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"Nothing is so beautiful as a pure soul. If we understood this, we could not lose our purity. The pure soul is disengaged from matter, from earthly things, and from itself. . . . That is why the saints ill-treated their body, that is why they did not grant it what it required, not even to rise five minutes later, to warm themselves, to eat anything that gave them pleasure. . . . For what the body loses the soul gains, and what the body gains the soul loses.

Purity comes from Heaven; we must ask for it from God. If we ask for it, we shall obtain it. We must take great care not to lose it. We must shut our heart against pride, against sensuality, and all the other passions, as one shuts the doors and windows that nobody may be able to get in. What joy is it to the guardian angel to conduct a pure soul! My children, when a soul is pure, all Heaven looks upon it with love! Pure souls will form the circle round Our Lord. The more pure we have been on earth, the nearer we shall be to Him in Heaven. When the heart is pure, it cannot help loving, because it has found the source of love, which is God. "Happy, " says Our Lord, "are the pure in heart, because they shall see God!"

My children, we cannot comprehend the power that a pure soul has over the good God. It is not he who does the will of God, it is God who does his will. Look at Moses, that very pure soul. When God would punish the Jewish people, He said to him: Do not pray for them, because My anger must fall upon this people. Nevertheless, Moses prayed, and God spared His people; He let Himself be entreated; He could not resist the prayer of that pure soul. O my children, a soul that has never been stained by that accursed sin obtains from God whatever it wishes!

Three things are wanted to preserve purity - the presence of God, prayer, and the Sacraments. Another means is the reading of holy books, which nourishes the soul. How beautiful is a pure soul! Our Lord showed one to St. Catherine; she thought it so beautiful that she said, "O Lord, if I did not know that there is only one God, I should think it was one. " The image of God is reflected in a pure soul, like the sun in the water. A pure soul is the admiration of the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The Father contemplates His work: There is My creature! . . . The Son, the price of His Blood: the beauty of an object is shown by the price it has cost. . . . The Holy Spirit dwells in it, as in a temple.

We also know the value of our soul by the efforts the devil makes to ruin it. Hell is leagued against it - Heaven for it. Oh, how great it must be! In order to have an idea of our dignity, we must often think of Heaven, Calvary, and Hell. If we could understand what it is to be the child of God, we could not do evil - we should be like angels on earth. To be children of God, oh, what a dignity!

It is a beautiful thing to have a heart, and, little as it is, to be able to make use of it in loving God. How shameful it is that man should descend so low, when God has placed him so high! When the angels had revolted against God, this God who is so good, seeing that they could no longer enjoy the happiness for which He had created them, made man, and this little world that we see to nourish his body. But his soul required to be nourished also; and as nothing created can feed the soul, which is a spirit, God willed to give Himself for its Food. But the great misfortune is that we neglect to have recourse to this divine Food, in crossing the desert of this life. Like people who die of hunger within sight of a well-provided table, there are some who remain fifty, sixty years, without feeding their souls.

Oh, if Christians could understand the language of Our Lord, who says to them, "Notwithstanding thy misery, I wish to see near Me that beautiful soul which I created for Myself. I made it so great, that nothing can fill it but Myself. I made it so pure, that nothing but My Body can nourish it. "

Our Lord has always distinguished Pure souls. Look at St. John, the well-beloved disciple, who reposed upon His breast. St. Catherine was pure, and she was often transported into Paradise. When she died, angels took up her body, and carried it to Mount Sinai, where Moses had received the Commandments of the law. God has shown by this prodigy that a soul is so agreeable to Him, that it deserves that even the body which has participated in its purity should be buried by angels.

God contemplates a pure soul with love; He grants it all its desires. How could He refuse anything to a soul that lives only for Him, by Him, and in Him? It seeks God, and He shows Himself to it; it calls Him, and God comes; it is one with Him; it captivates His will. A pure soul is all-powerful with the gracious Heart of Our Lord. A pure soul with God is like a child with its mother. It caresses her, it embraces her, and its mother returns its caresses and embraces."

Source: The Blessed Curé of Ars in His Catechetical Instructions, 1951

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

The Forty Martyrs of Sebace

Prayer: "Valiant Soldiers of Christ who meet us, with your mysterious number, at this commencement of our Forty Days’ Fast, receive the homage of our devotion. Your memory is venerated throughout the whole Church, and your glory is great in Heaven. Though engaged in the service of an earthly prince, you were the Soldiers of the Eternal King: to Him were you faithful, and from Him did you receive your crown of eternal glory. We, also, are His soldiers. We are fighting for the kingdom of Heaven. Our enemies are many and powerful but, like you, we can conquer them if, like you, we use the arms which God has put in our hands. Faith in God’s word, hope in His assistance, and humility and prudence —with these we are sure of victory.

