Returning once more to that striking conversation with Father Timon-David,
nd Part, Chap. iii. page 52 ff.
surely, the reader must have been struck by one of the words that fell from the lips of that experienced founder of good works. I refer to the vivid metaphor of “crutches,” with which the Canon summed up his opinion on the use of various modern amusements (like plays, bands, movies, complicated and expensive games, and so on) to attract youths to their clubs and keep them there. These attractions more often than not serve only to wear everybody out, and leave all listless and depressed, instead of resting and expanding the soul. Or else they merely cater to physical health, or flatter vanity, or overstimulate the imagination and the emotions. For the rest, the term “crutches” in no way supplies to those refreshing though extremely simple games which relax the soul and strengthen the body, and which have been found sufficient by so many generations of Christians.
Translating Dom Chautard’s ideas into English and American terms, we see that he approves and heartily recommends all those games that form a part of the social heritage, and which appeal spontaneously to all the young people in a given environment. Hence, cricket and baseball, football and soccer and basketball, all receive his approval provided they are kept on a simile and spontaneous basis, and do not demand any outlay for special equipment, and involve no fanfare. When however it is a question of athletics on the scale reached by college and even high school football in America, Dom Chautard justly points out the futility of any pretense that such things serve the interests of Christ on this earth.
If one were to make a comparison between the advice of this extremely prudent Canon with that of other able leaders of Catholic Action, without quite seeing his correct meaning, one might well wonder if he was not too sweeping in his enumeration of the cases when “crutches” can be discarded.
Leaving to one side works that are founded chiefly for the relief of bodily ills, we may divide the others into two classes: those which take only carefully selected members, and those which exclude none but the scabby sheep.
But we also assume that even in the latter case, a nucleus of “shock troops” will be formed, youths who will be able, by their fervor, to bring home to the others what the principal aim of the movement is, and to bring all the other members to lead a life that is Christian not merely on the surface, but deep down in the soul. Otherwise, what have we got? “An ordinary social club, run by a priest,” according to the ironical expression of a state-school teacher of great ability who was able to detect, behind the clerical front, just about as many weaknesses as he deplored in those establishments that were beyond the reach of the Church’s influence.
Directors who do not hesitate to reject from their movements members that are clearly incapable of being incorporated into the shock troops, will find the term “crutches” exactly expresses to what an extent they consider as secondary those means that they can well do without, or which they only tolerate with unfeigned repugnance.
And as a matter of fact, they do not easily run short of arguments in favor of their viewpoint.
As far as they are concerned, the regeneration of society, and especially of France, can come only as a result of a more intense radiation of the holiness of the Church. It is by this means, they say, rather than by lectures and apologetics that Christianity developed so rapidly in the first centuries of its history, in spite of the power of its enemies, of prejudices of all sorts, and of the general corruption.
They put an end to all argument by an answer like this: Can you quote any fact, just one fact, to show that during that time the Church needed to think up amusements to turn aside the souls she was going to conquer from the filth of pagan shows?
One of these directors of Catholic Action remarked, in allusion to the thirst for money and the infatuation for the films which keep the bulk of the population in our days in a fever of excited craving for enjoyment: “The Panem et Circenses (Bread and Circuses) of the decadent Romans might be translated into modern terms as ‘Relief and Movies.’ ” Now look at St. Augustine, or St. Ambrose, for example: what a prodigious attraction they exercised over souls! And yet do we ever see them, at any time in their lives, organizing some movement to provide amusements that would make their flock forget the pleasures held out by paganism?
And when St. Philip Neri set out to convert Rome, lukewarm with the spirit of the Renaissance, do we read that he needed any of those “crutches” that so aroused the scorn of Canon Timon-David?
It is very certain that the primitive Church, as we have already hinted, knew how to organize magnificent and numerous shock troops, in the midst of the faithful, and their virtues both struck the pagans with astonishment and excited the admiration of honest souls, even those most prejudiced against Christianity by their principles, their traditions, and their social background. Conversions were the result, even in circles to which no priest had access.
In the presence of these lessons from the past, how can we avoid asking ourselves if, in our own century, we do not have an excessive confidence not only in certain garish forms of amusement, but even in various other means (like pilgrimages, ostentatious festivals, congresses, speeches, publications, syndicates, political action, and so on), which are lavished upon us with such abundance in our day and which are doubtless very useful, but which it would be a great mistake to put in the first place. Preaching by example will always be the foremost instrument of conversions. Only exempla trahunt. Lectures, good books, Christian newspapers and magazines, and even fine sermons must gravitate around this fundamental program: that we need to influence people by an apostolate of good example, the example of fervent Christians, who make Jesus Christ live again on this earth by spreading about them the good odor of His virtues.
