SECOND WEEK
The second volume (Second Week) was printed in the Pauline printing plant of Ostia (Rome) in January 1962, with the Imprimatur of Bishop Antonio Bergamaschi of San Marino-Montefeltro, dated 25 January 1962.
INSTRUCTION I
MEANING AND PRACTICE OF PIETY
The formation environment
The Novitiate is the principal year of one's life; it is the key and decisive year of formation.
Some directives:
1. There needs to be a proper preparation which takes in the whole period of aspirantship. The youngsters are to be called Aspirants, not boarders, students, or such like. This preparation comprises the spirit, study, apostolate, the human side of things.
2. Aspirants troubled by doubts are not be sent to the Novitiate. If they are ready they will make the whole year properly; otherwise they will spend months studying their vocation.
3. After first profession they are to be in a setting which lends itself to recollection, a continuation of the Novitiate. They are to be helped to continue their formation in their new life, which means a correct observance of the Constitutions.
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Art. 102. In cases of external grave scandal or of very grave harm imminent to the community, the Religious, even if he is Professed in perpetual vows, being immediately deprived of his religious habit, can be sent back to the world at once by the major Superior with the consent of his Council, or, if there is danger in delay and there is no time to approach the major Superior, even by the local Superior with the consent of his Council as well as the assent of the local Ordinary; the entire matter, however, is to be submitted to the judgement of the Holy See without delay either through the local Ordinary or through the major Superior, if he is present.
Art. 103. Those who commit any of the offences listed in Canon 646 are to be considered ipso facto as legitimately dismissed. In such cases it suffices that the major Superior with his Council make a proper declaration of the fact, taking care that the evidence compiled for this purpose is carefully placed in safe keeping in the archives of the Society. Those who commit an offence of this sort are to know that the Society is not bound to re-accept them, no matter how repentant they may be.
Piety and Pauline consecrated life
The word piety is wide-ranging. Here I want to talk about its meaning, as well as on piety as love and practice of prayer.
a) Piety is the main constituent of the religious life.
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A person is called a religious because he makes more copious and perfect acts of religion. Prayer is precisely the act of internal and external worship we make to the Lord: adoration, praise, reparation, petition, the offering of ourselves to the Lord.
The person who fails to give pride of place to prayer does not merit the name of Religious; indeed, he is not.
b) Basis of the religious life. A religious is a person who wishes to reach perfection and has chosen the state of perfection. Poverty, chastity, obedience and common life demand an abundance of inner strength; the abundance of grace, however, depends on the abundance of prayer.
Thus, when Saint Paul reminds his disciple of the grave duties he has assumed as bishop of Ephesus, he urges him: Exerce teipsum ad pietatem… pietas autem ad omnia utilis est, promissionem habens vitae, quae nunc est, et futurae.1
If a house has no foundation it will soon fall into ruins; so will the religious.
To set prayer aside in order to do more work is a makeshift solution. Work done at the expense of prayer is of no use either to us or to others; it deprives God of his due.
This is why the Constitutions say: …he who, according to his talent and ability, has not yet acquired a sufficient understanding of the spirit of the Society, as well as of the method of making the examination of conscience, mental prayer, the Visit to the Blessed Sacrament, the reading of the Holy Scripture, and the other exercises of piety, and does not apply himself to them with regular steadfastness, should not be admitted to the Profession [art. 152].
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There is a loss of vocations and disturbing failures; there are pretexts, explanations, motives… But there is basically only one reason and that is the neglect and abandonment of piety. Let us acknowledge this in all honesty.
c) Given the Pauline Family's particular apostolate the hour of daily adoration is a must. People would have a tremendous responsibility had it not been prescribed because the Pauline religious would not have sufficient nourishment for his spiritual life and apostolate. Anyone who overlooks this assumes such responsibility himself; if superiors do not see that it is practised they assume the responsibility.
Our piety is first and foremost eucharistic. Everything flows from the Teacher in the Eucharist as from a life-giving spring.