Pray for us, Holy Martyrs, that we may keep from all compromise with our enemies, for our defeat is certain if we try to serve two masters. During these Forty Days we must put our arms in order, repair our lost strength and renew our engagements. Come to our assistance and get us a share in your brave spirit.

A crown is also prepared for us: it is to be won on easier terms than yours, and yet we will lose it unless we keep up within us an esteem for our vocation. How many times, in our past lives, have we not forfeited that glorious crown? But God in His mercy has offered it to us again, and we are resolved on winning it. Oh, for the glory of our common Lord and Master, make intercession for us!" The Liturgical Year by Dom Gueranger.

"There are some who derive satisfaction from the virtues they practice because their tendencies are all that way.

For example, a mother will pride herself on the fact that she gives some alms, that she frequents the Sacraments, that she even reads some spiritual books -- yet she sees without dismay that her children are keeping away from the Sacraments. Her children do not make their Easter duty, yet this mother, from time to time, gives them permission to go to amusements, to dances, to weddings, and sometimes to the winter gatherings. She loves to see her daughters appearing in public; she thinks that if they do not frequent these places of debauchery, no one will know them and they will not be able to find themselves husbands and homes.

Yes, undoubtedly they would be unknown -- but only to the libertines. Yes, my dear brethren, they will not find themselves husbands from among those who would treat them like the most wretched slaves. This mother loves to see them well turned out; this mother loves to see them in the company of some young men who are wealthier than they are. After certain prayers and some good works, which certainly she will do, she thinks herself to be on the road to Heaven. Carry on, my good mother; you are only a blind hypocrite; you have only the appearance of virtue. You set your mind at rest with the thought that you make some visits to the Blessed Sacrament; without any doubt that is a good thing; but your daughter is at a dance; but your daughter is at the cabaret with libertines, and they will be spewing out nothing but one kind or another of indecency; but your daughter, tonight, is in a place where she should not be. Go away, blind and abandoned mother, go out and leave your prayers. Do you not see that you are doing as the Jews did, who bent the knee before Jesus Christ to make a semblance of adoring Him? So, then, you come to adore God, while your children are out to crucify Him. Poor blind creature, you do not know either what you say or what you do. Your prayers are only an insult which you offer to God. Begin by going to find your daughter, who is losing her soul; then you may return to God to ask Him for your conversion.

A father thinks that it is quite enough to maintain good order in his house; he will not have anyone swearing or using obscene words. That is very good. But he has no scruple about allowing his boys to go to amusements, to fairs, and all sorts of pleasures like that. This same father permits work to be done on Sundays on the slightest pretext, even such as not to go against the wishes of his reapers or his threshers. However, you see him in church adoring God, even prostrate before Him: he is trying to avoid the slightest distraction. But tell me, my friends, how do you suppose God can look upon such people as that? Carry on, my poor friend, you are blind. Go and learn your duties and then you may come to offer your prayers to God.

Do you not see that you are doing the work of Pontius Pilate, who recognized Jesus Christ and who yet condemned Him? You will see this other man, who is charitable, who gives alms, who is touched by the poverty of his neighbor. That is quite good. But he allows his children to live in the greatest ignorance. Perhaps they do not even know what they should do in order to be saved. Go along, my poor man. You are blind. Your alms and your sympathy are leading you, with great steps, straight to Hell.

Here is another who has plenty of good qualities. He likes to help everyone. But he cannot tolerate his unfortunate wife or his poor children, upon whom he heaps insults, and possibly even ill-treats. Carry on, my friend, your religion is worth nothing.

This one thinks that he is quite good because he is not a blasphemer or a thief, or even unchaste, but he goes to no trouble at all to correct those thoughts of hatred, of revenge, of envy, and of jealousy which fill his soul almost every day. My friend, your religion can only ruin you.

We see others, too, who are all full of pious practices, who become full of scruples at omitting some prayers they usually say. They would think themselves lost if they were not at Holy Communion on certain days when they have the habit of receiving, but trifles make them impatient and grumblers. A mere word which they did not care for will fill them with coldness and dislike. They will have difficulty in being civil to their neighbor; they will want to have nothing to do with him; on different pretexts, they will avoid his company; they will find that someone has been behaving badly in respect of them. Go away, you poor hypocrites, go and become converted; after that you may have recourse to the Sacraments, which, in your state, without knowing it, you are only profaning with your wrongly understood devotion."

