# My Prayer-Book/Reflections

I. — The Quest of Happiness
"Thou Shalt Love the Lord Thy God with Thy Whole Heart"
The human heart craves and seeks unceasingly for happiness. Many find but a small measure of happiness in this life because they lose sight of their eternal destiny — the object of their creation — which is to know God, to love Him, to serve Him, and to be happy with Him. "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart and thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself " (Matt. xxii. 37, 39). The whole law depends on these two commandments; so Our Lord Himself assures us. The fullest measure of happiness even here on earth is attained by harmonizing one's conduct with the commandments of God, by doing well one's duties to God and man; for this means the possession of a peaceful conscience, a clean heart, a sinless soul; and this is essential to happiness; hence, St. Ignatius prays: "Give me, Lord, only Thy love and Thy grace; with these I shall be rich enough; there is nothing more that I desire." To be in the state of grace — to have God's love — that is essentially necessary to true happiness. "Si Deus pro nobis, quis contra nos?" "If God be for us, who is against us?" (Rom. viii. 31.) The end of man's creation is to glorify God. But in promoting God's glory we are at the same time promoting our own ​happiness. Ergo, let our watchword be: "Omnia ad major em Dei gloriam!" "All for the greater glory of God!"
"Know then this truth — enough for man to know: Virtue alone is happiness below." — Pope.
"Happiness and virtue are the same." — Francis.
"There can be no harmony in our being except our happiness coincides with our duty." — Whewell.
"Chain down some passion; do some generous deed;
Teach ignorance to see; or grief to smile;
Correct thy friend; befriend thy greatest foe;
With warm heart and confidence divine,
Spring up and lay strong hold on Him who made thee."
— Young.
"All who joy would win
Must share it — happiness was born a twin."
— Byron.
2. — Charity the Greatest Thing in the World
"If I should have all faith, so that I could remove all mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing" (i Cor. xiii. 2).
"Now there remain faith, hope, and charity — these three: but the greatest of these is charity" (1 Cor. xiii. 12).
​"God is charity. By this hath the charity of God appeared toward us, because God hath sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we may live by Him. ...
"My dearest, if God hath so loved us, we also ought to love one another. . . . Let us love God because God first hath loved us. And this commandment we have from God, that he, who loveth God, love also his brother " (i John iv).
"And this is charity, that we walk according to His commandments" (2 John vi).
"Before all things have a constant mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins" (1 Peter iv. 8).
"Love is the fulfilling of the law" (Rom. xiii. 10).
"All the law and the prophets depend upon the law of love" (Matt. xxii. 40).
A rightly ordered love moves us to the observance of every law. A loving soul is most obedient to the law. Love is the spring of its actions. Its love impels it to obey. St. Augustine understood this so well, that he hesitated not to say: "Dilige et fac quod vis": "Love, and do what you will." — St. Augustine, Tract. vii, in Epis.
"The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith" (1 Tim. i. 5).
And this is the "game of love". "By how much the more a man dies to himself, by so much more he lives to God." — St. Catherine Sien., Dialogue on Perfection.
All good things, all great things, in the world, have been accomplished through self-denial and self-control.
St. Teresa says: "Love spurs us on to do great ​things, and makes all that is bitter sweet and savory." — St. Teresa, Foundat. c. v.
The perfection of charity is attained by self-renunciation, by entire mortification, by purity of heart, and total abandonment to God.
Our Lord says: " Learn of Me "; "He that followeth Me walketh not in darkness"; "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me" (Matt. viii. 34).
Father Buckler, speaking of charity, the essence of perfection, asks: "How are we to follow Christ?" And he replies: "The answer is, that Our Lord's way is the way of perfect love. He is the divine Lover of God and of men. For the love of God and of men He became incarnate, lived on earth, taught the law of love and the life of love, suffered for love and died for Jove sent down the Spirit of His love upon the Church, to be the ruling power of our lives and actions, by the charity of God poured forth into our hearts (Rom. v. 5), and left us the marvelous gift of Himself, to the end of the world, in the mystery of love on the altar, wherein He dwells as the divine Lover in the midst of those He loves — working with us, nourishing and perfecting His life of love in the souls of men. 'Be ye followers of God,' says St. Paul, 'and walk in love, as most dear children ' (Eph. v. 2)."
It is by charity that we follow Our Lord in the way of perfection.
3. — Fraternal Charity
Our happiness depends to a great extent on our observance of the law of fraternal charity: "Thou Shalt love thy neighbor as thyself," and of the golden ​rule announced by our blessed Saviour: "As you would that men should do to you, do you also to them in like manner" (Luke vi. 31). In doing good to others we become like to Christ, of whom we read in the Gospel that "He went about doing good to all."
"This commandment we have from God," says the disciple, whom Jesus loved, "that he, who loveth God, love also his brother" (1 John iv. 21). And St. Paul observes. "He, who loveth his neighbor, hath fulfilled the law" (Rem. xiii. 8).
