PART 1:
INSTRUCTIONS ON THE CATECHISM
CHAPTER 1:
Catechism on Salvation
THERE ARE many Christians who do not even know
why they are in the world. "Oh my God, why hast Thou sent me into the
world?" "To save your soul. " "And
why dost Thou wish me to be saved?" "Because I love you. " The good God has created us and sent us into the
world because He loves us; He wishes to save us because He loves us. . . . To
be saved, we must know, love and serve God. Oh, what a beautiful life! How
good, how great a thing it is to know, to love and serve God! We have nothing
else to do in this world. All that we do besides is lost time. We must act only
for God, and put our works into His hands. . . . We should say, on awaking,
"I desire to do everything today for Thee, O my God! I will submit to all
that Thou shalt send me, as coming from Thee. I offer
myself as a sacrifice to Thee But, O God, I can do
nothing without Thee. Do Thou help me!"
Oh, how
bitterly shall we regret at the hour of death the time we have given to
pleasures, to useless conversations, to repose, instead of having employed it
in mortification, in prayer, in good works, in thinking of our poor misery, in
weeping over our poor sins; then we shall see that we have done nothing for Heaven. Oh, my children, how sad it is! Three-quarters of
those who are Christians labor for nothing but to satisfy this body, which will
soon be buried and corrupted, while they do not give a thought to their poor
soul, which must be happy or miserable for all eternity. They have neither
sense nor reason: it makes one tremble.
Look at that man,
who is so active and restless, who makes a noise in the world, who wants to
govern everybody, who thinks himself of consequence, who seems as if he would
like to say to the sun, "Go away, and let me enlighten the world instead
of you. " Some day this proud man will be reduced
at the utmost to a little handful of dust, which will be swept away from river
to river, from Saone to Saone,
and at last into the sea.
See my
children, I often think that we are like those little heaps of sand that the
wind raises on the road, which whirl round for a moment, and are scattered
directly. . . . We have brothers and sisters who are dead. Well, they are
reduced to that little handful of dust of which I was speaking. Worldly people
say, it is too difficult to save one's soul. Yet
nothing is easier. To observe the Commandments of God and the Church, and to
avoid the seven capital sins; or if you like to put it so, to do good and avoid evil:
that is all. Good Christians, who labor to save their souls and to work
out their salvation, are always happy and contented; they enjoy beforehand the
happiness of Heaven: they will be happy
for all eternity. While bad Christians, who lose their souls, are always to be
pitied; they murmur, they are sad, they are as miserable as stones; and they
will be so for all eternity. See what a difference!
This is a good
rule of conduct, to do nothing but what we can offer to the good God. Now, we
cannot offer to Him slanders, calumnies, injustice, anger, blasphemy, impurity,
theatres, dancing; yet that is all that people do in
the world. Speaking of dances, St. Francis of Sales used to say that "they
were like mushrooms, the best were good for nothing. "
Mothers are apt to say indeed, "Oh, I watch over my daughters. " They watch over their attire, but they cannot watch
over their hearts. Those who have dances in their houses load themselves with a
terrible responsibility before God; they are answerable for all the evil that
is done--for the bad thoughts, the slanders, the jealousies, the hatred, the
revenge. . . . Ah, if they well understood this responsibility they would never
have any dances. Just like those who make bad pictures and statues, or write
bad books, they will have to answer for all the harm that these things will do
during all the time they last. . . . Oh that makes one tremble!
See, my
children, we must reflect that we have a soul to save, and an eternity that
awaits us. The world, its riches, pleasures, and honours
will pass away. Let us take care, then. The saints did not all begin well; but
they all ended well. We have begun badly; let us end well, and we shall go one
day and meet them in Heaven.
CHAPTER 2:
Catechism on The Love of God
OUR BODY is a
vessel of corruption; it is meant for death and for the worms, nothing morel And yet we devote ourselves to satisfying it, rather than to
enriching our soul, which is so great that we can conceive nothing greater-no,
nothing, nothing! For we see that God, urged by the ardour of His charity,
would not create us like the animals; He has created us in His own image and
likeness, do you see? Oh, how great is man?
Man, being
created by love, cannot live without love:
either he loves God, or he loves himself and he loves the world. See, my
children, it is faith that we want. . . . When we have not faith, we are blind.
He who does not see, does not know; he who does not know does not love; he who
does not love God loves himself, and at the same time loves his pleasures. He
fixes his heart on things which pass away like smoke. He cannot know the truth,
nor any good thing; he can know nothing but falsehood,
because he has no light; he is in a mist. If he had light, he would see plainly
that all that he loves can give him nothing but eternal death; it is a foretaste
of Hell.