Priests who allow themselves to be absorbed by all the other functions of their ministry and do not give themselves, except in an insufficient manner, to the chief of them, which is the formation of perfect Christians who will do the great work of propaganda by good example, have no right to be surprised when they see that three-quarters of the male population in France (and in many other nations the proportion is still greater) remain steeped in indifference and see nothing in the Church but a worthy institution with a certain social usefulness but do not see that it is the one true source of all personal strength, and the keystone of the whole structure of families and nations, and above all the great distributor of truth and of eternal life.
“What is this religion that can give such light and strength and fire to the hearts of men?” cried the pagans when they saw the wonderful effects of the silent League of action by good example.
The strength of this League which existed among the early Christians was surely not derived solely from the practice of “Declining from evil.” Declina a malo (Psalm 36).
Merely to shun the acts forbidden by the Decalogue would not have been enough to arouse both admiration and a strong urge to imitate such men. The principle of exempla trahunt springs rather from the second half of the Psalmist’s admonition, fac bonum (do good). What was needed, then, was the full splendor of the Evangelical virtues as they were proposed to the world in the Sermon on the Mount.
An eminent but unbelieving statesman once said to us: “If the Church could find a way to impress more deeply on the hearts of men the testament of her Founder, “Love one another,” she would become the one great power indispensable to all nations.” Might we not also apply the same thought to several other virtues?
With his deep understanding of the needs of the Church, Pius X often saw things with a most remarkable clarity. An interesting conversation of the Holy Pontiff with a group of Cardinals was reported in the French clerical publication, “L’Ami du Clerge.”
Prédication, January 20, 1921.
The Pope asked them:
“What is the thing we most need, today, to save society?”
“Build Catholic schools,” said one.
“No.”
“More churches,” said another. “Still no.”
“Speed up the recruiting of priests,” said a third. “No, no,” said the Pope, “the MOST necessary thing of all, at this time, is for every parish to possess a group of laymen who will be at the same time virtuous, enlightened, resolute, and truly apostolic.”
After comparing certain passages from Pius X’s first Encyclical with various later statements made by him, it becomes evident that in the interview we quote here he is depending on the fervor of priests to produce the shock troops he mentions. But that it is on the latter, the select laymen, that he counts, more than on any other means, for the increase in numbers of the true faithful. Once this has been accomplished, the recruitment of priests and construction of new schools and churches will be assured.
But when quantity does not spring from quality we run a tremendous risk of producing nothing but a display of noisy empty, delusive pseudoreligion.
Further details enable us to assert that this holy Pope at the end of his life saw no hope for the salvation of the world, unless the clergy could use their zeal to form faithful Christians full of apostolic ardor, preaching by word and example, but especially by example. In the diocese where he served before being elevated to the Papacy, he attached less importance to the census of parishioners than to the list of Christians capable of radiating an apostolate. It was his opinion that shock troops could be formed in any environment. Furthermore, he graded his priests according to the results which their zeal and ability had produced in this regard.
The views of this saintly Pope give immense weight to the opinion of the directors of Catholic Action who fall into the first class mentioned above. The ones, that is, who believe that if the only true strategy for action on the bulk of the population is to form shock troops of perfect Christian laymen, it follows that to retain in the movement members who arouse no hope that they will ever become fervent is a real fault insofar as one thus exposes himself to lowering the level of the elite to such a point that it is only “select” in name, not in fact.
Other leaders, who confine themselves to discarding the positively noxious candidates, will still have much to say against the expression of “crutches” as a name for certain of their methods which appear, in their own estimation, most effective.
They come forward with the argument that unless souls will be exposed to great danger, or that if one Catholic Action provides a shelter for them, such aimed only at forming select groups, one would have to be satisfied with a microscopic recruitment, or that those who are to be evangelized live in a plagueinfested atmosphere, and so on. It would be unjust and cruel, they say, to neglect the masses and to seek only to reach them through the operations of shock troops without attempting direct action upon the mediocre souls, were it only in order to keep them from falling lower—if not to produce among them some candidates for the select corps.
