheld visions of a fair land of peace, beaming with tranquillity and with all those beauteous and gentle things spoken of in the pages of the Gospel; if there be a time when Heaven seems opened, and we behold a land where all is love and peace no warfare, no bickering, no chilling separation a land where all are crowned kings around the throne of God, singing sweet songs of everlasting praise; while we remember that there is such a land of peace, we must also remember that it is not here, that it is not now. Think you that St. Thomas loved not peace? Think you that he sighed not for repose as much as we can do? Think you that, in the recesses of his sacred cell, he did not many times see Heaven opened, and behold, more clearly than we can do, bright visions of this land of peace? But he knew it was not here; he knew it was not now; and so he fought his way. Let us fight our way as he fought his. Let us fight our way, and we shall be one day where he is now. Oh, it is sweet, it is passing sweet to the spirit to think of all St. Thomas passed through; it is sweet to think upon the change that came upon his fortunes; the change between the great archbishop striving with the powers of darkness, and the saint at this hour, prostrate in ineffable transports of contemplation, before the majesty of the most High, Holy, and Adorable Trinity. Yes, my Brethren, so it is. His peace-loving spirit is now at rest. The haughty, imperious, and indignant word has been subdued into a song of Heaven. The saint needed it no more; God needed it no more. Strife has passed away from him, even as a thing that never was, and he is now canonized through out the land. Strife has passed away from him like a dream of Calvary, and the scorn of misjudg ing men like a little shadow of Gethsemane.

VL

ST. CHAKLES.

Men s spirituality depends on the view they take of God. Now the saints seem all of them to have concurred in taking one and the same view of Him as the God of the Church. We find this in St. Paul s epistles, and even in the writings of cloistered mystics. There were others whose life was part of the life of the Church.

I. So St. Charles.

1. He was part of the life of the Church.

2. He was a saint of fewer peculiarities than most saints.

3. His personality was almost merged in the Church; he had nothing new to teach, no peculiar spirit to communicate.

4. He left fewer things said than most saints of whom so much is known.

5. He was a reformer: one of God s reformers, and so his example is full of lessons to all men in different times.

II. In these two things we find his fitness for our times and for our present troubles. 1. The state of the Church makes it needful for the lives of all of us to be in their measure part of the Church s life. The state of the Church must give us the character of our piety: it must be in us the cause of most that is spiritual about us. It is not a question of politics, of historical sympathies, or of interesting opinion. It is part of our relation towards God, of our duties to Him, and of our worship of Him.

2. When God punishes us, He is calling upon us to reform.

3. Now let St. Charles teach us what manner of reform we must aim at.

4. It must be one of personal holiness, and St. Charles would have it turn especially upon our ordinary actions.

5. It must be a growth in profound, universal humility, a constant wonder that God should bear with us for what good have we done, and what good have we not spoiled? Our own want of inward purity and of generous holiness how may it not explain many of the misfortunes of the Church?

6. It must be a special cultivation of simplicity, the only gift which God seems to be blessing now, from the Sovereign Pontiff downwards. This simplicity will lead to childlike obedience of the intellect, for that alone is the possible or practical obedience of most men and to selfdenial, and so will set us against expensiveness and enable us to give more alms to the poor which is a special thing to do in dark and difficult times.

III. The spirit of St. Charles should be our spirit.

1. Eminently a spirit of faith, believing no thing impossible, with hatred of heresy, and with kindness to heretics, which is mostly in proportion to a man s hatred of heresy.

2. From this spirit of faith came his two characteristic graces, fortitude and calmness. His fortitude seemed to go beyond prudence, yet was the real prudence of the Gospel, because of his faith.

3. Calmness a wonderful feature of this was that he seemed hardly even to deliberate. He was so master of his principles, that all the excitement of plans was gone from him: how like in this to our Lord in the Gospels, how like to God in the adorable simplicity of His action.

What is the end of it all? intense filial love of the Church, and more and more hungry pining after God, and yet a most patient cheerfulness, a most serene confidence, nay even a modest elation of heart and soul, as if Jesus was for ever saying in our ears, with the piteous sweetness His Blessed Voice must have had that last Thursday night In mundo pressuram liabelitis: sed confidite, ego vici mundum. In the world you shall have distress; but be confident, I have overcome the world. (St. John xvi. 33.)

SKETCH OF THE SAINT S LIFE.

All lives of men are beautiful in their changes and vicissitudes, all full of romance and poetry; or like various music, a quiet pastoral, a stirring march, a pathetic drama, a touching elegy, or strains of mutable fitful sweetness. Such is man s life as outward Providence ordains it: sin mars it. We are concerned now with a life lived in the sixteenth century in the great city of Rome, which with manifold vibrations is working still on earth.

I. St. Philip s Picture.

1. The aged priest for the most part ashy pale, not foreign-looking to us.

2. With a soft mellow sweetness as of one to be familiar with, yet with a sternness under neath, as of one not to take liberties with.

3. Very simple and childlike, yet with a depth as of one who knew secrets and had seen visions. We do not exactly know why, but as we look on him we think of St. Joseph.

II. The Boyhood.

1. He was born in beautiful Florence, on the eve of St. Mary Magdalen. The gravity and sweetness of bis childhood, which yet was not without traits of humour and fun and geniality.

2. Gaeta the cleft mountain the inheritance renounced.

III. The beginnings at Borne.

1. He was drawn there by instinct, and lived there at first as a tutor in poverty and silence.

2. In catacombs, and studying in moonlit por ticoes.

3. Receiving pilgrims and visiting hospitals.

4. Priesthood St. Girolamo the Seven Churches beginnings of the Oratory his penitents,

5. The Vallicella and the Congregation founded.

IV. The sort of life.

1. Absence of all singularity.

2. Miracles daily, and extasies almost continually.

3. Apostolate of conversation and supernatural outbreaks of devotion.

4. He silently took possession of all Rome as a perfume fills a room.

5. After eighty years he dies. And this life so beautiful on earth was quietly translated to heaven, to be continued still more beautifully and on earth houses rose up all over the world to catch the image of that life, and to try to live it over again, and everywhere loving hearts gather round these houses and feel instinctively a joy and a security in belonging to St. Philip.