Do you see, my
children, except God, nothing is solid--nothing, nothing! If it is life, it
passes away; if it is a fortune, it crumbles away; if it is health, it is
destroyed; if it is reputation, it is attacked. We are scattered like the wind.
. . . Everything is passing away full speed, everything is going to ruin. O
God! O God! how much those are to be pitied, then, who
set their hearts on all these things! They set their hearts on them because
they love themselves too much; but they do not love themselves with a
reasonable love-they love themselves with a love that seeks themselves and the world, that seeks creatures more than God. That is the
reason why they are never satisfied, never quiet; they are always uneasy,
always tormented, always upset. See, my children, the good Christian runs his
course in this world mounted on a fine triumphal chariot; this chariot is borne
by angels, and conducted by Our Lord Himself, while the poor sinner is
harnessed to the chariot of this life, and the devil who drives it forces him
to go on with great strokes of the whip.
My children,
the three acts of faith, hope and charity contain all the happiness of man upon
the earth. By faith, we believe what God has promised us: we believe that we shall one day see Him,
that we shall possess Him, that we shall be eternally happy with Him in Heaven.
By hope, we expect the fulfilment of these
promises: we hope that we shall be
rewarded for all our good actions, for all our good thoughts, for all our good desires;
for God takes into account even our good desires. What more do we want to make
us happy?
In Heaven,
faith and hope will exist no more, for the mist which obscures our reason will
be dispelled; our mind will be able to understand the things that are hidden
from it here below. We shall no longer hope for anything, because we shall have
everything. We do not hope to acquire a treasure which we already possess. . .
. But love; oh, we shall be inebriated with it! we
shall be drowned, lost in that ocean of divine love, annihilated in that
immense charity of the Heart of Jesus! so that charity
is a foretaste of Heaven. Oh, how happy should we be if we knew how to
understand it, to feel it, to taste it! What makes us unhappy is that we do not
love God.
When we say,
"My God, I believe, I believe firmly, " that
is, without the least doubt, without the least hesitation. . . Oh, if we were
penetrated with these words: "I
firmly believe that Thou art present everywhere, that Thou seest
me, that I am under Thine eyes, that one day I myself
shall see Thee clearly, that I shall enjoy all the good things Thou hast
promised me! O my God, I hope that Thou wilt reward me for all that I have done
to please Thee! O my God, I love Thee; my heart is made to love Thee!" Oh,
this act of faith, which is also an act of love, would suffice for everything!
If we understood our own happiness in I being able to
love God, we should remain motionless in ecstasy. . . .
If a prince,
an emperor, were to cause one of his subjects to appear before him, and should
say to him, "I wish to make you happy; stay with me, enjoy all my
possessions, but be careful not to give me any just cause of displeasure,
" with what care, with what ardour, would not that subject endeavour to satisfy his prince! Well, God makes the same
proposals to us . . . and we do not care for His friendship, we make no account
of His promises. . . . What a pity!
CHAPTER 3:
Catechism on The Holy Spirit
O my CHILDREN,
how beautiful it is! The Father is our Creator, the Son is our Redeemer, and
the Holy Ghost is our Guide. . . . Man by himself is nothing, but with the Holy
Spirit he is very great. Man is all earthly and all animal; nothing but the
Holy Spirit can elevate his mind, and raise it on high. Why were the saints so
detached from the earth? Because they let themselves
be led by the Holy Spirit. Those who are led by the Holy Spirit have true
ideas; that is the reason why so many ignorant people are wiser than the
learned. When we are led by a God of strength and light, we cannot go astray.
The Holy
Spirit is light and strength. He teaches us to distinguish between truth and
falsehood, and between good and evil. Like glasses that magnify objects, the
Holy Spirit shows us good and evil on a large scale. With the Holy Spirit we
see everything in its true proportions; we see the greatness of the least
actions done for God, and the greatness of the least faults. As a watchmaker
with his glasses distinguishes the most minute wheels
of a watch, so we, with the light of the Holy Ghost, distinguish all the
details of our poor life. Then the smallest imperfections appear very great,
the least sins inspire us with horror. That is the reason why the most Holy
Virgin never sinned. The Holy Ghost made her understand the hideousness of sin;
she shuddered with terror at the least fault.
Those who have
the Holy Spirit cannot endure themselves, so well do they know their poor
misery. The proud are those who have not the Holy Spirit.