What Shakespeare says of mercy, pertains also to charity and kindness: "It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven; it is twice blessed; it blesseth him that gives and him that takes." We reap what we sow. Kindness begets kindness. Man can scarcely enjoy 1 sweeter satisfaction than that which results from good deed generously performed or a kind word unselfishly spoken. "Happy is he, who has charity for every one," says the Blessed Egidius of Assisi; "happy is he, who performs great services for his neighbor, yet does not trouble about receiving anything in return."
Our deeds of disinterested charity are recorded in the Book of Life. On the great day of recompense, our blessed Saviour will say: "Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world; for I was hungry and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave Me to drink; was a stranger and you took Me in; naked, and you covered Me; sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me; . . . As long as you did it to one of these little children you did it to Me" (Matt. xxv. 34-36).
​"In charity," says St. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi, "we must be cheerful and prompt, knowing that by serving our fellow-creatures, we serve God in His members, and that He regards a service done to our neighbor as done to Himself."
4.— The Spectrum of Charity
St. Paul, writing to the Corinthians, ascribes to charity all the virtues that make a perfect man: "Charity is patient, is kind; charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up, is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, endureth all things" (i Cor. xiii. 4-7). And writing to the Colossians he says: "Above all things have charity, which is the bond of perfection" (Col. iii. 14). "Let each one love his brother"; says St. Alphonsus Liguori. "We have each our faults. He, who has to put up with his brother's fault to-day, will have to be borne with himself to-morrow."
"Bear ye one another's burdens," writes the Apostle to the Galatians, "and so you shall fulfil the law of Christ; for if any man think himself to be something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself" (Gal. vi. 2, 3). The following homely lines contain a beautiful truth: —
"There is so much bad in the best of us,
There is so much good in the worst of us,
That it ill behooves any of us
To rail at the faults of the rest of us."
5 — Be Indulgent
here is a word which can not be said too often to every Christian whom God has destined to live, converse, and labor in the society of his fellow-creatures: Be indulgent. Yes, be indulgent; it is necessary for others, and it is necessary for your own sake. Forget the little troubles that others may cause you; keep up no resentment for the inconsiderate or unfavorable words that may have been said about you; excuse the mistakes and awkward blunders of which you are the victim; always make out good intentions for those who have done you any wrong by imprudent acts or speeches; in a word, smile at everything, show a pleasant face on all occasions, maintain an inexhaustible fund of goodness, patience, and gentleness. Thus you will be at peace with all your brethren; your love for them will suffer no alteration, and their love for you will increase day by day. But above all, you will practise in an excellent manner Christian charity, which is impossible without this toleration and indulgence at every instant.
— Russell, The Art of Being Happy.
Let us take heed of the habits, tastes, and even the little hobbies of those around us, in order not to cross them in anything, especially our superiors and our kinsfolk. There are a thousand minute details of manner and conduct, insignificant in themselves no doubt, but to which some, especially old people and nervous people, attach so much importance that a slight negligence with regard to one of these little points puts them in bad humor for a whole day. There is ​question, for instance, of shutting a door, of making a little too much noise going upstairs, of being punctual to some appointment, of playing one game rather than another, of listening to a story that we have heard a hundred times before. A thoughtless or overbearing person will despise such petty matters as mere trifles, and, in despising them, will spoil all the comfort of some one perhaps to whom he owes gratitude and respect. A more pliant and more amiable Christian will for virtue's sake submit to what is required of him, and thus he will please God and make himself loved by his fellow-creatures; and he will himself enjoy that sweet satisfaction which charity secures for us when it is joined to humility. — Ibid.
6.— Be of Good Cheer!
"Be of good cheer!" "Be of good heart!" "Have confidence!" "Fear ye not!" So said Our Lord on various occasions.
And the Apostle admonishes us not to be anxious about our affairs, but to trust in the loving kindness of God, "casting all your care upon Him; for He hath care of you" (i Peter v. 7).
Don't brood over what is past; forget it!
Be not too eager and anxious in the present.
Do your best; leave the rest to God, your good Father in heaven; keep your peace.
Don't worry about the future. What is the use of doing so? When you see trouble, blessings may really be in store for you. Hope for the best. Accept what happens philosophically. Always act with a pure intention and with deliberation.
​The author of "The Art of Being Happy" says:
"A great secret for preserving peace of heart is to do nothing with overeagerness, but to act always calmly, without trouble or disquiet. We are not asked to do much, but to . do well. At the Last Day God will not examine if we have performed a multitude of works, but if we have sanctified our souls in doing them Now the means of sanctifying ourselves is to do everything for God and to do perfectly whatever we have to do The works that have as their motive vanity or selfishness make us neither better nor happier, and we shall receive no reward for them."
Cultivate a cheerful temper. Says the Wise Man in the Book of Proverbs: "A joyful mind maketh age flourishing: a sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones" (Prov. xvii. 22).
Look at the bright side of things.
" Two men looked out through their prison bars;
The one saw mud, and the other stars."
— Stevenson.
