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 i The Mission 1 
 
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 1 Contemplative Orders | 
 
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 Printed by the 
 Society oe the Divine Word, Techny, Illinois 
 
The Mission 
 
 of the 
 
 CONTEMPLATIVE ORDERS 
 
 HAT is the cause of the dearth 
 of vocations to the contemplative 
 orders? Is it not largely that this 
 life is not understood and not being un- 
 derstood cannot be appreciated and loved? 
 How can a youthful, enthusiastic soul who 
 feels within her the inspiration to give all 
 to God, who is glowing with ardor to de- 
 vote all to His service, — how can such a soul 
 be content to give herself to a life of ap- 
 parent inactivity, when there is so much 
 work to be done for God's cause? How, — 
 unless she grasps the deep truths under- 
 
— 4 — 
 
 lying the contemplative orders, unless she 
 is able to see the highest activity in repose. 
 
 We are sometimes told that members 
 of contemplative orders are leading use- 
 less, idle, and selfish lives; but it is a mis- 
 take to suppose that the highest usefulness 
 results from much occupation of hand or 
 much curiosity of mind, without regard to 
 the motive which prompts the labor, or to 
 the object which engages the attention. The 
 highest usefulness is rather spiritual than 
 physical, rather intellectual than corporal. 
 But then, it is the outcome of a mental 
 activity meditative, sacred, perfective, pray- 
 erful, not of a mental activity merely in- 
 formative, or subtle, or sceptical, or secular. 
 
 Of the thirty-three years of His mortal 
 life, our divine Saviour devoted but three 
 to the apostolate of teaching. During thirty 
 years He lived a hidden life of prayer, 
 penance, and manual labor; and yet He 
 came on earth to accomplish a stupendous 
 task, — nothing less than the conversion of 
 the world. And in the Blessed Sacrament 
 — the continuation until the end of time 
 of His life among us — how hidden, how 
 silent is He ! He does not preach from 
 the tabernacle in words of fire. He does 
 not hurl forth anathemas against the of- 
 
fending sinner, He is hidden, silent, sub- 
 missive; and yet what behever doubts 
 that the Httle white Host is the greatest 
 force in the world? There He offers Him- 
 self to His Father to avert His just anger 
 from a sinful world, there He makes repa- 
 ration for our sins, there He pleads for us 
 and obtains mercy and grace. This life — 
 His hidden life at Nazareth and His life 
 in the Blessed Sacrament — is at once the 
 model and the explanation of the contem- 
 plative life. 
 
 The Blessed Virgin Mary also reveals 
 to us the sublimity of this life and the 
 power it has with God; for He, who was 
 bounded only by His omnipotence, chose 
 for His blessed and most beloved Mother 
 a life hidden, retired, devoted to prayer. 
 The Gospel for the Office on the feast of 
 our blessed Lady's Assumption is the beau- 
 tiful narrative of our Saviour defending 
 Mary who sat at His feet while Martha 
 served. Why should this Gospel be chosen 
 for our blessed Mother's last and crowning 
 feast, unless to teach us that she, in a far 
 higher sense than that other Mary, had 
 ''chosen the better part/' 
 
 Many persons consider contemplation an 
 extremely dangerous and slippery subject, 
 
— G — 
 
 a sort of spiritual acrobatic feat to be ac- 
 complished with safety by a few chosen 
 souls only. Quite the contrary is the truth ; 
 if we were not a fallen race, contemplation 
 would be our proper element. We are 
 created to the image and likeness of God, 
 and our perfection consists in the closeness 
 of this resemblance. God's essential act is 
 the knowing and loving Himself, therefore 
 this same act — the knowing and loving God 
 — should be that most proper to us. As 
 the catechism teaches, we are ''created to 
 know, love and serve God/' but this know- 
 ing and loving Him is contemplation, ac- 
 cording to the definition of Dionysius the 
 Carthusian, contemplation is an ''immediate, 
 certain, and aflfectionate knowledge of God." 
 This same master has a beautiful passage 
 on the "perfection, end and beatitude of 
 the human soul.'' He tells us that he speaks 
 of a brave man as a lion, of a deceitful man 
 as a fox, and of a simple, innocent person 
 as a lamb, because the characteristic ac- 
 tions of these several persons resemble 
 those of the animals to which they are 
 likened. "Since, then, God's essential action 
 is the knowing and loving Himself, that 
 man I may dare to call divine whose sole 
 occupation is the knowing and loving God 
 as perfectly as possible." 
 
For another reason, also, is contempla- 
 tion the ''perfection, end and beatitude of 
 the human soul." It is the habitual state 
 of the blessed who see God face to face; 
 and, as God wills all to be saved, it is the 
 final destiny of every human soul. What 
 wonder, then, that there are some who 
 wish to begin here in the darkness of faith 
 what is to be their occupation for eternity 
 before the unveiled Vision. 
 
 That the contemplative orders have 
 their place in society, that they have their 
 part (and an important part) in the busi- 
 ness of the world, that they are of value 
 to the commonwealth, is lucidly set forth 
 in a work by Pere Coppin, C. SS. R., La 
 Vocation, The author tells us that the 
 sphere of action of a young woman who 
 remains in the world is necessarily limited, 
 no matter what her position; while if she 
 enter religion she becomes an instrument 
 in God's hands by means of which valu- 
 able services are rendered to the whole 
 human family. He continues : ''The first 
 service she renders the human race is that 
 of expiation. All who believe in God know 
 that such a thing as sin exists; sin, which 
 oflfends His supreme majesty. They also 
 know and acknowledge that sin requires 
 
expiation : that this expiation might be ade- 
 quate — equal to the offence — God has de- 
 manded it of the Incarnate Word, and He 
 has paid it by all the works of His mortal 
 life, — more particularly by His Passion and 
 death. The Redemption is the great and 
 'divine work of expiation. 
 
 ''This expiation of Christ is, indeed, 
 adequate, — even superabundant; but, still, 
 God demands something further : the fam- 
 ily, which forms a moral unity, must itself 
 expiate the sins, the disorders of its mem- 
 bers; society, especially when crimes are 
 multiplying in its bosom, must submit to 
 this law of expiation. 
 
 ''For the true Christian expiation is not 
 difficult, but where are they who are truly 
 penitent and accept all the trials of life 
 in reparation for their sins?" Yet, God's 
 mercy finds a way to save sinners : He 
 chooses certain souls to whom He commits 
 the work of expiation for the members of 
 their own families it may be, for their city, 
 their nation, and even for the whole world. 
 "Their vows, their austerities, their labors, 
 their tears, their supplications, — all this 
 performed in union with our Lord's expia- 
 tion satisfies the justice of God and obtains 
 mercy for a multitude of offenders, saving 
 
— 9 — 
 
 the family, saving society at large from 
 mmiberless chastisements. 
 
