Our great happiness as Christians is to possess, in this world, through grace and love, Him Who deigns to be our beatitude for all eternity; and our greatest misfortune, after sin, is not to know or to recognize this secret of eternal charity. God would have us holy even as He is holy; He would have us live His very life. It is for this end that He has given us His divine Son, and with Him the infinite riches of His heart; that is, His merits, His sacraments, His Church. Sanctity consists in believing and receiving these divine communications, of which Jesus Christ is the source, the instrument, and the end; consequently, it also consists in uniting ourselves with Him by loving Him, and in modelling ourselves upon Him by imitating Him; it can and ought to pervade every life, the busiest as well as the simplest.
"I believe," says Father de Caussade, " that if souls seriously aspiring to perfection understood this, and knew how direct is their path, they would be spared much difficulty. I say the same of souls living in the world, and of souls consecrated to God. If the first knew the means of merit afforded them by their ever-recurring daily duties and the ordinary actions of their state of life; if the second could persuade themselves that t]r\e foundation of sanctity lies in those very things which they consider unimportant and even foreign to them; if both could understand that the crosses sent by Providence which they constantly find in their state of life lead them to the highest perfection by a surer and shorter path than do extraordinary states or extraordinary works; and that the true philosopher s stone is submission to the order of God, which changes into pure gold all their occupations, all their weariness, all their sufferings, how happy they would be! What consolation and what courage they would gather from this thought, that to acquire the friendship of God and all the glory of heaven they have but to do what they are doing, suffer what they are suffering, and that what they lose and count as naught would suffice to obtain for them eminent sanctity !
"O my God, that I might be the missionary of Thy holy will, and teach the whole world that there is nothing so easy, so simple, so within the reach of all, as sanctity! Would that I could make them understand that just as the good and bad thief had the same to do and suffer to obtain their salvation, so two souls, one worldly and the other wholly interior and spiritual, have nothing more to do one than the other; that he who sanctifies himself acquires eternal happiness by doing in sub mission to the will of God what he who is lost does through caprice; and that the latter is lost by suffering unwillingly and impatiently what he who is saved endures with resignation. The difference, therefore, is only in the heart. O dear souls who read this, let me repeat to you: Sanctity will cost you no more; do what you are doing; suffer what you are suffering: it is only your heart that need be changed. By the heart we mean the will. This change, then, consists in willing what comes to us by the order of God. Yes, holiness of heart is a simple fiat, a simple disposition of conformity to the will of God. And what is easier ? For who could not love so adorable and merciful a will ? Let us love it, then, and through this love alone all within us will become divine," ("Abandonment to Divine Providence.")
But what will enable us to realize this ideal of a Christian and holy life ? Prayer, or rather a spirit of confidence and faith which must pervade all our relations with God. I mean by this that disposition of the soul in which it recognizes that God loves it, that He cares for it, and that He de sires in all things only the greater good of His little creature.
He who possesses the secret of this blessed science has the secret of a good life, of true strength, and of perfect happiness. " He lives well who prays well," says St. Augustine.
Prayer, thus understood, should not be either a rare or a difficult exercise; for God is our Father, He is our end, He is the indulgent, merciful, un tiring Benefactor of our exile; His relations with us are ever present and always infinitely kind. How is it possible that a means by which we correspond to all that He is, and to all that He does for us, should be a difficult exercise? Important and necessary, yes, but difficult, no. I should even say that the more necessary prayer is the more frequent and easy it should be. Providence, in fact, has ordained that the more necessary a thing is the more attainable it is. See, for example, air, water, bread, the sustenance of corporal life. Water, the matter of the sacrament which communicates spiritual life; bread and wine, the matter of the sacrament which sustains and increases this life of grace. All these elements, being necessary, are very easily procured. But is not God still more within our reach? "There is nothing," says St. Bernard, " of which God is so prodigal as of Himself." Therefore, prayer which gives Him to us, prayer which makes us live in Him, with Him, and by Him, should not be difficult, but easy. We must be convinced of this, and bring to the exercise of this duty the good-will which makes God s gifts bear fruit in us. It is to aid this good-will that we purpose to collect the safest rules given by the saints for performing well this double grayer of the heart and of acts.
We have taken these rules first from the doctor of piety, St. Francis de Sales, by reproducing some of the most beautiful passages of his “Introduction to a Devout Life" and his immortal "Treatise on the Love of God." Then, as he himself was formed by the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, whom he was always pleased to call his masters, we have taken from one of these Fathers, most commendable for his doctrine and piety (and who, moreover, loved to quote St. Francis de Sales in his writings), practical rules for making the life of a Christian a continual prayer, and prayer, properly speaking, an apprenticeship to the life of heaven.
In this way we have given in an abridgment, carefully preserving the sense and expressions of the writer, Father Crasset’s beautiful and profound Considerations Chretiennes on the sanctification of our actions, and the various ways of prayer from his Methode d Oraison and his Devotion du Calvaire.
We have deemed it useful also to add to these teachings certain analogous passages from the writings of Fathers Gonnelieu, Lallemant, and Faber, which, taken together, complete the principles on union with God, and on what our life should be by means of this much-to-be-desired union, and of mortification, a necessary condition thereof.
Finally, as son of St. Sulpice, we could not forget M. Olier, whom St. Francis de Sales blessed in his infancy, foretelling his piety and his mission in the Church. Therefore we have taken much pleasure in terminating our humble work of copyist with some of the most beautiful passages from his Journee Chretienne upon the life of Jesus and Mary.
We have divided the collection into three parts? the first includes that which relates to the sanctincation of our actions; the various intentions with which we should be animated in order to receive the sacraments profitably, to purify our hearts, and to walk constantly in the presence of God. Father Crasset s Considerations Chretienncs form the foundation of these teachings ; the passages not from him will be indicated.
The second part includes that which relates to the interior life. The first chapter indicates briefly the sources of our imperfections and their remedies. Then come certain ideas and rules of mortification, of prayer, and the spiritual life, from treatises written on these subjects by Fathers Faber, Crasset, and Lallemant.
The subject of the third part is union with God through contemplation. It will include a treatise on this subject by Father Crasset, and the doctrine of St. Francis de Sales on contemplation. A letter of the saint s on the marks of true recollection will complete these teachings, and another extract from the works of St. Chantal will show us the heart of the saint in the exercise of this continual union with God.
And, as all these different ways are of Jesus and lead to Jesus, we are finally led to contemplating Jesus Himself on His beautiful throne of grace, His virginal Mother the glorious and most fruitful manifestation of His life.
May this divine Saviour, through the intercession of His immaculate Mother, deign to bless us and to grant us all the spirit of prayer and love, that we may thus begin here below for the glory of His Father that blessed reign of God which is without end ! Adveniat regnum tuunt.
Good Shepherd Sisters
3650 Wells Street, Windsor, Ontario
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