VIII. Compunction of Heart

Summary. — The " return to God " is only possible on condition of first removing the obstacles opposed to it. — I. Compunction, most efficacious means of putting away sin ; it is the habitual sense of contrition. — II. What the Saints of the Church think of this disposition. — III. Far from being incompatible with confidence and complacency in God, compunction strengthens them. — IV. It makes us strong against tempta¬ tion. — V. How we ought to resist temptation. — VI. Means of acquiring compunction : prayer, frequent contemplation of the sufferings of Jesus.

From the first lines of the Prologue of the Rule, St. Benedict, addressing himself to the soul, presents the monastic life as “ a returning to God ” : TJt ad Eum redeas a quo recesser as. You know the reason of this : it is that sin has, from our birth, turned us away from God : Eratis longe, says St. Paul. By sin, the soul turns away from God, the Infinite and Immutable Good, to give itself to the creature, which is but transitory good ; this is the definition that St. Thomas gives of sin : Aversio ab incommutabili bono et corner sio ad commutabile bonum 2. If then we wish “ to seek God sincerely, ” we must sever all inordinate attachment to the creature in order to turn entirely to God. This is what St. Benedict calls “ conversion V eniens quis ad conversionem.

Our holy Father in speaking of “ conversion w does not here attach to the word the very particular and precise meaning that we commonly give to it, but he views as a whole the actions whereby the soul, in turning away from sin and setting itself free from the creature and every human motive, exerts all its powers to remove the obstacles that hinder it from going to God and seeking Him alone. Between sin and God there is, as you know, absolute

RuVe, livin’. 3‘ ~ 2' l'U’ LXXXVII> a- 4 and II-II, q. clxii, a. 6. - 3 incompatibility ; there is not, says St. Paul, any possible concord between Christ and Belial, the father of sin. And therefore to imagine that God will allow Himself to be found by us, will give Himself to us without our having to leave sin is to be under an illusion ; and this illusion, more frequent than we think, is dangerous. We should ardently desire the Divine Word to be united to us ; but this desire should be effectual and urge us to destroy all that is opposed in us to this union. There are some minds that find admirable — as indeed it is — what they call the " positive side " of the spiritual life : love, prayer, contemplation, union with God, but forget that all this is only to be found with certainty in a soul purified from all sin, from all evil habits, and that constantly tends, by a life of generous vigilance, to abate the sources of sin and imperfection. The spiritual edifice is very fragile when it is not based upon the constant flight from sin, for it is built upon sand.

When one sees the terrible examples of those who abandon their priesthood, of those religious who “ make the angels weep 2, ” one asks oneself : “ How can these things be possible ? Whence come these falls ? Do these disasters come about all at once ? ” No ; these are not sudden falls ; it is often necessary to go a long way back to trace the beginning of them. The foundations of the house were long since undermined by pride, self-love, presumption, sensuality, the lack of the fear of God. At a given moment, a great wind of temptation arose which shook the edifice and overthrew it.

Thus St. Benedict is very careful to point out to us the necessity of working at personal self-conquest, the logical preliminary to all development, to all preservation of the divine life in the soul. And because in us these roots of sin, which are the triple concupiscence of the eyes, of the flesh and of the pride of life, are never entirely destroyed, this work never completely ceases ; although in the measure that it advances, the soul, gaining spiritual liberty, moves more at ease, it still must never renounce vigilance.

The holy Legislator therefore wishes this work to become the object of a promise that obliges us throughout life. This is the meaning of the second of our vows, the vow of “ conversion of manners " : Promitto... conversionem morum meorum 3. By this vow we are bound to tend to perfection, that is to say to union, through love, with God and His holy will.¹

There are obstacles that prevent this union : hence the seeking after perfection requires of us that we should first remove these obstacles from our path. St. Benedict is very explicit on ^ this point ; he puts within our hands the " in¬ struments destined to root out vices : “ Not to give way to anger ; not to harbour a desire of revenge ; not to foster guile in one’s heart ; not to give marks of affection that are not sincere ; not to return evil for good ; to keep one’s mouth from evil and wicked words 1, ” etc. He likewise wishes that we should daily confess to God in prayer, with tears and sighs, our past sins, and amend them for the time to come ” : De ipsis malis de cetero emendate 2.

Then, furthermore, he declares that it is only when the soul is purified from vice and sin, that the Holy Spirit will fully act within it, and perfect love reign as the principle of its life.

You see that this work of destroying sin and attachment to sin is necessary, if we wish to go to God and find Him alone. Doubtless, we shall not give ourselves up to this labour for the sake of the labour itself ; we shall embrace it as a condition of life, as the means for the development and preservation of divine union within us. Let us then examine, with some detail, how we ought to devote our¬ selves to it. It will be apparent that one of the best ways of succeeding in it is compunction of heart ; — we shall see what the saints and the Church think of this sense of compunction ; — the precious advantages that it brings to the soul ; — finally, the sources that foster it.

I

The essential obstacle to divine union is mortal sin, while deliberate venial sin is opposed to all progress.

By mortal sin the soul turns away entirely from God in order to make the creature its end ; separation from God is radical, and union is destroyed. This is so true that if death surprises the soul in this state it is forever fixed in this separation from God: “Depart from Me, ye cursed”: Discedite a me maledictx 1. The Heavenly Father does recognise the likeness of His Son in the sinner, who is therefore eternally excluded from the inheritance. As you know, it is by perfect contrition and the Sacrament of²

Penance that this state is destroyed ; in the Sacrament, Christ’s infinite merits are applied to the soul to purify it from its sins.

There is no need to have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance for venial sins, although it is an excellent thing to do so.

An act of charity, a fervent Communion, suffices to blot out venial sins provided one has no attachment to them, but, in formulating this last condition, we set forth a truth which, in the spiritual life, has great importance.