 ''You, parents, brothers, who would re- 
 strain a daughter or a sister when she 
 wishes to consecrate herself to God in a 
 religious order, little do you comprehend 
 that it is perhaps principally for your sake 
 that she is called. In the counsels of divine 
 mercy she is to be the expiator of your sins. 
 You should, then, rather press her to go: 
 your sins and those of the other members 
 of your family have caused the clouds of 
 divine vengeance to gather over your home ; 
 but God has had pity on you ; He wishes 
 that the purity, the prayers, the immolation 
 of your daughter be as a lightning-rod to 
 protect you from the bolts of His anger. 
 
 "O you who swallow sin like water, you 
 banish religious from their country or sub- 
 mit them to the burden of unjust legisla- 
 tion, but, take care! you are destroying 
 your spiritual ramparts, you dismiss an ar- 
 my of heroes at a time that the God of 
 justice is about to send against you His 
 legions of avenging angels! 
 
 " 'Woe to the world if there were no 
 religious,' said our Lord to St. Theresa. 
 'It cannot be doubted,' says Ruflfin, 'but that 
 it is through the merits of religious that 
 the world still exists.' 
 
— 10 — 
 
 ''To the question, of what use are the 
 austerities practised in some rehgious or- 
 ders, the Count de Maistre makes reply : 
 'One might as well ask, of what use is 
 Christianity, for they rest upon the same 
 principle: Innocence paying the penalty of 
 crime.' 
 
 "And you, young people, who feel with- 
 in you an attraction towards this life of 
 prayer and sacrifice, lift up your hearts, 
 deify your thoughts, that you may be able 
 to appreciate at its true value the holy vo- 
 cation for the cloister. If you are called, 
 you must enter religion — to fulfil God's 
 will, to glorify Him, to make sure your 
 salvation and to attain perfection; but you 
 must enter, also, for the sake of your par- 
 ents and brothers whom you leave in the 
 world, for the multitudes which surge, press 
 and defile themselves in those low earthly 
 valleys, whilst you pitch your tents on the 
 luminous heights of the Gospel. You owe 
 it to those sinners to become a victim of 
 penance and expiation; it is to you that 
 those words are addressed which our Lord 
 spoke to a certain saint: 'My life was but a 
 martyrdom, a cross, and this same life thou 
 shalt lead. Thou art united to Me, to live 
 and die as I did. Thou must consent to be 
 
oppressed by creatures, crucified by their 
 sins, but with the hope of washing them 
 away in My blood. My child, I am con- 
 strained to expiate sin, to appease my Fa- 
 ther, through thee and in union with thee/ 
 
 "The second means by which the nun 
 renders her life useful to society is prayer. 
 'What do those nuns, for what are they 
 good?' it is asked with contempt. 'Those 
 immovable figures in the sanctuary !' There 
 is perhaps no work more sublime than that 
 which these souls perform. 'They do well 
 who pray for those who do not pray.' — 
 Victor Hugo: Les Miserables, 
 
 "This young woman who has entered 
 the cloister is praying for those who do not I 
 pray at all or who do not pray enough. 
 In God's sight she represents the faithful j 
 whose hearts are often cold, unpraying ; 
 hearts, lacking the spirit of praise, of adora- i 
 tion; she stands before Him as their repre- 
 sentative, and the intensity of her interces- 
 sion makes up for their spiritual poverty. 
 
 "The heart of the consecrated virgin is 
 a living censer from which at every instant 
 escapes the incense of prayer; she prays, 
 she adores, she loves — for herself, doubt- 
 less, but also for her parents, brothers, sis- 
 ters, for her friends and for the whole 
 
— 12 — 
 
 world. She prays, she intercedes and she 
 obtains the grace of conversion for sinners, 
 the peace of God for the dying, resignation 
 for the poor, patience for the sick, a thou- 
 sand spiritual and temporal blessings for 
 her family. It would seem as thoiigh, when 
 Jesus unites Himself to a member of a fam- 
 ily by the strong, true, mysterious bonds of 
 religious profession. He enters into that 
 family, and its interests become His. We 
 shall meet in heaven many fathers and moth- 
 ers who owe their salvation to the prayers, 
 tears, works and immolations of one of 
 their children consecrated to God in the 
 religious state. 
 
 ''Cities, nations, society at large, receive 
 many choice gifts and graces from the di- 
 vine mercy, which they owe to the prayers 
 of religious. 
 
 ''But it is peculiarly the Church which 
 is so wonderously assisted by the prayers 
 and sacrifices of consecrated souls. On the 
 great day of divine revelation, when Truth 
 will stand unveiled before us in all her 
 purity, how different will the pages of his- 
 tory then appear! How many events, fav- 
 orable for the Church and her action, now 
 attributed to this or that great Christian 
 statesman or to a legislative assembly, to a 
 
— 13 — 
 
 writer, to an eminent bishop, or perhaps to 
 a pope, will be found to have had their 
 source in the prayers of a humble nun or 
 of several chosen souls whom God, without 
 their knowing it, has united by a bond of 
 prayer and sacrifice into a powerful and 
 glorious alliance ! 'Those who pray do more 
 than those who fight,' said a great states- 
 man, Donoso Cortes, 'If we could pene- 
 trate into the secrets of God and of history 
 we should be struck with admiration at 
 the wonderful efficacy of prayer, even in 
 temporal affairs/ Alany a humble and frail 
 young girl, who has given herself entirely 
 to God in religion, will appear to us on the 
 last day as a Deborah, an Ester, a Judith, 
 saving the new Israel; like another Jeanne 
 d'Arc, she fights against the enemies of 
 Christendom; not, indeed, with the sword 
 of battle but with that of prayer and sacri- 
 fice; and without being conscious of it, 
 gains glorious victories which the angels re- 
 cord on the pages of the eternal annals." * 
 We have at hand a splendid article by Rev. ' 
 Charles D. Plater, S. J., The. Social Value 
 of the Contemplative Life, which presents a 
 somewhat different aspect of the same point 
 of view ; viz., that of the usefulness of con- 
 templatives to their fellow-men. The author 
 
— 14 — 
 
 tells us that it is a principle beyond cavil 
 that ''Life should be social and not merely 
 individual. 'Service' must be the watch- 
 word of humanity: for in the due service 
 of others we shall find our truest selves." 
 And he sets before himself in this article 
 the task of refuting the false conclusion 
 too often drawn from this principle: that 
 the contemplative life cannot be justified, 
 because it is not of service to the communi- 
 ty. He continues: "But is the contemplative 
 life unsocial? At first sight it might well 
 appear to be so. It would seem to be a life 
 lost to society, a selfish withdrawal of 
 much-needed forces from the battlefield. 
 'How/ one is tempted to ask, 'can men and 
 women shut themselves up in convents 
 when the world is so full of misery and sin, 
 of wretchedness and despair?' The question 
 may come as a difficulty to the most zealous 
 and devoted souls; indeed, their very zeal 
 may add strength to the suggestion. They 
 are bent on the service of others. In this 
 they are Christlike and apostolic. But their 
 too ready acceptance of certain inadequate 
 views about human society leads them to 
 suppose that the contemplative life is un- 
 social. We believe them to be mistaken; 
 but the mistake is not an unnatural one for 
 