TEE LOOK OF COMMONPLACENESS WITH SUCH A SUPERNATURAL LIFE.

Let us go as foreigners to Rome in the sixteenth century; it is full enough of associations, and of relics, and of shrines, and of the Sovereign Pontiff, to hide in the heauty of its spiritual brightness a thousand living saints as completely as if they were shrouded in the earthly gloom of the catacombs. We hear talk of Father Philip, and listen, and go to see him. We write home what we have seen and heard. We see him in his room the vineyard the street. I. The look of his life.

1. A kindhearted priest with much zeal, yet somewhat irregular and eccentric in his zeal otherwise commonplace enough.

2. He has joined no religious order and seems to have formed no extensive plans.

3. He is shy and has rather to be sought than comes forward.

4. There is no look of austerity about him he is rather free and easy and jocund.

5. Surely it is an exaggeration to speak of him as a saint; for there are no secrets about him; we see the whole of him, perhaps a man to love rather than revere. Yet we left him with our hearts softened and heated and gently filled with God undoubtedly a good man, a very good man.

II. The reality of his life.

1. His heart miraculously filled with the Holy Ghost: his ribs broken.

2. His Mass of five hours daily.

3. His constant reading of the secrets of hearts.

4. Surrounded with light, and distilling strange perfumes of some aromatic heaven.

5. Miracles going out from him almost like ordinary actions, and his living without food.

III. This contrast is the type of his holiness: the three hidden lives of Jesus, divine eclipsed by human, glorious by passible, holy by unaffectedness such was St. Joseph s holiness, and such St. Philip s.

1. St. Philip s studious pursuit of secrecy he risked scandal rather than be found out.

2. His looking only to ends and not to means, to God, not to devotions, &c.

3. His finding God equally or even preferably in very little things.

4. His meekness, though he knew he was going to be canonized.

5. Yet it was the very wonderfulness of his sanctity which caused him to look so commonplace.

Should we know a saint if we met one? I doubt it. This is sad tQ think but very profitable.

How we might have left St. Philip, and turned down the Banchi towards St. Peter s, and thought how commonplace he was, how he talked on ordinary subjects, how careless about giving edification, what light odd things he said for a grave old priest, and what a sly look of mischief there was in his eye when we parted. And while we walked and thus criticised, behold! be in the secret of his room is floating in the air, waving to and fro like a branch in the summer wind, girdled with a golden light, hearing unutterable words and seeing unutterable things deep down in God!

HIS SPIRIT OF LIBERTY AND ABSENCE OF METHOD.

I. All saints seem to have given scandal in their day. St. Philip is no exception.

1. This taking scandal at saints is an evidence of corruption.

2. It was the same with our Blessed Lord. And the world never learns; it would take the same amount of scandal, both in amount and kind, if He came again.

3. That in which each saint gives scandal is his characteristic peculiarity; and in that will be found to consist the eminence of his holiness and sanctity in its earlier stages, not very easily distinguishable from eccentricity.

II, "What people took and take exception to in

St. Philip is his liberty of spirit and absence of method.

1. As a saint in his own life.

2. He was long years in Home and yet joined no religious order.

3. He took all his steps as direction and obedience suggested, but even then formed no great or definite plans,

4. He was ready to give up his works at any moment.

5. His own spirituality was singularly free, and left to God s action on him day by day.

6. As a founder and superior.

7. The way his Congregation grew up piece meal.

8. He would not let his subjects have their time to themselves.

9. He would not have vows in it.

10. He made the separation of each house essential, that they might not band together for any common end, or to forward any definite views.

11. His dislike of attachment to their work in his subjects.

12. As a master of the spiritual life.

13. Absence of set rules and methods; each day was to supply its own materials.

14. His penitents were to keep in their own spheres and at their social duties.

15. His little interference with their external things.

16. His spirit of prayer so full of liberty as to method.

17. His variety of direction without any recog nisable technical peculiarity of his own.

III. Two schools of holiness in the Church, the school of captivity and the school of liberty. St. Philip, like St. Francis of Sales, singularly of the latter.

1. It came from his immense devotion to the Person of the Holy Ghost. Docility to inspi rations was to him instead of rule.

2. This made him immensely interior. God was his one demand in himself and in others.

3. His horror of mere formality and habit, or icoodenness, or anything cut and dry. This made him negligent, sometimes startlingly so, of externals.

Both systems are holy; I do not say that one is in itself better than the other; both are from God. But I bless God that He has given to His Church the system of liberty as well as that of holy captivity; because I feel for myself that I never could be spiritual on the captivity system, whereas I hope that I may some day or other attain to spirituality on the other system.

IV. Living with St. Philip daily.

1. Meeting his clear quiet eye every morning, feeling that we were seen through, that nothing was unnoticed, nothing unremembered.

2. Feeling how easily and also how deeply pained he could be, how he revolted from all insincerity and pretences.

3. Made uncomfortable by feeling that we had weaknesses, he had not.

4. In good times we should enjoy it, in bad chafe under it.

5. His sternness would grow on our notice and yet his sweetness be ever gaining more empire.

6. Why should such a man attract? Because we have all a distrust of self at bottom we do not like standing alone life is a grave thing we like to lean on some one of whom we are sure and in sorrow and such like times he was all sweetness and support.

HIS REALITY.

I do not think that any devout person can look long on St. Philip s picture without growing somewhat afraid of him. He is the Apostle of liberty, and yet somehow not a man to take liberties with. I. We meet with men in the world

1. Whom we admire and love yet are not at ease with feel untruthful with. We have an instinctive fear of their influence, and are restless when we have to do with them.

2. There is something in them which we wish away: and yet if it was away they would not be the same men, nor should we ourselves love and admire them so much.

3. It is their reality their genuineness their truth not so much their truthfulness as their truth. IT. Reality.

4. A real man is a man without secrets or diplomacy.

5. His extreme simplicity, and his singleness of purpose, invest him with a kind of sternness, so that we feel rebuked in his presence.