Indeed when it is a question of perfection, we must care¬ fully distinguish between venial sin and venial sin. A venial sin, a sin of surprise, which escapes us from weakness, cannot keep us back in our seeking after God ; we rise from it with humility, and find in the remembrance of it a new stimulus for loving God the more. But bear this well in mind, it is quite otherwise with venial sin, habitual or fully deliberate. When a soul regularly commits deliberate venial sins, when it coolly consents without remorse, to wilful and habitual infidelities against the Rule, even though the Rule does not oblige under sin, it is impossible for this soul to make true and constant progress in perfection. It is not our weaknesses, our infirmities of body or mind that impede the action of grace ; God knows our misery and remembers that we are but dust. But it is a disposition that, so to speak, paralyses God’s action within us ; it is the attachment to our own judgment and self-love, which is the most fruitful source of our infidelities and deliberate faults. A few days before His blessed Passion our Divine Saviour beholding Jerusalem began to weep over the city : Flevit super illam l. “ How often would I have gathered together thy children... and thou wouldst not ” : Et noluisti. Weigh well this word : noluisti. When our Lord meets with resistance, even in small matters. He feels, so to speak, the powerlessness of His work in the soul. Why is this ? Because this soul fosters habits which form and maintain obstacles to Divine union. God would communicate Himself, but these barriers prevent the fulness of His action ; He finds no response to His Divine advances ; the soul, day by day says “ no ” to the inspirations of the Holy Spirit Who urges it to obedience, humility, charity and self-forgetfulness. It is then impossible for it to make any real progress.

Not only does this soul no longer mount towards God, but it is much to be feared that it will fall into gTave sins.³

The above mentioned venial sins are the first step towards the severance of divine union. There is no longer, in such souls, enough vigour to resist temptation. The Holy Spirit ends by being silent when He is “ grieved, ” — it is St. Paul’s word 1 — by wilful resistance ; and simply a shock is often enough to cause the soul to fall into a mortal sin ; experience abundantly proves this.

This state of tepidity is particularly dangerous when it concerns sins of the mind, pride, disobedience ; it places as it were a wall between God and us ; and as God is the source of all our perfection, the soul that closes itself to the divine action shuts itself out from all progress.

One of the best means of avoiding this perilous state is to cultivate compunction of heart.

For us, who are bound to seek perfection, this point is of extreme importance. If so many souls make little progress in the love of God ; if there are so many who easily accomo¬ date themselves — alas for them ! — to venial sin and deliberate infidelities, it is because they are not touched with compunction. What then is compunction ?

It is an abiding state of habitual contrition. Here is a good man who has given way to a grievous fault ; this un¬ happily can befall, for in the world of souls there are abysses of weakness as there are heights of holiness. The Divine Mercy gives this man the grace of rising again ; he confesses his sm with deep and true repentance. It is quite evident that at the moment when he grieves so sincerely at having committed this fault he will not go and commit it anew.

Look at the Prodigal Son on his return to his father’s house. Do we picture him taking careless, free and easy airs, as if he had been always faithful. No, indeed. You may say : has not his father forgiven him everything ? Certainly he has ; he has received his son with open arms without making any reproach. He did not say : “ You are a misera¬ ble wretch; no, he pressed him to his heart. And his son s return has even given the father such joy that he pre¬ pares a great feast for the penitent. All is forgotten, all is for*™. The conduct of the prodigal’s father is the image °* j- mercy our Heavenly Father. But as for the prodigal now he is forgiven, what are his feelings and attitude ? We can have no doubt but that they are the same that he had when, full of repentance, he threw himself down at his father’s feet : “ Father, I have sinr, Eph. iv, 30. ned against you, I am not worthy to be called your son ; treat me like the last of your servants. ” We may be certain that during the rejoicings with which his return was celebrated, those were his predominant dispositions. And if later the sense of contrition is less intense, it is never altogether lost, even after the boy has retaken for ^ver his former place in the paternal home. How many times he must have said to his father : “ I know you have forgiven me everything, but I can never weary of repeating with gratitude how much I regret having offended you, how much I want to make up, by greater fidelity, for the hours I have lost and for my forgetfulness of you. ”

Such should be the sentiment of a soul that has offended God, despised His perfections, and brought its share to the sufferings of Christ Jesus.

Let us now suppose in this soul no longer an isolated act of repentance, but the habitual state of contrition : it is almost impossible for this soul to fall anew into a deliberate sin. It is established in a disposition which, essentially, makes it repulse sin. The spirit of compunction is precisely the sense of contrition reigning in an abiding manner in the soul. It constitutes the soul in the habitual state of hatred against sin ; by the interior movements that it provokes, it is of sovereign efficacy in preserving the soul from temptation. Between the spirit of compunction and sin, there is irreducible incompatibility : compunction of heart renders the soul firm in its horror of evil and love of God. Thus St. Bernard more than once uses the term “ compunction ” instead of “ per¬ fection. ” So much does the sense of compunction, when it is real, keep one from offending God.

II

We cannot help being struck by the fact that the spiri¬ tuality of past times communicated a singular character of stability to its adepts. Whilst taking inevitable exceptions into account, it is indeed to be remarked that the interior life of the monks of old, who were sometimes recruited from a much rougher class of society than ours, rapidly attained a great degree of stability, while with many souls of our dayS — even religious souls consecrated to God — the spiritual life is of appalling instability. The fluctuations to which it is subject are countless ; and its inward ascensions are unceasingly meeting with opposition to such a point that all progress may be compromised.

The reason of this vacillation is most often to be found in the lack of compunction. There is no surer means of rendering the spiritual life firm and steadfast than to im¬ pregnate it with the spirit of compunction.

Yet it seems that, speaking generally, modern authors do not insist as much on this subject as did ancient ascetic writers who are never weary of dilating on the importance of compunction, for spiritual progress ; and we see the great¬ est saints constantly cultivating and recommending this disposition of soul.

“ You know, " said St. Paul to the Ephesians, “ from the first day that I came into Asia, in what manner I have been with you, for all the time, serving the Lord with all humility and with tears 2. ” It was because he remembered how he once 'persecuted the Church of God.

He does not fear to recall to his disciple Timothy how he “ was a blasphemer, and a persecutor and contumelious ; " he declares himself the chief of sinners. And he adds : “ But for this cause have I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might shew forth all patience, for the information of them that shall believe in Him unto life everlasting. ” And the Apostle, remembering this infinite mercy towards him, cries out in gratitude : “Now to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory for ever and ever 4 ! ”

It was another " convert ” the object of similar mercy, Augustine, who wrote : “ To speak much when praying is to do a necessary thing with superfluous words. To pray much is to knock for a long time with the movements of the heart at the door of Him to Whom we pray ; prayer, in fact, consists more in sighs and tears than in grand discourses and many words. God puts our tears in His sight ; our sighs are not ignored by Him Who created all things by His word, and has no need of our human words. ”