— 15 — 
 
 a zealous man to make in these busy days. 
 And as it lies at the bottom not only of diffi- 
 culties felt by Catholics, but of objections 
 brought by those outside the Church it will 
 repay a few moments' consideration. But 
 before we investigate the causes of the error 
 let us glance for a moment at its consequen- 
 ces. Were it to become generally accepted 
 amongst us that the contemplative life is 
 an unsocial and therefore an unjustifiable 
 life, the first result would be the emptying 
 of our monasteries, beginning with those en- 
 tirely devoted to contemplation. These horti 
 inclusi — enclosed gardens of God — oases in 
 a dusty world, would disappear. What 
 thinking man can contemplate the prospect 
 with equanimity? Indeed, the loss would 
 be a great one. In the first place there 
 would be the cessation of the homage of- 
 fered to God in these places : the stream of 
 adoring prayer which rises to Him unceas- 
 ingly. This point we shall not dw^ell on, 
 for we are thinking rather of the social 
 benefits of such institutions . . . . " • 
 
 If the contemplative orders were to 
 die out amongst us, a still greater calamity 
 would follow. For there must be in the 
 lives of each of us, if we are to live Chris- 
 tian lives at all, some element of contempla- 
 
— 16 — - 
 
 tion, of prayer and self-restraint. Now it 
 is clear that even a modicum of this neces- 
 sary element in our lives cannot well persist 
 unless there are in our midst men and wom- 
 en who are, so to say, specialists in con- 
 templation, to be our guides and our models. 
 Analogies might be multiplied. Here the 
 Platonic idea of the state proves illuminat- 
 ing. The state is the individual 'writ large,' 
 and any element of the single human life 
 must have its concrete embodiment in a 
 class to be found within the community. 
 And what would there be to save us from 
 our own egoism unless we had before our 
 eyes the spectacle of men and women 
 whose devotion to prayer and mortifica- 
 tion is complete. One of the most rousing 
 exhortations in a Kempis is the passage 
 where he tells the fainting Christian to 'ob- 
 serve the Carthusians, the Cistercians, and 
 the monks and solitaries of various orders, 
 how they do every night rise and sing 
 psalms to the Lord.' Nor can we neglect 
 the lesson : for, as the Abbe Guibert well 
 says, 'a Christianity without prayers and 
 without sacrifices would cease to be the 
 Christianity of the Gospel. Even if the 
 exterior cult were to remain, it would be 
 but a form of paganism, for it would be 
 
— 17 — 
 
 without action upon life/ To despise the 
 contemplative life is to cripple the Church 
 of God. 
 
 ''Whence, then, comes this under-valu- 
 ing of the contemplative life which is liable 
 to seize even upon zealous Catholics? It 
 comes, as we have said, from an inadequate 
 analysis of what is meant by social service. 
 For the contemplative life is emphatically 
 not an unsocial life. Quite apart from the 
 higher motives to which we have alluded, 
 our reason should tell us that in nature 
 herself we may find a defence of the con- 
 templative orders. 
 
 ''Let us come back to Plato's idea of 
 the State. The essential solidarity which 
 subsists between the members of any com- 
 munity, indeed between all members of the 
 human race, makes it clear to us that noth- 
 ing .is of so great social value as the de- 
 velopment of character in individuals. The 
 truly unsocial man is the man who, so to 
 say, lets his character evaporate in noisy 
 activity, in empty bustle, in self-seeking of 
 any kind: the man, for instance, whose 
 religion is, to use Faber's expression, in his 
 hands or his eyes rather than in his heart. 
 Such a one may have the appearance of 
 zeal, but he has not the reality. He may 
 
— 18 — 
 
 seem to be socially useful, but he is a mere 
 drone in the human hive. But the man 
 who in silence and solitude stores up in his 
 heart a great reservoir of character, or 
 driving power — call it what you will: — is 
 bound to effect the world precisely on ac- 
 count of this solidarity of which we speak. 
 The waters thus stored will irrigate the 
 world, while the man of pretences is but 
 paddling in his tiny puddle. The one is a 
 semblance, the other a reality. 
 
 'Semblance and reality! — Ex umbris et 
 imaginibus in veritatem/ This was ever 
 Plato's theme, and his mind (like New- 
 man's, in later times, keenly sensitive to 
 truth) would have welcomed the extension 
 which the Catholic Church has given to his 
 words in the writings of her saints and as- 
 cetics. She tells us the need of releasing 
 a few of our number from the serving of 
 tables, so that they may live always in the 
 sight of the spiritual realities, which our 
 own activity so often eclipses; that their 
 hearts may acquire an exquisite delicacy of 
 spiritual balance, and their minds range 
 freely amid the crags of contemplation of 
 which the rest of us get but an occasional 
 glimpse. Let no one say that such a Hfe 
 must needs be narrowing and cramping. It 
 
— 19 — 
 
 produces, of course, an unworldliness and 
 child-like simplicity which we may mistake 
 for narrowness; but we are blind indeed 
 if we cannot see what has become of the 
 energies which have been drawn off from 
 family cares and business responsibilities. 
 
 "If we are to do good to society we 
 must provide, not a crowd of superficial 
 busy-bodies, but a few men steeped and sa- 
 turated in the eternal truths The vitali- 
 ty of the few will raise the tone of the 
 whole languishing community. It is the elite 
 that tell. And why? Because they live an 
 intense life which increases the vitality of 
 those around them; because they represent 
 an idea, — and a man who represents an idea 
 is of the utmost social importance. After 
 all, it is a question of the division of labor; 
 if the social organism is to be complete it 
 must include a certain number of men set 
 apart to live the life of contemplation. 
 
 "We may add that, just as the justifica- 
 tion of contemplative orders on the familiar 
 principle of division of labor should com- 
 mend itself to all students of social develop- 
 ment, so the notion of a seeming inactivity 
 which is fraught with most momentous 
 practical consequences should be familiar to 
 all who have had some experience of life. 
 
— 20 — 
 
 They should not, therefore, find the notion 
 a stumbhng-block when they encounter it in 
 the CathoHc system." 
 
 The reverend author illustrates his point 
 with a passage from Monsignor Benson's 
 book, ''The Light Invisible/' He is describ- 
 ing the thoughts of one who, on seeing a 
 nun praying in a convent chapel, was 
 tempted to regret the seeming uselessness 
 and barrenness of the contemplative life. 
 We quote the passage. 
 
 ''After all it is essentially selfish, — it is 
 a sin against society. Possibly it was nec- 
 essary when the wickedness of the world 
 was more fierce, to protest against it by 
 this retirement ; but not now, not now ! 
 How can the lump be leavened if the leav- 
 en be withdrawn? How can a soul serve 
 God by forsaking the world which He made 
 and loves?'' 
 