6. Yet his heart is always full of gushing sympathies and kindness.

7. He has a sort of impatience with foolishness, insincerity, and circuitousness.

8. He sometimes tries us by the way he keeps to the one point, and slips off disguises, and walks on such a very straight road.

III. To live with such a man is an education in itself, and this is just what St. Philip was. I dare say sometimes men thought him even wooden, because he was so pertinaciously real, never unbending from his simplicity, never giving his genuineness a holiday.

1. His common sense in plans, in government, in direction: his dislike of changes, and of nonsense talked in the confessional.

2. His sternness which flashed out when any insincerity came in his way, or any making of difficulties.

3. The stress he laid on perseverance, by which he prevented liberty of spirit from degenerat ing into off-handness and free-and-easiness.

4. His crusade against human respect the queer things lie did himself and made his people do. All meant nothing more or less than this. 5. His mortification of the judgment also made men real while it hindered liberty from becoming license.

Of all the things which I admire in our Holy Father I admire none so much as his reality. It is the great want of the times. It is the grace of all graces which we every one of us stand most in need of.

ST. PHILIP S SPHERE.

While all saints do all the good they can find to do, each has a sphere peculiarly his own, a work which peculiarly belongs to him, and by which more especially all after ages will know him in the Church. Now what was St. Philip s sphere? I. The spheres of saints.

1. There are aggressive saints like St. Ignatius: there also are inventive saints.

2. There are revolutionary saints like St. Francis.

3. Historical saints like St. Athanasius raised up to save an epoch.

4. There are reforming saints like St. Charles.

5. There are saints who perfume the Church like sufferers and contemplatives.

How St. Philip had an element of all these saints in him.

II. His choice of a sphere.

1. He was not allowed a foreign missionary field,

2. He sent many into religion hut did not enter it himself.

3. His associations and instincts were all for primitive times; not for medieval saints, who would hardly allow salvation out of the cloister; nor for modern ideas, which refused perfection out of convents.

4. St. Philip took the world; took pity on it, and taught that men and women might live in the world, and he as perfect as the highest saints.

III. How he exemplified this.

1. In his dislike of change home is not the world, as convent people say it is.

2. In his stress laid on the heart so like a thorough Scriptural saint!

3. In founding his Congregation for the help of those in the world.

4. In his wideness of spirit admitting all varieties and even opposite^ of goodness.

5. In his choice of great cities for his sons to work in.

IV. His peculiar attraction.

I observe that those who have a devotion to him mostly have an enthusiastic devotion. Yet they can hardly say on what it rests: it is rather some nameless attraction than any specific grace or sweetness. Also it is not to his work, or to his grace, but to himself it is not to anything of St. Philip s but to St. Philip. This nameless attraction is fitted for a sphere consisting of such diversified materials. It is justly called an attraction, an instinct, a spell: it draws us to him, quietly moulds us quietly heats us quietly changes us quietly makes us all for God. I have often wondered what precisely it is, this nameless charm, but I do not know. We feel it and are silent, and our heart fills with it, and we are happy in being his children and at his feet! and some how all he does for us, and all he does in us, and all he makes us do, and all the liberty he gives us, and his loving of us, and his frightening of us all somehow brings us round to God!

VIII. FIRST VESPERS OF ST. PHILIP.

All God s works come to an end, and for the most part their end is more beautiful than their beginning; and the end is often the beginning of a more heavenly and eternal beauty. How true this is of the deaths of the saints!

The feeling in the morning all through the house, and then all through Rome, when St. Philip s death was known. "What it must have been to have lived with a saint!

I. As if the end of the world was come; what next? there is no next! He had grown into the habits of men s lives; and yet, though warned in every way, they found themselves unprepared.

II. His ways, his words, his looks, his haunts, all grow vivid and into a unity to them; they begin to understand him.

III. Hence they want him most, now that he is gone; to whom are they to go to confession? Plow are they to do without his room, now be come like a sacrament to them? He has been so quietly necessary to them, that it is incredible he should be gone. They feel as if they also should have died with him, for how can they go on?

IV. Yet, strange to say, a growing joy makes itself felt in their hearts. The joy comes from within, and without any apparent natural cause.

V. They see him on his bier in church, and as he gave light and perfume in bis life, so he gives light and sheds sweet odours down in the soul of those who kneel there. It is the light of God, the sweet odour of Jesus Christ.

VI. Spiritually he will continue to give this light and to shed this perfume in our souls in an especial manner on his feast-day year by year until Jesus comes to judge the world.

He has many places to look to this evening, many Oratories to bless with his paternal benediction; many hearts to touch with his love, many benefactors of his Congregations to enrich with especial graces; many souls to fill with his light and perfume: but the Blessed can do all these things quietly in God. I feel that his light and perfume are coming to us here. By the light we see God and the shores of the Eternal Land more plainly. By the perfume we lose more and more of our relish for earthly things and are secretly drawn to Jesus. Oh St. Philip, St. Philip! my Father and my Master! how fair is that light, and how peculiar is the fragrance of that perfume! Sweet light of St. Philip! oh that we may always walk by it! Sweet perfume of St. Philip! oh that it may always cling about our souls like a sensible presence of our Blessed Lord! Father, be not afraid, do not doubt, we will come to thee. in Paradise!

ST. PHILIP S DAY.

I. For two hundred and sixty-six years St. Philip has been looking upon the Face of God: he has never wearied. It is ever new; the years have sped silently away; they have not been like years; no springs or autumns, no win ters or summers; there has been the calm-^ ness of eternity.

1. How much the world has gone through since, and his own favourite Home.

2. His own work, how it has lasted and spread and to how many souls it has gone!

3. Does not the thought of him, and of his calm looking upon the Face of the Most Holy Trinity this day make us long for heaven? The times are evil that makes us long for heaven. We are evil ourselves, we are wearied of our own foolishness oh how we long for the security, the peace, the truth, the charity of heaven! Oh yes! most of all for the charity of heaven.