We have listened with great respect to these various opinions as expressed by both men and women engaged in Catholic Action, all of them persons of incontestable zeal and good faith. We will not make any attempt to reconcile the opposing factions. Writing, as we do, with our venerated confreres in the priesthood chiefly in mind, we prefer to ask ourselves what kind of an answer would have been given by the saintly Fr. Allemand, or Fr. Timon-David if they were asked to bring these two doctrines into harmony with one another in a just mean.
These two priests had the following plan:
1. To bring to light, from among the hundreds of young Christians in their movement, a minority, even though infinitesimally small, capable of really desiring and seriously practicing the interior life.
2. Then to enkindle their souls to white heat with love for Our Lord, inspiring them with the ideal of the evangelical virtues, and isolating them as much as possible from contact with other students, clerks, or workers, etc., as long as their interior life had not reached the point where it could truly make them immune to all contagion.
3. Finally, at the right time, to give these young men a zeal for souls, in order to use them to reach their comrades more effectively.
It would take too long to say precisely what was the minimum which these two priests demanded of non-fervent candidates, to keep them for a certain length of time in the movement. Let us, rather, draw attention to the great importance they gave to spiritual direction in carrying out their plan.
Fr. Allemand
La Vie et l’Esprit do Jean-Joseph Allemand, by Fr Gaduel, Paris, Lecoffre.
undertook the individual direction of each youth, and excelled in arousing holy enthusiasm for perfection, and in convincing them that the best proof of devotion to the Sacred Heart is to imitate the virtues of our Divine Model.
As for Canon Timon-David, he was not only an excellent confessor, highly skilled in discovering and dressing wounds of the soul, but also a remarkable spiritual director. No one knew better than he did how to set hearts on fire with love of virtue, and he stirred up those who shared this work of direction with him not to be content, in their guidance of souls, with the principles of moral theology proper to the purgative life, but to make use of their directions to steer souls towards the illuminative life. His earnest desire to make his priestly collaborators true directors of souls was something hard to equal.
Both of these men considered that their short exhortations before the weekly absolution were not enough, nor were they content to stop at their talks to the youths as a group, their organization of the liturgical life, nor even their extremely interesting conferences for the select group. They considered that personal direction, for each member, once a month, was indispensable.
They were convinced that after prayer and sacrifice the most effective means of obtaining from God the grace to form these shock troops, which are to rebuild the world, is the activity of a real priest in all the branches of his ministry, but especially in spiritual direction.
Let us leave the limited area of youth movements and consider the whole field which the Church is to cultivate: works of every sort, parishes, seminaries, communities, even missions.
No man is capable of being his own guide. Everyone has weakness to overcome, attractions to keep in order, duties to fulfill, dangers to undergo, occasions of peril to be avoided, difficulties to overcome and doubts to resolve. If one needs help in all this, a fortiori he will require it in his struggle for perfection.
It would be an omission, and sometimes a grave omission, in a priest, bound by his duty as teacher and surgeon of souls, if he were to deprive them of this great supplement to confession, this indispensable source of energy for the spiritual life, which is spiritual direction.
It is too bad for those enterprises, or movements, or institutions whose confessors, always in a hurry, scarcely give their penitents anything before absolution except a pious but vague exhortation, often the same for everyone, instead of providing the specific remedy which an experienced and painstaking doctor would know how to select, according to the state of each patient. Even though he may have great faith in the efficacy of the Sacrament, is the penitent not exposed in such a case to view the confessor as a sort of “automatic dispenser,” like those slot machines on station platforms which mechanically slip you a piece of candy?
How privileged, on the other hand, are those clubs, schools, orphanages, etc., where the confessor knows the art of direction, and is convinced that he must, before everything else, make use of it if he wants to make all these souls, potentially attuned to a high ideal, throw themselves wholeheartedly into the practice of the interior life!
How many fathers and mothers have noticed that their influence on their children and their friends has greatly increased because they have found a real director!
What wealth there is to put into circulation in a child’s soul! The tree is just about to lean one way or another—and stay that way. For lack of spiritual direction to fit their age and dispositions, from childhood on, many of them become adults whom we will no longer be able to number among the fairer flowers of Christ’s garden. How many priestly and religious vocations might have blossomed forth among them!
Often a parish or a mission will go on for several generations showing the influence of some priest who was able to do something besides giving absolution. Besides Ars and Mesnil-Saint-Loup, we could cite other places which are true centers of the spiritual life in the midst of a general tepidity because they once had the happiness to possess a zealous, prudent and experienced director.