Born from the tabernacle it is here that the Pauline Family finds its nourishment, its life, its way of working, its sanctification. Everything - holiness and apostolate - comes from the Mass, Communion, and the eucharistic Visit.
Piety and integral formation
The first thing that is put into effect in piety is the process of personal formation. Each one comes to Christ with one great problem - himself. This problem, ever more urgent and inescapable, is to take the right 'road', to set oneself exactly in the 'truth', in view of a sure and full development of 'life'. Each one comes to the Master furnished with a great deal of potential, asking only that it be fully put into act; the mind, the will and the heart of each individual must be put into act so that the whole person, formed in conjunction with the Master, may bring about that growing, well-balanced and complete process deep in the aspiration of every life.
The stimulus for
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every Pauline act of piety is this sense of completeness. Putting to one side a series of acts, varying in form and length, distributed throughout the day, week or year, and which naturally adhere to the traditional forms in use in the universal Church, our aim is simply to highlight a factor constantly agreed upon and emphasized in the practices of piety: the employment of all the soul's faculties with a view to developing the whole person.
In the Mass and in the eucharistic Visit, which are at the centre of our spiritual life, the 'way-truth-life' method - to which the application of the mind, will and heart wonderfully conforms - is being more and more clarified and studied by everyone. In these practices much use is made of the Missal or the Gospels so as to experience conceptually the great lessons which flow from the Liturgy or the pages of the New Testament. Piety is above all a profound act of faith, which starts from a lively involvement of the human mind. Saint Thomas speaks of prayer, properly made, as an 'actus rationis.'2 Man's mind heralds his every act, and a daily focusing of the mind on the great truths of revelation is an absolute must in a person's sound development.
The understanding or the vision of what is true would, however, be sterile were it not followed up by the act of the will, a determining factor in our movement towards improvement. Just as the 'mind' is placed in correlation with the teaching of Christ-Truth, so the will must be committed to action with Christ-Way. Saint Thomas points out also that a good prayer stems from an 'explicatio propriae voluntatis.'3 The will goes
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into action under both the impulse of grace and the attraction of the teaching of Christ, way of all human perfection.
Lastly there must be that deep and dynamic dedication that draws the whole man into correlation with God: 'Cor meum et caro mea exultaverunt in Deum vivum.'4 There has to be, in other words, that essential life-giving fervor, summed up appropriately in the word 'heart', which generates the profound rhythm of life: since a piety which engages the whole man, fulfils him, and results in an assured process of education: 'importat exitum de potentia ad actum.'5
We mentioned previously that in the Pauline practices of piety the aim is not only the integral formation of the person but also the defining of one's social role in the apostolate, that is, in teaching. There is a move, in other words, to identify oneself 'in consortio veri Magistri',6 clearly adopting that style and communicating it anew to the world, in a way that is ever more precise. It is thus an ongoing movement towards a well-defined ideal, adhering to a call that comes from on high and committing ourselves to attain a physiognomy in society conceived on a model which is work and a life which is new in the Church (Mi protendo in avanti, E.P. 1954, pp. 276, 277 and 280).
The gift of piety
Once prayer is abandoned the whole spiritual edifice collapses in a heap; a once beautiful castle is now a tumbledown ruin.
Let us move on: donum gratiae et precum.7
Let us consider piety as a gift of the Holy Spirit. It stirs up in the heart a filial affection for God and a tender devotion for the persons and things of God
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in order to make us fulfil our religious duties with a saintlike attention.