Our holy Father echoes the words of the great Doctor. " If anyone desire to pray in private, let him do so quietly,... with tears and fervour of heart 6. ” Again he says : “ Let us remember that not for our much speaking, but for our purity of heart and tears of compunction shall we be heard " : Non in multiloquor , sed in puritate cordis et compunctione lacrymarum nos exaudiri sciamus 7. Certainly our great Patriarch does not affirm this trutn without deep conviction and, I dare to say, an experimental conviction. Look too at this portrait of a perfect monk that he draws for us when he comes to the I2‘s degree of humility : this monk, he says, has reached the point where the perfection of charity and divine union are about to be realised : Mox ad caritatem Dei perveniet illam, quae perfecta for as mittet timorem \ And what is this monk's attitude ? He considers himself un¬ worthy, on account of his sins, to appear before God.⁴

This is truly what all holy souls feel. A lady of high rank, who was converted after having lived in vanity and luxury, wrote to St. Gregory that she would give him no peace until he had assured her in the name of God that her sins were forgiven. The holy Pontiff, full of the spirit of the Rule, answered her that her request was as difficult as it was detrimental : difficult, because he did not esteem himself worthy of having revelations ; detrimental also for this soul, as it was in the interest of her salvation that she should not be assured of forgiveness : [with an absolute certainty that excluded all doubt and cast away all fear] until the last moment of her life, when she would no longer be in a state to weep for her faults and to deplore them in God’s sight ; until this last hour came, she ought ever to live in compunction and not to let a day pass without washing away her stains with her tears. See our St. Gertrude, that lily of purity. She said to our Lord with the deepest self-abasement : “ The greatest miracle in my eyes, Lord, is that the earth can bear such a worthless sinner as I am 3. ” St. Teresa, formed to perfection by our Lord Himself, had placed under her eyes in her oratory, in order to make it as it were the refrain of her prayer, this text of the Psalpnist : Non intres, Domine, in judicium cum servo tuo 4. It is neither an exclamation of love, nor an act of sublime praise that we hear from this seraphic soul, who is declared by her historians never to have sinned mortally, but it is a cry of compunction : “ Enter not, O Lord, into judgment with Thy servant. ” St. Catherine of Siena did not cease to implore divine mercy ; she always ended her prayers with this in¬ vocation : Peccavi, Domine, miserere mei: “ Have pity upon me, O Lord, for I have sinned. ”

1. Rule, ch. vii. — 2. Epistolae, Lib. vn, cf. 25. — 3. The Herald of Divine Love, Book 1, ch. xn. — 4. Ps. cxlii, 2. — 5. Life of St Teresa, according to the Bollandists. Vol. II, ch. xi. — 6. Drane, Life of S* Catherine cf Siena. 1“ Part. ch. iv. We know that S‘ Catherine has in her Dialogue a whole treatise on tears. Bl. Raymund of Capua relates, that marvelling at the works of Catherine, he desired to have an undeniable proof that they came from God. The inspiration came to him to ask the Saint to obtain for him from the Lord an extraordinary contrition for his sins, for, he added, no one can have this contrition unless it comes from the Holy Ghost, and a like contrition is a great sign of God’s grace. " We know how S* Catherine obtained " a bull

With all these souls, it was not a question of isolated acts and transitory impulses. The words we have repeated were but the outward manifestation of an inward abiding sense of compunction eager to find outlet.

This habitual sense of compunction is so precious that, according to St. Teresa, souls that are the most forestalled with divine favours are the most filled with it. Speaking of souls that have reached the sixth mansion of the interior castle, she puts them on their guard against forgetfulness of their faults : " Souls to whom God has granted these graces will understand what I say, ” she writes... “ Sorrow for sin increases in proportion to the divine grace received, and I believe will never quit us until we come to the land where nothing can grieve us any more... A soul so advanced as that we speak of does not think of the punishment threat¬ ening its offences, but of its great ingratitude towards Him to Whom it owes so much, and Who so justly deserves that it should serve Him, for the sublime mysteries revealed have taught it much about the greatness of God. The soul wonders at its former temerity and weeps over its irreverence; its foolishness in the past seems a madness which it never ceases to lament as it remembers |or what vile things it forsook so great a Sovereign. The thoughts dwell on this more than on the favours received, which... are so powerful that they seem to rush through the soul like a strong, swift river. The sins, however, remain like a mire in the river bed, and dwell constantly in the memory, making a heavy cross to bear. ”

The Church herself gives us, in her Liturgy of the Mass, striking examples of compunction of heart.

Look at what the priest does at the moment when about to offer the Holy Sacrifice, the most sublime homage that the creature can render to God. The priest is necessarily supposed to be in a state of grace and in possession of God’s friendship ; otherwise, in celebrating, he would commit a sacrilege. Yet the Church, his infallible teacher, begins by making him confess before all the faithful there assembled, his condition not only of a creature, but of a sinner : Confiteor Deo omnifiotenti... et vobis, fratres, quia peccavi nimis. Then in the course of the holy action, the Church multiplies upon his lips formulas imploring forgiveness that he may steep his heart and mind in them : Aufer a nobis, quaesumus, of pardon for her disciple. Life of Catherine by Bl. Raymund of Capua. 1“ Part., ch. ix.⁵

Domine, iniquitates nostras : “ Take away from us our iniquities, we beseech Thee, O Lord, that we may enter with pure minds into the Holy of Holies. ” In the midst of the song of the Angels, the priest blends cries for mercy with these exclamations of love and holy gladness : “ Thou Who takest away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. ” When he offers the Immaculate Host to God, it is for his “ innumerable sins, offences, and negligences. ” Before the consecration, he prays " to be delivered from eternal damna¬ tion ” : Ab aeterna damnations nos eripi. After the con¬ secration in which he is even identified with Christ Himself, the priest beseeches God to grant him some part and fellow¬ ship with the Saints notwithstanding his sins. Nobis quoque peccatoribus... non aestimator meriti, sed veniae quaesumus largitor admitte. Then comes the moment when he is about to unite himself sacramentally with the Divine Victim. He strikes his breast, like a sinner : “ Lamb of God... regard not my sins... grant that this union of my soul with Thee may not turn to my judgment and condemnation. ”

We think how many holy priests and pontiffs, held up to our veneration, have said these words : Pro inn umer abilibus peccatis meis. And the Church obliges them to repeat : “ Lord, I am not worthy. ” Why does the Church do this ? Because without this spirit of compunction, one is not at the “ right pitch, ” the “ diapason ” of Christianity. When the priest beseeches that his sacrifice may be united with that of Christ, he says : “ May we be received by Thee, O Lord, in the spirit of humility and with a contrite heart. ” The oblation of Jesus is always pleasing to the Father ; but, inasmuch as it is offered by us, it is only so on condition that our souls are filled with compunction and the spirit of self abasement that results from it.