Worldly people
have not the Holy Spirit, or if they have, it is only for a moment. He does not
remain with them; the noise of the world drives Him away. A Christian who is
led by the Holy Spirit has no difficulty in leaving the goods of this world, to
run after those of Heaven; he knows the difference between them. The eyes of
the world see no further than this life, as mine see no further than this wall
when the church door is shut. The eyes of the Christian see deep into eternity.
To the man who gives himself up to the guidance of the Holy Ghost, there seems
to be no world; to the world there seems to be no God. . . . We must therefore
find out by whom we are led. If it is not by the Holy Ghost, we labor in vain;
there is no substance nor savour
in anything we do. If it is by the Holy Ghost, we taste a delicious sweetness .
. . it is enough to make us die of pleasure!
Those who are
led by the Holy Spirit experience all sorts of happiness in themselves, while
bad Christians roll themselves on thorns and flints. A soul in which the Holy
Spirit dwells is never weary in the presence of God; his heart gives forth a
breath of love. Without the Holy Ghost we are like the stones on the road. . .
. Take in one hand a sponge full of water, and in the other a little pebble;
press them equally. Nothing will come out of the pebble, but out of the sponge
will come abundance of water. The sponge is the soul filled with the Holy
Spirit, and the stone is the cold and hard heart which is not inhabited by the
Holy Spirit.
A soul that
possesses the Holy Spirit tastes such sweetness in prayer, that it finds the
time always too short; it never loses the holy presence of God. Such a heart,
before our good Saviour in the Holy Sacrament of the
Altar, is a bunch of grapes under the wine press. The Holy Spirit forms
thoughts and suggests words in the hearts of the just. . . . Those who have the
Holy Spirit produce nothing bad; all the fruits of the Holy Spirit are good.
Without the Holy Spirit all is cold; therefore, when we feel we are losing our fervour, we must instantly make a novena to the Holy Spirit
to ask for faith and love. . . . See, when we have made a retreat or a jubilee,
we are full of good desires: these good
desires are the breath of the Holy Ghost, which has passed over our souls, and
has renewed everything, like the warm wind which melts the ice and brings back
the spring. . . . You who are not great saints, you still have many moments
when you taste the sweetness of prayer and of the presence of God: these are visits of the Holy Spirit. When we
have the Holy Spirit, the heart expands--bathes itself in divine love. A fish
never complains of having too much water, neither does a good Christian ever
complain of being too long with the good God. There are some people who find
religion wearisome, and it is because they have not the Holy Spirit.
If the damned
were asked: Why are you in Hell? they would answer:
For having resisted the Holy Spirit. And if the saints were asked, Why are you in Heaven? they would
answer: For having listened to the Holy
Spirit. When good thoughts come into our minds, it is the Holy Spirit who is
visiting us. The Holy Spirit is a power. The Holy Spirit supported St. Simeon
on his column; He sustained the martyrs. Without the Holy Spirit, the martyrs
would have fallen like the leaves from the trees. When the fires were lighted
under them, the Holy Spirit extinguished the heat of the fire by the heat of
divine love. The good God, in sending us the Holy Spirit, has treated us like a
great king who should send his minister to guide one of his subjects, saying,
"You will accompany this man everywhere, and you will bring him back to me
safe and sound. " How beautiful it is, my
children, to be accompanied by the Holy Spirit! He is indeed a good Guide; and
to think that there are some who will not follow Him. The Holy Spirit is like a
man with a carriage and horse, who should want to take us to Pans. We should
only have to say "yes, " and to get into it.
It is indeed an easy matter to say "yes"!. . .
Well, the Holy Spirit wants to take us to Heaven; we have only to say "yes, " and to let Him take us there.
The Holy
Spirit is like a gardener cultivating our souls. . . . The Holy Spirit is our
servant. . . . There is a gun; well you load it, but someone must fire it and
make it go off. . . . In the same way, we have in ourselves the power of doing good. . . when the Holy Spirit gives the impulse, good works
are produced. The Holy Spirit reposes in just souls like the dove in her nest.
He brings out good desires in a pure soul, as the dove hatches her young ones.
The Holy Spirit leads us as a mother leads by the hand her child of two years
old, as a person who can see leads one who is blind.