 Then came a flash of insight: 
 
 "First I became aware suddenly that 
 there ran a vital connection from the Ta- 
 bernacle to the woman. You may think 
 of it as one of those bands you see in ma- 
 chinery connecting two wheels, so that 
 when one moves the other moves too. Or 
 you may think of it as an electric wire, 
 joining the instrument the telegraph opera- 
 
— 21 — 
 
 tor uses with the pointer at the other end. 
 At any rate there was this vital band or 
 wire of life. 
 
 ''Now in the Tabernacle I became aware 
 that there was a mighty stirring and move- 
 ment. Something within it beat like a vast 
 heart, and the vibrations of each pulse 
 seemed to quiver through all the ground. 
 Or you may picture it as the movement of 
 a clear, deep pool, when the basin that con- 
 tains it is jarred — it seemed like the move- 
 ment of circular ripples crossing and re- 
 crossing in swift thrills. 
 
 ''I was aware that the atmosphere was 
 charged with energy; great powers seemed 
 to be astir, and I to be close to the whirling 
 center of it all. Or think of it like this. 
 Have you ever had to wait in a city office? 
 If you have done that you will know how 
 intense quiet can co-exist with intense ac- 
 tivity. There are quiet figures here and 
 there around the room. Or it may be there 
 is only one such figure — a great financier — 
 and he sitting there almost motionless. Yet 
 you know that every movement tingles, as 
 it were, out from that still room all over 
 the world. You can picture to yourself 
 how people leap to obey or to resist — how 
 lives rise and fall, and fortunes are made 
 
— 22 — 
 
 and lost, at the gentle movements of this 
 lonely, quiet man in his office. Well, so it 
 was here. I perceived that this black figure 
 knelt at the center of reality and force, 
 and with the movements of her will and 
 lips controlled spiritual destinies for eter- 
 nity. There ran out from this peaceful 
 chapel lines of spiritual power that lost 
 themselves in the distance, bewildering in 
 their profusion and terrible in the intensity 
 of their hidden fire. Souls leaped up and 
 renewed the conflict as this tense will strove 
 for them. Souls even at that moment leav- 
 ing the body struggled from death into 
 spiritual life, and fell panting and at the 
 feet of the Redeemer on the other side of 
 death. Others, acquiescent and swooning 
 in sin, woke and snarled at the merciful 
 stab of this poor nun's prayer. . . .Yes, and 
 I in my stupid arrogance had thought that 
 my life was more active in God's world 
 than that of this nun, just as a shop-keeper, 
 bustling to and fro behind the counter, 
 might think, if only he were mad enough, 
 that his life was more active and alive than 
 the life of a director who sit at his table in 
 the city. Yes, that is a vulgar simile; but 
 the only one that I can think of which in 
 the least expresses what I knew to be true. 
 
— 23 — 
 
 There lay my little, foolish, narrow life be- 
 hind me, made up of spiritless prayers and 
 efforts and feeble dealings with souls; and 
 how complacent I had been with it all, how 
 self -centered, how out of the real tide of 
 spiritual movement! And meanwhile, for 
 years probably, this nun had toiled behind 
 these walls in the silence of grace, with the 
 hum of the world coming faintly to her 
 ears, and the cries of peoples and nations, 
 and the persons whom the world accounts 
 important, sounding like the voices of chil- 
 dren at play in the muddy street outside, 
 and indeed that is all that they are, com- 
 pared to her — children making mud-pies or 
 playing at shop outside the financier's ofifice." 
 
 Father Plater continues : ''This striking 
 attempt to visualize a great reality will ap- 
 peal in a special way to those who strive 
 after some picture, however inadequate, of 
 what Aristotle calls the 'activity of immo- 
 bility' .... The thought is one which serves 
 as a good corrective to the perplexing whirl 
 amid which so many active men are con- 
 demned to live. But we cannot develop 
 it here, for we are concerned rather with 
 a vindication of the contemplative life 
 which will appeal even to the utilitarian. 
 "We should be prepared to admit that 
 
— 24 — 
 
 the contemplative orders, if not useful, 
 were better abolished; but we should not 
 accept the narrow interpretation too often 
 given to the word ^useful'. The fact is 
 that the most severely enclosed orders have 
 their influence upon the life of the Church. 
 This has ever been recognized by their 
 founders, who take care to impress upon 
 their subjects that a monk who is not help- 
 ing the Church by his solitude had better 
 return to the world. 
 
 ''But how can a life seemingly shut off 
 from the world benefit mankind ? Our faith 
 and our experience both tell us that it in 
 fact does so ; and if we seek a reason in 
 philosophy, we shall find it in that dim .... 
 but most suggestive region of study which 
 deals with the interconnection of souls, and 
 with the influence of character and person- 
 ality upon bodies of men — with the essen- 
 tial oneness of the human family, and the 
 still more amazing oneness of the Com- 
 munion of Saints. .. .With faith and ex- 
 perience and philosophy to warn us, it were 
 surely the height of rashness to disparage 
 a member of the social body, the functions 
 of which may be shown to be so necessary 
 to the harmonious working of the whole. 
 
 ''It is, then, no merely speculative ques- 
 
tion that we have raised, but one of im- 
 mense practical importance. The future 
 success of Christianity may depend largely 
 upon the maintenance of the contemplative 
 orders. The forces of irreligion are gath- 
 ered thick and fast, and we shall need all 
 our strength to meet them. Can we, in the 
 struggle before us, afford to throw away 
 a most potent means of preserving the Cath- 
 olic spirit among our people and extending 
 its influence to those who are wandering in 
 darkness? Our reason as well as our faith 
 tells us that in the cloistered orders lies an 
 integral part of the Catholic organism; that 
 on them, perhaps no less than on the ac- 
 tivity of our preachers and teachers and 
 lecturers, we depend, under God, for suc- 
 cess in the ceaseless battle which the 
 Church is everywhere waging against infi- 
 delity and error.'' 
 
 The pious and learned Pere Berthie in 
 his reflections on the twenty-fourth psalm 
 has the following passage: believe that 
 in all ages of the Church it is prayer alone 
 that has converted the impious and heretics. 
 In so unbelieving a century as ours, it 
 would be a wise course on the part of pas- 
 tors to recommend to their faithful sheep 
 the conversion of the impious. If solitaries. 
 
— 20 — 
 
 virgins separated from the woild, fervent 
 ecclesiastics, the just in every state of life, 
 would offer their good works for this in- 
 tention, I cannot doubt but that it would 
 result in turning very many to the path of 
 salvation/' 
 
 Father Faber writes in ''All for Jesus'' : 
 ''In many a convent, among porters and 
 lay-brothers, there may turn out, when Je- 
 sus makes all things straight at the last, to 
 have been many a Francis Xavier, many a 
 Father Claver, many a St. Charles for re- 
 forming the clergy, a St. Thomas for writ- 
 ing books, and a St. Vincent of Paul for 
 working the interests of Jesus in the towns 
 and amid the country poor." 
 
