Chapter II. Of the motives that lead us to the interior life

Article I

We make no progress in the ways of perfection unless toe give ov/rsdves to the interior life.

The exterior life of religious employed in the service of their neighbour is most imperfect, and even perilous, unless it be accompanied with the interior life ; and they who are engaged in these kinds of offices of charity and zeal, unless they join thereto exercises of interior recollection, will never make any notable progress in perfection. And first, they will never arrive at the perfection of the purgative life. It is true they will have at times some of its sentiments. They will do things that appear great in the eyes of the world. They will preach ; they will labour in missions ; they will traverse seas, and expose themselves to danger of death, and to the fatigues attendant on the longest journeys, for the salvation of their neighbour. But with all this they will never make much progress in the purgative life. The acts of virtue they perform will proceed partly from grace and partly from nature. They will never do such as are purely supernatural, and under specious pretexts self-love will always make them follow their own inclinations and do their own will. They will fall continually into their ordinary faults and imperfections, and will be in great danger of being lost ; for as they are occupied in any thing but discovering the irregularities of their hearts, they never think of purging it ; so that it is continually filling with sins and miseries, which graduUy enfeeble the streDgth of the soul, and end at last in entirely stifling devotion and the Spirit of God.

Secondly, they will never attain to the perfection of the illuminative life, which consists in discovering in all things the will of God ; for it is only interior men who can discern it in every thing. My superiors, my rules, the duties of my state, may indeed direct me in regard to the exterior, and indicate to me what God desires me to do at such a time and in such a place ; hut they cannot teach me the way in which God wills that I should do it. I know, for instance, that it is God's will that I should pray when I hear the clock strike which calls me to prayer according to my rule ; but the rule does not tell me what my comportment ought to be during my prayer. My superior will tell me what God wills that I should apply myself to ; but he cannot teach me how 1 ought to apply myself.

In order to do the will of God well, it is not sufficient to know that it is God's will ; for example, that I should forthwith sweep my room ; I must also know with what thought He would have me occupy myself while performing this exterior act of humility which my rule prescribes, for God desires to regulate the interior of my actions as well as the exterior. I must fulfil God's will as well in the manner as in the substance of the action. He desires to govern it even in the smallest details, and His providence extends to the direction of all my powers and all the movements of my heart ; without this there will be a void in my actions j they will not be full of the will of God ; I shall do what He demands of me only in part and by halves ; the best will be wanting, which is the interior. Thus I shall incur great losses of grace and glory, losses that are irreparable ; and I shall be the cause of others, whose salvation and perfection I am bound to promote, incurring the same.

Where, then, shall I be able to learn the will of God in regard to the manner of performing well those things which He desires me to do ? It must be in my own interior and in the depth of my own heart, where Grod gives the light of His grace, in order to enlighten me inwardly, that I may listen attentively to Him, and converse familiarly with Him. I will walk in His light, which will enable me to see what He desires of me, and the means of performing it, and the interior perfection which it is His will I should practise therein.

Thirdly, it is clear they will never attain to the perfection of the unitive life, since it consists in the interior union of the soul with God.

For the rest, whoever is resolved to lead an interior life, and to be really spiritual and a man of prayer, must expect that when he has reached a certain point, people will cry out against him ; he will have adversaries, and other contradictions ; but in the end God will give him peace, and will make every thing turn out to his profit and the advancement of his soul.

Article II

Without prayer tve cannot acquit owradves of the duties ofov/r vocation, nor gather fruit from our ministror tions. ^ Without a solid devotion and a close familiarity with God, we cannot carry on our functions nor discharge them properly. The Prophets, Apostles, and other Saints have wrought wonders, because they were inspired by God, and conversed familiarly with Him.

Saints succeed in every thing, because by their prayers they obtain a benediction and a virtue which render their labours efficacious. Although they be infirm and suffering from constant ill health, like St. Gregory and St. Bernard, they effect wonders.

In vain we toil and form great projects for the glory of God and the service of souls, without prayer nothing can be hoped from our labours and undertakings ; but with the gift of prayer, we may do great things, even in matters of prudence and the management of affairs.

Let us season our exertions in behalf of our neighbour with recollection, prayer, and humility ; God will make use of us for great ends, although we may not possess great talents.

We ought to undertake nothing, whatever the matter be, without having disposed ourselves thereto by prayer. lt is to God we ought to look for every success in our employments. We are His instruments, and we work under Him as under a master-architect, who, directing singly the whole design, allots to each one his task, according to the end he proposes, and the idea he has conceived. Thus we shall produce the more fruit the more united we are to God, and the more we yield ourselves to His guidance, always supposing we possess the talents and the capacity requisite for the active service of our neighbour. Now it is prayer that unites us to God. It is by this holy exercise that we dispose ourselves to receive the impression and movement of grace, as instruments to work out His designs.

§ in.

