shall have to start entirely upon our own basis. This is perhaps the
best of all, all things considered. . . . Such a movement has from
the beginning seemed to me _the one to which Divine Providence calls
us,_ but I always felt timid as long as any door was left open for us
to act in the Congregation. . . . I feel prepared to take this step
with you without hesitation and with great confidence, . . . I should
have been glad, as soon as my dismission was given, to have started
on in such a movement. But then it was my first duty to see whether
this work could not be accomplished by the Congregation (of the Most
Holy Redeemer); and, besides, I was not sure, as I now am, of your
views being the same as mine . . . all indicates the will of Divine
Providence in our regard and gives me confidence. . . .

"Father Hewit's letter, confirming your readiness to share your
fortunes with me, was most consoling and strengthening. God knows we
seek only His interest and glory and are ready to suffer anything
rather than offend Him. . . .

"We should take our present missions as the basis of our unity and
activity; at the same time not be exclusively restricted to them, but
leave ourselves at liberty to adapt ourselves to the [religious]
wants which may present themselves in our country. Were the question
presented to me to restrict myself exclusively to missions, in that
case I should feel in conscience bound to obtain from holy men a
decision on the question whether God had not pointed out another
field for me. . . . Taking our missions and our present mode of life
as the groundwork, the rest will have to be left to Divine
Providence, the character of the country, and our own spirit of faith
and good common sense."

In the same letter, that of December 25, he hopes that if the Holy
See separates them from old affiliations they will form a society
"which would embody in its life what is good in the American people
in the natural order and adapt itself to answer the great wants of
our people in the spiritual order. I must confess to you frankly that
thoughts of this kind do occupy my mind, and day by day they appear
to me to come more clearly from heaven. I cannot refuse to entertain
them without resisting what appear to me the inspirations of God. You
know that these are not new opinions hastily adopted. From the
beginning of my Catholic life there seemed always before me, but not
distinctly, some such work, and it is indicated both in _Questions of
the Soul_ and _Aspirations of Nature._ And I cannot resist the
thought that my present peculiar position is or may be providential
to further some such undertaking. . . . It might be imagined that
these views were but a ruse of the devil to thwart our common cause
and future prospects. To this I have only to answer that the old
rascal has been a long time at work to reach this point. If it be he,
I shall head him off because all that regards my personal vocation I
shall submit to wise and holy men and obey what they tell me."

Father Hecker had his first audience with Pius IX., after much delay,
on December 22. "I felt," he said, in giving an account of it in
after years, "that my trouble in Rome was the great crisis in my
life. I had one way of telling that I was not like Martin Luther: in
my inmost soul I was ready entirely ready, to submit to the judgment
of the Church. They had made me out a rebel and a radical to the Holy
Father, and when I saw him alone, after the usual salutations, and
while on my knees, I said: 'Look at me, Holy Father; see, my
shoulders are broad. Lay on the stripes. I will bear them. All I want
is justice. I want you to judge my case. I will submit.' The Pope's
eyes flled with tears at these words, and his manner was very kind."
The rest of the interview is given in a letter: "The Pope bade me
rise and told me he was informed all about my affairs. Then he asked
what was my desire. I replied that he might have the goodness to
examine the purpose of my coming to Rome, 'since it regarded the
conversion of the American people, a work which the most intelligent
and pious Catholics have at heart, among others Dr. Ives, whom you
know.' 'Yes,' he said; 'has his wife become a Catholic?' I replied in
the affirmative. 'But what can I do?' he said; 'the affair is being
examined by Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of
Bishops and Regulars), and nothing can be done until he gives in his
report; then I will give my opinion and my decision.' 'Your decision,
most Holy Father, is God's decision, and whatever it may be willingly
and humbly will I submit to it.' While I was making this remark his
Holiness paid the greatest attention, and it seemed to satisfy and
please him. 'The American people,' he continued, 'are much engrossed
in worldly things and in the pursuit of wealth, and these are not
favorable to religion; it is not I who say so, but our Lord in the
Gospel.' 'The United States, your Holiness,' I replied, 'is in its
youth, and, like a young father of a family occupied in furnishing
his house, while this is going on he must be busy; but the American
people do not make money to hoard it, nor are they miserly.' 'No,
no,' he replied; 'they are willing to give when they possess riches.
The bishops tell me they are generous in aiding the building of
churches. You see,' he added, 'I know the bright side as well as the
dark side of the Americans; but in the United States there exists a
too unrestricted freedom, all the refugees and revolutionists gather
there and are in full liberty.' 'True, most Holy Father; but this has
a good side. Many of them, seeing in the United States that the
Church is self-subsisting and not necessarily connected with what
they call despotism, begin to regard it as a Divine institution and
return to her fold.' 'Yes,' he said, 'the Church is as much at home
in a republic as in a monarchy or aristocracy. But then, again, you
have the abolitionists and their opponents, who get each other by the
hair.' 'There is also the Catholic faith, Holy Father, which if once
known would act on these parties like oil upon troubled waters, and
our best-informed statesmen are becoming more and more convinced that
Catholicity is necessary to sustain our institutions, and enable our
young country to realize her great destiny. And allow me to add, most
Holy Father, that it would be an enterprise worthy of your glorious
pontificate to set on foot the measures necessary for the beginning
of the conversion of America.'

"On retiring he gave me his blessing, and repeated in a loud voice as
I kneeled, 'Bravo! Bravo!'"

"Pius IX.," said Father Hecker afterwards, "was a man of the largest
head, of still larger heart, moved more by his impulses than by his
judgment; but his impulses were great, noble, all-embracing."

It will not be out of place here to look more closely into Father
Hecker's conscience and study his motives. One might ask why he did
not simply submit to the infliction visited upon him by his superior
in the order, and humbly withdraw from notice till God should find a
way to vindicate him. But his case was not a personal one. He was in
Rome representing a body of priests and a public cause, and every
principle of duty and honor required an appeal to higher authority.
Nor was vindication the chief end in view, but rather freedom to
follow the dictates of the Holy Spirit in accordance with Catholic
traditions and wholly subject to the laws and usages of the Church.
Beyond securing exactly this he had no object whatever. On February
19, 1858, he thus wrote to his brother George:

"But there is no use of keeping back anything. My policy has all
along been to have no policy, but to be frank, truthful, and have no
fear. For my own part I will try my best to be true to the light and
grace given me, even though it reduces me to perfect insignificance.
I desire nothing upon earth except to labor for the good of our
Religion and our Country, and whatever may be the decision of our
affairs here, my aims cannot be defeated. I feel, indeed, quite
indifferent about the decision which may be given, so that they allow
us freedom."

As illustrating Father Hecker's supernatural motives and rectitude of
conscience the following extracts from letters to the Fathers will be
of interest. In September, when the arrow was yet in the wound, he
wrote:

"I have no feelings of resentment against any one of the actors [in
this matter]. On the contrary I could embrace them all with unfeigned
sentiments of love. God has been exceedingly good not to let me be
even tempted in this way."

Again, on December 5:

"Your repeated assurances of being united with me in our future fills
me with consolation and courage. We may well repeat the American
motto, 'United we stand, divided we fall.' Never did I find myself
more sustained by the grace of God. How often I have heard repeated
by acquaintances I have made here: 'Why, Father Hecker, you are the
happiest man in Rome!' Little do they know how many sleepless nights
I have passed, how deeply I have suffered within three months. But
isn't Almighty God good? It seems I never knew or felt before what it
is to be wholly devoted to Him."

On December 9, after a long exposition of the need of a new religious
missionary institute for America:

"Considering our past training, and many other advantages which we
possess, I cannot but believe that God will use us, provided that we
remain faithful to Him, united together as one man, and ready to make
any sacrifice for some such holy enterprise; and my daily prayer is
that the Holy Father may receive a special grace and inspiration to
welcome and bless such a proposition."

With his Christmas greetings he wrote: "From the start I have not
suffered myself to repose a moment when there was anything to be done
which promised help. Whatever may be the result of our affairs, this
consolation will be with me--I did my utmost, and everything just and
honorable, to deserve success. No one would believe how much I have
gone through at Rome, but I do it cheerfully, and sometimes gaily,
because I know it is the will of God."

On February 19, 1858: "The experience I have made here is worth more
than my weight in gold. If God intends to employ us in any important
work in the future, such an experience was absolutely necessary for
us. It is a novitiate on a large scale. I cannot thank God
sufficiently for my having made it thus far without incurring by my
conduct the displeasure or censure of any one."

And a week afterwards: "You should write often, for words of
sympathy, hope, encouragement are much to me now in these trials,
difficulties, and conflicts. In all my Catholic life I have not
experienced oppression and anxiety of mind in such a degree as I have
for these ten days past."

March 6: "So far from my devotion to religion being diminished by
recent events, it has, thank God, greatly increased; but many other
things have been changed in me. On many new points my intelligence
has been awakened; experience has dispelled much ignorance, and on
the whole I hope that my faith and heart have been more purified. If
God spares my life to return, I hope to come back more a man, a
better Catholic, and more entirely devoted to the work of God."

The following is from a copy of a letter to Father de Held dated
November 2: "One thing my trials have taught me, and this is the one
thing important--to love God more. It almost seems that I did not
know before what it is to love Him."

When it became evident that the Holy See would decide the case so as
to make it necessary for the Fathers to form a new society, Father
Hecker did not accept even this as a final indication of Providence
that external circumstances had made it possible for him to realize
his long-cherished dreams of an American apostolate; for he was at
liberty still to refuse. He redoubled his prayers. His pilgrimage to
the shrine of St. Alphonsus is already known to the reader; he caused
a novena of Masses to be said at the altar of Our Lady of Perpetual
Help in the Redemptorist Church in Rome; he said Mass himself at all
the great shrines, especially the Confession of St. Peter, the altar
of St. Ignatius and that of St. Philip Neri; he earnestly entreated
all his friends, old ones at home and new-found ones in Rome, to join
with him in his prayers for light.

He furthermore took measures to obtain the counsel of wise and holy
men. Every one whom he thought worthy of his confidence was asked for
an opinion. Finally he drew up a formal document, known in this
biography as the Roman Statement, and already familiar by reference
and quotation, and placed it in the hands of the three religious
whose names, in addition to those of Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop
Bedini, appear at the end of the extract we make from its original
draft. It opens with a summary of his conversion, entrance into
religion, and missionary life, and embraces a full enough statement
of the trouble with the General of the order--a matter of notoriety
at the time in the city of Rome. He then describes his own interior
aspirations and vocation to the apostolate in America, backing up the
authority of that inner voice with the external testimonials of
prelates and priests and laymen, whose letters had been procured by
the Propaganda as evidence in the case before the Congregation of
Bishops and Regulars.

"If God has called me," he continues, "to such a work, His providence
has in a singular way, since my arrival at Rome, opened the door for
me to undertake it. The object of my coming to Rome was to induce the
General to sustain and favor the extension of our missionary labors
in the United States. It was undertaken altogether for the good of
the order, in the general interests of religion, and in undoubted
good faith. Under false impressions of my purpose, my expulsion from
the Congregation was decreed three days after my arrival. This was
about three months ago, and it was the source of the deepest
affliction to me, and up to within a short time my greatest desire
was to re-enter the Congregation. At present it seems to me that
these things were permitted by Divine Providence in order to place me
in the position to undertake that mission which has never ceased to
occupy my thoughts."

After some description of the state of religion in America the
statement concludes:

"These [American non-Catholics] require an institution which shall
have their conversion to the Catholic faith as its principal aim,
which is free to develop itself according to the fresh wants which
may spring up, thus opening an attractive future to the religious
vocations of the Catholic young men of that country.

"Regarding, therefore, my early and extensive acquaintance among my
own people, politically, socially, religiously, with the knowledge of
their peculiar wants, with their errors also; and the way in which
God has led me and the graces given to me; and my interior
convictions and the experience acquired confirming them since my
Catholic life, and also my singular position at present--the
question, in conclusion, is to know from holy, instructed, and
experienced men in such matters whether or not there is sufficient
evidence of a special vocation from God for me to undertake now such
a work."

What follows is placed at the bottom of the last page of the
statement:

"EPIPHANY, 1858, ROME.

"This document I had translated into Italian, and I gave it to
Cardinal Barnabo, Archbishop Bedini, Father Francis, Passionist--my
director while in Rome--Father Gregorio, definitor, Carmelite, and
Father Druelle, of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, and each gave
a favorable answer."

Father Hecker often said that he was fully determined to forego the
entire matter, go back to the Redemptorists, or drift whithersoever
Providence might will, if a single one of the men whom he thus
consulted had failed to approve him, or had so much as expressed a
doubt. He had inquired who were the most spiritually enlightened men
in Rome, and had been guided to the three religious whom he had
associated with Cardinal Barnabo and Archbishop Bedini to assist him
in coming to a decision.