The Sacraments
which Our Lord instituted would not have saved us without the Holy Spirit. Even
the death of Our Lord would have been useless to us without Him. Therefore Our
Lord said to His Apostles, "It is good for you that I should go away; for
if I did not go, the Consoler would not come. "
The descent of the Holy Ghost was required, to render fruitful that harvest of
graces. It is like a grain of wheat--you cast it into the ground; yes, but it
must have sun and rain to make it grow and come into ear. We should say every
morning, "O God, send me Thy Spirit to teach me what I am and what Thou
art. "
CHAPTER 4:
Catechism on the Blessed Virgin
THE FATHER
takes pleasure in looking upon the heart of the most Holy Virgin Mary, as the
masterpiece of His hands; for we always like our own work, especially when it
is well done. The Son takes pleasure in it as the heart of His Mother, the
source from which He drew the Blood that has ransomed us; the Holy Ghost as His
temple. The Prophets published the glory of Mary before her birth; they
compared her to the sun. Indeed, the apparition of the Holy Virgin may well be
compared to a beautiful gleam of sun on a foggy day.
Before her
coming, the anger of God was hanging over our heads like a sword ready to
strike us. As soon as the Holy Virgin appeared upon the earth, His anger was
appeased. . . . She did not know that she was to be the Mother of God, and when
she was a little child she used to say, "When shall I then see that
beautiful creature who is to be the Mother of God?" The Holy Virgin has
brought us forth twice, in the Incarnation and at the foot of the Cross; she is
then doubly our Mother. The Holy Virgin is often compared to a mother, but she
is much better still than the best of mothers; for the best of mothers
sometimes punishes her child when it displeases her, and even beats it: she thinks she is doing right. But the Holy
Virgin does not so; she is so good that she treats us with love, and never
punishes us.
The heart of
this good Mother is all love and mercy; she desires only to see us happy. We
have only to turn to her to be heard. The Son has His justice,
the Mother has nothing but her love. God has loved us so much as to die for us;
but in the heart of Our Lord there is justice, which is an attribute of God; in
that of the most Holy Virgin there is nothing but mercy. Her Son being ready to
punish a sinner, Mary interposes, checks the sword, implores
pardon for the poor criminal. "Mother, " Our
Lord says to her, "I can refuse you nothing. If Hell could repent, you
would obtain its pardon. "
The most Holy
Virgin places herself between her Son and us. The greater sinners we are, the
more tenderness and compassion does she feel for us. The child that has cost
its mother most tears is the dearest to her heart. Does not a mother always run
to the help of the weakest and the most exposed to danger? Is not a physician
in the hospital most attentive to those who are most seriously ill? The Heart
of Mary is so tender towards us, that those of all the mothers in the world put
together are like a piece of ice in comparison to hers. See how good the Holy
Virgin is! Her great servant St. Bernard used often to say to her, "I
salute thee, Mary. " One day this good Mother
answered him, "I salute thee, my son Bernard. "
The Ave Maria
is a prayer that is never wearisome. The devotion to the Holy Virgin is
delicious, sweet, nourishing. When we talk on earthly subjects or politics, we
grow weary; but when we talk of the Holy Virgin, it is always new. All the
saints have a great devotion to Our Lady; no grace comes from Heaven without
passing through her hands. We cannot go into a house without speaking to the
porter; well, the Holy Virgin is the portress of
Heaven.
When we have
to offer anything to a great personage, we get it presented by the person he
likes best, in order that the homage may be agreeable to him. So our prayers
have quite a different sort of merit when they are presented by the Blessed
Virgin, because she is the only creature who has never offended God. The
Blessed Virgin alone has fulfilled the first Commandment--to adore God only,
and love Him perfectly. She fulfilled it completely.
All that the
Son asks of the Father is granted Him. All that the Mother asks of the Son is
in like manner granted to her. When we have handled something fragrant, our
hands perfume whatever they touch: let
our prayers pass through the hands of the Holy Virgin; she will perfume them. I
think that at the end of the world the Blessed Virgin will be very tranquil;
but while the world lasts, we drag her in all directions. . . . The Holy Virgin
is like a mother who has a great many children--she is continually occupied in
going from one to the other.
CHAPTER 5:
Catechism on The Word of God
MY CHILDREN,
the Word of God is of no little importance! These were Our Lord's first words
to His Apostles: "Go and teach" . . to show us that
instruction is before everything.
My children,
what has taught us our religion? The instructions we have heard. What gives us
a horror of sin? What makes us alive to the beauty of virtue,
inspires us with the desire of Heaven? Instructions.
What teaches fathers and mothers the duties they have to fulfil
towards their children and children the duties they have to fulfil
towards their parents? Instructions.