"A poet," writes Father Russell, "was gazing on' day at a beautiful rose-tree. 'What a pity/ said he 'that these roses have thorns!' A man who was passing by said to him: 'Let us rather thank our good God for having allowed these thorns to have roses/ Ah! how ought we also to thank Him for so many joys that He grants to us in spite of our sins, instead of complaining about the slight troubles that He sends us! "
7. — Don't Worry
Nowadays we hear and read frequently about "Don't-Worry Clubs." Membership in one of ​these clubs of optimists may be a desideratum, but it is not a necessity to a practical Catholic; for there can be no doubt that the best "don't-worry club" in the world is the Catholic Church, because she directs her members to lead a pure and holy life, to do their duty, to rejoice in the Lord always, and to preserve their peace of soul by a simple, childlike confidence in the providence of Our Father in heaven, in accordance with the words of St. Paul: "We know that to them that love God all things work together unto good" (Rom. viii. 28).
"Happy is the man," says the dear St. Francis of Assisi, "who does not worry, nor grieve himself, about anything in this world, but leads a holy life, without any inordinate attachment, and abandons himself cheerfully to the will of God."
St. Francis of Sales, knowing that all the accidents of life, without exception, happen by the order of Providence, reposed in Him with the greatest tranquillity, like a child on the bosom of its mother. This gentle saint was filled with so great a confidence in God that in the midst of the greatest disasters nothing could disturb the peace of his soul. "I can not but be persuaded," he often said, "that he who believes in an infinite Providence, which extends even to the lowest worm, must expect good from all that happens to him."
In the same spirit, St. Vincent de Paul exhorts us:
"Let us place our confidence in God and establish ourselves in an entire dependence on Him. Then fear not what men may say or do against us, all will turn to our advantage. Yes, if all the earth should rise up against us, nothing will happen but as God pleases, in whom we have established our hopes."
Says the author of the "Spiritual Combat": "Nothing is impossible to God, since His power is infinite. ​Nothing is difficult to God, since His wisdom is equally infinite. God desires our good with an infinite desire, since His goodness is without limit. What can be more capable of inspiring us with great confidence in Him?"
"Have confidence" (Mark vi. 50). Let your care be to possess your soul in peace and tranquillity; let no accident be to you a cause of ill humor.
8. — One Little Secret of a Happy Life
One secret of a sweet and happy Christian life is learning to live by the day. It is the long stretches that tire us. We think of life as a whole, running on for us. We can not carry this load until we are three score and ten. We can not fight this battle continually for half a century. But really there are no long stretches. Life does not come to us all at one time; it comes only a day at a time. Even to-morrow is never ours until it becomes to-day, and we have nothing whatever to do with it but to pass down to it a fair and good inheritance in to-day's work well done, and today's life well lived.
It is a blessed secret this, of living by the day. Any one can carry his burden, however heavy, till nightfall. Any one can do his work, however hard, for one day. Any one can live sweetly, patiently, lovingly, purely, until the sun goes down. And this.is all life ever means to us — just one little day. "Do to-day's duty; fight to-day's temptations, and do not weaken or distract yourself by looking forward to things you can not see, and could not understand if you saw them." God gives us nights to shut down upon our little days. We can not see beyond. Short horizons make life easier ​and give us one of the blessed secrets of brave, true holy living.
9.— Abandonment
Two principles form the unalterable basis of the virtue of abandonment or absolute surrender to divine providence.
First Principle: Nothing is done, nothing happens, either in the material or in the moral world, which God has not foreseen from all eternity, and which He has not willed, or at least permitted.
Second Principle: God can will nothing, He can permit nothing, but in view of the end He proposed to Himself in creating the world; i.e., in view of His glory and the glory of the Man-God, Jesus Christ, His only Son.
To these two principles we shall add a third, which will complete the elucidation of this whole subject, viz.: As long as man lives upon earth, God desires to be glorified through the happiness of this privileged creature; and consequently in God's designs the interest of man's sanctification and happiness is inseparable from the interest of the divine glory.
If we do not lose sight of these principles, which no Christian can question, we shall understand that our confidence in the providence of Our Father in heaven can not be too great, too absolute, too childlike. If nothing but what He permits happens, and if He can permit nothing but what is for our happiness, then we have nothing to fear, except not being sufficiently submissive to God. As long as we keep ourselves united with Him and we walk after His designs, were all creatures to turn against us they could not harm us. ​He, who relies upon God, becomes by this very reliance as powerful and as invincible as God, and created powers can no more prevail against him than against God Himself. This confidence in the fatherly providence of God can not, evidently, dispense us from doing all that is in our power to accomplish His designs; but, after having done all that depends upon our efforts, we will abandon ourselves completely to God for the rest.
— Fr. Ramiere, S.J., in Abandonment.
"When we will what God wills," says St. Alphonsus, "it is our own greatest good that we will; for God desires what is for our greatest advantage. Let your constant practice be to offer yourself to God, that He may do with you what He pleases.,, God can not be deceived and we may rest assured that what He determines will be best for us. Can there be a better prayer than this: "Fiat Voluntas Tua!" "Thy Will be done!" "My Lord, My God, and My All!"