The end came at last, and is announced in a letter of March 9, 1858:

"The Pope has spoken, and the American Fathers, including myself,
are dispensed from their vows. The decree is not in my hands, but
Cardinal Barnabo read it to me last evening. The General is not
mentioned in it, and no attention whatever is paid to his action in
my regard. The other Fathers are dispensed in view of the petition
they made, as the demand for separation as Redemptorists would
destroy the unity of the Congregation, and in the dispensation I am
associated with them. The Cardinal [Barnabo] is wholly content; says
that I must ask immediately for an audience to thank the Pope. . . .
Now let us thank God for our success."

On March 11: "We are left in entire liberty to act in the future as
God and our intelligence shall point the way. Let us be thankful to
God, humble towards each other and every one else, and more than ever
in earnest to do the work God demands at our hands. . . . The Pope
had before him all the documents, yours and mine and the General's,
and the letters from the Archbishops and Bishops of the United
States. Archbishop Bizarri (Secretary of the Congregation of Bishops
and Regulars) gave him a verbal report of their contents and read
some of the letters. Subsequently the Pope himself examined them and
came to the conclusion to grant us dispensation. But there was I in
the way, who had not petitioned for a dispensation. And why not?
Simply because Cardinal Barnabo would have been offended at me if I
had done so. . . . I could not go against the wishes of the cardinal.
A few days after he had given me his views, and with such warmth that
I could not act against them, he saw the Pope, who informed him of
his intention to give us dispensation and to set aside the decree of
my expulsion. On seeing the cardinal after this audience he told me
that I might communicate this to Archbishop Bizarri. I did so by
note, telling him that if the Pope set aside my expulsion and was
determined to give the other American Fathers dispensation from their
vows, in view of the circumstances which had arisen I would be
content to accept my dispensation also. This note of mine was shown
to the Pope, and hence he immediately associated me with you in the
dispensation.

"The wording of the decree is such as to make it plain that it was
given in view of your memorial, and its terms are calculated to give
a favorable impression of us. . . . Archbishop Bizarri told me
yesterday, when I went to thank him for his part, that in it the Holy
See had given us its praise, and he trusted we would show ourselves
worthy of it in the future. I rejoined that since the commencement of
our Catholic life we had given ourselves soul and body entirely to
the increase of God's glory and the interests of His Church, and it
was our firm resolve to continue to do so to the end of our lives. He
was quite gratified with our contentment with the decision, for I
spoke, as I always have done, in your name as well as my own.

"But whom do you think I met in his antechamber? The General [of the
Redemptorists]. When he came in and got seated I immediately went
across the room and reached out my hand to him, and we shook hands
and sat down beside each other. . . . In the course of the
conversation he inquired what we intended to do in the future. My
reply was that we had been guided by God's providence in the past and
we looked to Him for guidance in our future. . . . As to my return
[home], the cardinal says I must not think of departing till after
Easter. Indeed, I see that before I can obtain an audience to thank
the Holy Father it will be hard on to Easter. If there be a few days
intervening I will go to Our Lady of Loretto to invoke her aid in our
behalf and for her protection over us as a body and over each one in
particular. In May, earlier or later in the month, with God's
blessing and your prayers, I hope to be with you.

"The decree, which places us, according to the Canons, under the
authority of the Bishops, you will, of course, understand, does not
in any way make us parish priests. The Pope could not tell us in it
to commence another congregation, although this is what he, and
Cardinal Barnabo, and Archbishop Bedini, and others, expect from us.
He [the Pope] said that for him to tell us so [officially] would be
putting the cart before the horse. These are his words."

On March 18: "It is customary here, before giving dispensation of
vows to religious, to require them to show their admission into a
diocese. As this was not required in our case, we are consequently at
liberty now to choose any bishop we please who will receive us.
'Choose your bishop, inform him of your intentions, and if he
approves, arrange your conditions with him.' These are the cardinal's
words, and both he and Archbishop Bedini suggested New York. . . . My
trip to Loretto has come to naught, as I can find no one to accompany
me, and then my health, I fear, will not bear so much fatigue, I
shall come back with some gray hairs; I thought to pull them all out
before my return, but on looking this morning with that intention I
found them _too many._ However, that is only on the outside; within
all is right--young, fresh, and full of courage, and ready to fight
the good fight."

The following is a memorandum of his second audience with Pius IX.:

"Yesterday, the 16th of March, the Pope accorded me an audience, and
on my entering his room he repeated my name, gave me his blessing,
and after I had kissed his ring he told me to rise, and said: 'At
length your affairs are determined. We have many causes to decide,
and each must have its turn; yours came finally, and now you have our
decision.' 'True,' I replied, 'and your decision gives me great
satisfaction, and it appears to me that it should be satisfactory to
all concerned.' 'I found you,' he rejoined, 'like Abraham and Lot,
and (making a motion with his hand) I told one to take this, the
other that direction.' 'For my part,' I said, 'I look upon the
decision as providential, as I sought no personal triumph over the
General, but entertain every sentiment of charity towards him, and
every one of my former religious brethren.' This remark appeared to
move the Pope, and I continued: 'I thought of your Holiness' decision
in the holy Mass of this morning, when in the Gospel our Lord reminds
us not to decide according to the appearances of things, but render a
just judgment; and such is the one you have given, and for our part
we trust that you will receive in the future consolation and joy
[from our conduct].' 'As you petitioned,' he said, 'with the other
Fathers as one of the Congregation, in giving you dispensation I
considered you a member of the Congregation.' 'So I understood it,'
was my reply; 'and as a [private] person I felt no inclination to
defend my character, but as a priest I felt it to be my duty; and in
this regard your Holiness has done all that I have desired.' 'But you
intend to remain,' he inquired, 'together in community?' 'Most
assuredly, your Holiness; our intention is to live and work as we
have hitherto done. But there are many [spiritual] privileges
attached to the work of the missions very necessary to their success,
and which we would gladly participate in.' 'Well, well,' he answered,
'organize, begin your work, and then demand them, and I will grant
them to you. The Americans, however, are very much engrossed in
material pursuits.' 'True, Holy Father,' I replied, 'but the faith is
there. We five missionaries are Americans, and were like the others,
but you see the grace of God has withdrawn us from these things and
moved us to consecrate ourselves wholly to God and His Church, and we
hope it will do the same for many of our countrymen. And once our
countrymen are Catholics, we hope they will do great things for God's
Church and His glory, for they have enthusiasm.' 'Yes, yes,' he
rejoined, 'it would be a great consolation to me.' I asked him if he
would grant me a plenary indulgence for my brethren and my friends in
the United States. 'Well,' he said, 'but I must have a rescript.' 'I
have one with me which perhaps will do,' I answered. Looking over it,
he made some alterations and signed it. I knelt down at his feet and
begged him to give me a large blessing before my departure, in order
that I might become a great missionary in the United States--which he
gave me most cordially, and I retired.

"His manner was very affectionate, and in the course of the
conversation he called me _'caro mio'_ and _'figlio mio'_ several
times. We could not desire to leave a more favorable impression than
exists here in regard to us and our part in the recent transaction,
and we have the sympathy of the Pope and the Propaganda. Rome will
withhold nothing from us if we prove worthy of its confidence, and
will hail our success with true joy. I look upon this settlement of
our difficulties as the work of Divine Providence, and my prayer is
that it may make me humble, modest, and renew my desire to consecrate
myself wholly to God's designs."

He writes to the Fathers, March 27: "The seven months passed here in
Rome seem to me an age; and have taxed me to that extent that I look
forward to home as a place of rest and repose. When I think of the
fears, anxieties, and labors undergone I say to myself--enough for
this time. On the other hand, when I remember the warm and
disinterested friends God has given us on account of these
difficulties, and the happy issue to which His providence has
conducted them, my heart is full of gratitude and joy. To me the
future looks bright, hopeful, full of promise, and I feel confident
in God's providence, and assured of His grace in our regard. I feel
like raising up the cross as our standard and adopting one word as
our motto--CONQUER!

"I have just received the documents for you to give the Papal
benediction at the missions, and will send them. A letter reached
here this week from the Bishop of Burlington, Vt., and it is strongly
in our favor; it concludes by saying that all that we required to
make us a religious Congregation was the special blessing of the Holy
Father."

Again, on April 3: "Monsignor Bedini asked of the Pope the special
benediction that Bishop De Goesbriand suggested, and he replied: 'Did
I not give it to Père Hecker, and through him to his brethren, when
he was here?' 'But,' answered Monsignor Bedini, 'give them this
benediction this time on the request of the bishop.' And he answered:
'It is well; I do.' So there is a special blessing from the Holy
Father in view of our forming a religious body. Indeed, that is so
well understood here that several have inquired what name we intend
to adopt, etc. Of course to all such questions my answer is: 'I can
say nothing; the future is in God's hands, and we intend to follow
His providence.' . . .

"Good Cardinal Barnabo looks upon us with a paternal regard, and when
I expressed in your name how warmly we returned his affection, and
what a deep gratitude we owed him, he was deeply moved, and replied
that he did not deserve such sentiments, and that he had only done
justice. Since the settlement of our affairs I have let no occasion
pass to express our gratitude to those who have befriended us; and as
for Cardinal Barnabo, Monsignor Bedini, Bishop Connolly, and Doctor
Bernard Smith, Benedictine monk, they should be put at the head of
the list of our spiritual benefactors and remembered in all our
prayers. Now that we are a body, I would advise this to be done at
once. The Holy Father stands No. 1; that is understood.

"How much I have to relate to you on my return! Many things I did not
venture to write down on paper, and many I can communicate to no one
else but you. How great is my desire to see you!--it seems that I
have no other.

"I have taken passage for Marseilles on Tuesday after Easter, the 6th
of April, and intend to take passage on the _Vanderbilt,_ which
leaves Havre on the 28th. . . . I saw the General on Tuesday of this
week, to take leave of him. After some conversation we left in good
feeling, promising to pray _pro invicem._ God bless him!"

Before leaving Paris Father Hecker received extremely affectionate
letters of congratulation from his old friends, Fathers de Held and
de Buggenoms.

The following is the decree of the Congregation of Bishops and
Regulars:

"Certain priests of the Congregation of the Most Holy Redeemer in the
United States of North America recently presented their most humble
petition to our Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX., that in view of certain
special reasons he would grant that they might be withdrawn from the
authority and jurisdiction of the Rector Major and be governed by a
superior of their own, immediately subject to the Apostolic See, and
according to the [Redemptorist] Rule approved by Benedict XIV., of
holy memory. If, however, this should not be granted to them, they
most humbly asked for dispensation from their vows in the said
Congregation. After having carefully considered the matter, it
appeared to his Holiness that a separation of this kind would be
prejudicial to the unity of the Congregation and by no means accord
with the Institute of St. Alphonsus, and therefore should not be
permitted. Since, however, it was represented to his Holiness that
the petitioners spare no labor in the prosecution of the holy
missions, in the conversion of souls, and in the dissemination of
Christian doctrine, and are for this reason commended by many
bishops, it seemed more expedient to his Holiness to withdraw them
from the said Congregation, that they might apply themselves to the
prosecution of the works of the sacred ministry under the direction
of the local bishops. Wherefore his Holiness by the tenor of this
decree, and by his Apostolic authority, does dispense from their
simple vows and from that of permanence in the Congregation the said
priests, viz.: Clarence Walworth, Augustine Hewit, George Deshon, and
Francis Baker, together with the priest Isaac Hecker, who has joined
himself to their petition in respect to dispensation from the vows,
and declares them to be dispensed and entirely released, so that they
no longer belong to the said Congregation. And his Holiness
confidently trusts that under the direction and jurisdiction of the
local bishops, according to the prescription of the sacred Canons,
the above-mentioned priests will labor by work, example, and word in
the vineyard of the Lord, and give themselves with alacrity to the
eternal salvation of souls, and promote with all their power the
sanctification of their neighbor.

"Given at Rome, in the office of the Sacred Congregation of Bishops
and Regulars, the 6th day of March, 1858.

"[L. S.] G. CARDINAL DELLA GENGA, Prefect.