Source: The Sermons of the Curé of Ars, 1960 (Public Domain)

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

St. John of God saving the Sick from a Fire at the Royal Hospital in 1549 by Manuel Gómez-Moreno González (1880)

"Our catechism teaches us, my children, that prayer is an elevation, an application of our mind and heart to God, to make known to Him our wants and to ask for His assistance.

We do not see the good God, my children; but He sees us, He hears us, He wills that we should raise towards Him what is most noble in us - our mind and our heart. When we pray with attention, with humility of mind and of heart, we quit the earth, we rise to heaven, we penetrate into the Bosom of God, we go and converse with the angels and the saints.

It was by prayer that the saints reached heaven; and by prayer we too shall reach it. Yes, my children, prayer is the source of all graces, the mother of all virtues, the efficacious and universal way by which God wills that we should come to Him.

He says to us: "Ask, and you shall receive." No one but God could make such promises and keep them. See, the good God does not say to us, "Ask such and such a thing, and I will grant it;" but He says in general: "If you ask the Father anything in My name, He will give it to you."

O my children! Ought not this promise to fill us with confidence, and to make us pray fervently all the days of our poor life? Ought we not to be ashamed of our idleness, of our indifference to prayer, when our Divine Savior, the Dispenser of all graces, has given us such touching examples of it? for you know that the Gospel tells us He prayed often, and even passed the night in prayer? Are we as just, as holy, as this Divine Savior? Have we no graces to ask for? Let us enter into ourselves; let us consider. Do not the continual needs of our soul and of our body warn us to have recourse to Him who alone can supply them? How many enemies to vanquish! the devil, the world, and ourselves.

How many bad habits to overcome, how many passions to subdue, how many sins to efface! In so frightful and painful a situation, what remains to us, my children? The armor of the saints: prayer, that necessary virtue, indispensable to good as well as to bad Christians. Within the reach of the ignorant as well as the learned, enjoined to the simple and to the enlightened, it is the virtue of all mankind; it is the science of all the faithful! Everyone on the earth who has a heart, everyone who has the use of reason, ought to love and pray to God; to have recourse to Him when He is irritated; to thank Him when He confers favors; to humble themselves when He strikes.

See, my children, we are poor people, who have been taught to beg spiritually, and we do not know how to beg. We are sick people, to whom a cure has been promised, and we do not know how to ask for it. The good God does not require of us fine prayers, but prayers which come from the bottom of our heart.

St. Ignatius was once traveling with several of his companions; they each carried on their shoulders a little bag, containing what was most necessary for them on the journey. A good Christian, seeing that they were fatigued, was interiorly excited to relieve them; he asked them as a favor to let him help them to carry their burdens. They yielded to his entreaties. When they had arrived at the inn, this man who had followed them, seeing that the Fathers knelt down at a little distance from each other to pray, knelt down also. When the Fathers rose again, they were astonished to see that this man had remained prostrate all the time they were praying; they expressed to him their surprise, and asked him what he had being doing. His answer edified them very much, for he said: "I did nothing but say, Those who pray so devoutly are saints; I am their beast of burden; O Lord! I have the intention of doing what they do; I say to Thee whatever they say." These were afterwards his ordinary words, and he arrived by means of this at a sublime degree of prayer.

Thus, my children, you see that there is no one who cannot pray, and pray at all times, and in all places; by night or by day; amid the most severe labors, or in repose; in the country, at home, in traveling. The good God is everywhere ready to hear your prayers, provided you address them to Him with faith and humility."

Source: The Spirit of the Curé of Ars by Abbé Monnin, p. 259, 1865

Prayer for Lent: O Lord who, for our sake, didst fast forty days and forty nights; give us grace to use such abstinence that, our flesh being subdued to the spirit, we may worthily lament and acknowledge our wretchedness, and may obtain perfect remission and forgiveness of Thee, the God of all mercy, who livest and reignest with the Father and Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen

The Lord said also to Moses : Speak to the priests and say to them: They shall be holy to their God, for they offer the bread of their God, and therefore they shall be holy.—Lev. 21:6.

Was it Saint Philip Neri who thought a single Mass sufficient to make an ordinary being a saint? Certainly it was the same kindly but shrewd ascetic who declared that, if he had twelve good priests, he would convert the world. What, then, are the elements that enter into the fashioning of the ideally good priest? Personal holiness, of course, which consists in the union of the priest with the Master, his exemplar and personal friend and his High-Priest. And this intimate union can be suggested in no more fitting way than by the word "communion "-union with unio cum Christo. “I am the vine; you the branches." The nearer the tendril is to the main portion of the plant, the more sap it will receive, the greater and more luxuriant will be its growth. In proportion as the priest is near to Christ, the holier he will be. “I am the vine and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He will take away: and everyone that beareth fruit, he will purge it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abide in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me. He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit: for without Me you can do nothing".

