The Lives of the Saints Volume 1 - St. Patrick's Basilica

www.freecatholicebooks.com
to prayer. When it was in his power, he said mass every day; when he
travelled, he rose at a very early hour, that he might hear it: he never
neglected the prayer of the _Angelus_, and, when he was not in the
company of strangers, he said it on his knees. He recommended a frequent
approach to the sacrament of the altar: some, under his spiritual
direction, communicated almost every day. The _morale sevère_ of the
Jansenists he strongly reprobated in discourse, and no person receded
further from it in practice: but he was an admirer of the style of the
gentlemen of Port Royal, and spoke with praise of their general practice
of avoiding the insertion of the pronoun _I_ in their writings. He
thought the Bible should not be read by very young persons, or by those
who were wholly uninformed: even the translation of the whole divine
office of the church he thought should not be given to the faithful
promiscuously. In the printed correspondence of Fenelon, a long letter
by him on frequent communion, and one on reading the Bible, (they
deserve to be translated and generally read,) express exactly our
author's sentiments on those subjects. All singularity in devotion was
offensive to him. He exhorted every one to a perfect discharge of the
ordinary duties of his situation, to a conformity to the divine will,
both in great and little occasions, to good temper and mildness in his
intercourse with his neighbor, to an habitual recollection of the divine
presence, to a scrupulous attachment to truth, to retirement, to extreme
sobriety. These, he used to say, were the virtues of the primitive
Christians, and among them, he said, we should always look for perfect
models of Christian virtue. Fleury's account of them, in his _Manners of
the Christians_, he thought excellent, and frequently recommended the
perusal of it. He exhorted all to devotion to the Mother of God; many,
under his care, said her office every day. The advantage of mental
prayer he warmly inculcated. In the conduct of souls he was all mildness
and patience: motives of love were oftener in his mouth than motives of
fear: "for to him that loves, nothing," he used to say, with the author
of the Imitation of Christ, "is difficult." He often sacrificed his
studies and private devotions to the wants of his neighbor. When it was
in his power he attended the ceremony of the _salut_ at the parish
church; and on festivals particularly solemnized by any community of the
towns in which he resided, he usually assisted at the divine service in
their churches. He was very abstemious in his diet; and considered
systematic sensuality as the ultimate degradation of human nature. He
never was heard to express so much disgust, as at conversations where,
for a great length of time, the pleasures of the table, or the
comparative excellence of dishes, had been the sole topic of
conversation; yet he was very far from being an enemy to rational mirth,
and he always exerted himself to entertain and promote the pleasures of
his friends. In all his proceedings he was most open and unreserved:
from selfishness none could be more free. Dr. Kennicot often said that,
of the many he had employed in his great biblical undertaking, none had