"A., ARCHBISHOP OF PHILIPPI, Secretary."*

[* Nuper nonnulli ex Presbyteris Congregationis SSmi Redemptoris in
provinciis Americæ Septentrionalis foederatis existentibus SSmum D.
N. Pium PP. IX., supplici prece deprecabantur, ut eis ob speciales
circumstantias concederet ab auctoritate et jurisdictione Rectoris
Majoris subtrahi, ac a proprio Superiore Apostolicæ Sedi immediate
subjecto juxta regulam a Benedicto XIV., sanctæ memoriæ, approbatam
gubernari. Quod ad id eis datum non esset, dispensationem a votis in
dicta Congregatione emissis, humillime expostulabant. Re sedulo
perpensa, Sanctitas Sua existimavit hujusmodi separationem unitati
Congregationis officere, et S. Alphonsi instituto minime respondere
ideoque haud permittendum esse. Cum autem relatum sit oratores nulli
labore parcere in sacris expeditionibus peragendis, et in proximorum
conversione, Christianaque institutione curanda, et idcirco a
pluribus Antistibus commendentur, visum est SSmo Domino magis
expedire eos a præfata Congregatione eximi, ut in sacri ministerii
opera promovenda sub directione Antistitum locorum incumbere possint.
Quapropter Sanctitas Sua presbyteros Clarentium Walworth, Augustinum
Hewit, Georgium Deshon, et Franciscum Baker, una cum presbytero Isaac
Hecker, qui eorumdem postulationibus quoad dispensationem a votis
adhæsit, a votis simplicibus, etiam permanentiæ in Congregatione SSmi
Redemptoris emissis, hujus Decreti tenore, Apostolica auctoritate
dispensat, et dispensatos, ac prorsus solutos esse declarat, ita ut
ad eamdem Congregationem amplius non pertineant. Confidit vero
Sanctitas Sua memoratos Presbyteros, qua opere, qua exemplo, qua
sermone, in vinea Domini sub directione et jurisdictione Antistitum
locorum, ad præscriptum SS. Canonum adlaboraturos, ut æternam
animarum salutem alacriter curent, atque proximorum sanctificationem
pro viribus promoveant.

Datum Romæ, ex Secretaria Sacræ Congregationis Episcoporum et
Regularium, Die 6 Martii, 1858.

[L. + S.] G. CARDINAL DELLA GENGA, Præf.

A., ARCHIEPISCOPUS PHILIPPEN, Sec.]

NOTE.--I wish to add to this, that the relations between the
Redemptorists and Paulists are, and I trust will continue to be, most
amicable.

AUG. F. HEWIT, C.S.P., Superior.

________________________

CHAPTER XXV

BEGINNINGS OF THE PAULIST COMMUNITY

DURING the seven months of Father Hecker's stay in Rome the band of
American missionaries were busily occupied. Missions were given in
the following order: Newark, N.J.; Poughkeepsie, Cold Spring on the
Hudson, and Utica, N.Y.; Brandywine, Del.; Trenton, N.J.; Burlington,
Brandon, East and West Rutland, Vt., and Plattsburgh, Saratoga, and
Little Falls, N.Y. All these labors were undertaken subject to the
authority of the Redemptorist Provincial and in a spirit of entire
obedience. The mission at Little Falls closed on Palm Sunday, March
28, and the missionaries, with the exception of Father Baker, who was
sent to Annapolis, Md., returned to the Redemptorist house in Third
Street, New York. On the Tuesday after Easter, April 6, 1858, the
official copy of the Pope's decision reached them, and they bade
farewell to their Redemptorist brethren and to the community in which
they had spent so many happy years, and witnessed, as Father Hewit
has written, "so many edifying examples of high virtue and devoted
zeal, to enter upon a new and untried undertaking."

Archbishop Kenrick, as soon as he heard of this, made a determined
effort to secure Father Baker for the diocese of Baltimore, but the
latter never for a moment faltered in his purpose to cast his lot
with his brethren, and the archbishop gave up his claim upon him at
the request of Cardinal Barnabo.

Their engagements called for two more missions before the season
ended--one at Watertown, N.Y., and the other at St. Bridget's Church,
New York City. The first of these opened on the 18th of April, and
while waiting for that date the Fathers lived with Mr. George Hecker
in Rutger's Place, saying Mass in his private chapel and following
their religious rule as far as circumstances allowed, continuing
meantime to obey Father Walworth, their former superior of the
missions. They journeyed to Watertown, fearful lest the faculties for
giving the Papal blessing and the mission indulgences should not
arrive there in time. But late on Saturday night, April 19, they were
received, much to the joy of the Fathers.

Here occurred a noteworthy coincidence. Watertown was at that time in
the diocese of Albany, of which Bishop McCloskey was then the
ordinary. He had received Father Hecker into the Church and had been
his first guide in the spiritual life, and now he was the first to
publicly welcome his brethren at the beginning of their new career.
The following is from a letter of his to Father Walworth in answer to
one announcing the recent changes:

"I am happy to hear that your difficulties have at length received
their solution, and in a manner, I presume, as satisfactory as you
could well expect. The future must now in great measure depend upon
yourselves. You will, of course, have difficulties to surmount and
prejudices to encounter, but I trust that with God's blessing your
new community when once organized will continue from day to day to
gain increased stability and strength, and be enabled to carry out
successfully all its laudable aims for the good of our holy religion.
The faculties already given you in this diocese you will not consider
as being withdrawn by the act of your separation from the
Redemptorist order, and there is nothing that I know of to interfere
with your proposed mission in Watertown."

During the mission at St. Bridget's--that is, in the first half of
the month of May--Father Hecker arrived in New York and measures were
at once taken for the practical organization of the new community.
Nothing was done hurriedly; a fair and full consideration of all
questions from every point of view, which lasted until early in the
month of July, enabled each one clearly to understand his new
relation in its every aspect. Father Walworth not being entirely in
agreement with the others, withdrew to the diocese of Albany and took
charge of a parish; he returned again in 1861, remaining with the
community till 1865, when his health becoming quite shattered, he
reluctantly decided to withdraw altogether. It need hardly be said
that the relations between him and the community have always been
most cordial. Meantime the others, Fathers Hecker, Hewit, Deshon, and
Baker, organized by electing the first-named the Superior, and drew
up and signed what was termed a Programme of Rule. This was submitted
to Archbishop Hughes and by him approved and signed on July 7, 1858.
The Apostle of the Gentiles was chosen as patron, and the name
selected was, The Missionary Priests of St. Paul the Apostle, which
has been popularized into Paulists. The habit agreed upon was in form
somewhat like that of the students of the Propaganda in Rome, black
throughout, with a narrow linen collar and buttoned across the
breast, being held at the waist by a cincture.

The Programme of Rule adopts an order of spiritual exercises similar
to that observed by the Fathers while Redemptorists. A perpetual
voluntary agreement takes the place of the vows as the security of
stability, the members affirming that they are fully determined to
promote their sanctification by leading a life in all essential
respects similar to that led in the religious orders. Besides the
chastity imposed upon them by the priesthood the other evangelical
counsels of obedience and poverty are adopted and their observance
enjoined upon the members, together with the daily and periodical
exercises of community life. As to the external vocation, the
missions are named as the basis of general apostolic labors, and
parish work also, though in a subordinate degree. The entire document
looks forward to a complete Rule to be drawn up and submitted to the
Holy See at a future day, for which it actually furnished the
outlines some twenty years afterwards. The approval of the Programme
of a Rule by the Archbishop of New York gave the Fathers the
canonical status anticipated by the decree _Nuper nonnulli._ This was
confirmed by an official permission of the Holy See to the Archbishop
of New York to establish the Paulist Institute in his diocese, with
the consent of his suffragans, which was asked for and obtained.

A little more than a fortnight after these events Father Hecker wrote
as follows to a friend:

"Before leaving Rome our Holy Father Pius IX. gave us his special
blessing for the commencement of our new organization, promised us
any privileges we might need to carry on our missionary labors, and
held out the hope of his sanction, in proper time, of the rules which
we might make. In my last visit to his Eminence Cardinal Barnabo he
gave me advice how to organize, what steps were to be taken from time
to time, and expressed a most lively interest in our undertaking. The
same did Monsignor Bedini. On my return we organized as advised,
wrote out an outline of our new institution and submitted it to the
ordinary of this diocese, the initiatory step of all such
undertakings. He gave it his cordial approbation, and said that he
found no word to alter, to add, or improve. Thus we are so far
regularly canonically instituted.

"Our aim is to lead a strict religious life in community, starting
with the voluntary principle; leaving the question of vows to further
experience, counsel, and indications of Divine Providence. Our
principal work is the missions, such as we have hitherto given, but
we are not excluded from other apostolic labors as the wants of the
Church may demand or develop. . . . We begin early this fall our
campaign of missions, and we never had before us so fine a list. One
thing I may say, and I trust without boasting, we are of one mind and
heart, resolved to labor and die for Jesus Christ, for the good of
His holy Church, for the advancement of the Catholic faith. We have
the encouragement of a number of bishops, and also, we trust, the
prayers, sympathy, and assistance of the faithful. We shall have to
face obstacles, opposition from friends and foes; but if we are the
right kind of men and have the virtues which such a position as ours
demands, our trials will only strengthen us and make us the better
Christians. Every good work must expect opposition from pious men,
and our minds are made up to that."

After St. Bridget's mission the little community found itself
homeless, and it remained so till the spring of the year 1859. But
during part of this period Mr. George Hecker, taking his family to
the country, gave up his whole house to the Fathers, servants and
all, making provision for the supply of every want in the most
generous manner. For the greater portion of the time, however,
especially between missions in the winter and spring of 1858-9, the
Fathers depended for temporary shelter upon the hospitality of
friends among the clergy and laity, even lodging for a short while in
a respectable boarding-house in Thirteenth street, at a convenient
distance from several churches and chapels where Mass could be said
daily.

But in the spring of 1858 arrangements had been made with Archbishop
Hughes for establishing a house and parish in New York. The present
site of St. Paul's Church and convent, then in the midst of a
suburban wilderness, was chosen, and, by dint of hasty collections
from private friends and with the help of a very large gift from Mr.
George Hecker, money enough was paid down to obtain the deeds.
Sixtieth Street was not quite opened at the time, and this part of
Ninth Avenue existed only on paper; but by energetic efforts made by
all the Fathers and their friends, and by personal appeals in every
direction, especially in the down-town parishes in which they had
given missions, sufficient funds were raised to clear the ground and
lay the foundations of a building which was to include both convent
and church. Early in the summer of 1858 circulars asking assistance
had been sent out to the clergy of the United States, and by this
means also a considerable amount was secured, the very first answer
with a handsome donation coming from Father Early, President of
Georgetown College. In the spring of 1859 the Fathers rented a frame
house on Sixtieth Street, just west of Broadway, fitted up a little
chapel in it, and lived there in community till the new house was
finished.

The corner-stone of the new structure was laid by Archbishop Hughes
on Trinity Sunday, June 19, 1859, in the presence of an immense
concourse of people. During that summer and fall every effort was
made to keep the builders at work. The task was no easy one. The
times were hard, the country still suffering from the effects of the
financial crisis of 1857, the financial depression being aggravated
by the ominous outlook in the political world. But the house was
finally completed, and was blessed by Father Hecker on the 24th of
November, the feast of St. John of the Cross, one of his very special
patrons. This was within a few weeks of his fortieth birthday. On the
27th of the same month, the first Sunday of Advent, the chapel was
blessed and Solemn Mass was celebrated in it. Thereafter the Fathers
had to act as parish priests as well as missionaries. A few weeks
before this the first recruit joined the little band in the person of
Father Robert Beverly Tillotson, a convert, who, though an American,
had been for some time a member of Dr. Newman's Oratory. He was a
charming preacher and a noble character, much beloved by all the
fathers, and especially by Father Hecker. He died, deeply mourned, in
the summer of 1868, having given the community nine years of most
valuable service. He came just in time to set free three of the
Fathers for missionary duty, the other two remaining in care of the
parish. This was at first small enough in numbers, though in
territory it reached from Fifty-second Street to very near
Manhattanville. The accession of Father Alfred Young, of the diocese
of Newark, and the return of Father Walworth considerably relieved
the pressure, though the rapid growth of the parish and the widening
scope of the community's labors kept every one busy enough.

The newly-founded Paulist community was heartily welcomed by both
clergy and people. Missions were given in various parts of the
country, applications being often declined for want of time and
missionaries. Several prelates, among whom were the Archbishops of
Baltimore and Cincinnati, wrote to Father Hecker offering to
establish the community in their dioceses; Bishop Bayley, of Newark,
also wished to secure the Fathers, and he was especially urgent in
his request. One has but to know the intensely conservative spirit of
the Catholic hierarchy and clergy to appreciate how stainless must
have been the record of the Fathers to elicit such testimonials of
good-will just after they had fought a hard battle on the ground of
authority and obedience. As to the Catholic laity, the following
extract from a letter of the poet George H. Miles, whose early death
some years after was so deeply lamented, shows how they regarded the
new community. It was written from Baltimore under date of August 13,
1858:

"MY VERY DEAR FATHER HECKER: . . . Since we last parted you have been
to me one of those grand, good memories we take to heart and cherish.
I have loved you better than you could believe, for I felt that in
the extremity of sorrow or temptation you were the man and the priest
I would have recourse to, could my own wish be granted. You are not
wrong in considering me a friend; that is, if much love may atone for
little power to befriend. . . . _Providentially,_ it now appears, you
men have always had an individual force that detached you completely
from your _confrères._ To me and to the multitudes you were never
Redemptorists, never Liguorians, but Hecker, Walworth, Hewit, Deshon,
Baker. I mean to utter nothing disrespectful to the society which has
blessed this nation in training and developing you and your new body
of preachers, but I maintain that you stood so completely apart from
that society, so absolutely individualized, that, etc."

