The Practice Of Christian And Religious Perfection/Volume 1/Alphonsus Rodriguez To The Religious Of The Society Of Jesus
ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ
TO THE
RELIGIOUS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.
St. Gregory being desired to write some spiritual instructions for the conduct of certain religious houses, excuses himself in his (>th Book and 27th Epistle in these terms : — " The exercises of mortification and prayer, practised by religious, produce such a source or fountain of wisdom in their hearts, that they stand not in need of being watered with those few drops our ardity is able to impart to them. For as the fountain in the midst of the terrestrial paradise watered all parts thereof, and kept it continually fresh and green without the help of rain, which it needed not ; so those who are in the paradise of religion have no need of being watered from without, because prayer and mortification produce in them such a source or fountain of grace, as is always sufficient to maintain their virtues in their full splendour and beauty.'*
I might, RR. FF., upon this account, with far more reason than St. Gregory, excuse myself after the same manner he did, to those faithful souls our Lord has planted in the garden of the Society of Jesus — souls, he has cultivated and watered by the help of that mental prayer they daily make. But though this excuse would doubtless be a very just one, if I imagined you expected anything new from me, yet I am prevented from making it, as I propose to myself nothing else in this work, than to revive in your memories what you already know and daily practise. In doing this, I shall pay obedience to our holy founder, who in one of his Constitutions ordains that, " once a week, or at least, once a fortnight, there should be one appointed to lay before our eyes the obligations of a spiritual life, lest human frailty, which daily inclines us to relax in our duties, might cause us to forget, and to discontinue them." (Cons. p. 3.) The Constitution, God be praised, is exactly observed throughout the whole Society, and produces great fruit therein. Having, therefore, above those forty years been employed in the function of exhorting the novices, or other religious ; and having gathered divers things together for this purpose, my superiors, and many other persons to whom I owe a deference, were of opinion that I might render great service both to God and to religion, and that the advantage drawn from my labours would be more lasting, if I should take care to review and put in order what I had already composed.
I considered also, that in the Constitution before cited,- St. Ignatius puts this alternative : — " Let there be," says he, 6i one appointed to deliver these spiritual exhortations to the religious, or at least let the religious be obliged to read them." I was still more encouraged in my undertaking, when I reflected that it is a practice established in the Society, and very much recommended by saints, to read something every day that may promote our spiritual advancement. This being the principal design of the following work, I have for this reason laid before you as clearly and briefly as I was able such things as are more essential, and more common to our profession. These, I trust, will serve us as a mirror, wherein, if we daily view ourselves, we shall be enabled to correct our imperfections, and decorate our souls in such a manner as will render them more pleasing to the eyes of Divine majesty.
Moreover,' though my principal intention was to fulfil the particular obligation I have to serve those, whom religion has constituted my fathers and brethren in Jesus Christ; yet, because we ought to extend, as far as we can, the effects of charity, and being particularly obliged to it by our Institute, I have endeavoured to dispose this work after such a manner, as that it may be useful not only to our Society in particular, but to all other religious, and even to all persons in general, who aspire to Christian perfection. Wherefore that the title may correspond to the work, and may indicate that it is a profitable and useful book for all the world, I have entitled it, Practice of Christian Perfection. I call it Practice, because things are treated in it after such a manner, as may render the practice very easy.
I hope, by the mercy of our Lord, that my labours will not be unprofitable ; and that this grain of seed of the word of God, being sown in the good soil of souls aspiring to perfection, will render not only thirty or sixty, but even a hundred fold.