 In the Life of St. Alphonsus Liguori we 
 read that having been made Bishop of the 
 diocese of St. Agatha, he found his flock in 
 a deplorable condition; vice was rampant 
 and scandals multiplied. The saint had tried 
 every means in his power, but in vain. He 
 then determined to establish his order of 
 Redemptorist nuns. "If we succeed in the 
 foundation of a convent of the Most Holy 
 Redeemer," he said, "the edification which 
 these holy nuns will give will make their 
 house the precious gem not only of the city 
 and diocese but of the whole province." — 
 
— 27 — 
 
 "If this convent/' he said on another occa- 
 sion, ''does not give another aspect to our 
 city, then, in my opinion, we may give up 
 all hope of converting it." Thus did this 
 great saint and active apostle value lives 
 separated from the world and devoted to 
 prayer and penance. 
 
 Bishop Hedley, in a meditation on the 
 Hidden Life of our Saviour, writes as fol- 
 lows : ''We know very well that the virtues 
 of our Blessed Lord's life are the virtues 
 that will best of all sanctify our own souls. 
 But what we have to be persuaded of — 
 thoroughly and warmly persuaded of — is, 
 that they are also the generating forces of 
 His kingdom." 
 
 It is character that counts and the per- 
 fection of our character consists in union 
 with God. Bishop Hedley continues : "The 
 imitator of Jesus sees that, except through 
 that loving union with God which draws 
 down grace, nothing can be effected either 
 in one's own soul or in the world. Thus the 
 apparent success of one's own eloquence, 
 persuasiveness or skill, is often only ap- 
 parent, not real — quite short-lived and un- 
 important ; whereas the success which flows 
 from the action of the hidden spiritual 
 heart of a true servant of God is as certain 
 
— 28 — 
 
 and solid as the promises of God — though 
 we, perhaps, may never see it come to pass. 
 
 And as for results, when one knows 
 
 that an immediate success is often a dis- 
 guised failure, and that, on the other hand, 
 the prayer, or the suffering, or the prayer- 
 ful activity of the truly hidden heart is as 
 infallibly certain of result, somewhere in 
 God's wide kingdom, as the circles on the 
 water after the fall of the stone, one heeds 
 but little what short-sighted persons christ- 
 en failure or success.'' 
 
 Pere Coppin, in the work quoted above, 
 gives it as his opinion that in those apos- 
 tolic laborers who were also contemplatives ; 
 as St. Bernard, St. Alphonsus Liguori, it 
 was ''their intercession, their penance, their 
 union with God, that was their greatest 
 apostolic force in leading souls to God." 
 ''This is the greatest apostolic power in the 
 Church." Even under the Old Law we find 
 numerous examples to prove how powerful 
 is the prayer of the just man. Moses, inter- 
 ceding for his people who had fallen into 
 idolatry, overcame the anger of God which 
 sought to destroy them. The Lord prom- 
 ised Abraham that if but ten just men were 
 found in Sodom, He would not destroy the 
 wicked city. And so might instances be 
 
— 29 — 
 
 multiplied. To return to our own times : 
 it has been said of St. Theresa that she 
 won as many souls for God as did St. 
 Francis Xavier. In the Life of St. Gertrude 
 we read that having seen by revelation the 
 sad state of a certain soul in purgatory, 
 she begged mercy for that soul. ''O Lord/' 
 she said, 'Svilt Thou not yield to my sup- 
 plication, and pardon this soul?" Our Lord 
 replied in accents of great tenderness, ''For 
 love of thee I will have compassion, not 
 on this soul only, but also on a thousand 
 others." There are numerous examples in 
 the lives of the saints and of holy souls of 
 their imploring, insisting on, and obtaining 
 pardon for hardened sinners, release for 
 the' souls in purgatory, etc. Our Lord once 
 said to Venerable Anne of St. Bartholomew, 
 Carmelite, "My daughter, by your humility 
 and your prayer you have been one of the 
 pillars of My Church." 
 
 In itself the contemplative life is more 
 perfect than the active life ; it is the part of 
 Mary, — the ''better part," as our Lord Him- 
 self said ; but it is also, speaking generally, 
 the life in which the soul most easily and 
 most speedily reaches perfection and reaches 
 a higher degree of perfection — union with 
 God. The hidden, interior life consists in 
 
— 30 — 
 
 ''that which is the only end, the only act, 
 the only state, for which the soul was crea- 
 ted; that is to say the loving worship of its 
 God. This is essential perfection — the more 
 or less continuous and intense exercise of 
 the act of charity. This it is which sancti- 
 i fies, and which also leads to success.'' — 
 I Bishop Hedley. This is the most powerful 
 I force in the world's conversion. Our Lord 
 says : " .... he that abideth in me, and I in 
 him, the same beareth much fruit : for with- 
 out me you can do nothing. If you abide in 
 me, and my words abide in you, you shall 
 ask whatever you will, and it shall be done 
 junto you." ( St. John, Chap. XV. ) 
 
 The strict enclosure which is the rule in 
 contemplative orders shields the religious 
 from the dangers and allurements of the 
 world; while the life of prayer and recol- 
 lection brings the soul into constant inter- 
 course with God. As a recent spiritual 
 writer has well said : "Among all the means 
 placed at our disposal to facilitate the flight 
 of the soul towards God and to accomplish 
 more perfectly her union with the Sover- 
 eign Good, none is better or more excellent 
 than prayer. It is in this sense that our 
 Lord gives the preference to the contempla- 
 tive life, from which spring those acts 
 
— 31 — 
 
 which bring the soul into immediate inter- 
 course with her God and of which Mary 
 is considered the model and type." 
 
 But above all, it is conformity of our 
 will with the will of God in which union 
 with God essentially consists ; and it is par- 
 ticularly by a life of seclusion and recol- 
 lection that the soul learns to conform her 
 will entirely to the divine Will, learns to 
 listen to, and to follow all the interior in- 
 spirations of the Holy Ghost. And will 
 our Lord be outdone in generosity? When 
 He finds a soul entirely given up to Him — 
 a soul that seeks only to please Him and 
 makes all His interests her own — is it pos- 
 sible that He will not in return show Him- 
 self favorable to all her prayers or even 
 her mere desires? It is told of one of the 
 saints, that many persons came to beg her 
 prayers, for it was well known that they 
 were always granted. But she, being al- 
 ways immersed in contemplation, forgot all 
 about her clients, and was very much as- 
 tonished when they came back to thank her 
 for the favors they had received through 
 her prayers. She spoke of this to her heav- 
 enly Bridegroom and received the answer: 
 ''Daughter, your will is always and only 
 to do My will, and I will never let you 
 
— 82 — 
 
 vanquish Me in love; and, therefore, My 
 will is to do your will, even when you have 
 forgotten that you ever willed it." Is not 
 this power over the Sacred Heart, this 
 power which may be used for the good of 
 others, one of the strongest motives for 
 inducing a soul to seek to sanctify herself, 
 — to give herself up without reserve to the 
 Divine Will? 
 