The three years following Father Hecker's return from Rome were
exceedingly active ones. The missions were maintained, money
collected for the purchase of the property and the building of the
convent at the corner of Fifty-ninth Street and Ninth Avenue, and,
after the opening of the new church in November, 1859, the regular
duties of a city parish were added.

"I am hard at work," writes Father Hecker to a friend, in the very
midst of these labors, "in soliciting subscriptions for our convent
and temporary church. I have worked hard in my life, but this is
about the hardest. However, it goes. I had, a couple of weeks ago, a
donation of $200 from a Protestant. Yesterday a subscription of $90
from another. _Sursum Corda_ and go ahead, is my cry!" And, indeed,
he was full of courage and conscience in the future, all his letters
breathing a cheerful spirit.

Before giving Father Hecker's principles for community life, which we
will do in the next chapter, it may be well to say a few words more
about the attitude in which he and his companions had been placed, by
the action of the Holy See, toward the Catholic idea of authority.

Just as he was about to sail for America he wrote to his brother
George: "I return from Rome with my enthusiasm unchilled and my
resolution to labor for the conversion of our people intensified and
strengthened. I feel that the knowledge and experience which I have
acquired are most necessary for the American Fathers in their present
delicate position." And in truth his stay in Rome had prepared him
for the new responsibilities in store for him. His sufferings there
had purified his motives, his humiliations and his anguish had taught
him the need of reliance, total and loving, on Divine Providence. He
had studied authority in its chief seat, and he had done so with the
depth of impression which a man on trial for his life experiences of
the power of the advocates and the dignity of the judges. The result
of that trial was of infinite benefit. The test of genuine liberty is
its consonance with lawful authority, and in Father Hecker's case the
newest liberty had been roughly arraigned before the most venerable
authority known among men, tried by fire, and sent forth with Rome's
broad seal of approval.

Without doubt the chief endeavor of authority should be to win the
allegiance of free and aspiring spirits; but, on the other hand, no
one should be so firmly convinced of the rights of the external order
of God as the man who is called to minister to the aspirations of
human liberty.

No man ought to be so vividly conscious of the prerogatives of
authority as he who lays claim to a vocation to extol the worth of
liberty. It was, therefore, fitting that Father Hecker should learn
his lesson of the prerogatives of the visible Church from that
teacher who has no master among men. At the same time Rome sent forth
in the person of Father Hecker a living and powerful argument
addressed to this Republic, that the Catholic Church is worthy of the
heartiest allegiance of our citizens.

This providential aspect of the case should not be forgotten. When
Father Hecker had been expelled from the Redemptorists it might have
been thought that he was done for, and that if he had ever had a
mission it had suffered total shipwreck, whether deserved or not. But
in reality the very reverse was the truth. The disgrace of expulsion,
the sudden horror of being thus cast out, a calamity which set him
forth to all Catholics as a ruined priest, had but served to bring
him into the notice of the supreme authority of the Church. And when
in this God had wrought all His work His servant was purified within
and mightily strengthened without. In his inmost soul he was
conscious of his divine mission with a deeper certitude than ever
before; and as he began his apostolate he bore on his arm the buckler
of Rome, against which all the darts of enemies, if any should arise,
would strike harmless and fall to the ground.

It was fitting that the Paulist community, appealing to the men and
women of to-day with the credentials as well of their own individual
independence as of the good will of the Pope and the Bishops, should
be launched into existence from the very deck of Peter's bark, and
furnished with all the testimonials of ecclesiastical authority short
of canonical sanction. This was the more proper because, in a few
years after the beginning of the community, European revolutionists
were to be scourged with the Syllabus, whose every word agonized the
souls of unworthy advocates of liberty. That Pontifical document has
created a literature of its own in comment and explanation, some
tying more knots in every lash and others mitigating its severity or
palliating the errors it smote with such pitiless rigor. But the best
interpretation of the Syllabus is the Paulist community. It is a body
of free men whose origin was the joint result of the personal
workings of the Holy Spirit in the soul of a man who loved civil and
political freedom with a mighty love, and the decision of the highest
court of Catholicity declaring him worthy of trust as an exponent of
the Christian faith. If the Syllabus shows what the Church thinks of
those who in the guise of freemen are conspirators against religion
and public order, the approval of the Paulist community shows the
Church's attitude towards men worthy to be free.

Nor was Rome's course chosen without weighing the consequences,
without a full estimate of the public significance of the act. Father
Hecker's adversaries fixed upon him every stigma of radicalism and
rebellion possible in a good but deluded priest. For seven long
months they poured into ears which instinctively feared revolt in the
name of liberty, every accusation his doings and sayings could be
made to give color to, in order to prove that he and the American
Fathers were tainted with false liberalism. And he seemed to lend
himself to their purpose. His guileless tongue spoke to the
cardinals, prelates, and professors of Rome about nothing so much as
freedom, and its kinship with Catholicity. He seemed to have no
refuge but the disclosure of the very secrets of his soul. During
those months of incessant accusation and defence Father Hecker talked
Rome's high dignitaries into full knowledge of himself, until they
saw the cause mirrored in the man and gave approval to both. Some,
like Barnabo, were actuated by the quick sympathy of free natures;
others, like Pius IX., arrived at a decision by the slower processes
of the removal of prejudice from an honest mind, and the careful
comparing of Father Hecker's principles with the fundamental truths
of religion.

________________________

CHAPTER XXVI

FATHER HECKER'S IDEA OF A RELIGIOUS COMMUNITY

THE beginnings of the Paulist community having been sketched, it is
now in order to state the principles with which Father Hecker, guided
no less by supernatural intuition than by enlightened reason,
intended it should be inspired; and this shall be done as nearly as
possible in his own words. The following sentences, found in one of
his diaries and quoted some chapters back, embody what may be deemed
his ultimate principle:

"It is for this we are created: that we may give a new and individual
expression of the absolute in our own peculiar character. As soon as
the new is but the re-expression of the old, God ceases to live. Ever
the mystery is revealed in each new birth; so must it be to eternity.
The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of expressing itself."

What the new order of things was to be in the spiritual life could be
learned, Father Hecker held, by observing men's strivings after
natural good. The tendencies which shape men's efforts to secure
happiness in this world, in so far as they are innocent, indicated to
him what choice of means should be made to propagate the knowledge
and love of God. According to this, the most successful worker for a
people's sanctification will be kindred to them by conviction and by
sympathy in all that concerns their political and social life. Men's
aspirations in the natural order point out the highway of God's
representatives. As these aspirations change from era to era, so do
the main lines of religious effort change, the highways of one age
becoming the byways of another. It is true that no method for the
elevation of human nature to divine union, which the Church has
sanctioned, ever becomes quite obsolete, but the merest glance at the
differences between the spiritual characteristics of the martyrs, the
hermits, the monks, the friars, shows that one form of the Christian
virtues succeeds another in general possession of men's souls. The
new spirit, without crowding the old one off its beaten track,
follows men to the new ways whither the providence of God in the
natural order has led them. "First the natural man," says St. Paul,
"and then the spiritual." Different types of spirituality are brought
forward by Almighty God to sanctify men in new conditions of life.
Among the foremost of these are religious communities of men and
women. Hence their duty to adjust themselves, as far as faith and
discipline permit, to the circumstances of the times. The power of a
religious community for good will be measured by its ability to
elevate the natural to the supernatural without shocking it or
thwarting it.

Now, every one knows that this age differs materially from past ones.
It differs by a wider spread of education and an uncontrollable
longing after liberty, civil, political, and personal.

Father Hecker was penetrated with the belief that the intelligence
and liberty, whose well-ordered enjoyment he had witnessed in
America, and which he loved so deeply himself, were divine
invitations to the apostolate of the Holy Spirit. He was profoundly
impressed with the certainty of the development, the extension, and
the permanence of these political and social changes; and he knew
that they demanded of men a personal independence of character far in
advance of previous generations. And he knew, also, that for the
sanctification of such men the aids of religion, though not changed
in themselves, must be applied in a different spirit. Discipline and
uniformity, though never to be dispensed with, must yield the first
places to more interior virtues. The dominant influence must be
docility to the guidance of the Holy Spirit dwelling within every
regenerate soul. Applying this, towards the end of his life, to
religious communities, Father Hecker wrote: "The controlling thought
of my mind for many years has been that a body of free men who love
God with all their might, and yet know how to cling together, could
conquer this modern world of ours." The sentence may be taken as a
brief description of the Paulist community as he would have it. And
it is easily seen why free men loving God with all their hearts are
suited to conquer this modern world; because men are determined to be
free.

The following extracts from notes, letters, and diaries more fully
develop this idea:

"A new religious order is an evidence and expression of an uncommon
or special grace given to a certain number of souls, so that they may
be sanctified by the practice of particular virtues to meet the
special needs of their epoch, and in this way to renew the spiritual
life of the members of the Church and to extend her fold. A new
community is this, or it has no reason for its existence. The means
to accomplish its special work are both new and old. It should lay
stress on the new, and not despise but also make use of the old. 'The
wise householder bringeth forth from his treasury new things and
old.'"

"The true Paulist is a religious man entirely dependent on God for
his spiritual life; he lives in community for the greater security of
his own salvation and perfection, and to meet more efficiently the
pressing needs of the Church and of humanity in his day."

"The Church always finds in her wonderful fecundity wherewith to
supply the new wants which arise in every distinct epoch of society."

"A new religious community, unless its activity is directed chiefly
to supplying the special needs of its time, wears itself out at the
expense of its true mission and will decline and fail."

"We must realize the necessity of more explicitly bringing out our
ideal if we would give a sufficient motive for our students and
members, keep them in the community, bring about unity of action, and
accomplish the good which the Holy Spirit demands at our hands. A
Paulist, as a distinct species of a religious man, is one who is
alive to the pressing needs of the Church at the present time, and
feels called to labor specially with the means fitted to supply them.
And what a member of another religious community might do from that
divine guidance which is external, the Paulist does from the
promptings of the indwelling Holy Spirit."

"A Paulist is a Christian man who aims at a Christian perfection
consistent with his natural characteristics and the type of
civilization of his country."

"So far as it is compatible with faith and piety, I am for accepting
the American civilization with its usages and customs; leaving aside
other reasons, it is the only way by which Catholicity can become the
religion of our people. The character and spirit of our people, and
their institutions, must find themselves at home in our Church in the
way those of other nations have done; and it is on this basis alone
that the Catholic religion can make progress in our country."

"What we need to-day is men whose spirit is that of the early
martyrs. We shall get them in proportion as Catholics cultivate a
spirit of independence and personal conviction. The highest
development of religion in the soul is when it is assisted by free
contemplation of the ultimate causes of things. Intelligence and
liberty are the human environments most favorable to the deepening of
personal conviction of religious truth, and obedience to the interior
movements of an enlightened conscience. To a well-ordered mind the
question of the hour is how the soul which aspires to the
supernatural life shall utilize the advantages of liberty and
intelligence."

"The form of government of the United States is preferable to
Catholics above other forms. It is more favorable than others to the
practice of those virtues which are the necessary conditions of the
development of the religious life of man. This government leaves men
a larger margin for liberty of action, and hence for co-operation
with the guidance of the Holy Spirit, than any other government under
the sun. With these popular institutions men enjoy greater liberty in
working out their true destiny. The Catholic Church will, therefore,
flourish all the more in this republican country in proportion as her
representatives keep, in their civil life, to the lines of their
republicanism."

"The two poles of the Paulist character are: first, personal
perfection. He must respond to the principles of perfection as laid
down by spiritual writers. The backbone of a religious community is
the desire for personal perfection actuating its members. The desire
for personal perfection is the foundation stone of a religious
community; when this fails, it crumbles to pieces; when this ceases
to be the dominant desire, the community is tottering. Missionary
works, parochial work, etc., are and must be made subordinate to
personal perfection. These works must be done in view of personal
perfection. The main purpose of each Paulist must be the attainment
of personal perfection by the practice of those virtues without which
it cannot be secured--mortification, self-denial, detachment, and the
like. By the use of these means the grace of God makes the soul
perfect. The perfect soul is one which is guided instinctively by the
indwelling Holy Spirit. To attain to this is the end always to be
aimed at in the practice of the virtues just named. Second, zeal for
souls; to labor for the conversion of the country to the Catholic
faith by apostolic work. Parish work is a part, an integral part, of
Paulist work, but not its principal or chief work--and parish work
should be done so as to form a part of the main aim, the conversion
of the non-Catholic people of the country. In this manner we can
labor to raise the standard of Catholic life here and throughout the
world as a means of the general triumph of the Catholic faith."