II. But there are lives on earth which have a look, a feeling, a fragrance of eternity about them. This was quite a distinguishable characteristic of St. Philip s life.

1. How his years were like eternal years so still, so swift, so calm, so like each other.

2. Full of crosses, yet no ripples, no rufflings, no sounds at all it was too deep.

3. He was called an apostle; think of Roman roads and hurrying toil he in his room for the most part, or in quiet churches, or leisurely pacing the streets of Rome: he stationary, and Rome flowed by him, touched at him as at a harbour, and went on all con trolled by him.

4. Yet he was like an apostle in his love of the primitive times, and early Christian life; hence his simplicity, his unity he kept aloof from the world, yet exercised an almost ubiquitous influence, through his simplicity and his love. People told him he might influence it more hy leading a more public life. No! he knew his place; he had ascertained his calling; he was stationary, like eternity. 5. His unity was like eternity. He had only one thought, only one secret, only one way, only one work: to make God dearer to men, and that in direct ways, not in indirect, however excellent. Hence his success, hence that remarkable, and it would have seemed so unlikely, oracle of the Church, which authoritatively conferred upon him the title of Apostle of Rome. Is it not strange? An apostle shy and hidden, keeping out of people s way, shunning every kind and shape of notoriety; a light whose power was in its being wellnigh invisible.

III. How did he work upon his times? What did he tell people to do? His times were bad, as ours are; and he was raised up, re member, to be the apostle of his times in the centre and capital of all Christendom. 1. The things he did not do: yet other saints had done them.

1. He never went the world s way, nor bor rowed its methods, however good or promising or lawful they might be,

2. He preached no reforms, but the secret reforms of single souls.

3. He founded no intellectual school of philosophy or theology.

4. He stood aloof from all political move ments or views, as things not to his pur pose. Indeed I cannot fancy St. Philip having any vieivs; his whole soul was in the Church; his views were not views, they were faiths, principles, obediences.

5. He attacked nothing, unless indeed it were sin, frivolity, worldliness, and the reluctance of rich people to give large alms; not even did he attack dress or expensiveness, intensely as he hated both the one and the other.

6. WTiat did he tell people to do? Oh strange foolish wisdom of the Gospel!

7. To keep in their own places, and attend to their ordinary actions, avoiding change, avoiding excitement.

8. To be exceedingly simple, and not to mind criticisms and talk. If you are devout to St. Philip, he will give you the grace not to care what people say of you and is not that perfect happiness?

9. To be always reading the lives of the saints, because that makes an atmosphere, and excludes worldliness without trouble.

10. To pray, frequent the sacraments, and hear a great many sermons.

11. To love everybody, to praise everybody, and to find good in everybody. And all this because of the one mastering thought and sovereign love of God.

"What was there wonderful in all this? Was it not strangely commonplace, for a saint in whose broken heart the Holy Ghost dwelt supernaturally, and who was the recognised Apostle of great Rome? Yes! this was wonderful, that he kept to it, that he mixed nothing else with it, that he added nothing else to it, that he perse vered in this bare singleness of purpose. This is in my eyes a greater miracle than we read in any of the lives of the saints.

See then, brethren, to what a conclusion we have come! The saint, who had the Holy Ghost in his miraculously dilated heart, is the most commonplace of saints; yet he is also the most peculiar and individual of saints, because of the persevering simplicity of his commonplaceness. how much there is to learn, how much to learn of God and Jesus Christ in this one fact, that St. Philip became the Apostle of Rome, a second Peter and a second Paul in his one self, through the mere perseverance of his enthusiastic, unadventurous simplicity!

ST. FEANCIS XAVIEB.³

Work your work before the time, and He will give your reward in His time. (Ecclus. li. 38.)

No scene in history is more significant than the few apostles with the world before them.

I. Character of our own age.

1. It is an age of enthusiasms; partly material, and partly intellectual: concerning science, commerce, discovery.

2. The impossible seems almost fading out of view; what a lesson the world is reading to us.

3. Why not an enthusiasm all for God? a sober, steady, businesslike enthusiasm, like the material one we see around us.

II. Lesson of St. Francis Xavier s life.

1. What one man can do, who is all for God,

2. Who has begun with sanctifying himself,

3. And who then keeps within his own ap pointed sphere.

4. The sobriety of his enthusiasm kindling, not stifling, his fervour is the wonder.

5. It is a characteristic of true enthusiasm to neglect no means of grace.

6. Now living in an unbelieving country is a means of grace both to ourselves and others. III. We are all missioners, and England is our Japan. Let us convert it.

7. By example.

8. By sweetness, yet with gravity in our sweetness.

9. By incessant prayer.

10. By works of mercy to others.

11. By union and absence of jealousy among ourselves; for what the world envies is our union.

12. By holiness, which is a power and an at traction beyond all others.

When we look at the map of the world, and see the countries which St. Francis overran, when we think of the thousands and hundreds of thou sands of those whom he baptised, when we weigh up his difficulties, count up his failures, follow him in his toils and learn sympathetically to estimate his disappointments, we are amazed, and humbled and gladdened also while we are amazed, to think how much one man can do, to whom nature gives an enthusiastic loving heart, and grace the magnificent gift of being simply, always, and only All for God!

THE FEAR OF THE SAINTS.

Meddle not with the names of saints. (Ecclus. xxiii. 10.)

The reason of unanswered prayer and of inefficacious devotions is the want of more fear. This applies very much to our devotion to the saints.

Our view too often is that they lived holy lives, worked miracles, have gone to God, are crowned kings in heaven, and are now conveniences to us as additional means of grace, and doubtless are fresh ornaments of heaven. We do not fear them.

But there are motives for other devotion than this.

I. How majestic a saint is in himself. Great holiness is a thing to fear.

II. The greatness of his power and glory in heaven.

III. The honour of God, which is deeply impli cated in the worship paid to the saint.

IV. In some sense He is more jealous of it than of His own; less patient of levity with them than with Himself, and frequently punishes persons for this.