10. — Holy Indifference: Self-Immolation
To be "in tune with the Infinite" means, in a truly Christian sense, to live in perfect conformity with the will of God; it means, in its perfect sense, not only submission or resignation to the divine will, but thorough self-abandonment, prompted by the pure love of God; it means the cultivation of that peaceable state — "the peace of expectant love" — which St. Francis of Sales calls "holy indifference" — "a word we now understand to mean," as we read in his "Life" by De Margerie, "not the coldness, the torpor of a heart, that ​does not feel, but the supreme effort of a supremely loving heart, the term of self-immolation, — the immolation of self-will and the heart of flesh, to replace them by the will, the heart, the mind of God Himself."
"The sovereign love of God teaches the soul to have the same utter confidence in God's holy will that a little child has in its father; — here we have harmony, detachment, trust; in a word, the natural atmosphere of holy peace."
"Some," says the Imitation, "are at peace with themselves and others; some are at peace neither with themselves nor others; some, being themselves established in peace, strive to establish it among their brethren."
"Him, who belongs to this last category, the 'Imitation ' calls the Bonus Homo Pacificus, the good pacific man. This exactly describes what St. Francis of Sales was. He recommended peace to all the souls he governed and he worked zealously to impart it to every one he could. The number of lawsuits he prevented and the disputes he calmed were almost infinite. This contagious peace sprang from the same fixed principle that has given all his writings, and every recorded act of his life, a grace of ineffable serenity; a frank gentle gaiety that is grave as well as gay, a depth of calm joy which neither tribulation nor press of toil ever troubled, and which, to use one of his own symbols, is like the "nightingale pouring out her song from the middle of a thorn -bush."
"When we are truly abandoned to God's will," says Bossuet, "we are ready for all that may come to us; we suppose the worst that can be supposed, and we cast ourselves blindly on the bosom of God. We forget ourselves, we lose ourselves; and this entire forgetful​ness of self is the most perfect penance we can perform, for all conversion consists only in truly renouncing and forgetting ourselves, to be occupied with God and filled with Him. This forgetfulness of , self is the martyrdom of self-love; it is its death, and an annihilation which leaves it without resources; then the heart dilates and is enlarged. We are relieved by casting from us the dangerous weight of self which formerly overwhelmed us. We look upon God as a good Father who leads us, as it were, by the hand in the present moment; and all our rest is in humble and firm confidence in His fatherly goodness.
"If anything is capable of making a heart free and unrestrained, it is perfect abandonment to God and His holy will; this abandonment fills the heart with a divine peace more abundant than the fullest floods. If anything can render a mind serene, dissipate the keenest anxieties, soften the bitterest pains, it is assuredly this perfect simplicity and liberty of a heart wholly abandoned to the hands of God. "
EJACULATION
May the most just, most high, and most amiable will of God be done in all things, be praised and magnified forever.
100 days' indulgence once a day. — Pius VII, May 19, 1818.
11. — The Saved and Lost
A certain man said to our blessed Saviour, as we read in the Gospel of St. Luke (xiii. 23): "Lord, ​are they few that are saved?" Jesus simply replied: "Strive to enter by the narrow gate."
"It is a question," says Father Walsh, S.J., in his admirable and consoling study, "The Comparative Number of the Saved and Lost," "about which there is no authoritative decision of the Church, nor unanimous opinion of her Fathers or theologians.
"Many, notably Suarez, hold — as Father Faber does — that the great majority of adult Catholics will be saved. Some, amongst whom we are glad to count the illustrious Dominican, Father Lacordaire, hold or incline to the opinion that the majority of mankind, including heathens and heretics, will be saved.
"Pere Monsabre, O.P., Father Castelein, S.J., and Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J., advocate this mildest opinion. Father Rickaby says in his Conference, 'The Extension of Salvation': 'As to what proportion of men die in sanctifying grace, and what proportion in mortal sin, nothing is revealed, nothing is of faith, and nothing is really known to theologians. If ever you find a theologian confidently consigning the mass of human souls to eternal flames, be sure he is venturing beyond the bounds of Christian faith and of theological science. You are quite free to disbelieve his word. I do not believe it myself.
"'The rigor of the older theologians culminated in Jansenism. To the Jansenist the elect were the few grapes left upon the vine after a careful vintage (Is. xxiv. 13). Since the extirpation of Jansenism, the pendulum of theological speculation has swung the other way, and theologians generally hope more of the mercy of God, or, at least, speak with less assurance of the range of His rigorous justice.'
"The reasons," continues Father Walsh, "which ​have induced me to think the mildest opinion, namely, that the majority — and I scarcely fear to add, the great majority — of mankind will be saved, are: First, because the study of God's character urges, if not forces, me to do so. Second, because this opinion appears to make most for His greater honor and glory, and for the merits of Christ. Third, because the belief in it is better calculated to make us love God, and to serve Him the more from love.