"I do not think that the principal characteristic of our Fathers and
of our life should be poverty or obedience or any other special and
secondary virtue, or even a cardinal virtue, but zeal for apostolic
works. Our vocation is apostolic--conversion of souls to the faith,
of sinners to repentance, giving missions, defence of the Christian
religion by conferences, lectures, sermons, the pen, the press, and
the like works; and in the interior, to propagate among men a higher
and more spiritual life. To supply the special element the age and
each country demands, this is the peculiar work of religious
communities: this their field. It is a fatal mistake when religious
attempt to do the ordinary work of the Church. Let religious practise
prayer and study; there will always be enough of the work to which
they are called."

"Are the Paulists Religious? Yes, and no. Yes, of their age. No, of
the past; the words in neither case being taken in an exclusive
meaning."

"As regards the growth of the Paulist, he must develop in an
apostolic vocation--that is, in apostolic works, Catholic, universal;
not in works which confine his life's energies to a locality. He must
do the work of the Church. The work of the Church, as Church, is to
render her note of universality more and more conspicuous to render
it sensible, palpable. This is the spirit of the Church in our
country."

The following refers to the second trait of the character above
given: "A Paulist is to emphasize individuality; that is, to make
individual liberty an essential element in every judgment that
touches the life and welfare of the community and that of its
members. Those who emphasize the community element are inclined to
look upon this as a dangerous and impracticable experiment."

"_Individuality is an integral and conspicuous element in the life of
the Paulist._ This must be felt. One of the natural signs of the true
Paulist is that he would prefer to suffer from the excesses of
liberty rather than from the arbitrary actions of tyranny."

"The individuality of a man cannot be too strong or his liberty too
great when he is guided by the Spirit of God. But when one is easily
influenced from below rather than from above, it is an evidence of
the spirit of pride and that of the flesh, and not 'the liberty of
the glory of the children of God.'"

What follows touches the relation between the personal and common
life:

"Many other communities lay the main stress on community life as the
chief element, giving it control as far as is consistent with
fundamental individual right; the Paulists, on the contrary, give the
element of individuality the first place and put it in control as far
as is consistent with the common life."

"The spirit of the age has a tendency to run into extreme
individuality, into eccentricity, license, revolution. But the
typical life shows how individuality is consistent with community
life. This is the aim of the United States in the political order, an
aim and tendency which we have to guide, and not to check or
sacrifice."

"The element of individuality is taken into account in the Paulist
_essentially,_ integrally, practically. But when it comes into
conflict with the common right, the individual must yield to the
community: the common life outranks the individual life in case of
conflict. But the individual life should be regarded as sacred and
never be effaced. How this is to operate in particular cases belongs,
where it is not a matter of rule, to the virtue of prudence to
decide."

"When the personality of the individual comes into conflict with the
life of the community, the personal side must not be sacrificed, but
made to yield to the common. In case of conflict, as before said,
common life and interests outrank personal life and interests. It may
be asked how, in the ordinary regulation and government of a
community of this kind, the individual and common elements are to be
made to harmonize? The answer is, that the one at the head of affairs
must be a true Paulist that is to say, keenly sensitive of personal
rights as well as appreciative of such as are common: where the
question is not a point of rule, its decision is dependent on the
practical sagacity and prudence of the superior more than on any
minute regulations which can be given. He who interprets the acts of
legitimate authority as an attack on his personal liberty, is as far
out of the way as he who looks upon the exercise of reason as an
attack on authority."

"How about persons of dull minds or of little spiritual ambition
coming into the use of this freedom? First, no such person should be
allowed to enter into the community: such persons should be excluded.
Second, a full-fledged Paulist should have passed a long enough
novitiate to have acquired the special virtues which are necessary
for his vocation. Absence of supernatural light is the cause why a
man is not fit to be a Paulist, for he cannot understand rightly or
appreciate the value of the liberties he enjoys. He either is or he
becomes a turbulent element in the community."

"A Paulist, seeing that he has so much individuality, should have a
strong, nay, a very strong attrait for community life; he should be
fond of the Fathers' company, prefer them and their society when
seeking proper recreation, feel the house to be his home and the
community and its surroundings very dear to him; in the routine of
the day all the community exercises and labors are, in his judgment,
of paramount obligation and importance.

"The civil and political state of things of our age, particularly in
the United States, fosters the individual life. But it should do so
without weakening the community life: this is true individualism. The
problem is to make the synthesis. The joint product is the Paulist."

"A Paulist should cultivate personal freedom without detriment to the
community spirit; and, vice versa, the community spirit should not be
allowed to be detrimental to personal freedom. But when the
individual life runs into eccentricity, license, and revolution, that
is a violation and sacrifice of the community life."

"The duty of the Paulist Superior is to elicit the spontaneous zeal
of the Fathers and to further it with his authority. For lack of
one's own initiative that of another may be used, and herein the
Superior offers a constant help. But the centre of action is
individual, is in the soul moved by the Holy Ghost; not in the
Superior of the community or in the authorities of the Church. And if
he be moved by the Holy Spirit, he will be most obedient to his
superior; and he will not only be submissive to the authority of the
Church, but careful to follow out her spirit."

In explaining the routine of daily life Father Hecker said: "The
member of a community who does not make the common exercises [of
religion] his first care is derelict of his duty. A common exercise
should be preferred to all other devotional practices or occupations
whatever; as far as possible all other exercises ought to be made
subordinate to common ones, which should never be omitted without
permission of the superior."

Father Hecker was once asked: "Which would you prefer: to have a rule
and manner of life adapted to a large number of men, embracing many
of a uniform type, men good enough for average work, intended to
include and seeking to retain persons of mediocre spirit, and having
a dim understanding of our peculiar institute? or would you prefer
the rule to be made only for a select body, composed of such men as
----and ----, and the like?'" [Answer:] "I should prefer the rule to
be made for the smaller and more select body of men. Religious
vocations are not common, but special. It is a fatal mistake for
religious to take the place of secular priests."

No one can be misled by what he has read in the foregoing pages into
the notion that Father Hecker had any other aim than the entire
consecration of liberty and intelligence to the influence of the Holy
Spirit. To know Father Hecker well was to be more deeply impressed
with his longing for the reign of the Spirit of God in men's souls
than even with his love of human liberty. In his esteem the worth of
the latter was altogether in proportion to its aptitude for the
former. His love of liberty was that of a means to an end--the
perfect oblation of the inner man to God. He aimed at individuality
because of his belief in the action of the Holy Ghost in the
individual soul. Such action, he was quick to maintain, is given to
every Christian, but it is to be looked for in a high degree in those
who are called by a special vocation to assist independent characters
to find the spirit of God within them; or, if already known, to obey
His direction implicitly. Paulists after Father Hecker's heart would
be men whom experience and study had rendered fit instruments for
disseminating the knowledge of the ways of God the Holy Ghost in
men's hearts; for instructing the faithful how to distinguish the
voice of God in the soul from the vagaries of the imagination or the
emotions of passion, and able to stimulate a ready and generous
response to every call of God from within.

It is because of this indwelling of the Holy Spirit in every
regenerate soul that Father Hecker so vigorously maintained that the
freedom of the individual is a golden opportunity for the Catbolic
apostolate, according to the text "Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty." Freedom, he affirmed, was in absolute consonance
with Catholic doctrine. But he furthermore insisted that it has
become the world-wide aspiration of men by interposition of Divine
Providence and with a view to their higher sanctification; and
however grossly abused, it is yet a direct suggestion to an
apostolate whose prospects are in the highest degree promising. And
this is the answer to the question which reasonable persons may well
ask, namely: Why should the new institution differ so radically from
the old ones, which were certainly works of God? Because the change
of men's lives in the entire secular and natural order is in the
direction of personal liberty and independence, and this change is a
radical one. "The Eternal-Absolute is ever creating new forms of
expressing itself." If, indeed, men's aspirations for liberty and
intelligence be all from the powers of darkness, then let every
longing for freedom be repressed and condemned, crushed by authority
in the state, anathematized by the Church. But if men are yearning to
be free, however blindly, because God by their freedom would make
them holier, then let us hail the new order as a blessing; and let
those who love freedom and are worthy of it use its privileges to
advance themselves and their brethren nearer to immediate union with
the Holy Spirit.

It has been seen that the important question whether the end of the
new community would be better attained with the usual religious vows
or without them was decided in the negative. They were not definitely
rejected in the beginning; but starting without them, the Fathers
were willing to allow experience to show whether or not they should
be resumed. The lapse of time but confirmed the view that the
voluntary agreement and the bond of fraternal charity were, under the
circumstances, preferable as securities for stability and incentives
to holiness.

There can be little doubt that Father Hecker's ideas on this feature
of the religious state had been greatly modified between the writing
of the _Questions of the Soul_ and the end of the struggle in Rome.
Much is said in that book of community life in the Catholic Church,
and generally as rendered stable and its spirit of sacrifice made
complete by the vows; and in the statement given in Rome to his five
chosen advisers, he says that one reason for writing the volume named
was to induce young men to enter the religious orders as the only
means of perfection--meaning orders under vows. But when he was
released from his own obligations and was confronted with the choice
of means for following his vocation, the horizon broadened away until
he could see beyond the institutions and traditions in which he had
lived since entering the novitiate at St. Trond. His ideas of
perfection in its relation to states of life underwent a change.
Therefore he said, Let us wait for the unmistakable will of God
before we bind ourselves with vows amidst a free people. He never
depreciated the evident value of these obligations; indeed, he seldom
was heard to speak of them. But he knew from close observation the
truth of the words of the Jesuit Avancinus:

"The net (St. Matthew 13:44) is the Catholic Church, or, to take a
narrower view, it means the station in which you are placed. As in a
net all kinds of fish are to be found, so in our position, as in all
others, there are good and bad Christians. . . . Should yours be a
sacred calling, you are not, on that account, either the better or
the more secure; your sanctity and your salvation depend on yourself,
not on your calling." (_Meditations,_ Fourteenth Friday after
Pentecost)

It never entered into the minds of the Fathers to question the
doctrine and practice of the Church concerning vows. But personal
experience proves the lesson of history, that what religion needs is
not so much holy states of life as holy men and Women.

Looking back into the past, Father Hecker saw St. Philip Neri, to
whom he had a great devotion and for whose spiritual doctrine he had
a high admiration. The following is from an exponent of that
doctrine, and is much in point:

"Although our Fathers and lay brothers [Oratorians] make no vow of
obedience, as do religious, they are, nevertheless, no way inferior
in the perfection of this virtue to those who profess it in the
cloister with solemn vows. They supply the want of vows with love,
with voluntary promptitude, and perfection in obeying every wish of
the superior. And it is a thing for which we must indeed thank God,
that without the obligation of obeying under pain of sin, without
fear of restraint or other punishment (except that of expulsion in
case of contumacy), all the subjects are prompt in this obedience,
even in things most humiliating and severe, according to the terms of
the rule. All take pleasure in meeting the wishes of the superior,
etc." (_The Excellences of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri,_ p. 136.
London: Burns & Oates.)

Father Hecker did not dream that by relinquishing the vows he and his
companions in the Paulist community had cast away a single incentive
to virtue capable of moving such men as they, or had even failed to
secure any of the insignia adorning the great host of men and women
in the Catholic Church whose entire being has been given up to the
divine service. "The true Paulist," said he once, "should be fit and
ready to take the solemn vows at any moment." He felt strongly the
truth of the following words of the Jesuit Lallemant:

"A desire and hunger after our perfection, a determined will to be
constantly tending towards it with all our strength--let this be
always our chief object and our greatest care. Let us bear in mind
that this care is more of the essence of religion [i.e., of a
religious order] than vows themselves; for it is on this that our
whole spiritual progress depends. Herein consists the difference
between true religious and those who are so only in appearance and in
the sight of men. Without this care to advance in perfection the
religious state does not secure our salvation; but nothing is more
common than to deceive ourselves on this point." (_The Spiritual
Doctrine of Father Louis Lallemant, S.J,_ p. 111. New York: Sadlier &
Co.)

With regard to stability, men of stable character need no vow to
guarantee adherence to a divine vocation, and men of feeble character
may indeed vow themselves into an outward stability, but it is of
little fruit to themselves personally, and their irremovability is
often of infinite distress to their superiors and brethren. The
episcopate is the one religious order founded by Our Lord, and its
members are in the highest state of evangelical perfection; yet they
are neither required nor advised to take the oaths or vows of
religious orders.