Such is the spirit that animates the Church, the Spouse of Christ, in the action that is the most sublime, the holiest she can accomplish here below. Even when the soul is identified with Christ, united to God in communion, the Church wishes us never to forget that we are sinners ; she wishes the soul to be steeped in compunction : In spiritu humilitatis et in animo contrito suscipiamur a tc, Domine.

III

No one doubts that these sentiments of compunction prescribed by the Church for the Mass are perfectly fitting. But perhaps the thought may occur that they should be reserved for the renewing of the Sacrifice of the Cross, for the reception of the Sacraments, in a word for the Liturgy. Elsewhere, in the ordinary course of the interior life, would they not be pious exaggerations, would not this be going a little too far ? Certainly not.

Listen to St. John in his divinely inspired Epistle : " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us x. " As regards great and holy souls, this assertion is luminous. The nearer they come to God, the Sun of Justice, and spotless Holiness, the better they perceive the stains that disfigure them ; the brilliance of the Divine light in which they move, makes their least faults and failing appear in more striking contrast. Their inner gaze, purified by faith and love, penetrates more deeply into the Divine perfections ; they have a clearer view of their own nothing¬ ness ; they are better able to measure the abyss that separates them from the Infinite. Their more intimate union with Christ causes the sufferings endured by Him for the expiation of sin to touch them to the quick. Having a higher notion of the life of grace, they better grasp all that is horrible in offence committed against the Heavenly Father, in despising the Saviour’s Passion, in injurious resistance to the Spirit of Love.

We understand that the fact of having offended God, were it but once in their existence, moves these souls with intensest grief. And there is, in their habitual attitude of repentance and detestation of sin, a constant proof of super¬ natural delicacy which cannot fail to please God, and draw down His infinite mercy upon them.

Moreover, the state of soul we are studying is in nowise, as might be imagined at first sight, incompatible with con¬ fidence and spiritual joy, with outpourings of love and delight in God. Quite the contrary ! St. Augustine, St. Be¬ nedict, St. Gregory, St. Bernard, St. Gertrude, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Teresa, all these souls filled with the spirit of compunction, were they not also inflamed with divine love and carried away by the overflowing joy of the Holy Spirit ? Had they not come to a sublime degree of union with God ?

Far from love and joy finding a hindrance in the habitual attitude of repentance which constitutes compunction, they find in it a firm basis and one of the greatest incentives for soaring Godwards. Whence in fact is compunction chiefly derived ? From the remembrance of the offence against God considered as Infinite Goodness. By its very nature, it hence concerns perfect contrition, one of the purest forms of love. It unceasingly stirs up generosity and love which want to repair the past by a greater fervour ; it makes the soul distrustful of self, but wonderfully pliant under the hand of God, extremely attentive to the action of the Holy Spirit. Compunction could not admit such a dangerous hindrance to the supernatural life and one so contrary to our religious state as wilful dissipation of mind and habitual ievity. Neither could it tolerate in relation to God any Irreverence or wrong kind of familiarity, than which nothing is more perilous for the soul. Compunction avoids this danger. Father Faber says 1 : "It leads to a more fruitful, because a more reverent, humble, and hungry use of the Sacraments, and no grace that comes to us is wasted while this sorrow possesses our souls... Lukewarmness is incompa¬ tible with this holy sorrow and cannot co-exist with it. ” This sense of compunction is at times so deep and intense that it becomes the principle of a new life full of love, entirety consecrated to God’s service. St. Gregory says that it then often renders the penitent soul more pleasing to God than would be an innocent life passed in sluggish security : Et fit plerumque Deo gratior amore ardens vita post culpam, quam securitate torpens innocentia.⁶

The source of humility as of generosity, compunction again inclines the soul to accept the Divine will in its fulness, what¬ ever be the form under which this will is manifested, and whatever be the trials to which it subjects the soul. The soul then regards these trials as means whereby to avenge upon itself God’s perfections and rights ignored or outraged by sin. It so much regrets having offended Love, that, if anything disappointing, hard or painful befalls, the soul generously accepts it and this becomes an immense source of merits. You know that episode in the life of David. At the end of his reign, David is forced to flee from Jerusalem in consequence of Absalom’s revolt. In the course of his flight he is met by a man, a kinsman of Saul, named Semei. This man at once begins to throw stones at the old king and to curse him, saying : " Come out, come out... thou man of Behai... behold thy evils press upon thee, because thou art a man of blood. ” One of David’s servants wants to intervene and punish the insult, but the king prevents him : " Let him alone, ” he says. “ Behold my son, who came forth from my loins, seeketh my life : how much more now [shall this stranger] ? Let him alone that he may curse as the Lord hath bidden him. Perhaps the Lord may look upon my affliction, and the Lord may render me good for the cursing of this day. ” Remembering his sins, his heart full of the sense of compunction from which the Miserere overflowed, the holy king accepted every outrage in expia¬ tion.⁷

This sense of compunction is also the principle of ardent charity towards our neighbour. If you are severe in your judgments, exacting with others, if you easily bring up the faults of your brethren, compunction does not dwell in you. Indeed one who is possessed by this sense, sees only his own faults, his own weaknesses, such as he is before God ; this is enough to make the spirit of self -exaltation die within him and to render him full of indulgence and compassion for others.

Once again, do not let us suppose that joy is absent from such a soul. Far from that ! By awakening love, quickening generosity, and preserving charity, compunction purifies us the more, and makes us less unworthy of being united to our Lord ; it strengthens our confidence in God’s forgiveness and confirms our soul in peace. Thus it takes nothing away from spiritual joy and the amiability of virtue. Let us trust St. Francis of Sales who, better than any other, knew how to speak of Divine love and the joy that flows from it. “ The sadness of true penitence, ” he writes, “ is not so much to be named sadness as displeasure, or the sense and detestation of evil ; a sadness which is never troubled nor vexed, a sadness which does not dull the spirit, but makes it active, ready and diligent ; a sadness which does not weigh the heart down, but raises it by prayer and hope, and causes in it the movements of the fervour of devotion ; a sadness which in the heaviest of its bitternesses ever produ¬ ces the sweetness of an incomparable consolation... ” And quoting an old monk, a faithful echo of the asceticism of bygone ages, the great Doctor adds : “ The sadness, says Cassian, which works solid penitence, and that desirable repentance of which one never repents, is obedient, affable, humble, mild, sweet, patient, — as being a child and scion of charity: so that spreading over every pain of body and contrition of spirit, and being in a certain way joyous, courageous, and strengthened by the hope of doing better, it retains... all the Fruits of the Holy Spirit”.

