would gain heroic virtue, she says: "Follow Jesus Christ, the way to truth and life, by the road of perfect obedience."

It is in these monasteries and convents, the schools of heroic Christian virtue, that is found not only that obedience, which all, as Catholics, are bound to practise, to the dogmas and precepts of God, and the laws of the Church; but also the discipline to bring all the thoughts of the mind and affections of the heart into accordance with the Christian ideal-Christ's life.

Interior direction is found in these asylums. Masters of the spiritual life are found there, to whom interior life is familiar, and who can serve as guides on account of their example, as well as by their infused knowledge and acquired science. Here the soul can find a master, a guide, and a friend, to sympathize with, console, and lead it on to the heights of Christian perfection; and it is for such guides that many hearts are aching, many souls are yearning, and suffering the most painful of all deprivations.

XXV.

Poverty.

"O blissful poverty !

Nature, too partial, to thy lot assigns

Health, freedom, innocence, and downy peace,

Her real goods."

FENTON.

HAT says the Catholic Church to those

WH

who would free themselves from all material obstacles by voluntary poverty, like that of Jesus Christ ?

Love is of such a nature that it is not at rest until it has established a kind of equality between the lovers. Can one love Jesus Christ and not desire to express in his life the life of Jesus?

Who can read the words that fell from the lips of the God-man, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head," and not be touched with sympathy and feel an impulse to be like him.

What says the Catholic Church to this? Her reply is that of a true spouse of the poor and lowly Jesus: "My child, imitate that divine model, embrace holy poverty; become poor for His sake who was rich, and became poor for love of you; do as He did, depend on that Providence that clothes the lilies of the valley, and feeds the birds of the air; you have my approbation, the confirmation of my authority, and the protection of my love and affection." Such is the language of the true Spouse of Christ. Hence there have been at all times, in her bosom, some of the Faithful who have practised the most sublime and heroic poverty, this being one of the three vows of all religious, both men and women. A type of these was St. Francis of Assisi, who, after hearing the priest read the Gospel, "Go, sell whatsoever

* Matt. viii.

thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasures in heaven; and come, follow me;" immediately gave away all the money he had, whereupon his father being displeased with him, brought him to the Bishop's palace, and St. Francis, in the presence of the Bishop, stripped himself of his dress, and gave that also to his father, and the Bishop having thrown a garment about him, he exclaimed in an ecstasy of joy: "Listen and understand: until now, I have called Peter Bernardone my father; henceforth, I can say boldly, Our Father, who art in heaven, in whom I have placed my treasure, my faith, and my hope." So enraptured was he with poverty, that he never ventured to mention it, except by the title of "holy" poverty, or his "Lady," his "noble" or his "dearest Lady." He always wore a coarse peasant's garb, lived upon common fare, and would accept nothing for his own. In a short period he had a multitude of disciples, and in a chapter, called ten years after the order was established, there were present more than five

* Matt. x.

thousand who had embraced St. Francis's holy

rule of poverty.

And later, St. Cajetan established an order of religious men who literally trusted in Divine Providence like the birds of the air; for not only were they forbidden to hold any property, either in private or in common, like the Franciscans, but they were not even allowed to beg, and had to depend entirely upon the voluntary contributions of the faithful; neither were they allowed to keep, in their convent, provisions for the next day. Thus have these men followed Jesus in poverty, and thus thousands and thousands of religious men and women still persevere in following him, and will do so to the end of time.

In spite of all this, there are men who profess to be the true followers of Jesus, the preachers of that Gospel which teaches poverty, who would have us believe that the practice of this virtue, as Jesus practised it, is absurd, visionary, impossible. What does this prove? It proves either that Jesus Christ was a fanatic and visionary, or that they are false teachers of the Gospel, blind leaders of the blind. What