Chapter II. The motives which lead us to the practice of this docility

Article I

That perfection cmd even salvation depend on docility to grace.

The two elements of the spiritual life are the cleansing of the heart and the direction of the Holy Spirit. These are the two poles of all spirituality. By these two ways we arrive at perfection according to the degree of purity we have attained, and in proportion to the fidelity with which we have co-operated with the movements of the Holy Spirit and followed His guidance.

Our perfection depends wholly on this fidelity, and we may say that the sum of the spiritual life consists in observing the ways and the movements of the Spirit of Gk)d in our soul, and in fortifying our will in the resolution of following them, employing for this purpose all the exercises of prayer, spiritual reading, sacraments, the practice of virtues and good works.

Some exercise themselves in many commendable practices and perform a number of exterior acts of virtue ; thus their attention is wholly given to the material action. This is well enough for beginners, but it belongs to a far higher perfection to follow the interior attraction of the Holy Spirit and be guided by His direction. It is true that this latter mode of acting yields less sensible satisfaction, but there is more of the interior spirit and of virtue in it.

§ in.

The end to which we ought to aspire, after having for a long time exercised ourselves in purity of heart, is to be so possessed and governed by the Holy Spirit that He alone shall direct all our powers and all our senses, and regulate all our movements, interior and exterior, while we, on our part, make a complete surrender of ourselves, by a spiritual renunciation of our own will and our own satisfaction. We shall thus no longer live in ourselves, but in Jesus Christ, by a faithful correspondence with the operations of His Divine Spirit, and by a perfect subjection of all our rebellious inclinations to the power of His grace.

Few persons attain the graces which God had destined for them, or, when they have lost them, succeed afterwards in repairing the loss. The majority lack the necessary courage to conquer themselves, and the fidelity to trade with advantage in the gifts of Gk)d.

When we enter on the path of virtue, we walk at first in darkness ; but if we follow the leadings of grace faithfully and perseveringly, we shall infallibly attain a great light both for our own guidance and for that of others.

We wish to become saints in a day ; we have not patience to await the ordinary course of grace. This proceeds from our pride and cowardice. Let us only be faithful in co-operating with the graces which God offers us, and He will not fail to lead us to the fulfilment of His designs.

§v.

It is certain that our salvation in the Company, as in all other religious orders, depends absolutely on our interior correspondence with the guidance of the Spirit of God. Unless we follow our Lord with a perfect fidelity, we are in great danger of being lost, and it is impossible to say what harm we may do both to the Company and to the Church. Consider how many little attachments we have to venial sins ! how many imperfections ! how many designs and desires which are not in subjection to the movements of grace ! how many useless thoughts do we every day revolve in our mind, not to mention thoughts of bitterness and vexation !

This hinders more than we can say the estabUshment of the kingdom of God within us, and is of infinite prejudice to our neighbour ; because our Lord has made us His ministers of state, and has entrusted to us His Blood, His merits. His doctrine, the treasures of His graces ; an office which, elevating us above the angelic nature, demands from us in the exercise of it the most perfect fidelity of which we are capable. And yet it is astonishing to see with what negligence and unfaithfulness we discharge it.

But what is worst of all, is the opposition we make to the designs of God, and the resistance we offer to His inspirations ; for either we do not wish to hear them, or we reject them when we have heard them, or, when we have received them, we weaken and impair them hy a thousand imperfections of attachment to creatures, self-complacency, and self-satisfaction.

And yet the principal point in the spiritual life so entirely consists in disposing ourselves to grace by purity of life, that if two persons were to consecrate themselves to the service of God at the same time, and one were to devote himself wholly to good works, and the other to apply himself altogether to the purifying of his heart and to rooting out whatever within him was opposed to grace, the latter would attain to perfection twice as soon as the former.

Thus our greatest care should be, not so much to read spiritual books, as to pay great attention to divine inspirations, which are sufficient along with a little reading; and to be faithfully exact in corresponding with the graces which are offered us.

We should also frequently beg God to enable us to repair before we die all our past losses of grace, and to reach that height of merit, to which in His first intention He desired to lead us, which intention we have hitherto frustrated by our infidelities ; finally, that He will forgive us those sins of which we have been the cause in others, and will also repair in them those losses of grace which they have incurred through our fault.