Neither Father Hecker nor any of his associates had the least
aversion to the vows. On the contrary, they had lived contentedly
under them for many of their most active years, and it will be
remembered of Father Hecker that he never found them irksome, had
never known a temptation against them.

The question which arose was a choice between two kinds of community,
the one fast-bound by external obligations to the Church in the form
of vows, placing the members in a relation of peculiar strictness to
the Canon Law; or another kind, in which the members trusted wholly
to the strength of Divine grace, and their own conscious purpose
never to give up the fight for perfection; which of these states
would better facilitate the action of the Holy Spirit in the present
Providence of God; and which of them would tend to produce a type of
character fitted to evangelize a nation of independent and
self-reliant men and women? The free community was chosen.

No doubt this involved some risk of criticism, particularly in the
beginning, for it was a wonder to many that men should organize for a
life-long endeavor after perfection and not swear to it, especially
as none of the free communities existing in Europe had houses in
America, for the Sulpicians belong to the secular clergy. And there
was also danger of unworthy subjects creeping in under favor of a
freedom they were unfit to enjoy. For it may be reproached against us
that we are apt to be victimized by men ruled by caprice, indulging
in extravagant schemes or deluded by wandering fancies; and also by
superiors who would let everybody do as he pleased. No doubt such
dangers are to be guarded against. But vowed communities do not claim
to be free from difficulties. No state of life and no organization
claims to be so perfect as totally to prevent abuse of power on the
part of superiors or caprice and sloth on the part of members.

Both kinds of organized religious life have their difficulties: the
one, the martinet superior and the routine subject; the other, the
capricious subject and the lax superior. In one kind the bond of
union as well as the stimulus of endeavor is mainly obedience,
fraternal charity assisting; in the other it is mainly fraternal
charity, obedience assisting; each has to overcome obstacles peculiar
to itself.

What has been said in this chapter, besides serving to exhibit Father
Hecker's principles as a founder, will be, we trust, a sufficient
answer to the silly delusion which the Paulists have encountered in
some quarters, that their society tolerates a soft life and supposes
in its members no high vocation to perfection; or that the voluntary
principle allows them a personal choice in regard to the devotional
exercises, permitting them to attend or not attend this or that
meditation or devotion laid down in the rule, as "the spirit moves
them." This is as plain an error as another one which had much
currency for years and which is not yet everywhere corrected: that
the Paulist community was open to converts alone and received none
others.

________________________

CHAPTER XXVII

FATHER HECKER'S SPIRITUAL DOCTRINE

HAVING given in the preceding chapter Father Hecker's principles of
the religious life in community, a more general view of his spiritual
doctrine, as well as of his method of the direction of souls,
naturally follows. And here we are embarrassed by the amount of
matter to choose from; for as he was always talking about spiritual
doctrine to whomsoever he could get to listen, so in his published
writings, in his letters to intimate friends, and in his notes and
memoranda, we have found enough falling under the heading of this

CHAPTER to fill a volume. Let us hope for its publication some day.

It need hardly be said that Father Hecker did not claim to have any
new doctrine; there can be none, and he knew it well. Every
generation since Christ has had His entire revelation. Development is
the word which touches the outer margin of all possible adaptation of
Christian principles to the changing conditions of humanity. But in
the transmission of these principles from master to disciple, in
practically assisting in their use by public instruction, or by
private advice, or by choice of devotional and ascetical exercises,
there is as great a variety of method as of temperament among races,
and even among individuals; and there are broadly marked differences
which are conterminous with providential eras of history. This was a
truth which Father Hecker, in common with all discerning minds, took
carefully into account.

His fundamental principle of Christian perfection may be termed a
view of the Catholic doctrine of divine grace suited to the
aspirations of our times. By divine grace the love of God is diffused
in our hearts; the Holy Spirit takes up his abode there and makes us
children of the Heavenly Father, and brethren of Jesus Christ the
Divine Son. The state of grace is thus an immediate union of the soul
with the Holy Trinity, its Creator, Mediator, and Sanctifier. To
secure this union and render it more and more conscious was Father
Hecker's ceaseless endeavor through life, both for himself and for
those who fell under his influence, whether in cleansing the soul of
all hindrances of sin and imperfection, or advancing it deeper and
deeper into the divine life by prayer and the sacraments.

His doctrine of Christian perfection might be formulated as a
profession of faith: I believe in God the _Father_ Almighty; I
believe in Jesus Christ the Only Begotten _Son_ of the Father; I
believe in the Holy Ghost the _Life Giver,_ the spirit of adoption by
whom I am enabled to say to the Father, _My Father,_ and to the Son,
_My Brother._

He wished that men generally should be made aware of the immediate
nature of this union of the soul with God, and that they should
become more and more personally conscious of it. He would bring this
about without the intervention of other persons or other methods than
the divinely constituted ones accessible to all in the priesthood and
sacraments. It was the development of the supernatural, heavenly,
divine life of the regenerate man, born again of the Holy Ghost, that
Father Hecker made the end of all he said and all he did in leading
souls; and he maintained that to partake of this life which is "the
light of men," many souls needed little interference on the part of
others, and that in every case the utmost care should be taken lest
the soul should mingle human influences, even the holiest, in undue
proportion with those which were strictly divine.

"Go to God," he wrote to one asking advice, "go entirely to God, go
integrally to God; behold, that is sincerity, complete, perfect
sincerity. Do that, and make it a complete, continuous act, and you
need no help from me or any creature. I wish to provoke you to do it.
That is my whole aim and desire. Just in proportion as we harbor
pride, vanity, self-love--in a word, self-hood--just so far we fail
in integrally resigning ourselves to God. Were we wholly resigned to
God He would change all in us that is in discord with Him, and
prepare our souls for union with Him, making us one with Himself. God
longs for our souls greatly more than our souls can long for Him.
Such is God's thirst for love that He made all creatures to love Him,
and to have no rest until they love Him supremely. If my words are
not to your soul God's words and voice, pay no heed to them. If they
are, hesitate not a moment to obey. If they humble you to the dust,
what a blessing! He that is humbled shall be exalted."

"Peace is gained by a wise inaction, and strength by integral
resignation to God, who will do all, and more than we, with the
boldest imagination, can fancy or desire."

"May you see God in all, through all, and above all. May the Divine
transcendence and the Divine immanence be the two poles of your life."

The natural faculties of the understanding and will, whose integrity
Father Hecker so much valued, were to be established in a new life
infinitely above their native reach, glorified with divine life,
their activity directed to the knowledge of things not even dreamed
of before, and endowed with a divine gift of loving. In this state
the Holy Spirit communicates to the human faculties force to
accomplish intellectual and moral feats which naturally can be
accomplished by God alone. This is called by theologians supernatural
infused virtue, and is rooted in Faith, Hope, and Love, is made
efficacious by spiritual gifts of wisdom and understanding, and
knowledge and counsel, and other gifts and forces, the conscious and
daily possession of which the Christian is entitled to hope for and
strive after, and finally to obtain and enjoy in this life.

That this union is a personal relation, and that it should be a
distinctly conscious one on the soul's part, all will admit who think
but a moment of the infinite, loving activity of the Spirit of God,
and the natural and supernatural receptivity of the spirit of man.
Although not even the smallest germ of the supernatural life is found
in nature, yet the soul of man ceaselessly, if blindly, yearns after
its possession. Once possessed, the life of God blends into our own,
mingles with it and is one with it, impregnating it as magnetism does
the iron of the lodestone, till the divine qualities, without
suppressing nature, entirely possess it, and assert for it and over
it the Divine individuality. "Now I live, yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me." An author much admired by Father Hecker thus describes
the effects produced in the soul by supernatural faith, and hope, and
love:

"These virtues are called and in reality are _Divine_ virtues. They
are called thus not because they are related to God in general, but
because _they unite us in a divine manner with God,_ have Him for
their immediate motive, and can be produced in us only by a
communication of the Divine nature. . . . For the life that the
children of God lead here upon earth must be of the same kind as the
life that awaits them in heaven." (Scheeben's _Glories of Divine
Grace,_ p. 222; Benziger Bros.)

To partake thus of the inner life of God was Father Hecker's one
spiritual ambition, and to help others to it his one motive for
dealing with men. He was ever insisting upon the closeness of the
divine union, and that it is our life brought into actual touch with
God, whose supreme and essential activity must, by a law of its own
existence, make itself felt, dominate as far as permitted the entire
activity of the soul, and win more and more upon its life till all is
won. Then are fulfilled the Apostle's words: "But we all beholding
the glory of the Lord _with open face_ are transformed into the same
image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor.
3:18).

Here are some of Father Hecker's words, printed but a year or two
before his death, which treat not only of the interior life in
general, but in particular of its relation to the outer action of God
on the soul through the divine organism of the Church:

"St. Thomas Aquinas attributes the absence of spiritual joy mainly to
neglect of consciousness of the inner life. 'During this life,' he
says (_Opuscula de Beatitudine,_ cap. iii.), 'we should continually
rejoice in God, as something perfectly fitting, in all our actions
and for all our actions, in all our gifts and for all our gifts. It
is, as Isaias declares, that we may particularly enjoy him that the
Son of God has been given to us. What blindness and what gross
stupidity for many who are always seeking God, always sighing for
Him, frequently desiring Him, daily knocking and clamoring at the
door for God by prayer, while they themselves are all the time, as
the apostle says, temples of the living God, and God truly dwelling
within them; while all the time their souls are the abiding-place of
God, wherein He continually reposes! Who but a fool would look for
something out of doors which he knows he has within? What is the good
of anything which is always to be sought and never found, and who can
be strengthened with food ever craved but never tasted? Thus passes
away the life of many a good man, always searching and never finding
God, and it is for this reason that his actions are imperfect.'

"A man with such a doctrine must cultivate mainly the interior life.
His answer to the question, What is the relation between the inner
and the outer action of God upon my soul? is that God uses the outer
for the sake of the inner life.

"There seems to be little danger nowadays of our losing sight of the
Divine authority and the Divine action in the government of the
Church, and in the aids of religion conveyed through the external
order of the sacraments. Yet it is only after fully appreciating the
life of God within us that we learn to prize fittingly the action of
God in His external Providence. Such is the plain teaching of St.
Thomas in the extract above given.

"By fully assimilating this doctrine one comes to aim steadily at
securing a more and more direct communion with God. Thus he does not
seek merely for an external life in an external society, or become
totally absorbed in external observances; but he seeks the invisible
God through the visible Church, for she is the body of Christ the Son
of God.

"Once a man's hand is safe on the altar his eye and voice are lifted
to God.

"It is not to keep up a strained outlook for times and moments of the
interior visitations, but to wait calmly for the actual movements of
the Divine Spirit; to rely mainly upon it and not solely upon what
leads to it, or communicates it, or guarantees its genuine presence
by necessary external tests and symbols.

"Not an anxious search, least of all a craving for extraordinary
lights; but a constant readiness to perceive the Divine guidance in
the secret ways of the soul, and then to act with decision and a
noble and generous courage--this is true wisdom.

"The Holy Spirit is thus the inspiration of the inner life of the
regenerate man, and in that life is his Superior and Director. That
His guidance may become more and more immediate in an interior life,
and the soul's obedience more and more instinctive, is the object of
the whole external order of the Church, including the sacramental
system.

"Says Father Lallemant (_Spiritual Doctrine,_ 3d principle, chap. i.
art. 1): 'All creatures that are in the world, the whole order of
nature as well as that of grace, and all the leadings of Providence,
have been so disposed as to remove from our souls whatever is
contrary to God.'"

What follows has been culled from notes and memoranda:

"When authority and liberty are intelligently understood, when both
aim at the same end, then the universal reign of God's authority in
the Church will be near and the kingdom of God be established
universally."

"The whole future of the human race depends on bringing the
individual soul more completely and perfectly under the sway of the
Holy Spirit."

"What society most needs to-day is the baptism of the Holy Spirit."

"That soul is perfect which is guided habitually by the instinct of
the Holy Spirit."

"The aim of Christian perfection is the guidance of the soul by the
indwelling Holy Spirit. This is attained, ordinarily, first by
bringing whatever is inordinate in our animal propensities under the
control of the dictates of reason by the practice of mortification
and self-denial; for it is a self-evident principle that a rational
being ought to be master of his animal appetites. And second, by
bringing the dictates of reason under the control and inspiration of
the Holy Spirit by recollection, and by fidelity and docility to its
movements."

"To attain to the spiritual estate of the conscious guidance of the
indwelling Holy Spirit, the practice of asceticism and of the natural
and Christian moral virtues are the preparatory means.

"To rise before the light appears, is vain; to hinder the soul from
rising when it does appear, is oppression. In the first place, the
soul is exposed to delusions; in the second, it is subjected to
arbitrary human authority. The former opens the door to all sorts of
extravagances and heresies; the latter breeds a spirit of servility
and bondage."

