Untitled - Saints' Books

Admonitions. 21
and sweetness the priests who listen to him. With
respect ; showing a veneration for them, often calling
them men of learning and of sanctity, and when he
inveighs against any vice, let him always speak in gen
eral terms, protesting that he speaks not of those that
are present. Let him guard, in a special manner, against
censuring any defect of any particular person, as also
against speaking in a tone of authority; but let him
endeavor to preach in a familiar style, which is the best
calculated to persuade and move. With respect and
with sweetness; let him, then, never appear angry, nor
ever break out into injurious words, which tend more to
irritate the mind than to excite piety.
VI. In sermons that are apt to strike terror, let him
not induce his hearers to despair of salvation or of
amendment. Let him always leave to all, however
abandoned, a means by which they may hope to change
their lives; animating them to confidence in the merits
of Jesus Christ, and in the intercession of the divine
Mother, and to have recourse by prayer to these two
great anchors of hope. Let the preacher, in almost all
his sermons, frequently and strongly recommend the
exercise of prayer, that is, the prayer of petition, which
is the only means of obtaining the graces necessary for
salvation.
VII. Finally, above all, let the preacher be careful to
expect the fruit not from his own labors, but from the
divine mercy, and from his prayers, begging of God to
give strength to his words. For e know wr that, ordi
narily, sermons produce scarcely any fruit in priests,
and to induce, in the spiritual exercises, a priest to
change his life if he is a sinner, or to become fervent if
he is tepid, is almost a miracle, which seldom occurs.
Hence, the conversion of priests must be the fruit of
prayer more than of study.