Some years ago when I was in Japan I was astonished and deeply moved when I had the happiness to come in contact with some members of the numerous Christian families which were discovered years ago near Nagasaki. I have never heard anything so amazing! Surrounded by pagans, forced to conceal their religion, deprived of priests for three centuries, these Christians of staunch courage received from their parents not only faith but fervor. Where are we to find the moving power strong enough to explain the strength and duration of this extraordinary heritage? The answer is easy. Their ancestors had been trained by a superb director of “shock troops,” St. Francis Xavier.
How can some of our minor seminaries, having no spiritual directors, serve as nurseries for future priests? When most of their students have not been put on the path to perfection at an early age, how will they be able to avoid mediocrity later on, in the exercise of their priesthood? Indeed, they will be fortunate enough, these souls who are groping to find their way, if they are not completely derailed from their desire to become priests by their admiration for the glitter of natural talents in certain of their teachers who manifest indifference for the interior life and disdain for consistent spiritual direction.
The proof of the fact that many subjects in religious communities, contemplative as well as active, merely vegetate, for lack of spiritual direction, is to be found in the radical change we have frequently observed in tepid souls who have returned to the fervor they had at profession as soon as they finally found a conscientious director.
Some confessors seem to forget that the consecrated souls in their charge are obliged to tend to perfection and have a real need of help and encouragement to achieve that continuous progress which may be applied the words of the psalm: “In his heart he hath disposed to ascend by steps . . . they shall go from virtue to virtue,”
Ascensiones in corde suo disposuit . . . ibunt de virtute in virtutem (Psalm 83).
and to become, after that, true apostles of the interior life.
How many priests, too, would be far more fervent and find all their happiness in the eucharistic and liturgical life, and in the progress of souls, if the confessor of their choice showed them a genuine friendship, tactfully drawing them, by persuasion, into monthly direction in view of obligation to strive for that perfection which is incumbent upon them even more than it is upon religious.
Have you ever noticed what a great importance the writers of the lives of saints give to the spiritual directors of those whose biographies they compose?
Do you not think that the Church would have many more saints if generous souls, especially priests and religious, received more serious direction?
If the priest had not given such intimate direction to the parents of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, and if, later on, the representatives of God had not exercised a direct influence upon this soul chosen by Our Lord, would the earth now be receiving from Heaven the showers of roses that cover it?
Father Desurmont often returns, in his writings, to the thought that for certain souls salvation is completely tied up with sanctity. All or nothing. Burning love of Christ, or adoration of the world and allegiance to the direction of Satan. Sanctity or damnation!
If this is the case, would it be rash for us to fear that many priests will receive a frightful shock at the Last Judgment when they find out that they are, to a certain extent, responsible for the mediocrity and even the loss of souls, because they neglected to study the art of spiritual direction and would not take the trouble to practice it? They may have been good administrators, wonderful preachers, full of solicitude for the sick and the poor, but they have nonetheless neglected this outstanding feature of Our Lord’s own strategy: the transformation of society by means of chosen souls. The little flock of Disciples chosen and formed by Christ Himself, and afterwards set on fire by the Holy Spirit, was enough to begin the regeneration of the world.
We compliment those ever more numerous bishops who follow Pius X in believing that a course of ascetic and even mystical theology is much more valuable, in their major seminaries, than lectures on sociology.
To emphasize the importance of direction they demand above all that their seminarians be faithful to it for the sake of their own personal progress, and that all the professors hold it in high esteem and prove that they do so by radiating the interior life.
In addition to this, they also want all their candidates for the priesthood to learn everything that has anything to do with the direction of souls, regimen animarum, an art based on well established principles and on wise counsels which have been actually lived by those who learned the art by experience. Of this art of arts is it especially true that it is not enough to know merely what to do, one must also know how to do it.
Consult the authors whom the Church considers masters of the spiritual life, and you will find that there are plenty of false ideas and prejudices about spiritual direction, and we must get rid of them.
Just let the priest allow his zeal to wander off the course, without a compass, let him hold the tiller with too weak a grip, and he will find out that some people excel in leading spiritual direction away from its true object.
It soon becomes a session of sterile gossip or he has to coddle the penitent’s feelings, or flatter his self love; or else things take a quietistic turn, and he begins minimizing personal responsibility for sin. Then it is a mere school of fake piety and sentimentality which encourages the growth of sensible emotions, or of a sham religion made up of purely external devotions. Perhaps it becomes a sort of attorney’s office where the penitent comes, out of habit, to get advice about all the trifling incidents of his life, his temporal affairs and all the little material problems of the home. How many other wrong roads there are, for the director and those he directs to go astray!