"Cardinal Bellarmine, in one of his expositions of the Psalms, writes: 'David records God's providence in regard of the beasts and the birds in order to let man see that he will never be forsaken by God in His providence. God, who so bounteously feeds beasts and ravens, will never desert those who are made to His own image and likeness.' Is not such Our Lord's reasoning and conclusions as we have them in His Sermon on the Mount: 'Behold the birds of the air; for they neither sow nor do they reap, nor gather into barns, and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not of much more value than they?' The most learned theologians lay down and prove the following proposition: That God really and sincerely wishes the salvation of all men, because He is the Creator of all men. In the words of St. Ambrose: 'God wishes all whom He creates to be saved; would to God, O men, that you would not fly and hide yourselves from Him; but even if you do He seeks you, and does not wish you to perish., It is more probable that though many can and will fight God to the end and be lost, they will be fewer far than those whom He will tenderly, and in His own way, bring home to Himself. God is not only the Creator but the Father of all men without any exception. He has commanded us to address Him by this title: 'Our Father, who art ​in heaven.' All Christians do so; and a preacher, in his opening instructions, would teach and exhort the untutored savage to believe in and speak to Him as such.
" God is the Father of all men and eminently a perfect Father. We could not imagine such a father casting out, expelling from his home forever a child, until he had tried the proper means to keep him with himself — until the child deserts him, or, by wilful, obstinate, persistent disobedience to his father's will, necessitates his own expulsion. Such a father will do all he well can for the welfare of his children — do everything short of violence to enable his children to succeed in all that is for his own and their good. The dominant desire — wish — will — of such a father must be to make his children happy; his dominant dread and horror, that one of them should be unhappy.
" Our Lord tells us how easy and swift true repentance can be in the case of the publican — the notorious and typical sinner — who by making an act of sorrow for his sins, in seven words, went home to his house justified. God is far more ready and generous in forgiving the worst than men — even good men — are in forgiving each other, and bad would it be for the best of us if He were not.
" By way of showing the effect which can be produced by the very thought of God Our Father, and belief in Him as such, I may give a fact told to me by the person concerned — now dead for some years. He fell into a state akin to despair about his salvation. A confessor, to whom he opened his mind, told him to go, take his Bible, and write out all the texts in which God calls Himself his Father. He did so, and was blessed with calm and peace before he had written twenty." — Fr. Nicholas Walsh, S.J.
​"Say to them: As I live, saith the Lord God: I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way, and live" (Ezech. xxxiii. n).
"The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost" (Luke xix. 10).
"Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called, and should be the sons of God" (i John iii. i).
"But I say to you: Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; that you may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh the sun to rise upon the good and bad, and raineth upon the just and unjust. ... Be you perfect as also your heavenly Father is perfect." — Words of our blessed Saviour; Matt. v. 44, 45, 48.
"Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore have I drawn thee, taking pity on thee " (Jer. xxxi. 3).
"The Lord is gracious and merciful; patient and plenteous in mercy."
"The Lord is sweet to all, and His tender mercies are over all His works."
"Every day will I bless Thee, and I will praise Thy Name forever" (Ps. cxliv. 8, 9, 2).
Let us give the good God, our Father in heaven , a service of Love, in the spirit of St. Francis Xavier, who said: " O God! I love Thee, not for the sake of winning heaven, or of escaping hell, not for the hope of gaining aught, but solely because Thou art my God."
"Not with the hope of gaining aught,
 Not seeking a reward;
But as Thyself hast loved me,
 O ever-loving Lord.
E'en so I love Thee, and will live,
 And in Thy praise will sing;
Solely because Thou art my God
 And my eternal King."
12.— Lord, Are There Few Saved?
Our Lord was journeying through the towns and villages on the way to Jerusalem, there to suffer death for us, when some one came up and asked Him exactly the question that we should have liked to put: Lord, are there few saved? What was He to reply? Suppose He had answered: "Oh, no, nearly all men will be saved, very few will be lost." What easy going, what laxity would have followed upon such a declaration I He answered, therefore, not to the gratification of our curiosity but to the profit of our souls: Strive ye to enter in at the narrow gate: for many, I say unto you, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able (Luke xiii. 24). They shall not be able, because they have not striven: they have sought the Kingdom of God after a fashion, but not with sufficient earnestness; and, Our Lord warns us, there shall be many such. How many? Shall there be many more saved? Shall the lost be comparatively few? Our Lord has left His Church no revelation upon this subject: consequently no answer returnable to these inquiries carries the certainty of faith. On such an open question preachers have said strong things, and theologians have divided on this side and on that, with more or less of probability. Father Faber in his Creator and Creature argues that "the great mass of believers" are saved. But there is one class of people who are all saved. Who? All priests? No. All Religious? No. Who then? All ​who pray. Prayer is knocking at the gate of heaven; and we have Our Lord's assurance, Knocks and U shall be opened to you (Luke xi. 9).
"Ask, seek, knock" (Matt. vii. 7): that denotes earnestness of petition. Ask, and fear not to ask, for temporal favors, as health and victory, yet so that they make for the salvation of your soul. "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added unto you" (Matt. vi. 33).
No one, I persuade myself, enters heaven, who has not either prayed much or been prayed much for. But my salvation is 100 precious to me for me to leave it to the charity of others. I will help myself and pray for myself. — Ye are Christ's.