V. The saints themselves have also entered into the dispositions of God, and, with a sort of vindictive holiness, hard for us in our present state to understand, resent familiarities and impertinences. We regard them too much as on our side, to get things from God for UP. Some saints have shown this vindictiveness. more than others.

VI. Faith is the chief ingredient in a true devotion to the saints; faith in the reality of their power, and of their relationship towards us. It is a great sign of a man being supernatural when he fears to offend a saint.

VII. The favours of the saints form a great department of the Divine mercies, and play an important part in the sanctification of holy men. Often the punishments of the saints do this last also; and this is especially the case with founders of orders, both to their children and to the enemies of their orders.

VIII. Weakness of prayer is one of the feeble nesses of our times, through want of faith and fear: this is one way to set them right. We always fear those in whom we have confidence. We cannot ever put confidence in those whom we do not in some way fear.

The Church expresses the old fashioned devotion to the saints by threatening disobedience to Bulls, &c., with the anger of the holy Apostles SS. Peter and Paul.

Acts in God 58

Adoration, spirit of 5 of God s mercy 15

Age, old, loneliness of 319

Agony, the 205, 371

All for God 43

Alphonso, St. 264

Ambrose, St. 372

Angels, the 77 eldest of creatures 81 trial of 82 beholding the Passion 335

Annas 293

Apostle of Rome 399

Apostles, the, during the Passion 235 desert our Lord 279 voca tions of 280

Arrears of the wrath of God 361

Ashes of St. Thomas 378

Assumption, the 330

Astonishment, one of the chief joys of heaven 326

Athanasius, St. 393 on the word Paraclete 91

Attraction of St. Philip 394

Attributes of God 7 have eminences inconceivable 10 as seen by the blessed 14 marvellous 50

Austerity, power of, with God 363, 365

Earabbas 275

Beauty, exterior, of Jesus 214 interior 216 of the dying Face of Jesus 303 all, is the likeness to God 327

Benediction 166

Benignity of God 25

Bernard, B. of Corlione 264

Beniardine, St. 206

Bethlehem 131- star of 136

Billuart 65

Blood, the Precious, a phrase which St. Peter invented 19 necessity of remembering the 26 mystery of 283

Blosius 178

Bonaventure, St. on the Passion 204

Bosom of God 33, 49 our home 135

Boyhood of St Philip 384

Calmness 163 of the Sacred Heart

173 Calvary 191, 238, 244 shadows of

239 of St. Peter 245

Charity, the great want 118

Charles, St. 381, 393 reform of 382 simplicity of 382 spirit of 383

Christmas day 131, 133

Church, the 83 spirit of the 336 troubles of 356 cautions against representing her to be what she is not 367

Columba, B. of Rieti 302

Comforter, the Holy Ghost 91

Coming to God 45

Compassion of Jesus 204

Complaining, the, of Jesns 29!

Concurrence, the divine 68

Condemnation, none for those in Christ 185

Conservation 69

Contempt of God 209

Converts 137

Creator, the, in the power of His creatures 226

Creation 14 might have been eternal 64 but is temporal 66 in a state of grace 71 sprang out of the Incarnation Si of matter 82

Creatures, eternally possible 65 rebellion of, at the Passion 226

Crispin, B. of Viterbo no

Cross, shame of the 209, 212 stations of the 301 the strength of Chris tians 377

Crucifix, the, meditations on 264

Delight, the, of God in the perfec tions of Mary 328 Descents, seven, of the soul in the deeps of the Passion 250 Death, a great change 47 loneliness of 219 of Jesus 248 Dereliction of the Father 221 Devotion, a, may be grounded on a probable opinion 103 to the Pas-Bion the surest sign of predestination 253 of the Stations of the Cross 302 to St. Thomas of Canterbury 378 to St. Philip 400 Devotion to the omnipotence of God 7-- makes us more gentle 8 of Jesus to the Holy Ghost, grounds of 88

Devotion to the Holy Ghost 101 how attainable 102 effects of no Devotion to Mary the great gift of

Jesus 311

Devotions for an interior life 143, Disappointments of God 23 Discontent, Christian 51 Dismas and Gesmas 246 Divinity of Jesus in the Passion 228 Docility to the Holy Ghost 122 Dolours of the Passion 206 seven of St. Joseph 347

D >ve, a symbol of the Holy Cheat, 1 08

Easter 156

Ecce Homo 198, 211. 228 Eminences of the Holy Ghost 60 Enfants de Marie 335 England and Judaea 352 Epiphany the 136-fea-st of converts ^37- Mystery of 139

Epochs, the three of the Holy Trinity 3, 4 of the natural world 82

Evil, the circle of 223

Excess of the Passion 194

Exile of St. Thomas 369 of Pius ix 373

Face of Jesus 187, 277 during the"

Passion 278 Faith believes incredible things 19,

96 strength of 357 Fall of the Apostles 281 Father, God our 30 Faults in our prayer 6 Fear of the Saints 404 Fire, God a God of 119 Flax, the smoking 28 Foolishness, the, of God 150 Forbearance, the Divine 22 Francis St. 399 Francis Xavier, St. 403 Freshness of Jesus 175 Fruita of the Holy Ghost 95

Gertrude St. 99

Ghost, the Holy 55-dwelling in us 57i 73 End of creatures 78 in the Church 84 sin against 84 devotion "of, to Jesus 85 Spouse of 86 and the soul 90 in the Sacraments 92 Inspirations of 98, 122 Devotion to 101 seeming waywardness of 106 Contrasts between the, and Jesus in Docility to 122

Gifts of the Holy Ghost 92 arrangement of by Isaias 93 growtij of 94-gratuitous 97 of God 311 of Jesus 313

