tite. In what is it to be mortified? St. Bonaventure answers: "In the quantity, the quality, and the manner."
I. In the quality, adds the saint, by seeking not what is delicate, but what is simple. The saint says, in another place, that small is the progress of the religious who is not content with what is offered to her, but requires that it be prepared in a different manner, or seeks more palatable food. A mortified religious is satisfied with what is placed before her; and instead of seeking after delicacies, she selects among all the dishes that may be presented to her, the least palatable, provided it be not prejudicial to health. Such was the practice of St. Aloysius, who always chose what was most disagreeable to the taste.
"Wine and flesh," says Clement of Alexandria, "give strength indeed to the body, but they render the soul languid." From the sacred Canons we learn that formerly monks were not permitted even to taste flesh. "To a monk, the privilege of either, taking or of tasting flesh is not granted." Speaking of himself, St. Bernard says: "I abstain from flesh, lest I should cherish the vices of the flesh." Give not wine takings, says the Wise Man." By kings, in this place, we are to understand, not the monarchs of the earth, but the servants of God, who rule their wicked passions and subject them to reason. In another place Solomon says: Who hath woe? . . . Surely they that pass their time in wine, and study to drink off their cups? Since, then, the