Furthermore, the priest must take care that the character of his spiritual direction does not get warped. Everything ought to converge upon the object stated in this definition: Spiritual direction consists in the sum total of methodical and continuous advice given by a person having grace of state, knowledge, and experience (especially a priest) to an upright and generous soul, in order to help that soul advance towards solid piety and even towards perfection.
It is above all a training of the will, that queen of faculties, which St. Thomas calls vis unitiva and the only one, in the last analysis, in which we will achieve union with Our Lord and the imitation of His virtues.
A director worthy of the name will find out not only the inner cause of the faults a soul may have, but also its various attractions. He will analyze the difficulties and repugnances it meets with in the spiritual combat. He will show it the beauty of an ideal, and will try out, and select, and control ways of living that ideal; he will point out the pitfalls and illusions; he will give the torpid a good shaking, will encourage and reprimand and console as required, but only to freshen up the will and steel it against discouragement and despair.
Generally, direction is inseparable from confession as long as the soul clinging to attachment to sin, remains mostly in the purgative life. When the soul has seriously begun to advance towards fervor, it becomes easier to give direction distinct from confession. Certain priests, in order to make sure that the two will not be confused will only give direction after the absolution, and ordinarily grant it only once a month to those who confess once a week.
It is not part of the program of this volume to develop the method of giving direction. However, since we are convinced that many priests ought to take this spiritual art more seriously, we admit that it would give us great pleasure to attempt to offer certain of our confreres, who balk at the study of ponderous tomes, a short and practical synthesis of the best that has been said on the subject.
Bibliography on Spiritual Direction.
Special works:
English Readers will find the following easily accessible: The Spiritual Life, A. Tanquerey, Society of St. John the Evangelist; Growth in Holiness, Fr. Faber (Ch. xviii); The Graces of Prayer, Poulain, Kegan Paul, London; Spiritual Director and Physician, V. Raymond, O.P.; Catholic Encyclopedia, Art. “Direction”; The Degrees of the Spiritual Life, Abbe Saudreau, London, Burns Oates; Christian Perfection and Contemplation, Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P.
Among other authors who have treated of Spiritual Direction: Cassian, Conferences, C, II, 1–13; St. Gregory the Great; St. Bernard; St. Bonaventure; St. Vincent Ferrer; St. John Climacus, Ladder of Paradise, 4th Deg., 5–12; St. Theresa of Avila, especially in her Autobiography; St. John of the Cross, Ascent of Mount Carmel.
La Direction Spirituelle, Ven. Libermann, Oeuvre de Saint Paul, Paris; L’Esprit d’un Directeur des âmes, M. Olier, Poussielgue, Paris; La Charité Sacerdotale, P. Desurmount, Paris, Sainte-Famille; The various works of Fr. Timon-David, see page 55; La pratique progressive de la confession et de la direction, Fr. Saudreau, and other works on moral and religious formation, Paris, Lib., Saint Paul; Direction des Enfants, Simon, Paris, Téqui: Pratique de l’Education, Monfat, Paris, Téqui; L’Educateur Apôtre Guibert, Gigord, Paris.
Also: L’Ascétisme Chrétien, Ribet. Paris, Poussielgue; works of Fr. Meynard, O.P., and of Mgr. Gay; L’Ideal de l’âme fervente, La Voie qui mène a Dieu. Manuel de Spiritualité, by Saudreau; Principes de la Vie Spirituelle, Fr. Schryvers, C.SS.R., Brussels, De Vit; St. François de Sales Directeur d’âmes, F. Vincent; Direction de Conscience, Agnel et Espiney; Lacordaire apôtre et directeur de jeunes gens, H. Noble, O.P.; Traité de l’obéissance, Tronson, Pt. II., Praxis Theol. Mysticae. Lib. viii, c.1., Godinez; Instit. Theol. Myst., Pt. II, c.i., Nos. 327–353, Schram; also the works of Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., incl. Les Trois Ages de la Vie Interieure.
In short, a serious study of Fr. Desurmont’s Charité Sacerdotale, of Lagrange’s Christian Perfection and Contemplation, or Sandreau’s Degree of the Spiritual Life, will . . . [sentence is incomplete in the orginal].
