Chapter I. Wherein consists the perfection peculiar to this Company

Article I

The end of the institution of the Company of Jesus, cmd the means of arriving thereat;, God the Father has given the Company of Jesus to His Son, to love Him and to honour Him ; and our institute imitates and honours every portion of the life of Jesus Christ. For if some fail in this duty, it is their own individual fault, not that of the institute.

As the end which our Company has in view is the greatest and sublimest possible, being the very same with that of the Son of God Himself when on earth, so also the means to attain that end are most excellent, seeing that our institute embraces all such as are supernatural, as prayer, sacraments, preaching ; and all those that are natural, as talents, intellect, sciences, as well as the method of teaching them : but the latter must be used in subordination to supernatural prudence, and derive their strength and virtue from the highest exercise of prayer.

This it is in which we fail, if we do not take care ; for want of supernatural prudence, we set too much value on natural and human means, we give too much application and study to them, and too little to such means as are supernatural and divine. Hence it is that we reap so very little fruit from our employments ; and this single fault is enough to spoil every thing else, nothing being able to subsist without grace and an interior spirit.

It is marvellous to see a religious of the Company continuing long in a state of imperfection, possessing as he does among us so many means of arriving at perfection ; it is quite inconceivable how many graces he must have wasted, and how sadly he must have abused them, particularly if he has lived many years in the Company.

From the moment we relax in the way of perfection, and wish to satisfy ourselves with an ordinary degree of virtue, we fail in the end after which we ought to strive as religious, viz. our own perfection ; and that at which as Jesuits we are bound to aim, viz. the greater glory of God, which we are obliged to promote by studying our highest perfection, and that of our neighbour.

An excellent person observed to one of our Fathers at Paris, that he was not surprised at the zeal, the fervour, and the sanctity of Father Suffren, but that he was astonished we were not all so many Fathers Suffren. What good might nqt be done by a regent who had the interior spirit of this holy man !

That motto of St. Ignatius, Ad majorem JDei gloriam, signifies that in the matter of perfection and sanctity we must never set any limits to our designs, and must never say, " It is enough, I am satisfied, I want no more ;" since by the very obligation of our calling we must aspire after the perfection of the apostolical life, and a height of virtue altogether evangelical.

Article II

The Company belongs to Jesus Christ as Samour.

St. Ignatius passionately desired to be admitted into the family of our Lord. He besought the Blessed Virgin to obtain him this favour, and then he asked it of the Eternal Father. His prayers were heard. One day, as he was on his way to Rome, he entered a chapel, and as he was engaged in prayer, the Eternal Father appeared to him with Jesus Christ bearing His cross, together with the Blessed Virgin and a troop of Angels and Saints. The Eternal Father presented Ignatius and his companions to His Son, and commended them to Him. The Son of God received them graciously, and promised to assist them at Rome in the execution of the design they had formed of dedicating themselves to apostolic ministrations. Thus it is in His quality of Saviour that Jesus Christ received the Company into His service, to employ them in promoting the salvation of souls j and He gave it His Name to signify that He associated it to the oflSce which that sacred name imports.

As for us who are the children of St. Ignatius, we ought to consider ourselves as belonging to the Saviour, being members of His household and devoted to His service, and for the love of Him to the service of souls.

With this end in view, let us make three acts of generous zeal : 1. A desire to have been able to serve and honour our Lord in such manner as is worthy of Him from the first moment of our existence. 2. A regret at having lost so much time which we might have employed in knowing Him, loving Him, and serving Him. 3. An offering and a fresh consecration of ourselves to His service, in union with the love which the Eternal Father and the Holy Spirit bear Him, and the honour and adorations which the Blessed Virgin, the Angels, and the Saints have rendered Him, render Him incessantly, and will continue to render Him for ever and ever. Let us offer Him our body, to be used and consumed in the fulfilment of His designs ; every moment of our life, even to the last, to be employed in His service ; our soul, resigning it to the disposal of His providence ; our death, desiring it may come from the excess of our labours for His glory ; our resurrection and our beatific state, to love Him and to bless Him throughout eternity.

Article III

St Ignatius the model of the perfection of the Company, St. Ignatius excelled equally in the active life and in the contemplative ; and it may be said that there have been many Saints distinguished pre-eminently for one only of the perfections which he united in a sovereign degree. What austerity could be greater than that which he practised in the first years of his fervour ? What more singular gift of chastity than that with which the Blessed Virgin favoured him from the time of his conversion ? What voluntary poverty more rigorous than that which he observed so long and during such numerous joumejrs, living only on alms as a beggar? What greater humility than his condescending, on two occasions, to learn the rudiments of the Latin tongue amongst children, when he was already of an advanced age? What patience more heroic than that which he displayed amid so many persecutions 1 What supernatural prudence more perfect than that which is so conspicuous in his whole conduct and in his constitutions ? What zeal more ardent and more unboimded than his ? What evenness of spirit more constant and unchangeable 1 What prayer more sublime 1 What intercourse with God more intimate ?

At the sight of this model of perfection, which we children of this holy patriarch ought to imitate, well may we be confounded, considering the little virtue we have acquired, and the little good we have done, in so apostoHc a state. As for those who, like seculars, allow themselves to be captivated by the false brilliancy of this world's fleeting charms, they know not their wretchedness. What confusion will be theirs in another life, unless they take heed !