I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears, Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still Will lead me on.
O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till The night is gone; And with the morn those angel faces smile Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.
XCI. The Sacrifices of a Religious Vocation
1.HAPPY are those who are called to the religious state. But we must not look exclusively at the happiness and advantages which accompany life in the cloister, but we must also weigh the sacrifices which it entails. A religious house is no place for lotus-eaters. No one ought to enter the cloister with the idea of exchanging a life of effort and struggle in the world for a quiet and comfortable existence. He who seeks nothing but this in an Order, nothing but sweet tranquillity and undisturbed comfort, will find himself bitterly deceived. Reflect merely upon the trials of community life. Consider one of the essential conditions of life in the cloister, namely, this one: to live with many others and to be dependent upon others. The rules of every convent, quite apart from the question of contact with many others, with many different