This gift shows us God not only as our sovereign Master and Judge, but as an excellent and most loving Father: Accepistis spiritum adoptionis filiorum, in quo clamamus: Abba, Pater8 (Saint Paul). This gift fills the soul with confidence and love without endangering the reverence due to God; yet that reverence itself becomes devout and filial. Ut filii Dei nominemur et sumus.9
A friend as well.10 God gives himself also as a friend. Friendship adds to the relations between father and son a sort of equality; 'amicitia aequales accipit aut facit.'11 It adds a kind of familiarity, a reciprocity whence flows the sweetest intercourse. It is precisely such relations that grace establishes between us and God. Of course, when it is a question of God on one side and man on the other, there can be no real equality, but rather a certain similarity sufficient to engender true intimacy. In fact, God confides to us his secrets. He speaks to us not only through his Church, but also interiorly through his Spirit: 'Ille vos docebit omnia et suggeret vobis omnia quaecumque dixero vobis.'12 At the Last Supper Jesus declared to his Apostles that from that time on they would not be his servants, but his friends, because he would no longer keep any secrets from them: 'Iam non dicam vos servos, quia servus nescit quid faciat dominus eius; vos autem dixi amicos, quia omnia quaecumque audivi a Patre meo, nota feci vobis.'13 A sweet familiarity will from now on pervade their intercourse, the same that exists between friends when they meet and speak heart to heart: 'Behold that I stand at the gate and knock; if any man shall hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come into him and I will sup with him; and he with me.'
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'Ecce sto ad ostium et pulso; si quis audierit vocem meam et aperuerit mihi januam, intrabo ad illum et coenabo cum illo, et ipse mecum' [Rev 3:20]. What an unspeakable familiarity is this! Never would man have dared dream of it or aspire to it had not the Friend Divine taken the initiative! This very intimacy has been and is an everyday fact not only between Almighty God and his Saints, but between him and every man who by leading an interior life consents to throw open the gates of his soul to the Divine Guest. To this the author of the 'Imitation' bears witness when he describes the oft-repeated visits of the Holy Spirit to interior souls, the sweet converse he holds with them, the consolations and caresses he imparts to them, the peace he infuses, the astounding familiarity of his dealings with them: 'Frequens illi visitatio cum homine interno, dulcis sermocinatio, grata consolatio, multa pax, familiaritas stupenda nimis.'14 The life of contemporary mystics, of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus, of Elizabeth of the Blessed Trinity, of Gemma Galgani and of so many others, gives proof that the words of the Imitation are daily realized (A. Tanquerey).
A new heart
Our love for Jesus our Teacher, the crucified Lord, the Holy Victim, becomes more palpable; our love for the Holy Spirit is experienced as his working in us; our love for the blessed Virgin, our Mother, is motivated by o clemens, o pia, o dulcis Virgo Maria;15 our love for Saint Paul becomes at once tender and intense; our love for our guardian angel sees him as a brother and companion on our journey; our love for Saint Joseph supports every step of our life; our love for the souls in Purgatory is a construct of compassion and caring charity.
For the gift of piety: Here Holy Scripture will be our most prized reading; this letter from our heavenly Father inviting us
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to heaven, communicating to us his secrets, his most loveable truths and his designs over us.
Holy Church is for us the Spouse of Jesus Christ, born of his sacred Heart, perpetuating his mission upon earth as his Mystical Body; the supreme institution in the world, invested with God's own infallible authority; our mother who has brought us forth to the life of grace and nourished us with her sacraments; a society of which we are members and sharers in her sorrows and joys, partners in her initiatives; in filial love and joyful veneration we delight in obeying the Pope, the supreme Pastor of the lambs and sheep, as if he were Jesus Christ himself who lives in the Church.
Through the gift of piety we entertain these same sentiments of the Heart of Jesus towards our Superiors who represent God for us; towards our confreres made in God's image; towards the unfortunate, towards vocations. Let us love all forms of worship, Masses, beautiful ceremonies, the church, sacred images.
Piety fosters in us a threefold sentiment:16 1) filial respect towards God which makes us adore him with a holy joy as our beloved Father. Then our practices of piety become a need of the soul, a longing of the heart for God; 2) a generous and tender love that leads us to sacrifice self for God's glory in order to please him: Quae placita sunt ei facio semper.17 Hence, it is not a selfish, inert, sentimental piety which loses itself in idle dreams; 3) an affectionate obedience which sees in the commandments and in the counsels the wise and paternal expression of the divine will, leading us to heaven.