My children,
why are people so blind and so ignorant? Because they make so
little account of the Word of God. There are some who do not even say a Pater and an Ave to beg of the good God the grace to listen
to it attentively, and to profit well by it. I believe, my children, that a
person who does not hear the Word of God as he ought, will not be saved; he
will not know what to do to be saved. But with a well-instructed person there
is always some resource. He may wander in all sorts of evil ways; there is
still hope that he will return sooner or later to the good God, even if it were
only at the hour of death. Instead of which a person who has never been
instructed is like a sick person--like one in his agony who is no longer
conscious: he knows neither the
greatness of sin nor the value of virtue; he drags himself from sin to sin,
like a rag that is dragged in the mud.
See, my
children, the esteem in which Our Lord holds the Word of God; to the woman who
cries, "Blessed is the womb that bore Thee, and the paps
that gave Thee suck!" He answers, "Yea, rather blessed are they who
hear the Word of God and keep it!" Our Lord, who is Truth itself, puts no
less value on His Word than on His Body. I do not know whether it is worse to
have distractions during Mass than during the instructions; I see no
difference. During Mass we lose the merits of the Death and Passion of Our
Lord, and during the instructions we lose His Word, which is Himself.
My children,
you make a scruple of missing holy Mass, because you commit a great sin in
missing it by your own fault; but you have no scruple in missing an
instruction. You never consider that in this way you may greatly offend God. At
the Day of Judgment, when you will all be there around me, and the good God
will say to you, "Give Me an account of the instructions and the
catechisms which you have heard and which you might have heard, " you will think very differently.
My children,
you go out during the instructions, you amuse yourselves with laughing, you do
not listen, you think yourselves too clever to come to the catechism . . . do
you think, my children, that things will be allowed to go on so? Oh no,
certainly not! God will arrange matters very differently. How sad it is! We see
fathers and mothers stay outside during the instruction; yet they are under
obligation to instruct their children; but how can they teach them? They are
not instructed themselves. . . . All this leads straight to Hell. . . . It is a
pity!
My children, I
have remarked that there is no moment when people are more inclined to sleep
than during the instructions. . . . You will say, I am
so very sleepy. . . . If I were to take up a fiddle, nobody would think of
sleeping; everybody would be roused, everybody would be on the alert. My
children, you listen when you like the preacher; but if the preacher does not
suit you, you turn him into ridicule. . . . We must not think so much about the
man. It is not the body that we must attend to. Whatever the priest may be, he
is still the instrument that the good God makes use of to distribute His holy
Word. You pour liquor through a funnel; whether it be
made of gold or of copper, if the liquor is good it will still be good.
There are some
who go about repeating everywhere, "Priests say just what they please. " No, my children, priests do not say what they
please; they say what is in the Gospel. The priests who came before us said
what we say; those who shall come after us will say the same thing. If we were
to say things that are not true, the Bishop would very soon forbid us to
preach. We say only what Our Lord has taught.
My children, I
will give you an example of what it is not to believe what priests tell you.
There were two soldiers passing through a place where a mission was being
given; one of the soldiers proposed to his comrade to go and hear the sermon,
and they went. The missionary preached upon Hell. "Do you believe all that
this priest says?" asked the least wicked of the two. "Oh, no!"
replied the other, "I believe it is all nonsense, invented to frighten
people. " "Well, for my part, I believe it;
and to prove to you that I believe it, I shall give up being a soldier, and go
into a convent. " "Go where you please; I
shall continue my journey. " But while he was on
his journey, he fell ill and died. The other, who was in the convent, heard of
his death, and began to pray that God would show him in what state his companion had died. One day, as he was praying, his
companion appeared to him; he recognised him, and
asked him, "Where are you?" "In Hell; I am lost!" "O
wretched man! do you now believe what the missionary
said?" "Yes, I believe it. Missionaries are wrong only in one
respect; they do not tell you a hundredth part of what is suffered here. "
My children, I
often think that most of the Christians who are lost for want of
instruction-they do not know their religion well. For example, here is a person
who has to go and do his day's work. This person has a desire to do great
penances, to pass half the night in prayer; if he is well instructed, he will
say, "No, I must not do that, because then I could not fulfil
my duty tomorrow; I should be sleepy, and the least thing would put me out of
patience; I should be weary all the day, and I should not do half as much work
as if I had rested at night; that must not be done. "
Again, my
children, a servant may have a desire to fast, but he is obliged to pass the
whole day in digging and ploughing, or whatever you
please. Well, if this servant is well instructed, he will think, "But if I
do this, I shall not be able to satisfy my master. "
Well, what will he do? He will eat his breakfast, and mortify himself in some
other way. That is what we must do--we must always act in the way that will
give most glory to the good God.
