Dominican Life_Joret_OCR_CK.pdf - the Catholic Kingdom!

l8
DOMINI CAN LIFE
A person remains in the world.
will be able to leave it
One day, maybe, he
to enter a religious order where
the attainment of Christian perfection will be made
easier for him : that is his aspiration. Possibly, however,
hindrances of some sort, such as chronic ill-health or
"
insuperable obligations," will definitely and finally
preclude him from ever realizing his ambition.
Sometimes that aspiration
is
wholly lacking, and all
that is desired is to be attached to some special Order,
to follow its direction and to imbibe its spirit whilst
continuing to lead a secular life in the world. Candidates
for a Third Order may, and indeed do, differ widely
in these and many other respects, but they must be at
one in regarding
it as their chief object in life to become
perfect.
The Rule of the Brothers and Sisters of the secular
Third Order of St. Dominic sets forth that aim in the
very first paragraph. It returns to it with more detail
"
in the second. The object of the Third Order is the
sanctification of its members or the practice of a more
perfect form of Christian life." Before anyone can be
admitted into a Fraternity or Chapter,
it must be
proved and established " in the prudent judgment of the
Director " that the postulant
is
sincerely desirous of
striving after perfection (II. 8).
If, however, it should come to pass that someone is
admitted into the Third Order for some less
worthy
reason, in a wave of enthusiasm or under the influence
of a feeling of sympathy, all hope is
not lost for him and
for those who have charge of his soul. Such souls may
derive encouragement from what St. Catherine of Siena
1
writes in her Dialogue' about those who have thus
entered religion.
" The important point," she remarks, " is for them to
practise virtue and to persevere until death in so doing.
(Yes, what is important is not so much to begin well as
to end well.)
. . . Not a few there are who have pre-
1 Dialogue, Ch. CLVIII.
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