 One sometimes meets the objection, that, 
 while it is true that the contemplative life 
 is more perfect than the active, the com- 
 bination of both is the most perfect. 
 Granted, — but where will we find the soul 
 able to combine them ? In the Mystical City, 
 Mary of Agreda, raised as she was to rare 
 heights of ecstatic contemplation, writes: 
 "In the union of these two modes of life 
 (the active and contemplative) is the apex 
 of Christian perfection. But it is very dif- 
 ficult for one and the same person to unite 
 them simultaneously and in a perfect degree. 
 Many saints have indeed made great efforts 
 to reach this end; the teaching of masters 
 in the spiritual life has the same aim, as 
 have also the exhortations of learned, apos- 
 tolic men and the example of the Apostles 
 and of the founders of religious orders. 
 They have all tried, as far as God's grace 
 
— 33 — 
 
 enabled them to do so, to unite the contem- 
 plative with the active life; but they have 
 ever acknowledged that, as our Lord said 
 to Martha, the active life with its manifold 
 occupations of body and mind, disturbs and 
 disquiets the heart. The Blessed Virgin 
 Mary alone united these lives in the highest 
 degree of perfection. With her the most 
 exalted contemplation was not in the least 
 disturbed by exterior works. In her was 
 found Martha's care, but without her dis- 
 quietude; and also the repose of Mary, but 
 
 I without her inactivity." 
 But there is another aspect of the sub- 
 ject which should be dwelt upon: it is, if 
 we may so speak, God's side of the question. 
 Even among good people, how small a part 
 of their service of God is devoted to thanks- 
 giving, praise, adoration! They pray for 
 themselves and they pray for others, they 
 petition for blessings of soul and body, they 
 beg for the things of time and for those of 
 eternity, but how fervent are their thanks- 
 givings and how much time do they occupy ? 
 God is our Creator and our Father, to whom 
 are due our constant and most fervent praise 
 and adoration, but how many think of that 
 at all? Creation exists to give glory to its 
 Creator, but how does it fulfil this duty? 
 
— 34 — 
 
 From numberless haunts of vice the foul 
 stench of corruption daily, hourly, rises; 
 and should there be no houses set apart from 
 which the pure incense of praise is constant- 
 ly going up to the throne of the Most High ? 
 no lives dedicated solely to the worship of 
 their Creator? On how many altars is Jesus 
 in the Blessed Sacrament neglected and for- 
 gotten ; in how many country chapels and 
 small churches are the doors locked after 
 Mass, and that loving Heart is left to spend 
 the long hours of the day and night alone ! 
 And even in the crowded city, of the throngs 
 that surge past His door, how many turn 
 aside to exchange a few words with this most 
 faithful Friend? But worse than this neg- 
 lect are the blasphemies, sacrileges, and out- 
 rages committed against Him in this His 
 Sacrament of Love. For all this souls con- 
 secrated to a life of prayer must console 
 Him by their devotedness. In many com- 
 munities of contemplatives is perpetual ad- 
 oration of the Blessed Sacrament kept up, 
 their members ever hovering about the tab- 
 ernacle offering their hearts in reparation 
 for the coldness and indifference too often 
 received. If the contemplative orders had 
 no other purpose than that of praise and ad- 
 oration, if their members spent their whole 
 
— 35 — 
 
 time in giving to the Creator the worship 
 and thanksgiving of which the world at large 
 robs Him, their existence would be justified. 
 In a sermon delivered in defense of contem- 
 plative orders, Cardinal Mermillod said: 
 ''Every human need has a consoling angel 
 to minister to it. For sickness there is the 
 Sister of Charity; for old age, the Little 
 Sister of the Poor ; for helpless infancy and 
 for ignorance there are the members of the 
 many active communities which we see mul- 
 tiplying every day. And would you not 
 allow your Jesus to keep near Him a few 
 poor little Sisters to compassionate the sor 
 rows of His Heart wounded by our sins?" 
 On another occasion the same Cardinal said : 
 ''May the Bishops protect the Marys of the 
 cloister : those under the mantle of St. The- 
 resa or St. Clare as also those adorers of 
 every name who night and day tarry at 
 the feet of Christ pouring out their fra- 
 grant ointments, their tears, the affections 
 of their hearts; giving Him with never- 
 failing tenderness the love of a virgin and 
 spouse. O harmony between heaven and 
 earth, union of souls, communion of saints ! 
 . . . .Who will tell the history of the pray- 
 ers, the holocausts of penance, the never- 
 ceasing canticles, which now, more than 
 
— so- 
 
 ever, are necessary to disarm divine Justice 
 and to raise humanity from the decadence 
 into which it is falHng." 
 
 Moreover: ''This is the v^ill of God; 
 your sanctification." All created things 
 strive consciously or unconsciously toward 
 the perfection of their being. We see this 
 in the material world about us, in nature ; 
 in the world of intellect; and is the spirit 
 alone to be neglected? Reverend H. E. 
 O'Keeffe, C. S. P., in an article on the con- 
 templative life recently published in the 
 Missionary, says: ''But the spiritual per- 
 fection of the individual is of much more 
 import than the perpetuity of the whole 
 race. The perfection of one finely heroic 
 spirit is of infinitely more worth than the 
 propagation of innumerable ordinary types 
 of the race." "....how superficial is the 
 view which considers that the life of the 
 spirit is a narrow, selfish and barren life." 
 
 In regard to the rewards of a spiritual, 
 interior life, even here below, the saints tell 
 us that they are beyond all power of 
 description, beyond anything the carnal 
 man can imagine or dream of. St. John 
 of the Cross tells us, that, when the soul 
 has caught but a glimpse (in contemplation) 
 of the beauty and sublimity of God, she 
 
— 37 — 
 
 would not only gladly die to be able to 
 enjoy Him eternally, she would even joy- 
 fully undergo a thousand times the bitter- 
 est form of death to catch but another mo- 
 mentary glimpse of Him. (Spiritual Can- 
 ticle, strophe XL) St. Theresa writes to 
 the same effect. These are the experiences 
 of saints, but even in a much lower stage 
 of the spiritual life the peace and happiness 
 of those who make God their all is far be- 
 yond anything the world can bestow. 
 