What deed is it that unites us priests in so intimate a union with Christ whereby He abides with and in us, and we with and in Him? It is that deed which recalls the daring words of St. John Chrysostom, "nos sibi coagmentat," ? and which made St. Augustine say in the person of the Blessed Christ: “Nec tu me mutabis in te, sicut cibum carnis tuae, sed tu mutaberis in me." The union at Mass of the Christ and His priest is unique. At this Agape, the " vinculum amoris " -the Eucharistic bond of love—is forged in the "Burning Furnace of Charity.” In the immense depths of the Eucharistic "centre of all hearts," the " fountain of life and holiness,"
and the “abyss of all virtues” the priest's heart becomes submerged.

This union of the human soul and the Divine Personality may be viewed from different angles. There is the union of affection, the close bond of friend with friend. The Divine Friend assures His priests: "You are my friends . . . I have called you friends ... I have chosen you.” There is also the union or identity of purpose. In this unity, Christ shares with His priests the great desire to save souls. “Behold I come,". He says, and to His chosen ministers: “I have appointed you that you should go !” Again, there is the union or likeness between the model and its copy. The Divine Model admonishes those who would be like unto Him: "Be you therefore perfect, as also your heavenly Father is perfect." Moreover, there is also the union of the disciple and his Master. The servant delights to dwell near his lord. He anticipates the latter's wishes and avoids what is displeasing to him. “It is enough," says Christ," for the disciple, that he be as his Master, and the servant as his lord.” And finally, there exists that sacred relationship of the lover and his beloved which is aptly expressed by the singer of the Canticle of Canticles: “I to my beloved, and my beloved to me who feedeth among the lilies.” (C. 6: 2.)

Each of these various forms of union must solicit our admiration and stimulate our zeal. Nevertheless, in the hurry and bustle of this sadly distracting workaday world of ours, the heart of the ideally good priest can hardly fail to hunger after some simple formula, some clearly expressed symbol, some unique and outstanding fact, that may possibly assemble and coordinate these different kinds of union. Is there anywhere such a formula, such a symbol, such an outstanding fact? Fortunately there is. The one thing that assembles all these figurative, moral and spiritual ideas of union into one simply understood and clearly expressed symbol and fact of union, is, undoubtedly, the Sacrament of the Altar. There results from this coagmentation (to quote the thought of St. John Chrysostom again) a double gain. Not only does the priest become united with Christ, but he also becomes a symbol and fact of union between the real body of Christ and that mystical body which we call the Church. For it is the Mass that makes the priest the efficient fountain from which gush forth the waters of the Saviour unto all the thirsting children of men.

This is the ascetical theory of the priest's relation to Christ's real body on the one hand and to His mystical body on the other. And this ascetical theory, as theory we may call it, is a fact of Catholic doctrine. Is it any wonder that the Angel of the Schools, meditating the theory and practicing the fact, should have seen in this ineffable relationship those wondrous fruits to which he calls attention? The effects of the Holy Eucharist, says St. Thomas, are to give us a pledge of our future glory with God, to preserve the soul from sin, to purify it and free it from the punishment due to sin, to imbue us with a hatred for things earthly, to elevate the mind to God, to illumine the intellect, to give fervor to the affections, to refine the faculties of soul and body, to produce interior peace and holy joy. All these are the Eucharistic treasure trove of what Father Faber calls the “ Citadel of Divine Love”.

If such are truly the effects of supping at this Divine Table, we need not marvel at the words of St. Philip Neri : “Give me twelve good priests and I will convert the world”. There must assuredly be something wanting to us. Is it possible that to us may be applied the words of the Prophet Aggeus: “ You have eaten and are not filled, you have drunk and you are not inebriated ", since apparently we do not measure up to the standard of St. Philip's “good priests”? May it not be that we need to be reminded of St. Paul's admonition to St. Timothy: Renew thy first fervor.