St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, explaining that saying of the wise man, " All is vanity," says, that the devil displays before the eyes of men of the world honours, pleasures, riches, and all the creatures of the universe, like puppets which he sets in motion, shifting them, turning them, shewing them in different aspects and different colours, decking them out with various ornaments and a false brilliancy ; but in reality it is but a child's game, a vain amusement; there is nothing solid in it ; it is but a pleasing illusion.

The devil employs the same artifice with those who compose the little world among religious : for in religion there is a little world, the elements of which are, the esteem of human talents ; preference for employments, offices, and stations of importance ; the love and the seeking for distinction and applause, or repose and an easy life. These are the things of which the devil makes, as it were, a puppet-show to amuse and deceive us. He sets it all moving before our eyes in such a way that we stop to gaze, and allow ourselves to be seduced by it, preferring vain appearances to true and solid goods.

§iv.

Prayer alone can secure us from this delusion. Prayer teaches us to judge soundly of things by looking at them in the light of truth, which dissipates their false splendour and false charms.

Therefore it is that St. Ignatius desires that the professed and those who have taken their last vows should give to prayer all the time they have remaining, after fulfilling the duties of obedience. This ought to be the employment of those who in the colleges are not occupied with the office of regent, but only with hearing confessions, or some other duty which leaves them a good deal of leisure. They ought to be men of prayer, who by the help of their prayers sustain the whole house, the whole Company, nay, the whole Church ; and this it is to be a Jesuit, this it is to be a child of those great Saints who desired more worlds to convert.

Behold how we may spend our days sweetly in the beauty of peace, in the security of a pure conscience and repose, rich with holy treasures : instead of wasting our time in trifles unworthy of an evangelical labourer, we ought to visit often the Blessed Sacrament, then apply ourselves to reading, then again return to our devotions, say the Eosary of the Blessed Virgin, and refer every thing to prayer.

§v. The Company does much good; nevertheless it might do much more. There are souls whom God has determined to assist only by us and our ministrations. If we fail them, or if we 4o not discharge our ministry well, these souls will remain unaided, and the Church will mourn. They who are not as interior nor as united to God as they should be, ought to ponder well these things j but we think very little of faults of this sort, and yet they are fearful ; God knows what account we must one day render to Him for them.

As there are certain humours which cause the death of the body when they gain too much strength and are too abundant, so in the religious life, when action is carried to excess and is not moderated by prayer and recollection, it infallibly quenches the spirit.

And yet there will sometimes be found persons who, being occupied whole days and years in study and in the turmoil of exterior employments, will feel it difficult to devote a quarter of an hour a day to spiritual reading; and then how is it possible they should become interior men 1 Hence it is that we gain no fruit, because our ministrations are not animated by the Spirit of God, without which, with all our talents, we cannot attain the end we are aiming at, and are but " as sounding brass and a tinMiug cymbal."

An interior man will make more impression on hearts by a single word animated by the Spirit of Gk)d, than another by a whole discourse which has cost him much labour^ and in which he has exhausted all his power of reasoning.

Article III

Peace is not found except in the interior life, cmd on/r dissatisfactions spring only Jrom our not being interior men.

Never shall we have peace until we are interior men and united to God. Bepose of mind, joy, solid contentment, are found only in the interior world, in the kingdom of God which we possess within ourselves. The more deeply we enter therein, the more happy shall we be. Without this we shall always be in trouble and difficulty, always discontented, complaining, and murmuring j and if any temptation, any rough trial come upon us, we shall not overcome it.

St. Augustine says, that they who have an ill-regulated interior are like married men with peevish and ill-tempered wives. They leave home early in the morning and return as late as they can, because they dread a domestic persecution ; in like manner, the former, having no* peace in their interior, and finding there only remorse and the reproaches of their conscience, avoid as much as possible entering into themselves.

§ ni. The greatest misfortune to a man of our profession is to be wholly absorbed, both in action and in affection, in the exterior life, being scarcely acquainted with any other ; for this life being limited, the office that one man desires and obtains cannot fall to the lot of another who equally wishes for it : and this is what causes his dissatisfaction. Instead of which^ if he did not attach himself to a little miserable portion of the exterior life, and would but devote himself heartily to the interior, which has no limit, he would find, as it were, boundless regions of graces, virtues, and perfection, where his soul would be abundantly satisfied. But no one will ever give himself to the interior life in his old age who has not done so in his youth ; so that unless we carry away from our third year's noviciate a will absolutely resolved to cultivate the interior life at whatever cost, we shall relapse into our first state, etjwnJb novissima pejora prioribus, ^ If in our employments we practise the exterior of virtue without the interior, we are miserable, bearing the weight of exterior labour, but never tasting interior unction and sweetness : and this makes us fall often into notable faults ; whereas by means of recollection and prayer, we should effect more in our ministrations with less difficulty, weariness, and danger, and with more perfection to ourselves, more advantage to our neighbour, and more glory to God. " This," adds Father Rigoleu in his collection, " is what our father director represented to us with much force, and it is one of the points he most urged upon us."