This compendium will not only facilitate the diagnosis and classification of souls but will also give precise information on the methods suggested to help souls in every state to launch out into the deep, and strive after serious progress.
Every soul is a world by itself. It has its own shades of difference. Still, as an ordinary rule, we may classify Christians in various groups. We have thought fit to attempt such a classification here below, testing souls on one hand by sin and imperfection, and on the other by their degree of prayer. Let us hope that this classification may lead some of our respected confreres to think over the necessity of studying these things, in order to learn the practical rules for directing each soul according to its state.
In the first two categories, the priest may not be able to work directly upon the souls in question but if he is a good director he will be able to give much more effective guidance to those relatives and friends who have set their hearts on winning back these dear ones, even though they may be hardened in sin, before they are entirely rejected by God.
1. Hardened in Sin
Mortal sin. Stubborn persistence in sin, either out of ignorance or because of a maliciously warped conscience.
Prayer. Deliberate refusal to have any recourse to God.
2. Surface Christianity
Mortal sin. Considered as a trifling evil, easily forgiven. The soul easily gives way and commits mortal sin at every possible occasion or temptation.—Confession almost without contrition.
Prayer. Mechanical; either inattentive, or always dictated by temporal interest. Such souls enter into themselves very rarely and superficially.
3. Mediocre Piety
Mortal sin. Weak resistance. Hardly ever avoids occasions but seriously regrets having sinned, and makes good confessions.
Venial sin. Complete acceptance of this sin, which is considered as insignificant. Hence, tepidity of the will. Does nothing whatever to prevent venial sin, or to extirpate it, or to find it out when it is concealed.
Prayer. From time to time, prays well. Momentary fits of fervor.
4. Intermittent Piety
Mortal sin. Loyal resistance. Habitually avoids occasion. Deep regrets. Does penance to make reparation.
Venial sin. Sometimes deliberate. Puts up a weak fight. Sorrow only superficial. Makes a particular examination of conscience, but without any method or coherence.
Prayer. Not firmly resolved to remain faithful to meditation. Gives it up as soon as dryness is felt, or as soon as there is business to attend to.
5. Sustained Piety
Mortal sin. Never. At most very rare, when taken suddenly and violently by surprise. And then, often it is to be doubted if the sin is mortal. It is followed by ardent compunction and penance.
Venial sin. Vigilant in avoiding and fighting it. Rarely deliberate. Keen sorrow, but does little by way of reparation. Consistent particular examen, but aiming only at avoidance of venial sin.
Imperfections. The soul either avoids uncovering them, so as not to have to fight them, or else easily excuses them. Approves the thought of renouncing them, and would like to do so, but makes little effort in that direction.
Prayer. Always faithful to prayer, no matter what happens. Often affective. Alternating consolations and dryness, the latter endured with considerable hardship.
6. Fervor
Venial sin. Never deliberate. By surprise, sometimes, or with imperfect advertence. Keenly regretted, and serious reparation made.
Imperfections. Wants nothing to do with them. Watches over them, fights them with courage, in order to be more pleasing to God. Sometimes accepted, however, but regretted at once. Frequent acts of renunciation. Particular examen aims at perfection in a given virtue.
Prayer. Mental prayer gladly prolonged. Prayer on the affective side, or even prayer of simplicity. Alternation between powerful consolations and fierce trials.
7. Relative Perfection
Imperfections. Guards against them energetically and with much love. They only happen with halfadvertence.
Prayer. Habitual life of prayer, even when occupied in external works. Thirst for self-renunciation, annihilation, detachment, and divine love. Hunger for the Eucharist and for Heaven. Graces of infused prayer, of different degree. Often passive purification.
8. Heroic Perfection
Imperfections. Nothing but the first impulse.
Prayer. Supernatural graces of contemplation, sometimes accompanied by extraordinary phenomena. Pronounced passive purifications. Contempt of self to the point of complete self-forgetfulness. Prefers suffering to joys.
9. Complete Sanctity
Imperfections. Hardly apparent.
Prayer. Usually, transforming union. Spiritual marriage. Purifications by love. Ardent thirst for sufferings and humiliations.
Few and far between are the souls that belong to the last two, even to the last three categories. Nor is it hard to understand that a priest will wait until he actually comes across such a penitent before making a study of what the best authors have to say, in order that his direction may then be prudent and safe.