13.— Forgive Us Our Trespasses as We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us
" If a man finds it very hard to forgive injuries, let A him look at a crucifix, and think that Christ shed all His blood for him,, and not only forgave His enemies, but even prayed His heavenly Father to forgive them also. Let him remember that when he says the "Our Father" every day, instead of asking pardon for his sins, he is calling down vengeance on himself." — St. Philip Neri.
"If you will forgive men their offences," says Our Lord, "your heavenly Father will forgive you also your offences" (Matt. vi. 14).
"Dismiss all anger," says St. Thomas of Villanova, and look a little into yourself. Remember that he of whom you are speaking is your brother, and as he is in the way of salvation, God can make him a saint, not ​withstanding his present weakness. You may fall into the same faults or perhaps into a worse fault. But supposing you remain upright, to whom are you indebted for it, if not to the pure mercy of God?" — Readings with the Saints.
One day St. Peter said to our Saviour, as we read in the Gospel of St. Matthew (xviii. 21): "Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?" Jesus replied: "I say not to thee, till seven times; but till seventy times seven times;" — i.e., not only frequently, but innumerable times, in fact always.
The apostle St. Paul admonishes us: "Be ye kind one to another, merciful, forgiving one another, even as God hath forgiven you in Christ" (Eph. iv. 32).
"How patiently Christ, the king of heaven, bore with the apostles, enduring at their hands many incivilities, for they were but poor, rough, and illiterate fishermen. How much more ought we to bear with our neighbor, if he treats us with unkindness." — St. Philip.
14.— Kindness
" Let us be kind if we would promote the interest of the Sacred Heart, of which kindness was the special characteristic. Let it not be in isolated acts — 'few and far between'; no, it must be like prayer — an habitual disposition of heart, which is ready to manifest itself without any effort, at all seasons and in all circumstances, and thus it will be with hearts which are united to that Heart of love. Kindness will flow from them, as it were, naturally, just as the flowers give forth their perfume, the birds their song, and as the sun shines down alike on good and bad as it goes on its daily cir​cuit — because all this is of their very nature. In the most trivial things of daily life the spirit of kindness should render itself evident." ...
"Kindness is as the bloom upon the fruits — it renders charity and religion attractive and beautiful. Without it, even charitable works lose their power of winning souls; for, without kindness, the idea of love, the idea of anything supernatural — in a word, of Jesus, is not conveyed to the mind by the works performed, even though they be done from a right motive. There is such a thing as doing certain exterior actions, which are intended to be charitable, ungraciously. Now, actions thus performed, do not manifest the kindness of the heart of Jesus, nor will they be efficacious in extending the empire of His love, or in winning souls to His kingdom. The fruit may be sound, but the bloom is not on it ; hence it is uninviting. . . .
"How many a noble work has been nipped in the bud by the blast of an unkind judgment; how many a generous heart has been crushed in its brightest hopes by a jealous criticism; how many a holy aspiration, destined to bear abundant fruit for God and souls, has been forced back into the poor heart from whence it had ascended, there to be stifled utterly and forever, leaving that heart, as the poet so graphically represents it, 'like a deserted bird's nest filled with snow, because unkindness had robbed it of that for which, perhaps, alone it cared to live. How much, then, we may believe has been lost to the world of all that is good and great and beautiful through the instrumentality of unkindness; and if it be thus, what developments, on the other hand, may we not expect, in the order of grace as well as of nature, in the hearts and minds of men beneath the genial sun of kindness.
​"Even in the common things of life? and in the natural order, how striking are the results of the passage of this Heaven-sent missioner, this angel of light and consolation.
"If we reflect upon it, kindness is but the outcome and exemplar of the divine precept: Thou shall love thy neighbor as thyself. There is nothing we personally so much appreciate as kindness. We like others to think of us kindly, to speak to us kindly, and to render us kindly actions and in a kindly manner. Now, we should know how to put ourselves in the place of others, and thus we should testify to them that kindliness that we value so much ourselves.
"When our divine Lord came down upon earth, He came not only to save us by shedding His blood for us, but to teach us by His example how to co-operate with Him in extending the Kingdom of His Father. And one of the most powerful means which He employed for this purpose was kindness, gentleness, and forbearance. 'The goodness and kindness of God our Saviour appeared ' (Titus iii. 4), by which words we learn that kindness is not altogether synonymous with goodness, but, as it were, a luster, a bloom, an attraction superadded to it.
"We might regard this sweet reflection from the Heart of Jesus from many points of view, but it is especially under one aspect that we have been considering it; namely, as a powerful weapon in our hands for the efficacious exercise of our apostolate. Kindly thoughts of others will be productive of prayer in their regard, at once fervent and affectionate — prayer such as the loving Heart of Jesus willingly listens to; kindly words and deeds will draw souls to the love of Him whose spirit they behold so attractively reproduced in His ​members. As the wood-violets give forth their perfume from beneath the brushwood that conceals them from view, telling us of their unseen nearness, so kindness reveals to us the nearness of Jesus, the sweetness of whose Spirit is thus breathed forth.
