The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-10-05
JESUIT'S ADVICE TO YOUNG MEN.

That man should meet his trouble face to face,
measure It, weigh it, grapple with it, and by the
lnVlncible power of his spiritual will make of it
no curse, but blessing, this is manly and what is
manly elevates and cheers makes one studier and,
therefore Drawer, and therefore brighter But that
man when he has already done what he can for
his trouble should return to it again and again,
stare at it until his eye becomes dim brood over
1t until his thought gets entangled, lament over it
until his will grows Respondent SILVER and shudder
over it until his nerves are unstrung, hysterical
this IS not manly It is womansh It is Worry
When you must think about trouble give it all
the quiet time and thought that it needs Fix be-
forehand some broad limit to this meditative study
Let 1t be real downright practical study. Mediate
lntenty upon what you can do and ought to do
IN order to avert endure or repair your misfor-
tune, or 1t may be your fault Let not your thought
rest, even for one moment, upon any point that is
not practical.
What is to be done? That is the question that
you have got to ask and answer. When you have
reached the best road as you think to take do not
keep looking back wondering indeed whether you be
right or wrong. Do not decide in hurry nor I'M
til you have thoroughly sifted the matter But
when you have once decided turn your face reso-
lutey forward and exorably set further reflection
aside.
If still you allow this trouble to haunt YOUR
nights with spectral shape and to dog your days
with approximate after thought your mind like
wild bird Gagged and terrified, instead to escape
through some opening, will beat itself helpessly
against fatal bars; your energy will grow enervat-
ed yet restless; your resolution spasmodic yet
vaclllating; your views morbid, your whole life
wretched, wasted, worthless
When trouble is over do not still cling to it,
Let the dead past bury its dead If there be aught
in the past that tells wise lesson let it be listened
to. If there be aught that is sacred to friendship
let it be revered. If there should have been much
love, far more than few then knew, for which we
should thank God, though it be now lost, let
its thought be cherished as a recollection to be
brought with to Paradise.
But the past is dead. We may learn from it.
We may love it. We must not we cannot live in
it. Our life is in the present. We have our pres
ent work to do, our present load to bear our pres
ent cross to carry and our present comfort to lean
upon We have our present life to live You WILL
of course, look forward. But do It look at the
future with the blear eyes of senile dependency
nor with the superficial glance of infantile conceit
Look forward with the clear practical gaze of ro-
bust anticipation with the wise, quick institution
of healthy tone of thought Many people live in
misery Of their own imagining. With bankering
morbidness they forecast trouble to come so as to
taste all its bitterness before ever it reaches to real
life. Dotards live in the past; fools live in the
future; men live in today, Be brave then, in your
actual day.