These are the natural fruits of this compunction. Far from discouraging the soul, compunction rather makes it full of gladness in God’s service ; and is not that the note of true devotion ? Thus when the soul, at the remembrance of its faults — a remembrance that ought to dwell on the fact of having offended God, and not on the circumstances of the sins committed, — humbles itself before God ; when it plunges in the flames of contrition in order to be purified of any remaining rust, when it sincerely declares itself to be unworthy of the Divine graces, Exi a me, quia homo peccator sum , Domine, God looks down upon it with infinite goodness and mercy : Cor contritum et humiliatum, Deus, non despicies 2. “ God is quicker to hear our tears than the movement of our lips, ” says St. Augustine : Fletus citius audit quam voces 3. And St. Gregory writes, “ God does not delay to accept our tears ; He dries our tears which are but momentary with joys that abide : " Nec mora erit in fletibus, quia ter gent citius transeuntes lacrymas mansura gaudia 4.⁸

Penetrated with these same thoughts, our Holy Father wishes that we should each day confess to God, in prayer, with tears and sighs, our past sins : Mala sua praeterita cum lacrymis vel gemitu cotidie in oratione Deo confiteri. Remark this cotidie; St. Benedict does not say “ from time to time ” but “ daily. ” Why does he make such a recom¬ mendation ? Because he is assured — and he wants us to share this assurance — that it is on account of this humble attitude of a contrite soul that we shall be heard : In compunctione lacrymarum nos exaudiri sciamus ®. It is not without deep reason that these words of the holy Legislator have passed into an incon tested axiom of monastic asceticism 7.

IV

Another of the most precious fruits of the spirit of com¬ punction is that it renders us strong against temptation. By fostering in the soul the hatred of sin, compunction puts it on guard against the snares of the enemy.

Temptation plays such a large part in the spiritual life that it is necessary to treat of it ; we shall see how compunction i. Luc. v, 8. — 2. Ps. l. 19. — 3. Sermon xlvii of the appendix to the works of S* Augustine. P. L. 39, col. 1838. — 4. Homil. in Evangel., lib. 11, hom xxxi, 8. P. L. 76, col. 1232. — 5. Rule, ch. iv. — 6. Ibid. ch. xx. — 7. S* Benedict wants to keep our souls habitually in the " tonality " of the Miserere: the interior state of David, penitent yet full of confidence in the Divine Mercy, David indefinitely alternating in his psalms between nutrition and love. ” D. M. Festugtere, L. c.

Christ, the Ideal of the Monk, is furthermore one of the most effectual arms for resisting temptation.

We come across people who imagine that the interior life is but a pleasant easy ascent, along a flower-bordered path. You know it is not generally so, although God, the Sovereign Master of His gifts, can lead us by such a path if He pleases. Long ago God said in Holy Writ : “ Son, when thou comest to the service of God ” — and it is for that we have come to the monastery, which is a school where we learn how to serve the Lord : Schola dominici servitii 1, — “ prepare thy soul for temptation ” : Fill, accedens ad servitutem Dei, praepara animam tuarn ad tentationem 2. In fact, it is im¬ possible under the conditions of our present humanity, to find God fully without being beset by temptation. And the devil is most often infuriated against those who seek God sincerely and in whom he sees the most living image of Christ Jesus.

But is not temptation a danger for the soul ? Would it not be highly preferable not to be tempted ? We are spontaneously inclined to envy those whom we may imagine are never tried by temptation. “ Happy the man, " we would willingly say, “ who has not to undergo its assaults. " That is what our human wisdom might suggest, but God, Who is the infallible Truth, the source of our holiness and beatitude, says quite the contrary : “ Blessed is the man that endureth temptation ” : Beatus vir qui suffert ten¬ tationem ... Why does the Holy Spirit proclaim this man “ blessed n when we should have been inclined to think quite otherwise ? Why does the Angel say to Tobias : “ Because thou wast acceptable to God, it was necessary that temptation should prove thee ” : Quia acceptus eras Deo, necesse fuit ut tentatio probar et te 4. Is it for the sake of the temptation itself ? Evidently not, but because God uses it in order to obtain a proof of our fidelity, which, upheld by grace, is strengthened and manifested in the conflict and wins at last a crown of life. Cum probatus fuerii, acctpiet coronam vitae 6.

Temptation patiently borne is a source of merit for the soul and is glorious for God. By its constancy in trial, the soul is the living testimony of the might of grace : “ My grace is sufficient for thee : for power is made perfect in infirmity ” : Sufficit tibi gratia mea, nam virtus in infirmitate perficitur 6. God awaits this homage and glory from us.⁹

Look at the holy man Job. Scripture lends God a kind of pride in the perfection of this great just man. One day — the sacred writer has dramatised the scene — when Satan stands before Him, God says to him : “ Whence comest thou ? ” And Satan replies : “ I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it. ” The Lord says again : “ Hast thou considered My servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a man simple and upright, and fearing God, and avoiding evil ? ” Satan sneers and asks what merit Job has in showing himself perfect when all prospers with him and smiles upon him. “ But, ” he adds, “ put forth Thy hand, and touch his bone and his flesh and then Thou shalt see that he will bless (or rather curse) Thee to Thy face. ” God gives Satan leave to strike His servant in his possessions, in his family, even in his person. And now see Job, despoiled little by little of all his goods, covered with ulcers, seated upon his dunghill, and obliged over and above this to undergo the sarcasms of his wife and friends who would excite him to blaspheme. But he remains un¬ shaken in his fidelity to God. No feeling of revolt rises from his heart, not a murmur passes his lips, only words of wonderful submission : “ The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away... blessed be the name of the Lord !... If we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil 2 ? ” What heroic constancy ! And what glory is given to God by this man who, overwhelmed with such woes, blesses the Divine hand ! And we know how God, after having tried him, renders testimony to him, and restores all his possessions while multiplying them. Tempta¬ tion had served to show the extent of Job’s fidelity.