All Christians stand in need of this gift if they are to fulfil joyfully and readily their duties of religion towards God, of respectful obedience
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towards their superiors, and of condescension towards their inferiors. Without it they will act towards God as towards a master, prayer will be a burden, God's providential trials will appear as punishments, our neighbour will be regarded from a human point of view only. With the gift of piety we see and experience everything in a new light.
Piety for priests and religious
This gift is even more necessary for priests, for religious and for all who strive to live a perfect life in the world.
1. Without it, the numerous spiritual exercises which form so great a part of their life would soon become an intolerable burden. Piety transforms them into sweet communion with Jesus our Teacher: ubi amatur, non laboratur.18
2. With the gift of piety a fraternal, paternal, dare I say maternal instinct pervades our heart to help us fulfil our office. We share the goodness of Jesus towards all, the sentiments of Saint Paul towards his spiritual disciples: Filioli miei, quos iterum parturio donec iterum formetur Christus in vobis.19
Means for cultivating piety are the reading of Holy Scripture and taking part in the Liturgy.
Holy Scripture outlines for us God's goodness and paternal mercy. The Liturgy introduces us to the most beautiful and touching ways of conversing with our heavenly Father, with Jesus our Teacher, with the Holy Spirit. These are all prayers that are taken from the Bible or formulated by the Church.
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We should accustom ourselves to ejaculatory prayers, to reflect that the just person is a temple of the Holy Spirit, to renew from time to time the offering of all our actions to the Heart of Jesus.
Piety as a source of joy
Piety makes the religious a happy person.
Those who would savor the joy of the person consecrated to the Lord must experience a deep spirit of piety; there is nothing better.
It brings with it peace of mind and the happiness of a good conscience, the benefit of union, the experience of growing in love of God and of deeper union with him.
These are some of the rewards that the Lord bestows, even in this life, on his faithful and best servants, holding out the joyful hope of eternal bliss. All this even in the midst of trials; indeed, at times, the trials themselves increase the soul's trust that the Lord is leading it to holiness and joy; for sacrifice, in the mind, is more closely associated with the Cross. Superabundo gaudio in omni tribulatione,20 says Saint Paul. When the heart and feelings are fixed firmly in God and in the things of God the religious experiences such satisfaction with his life that he will neither be attracted to nor relish anything else. On the contrary, he will experience revulsion for the world, its pleasures and its values. Does not Saint Paul say: omnia arbitror ut stercora, ut Christum lucrifaciam?21
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1 “Train yourself in godliness [piety]… godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim 4:7-8)
2 “An act of reason” (Summa Theologica, II/II, q. 83. art. 1 ad 2).
3 “An assertion of one's own will” (Summa Theologica, III, q. 21, art. 1, contra).
4 “My heart and flesh sing for joy to the living God” (Ps 84[83]:3).
5 “Produces the movement from potential to act” (S.T., III, q. 21, art. 1 ad 3).
6 “In communion with the true Teacher.”
7 “The gift of grace and prayer.”
8 “You have received the spirit of sonship. It makes us cry out… Abba, Father” (Rom 8:15).
9 “…that we should be called children of God; and so we are” (1 Jn 3:1).
10 For this long quotation see A. Tanquerey, A Treatise on Ascetical and Mystical Theology, Desclée, Tournai 1930, n. 95B.
11 “Friendship accepts people as equals or makes them equals.”
12 “He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (Jn 14:26).
13 “No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you” (Jn 15:15).
14 “He frequently visits the man of interior life, holds sweet conversation with him, delightfully consoles him, gives him much peace, and is exceedingly familiar with him” (The Imitation of Christ, Book II, Ch. 1).
15 “O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary” (Hail holy Queen).
16 Much of the following has been taken and adapted from A. Tanquerey, op cit., nn. 1325-1329.
17 “I always do what is pleasing to him” (Jn 8:29).
18 “When one loves, one labors not.”
19 “My little children, with whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you!” (Gal 4:19).
20 “With all our affliction, I am overjoyed” (2 Cor 7:4).
21 “I count all things as refuse in order that I may gain Christ” (Phil 3:8).