"To reach that stage of the spiritual life which is the consciousness
of the indwelling and guidance of the Holy Spirit some souls need the
practice of asceticism more than others, these latter being more
advanced by the practice of the Christian virtues. Others, again,
need the strenuous practice of both of these means of advancement
until the close of their lives. And there is another class which
reaches this degree of spiritual growth sooner and with less
difficulty than the generality of souls."

"Whenever the guidance of the Holy Spirit is sufficiently recognized,
then the practice of the virtues immediately related to this action
and proper to increase it in the soul are to be recommended, such as
recollection, purity of heart, docility and fidelity to the inner
voice, and the like."

"It should ever be kept in view that the practice of the virtues is
not only for their own sake and to obtain merit, but mainly in order
to remove all obstacles in the way of the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, and to assist the soul in following His operations with
docility."

"Obedience in its spiritual aspect divests one of self-will and makes
him prompt to submit to the will of God alone. Viewed as an act of
justice, obedience is the payment of due service to one's superior,
who holds his office by appointment of God."

"The essential mistake of the transcendentalists is the taking for
their guide the instincts of the soul instead of the inspirations of
the Holy Spirit. They are moved by the natural instincts of human
beings instead of the instinct of the Holy Ghost. But true spiritual
direction consists in discovering the obstacles in the way of the
Divine guidance, in aiding and encouraging the penitent to remove
them, and in teaching how the interior movements of the Holy Spirit
may be recognized, as well as in stimulating the soul to fidelity and
docility to His movements."

"The director is not to take the place of the Holy Ghost in the soul,
but to assist His growth in the soul as its primary and supreme
guide."

"The primary worker of the soul's sanctification is the Holy Spirit
acting interiorly; the work of the director is secondary and
subordinate. To overlook this fundamental truth in the spiritual life
is a great mistake, whether it be on the part of the director or the
one under direction."

The great obstacle to the prevalent use of this privilege of divine
interior direction is lack of practical realization of its existence
by good Christians. And this want of faith is met with almost as much
among teachers as among learners, resulting in too great a mingling
of the human element in the guidance of souls. What is known as
over-direction is to be attributed, as Father Hecker was persuaded,
to confessors leading souls by self-chosen ways, or laboriously
working them along the road to perfection by artificial processes,
souls whom the Holy Spirit has not made ready for more than the
beginning of the spiritual life. This is like pressing wine out of
unripe grapes. Another practice which Father Hecker often deprecated
was the binding of free and generous souls with all sorts of
obligations in the way of devotional exercises. This is forcing
athletes to go on crutches. The excuse for it all is that it really
does stagger human belief to accept as a literal matter of fact that
God the Holy Ghost personally comes to us with divine grace and gives
Himself to us; that He actually and essentially dwells in our souls
by grace, and in an unspeakably intimate manner takes charge of our
entire being, soul and body, and all our faculties and senses.

"By sanctifying grace," says St. Thomas (p. I, q. 33, art. 2), "the
rational creature is thus perfected, that it may not only use with
liberty the created good, but that it may also enjoy the uncreated
good; and therefore the invisible sending of the Holy Ghost takes
place in the gift of sanctifying grace and the Divine Person Himself
is given to us."

It is the soul's higher self, thus in entire union with the Spirit of
God, that Father Hecker spent his life in cultivating, both in his
own interior and in that of others. He insisted that in the normal
condition of things the mainspring of virtue, both natural and
supernatural, should be for the regenerate man the instinctive
obedience of the individual soul to the voice of the indwelling Holy
Spirit.

To what an extent this inner divine guidance has been obscured by
more external methods is witnessed by Monsignor Gaume, who places
upon the title-page of his learned work on the Holy Spirit the motto
"Ignoto Deo"--to the Unknown God!

Objections to this doctrine are made from the point of view of
caution. There is danger of exaggeration, it is said; for if in its
terms it is plainly Catholic, it may sound Protestant to some ears.
And in fact to those whose glances have been ever turned outward for
guidance it seems like the delusions of certain classes of
Protestants about "change of heart" and "inner light."

"But," says Lallemant (and the reader will thank us for a detailed
reply to this difficulty from so venerable an authority), "it is of
faith that without the grace of an interior inspiration, in which the
guidance of the Holy Spirit consists, we cannot do any good work. The
Calvinists would determine everything by their inward spirit,
subjecting thereto the Church herself and her decisions. . . . But
the guidance which we receive from the Holy Ghost by means of His
gifts presupposes the faith and authority of the Church, acknowledges
them as its rule, admits nothing which is contrary to them, and aims
only at perfecting the exercise of faith and the other virtues. The
second objection is, that it seems as if this interior guidance of
the Holy Spirit were destructive of the obedience due to superiors.
We reply: 1. That as the interior inspiration of grace does not set
aside the assent which we give to the articles of faith as they are
externally proposed to us, but on the contrary gently disposes the
mind to believe; in like manner the guidance which we receive from
the gifts of the Holy Spirit, far from interfering with obedience,
aids and facilitates the practice of it. 2. That all this interior
guidance, and even [private] divine revelations, must always be
subordinate to obedience; and in speaking of them this tacit
condition is ever implied, that obedience enjoins nothing contrary
thereto. . . .

"The third objection is that this interior direction of the Holy
Spirit seems to render all deliberation and all counsel useless. For
why ask advice of men when the Holy Spirit is Himself our director?
We reply that the Holy Spirit teaches us to consult enlightened
persons and to follow the advice of others, as He referred St. Paul
to Ananias. The fourth objection is made by some who complain that
they are not themselves thus led by the Holy Spirit, and that they
know nothing of it. To them we reply: 1. That the lights and
inspirations of the Holy Spirit, which are necessary in order to do
good and avoid evil, are never wanting to them, particularly if they
are in a state of grace. 2. That being altogether exterior as they
are, and scarcely ever entering into themselves, examining their
consciences only very superficially, and looking only to the outward
man and the faults which are manifest in the eyes of the world, . . .
it is no wonder that they have nothing of the guidance of the Holy
Spirit, which is wholly interior. But, first, let them be faithful in
following the light which is given them; it will go on always
increasing. Secondly, let them clear away the sins and imperfections
which, like so many clouds, hide the light from their eyes: they will
see more distinctly every day. Thirdly, let them not suffer their
exterior senses to rove at will, and be soiled by indulgence; God
will then open to them their interior senses. Fourthly, let them
never quit their own interior, if it be possible, or let them return
as soon as may be; let them give attention to what passes therein,
and they will observe the workings of the different spirits by which
we are actuated. Fifthly, let them lay bare the whole ground of their
heart to their superior or to their spiritual father. A soul which
acts with this openness and simplicity can hardly fail of being
favored with the direction of the Holy Spirit" (_Spiritual Doctrine,_
4th principle, ch. i. art. 3).

Father Hecker had himself suffered, and that in the earliest days of
his religious life, from want of explicit instruction about this
doctrine. Father Othmann, whom our readers remember as the
novice-master at St. Trond, was too spiritual a man to have been
ignorant of its principles. Yet he seemed to think that either no one
would choose it in preference to the method in more common use, or
that he would not find his novices ready for it. But to Father Hecker
it was all-essential. "When I was not far from being through with my
noviceship," he was heard to say, "I was one day looking over the
books in the library and I came across Lallemant's _Spiritual
Doctrine._ Getting leave to read it, I was overjoyed to find it a
full statement of the principles by which I had been interiorly
guided. I said to Père Othmann: 'Why did you not give me this book
when I first came? It settles all my difficulties.' But he answered
that it had never once occurred to his mind to do so." Besides the
Scriptures, Lallemant, Surin, Scaramelli's _Directorium Mysticum,_
the ascetical and mystical writings of the contemplatives, such as
Rusbruck, Henry Suso (whose life he carried for years in his pocket,
reading it daily), Tauler, Father Augustine Baker's _Holy Wisdom_
(Sancta Sophia), Blosius, the works of St. Teresa, and those of St.
John of the Cross--these and other such works formed the literature
which aided Father Hecker in the understanding and enjoyment of the
guidance of the Holy Spirit. Lallemant he returned to ever and again,
and St. John of the Cross he never let go at all. It was always with
him, always read with renewed joy, and its wonderful lessons of
divine wisdom, expressed as they are with the scientific accuracy of
a trained theologian and the unction of a saint, were to Father
Hecker a pledge of security for his own state of soul and a source of
inspiration in dealing with others.

To the ordinary observer a knowledge of the men and women of to-day
does not give rise to much hope of the widespread use of this
spirituality. But Father Hecker thought otherwise. He ever insisted
that it must come into general preference among the leading minds of
Christendom; for independence of character calls for such a
spirituality, and that independence is by God's providence the
characteristic trait of the best men and women of our times. God must
mean to sanctify us in the way He has placed us in the natural order.
He believed that the Holy Spirit would soon be poured out in an
abundant dispensation of His heavenly gifts, and that such a renewal
of men's souls was the only salvation of society. Some may think that
he was over-sanguine; many will not interest themselves in such
"high" matters at all. But some of the wisest men in the Church are
of his mind, notably Cardinal Manning. And the signs of the times, if
interrogated with regard to the problem of man's eternal destiny,
give no other answer than the promise of a new era in which the Holy
Ghost shall reign in men's souls and in their lives with a supremacy
peculiar to this age.

The following extract from _The Church and the Age,_ a compilation of
Father Hecker's later essays, shows his estimate of the form of
spirituality we have been discussing, as bearing upon the
regeneration of society in general:

"The whole aim of the science of Christian perfection is to instruct
men how to remove the hindrances in the way of the action of the Holy
Spirit, and how to cultivate those virtues which are most favorable
to His solicitations and inspirations. Thus the sum of spiritual life
consists in observing and yielding to the movements of the Spirit of
God in our soul, employing for this purpose all the exercises of
prayer, spiritual reading, the practice of virtues, and good works.

"That divine action which is the immediate and principal cause of the
salvation and perfection of the soul, claims by right the soul's
direct and main attention. From this source within the soul there
will gradually come to birth the consciousness of the indwelling
presence of the Holy Spirit, out of which will spring a force
surpassing all human strength, a courage higher than all human
heroism, a sense of dignity excelling all human greatness. The light
the age requires for its renewal can come only from the same source.
The renewal of the age depends on the renewal of religion. The
renewal of religion depends on a greater effusion of the creative and
renewing power of the Holy Spirit. The greater effusion of the Holy
Spirit depends on the giving of increased attention to His movements
and inspirations in the soul. The radical and adequate remedy for all
the evils of our age, and the source of all true progress, consist in
increased attention and fidelity to the action of the Holy Spirit in
the soul. 'Thou shalt send forth Thy spirit and they shall be
created: and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.'"

Lallemant's answer to the difficulty of excess of personal liberty in
this method has been already given. Father Hecker's own is as follows:

"The enlargement of the [interior] field of action for the soul,
without a true knowledge of the end and scope of the external
authority of the Church, would only open the door to delusions,
errors, and heresies of every description, and would be in effect
only another form of Protestantism. But, on the other hand, the
exclusive view of the external authority of the Church, without a
proper understanding of the nature and work of the Holy Spirit in the
soul, would render the practice of religion formal, obedience
servile, and the Church sterile.

"The solution of the difficulty is as follows: The action of the Holy
Spirit embodied visibly in the authority of the Church, and the
action of the Holy Spirit dwelling invisibly in the soul form one
inseparable synthesis; and he who has not a clear conception of this
two-fold action of the Holy Spirit is in danger of running into one
or the other, and sometimes into both, of these extremes, either of
which is destructive of the end of the Church. The Holy Spirit, in
the external authority of the Church, acts as the infallible
interpreter and criterion of divine revelation. The Holy Spirit in
the soul acts as the divine Life-giver and Sanctifier. It is of the
highest importance that these two distinct offices of the Holy Spirit
should not be confounded.

"The increased action of the Holy Spirit, with a more vigorous
co-operation on the part of the faithful, which is in process of
realization, will elevate the human personality to an intensity of
force and grandeur productive of a new era to the Church and to
society--an era difficult for the imagination to grasp, and still
more difficult to describe in words, unless we have recourse to the
prophetic language of the inspired Scriptures."

"The way out of our present difficulties," said Father Hecker,
speaking of the conflicts of religion in Europe, "is to revert to a
spirituality which is freer than that which Providence assigned as
the counteraction of Protestantism in the sixteenth century--to a
spirituality which is, and ever has been, the normal one of the
Christian inner life. That era accentuated obedience, this
accentuates no particular moral virtue, but rather presses the soul
back upon Faith and Hope and Love as the springs of life, and makes
the distinctive virtue fidelity to the guidance of the Holy Spirit,
impelling the Christian to that one of the moral virtues which is
most suitable to his nature and to the requirements of his state of
life, and other environments."