In many a soul, temptation does another work which nothing else could do. Souls there are, upright but proud, who cannot attain divine union unless they are first humbled down to the ground. They have, as it were, to fathom the abyss of their frailty, and learn by experience how absolutely dependent they are on God, so that they may no longer trust in themselves. It is by temptation alone that they can measure their powerlessness. When these souls are buffeted by temptation, and feel themselves at the edge of the abyss, they realise the necessity of humbling themselves. At that moment a great cry escapes them and rises up to God. And then comes the hour of grace. Temptation keeps them in a state of vigilance over their weaknesses, and in a constant spirit of dependence upon God. For them, temptation is the best school of humility.¹⁰

Trial profits others by preserving them from lukewarmness. Without temptation, they would fall into spiritual sloth. Temptation is for them a stimulus for in combating it love is quickened while fidelity finds an opportunity of manifesting itself. Look at the Apostles in the Garden of Olives. In spite of the warning given them by their Divine Master to watch and pray, they sleep ; all unconscious of danger, they let themselves be surprised by the enemies of Jesus, they take to flight, forsaking their Master, despite all theirprevious protestations. How different was their conduct from what it had been when they were struggling against the tempest on the Lake. Then in face of the imminent peril of which they are fully aware, they awake Jesus from His sleep with cries of distress : “ Lord, save us, we perish ” : Doming, salva nos, perimus 1 /

Again, temptation gives us the great formation of experience. This is a precious fruit because we become skilled in helping souls when they come to us seeking light and help. How can anyone instruct or effectually help an¬ other who is tempted, if he himself does not know what temptation is ? St. Paul says of Jesus Christ that He willed to be tempted as we are, though without sin, that He might have compassion on our infirmities : Tentatum per omnia absque peccato* ; in eo enim in quo passus est ipse et tentatus, potens est et eis qui tentantur, auxiliari 3.

Let us then not be afraid of the fact of temptation, nor of its frequency or violence. It is only a trial ; God never permits it save in view of our greater good. However much it besets us, it is not a sin, provided that we do not expose ourselves wilfully to its attacks and never consent to it. We may feel its sting or its seductions ; but as long as that fine point of the soul which is the will remains steadfast against it, we ought to be tranquil. Christ Jesus is with us, in us ; and who is stronger than He ?

V

But from wherever it comes, — from the devil, the world, or our evil tendencies, — and whatever be its nature, we must, for our part, resist temptation with courage and above all with promptitude.¹¹

Our Holy Father was a model of this generous resistance. You know that one day tempted by the remembrance of worldly joys, he stripped himself of his garments and rolled among thorns until his body was all torn. The great Patriarch knew then by personal experience what temptation was, and how strongly it must be resisted. Now what is the conduct he prescribes to us in presence of temptation ? Speaking in the language of his own asceticism, let us say that he furnishes us with three “ instruments ” : " To keep guard at all times over the actions of our life. To know for certain that God sees us everywhere. To dash down at the feet of Christ our evil thoughts the instant that they come into the heart. ”

Watchfulness has been sovereignly recommended to us by our Lord Himself : Vigilate. Now, how are we to keep this vigilance ? By the spirit of compunction which keeps us ever upon our guard. A soul, knowing its weakness by experience, has horror of anything that could expose it to offending God anew. On account of this loving fear, it is careful to avoid all that could turn it away from God Who beholds us night and day.

And as it distrusts itself, it has recourse to Christ : Et orate*. He is a true disciple of Christ, says our Holy Father, who when tempted by the Evil One casts him and his suggestions far from his heart, and brings him to naught. And how are we to bring the Evil One and his malice to naught ? By seizing the first “ offspring ” of the evil thought and breaking it against the feet of Christ. St. Benedict compares evil thoughts to the offspring of the devil, the father of sin ; he tells us to cast them out as soon as they appear: Mox ad Christum allidere 7. Note this little word : " Mox ”, immediately. When we play with temptation, we let it grow and increase in strength while at the same time the energy to resist it diminishes in us. We must give evil suggestions no time to grow, but dash them down while they are yet little and weak like beings just born. In this ex pression ad Christum allidere — our Holy Father has in mi :d the maledictions of the Psalmist against Babylon, the cit v of sin : “ Blessed be he that shall take and dash tny lit Te ones against the rock.” Christ, says St. Paul, is

1. S. Greg. Dialog. lib. 11, c. 11. — 2. Rule, ch. iv. — 3. Matth. xxvi, 41. — 4. Matth. xxvi, 41. — 5. Prologue of the Rule. — 6. Ibid. — 7. Rule, ch. iv. — 8. Ps. cxxxv. S* Jerome, (Epist. xxii, 6), S* Hilarius. (Tract, in Ps. cxxxvi, 14) and S* Augustine make use of the same language : " Qui sunt patvuli Babyloniae? Nascentes malae cupiditates... Cum parvula est... ad pciram elide. Petra autem erat Christus. ’’ Enarr. in Psalm cxxxvi, § XXI.

“ the chief comer stone ” of our spiritual edifice : ipso summo angulari lapide Christo Jesu.

Recourse to Christ Jesus is indeed the most certain means of overcoming temptation ; the devil fears Christ and trembles at the Cross. Are we tempted against faith ? Let us at once say : “ All that Jesus has revealed to us He receives from His Father. Jesus is the Only-begotten Son Who from the bosom of the Father has come to manifest to us the Divine secrets which He alone can know. He is the Truth. Yes, Lord Jesus, I believe in Thee, but increase my faith ! ” If we are tempted against hope, let us look at Christ upon the Cross : has He not become the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world ? Is He not the holy High Priest Who has entered for us into Heaven and ever inter¬ cedes with the Father on our behalf : Semper vivens ad inter pellandum pro nobis 2. And He has said : “ Him that cometh to Me, I will not cast out ” : Et eum qui venit ad Me non ejictam foras. Does want of confidence in God seek to insinuate itself into our heart ? But who has loved us more than God, more than Christ : Dilexit me et tradidit semetipsum pro me*? When the devil whispers tnoughts of pride, let us again look on Christ Jesus ; He was God and He humbled Himself even to the ignominious death on Calvary. Can the disciple be above the Master ?... When wounded self-love suggests that we should return the injuries done to us, let us yet again look at Jesus, our Model, during His Passion : He did not turn away His Face from them that spat upon and struck Him : Faciem meam non averti ab increpantibus et conspuentibus in me. If the world, the devil’s accomplice, holds before our eyes the reflection of senseless, transitory joys, let us take refuge with Christ to Whom Satan promised the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them if He would adore him : “ Lord Jesus, it was for Thee that I left all things, that I might follow Thee more closely, Thee alone ; never suffer me to be separated from Thee !” A tenunquam separari permittas . There is no temptation but that can be brought to nothing by the remembrance of Christ : Mox ad Christum allidere.