"Such is the kindness which is that great missioner sent by the Heart of Jesus to exercise an apostolate of love upon earth, and so to promote the glory of God and the salvation of souls." — The Voice of the Sacred Heart.
"I pass through this world but once. If, therefore, there is any good that I can do, any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now; let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again."
15.— Thoughts from Father Faber on Kindness
THE worst kinds of unhappiness, as well as the greatest amount of it, come from our conduct to each other. If our conduct, therefore, were under the control of kindness, it would be nearly the opposite of what it is, and so the state of the world would be almost reversed.
Kindness is the overflowing of self upon others. We put others in the place of self. We treat them as we would wish to be treated ourselves. We change places with them; For the time self is another, and others are self. Our self-love takes the shape of complacence in unselfishness.
Kindness adds sweetness to everything.
​Of great consequence is the immense power of kindness in bringing out the good points of the characters of others.
A kind act has picked up many a fallen man who has afterward slain his tens of thousands for his Lord, and has entered the Heavenly City at last as a conqueror amidst the acclamations of the saints, and with the welcome of its Sovereign.
Kindness has converted more sinners than either zeal, eloquence, or learning; and these three last have never converted any one unless they were kind also. In short, kindness makes us as Gods to each other. Yet while it lifts us so high, it sweetly keeps us low. For the continual sense which a kind heart has of its own need of kindness beeps it humble,
Kindness is infectious. One kind action leads to another. Our example is followed. This is the greatest work which kindness does to others — that it makes them kind themselves.
A proud man is seldom a kind man. Humility makes, us kind, and kindness makes us humble.
A kind man is a man who is never self-occupied. He is genial, he is sympathetic, he is brave.
IF a man habitually has kind thoughts of others, and that on supernatural motives, he is not far from being a saint.
​There is one class of kind thoughts which must be dwelt upon apart. I allude to kind interpretations. The habit of not judging others is one which it is very difficult to acquire, and which is generally not acquired till late on in the spiritual life.
Now, the standard of the Last Judgment is absolute. It is this — the measure which we have meted to others. Our present humor in judging others reveals to us what our sentence would be if we died now. Are we content to abide that issue? But, as it is impossible all at once to stop judging, and as it is also impossible to go on judging uncharitably, we must pass through the intermediate stage of kind interpretations. Few men have passed beyond this to a habit of perfect charity, which has blessedly stripped them of their judicial ermine and their deeply-rooted judicial habits of mind. We ought, therefore, to cultivate most sedulously the habit of kind interpretations.
Men's actions are very difficult to judge. Their real character depends in a great measure on the motives which prompt them, and those motives are invisible to us. Appearances are often against what we afterward discover to have been deeds of virtue.
WHAT mistakes have we not made in judging others! Have we not always found in our past experience that on the whole our kind interpretations were truer than our harsh ones?
How many times in life have we been wrong when we put a kind construction on the conduct of others? We shall not need our fingers to count those mistakes upon. ​But while common sense convinces us of the truth of kind interpretations, common selfishness ought to open our eyes to their wisdom and their policy. We must have passed through life unobservantiy if we have never perceived that a man is very much himself what he thinks of others. Of course his own faults may be the cause of his unfavorable judgments of others; but they are also, and in a very marked way, effects of those same judgments. A man who was on a higher eminence before will soon by harsh judgments of others sink to the level of his own judgments. When you hear a man attribute meanness to another, you may be sure not only that the critic is an ill-natured man, but that he has got a similar element of meanness in himself, or is fast sinking to it. A man is always capable himself of a sin which he thinks another is capable of, or which he himself is capable of imputing to another.
Kind words are the music of the world.
Kind words produce happiness. How often have we ourselves been made happy by kind words, in a manner and to an extent which we are quite unable to explain? No analysis enables us to detect the secret of the power of kind words; even self-love is found inadequate as a cause. Now, as I have said before, happiness is a great power of holiness. Thus, kind words, by their power of producing happiness, have also a power of producing holiness, and so winning men to God.
Kind words cost us nothing, yet how often do we grudge them? On the few occasions when they ​do imply some degree of self-sacrifice, they almost instantly repay us a hundredfold. The opportunities are frequent, but we show no eagerness either in looking out for them, or in embracing them. What inference are we to draw from all this? Surely this: That it is next to impossible to be habitually kind, except by the help of divine grace and upon supernatural motives. Take life all through, its adversity as well as its prosperity, its sickness as well as its health, its loss of its rights as well as its enjoyment of them, and we shall find that no natural sweetness of temper, much less any acquired philosophical equanimity, is equal to the support of a uniform habit of kindness. Nevertheless, with the help of grace, the habit of saying kind words is very quickly formed, and when once formed it is not speedily lost.