A person knows
that another is in distress, and takes from his parents what will relieve that
distress. He would certainly do much better to ask than to take it. If his
parents refuse to give it, he will pray to God to inspire a rich person to give
the alms instead of him. A well-instructed person always has two guides leading
the way before him--good counsel and obedience.
CHAPTER 6:
Catechism on the Prerogatives of the Pure Soul
NOTHING IS so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could
not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly
things, and from itself. . . . That is why the saints ill-treated their body,
that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five
minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure. . .
. For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul
loses.
Purity comes
from Heaven; we must ask for it from God. If we ask for it, we shall obtain it.
We must take great care not to lose it. We must shut our heart against pride,
against sensuality, and all the other passions, as one shuts the doors and
windows that nobody may be able to get in. What joy is it to the guardian angel
to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon
it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we
have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is
pure, it cannot help loving, because it has found the source of love, which is
God. "Happy, " says Our Lord, "are the
pure in heart, because they shall see God!"
My children,
we cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over the good God. It is
not he who does the will of God, it is God who does
his will. Look at Moses, that very pure soul. When God would punish the Jewish
people, He said to him: Do not pray for
them, because My anger must fall upon this people.
Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and God spared His people; He let Himself be
entreated; He could not resist the prayer of that pure soul. O my children, a
soul that has never been stained by that accursed sin obtains from God whatever
it wishes!
Three things
are wanted to preserve purity-the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments.
Another means is the reading of holy books, which nourishes the soul. How
beautiful is a pure soul! Our Lord showed one to St. Catherine; she thought it
so beautiful that she said, "O Lord, if I did not know that there is only
one God, I should think it was one. " The image
of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the sun in the water. A pure soul is
the admiration of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father
contemplates His work: There is My creature! . . . The Son, the price of His Blood: the beauty of an object is shown by the price
it has cost. . . . The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in a temple.
We also know
the value of our soul by the efforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell is
leagued against it--Heaven for it. Oh, how great it must be! In order to have
an idea of our dignity, we must often think of Heaven,
It is a
beautiful thing to have a heart, and, little as it is, to be able to make use
of it in loving God. How shameful it is that man should descend so low, when
God has placed him so high! When the angels had revolted against God, this God
who is so good, seeing that they could no longer enjoy the happiness for which
He had created them, made man, and this little world that we see to nourish his
body. But his soul required to be nourished also; and as nothing created can
feed the soul, which is a spirit, God willed to give Himself for its Food. But
the great misfortune is that we neglect to have recourse to this divine Food, in
crossing the desert of this life. Like people who die of hunger within sight of
a well-provided table, there are some who remain fifty, sixty years, without
feeding their souls.
Oh, if
Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them,
"Notwithstanding thy misery, I wish to see near Me
that beautiful soul which I created for Myself. I made it so great, that
nothing can fill it but Myself. I made it so pure,
that nothing but My Body can nourish it. "
Our Lord has
always distinguished Pure souls. Look at
God
contemplates a pure soul with love; He grants it all it desires. How could He
refuse anything to a soul that lives only for Him, by Him, and in Him? It seeks
God, and He shows Himself to it; it calls Him, and God comes; it is one with
Him; it captivates His will. A pure soul is all-powerful with the gracious
Heart of Our Lord. A pure soul with God is like a child with its mother. It
caresses her, it embraces her, and its mother returns its caresses and
embraces.
CHAPTER 7:
Catechism on the Sanctification of Sunday
YOU LABOR, you
labor, my children; but what you earn ruins your body and your soul. If one ask
those who work on Sunday, "What have you been doing?" they might
answer, "I have been selling my soul to the devil, crucifying Our Lord,
and renouncing my Baptism. I am going to Hell; I shall have to weep for all
eternity in vain. " When I see people driving
carts on Sunday, I think I see them carrying their souls to Hell.
Oh, how
mistaken in his calculations is he who labours hard
on Sunday, thinking that he will earn more money or do more work! Can two or
three shillings ever make up for the harm he does himself by violating the law
of the good God? You imagine that everything depends on your working; but there
comes an illness, an accident. . . . so little is
required! a tempest, a hailstorm, a frost. The good
God holds everything in His hand; He can avenge Himself when He will, and as He
will; the means are not wanting to Him. Is He not always the strongest? Must
not He be the master in the end?
There was once
a woman who came to her priest to ask leave to get in her hay on Sunday.