But from what has been said it must not be inferred that Father
Hecker thought it safe to be without spiritual counsel, above all
when the soul seemed led in extraordinary ways. He firmly believed in
the necessity of direction, and that in the sense intended by
spiritual writers generally. In practice he himself always consulted
men of experience and piety. We have seen how he sought advice, and
was aided by it at every crisis of his life. But he did not accept
all that is said by some writers about the surrender of the soul to
one's father confessor. He thought that confession was often too
closely allied with direction, and he was convinced that many souls
could profit by less introspection in search of sin, and more in
search of natural and supernatural movements to virtue. He condemned
over-direction, and thought that there was a good deal of it. He
thought that there were cases in which spontaneity of effort was too
high a price to pay for even the merit of obedience. His sentiment is
well expressed by St. John of the Cross in the ninth chapter of _The
Ascent of Mount Carmel:_

"Spiritual directors are not the chief workers, but rather the Holy
Ghost; they are mere instruments, only to guide souls by the rule of
faith and the law of God according to the spirit which God gives to
each. Their object, therefore, should be not to guide souls by a way
of their own, suitable to themselves; but to ascertain, if they can,
the way which God Himself is guiding them."

Leave much to God's secret ways, was one of Father Hecker's
principles. "When hearing some confessions on the missions," he once
said, "and when about to give absolution, I used to say, in my heart,
to the penitent, Well, no doubt God means to save you, you poor
fellow, or He wouldn't give you the grace to make this mission. But
just how He will do it, considering your bad habits, I can't see; but
that's none of my business."

Leave much to natural or acquired inclinations, was one of his
maxims. He was not deeply interested in souls who by temperament or
training needed very minute guidance in the spiritual life; to him
they seemed so overloaded with harness as to have no great strength
left for pulling the chariot. But he would not interfere with them;
he knew that it was of little avail to try to change such methods
once they had become habitual; and he recognized that there were many
who could never get along without them. At any rate he was tolerant
by nature, and slow to condemn in general or particular anything
useful to well-meaning souls.

"It is vain to rise before the light," was another motto. "Make no
haste in the time of clouds." These two texts of Scripture he was
fond of repeating. "When God shows the way," he once said, "you will
see; no amount of peering in the dark will bring the sun over the
hills. Pray for light, but don't move an inch before you get it. When
it comes, go ahead with all your might." Self-imposed penances,
self-assumed devotional practices he mistrusted. He was convinced
that the only way sure to succeed, and to succeed perfectly, was
either that shown by an interior attraction too powerful and too
peaceful to be other than divine, or one pointed out by the lawful
external authority in the Church.

When asked for advice on matters of conscience his decisions were
generally quick and always simple. Yet he often refused to decide
without time for prayer and thought, saying, "I have no lights on
this matter; you must give me time." And not seldom he refused to
decide altogether for the same reason. One thing annoyed him much,
and that was the blank silence and stupid wonder with which some
instructed Catholics listened to him as he spoke of the guidance of
the Holy Spirit as the way of Christian perfection, treating it as
beyond the reach of ordinary mortals, intricate in its rules,
"mystical," and visionary; whereas Father Hecker knew it to be the
one only simple method, with a minimum of rules, useful for all,
readily understood. What follows is a brief outline of the entire
doctrine in it practical use in the progress or the soul from a
sinful life onwards; we have found it among his memoranda:

"What must one do in order to favor the reception of the Holy Spirit,
and secure fidelity to His guidance when received? First receive the
Sacraments, the divinely instituted channels of grace: one will
scarcely persevere in living in the state of grace, to say nothing of
securing a close union with God, who receives Holy Communion only
once or twice a year. Second, practise prayer, above all that highest
form of prayer, assisting at Holy Mass; then mental and vocal prayer,
the public offices of the Church, and particular devotions according
to one's attrait. Third, read spiritual books daily--the Bible, Lives
of the Saints, _Following of Christ, Spiritual Combat,_ etc. But in
all this bear ever in mind, that the steady impelling force by which
one does each of these outward things is _the inner and secret
prompting of the Holy Ghost, and that perseverance in them is secured
by no other aid except the same hidden inspiration._ Cherish that
above all, therefore, and in every stage of the spiritual life; be
most obedient to it, seeking meantime for good counsel wherever it is
likely to be had."

Father Hecker was of opinion that a larger number of persons can be
led to perfection than is generally supposed, and he would sound the
call in the ears of Christians generally far more than is commonly
done. He was also persuaded that there are many souls whose whole
lives have been entirely, or almost entirely, free from the taint of
mortal sin, and these he considered should be the most active spirits
among Christians. He thought that more room should be made for them
in our discourses, and that everybody should not be lumped together
in one mass as hardened sinners or as penitents.

To these innocent men and women the mediatorship of Christ should be
made as distinct as possible, the elevation of the soul to divine
union through the Incarnation brought out fully, and the redemption
of man from sin and hell be included in it, and be absorbed by it.
Too many souls who have never sinned mortally fail to struggle for
perfection, Father Hecker often said, because they never have heard
any invitation but the call to repentance. The positive side of
Christianity is the Incarnation, which lifts all men of good-will,
repentant and innocent alike, into participation with the Deity.
Father Hecker would talk by the hour of the need of bringing that
view of our Lord's mission most prominently forward, the idea of
redemption applying to innocent souls only on account of original
sin, and by sympathy with their brethren infected by actual sin.
And he would show that even hard sinners could often be brought to a
good life more surely, and be enabled more certainly to persevere, by
forcibly emphasizing the Incarnation and its benefits than by any
other method. Their blindness and selfishness hinder hard sinners
from easily appreciating our Lord's sufferings as borne on their
account. Father Hecker regretted that the idea of redemption was so
often presented in a way to give the impression that atonement was
the whole office of Christ. There are many souls for whom access to
Christ as Mediator was more in consonance with the truth than access
to Him as Redeemer, Mediator in that case including Redeemer, rather
than the Redeemer absorbing the idea of Mediator. Redemption from
original sin is, of course, necessary to the mediatorship of a fallen
race. But our Lord became Redeemer that he might be Mediator; he
cleansed us from sin that he might lift us up to the Godhead; and in
many souls Father Hecker knew that the process of cleansing began and
ended with original sin and venial sins. Such souls often go their
lives long with no compelling stimulus to perfection, because they
cannot apply to themselves the accusations of sin commonly put into
the directions for beginners.

Much has been already said of the aids to perfection which Father
Hecker perceived in a right use of the liberty and intelligence of
our times. He also insisted that the commercial and industrial
features of our civilization were no obstacles to a high state of
Christian perfection.

In a remarkable sermon, entitled "The Saint of Our Day," published in
the third volume of the Paulist series, Father Hecker, after making a
powerful exposition of the advantages of liberty and intelligence as
helps to the interior life, insists that the opportunities and
responsibilities peculiar to our civilization are capable of being
sanctified to the highest degree. The model he proposes in this
sermon is St. Joseph. He was no martyr, yet showed a martyr's
fidelity by his trust in God.

"Called by the voice of God to leave his friends, home, and country,
he obeys instantly and without a murmur. To find God and to be one
with God, a solitary life in the desert was not necessary to St.
Joseph. He was in the world and found God where he was. He sanctified
his work by carrying God with him into the workshop. St. Joseph was
no flower of the desert or plant of the cloister; he found the means
of perfection in the world, and consecrated it to God by making its
cares and duties subservient to divine purposes.

"The house of St. Joseph was his cloister, and in the bosom of his
family he practised the sublimest virtues. While occupied with the
common daily duties of life his mind was fixed on the contemplation
of divine truths, thus breathing into all his actions a heavenly
influence. He attained in society and in human relationships a degree
of perfection not surpassed, if equalled, by the martyr's death, the
contemplative of the solitude, the cloistered monk, or the missionary
hero.

"Our age is not an age of martyrdom, nor an age of hermits, nor a
monastic age. Although it has its martyrs, its recluses, and its
monastic communities, these are not, and are not likely to be, its
prevailing types of Christian perfection. Our age lives in its busy
marts, in counting-rooms, in workshops, in homes, and in the varied
relations that form human society, and it is into these that sanctity
is to be introduced. St. Joseph stands forth as an excellent and
unsurpassed model of this type of perfection. These duties and these
opportunities must be made instrumental in sanctifying the soul. For
it is the difficulties and the hindrances that men find in their age
which give the form to their character and habits, and when mastered
become the means of divine grace and their titles to glory. Indicate
these, and you portray that type of sanctity in which the life of the
Church will find its actual and living expression.

"This, then, is the field of conquest for the heroic Christian of our
day. Out of the cares, toils, duties, afflictions, and responsibilities
of daily life are to be built the pillars of sanctity of the Stylites
of our age. This is the coming form of the triumph of Christian
virtue."

With all, moreover, Father Hecker insisted on the practice of the
natural virtues, honesty, temperance, truthfulness, kindliness.
courage, and manliness generally, as preceding any practical move
towards the higher life. He first explored the character and life of
his penitent in search of what natural power he had, and then
demanded its full exertion. He began with the natural man, and made
every supernatural force in the sacraments and prayer aid in
establishing and increasing natural virtue as a necessary preliminary
and ever-present accompaniment of supernatural progress. Perhaps
Father Hecker's antipathy to Calvinism sharpened his zeal for the
natural virtues, and strengthened his advocacy of human innocence.
The craving for the supernatural, he was convinced, would be strong
in proportion to the enlightenment of the natural reason; the need of
the grace of God is, of course, most urgent in a sinful state, but it
would be more quickly perceived in proportion to the possession of
natural virtue. As the exercise of reason is necessary to faith and
precedes its acts, so the integrity of natural virtue is the best
preparation for the grace of God. Many pages of _The Aspirations of
Nature,_ from which the following brief quotations are made, are
devoted to the dignity of humanity and the need of placing the
excellence of human nature in the foreground when considering how man
may attain to a high supernatural state:

"Every faculty of the soul, rightly exercised, leads to truth; every
instinct of our nature has an eternal destiny attached to it.
Catholicity finds its support in these and employs them in all her
developments."

"The Catholic religion is wonderfully calculated and adapted to call
forth, sustain, and perfect the tastes, propensities, and
peculiarities of human nature. And let no one venture to say that
these characteristics which are everywhere found among men are to be
repressed rather than encouraged. This is to despise human nature,
this is to mar the work of God. For are not these peculiarities
inborn? Are they not implanted in us by the hand of our Creator? Are
they not what go to constitute our very individuality?"

Humanity is a word of vague meaning to most ears, but to Father
Hecker its meaning was a living thing of value second only to
Christianity. Here is his summary of the relation of Catholicity to
human nature, taken from the same source as the foregoing:

"Catholicity is that religion which links itself to all the faculties
of the mind, appropriates all the instincts of human nature, and by
thus concurring with the work of the Creator affirms its own Divine
origin."

We give the following extracts from letters of spiritual advice, to
show Father Hecker's views of mortification:

"Exterior mortifications are aids to interior life. What we take from
the body we give to the spirit. If we will look at it closely,
two-thirds of our time is taken up with what we shall eat, and how we
shall sleep, and wherewithal we shall be clothed. Two-thirds of our
life and more is animal--including sleep. I do not despise the animal
in man, but I go in for fair play for the soul. The better part
should have the greater share. The right order of things has been
reversed: _con_-version is necessary. Read the lives of the old
Fathers of the Desert. They determined on leading a rational and
divine life. How little are they known or appreciated in our day!
Their lives are more interesting than a novel and stranger than a
romance."

"Self-love, self-activity, self-hood, is something not easily
destroyed. It is like a cancer which has its roots extending to the
most delicate fibres of our mental and moral nature. Divine grace can
draw them all out. But how slowly! And how exquisitely painful is the
process--the more subtle the self-love the more painful the cure."

"Never practise any mortification of a considerable character without
counsel. The devil, when he can no longer keep us back, aims at
driving us too far and too fast."

"How can the intellect be brought under direction of divine grace
except by reducing it to its nothingness?--and how can this be done
except by placing it in utter darkness? How can the heart be filled
with the spirit of divine love while it contains any other? How can
it be purified of all other inordinate love except by dryness and
bitterness? God wishes to fill our intelligence and our hearts with
divine light and love, and thus to deify our whole nature--to make us
one with what we represent--God. And how can He do this otherwise
than by removing from our soul and its faculties all that is contrary
to the divine order?"

"All your difficulties are favors from God; you see them on the wrong
side, and speak as the block of marble would while being chiselled by
the sculptor. When God purifies the soul, it cries out just like
little children do when their faces are washed. The soul's attention
must be withdrawn from external, created things and turned inward