It sometimes happens that after receiving some good inspiration from God, we immediately find ourselves assailed by repugnances, doubts, perplexities, and difficulties, which proceed from our own corrupt interior, and from our passions, which are opposed to the divine inspiration. Did we receive it with an entire submission of heart, it would fill us with that peace and consolation which the Spirit of God brings with Him, and which He conmiunicates to souls in which He meets with no resistance.

The lights of grace come to us by degrees according to our interior disposition, and depart also in the same manner, leaving us in darkness. So that we have an alternation of day and night, and resemble in some wise the inhabitants of the polar regions, who have more or less of day in proportion as they are nearer to or farther removed from the pole. Now we ought to aspire after the enjoyment of a perpetual day ; nor will it fail to shine into our soul, when, having thoroughly purified it, we shall continually follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Article II

There a/re hut few perfect aovls, hecaibse there a/re but few who follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

The reason why we are so slow in arriving at perfection, or never arrive at it at all, is, that in almost every thing we are led by nature and human views. We follow but little, if at all, the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to whom it belongs to enlighten, direct, and animate.

The generality of religious, even of the good and virtuous, follow in the guidance of their own conduct, and in the direction of others, only reason and good sense ; and in this many of them excel. The rule is a good one, but it is not sufficient in order to arrive at Christian perfection.

Such persons are guided ordinarily by the general opinion of those amongst whom they Hve ; and as the latter are imperfect, although their life is not irregular, seeing that the number of the perfect is very small, they never attain to the sublime ways of the Spirit ; they live like the generality, and their method of directing others is imperfect.

The Holy Spirit waits some time for them to enter into their own interior, and observing therein the operations of grace and those of nature, to dispose themselves to follow His guidance. But if they abuse the time and the favour He vouchsafes them. He abandons them at last to themselves, and leaves them in that darkness and that ignorance of their own interior which they have loved, and in which they henceforth live, amidst great perils to their salvation.

We may say with truth that there are but very few who persevere constantly in the ways of God. Many wander from them perpetually ; the Holy Spirit calls them back by His inspirations ; but as they are intractable, full of themselves, attached to their own opinions, puffed up with their own wisdom, they do not readily let themselves be guided. They enter but seldom into the way of God's designs, and make no stay therein, returning to their own inventions and ideas, which deceive and delude them. Thus they make but little progress, and are surprised by death, having taken but twenty steps where they might have taken ten thousand, had they abandoned themselves to the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

On the other hand, truly interior persons who are guided by the light of the Spirit of God, for which they have disposed themselves by purity of heart, and which they follow with perfect submission, proceed at a giant's pace, and fly, so to say, in the ways of grace.

Article III

The excellence ofgraccy and the injustice of the opposition toe offer to it.

§t.

We ought to receive every inspiration as a word of God, proceeding from His wisdom. His mercy. His infinite goodness, and capable of operating in us marvellous effects, if we put no obstacle in its way. Let us consider what one word of God has accomplished. It created the heaven and the earth, and drew all creatures out of nothingness to a participation in the existence of God in the state of nature, because it met with no resistance in nothingness. It would operate something more in us if we offered it no resistance. It would draw us out of our moral nothingness to a supernatural participation in the holiness of God in the state of grace, and to a participation in the beatitude of God in the state of glory. And for a little point of honour, for some office which gratifies our vanity, some little pleasure of a moment, a trifle, we prevent those great effects of God's word, of His inspirations and the impressions of His Spirit. After this, will you not confess that Wisdom was right in saying, " The number of the foolish is without end ?'* If we could see in what way the inspirations of God are received in our souls, we should perceive that they remain, so to say, on the surface, without sinking any deeper ; the opposition they encounter in us preventing them from making their due impression. And this comes from our not giving ourselves up sufficiently to the Spirit, and not serving God with a perfect fill-ness of heart. Hence, in order for graces to produce their effect in the heart of sinners, they must enter in with noise and violence, because they meet with great resistance ; but souls that are possessed by God they penetrate gently, filling them with that wonderful peace which always accompanies the Spirit of God. On the other hand, the suggestions of the enemy make no impression on good souls, because they find contrary principles ruling within them.