Glory, order of 74

Goodness 96

Grace, Sanctifying 71 order of 71

Graces gratii dates 97

Gregory the Great, St. no

Gregory VII, St 372, 375

Harvest, of the Gospel 358

Hatred, horrible 2?8

Heart, the Sacred 168, 171, 323

Heart, the Immaculate 329

Heaven, what is 3.54

Hell, belief in 36 all want to escape

27 Heresy 76 as a sin against the Holy

Ghost 109 a protest against the - Cross 261

History of the Holy Ghost 78 Holiness, impossible without Mary

319 two schools of, in the Church

Home our, in God 49 Humility, of God 330 of St. Thomas of Canterbury 366

Ignatius, St., at Manresa 99 an aggressive Saint 399 Imitation of Jesus 322 Incarnation, the 72 how affected by sin 83 eternal plan of 127 specially for us 322 Incomprehensibility of God 9 what it is ii St. Teresa s devotion to n Indiscretion, slur of 365 Indulgence of God 29 Indwelling of the Holy Ghost 73, 89 Innocence, of our Lord 273 Inspirations 98 the waste of 104 consequence of not listening to 123 Investigations, theological 55 effects of 56 Instruments of the Passion 201

Jacob s well 151 Jerome, St. on the Passion, 197 Jesus, predestination of 81 devotion of, to the Holy Ghost, 84 Life of, in the Bosom of the Father 127 His choice of poverty 147 prayer of 148 Mystery of His being thought mad 149 at the well 151 in Limbus 152 Easter, joy of 156 perpetual freshness of 175 tears of 181 first sight of the face of 1 88 beauty of 214 before Herod 216- Death of 248 Innocence of 274 silence of 276, 285 Face of 277 complainings of 291 legacies of 299 journeys of 306 Trials of 307 gifts of 312 dependence of on Mary 318 seeming weakness of 370

Jews, the, during the Passion 236, 284 the cry of Blood 286 the state of 352

Joseph, St. 133, 343 death of 344^ meditations on 346 joya of 348 a model 350

Joseph of Cupertino, St. on the loss of Judas 283

Journeys, the seven, of Jesus, 306

Joy in heaven, wherein it consists 47

Joys of Mary 339 of St. Joseph 348

Judas 281, 292

John the Baptist, St. 352, 364

Kings, the three 137 characteristics of 3 53 -virtues of 354

Legacies, the, of Jesus 299

Lent 170

Lidwine, St., of Schiedam 302

Life a service 31 a Godlike gift 66 always a happiness 67 of Jesus a life of love 176 St. Philip s 385 Likeness of God, Mary the 326 Limbus 72, 152 Longanimity 96 Love, so little given to God 40 is work 41 Love of God for souls 34 strangeness of the 36 not easily weaned

37 of Jesus 177 Lucifer 332

Madness attributed to God 150

Majesty of God 22

Mass, the first 2710! St Philip 387

Mediocrity, a soul of 34

Mercy of God 13 ways of 15 -God rich in 16 a mystery 19 Mercies of God 20 Martyrdom, what it is 67 Mary, tranquillity of 13 full of mercy 15 bound up with Jesus 86 sanctifications of 105 Predestination of 128 beauty of 158 during the Passion 234 the mother of sinners 314 the safety of souls 316 dependence on 318 measures of the love of 322 magnifying God 323 office of 324 God s delight in the perfections of 328 humility of 331 the manifestation of the kingdom of grace 333 an exemplification of the spirit not the letter 335 joys of 339

Matter, creation of 82

Mary Magdalene, St. 160

Men, judgment of, despised by St. Thomas 373

Mind suffers more than the body 203

Miracles of St. Philip 387

Mission, doctrine of 75, 87

Mocking God 37 what it is 38 everything except a true conversion 40

Modesty 96

More for God 42

Mysteries of God s ways 56 of the Passion 255

Name, the Holy, feast of 140 our trust 182 Nativity, the 131 Nature 70 Mary in the kingdom of

325 inanimate 327 and grace

Nazareth, the men of 2f4 Neutrality impossible for creatures with regard to God 69 Nicodemus 84 Novatus 97 Novena of St. Philip 384

Obligations, our to Jesus 321 Oils, the Holy 84

Omnipotence of God, devotion to 7 Opinion, probable, a ground for a devotion 103

Oratory, spirit of the no, 114 beginnings of 385 Ordination 85

Paganism 83

Paraclete, the 91

Passion, the 191 mystical character of 193 bodily pains of 198 Instru ments of 201 mental sufferings of 204 shame of 210, 212 solitariness of 217 spectators of 233 ever living in the Church 239 an attraction 240 -in the active and contemplative life 241 the grand object of devotion 254 effects of in the world 259 our devotion through the year 297

Pater Pauperum 145

Pater Noster, the 148

Patience of God 12. 22

Penance, necessity of 25 for devotion to the Passion 304

Pentecost 86, 117

Person of Jesus Christ 143

Pontigny 369

Philip, St. no heart of 121, 143, 401 Novena of 384

Philip Bcnizi, St. 264

Pilate 275, 283

Pope, Infallibility of the 76

Pilgrimages 302

Poor, the favourites of God 145 consolations of 146

Poverty, the choice of Jesus 147

Predestination of Jesus 81

Principles, the three of human life 13 strength of high 369

Procession of the Holy Ghost 55, 59 eternal 60

Protestantism 353

Punishment, eternal 26

Purgatory 188

Quarant Ore, the 169

Reed, the bruised 27

Religion must be taken as God has revealed it 27 what it ought to be T2i Repentance grows harder by delay

Respect, human, a tyranny 32 Resurrection, the 153, 160 victory of 154 a mystery of calmness 163 Rome, laid waste 355, 356 Rosary, the 334 the testament of

Mary 335

Sacrament, the Blessed 1 66 happiness of Jesus in 179 is Jesus Himself 184 connection of, with the Passion 193

Saint?, aggressive 393

Salerno 375

Sanctifications of Mary 86, 105

Salvation 279

Salvete flores martyrum 377

Satan, how men become his property 32

Scalza, Ven. Paola Maria 199

Scandal 388

Scourgings, the 200

Secrecy of God 9 object of St. Philip 387

Seraflna de Dio, Ven. in, 114

Service, life a 31

Shame of the Cross 209

Silence at the Passion 284 of our Lord 290

Sins 298

Sleep of Jesus 203

Solitude 218 of the Passion 219, 220

Sorrow, nature of 182

Sorrows, the Man of 250

Soul, each, separately loved by God 35 beauty of, in a state of grace 155 of Jesus, trials of 221