"But, " said the priest, "it is not
necessary; your hay will run no risk. " The woman insisted, saying,
"Then you want me to let my crop be lost?" She herself died that very
evening; she was more in danger than her crop of hay. "Labor not for the
meat which perisheth, but for that which endureth unto life everlasting. "
[Jn. 6: 27].
What will
remain to you of your Sunday work? You leave the earth just as it is; when you
go away, you carry nothing with you. Ah! when we are
attached to the earth, we are not willing to go! Our first end is to go to God;
we are on the earth for no other purpose. My brethren, we should die on Sunday,
and rise again on Monday.
Sunday is the
property of our good God; it is His own day, the Lord's day. He made all the
days of the week: He might have kept
them all; He has given you six, and has reserved only the seventh for Himself.
What right have you to meddle with what does not
belong to you? You know very well that stolen goods never bring any profit. Nor
will the day that you steal from Our Lord profit you either. I know two very
certain ways of becoming poor: they are
working on Sunday and taking other people's property.
CHAPTER 8:
Catechism on Prayer
SEE MY
children; the treasure of a Christian is not on the earth, it is in Heaven.
Well, our thoughts ought to be where our treasure is. Man has a beautiful
office, that of praying and loving. You pray, you love--that is the happiness
of man upon the earth. Prayer is nothing else than union with God. When our
heart is pure and united to God, we feel within ourselves a joy, a sweetness
that inebriates, a light that dazzles us. In this
intimate union God and the soul are like two pieces of wax melted together;
they cannot be separated. This union of God with His little creature is a most
beautiful thing. It is a happiness that we cannot understand.
We have not
deserved to pray; but God, in His goodness, has permitted us to speak to Him.
Our prayer is an incense which He receives with
extreme pleasure. My children, your heart is poor and narrow; but prayer
enlarges it, and renders it capable of loving God. Prayer is a foretaste of
Heaven, an overflow of paradise. It never leaves us without sweetness. It is
like honey descending into the soul and sweetening everything. Troubles melt
away before a fervent prayer like snow before the sun. Prayer makes time pass
away very quickly, and so pleasantly that one does not perceive how it passes.
Do you know, when I was running up and down the country, at the time that
almost all the poor priests were ill, I was praying to the good God all along
the road. I assure you, the time did not seem long to me.
We see some
persons who lose themselves in prayer like a fish in the water, because they
are all for God. There is not division in their heart. Oh, how I love those
generous souls! St. Francis of
There are two
cries in man, the cry of the angel and the cry of the beast. The cry of the
angel is prayer; the cry of the beast is sin. Those who do not pray, stoop
towards the earth, like a mole trying to make a hole to hide itself in. They
are all earthly, all brutish, and think of nothing but temporal things, . . . like that miser who was receiving the last
Sacraments the other day; when they gave him a silver crucifix to kiss, he
said, "That cross weighs full ten ounces. " If there could be one day
without worship, it would no longer be Heaven; and if the poor lost souls,
notwithstanding their sufferings, could worship, there would be no more Hell.
Alas! they had a heart to love God with, a tongue to
bless Him with; that was their destiny. And now they are condemned to curse Him
through all eternity. If they could hope that they would once pray only for one
minute, they would watch for that minute with such impatience that it would
lessen their torments.
"Our Father who art in Heaven!" Oh, how beautiful
it is, my children, to have a father in Heaven! "Thy kingdom come. " If I make the good God reign in my heart, He will
make me reign with Him in His glory. "Thy will be done.
" There is nothing so sweet, and nothing
so perfect, as to do the will of God. In order to do things well, we must do
them as God wills, in all conformity with His designs. "Give us this day
our daily bread. " We are composed of two parts,
the soul and the body. We ask the good God to feed our poor body, and He
answers by making the earth produce all that is necessary for our support. . .
. But we ask Him to feed our soul, which is the best part of ourselves; and the
earth is too small to furnish enough to satisfy it; it hungers for God, and
nothing but God can satiate it. Therefore the good God thought He did not do
too much, in dwelling upon the earth and assuming a body, in order that this
Body might become the Food of our souls. "My Flesh,
" said Our Lord, "is meat indeed. . . . The bread that I will
give is my Flesh, for the life of the world:
' The bread of souls is in the tabernacle. The tabernacle is the
storehouse of Christians. . . . Oh, how beautiful it is, my children! When the
priest presents the Host, and shows it to you, your soul may say, "There
is my food. " O my children, we are too happy! .