 It is a common mistake to suppose that 
 members of contemplative orders have 
 nothing to do but to remain on their knees 
 all day in prayer. Although the greater 
 part of the time is ordinarily devoted to 
 mental prayer and the chanting of the Di- 
 vine Office, nevertheless, in imitation of 
 our Saviour's hidden life at Nazareth, many 
 hours are spent in work; often, particularly 
 in orders like the Poor Clares and Trap- 
 pists who have no lay-sisters, in the most 
 laborious and menial house and garden 
 work. And it is frequently found to be 
 just those who were of the highest rank 
 in the world who are most eager to under- 
 take the lowliest and most fatiguing tasks. 
 We read of St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi * 
 that she performed as much work as four 
 lay-sisters. Blessed Magdalene Martinengo, 
 daughter of the ancient family of the counts 
 
— 88 — 
 
 of Martinengo, and possessed of great 
 wealth, having become a member of the 
 Order of Poor Clares, did the cooking for 
 her monastery and worked at the most la- 
 borious tasks, so that often in the evening 
 she could scarcely reach her cell so great 
 was her fatigue. Mother Mary Theresa, 
 foundress of the Congregation of the Ado- 
 ration of Reparation, writes as follows con- 
 cerning her Institute : 'Xabor is a divine 
 precept, the first reparation demanded by 
 God of the sinner. Labor regenerates man ; 
 it strengthens his faculties without satisfy- 
 ing his evil tendencies ; it extinguishes con- 
 cupiscence without ruining the body; it 
 mortifies corrupt instincts without exalting 
 self-love. A life of labor, to accomplish the 
 precept of penance, appears to me to be far 
 preferable to the austerities invented by 
 fervour. O, how much better I love to see 
 my sisters washing the linen,. .. .than if 
 they had lay-sisters to serve them, so that 
 they might occupy themselves in doing pen- 
 ance ! . . . . How I love to say to those who 
 ask me, 'How do you live?', *We live ex- 
 actly like poor work-women.' This life 
 agrees with all healths, all characters, and 
 all educations. Jesus made Himself all to 
 all; His daily life should be imitated by 
 great numbers, and yet that life is con- 
 temned by even the good ; . . . . and I have 
 loved it, as I consider it the most effica- 
 
— 39 — 
 
 cious means of bringing men back to the 
 belief that evangehcal simpHcity is not a 
 mere fable." 
 
 Work is a penance ; it was imposed upon 
 our first parents after the fall, and it is in 
 this spirit that souls vowed to the interests 
 of Jesus undertake these common and lowly 
 tasks. As Bishop Hedley says: ''It is one 
 of the conditions of sanctification and of 
 success.'' This work would be of small im- 
 portance if it were not for the spirit which 
 animates it. It is not the exterior action 
 that makes one great in God's sight, it is 
 the love with which it is performed. St. 
 Thomas of Villanova says : ''The Lord does 
 not look at the greatness of the act, but at 
 the intention ; He does not consider the 
 work, but the love put into it; He does not 
 regard the greatness of your effort, but the 
 intensity of your love. In the judgment 
 of Christ, the widow who cast two mites 
 into the treasury of the temple gave more 
 than all the rest because her love was great- 
 er. Mary without Martha can please God, 
 but Martha without Mary can never please 
 Him. The contemplative life, even if ex- 
 ternal good works be wanting to it, is very 
 pleasing to God ; but external activity with- 
 out the contemplative or interior life is 
 never pleasing to Him, for these are works 
 without spirit, force and value." The in- 
 terior soul knows how to sanctify the mean- 
 
— 40 — 
 
 est employment. By the perfect fulfilment 
 of her vow of obedience she is sure of do- 
 ing at each moment the will of God; by 
 purity of intention and by uniting her work 
 with the humble toil of our divine Saviour 
 at Nazareth she can make each action of 
 great value in the eyes of God, who regards 
 the heart rather than the deed; and by the 
 practice of the presence of God and by fre- 
 quent elevations of the heart toward Him 
 she can make her work a continuous prayer. 
 
 There are those who think that the con- 
 templative life is not suited to our times 
 and particularly to our country. Hear what 
 Pius IX said on that subject: *'The want 
 of the American Church is religious orders 
 of prayer. America is a young country; she 
 has passed her infancy and is now in her 
 youth, but before she arrives at maturity 
 one thing is necessary, — the extension of 
 contemplative orders, without which she will 
 never reach perfection." Father Hecker, 
 founder of the Paulist Fathers, whose spe- 
 cial vocation lies in the region of zealous 
 activity for the conversion of souls, is 
 quoted as saying: ''It (the contemplative 
 life) is the only counterweight that can 
 keep this head-long activity of our genera- 
 tion from ending in irreligion and its own 
 destruction.'' 
 
 Reverend Father O'Keeffe, C. S. P., in 
 the article quoted above, writes: "It is a 
 
— 41 — 
 
 portent of moral decadence when the me- 
 ditative spirit reigns not in the heart of a 
 nation." "It is the culture of the spiritual 
 sense which will lend beauty and dignity 
 to our national life. It is the interior life 
 which will give birth to heroes, saints and 
 poets in our young republic. We need the 
 contemplative life as a protest to our in- 
 tense and thoughtless activity. We need it 
 as a counter-irritant to the vulgarity and 
 frivolity which is consequent upon our 
 marvelous material prosperity. The moral 
 effectiveness of a spiritual system is meas- 
 ured by its authority to uphold the highest 
 religious ideals. When the vision dies the 
 people perish." 
 
 The strict enclosure and particularly 
 the grille are to many a serious stumbling- 
 block. But as Gautrelet says, while noth- 
 ing is harder for the mother than the grille, 
 ''nothing so pleases her who has heard the 
 voice of her heavenly Bridegroom as this 
 same grille, which, indeed, separates her 
 from what she loves most upon earth, but 
 only to unite her to Him Whom she loves 
 above all, — Jesus Christ. She has the hap- 
 piness of giving all, giving without reserve 
 and without measure." He further says 
 in effect, that the intention of the Church 
 in making the law of enclosure was, and is, 
 to unite the soul more intimately with God, 
 which is the end of the religious profes- 
 
sion. This union cannot be effected until 
 the natural inclinations are subdued ; and, 
 ''In order to subdue nature, recollection 
 of spirit and dominion over oneself are nec- 
 essary/' Enclosure is the means the Church 
 has chosen as being eminently adapted to 
 form and preserve this spirit of recollec- 
 tion; ''....this law of enclosure which is 
 placed before the soul as a wall of defence 
 against the outer world and against a 
 worldly life.'' — Gautrelet, S. J., Traite de 
 Vetat religieux. 
 
 Mary of Agreda, who was taught by the 
 Blessed Virgin herself, received from her 
 the following instruction concerning the 
 vow of enclosure. "The vow of enclosure 
 is the rampart of chastity and of all virtues. 
 .... By this vow virgins live in a safe port 
 while other souls, tossed about by danger- 
 ous storms, are at every instant in danger 
 of perishing. When one considers advan- 
 tages so great, the enclosure does not seem 
 to be in truth a narrow place, for within it 
 the religious finds spread out before him 
 the vast field of virtue, of the knowledge 
 of God, of His infinite perfections, of the 
 mysteries and wonders which He has 
 wrought and ever will work in favor of 
 mankind. Over these extended fields, 
 through these wide meadows, the soul may, 
 and must, roam and recreate herself ; and 
 only to those who refuse to do this does 
 
— 43 — 
 
 the most perfect freedom seem a narrow 
 prison." 
 
 In regard to a vocation to a contempla- 
 tive order, we quote the following extracts 
 from Pere Coppin, C. SS. R., La Vocation. 
 