Souls, perishing 43 Mary the safety of 316

Spectators of the Passion 233

Spouse of the Holy Ghost 86, 88

Stigmatization 243

Stupidities, well meant 24

Stations of the Cross 301

Success, a perpetual struggle 32

Sufferings, unknown, of the Passion

196 Sword of Peter 374

Talking a source of sin 6

Taste for God 47 a magnificent grace 48

Tears of Jesus 181

Temperance 96

Teresa s, St. devotion to the incomprehensibility of God ii on seeming faults 29 devotion to St. Joseph 351

Thomas, St. of Canterbury 340 his hatred of meanness 359 in tha court 360 in strife 366 humility of 267 in exile 369 despised men s judgment 373 devotion to

Tongue, sins of the 268 Touch of God 49 Thief, the impenitent 224 Thomas, St. on creation 65 Thorns, the crown of 295 Transformation of the wholo man, the work of the Passion 242 Trinity, the Holy 3, 58, 87 Truth, not men s but God s 368

Uncreated, threshold of the 75 Union with God, in the order of nature 70 of grace 71 because of the Incarnation 72 special work of the Incarnation 73

Varani, B. Battista 206, 208 Via Dolorosa 199, 213, 216 Victory of the Resurrection 154 Vision, the Beatific, the cause of our not sinning in heaven 5 during the passion 231 Vocation of the apostles 280

Ways of mercy 15

Weakness, the strength of Chris tians 3 70, 373 Weariness 175 Well, Jacob s 151

Words, the Seven 24.5

Works, the divine 13

World, the, how viewed by saints

34 Worship of Mary 325

Wounds, the Five 290

Years, the thirty-three 83 all Christian life like ii2 were a passion 194 Face of Jesus in 277

Years, the sixty-three, of ilary 337

ERRATA.

page 176 line 4 for "pleasures" read "pleasure." " 305 line 5 dele "so thick and" " 357 line 21 for " but" read "as."

RICHARDSON AND SON, PRINTERS, DERBY.

In the Press, to be ready for next Christmas.

NOTES ON DOCTRINAL AND SPIRITUAL SUBJECTS.

VOL II. THE FAITH AND THE SPIRITUAL LIFE,

NOTES

ON

DOCTRINAL AND SPIRITUAL SUBJECTS.

[The copyright is reserved.]

NOTES

ON

DOCTRINAL AND SPIRITUAL SUBJECTS.

BV THE LATE

FREDERICK WILLIAM FABER, D. D.

PRIEST OF THE ORATORY OF ST. PHILIP NERI.

Defunctus adhuc loquitur. Heb. xi. 4.

YOL, II. THE FAITH AND THE SPIEITUAL LIFE,

LONDON: THOMAS RICHARDSON AND SON;

DUBLIN; AND DERBY. MDCCCLXVI.

PREFACE,

Since the appearance of the first volume several papers of the Author, which would naturally have been placed in it, have come to light, and will be found in the following pages as an Appendix to Part III.

The notes on New Beginnings (p. 127), the Management of our Grace (p. 137), the Fear of God (p. 160), and Life (p. 341) were written for a second volume of Spiritual Conferences, which it w r as the intention of the Author to have published. The Memoir of the Author, which it was proposed to include in the present volume, is in preparation, and will be published shortly.

J. E. B.

The Oratory, London, Feast of St. Hugh,

MDCCCLXVI,

SECTION I. THE CHURCH.

I. Epiphany Lectures.. 1851

1. The History of the Church.... 3

2. The Vicissitudes of the Church

3. The Empire of the Church.... 8

4. The Church at, War with the World ] ]

5. The Conversion of England.. 13

6. The Last Age of the,Church, and Reign of Antichrist...... _ 16

II. The Holiness of the Church.... 1350 19 in. The Living Church. Thanksgiving for the

Definition of the Immaculate Conception.

Second Sunday after Euater.. 1555 21

IV. Peace the Life of the Church. Synod of

Oscott.. 1855 23

V. Thankfulness that we are Catholics.... 1^52 28

VI. On the Treatment of Temptations against Faith. 29

VII. Mary and the Modern Church. May.. 18J1

1. Mary s place in the Modern Church.. 3-4

2. The Church in Intercession.... 35

3. The Church in Thanksgiving.... 37

4. The Church at War with Heresy.. 39

5. The Church at War with Sin... 4;{

6. The Church making Saints.... 47 7- Mary magnifying God....... 50

Till CONTENTS.

THE SACRAMENTS.

YFAU. PAGE

I. The Sacraments a Fountain of happiness,. 1856 55

II. The Conversion of a Soul from sin.,.. 1851 56

III. How to Confess well...... 1847 58

IV. Hatred of sin........ 59

^f. Purpose of Amendment in Confession.. 1848 60

VI. The obligation of Restitution.... 1848 62

VII. Scandal............. 1849

1. The Nature of Scandal...... 64

2. The Injury it does to God...... 66

3. The Injury it does to others...... 69

4. The Injury it does to ourselves |... 71 YIII. God s view of our past sins......... 1855 73

IX. Fruits of a good Communion..... 1S48 76

X. Hardening of heart from slovenly Communions 1861 77

XI. The influence of Catholic Priests over their

Congregations............ 1848 79

XII. Extreme Unction........ 1818 81

SECTION III. CONTROVERSY.