§ ni.

One of our greatest evils is that we are so sensual, and so delighted with exterior things, that we esteem, we admire, we have a taste for nothing but what attracts attention and flatters our senses. Apd nevertheless, it is of faith that the least inspiration of God is a thing more precious and more excellent than all the whole world, seeing that it is of a supernatural order, and has cost the Blood and the Life of a God.

What a gross folly ! we are insensible to the inspirations of God, because they are spiritual, and infinitely exalted above the senses. We make no account of them, we prefer before them our natural talents, occupations of distinction, the esteem of men, our own little conveniences and satisfactions. Monstrous illusion ! of which, nevertheless, many are undeceived only at the hour of death.

We do great wrong to God in two ways. First, in that we confess, with truth, that we have need of the Holy Spirit and of His assistance, and yet take from Him the direction of our soul, and wish to manage His graces our own way, without depending on His holy guidance both in the use of them and in the conduct of our interior life. This is to usurp the rights of the Holy Spirit, and to arrogate to ourselves His ofl&ce ; for to Him alone it belongs to guide souls. Secondly, in that our inmost soul being destined for God only, we fill it with creatures to His prejudice j and instead of dilating and enlarging it indefinitely by the presence of God, we straiten it exceedingly by occupying it with a few wretched nonentities. This is what prevents our attaining to perfection.

Article IV

The Holy Spirit exercises the office o/contforter to faith- JiU sovis, St. Athanasius remarks that throughout the Old Testament there is no mention made of the Holy Spirit under the name of Comforter, Fa/raclitys» The reason is declared in these words of our Lord : " If I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you : but if I go, I will send Him to you." It was necessary that the Incarnate Word should enter into glory, before He sent the Holy Spirit as Comforter.

The interior comfort which the Holy Spirit bestows is much more profitable than the bodily presence of the Son of God would have been. Therefore He said to His disciples, " It is expedient to you that I go."

The Holy Spirit comforts us especially in three things :

First, in the uncertainty of our salvation, which is terribly great, since all our senses, interior and exterior, all our powers, all our passions, all our actions, are to us principles of eternal condemnation.

This is one of the truths of faith, because without grace, in the state of corrupted nature in which we live, all is vicious within us, and most of our actions are bad and often damnable. Besides, all the objects which present themselves to us from without are allurements to sin ; riches, honours, pleasures, all are full of snares.

Add to this, that we cannot merit final perseverance ; if the guidance and protection of Gk)d be wanting to us, as they were to Solomon and Tertullian, we shall perish like them. It is this uncertainty that has made Saints tremble. But in this affliction the Holy Spirit comforts us, being "the Spirit of adoption of the sons of God," and, as St. Paul says, "the pledge and assurance of the heavenly inheritance ;*' a soul is rarely lost which has once received this pledge and enjoyed some experimental knowledge of God. The Holy Spirit bears inward witness to fervent and faithful souls, of what they are to God and what God is to them; and this witness banishes their fear and forms their consolation.

Secondly, the Holy Spirit comforts us in the temptations of the devil, and in the contradictions and distresses of this life. The unction which He pours into souls animates them, fortifies them, aids them to win the victory ; it sweetens their troubles, and makes them find their delight in crosses.

Thirdly, the Holy Spirit comforts us while we live in the Church here below absent from G^d. This is the cause of inconceivable torment to holy souls ; for feeling in themselves this, as it were, infinite void, which we all have in us and which all creatures are unable to fill, which cannot be filled but by the fruition of God, — these poor souls, so long as they are separated from Him, languish and suffer a prolonged martyrdom, which would be intolerable to them without the consolations which the Holy Spirit gives them from time to time. All such consolations as come from creatures serve only to increase the weight of their miseries. " I am bold to affirm," says Richard of St. Victor, "that a single drop of these divine consolations can effect more than all the pleasures of the world together. These latter cannot satisfy the heart ; and a single drop of that interior sweetness which the Holy Spirit pours into the soul^ ravishes it out of itself, and causes it a holy inebriation.