 ''When one perceives signs of a vocation 
 for the contemplative life, one must not im- 
 mediately reject this desire on the pretext 
 that now-a-days there is more need of 
 workers, and that as the young person in 
 question is possessed of certain talents she 
 should not bury them in the tomb of the 
 cloister. From tombs of this sort, as from 
 those of the martyrs, come forth life, that 
 life, that divine vitality from which Chris- 
 tians are born. Unable to cast out the de- 
 mon from the lunatic child, the Apostles 
 asked our Lord the reason of their inability 
 to do so. Because of your unbelief, replies 
 the Saviour. For, Amen I say to you, if 
 you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, 
 you shall say to this mountain, Remove from 
 hence hither, and it shall remove ; and noth- 
 ing shall be impossible to you. But this 
 kind is not cast out but by prayer and fast- 
 ing. (Alark, Chap. IX.) Human society is 
 today more than ever haunted (we are 
 tempted to say, possessed) by these evil 
 spirits. . . .and they must be driven out by 
 powerful intercession, austere penance and 
 by that lively faith which moves mountains ; 
 and in contemplative orders especially do 
 
— 44 — 
 
 we find this triple and all-powerful mode of 
 exorcism/' 
 
 Moreover, in the choice between a con- 
 templative and an active order, one must 
 above all endeavor to learn the will of God 
 in one's regard. To ascertain the divine will 
 in this matter one must carefully study 
 one's interior attractions and one's apti- 
 tudes. 
 
 ''But a certain natural inclination toward 
 a calm, retired and peaceful life should not 
 be taken for a supernatural attraction. This 
 is more exalted ; it is, as it were, a need 
 of the soul, which feels that she must belong 
 entirely to Jesus, must please Him alone, 
 must occupy herself with Him alone, by liv- 
 ing entirely for Him, by praying and im- 
 molating herself with Him. 
 
 ''When entering a contemplative order, 
 it is above all necessary that one should be 
 determined to give oneself entirely to God, 
 to the work of one's sanctification and to 
 the salvation of souls. 'That which results 
 in bad or mediocre priests,' says Lacodaire, 
 'is the entering the sacerdotal state with any 
 other thought than that of sacrificing one- 
 self. . . .all else can be repaired or corrected 
 except this "original sin." ' 
 
 "The same may be said of religious and 
 above all of contemplative religious. Those 
 become bad or mediocre who, at their en- 
 trance into religion, do not realize that the 
 
— 45 — 
 
 soul must belong entirely to God .... that 
 the Christian called to be a chosen soldier 
 of Christ must glory and rejoice in dying 
 with Christ for souls. 
 
 ''True, these thoughts need not have 
 completely mastered the soul, still less, have 
 passed into her feelings, .... but it is at 
 least necessary that they should have be- 
 gun to dawn upon the spiritual horizon of 
 the soul and that she should experience the 
 incipient desire of corresponding with them. 
 The grace of vocation and all the spiritual 
 helps of the life of the cloister will do 
 the rest." 
 
 In regard to aptitude, a well-balanced 
 mind, not much dominated by the imagina- 
 tion; a cheerful, amiable disposition; an at- 
 traction to mortification, exterior and in- 
 terior; and a propensity for prayer, joined 
 with fairly good health — these are in gen- 
 eral the requisites, although in individual 
 cases one or the other may be wanting and 
 the vocation be, nevertheless, a true and 
 solid one. 
 
 Self -centered characters, who view all 
 things by the light of self-interest, whose 
 minds seem to be incapable of moving out- 
 side the narrow circle of their bodily ail- 
 ments or mental troubles, such characters 
 are quite unfit for the contemplative life; 
 they need a life of exterior activity which 
 will take their thoughts away from self. 
 
— 4G — 
 
 Also persons much given to seeking out- 
 ward consolation, who must tell everyone 
 they meet all that befalls them and ask a 
 word of comfort or advice, such souls can 
 do incalculable harm in a contemplative or- 
 der by destroying the peace and recollection 
 of the whole house. 
 
 But when assured of one's vocation to 
 a contemplative order, one must be firm, 
 and must courageously overcome all obsta- 
 cles from what side soever. Ponder well 
 these words of our Lord : 
 
 If any man come to me, and hate not 
 his father, and mother, and wife, and child- 
 ren, and brethern and sisters, yea and his 
 own life also, he cannot be my disciple. 
 
 And whosoever doth not carry his cross 
 and come after me, cannot be my disciple. 
 (Luke XIV.) 
 
 I came not to send peace, but the sword. 
 (Matt. X.) 
 
 No man putting his hand to the plough, 
 and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of 
 God. (Luke IX.) _ 
 
 Many communities of contemplatives do 
 not accept endownments or require large 
 dowries, but live on alms, the more per- 
 fectly to practice evangelical poverty. While 
 this is a great advantage to many a young 
 woman who would find it impossible to 
 follow the call of God if a large dowry 
 were demanded of her, it is, on the other 
 
— 47 — 
 
 hand, sometimes found to be a serious ob- 
 stacle in the minds of certain very good 
 persons who would like to see a community 
 of contemplative nuns established in their 
 midst, if — it did not require anything for 
 its support! If these persons believe in the 
 work of contemplative orders why are they 
 not as willing to support them as they are 
 any other charity? And how can the mem- 
 bers of these orders give themselves to the 
 performance of their proper duty of prayer 
 if they must employ all their time and efforts 
 in gaining a livelihood? St. Theresa, who 
 met with this difficulty when founding the 
 first convent of her reform, says in her Life 
 that she was astonished to see what mis- 
 chief the devil was able to do against a 
 few poor women, and how all the people 
 could imagine that twelve women leading 
 an austere life could be so injurious to the 
 city. She was warned by St. Peter of Al- 
 cantara not to accept an endowment, and 
 she states that she found afterwards that 
 those monasteries which she erected with- 
 out endowments enjoyed greater protec- 
 tion from God and suffered less want than 
 did the others. 
 
 It requires so little for the support of 
 a few austere nuns, that no one need ima- 
 gine that other works of zeal or charity 
 suffer from it. On the contrary, aside 
 from the spiritual blessings which flow 
 
— 48 — 
 
 from the presence of such a monastery 
 in a city or diocese, many good Christians 
 are sincerely pleased when extern-sisters 
 from these communities knock at their 
 doors. The presence of these Sisters and 
 the purpose for which they make their ap- 
 peal raise the thoughts of their benefactors 
 above the material and temporal affairs 
 that make up their daily lives, and renew 
 their faith and confidence in the power of 
 prayer; while they are glad to be able by 
 their .offerings to share in the prayers and 
 sacrifices of the community, the efficacy of 
 which they have many times experienced. 
 Nor is this all, — to many a sorrowing heart 
 has the sympathy of the humble extern- 
 Sisters into whose ears they pour their 
 troubles, brought peace and consolation. 
 Many a sinner have they been able to re- 
 claim, more than once a death-bed to 
 smooth, as they make their rounds asking 
 for aid for the monastery they serve. 
 
 The Catholic directory shows a number 
 of contemplative communities in this coun- 
 try. The Carmelites and Poor Clares each 
 have a number of houses; there are also 
 the Dominicans, Precious Blood Nuns and 
 others. May this little article serve to in- 
 crease their number!