The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1877-12-23


from the height of His CROSS, in the plenitude
OF His destitution. has looked down on the
daughter Of wealth, and said "My child, for
poverty" The Christian msiden hes replied:
" Yes, for Thee, o L rd, will be poor with an
absolute poverty. make a VOW of perpetual
poverty, To possess Thee, o D vine Master,
vow 60 gar to possess any thipg-not even
spot of ground on which i might place my
foot, and say, this is my field; not even n low
iy cottage: of which mil ght gay, this ie my
that dust of the earth, silver or gold, which 1
could take in my hand, aud say, this dust Is
mine. No; shall no longer be rich, even
with grain of dust. VOW it. and will keep
my yoR.n.
Thus acts the Carmelite of opulent fortune,
of great family, of q noble race. She shows
to this sel6shness of the age-which opens it's
all-the only ambition that is worthy of her,
the ambition of having nothing. She vows to
o God made poor the life of poverty, aud 30
lays on the altar the first part of the victim.
The VOW of poverty is the frst nail that at
taches her to that CROSS to which ebe ascends
with Jesus in order to coBsu inmate her sscri-
fee. By it the CaEmelite, With al the inst!tu'
tion of Jesus Christ in his poverty, reacts, by
the power of example and the ascendanoy of
sacrifice, against the excuses of oupidity.
She says In the silence of her cloister, to those
who can understand an eioqueDce more per-
suaeive than words: "There is something bet
ter for asChristian than to be rich with the
WOTlu 10 w 10 pOOE Win Jesus AuO
whilst worldly women are passing in our
streets, dragging after them the huge burthen
of their opulence, and seeming to cry ont to all
bshofders, riches, riches, richest the humble
daughters OF Carmel pase into the obscurity
of their solitade, repeating that word which,
willing or unwilling, the world is forced to
hear, Poverty, poverty, poverty
What is the second current which is carry
ing away the world in the fury Of oontempo-
rary seffshness Aht 1 understand you.
brethren; plunged rs you are with me in the
already said: Sensuality. Yes, sensuality, in
all situations and under all forms, carrying
away to q second abyss the Intoxicated gener-
atons; sens4ality again crying as the de,
barohees of Jerusalem cried, three Thousand
years ego: LET rs en- Joy ourselves; let us en-
joy ourselves reniteJ JrnGmur :" "sensuality-that
is to say, the exsggeration Of the empire of
tho senses, the immoderste pursuit of sensual
Qualifications, of sensual pleasures, of sensual
epjoyments; the unlimited desire-whst do
say the passion, the frerzy for sensation, for
for enjoying, for enjoying more, for enjoying
still more. This is the second current which
hnrries us on to the abyss. God preserve me
from calumniating my. times; but can not
say, without fear of being contradicted by the
reality, that this age, more than any other, 10
struck by that evil which kills men, society and
civilization, even the most robustf Try to
to oatch the whispers that are floating on the
air; do not these whispers, which stir every
fibre of the senses, like the chords of Pspbian
or Ionisn Tyre, all send forth the same sound
w 0RG say GD0y WlCnE1 ana WltnOub yOus u not
that which fills the age with it's name, because
it ftfs it with itaelf: Ssnsua!ity, sensuality,
sensuality!
Who then, is there, in our times, that does
not suffer more or less from the degrading
atsscks of this evils Sensuality pervAdes
fathers. mothers, children; 1 may say in two
words, sensuality is both the man and the wo-
man of that new paganism, which wouid not
blush to raise up again in our midst the fallen
temples of the gods and goddesses of ancient
voluptuousness but the man and the woman
of tHak< "a % n-sf chi oh,
fiud everywher the part of the world and the
part of the Gospel, the part of the senses and
the part of the spirit, the part of Satan aud
the part of Jesus Christ, aud the frst always
greater than the second; bastard Christian
lty, where we feel paganism oozing through
all its pores; degenerate Christianity which
would have astonished the Christians who
lived nearer to Calvary; and of which our
new Christians, in these days OF revel, give ex.
amples which the pagsns would have found
not unworthy of their most shameful saturna-
liza!
Behold the food of this sensual age behold
it such as it passes before US. hurryIng to
the abyss, mankind deceived by the brlliancy
of It's current, and the charms of its borders.
Tell me, pray you, what will arrest this cuI.
rent of perhdious enchaptments and destruc
tive pleasuresF What will be able to raise up
declining morals and souls verging to their
fall WHAT is it that will send purifying
breath ever the corruption which the reign Of
sersuality is accumulatng in the heart OF So
cietyf In q word, what will be able effica-
To EehGG oRalnsb tnOse cACessSe o1 eeH-
suslity, which lead to the revels of voluptu-
ousness at first, to the enervatioD of souls
afterwards, and, in the end, to the ruin of So
ciety What will! effect this prodigy' a sim
gle thing: The example of spotless chastity,
of angelic virtue in human nature, of the aus
terity of penitents in an innocent flesh.
And here is the example now given, in pre-
sence of contemporary sensuslism, By the aus
ters daughters of Carmel. ,sp!iDging forth
themselves from the bosom of this aye, whose
blood they bear, and whose air they have
breathed, they react-by the practice of heroic
purity and angelic chastity-agsinst the i'm.
pulsions of that sepsualism which enveloped
their youth. Jesus Christ, who has won their
heart by the superhumsn charm of voluntary
poverty, has still more charmed it by the
heavenly attraction of free and perpetual
chastity. He-purity itself-has, by single
glance, inspired that virgin soul With AN an Sn, an
said to her: "My child, have chosen thee;
for Ne thou shslt be ohasts, ohaste with an alb.
of the immaculate Lamb has replied: Yes,
o God of purity, for Thee will be ohaste wi h
an absolute chastity. o God of ohaste souls,
to give Thee, worldly wealth, which is out:
side OF me aud is not myself, is but little
wish to give Thee that which ia within me