If the preacher strongly conscious that his sermon may be the last, encourages himself to renewed efforts and speaks as a dying man to dying men, should not the priest with still greater reason stimulate his first fervor by a similar thought. This Holy Mass which he is about to celebrate may indeed be his last, for we know not the day nor the hour when the Son of Man cometh. The priest—that other Christ—truly offers a sacrifice of death for a dead world. If that world is to live again, it must be by the revivifying power of the Sacrifice of Calvary. And in this great recreative drama the priest must regard himself not so much as the minister of Christ, but as the Christ Himself of Calvary." Nearly every priest, even among those of venerable age, can probably recall with little effort the almost apocalyptical splendors that glorified his first Holy Mass. He would have been happy and satisfied if that first Mass had also been his last. This is no mere figure of speech. This is not fiction or fantasy. It has happened, ho ever, that the good God has prolonged his life and has granted him the priceless boon of many, many Masses during his priestly life. If, then, before each Mass or at his morning meditation he should recall the days that shortly preceded his ordination, surely his youth would be "renewed like the eagle's."  “I thought," sang the Psalmist,“ upon the days of old: and I had in mind the eternal years. And I meditated in the night with my own heart: and I was exercised and I swept my spirit. . . And I said, Now have I begun: this is the change of the right hand of the most High. ... I will be mindful of Thy wonders from the beginning. And I will meditate on all Thy works." Thus the priest is moved to meditate: If this Mass which I am about to offer were my last Mass, as it may be, I should offer it as a dying man for dying men.” With what a glow of enthusiasm would he ascend the steps of the altar to offer the Clean Oblation for the living, the dying, and the dead. He is not only offering the Holy Sacrifice for himself, a dying man, but he also offers it for that dying world for which Christ died.

Of course we have to face the fact, which in some respects is a terrible one, that we are after all children of nature. As such we are subject inevitably to that otherwise kindly process of nature by which she gradually and insensibly converts into a kind of automatism those activities which at first we had to learn to perform with anxious care. Whatever we do repeatedly, nature more and more tries to make automatic. A habit we call it. And the proverb warns us that habit is a second nature. But call it what we will automatism, habit or routine-slowly but surely and alas, all unconsciously, we fall under the sway of our natural inclinations."

Meanwhile, children of nature though we be, we are by our very profession striving to lead, not a natural, but a supernatural life. Grace is battling with nature. To which side should our sympathies lean? Certainly of all men the priest must once for all range himself on the side of grace. Now it is a fortunate circumstance that the very powers of intellect, will, and passion, which nature subtly strives to gain to her side, can be marshalled against her. For after all the intellect can be aroused by meditation before Holy Mass, the will can be quickened to its fullest zeal by the contemplation of Christ's initial Sacrifice on Calvary, and the emotions can be warmed into a glowing fervor at the thought of that heavenly Bread which is to sustain the life of the priest's own soul and, through his ministration, the souls committed to his care.

Reverting to the effects of Holy Communion as indicated by St. Thomas, we of course know that these are partly due to the opus operatum but also very largely to the opus operantis." We cannot add to the former, but by the kind of meditation I have indicated, we can immeasurably increase the latter, and so at least approximate to the ideally good priest of whom St. Philip speaks.

While the Holy Mass combines for the priest the two aspects of sacrifice and communion, the completion of the whole divine drama consists in the assembling of the faithful to eat the Body of Christ. In this way, the Holy Sacrifice is a means and help to that heavenly feasting—the priest preparing for it by the sacrifice and then eating of the Bread and drinking of the Chalice at Communion time. Such was the thought of the sublime poet of the Blessed Sacrament when in his “Sacris Solemniis ” he sang: "Sic sacrificium istud instituit”.

Continuing this view we shall find that our meditation stimulates the intelligence, quickens the will, and enflames the emotions in a worthy preparation for the Holy Sacrifice and for this supreme drama itself as a further preparation for the climax to be attained in Holy Communion. Thus meditation, sacrifice and communion are but links in the chain of personal sanctification.

In all that has been so far said the writer has but endeavored to give expression to the thought crystallized in the ancient proverb: “Quidquid agas, prudenter agas et respice finem.” The end, which is the last thing to be attained, is the first thing to be conceived. The end, of course, must be our sanctification; "for this,” says St. Paul, “is the will of God: your sanctification." Respice finem! It will represent to our minds the one great purpose of our creation. It will also enable us "prudenter agere ", for the end is not only the first thought conceived in the mind, it is also the rudder which is to steer us to the destined port—it is the “ guide, philosopher, and friend” always at our side, whispering into our ear words of counsel, of warning, and of kindliest encouragement. Our ancient proverb is a pagan one, and we are reminded alas ! how much the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light.

V. F. KIENBERGER, O.P. Washington, D. C.
The American Ecclesiastical Review, Volume 63
edited by Herman Joseph Heuser 1920, public domain