TEAK. PAGE

I. The Reasonableness of the Catholic Religion... 1854

1. Introduction............ 85

2. In its relation to Scripture...... 88

3. In its relation to the nature and wants of men............... 91

4. In its relation to the character of God... 94 II. English Catholicism"

5. Actual position of Catholics in England... 97

6. What Protestants would expect English

Catholics to be like......... 99

3. The real aspect of English Catholicism to the eye of the enquirer...... 102

CONTENTS. IX

4. The way in which we act upon Protes tants..,............ 105

5. Fear of our own doctrines...... 103

6. The influence of the presence of Protestantism on the ordinary character of Ca tholics............. HI

7. The influence of Protestantism on the devout character of Catholics...... 114

III. Protestantism, its rise and present condition... 117

IV. Protestant notions of our Blessed Lord... 119

V. Conversion........... 1848 121

VI. Journalism. Little Oratory...... 1852 122

I. New Beginnings, Lent...... I860

1. What has hecome of our old begin nings.......... 107

2. Little Encouragements..... 129

3. Little Discouragements.... 131

4. The God we have to deal with... 134 II. The Management of our Grace. Lent.. 1858

5. The Abundance of Grace..... 137

6. The Varieties of Grace.... 142

7. The Jealousy of Grace.... 145

8. The Knowledge of our Grace... 151

9. Correspondence to our Grace.. 155 III. The Fear of God....... 1859

1 The Unity of God 160

2. Punishments and Ptewards..... 177

3. Our own sin and misery.... 202

4. From the nature of grace...... 206

5. From the Perfections and Character of God............ 207

6. The excellence of Fear 210

YEAH. PAGE

IV. The Eye of God........ 1853 211

V. The one drawback of life...-... 1861 213

VI. How it is that life is short...... 1856 216

VII. Self-denial the essence of religion... - 218

VIII. Personal Holiness......... 1852 219

IX. The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence.

Lent............ 1861 221

X. Lent a call to Penance........ 1859 224

XL Putting hand to the plough and looking back............ 18G1 225

XII, Jesus Christ and Him Crucified... 1856 227

XIII. Today 230

, XIV. On Frittering 231

XV. Tenderness in religion,........ 1850

1. Necessity of it, and its nature... 233

2. The Tenderness of Jesus...... 235

3. How to gain it......... 236

XVI. The delicacy of the operations of grace... 1856 238

XVII. God s love of prayer. Lent..... 1861 210

XVIII. Holiness is an inward silence. Lent... 1859 242

XIX. The place of weepers. Lent...... 1861 245

XX. Prosperity............ 247

XXI. Inward peace............ 1859 249

XXII. Hearing sermons......... 1859 250

XXIII. Devotion to the poor......... 1860 252

XXIV. The spiritual advantages of having a bad memory............ 255

XXV.. Sins of the tongue. Passion Sunday... 1855 258

XXVI. A. cure for detraction......... 1859 260

XXVII. Jealousy in good works...... 262

XXVIII. Childishness............ 1858 264

XXIX. Indifference............ 1861 266

XXX. The awfulness of sin......... 1850 269

XXXI. " Lampades nostree, extinguuntur".. 1861 271 XXXII. " Quoniam advesperascit." Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension...... 1859 273

XXXIII. Duties of parents to children..... 1858 275

XXXIV. Duties to servants......... 1858 276

XXXV. Thoughts for active men...... 279

XXXVI. Hints for Valetudinarians...... 281

XXXVII. Short papers.......... 282

OLD TESTAMENT HISTOKY.

I. The Fall of the Angels. Lent....... I860 291

II. The Flood. Lent ls,- 2 93

III. The Tower of Babel. Lent......... i860 295

IV. The Cities of the Plain. Lent....... I860 299

V. Jonas and Ninive. Lent Ib60 304

VI. Baltassar s Feast. Lent. I860 310

I. Sunday after the opening of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street.

Al ff sl 5 - -...* 1849 319

The Ecclesiastical Titles Bill...... i 8 51 30 j_

III. Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament.

IV. At the profession of a Sepulchrine Nun. New

Hldl............ 1852 325

The Secular Clergy. S. EJmnmTs College... 1850 327 VI. Closing of the Oratory in Kin- William Street.

Feat (ftlielhly Name of Mary... 1853 329

VII. Opening of the Oratory at Brompton. Marcli^ 1854 332 VIII. For the Poor Schools. Ftast of the Sacred m Henrt......... 1855 334

Lhe Workhouse Grievance. Lent...... 1861 336

Xll CONTENTS.

SECTION III. LIFE.

I. Life.................. 185S

1. The Nature of Life......... 341

2. The Characteristics of Life...... 844

3. The States of Life........ 348

4. The Meanings of Life......... 353

SECTION I. THE FOUR LAST THINGS.

. I. The light of a deathbed......... 1850 359

II. Bad deaths of those who have once been good 1856 361

III. The Particular Judgment....... 1850 364

IY. Eternity. Schools of Compassion..... 1852 366

V. The mistake found out too late..... 1853 370

VI. The judgment of the reprobate..... 1853 373

VII. The loss of God.......... 1850 375

VIII. Why our Blessed Lord said so little about

Heaven. Little Oratory......... 1856 377

IX. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord., 1861 379

X. We with Jesus afterwards..... 1850 381

SECTION H. PURGATORY.

I. OmrDead...... 1861 387

[I. The Severity of Purgatory....... 1357 339

III. The Consolations of Purgatory..... 399

IV. Devotion to the Passion........ 1 86 Q 393

V. The Love of Jesus for the Holy Souls... 1856 394

VI. The Queen of Purgatory......... 397

VII. The Deliverance of a Soul..... 1353 398

TO THE THIKD PART.

T mt, T T j YEAR. PAGE

1. Ine Immaculate Conception. Triduo and Feast lt>54

2. The Mother and the Son... 403

3. The Mother and her many Sons...... 405

4. The Mother of the Immaculate Queen.. 408

5. The Immaculate Queen......... 410

II. Praying for Sinners. May....... I860 414

III. Meditations on the Angels.... 4)7

IV. Motives for a peculiar devotion towards our own dear Guardian Angel..... 405

V. Devotional practices in honour of our Guardian

PAET FOUBTH. THE FAITH.

Footnotes

1. Preached in the Church of St. Thomas of Canterbury at Fulharn, Dec. 29, 1848, ↩

2. ↩

3. Preached at the Church of the Immaculate Conception. Farm Street. ↩