And if it continues, if above all it is accompanied by dryness and spiritual darkness, do not let us allow ourselves to be discouraged : it is because God wishes to delve deep down in our soul to enlarge its capacity in order to fill it i. Epli. ii, 20. — 2. Hebr. vii, 25. — 3- Joan, vi, 37. — 4. Gal. 11, 20. — 5. Cl. Luc. vi, 40. 6. Isa. l, 6. — 7. Ordinary of the Mass, prayer before

Communion. with His grace : Purgavit eum ut fructum plus afferat ; only let us cry out to Jesus, like His disciples : “ Save us, 0 Lord, for without Thee, we shall perish ! ”

If we thus act immediately the temptation arises, mox, while it is yet weak ; if above all we keep our soul in that inward attitude of habitual repentance which is compunction, let us be assured that the devil will be powerless against us. Temptation will only have served to exercise our fidelity, to strengthen our love and make us more pleasing to our Father in Heaven.

VI

But where are we to obtain this spirit of compunction which is such a great gain ?

To begin with, by asking it of God. This “ gift of. tears '* is so precious, so high a grace, that it is in imploring it “ from the Father of lights " from Whom every perfect gift comes down upon us 3 that we shall obtain it. The missal contains a formula pro petitione lacrymarum. The old monks often recited this prayer. Let us repeat it after them : " Al¬ mighty and most merciful God, Who, to quench the thirst of thy people, madest a fountain of living water to spring out of the rock, draw from our stony hearts the tears of compunction, that effectually bewailing our sins, we may through Thy mercy deserve to obtain pardon for them. ”

We may also borrow from Holy Writ certain prayers that the Church has made her own ; for instance, David’s prayer after his sin. You know how dear the great king was to the Heart of God Who had lavished His benefits upon him. Then David falls into a great sin ; he gives to his people the scandal of murder and adultery. The Lord sends a prophet to him to excite him to repentance. And David, at once humbling himself and striking his breast, cries out : “ I have sinned. ” This repentance wins pardon for him : “ The Lord also hath taken away thy sin, " says the prophet : Transtulit peccalum tuum 4. The king then composed that inspired Psalm, the Miserere, at once full of contrition and confidence. “ Have mercy on me, 0 God, according to Thy great mercy ; wash me yet more from my iniquity ; against Thee only have I sinned, and my sin is ever before me ; cast me not away from Thy face, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me. " That is contrition. Here is the hope which is inseparable from it : " Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation... Thou wilt open my lips, and my mouth shall declare Thy praise... A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit, a contrite and humbled heart, O God, Thou wilt not despise. ”¹²

Such accents indeed cannot but touch God’s Heart : *' Thou hast set my tears in Thy sight ” : Posuisti lacrymas meas in cons-pectu tuo 2. Has not Christ Jesus declared " Blessed are they that weep 3. ” “ But amongst all those who weep, none are sooner consoled than those who weep for their sins. In every other case, sorrow, far from being a remedy for the evil, is another evil which increases it ; sin is the only evil that is cured by weeping, for it... the forgiveness of sins is the fruit of these tears 4. ”

To the prayer imploring the gift of compunction from God, is naturally joined all spiritual means capable of awaken¬ ing it within us : the most powerful is incontestably the fre¬ quent contemplation of our Divine Saviour’s Passion.

If you contemplate with faith and devotion the sufferings of Jesus Christ you will have a revelation of God’s love and justice ; you will know, better than with any amount of reasoning, the malice of sin. This contemplation is like a sacramental causing the soul to share in that Divine sadness which invaded the soul of Jesus in the Garden of Olives — Jesus, the very Son of God, in Whom the Father, Whose exigencies are infinite, was well pleased. And yet His heart was full of sorrow — “ sorrowful even unto death " : Tristis est animx mea usque ad mortem 5. Great cries arise from His breast, as tears arise from His eyes ; cum clamor e valido et lacrymis. Whence come this sadness, these sighs and tears? i hey come from the weight of the burden of the world’s crimes : Posuit Dominus in eo iniquitatem omnium nostrum . Christ is like the scape-goat laden with all our sins. Certainly He could not be a " penitent ” ; He could not have contrition, compunction, such as we have defined it, for the soul of Jesus is entirely holy and immaculate ; the debt to be paid off is not His own, but ours : Attritus est propter scelera nostra*. However, because of this substitution, Jesus has willed to experience that sadness which the soul must feel m presence of its sin ; He has willed to undergo the blows of outraged love and justice, and therefore to be crushed by the greatest of sorrow i Dominus voluit conterere eum in infirmitate 9.

,, IJ>S‘ L; „ 2- ^>s- LV> 9 7 3- Matth. v, 5. — 4. Bossuet, Meditations upon the Gospel, Sermon on the Mount, 4th day. — 5. Matth. xxvi, 38. — 6. Hebr« v, y, — Isa. liii, 6. — 8. Ibid, 5* — 9* Ibid. 10.

COMPUNCTION OF HEART l6g

I have not loved thee in jest, ” our Lord says one day to the Blessed Angela of Foligno. “ This word, " writes the Saint, “ struck a deadly pain into my soul, because straightway the eyes of my soul were opened and I saw clearly that what He said was most true. For I saw the works and the effect of that love, and I saw all that this Son of God worketh by reason of that love. ” The Saint specifies the object of her vision. “ I saw that what He underwent in life and in death, this God-Man, Who suffered His Passion by reason of His ineffable tender love, and I understood that the aforesaid word is most true, namely, that He loves me not in jest, but that by a most true and most perfect and most tender love, hath He loved me. ” And what was the result of this contemplation for Angela's soul ? A deep sense of compunction. Hear how she judges herself in the divine light. H And I saw that in me it was just the opposite... Then, too, my soul cried out and said : ‘ O Master... I have never loved Thee save in jest and with falsehood and hypocrisy ; and never have I desired to come near to Thee in truth, so as to feel the labours that Thou hast willed to feel and to suffer for me ; and never have I served Thee truly and for Thy sake, but with double-dealing and negligently ? ' ”

You see how holy souls are touched and how they humble themselves when they consider Christ’s sufferings. On the night of the Passion, Peter, the Prince of the Apostles to whom Christ had revealed His glory upon Thabor, who had just received Holy Communion from Jesus’ own hands, Peter, at the voice of a servant-maid, denies His Master. Soon afterwards, the gaze of Jesus, abandoned to the caprices of His mortal enemies, meets that of Peter. The Apostle understands ; he goes out, and bitter tears flow from his eyes : Flevit amare 2.