It is natural to pass from the facility of kind words to its reward. I find myself always talking about happiness when I am treating of kindness. The fact is the two things go together; the double reward of kind words is in the happiness they cause in others and the happiness they cause in ourselves. The very process of uttering them is a happiness in itself. Even the imagining of them fills our minds with sweetness, and makes our hearts glow pleasurably. Is there any happiness in the world like the happiness of a disposition made happy by the happiness of others? There is no joy to be compared with it. The luxuries which wealth can buy, the rewards which ambition can attain, the pleasures of art and scenery, the abounding sense of health, and the exquisite enjoyment of mental creations, are nothing to this pure and heavenly happiness, where self is drowned in the blessedness of others. Yet this ​happiness follows close upon kind words, and is their legitimate result: But, independently of this, kind words make us happy in ourselves. They soothe our own irritation, they charm our cares away, they draw us nearer to God, they raise the temperature of our love. They produce in us a sense of quiet restfulness like that which accompanies the consciousness of forgiven sin. They shed abroad the peace of God within our hearts.
There is always one bright thought in our minds when all the rest is dark. There is one thought out of which a moderately cheerful man can always make some satisfactory sunshine, if not a sufficiency of it. It is the thought of the bright populous heaven. There is a joy there at least, if there is a joy nowhere else. There is true service of God there, however poor and interested the love of Him may be on earth. Multitudes are abounding in the golden light there, even if they that rejoice on earth be few. At this hour it is all going on so near us that we can not be hopelessly unhappy with so much happiness so near. Yet its nearness makes us wistful. Then let us think that there are multitudes in heaven to-day who are there because of kind actions; many are there for doing them, many for having had them done to them.
We must say something about kind suffering. Kind suffering is, in fact, a form of kind action. With the Christian, kind suffering must be almost wholly supernatural. There is a harmonious fusion of suffering and gentleness effected by grace, which is one of the most attractive features of holiness. What is more ​beautiful than considerateness for others when we ourselves are unhappy?
To be subject to low spirits is a sad liability. Yet, to a vigorous, manly heart, it may be a very complete sanctification. What can be more unkind than to communicate our low spirits to others, to go about the world like demons, poisoning the fountains of joy? Have I more light because I have managed to involve those I love in the same gloom as myself? Is it not pleasant to see the sun shining on the mountains, even though we have none of it down in our valley? Oh, the littleness and the meanness of that sickly appetite for sympathy which will not let us keep our tiny Lilliputian sorrows to ourselves I Why must we go sneaking about, like some dishonorable insect, and feed our darkness on other people's light? We hardly know in all this whether to be more disgusted with the meanness, or more indignant at the selfishness, or more sorrowful at the sin. The thoughts of the dying mother are all concentrated on her new-born child. It is a beautiful emblem of unselfish holiness. So also let us hide our pains and sorrows. But while we hide them, let them also be spurs within us to urge us on to all manner of overflowing kindness and sunny humor to those around us. When the very darkness within us creates a sunshine around us, then has the spirit of Jesus taken possession of our souls.
Kindness is the turf of the spiritual world whereon the sheep of Christ feed quietly beneath the Shepherd's eye.
​Rightly considered, kindness is the grand cause of God in the world. Where it is natural, it must forthwith be supernaturalized. Where it is not natural, it must be supernaturally planted. What is our life? It is a mission to go into every corner it can reach, and reconquer for God's beatitude His unhappy world back to Him. It is a devotion of ourselves to the bliss of the Divine Life by the beautiful apostolate of kindness.
LET us conclude. We have been speaking of kindness. Perhaps we might better have called it the spirit of Jesus. What an amulet we should find it in our passage through life if we would say to ourselves two or three times a day these soft words of Scripture: "My spirit is sweet above honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb " (Ecclus. xxiv. 27).
16.— Seek the Things Above.
"Seek the things that are above"
An ideal life would be so to live as to be "an inspiration, strength, and blessingto those whose lives are touched by ours." Such was our dear Lady's life task. To lead others onward, upward, heavenward, was her earnest joy and endeavor. Such should be also the noble aim of her true children.
How can we accomplish this superhuman task? By living for the things above. If we endeavor to see God's hand in all that happens, and to live as "pilgrims and strangers" that seek a country, then out lives, though exteriorly simple and commonplace, will be as beacon lights guiding souls to that blessed region we call "Home," ​where, with all we love on earth and in heaven, we hope to pass our eternity. For each of us, soon "time shall be no longer"; meanwhile "Sursum Corda" — Mater Mea.
17.— What Is It that Secures happiness in a home
Before everything religion. Let all love well our good God; let all observe the commandments of God and the Church; let all say their prayers morning and night, let all put their trust in divine Providence. In the next place, union; let the members of the household be affectionate toward one another, having only one heart and one soul, not saying or doing anything that can pain any one of them. Then again, the spirit of sacrifice; we must be ready to do without something in order to make another member of the family, en joy it, we must give up our own personal tastes to conform to the tastes of others. Finally, pliancy of character; not to be hard to deal with, touchy, sour, proud; not to be obstinately rooted in one's ideas, not to grow impatient about mere nothings, but to have a large mind and a generous heart. The home of a family whose members possess these qualities is a paradise on earth.
— Russell, The Art of Being Happy.
There are other things than merely food and clothing, which make up a good home. Love and kindness are essential to a happy home; — not the mistaken love and the foolish kindness which give way to every selfish whim of childhood, but the patient, far-seeing virtues that look beyond the present to the child's future life here and hereafter.
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