. . We shall never comprehend it till we are in Heaven. What a pity that is!
CHAPTER 9:
Catechism on the Priesthood
MY CHILDREN,
we have come to the Sacrament of Orders. It is a Sacrament which seems to
relate to no one among you, and which yet relates to everyone. This Sacrament
raises man up to God. What is a priest! A man who holds the
place of God -- a man who is invested with all the powers of God.
"Go, " said Our Lord to the priest; "as
My Father sent Me, I send you. All power has been given Me
in Heaven and on earth. Go then, teach all nations. . . . He who listens to
you, listens to Me; he who despises you despises
St. Bernard
tells us that everything has come to us through Mary; and we may also say that
everything has come to us through the priest; yes, all happiness, all graces,
all heavenly gifts. If we had not the Sacrament of Orders, we should not have
Our Lord. Who placed Him there, in that tabernacle? It was the priest. Who was
it that received your soul, on its entrance into life? The
priest. Who nourishes it, to give it strength to make its pilgrimage? The priest. Who will prepare it to appear before God, by
washing that soul, for the last time, in the blood of Jesus Christ? The priest -- always the priest. And if that soul comes to
the point of death, who will raise it up, who will
restore it to calmness and peace? Again the priest.
You cannot recall one single blessing from God without finding, side by side
with this recollection, the image of the priest.
Go to
confession to the Blessed Virgin, or to an angel; will they absolve you? No.
Will they give you the Body and Blood of Our Lord? No. The Holy Virgin cannot
make her Divine Son descend into the Host. You might have two hundred angels
there, but they could not absolve you. A priest, however simple he may be, can
do it; he can say to you, "Go in peace; I pardon you.
" Oh, how great is a priest! The priest will not understand the
greatness of his office till he is in Heaven. If he understood it on earth, he
would die, not of fear, but of love. The other benefits of God would be of no
avail to us without the priest. What would be the use of a house full of gold,
if you had nobody to open you the door! The priest has the key of the heavenly
treasures; it is he who opens the door; he is the steward of the good God, the
distributor of His wealth. Without the priest, the Death and Passion of Our
Lord would be of no avail. Look at the heathens: what has it availed them that Our Lord has
died? Alas! they can have no share in the blessings of
Redemption, while they have no priests to apply His Blood to their souls!
The priest is
not a priest for himself; he does not give himself absolution; he does not
administer the Sacraments to himself. He is not for himself, he is for you.
After God, the priest is everything. Leave a parish twenty years without
priests; they will worship beasts. If the missionary Father and I were to go
away, you would say, "What can we do in this church? there
is no Mass; Our Lord is no longer there:
we may as well pray at home. " When people
wish to destroy religion, they begin by attacking the priest, because where
there is no longer any priest there is no sacrifice, and where there is no
longer any sacrifice there is no religion.
When the bell
calls you to church, if you were asked, "Where are you going?" you
might answer, "I am going to feed my soul. "
If someone were to ask you, pointing to the tabernacle, "What is that
golden door?" "That is our storehouse, where the true Food of our
souls is kept. " "Who has the key? Who lays in the provisions? Who makes ready the feast, and who
serves the table?" "The priest. "
"And what is the Food?" "The precious Body and Blood of Our Lord. " O God! O God! how Thou
hast loved us! See the power of the priest; out of a piece of bread the word of
a priest makes a God. It is more than creating the world. . . . Someone said,
"Does
If I were to
meet a priest and an angel, I should salute the priest before I saluted the
angel. The latter is the friend of God; but the priest holds His place. St.
Teresa kissed the ground where a priest had passed. When you see a priest, you
should say, "There is he who made me a child of God, and opened Heaven to
me by holy Baptism; he who purified me after I had sinned; who gives
nourishment to my soul. " At the sight of a
church tower, you may say, "What is there in that place?" "The
Body of Our Lord. " "Why is He there?"
"Because a priest has been there, and has said holy
What joy did
the Apostles feel after the Resurrection of Our Lord, at seeing the Master whom
they had loved so much! The priest must feel the same joy, at seeing Our Lord
whom he holds in his hands. Great value is attached to objects which have been
laid in the drinking cup of the Blessed Virgin and of the Child Jesus, at Loretto. But the fingers of the priest, that have touched
the adorable Flesh of Jesus Christ, that have been plunged into the chalice
which contained His Blood, into the pyx where His
Body has lain, are they not still more precious? The priesthood is the love of
the Heart of Jesus. When you see the priest, think of Our Lord Jesus Christ.