A like effect is produced in the soul that contemplates the sufferings of Jesus with faith : it, too, has followed. Jesus, with Peter, on the night of the Passion ; it, too, meets the gaze of the Divine Crucified, and that is for it a true grace. Let us often keep close in the footsteps of the Suffering Christ, by making the “ Way of the Cross. ” Jesus will say to us : “ See what I have suffered for thee ; I have endured a three hours’ agony, endured the desertion of My disciples, and having My Face spat upon, the false witnesses, the cowardice of Pilate, the derision of Herod, the weight of the Cross beneath which I fell, the nakedness of the gibbet, the bitter sarcasms of My most deadly enemies, the thirst which they would have quenched with gall and vinegar, and, above all, the being forsaken by My Father. It was for thee, out of love for thee, to expiate thy sins that I endured all ; with My Blood I have paid thy debts ; I underwent the terrible exigences of Justice that mercy might be shown to thee ! ” Could we remain insensible to such a plea ! The gaze of Jesus upon the Cross penetrates to the depths of our soul and touches it with repentance, because we are made to understand that sin is the cause of all these sufferings. Our heart then deplores having really contributed to the Divine Passion. When God thus touches a soul with His light, in prayer. He grants it one of the most precious graces that can be.¹³

It is a repentance, moreover, full of love and confidence. For the soul does not sink down in despair beneath the weight of its sins : compunction is accompanied with consolation and comfort ; the thought of the Redemption prevents shame and regret from degenerating into discouragement. Has not Jesus purchased our pardon superabundantly : Et copiosa apud eum redemptio x? The sight of His sufferings, at the same time as it gives birth to contrition, quickens within us hope in the infinite value of the sufferings by which Christ satisfied for us, and this brings us ineffable peace, Ecce in pace amaritudo mea amarissima 2.

Perhaps in looking back upon the past, we see many miseries and stains. Perhaps we are tempted to say to Christ : “ Lord Jesus, how shall such as I ever be able to please Thee ? ” Let us then remember that Christ came down to earth to seek sinners 3, that He Himself has said : the angels rejoice over the conversion of one sinner more than over the perseverance of many just. Each time that a sinner repents and obtains forgiveness, the angels in Heaven glorify God for His mercy : Quoniam in aeternum miscricordia efus 5.

Let us think too of these words : “ Thou, Who didst absolve Mary [Magdalen] and hear the Good Thief, hast not left me without hope.” They are words full of confidence. Christ Jesus forgave Magdalen ; more than that. He loved her with a love of predilection ; He made her, who had been the shame of her sex, pure as a virgin.

What Christ wrought in Magdalen, He can do again in the greatest of sinners ; Christ can rehabilitate the sinner and bring him to holiness. This is a work reserved to Divine Omnipotence : Quis potest facer e tnundum de immundo... nisi tu qui solus es 1 ? He is God 1 and God alone has this power of renewing innocence in His creature : it is the triumph of the Blood of Jesus.¹⁴

But this ineffable renewal is only wrought upon one condition : it is that one imitates the sinner of the Gospel in her loving repentance. Magdalen is truly a perfect model of compunction. Look at her, at the feast in Simon's house, prostrate at the Saviour’s feet, watering them with her tears, wiping them with the hairs of her head, the adornment wherewith she had seduced souls, humbling herself in pre¬ sence of all the guests, and pouring out her contrite love at the same time as her perfumes. Later, she will generously follow Christ to the foot of the Cross, upheld by the love which make her share the sorrows and reproaches with which Jesus is overwhelmed. Love again will bring her the first to the tomb, until the Risen Christ, calling her by her name, rewards the ardour of her zeal and makes her the apostle of His Resurrection to the disciples : Remittuntur ei peccata multa quoniam dilexit multum 2.

Let us too often stay with Magdalen, near the Cross. After the application of the merits of Jesus in the Sacrament of Penance, after assistance at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass which reproduces the immolation on Calvary, there is truly no surer means than the exercise of compunction for destroy¬ ing sin and arming us against it.

Let us then seek to keep ourselves in this disposition of which the fruits are so precious. Nothing will give more solidity to our spiritual life, more sureness to our perseverance. Speaking of compunction. Father Faber says : “ It is as life-long with us as anything can be. It is a prominent part of our first turning to God, and there is no height of holiness in which it will leave us 3. "

1. Job. xiv, 4. — 2. Luc. vii, 4 7. — 3. L. c.

Footnotes

1. x. II Cor. VI, 15. — 2. Cf. Isa. xxxm, 7. — 3. Cf. Rule, ch. lviii. We do not take it upon ourselves to affirm anything as to the true reading of the word conversio or conversatio, but we take the expression conversio morum in the traditional sense. ↩

2. 1. Rule, ch. iv. — 2. Ibid. — 3. Ibid, ch. vii. — 4. Mattk. xxv, 4.
   ↩

3. x. Luc. XIX, 41. — 2. Matth. xxm, 37. ↩

4. 1. See however Father Faber : Growth in Holiness, ch. xix, Abiding sorrow lor sin. — 2. Act. xx, 18-19. — 3- Philip, in, 6. — 4. I Tim. 1, 13 seq. — 5. Epist. cxxx, ch. X. — 6. Rule, ch. til. — 7. Ibid. ch. xx.
   ↩
5. 1. The Interior Castle translated by the Benedictines of Stanbrook, p. 202.
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6. 1. I Joan, i, 8.
   ↩
7. 1. L. c. — 2. Reg. pastor. Ill, c. 28. P. L. t. 77* col. 107.
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8. 1. The Massorites read : " My tears. ’’ — 2. II Reg. xvi. — 3. Treatise on the Love of God, Book XI ch. xxi. 2. Translated by the Rev. H. B. Mackey, O. S. B.
   ↩
9. 1. Prologue of the Rule. — 2. Eccli. 11, i. — 3. Jac. 1, 12. — 4. Job. xii* 13. — 5. Jac. 1, 12. — 6. II Cor. xii, 9.
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10. 1. Job. 1, 7-11. — 2. Ibid. 21; 11, 10.
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11. 1. Matth. vai, 25. — 2. Hebr. iv, 15. — 3. Ibid. 11, 18.
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12. 1. Joan, xv, 2. — 2. Cf. Matth. vm, 25. — 3. Jac. 1, 17. — 4- H Reg. xn, 13.
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13. 1. The Book of Visions, ch. xxxm. Translated from the Latin by "A Secular Priest ”, PubL by the Art and Book C°, Leamington. — a. Matth. xxvi, 75.
    ↩
14. 1. Ps. cxxix, 7.-2. Isa. xxxvm, 17. — 3. Matth. ix, 13. — 4. Luc. xv, 7, 10. — 5. Ps. c xxxv. — 6. Sequence Dies trae.
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