But is there any excuse for a confessor who should prove too lazy to learn and to apply what is proper to the four classes of mediocre piety, intermittent piety, sustained piety, and fervor, and for that cause allow souls to moulder in their ghastly tepidity or to come to a standstill far below the degree of the interior life destined for them by God?
As for the points to be taken up in the direction of beginners in piety, one might reduce them, as a general rule, to the four following:
1. PEACE.
Find out if the soul has genuine peace, not simply the peace which the world gives, or the peace that results from absence of struggle. If it has none, try to give the soul a relative peace, in spite of all its difficulties. This is the foundation of all direction. Calmness, recollection, and confidence also come in here.
2. A HIGH IDEAL.
As soon as you have collected enough material to classify the soul and to recognize its weak points, as well as its strength of character and temperament and its degree of striving for perfection, find out the best means of reviving its desire to live more seriously for Jesus Christ and of breaking down the obstacles which hinder the development of grace in it. In a word, what we want here is to get the soul to aim higher and higher all the time: always excelsior.
3. PRAYER.
Find out how the soul prays, and in particular, analyze its degree of fidelity to mental prayer, its method of mental prayer, the obstacles met with, and the profit drawn from it. What value does it get out of the Sacraments, the liturgical life, particular devotions, ejaculatory prayers, and the practice of the presence of God?
4. SELF-DENIAL.
Find out on what point, and especially how the particular examen is made, and in what manner self-denial is practiced, whether through hatred of sin or love of God. How well is custody of the heart kept: in other words, what amount of vigilance is there in the spiritual combat, and in preserving the spirit of prayer throughout the day?
All the essentials of direction come down to these four points. Take all four, if you will, as the basis for a monthly examination, or confine yourself to one at a time if you do not wish to take too long.
In this way the priest will paralyze the deathgerms in the soul and revive the elements of life, and in his zeal he will come to have a passion for the exercise of this supreme art, and the Holy Ghost, whose faithful minister he is, will not be sparing in dispensing those unutterable consolations which make up, here below, one of the great joys of the priesthood. He will pour them out upon him in proportion to his devotion in applying to souls the principles he has studied. Did anyone ever taste the joys of the apostolate more than St. Paul? Yet, on the other hand, what a burning fire had to consume him to make him write: “For three years I ceased not with tears to admonish every one of you night and day.”
Per triennium nocte et die non cessavi cum lacrymis monens unumquemque vestrum (Acts 20:31).
Once I heard a prelate address the following admiring and grateful words to a doctor who had fought hard to pull him through the crisis of a mortal illness, and who was now rapidly restoring strength to his body:
“My dear doctor, I know that your son is going to be a priest. If he and his confreres, when the time comes for them to take care of souls, model themselves upon your devotion and professional conscientiousness in diagnosing sicknesses and in prescribing remedies and a diet to bring the sick man back to vigorous health, then neither Jews nor Freemasons nor Protestants will be able to prevent the triumph of the faith among us.”
Apply your knowledge: be devoted to duty, and you will receive the blessing of God. Of this there can be no doubt.
And yet, take these two factors, and see what superhuman power they acquire when the priest who uses them is one of those to whom the priesthood is incomprehensible unless it means progress towards sanctity.
What holy revolution would sweep the world if in every parish, in every mission, for every community, and at the head of every Catholic group there was a real director of souls! Then, indeed, even in institutions where mediocre subjects have to be retained (such as orphanages, asylums, and homes) you would always find the whole program of activities based on this principle of the formation of a select group, isolated as far as possible from the ordinary run of the members, until such time as they can be trained to exercise a discreet but fervent apostolate upon the rest!
Anyone who wants to compare various Catholic enterprises in terms of the results that Christ expects from them, will be forced to come to the conclusion that wherever there is a center of genuine spiritual direction, there is no need of those wonderful “crutches” for rapid and easy progress to be made. Yet at the same time, you can take all the most fashionable “crutches” at once, and use them all in the same enterprise at the same time, and you will never be able to do anything but thinly disguise the lack of direction, without ever diminishing the crying need for it.
The more zealous priests become in perfecting themselves in the art of spiritual direction, and in devoting themselves to it, the more will they realize how unnecessary are certain exterior means which might, it is true, have some use to begin with, in establishing contact with the faithful, and drawing them in, grouping them, arousing their interest, holding on to them, and keeping them under the influence of the Church. But the Church, faithful to her true end, will never be fully satisfied until souls are intimately incorporated into Jesus Christ.
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