Jean-Baptiste Berthier

“ If, then, you wish to be sure of making a good choice of a state of life, represent yourself as at the point of death, and choose the state which then you will wish to have embraced. Remember that all things here below have an end. Everything passes away, and death advances toward us. At every step we take, we go nearer to death and to eternity. At the moment we think least of it, death will be at our door ; and then what comfort shall we find in the goods of this life? Shall we find in them anything more than delusion, vanity, falsehood, and folly? ”

“ The soul, under the action of interior emotions, is on fire with love for God, and can love nothing created save in view of him. Tears flow, stirring up that divine love, whether they flow from grief for sin, or from meditation on the passion, or from any other cause whatever that tends directly to the glory and service of God. We may also give the name, spiritual consolation, to any increase of faith, hope, and charity, and also to every joy which is wont to incite the soul to the meditation of heavenly things, to the desire of salvation, to the possession of rest and peace with God. ”

“ The fathers of the Church," he says, " have always been of opinion that, to be enlightened on vocation, we must never seek advice from men of the world. Dazzled by the false glitter of earthly things, they do not know the worth of invisible goods. In their eyes voluntary poverty is a wretched state, they look on chastity as an effect of a sour temper, and they hold obedience to be a mere slavery. A simple and coarse dress is for them contemptible, a convent is a prison, and all the exercises of a religious life pass for a silly occupation. ”

“ I have granted marriage to spouses, I have not commanded it, I should even wish that all would practise perfect chastity : but every one has his proper gift, let him use it. That is, let him who has the grace of the chastity of virgins or of widowhood, take it as a gift from God ; let the married man who has received conjugal chastity, and who in his state behaves in conformity with the divine law, accept his grace as a gift from heaven : let this gift be his consolation, and enable him to live in peace. ”

“ What is required to destroy a vocation in the world ? Almost nothing : one day of amusement, a little vexation not properly borne, things of this kind are sometimes enough to put to flight all our resolutions to give ourselves wholly to God But whosoever allows himself to be carried away by worldly enjoyments, will infallibly lose his vocation. How many, from want of recollection and of keeping away from the world, lost, first, their vocation, and, next, their immortal souls! ”

“ He who vents contempt and outrage on the heroism that he cannot rival, justly incurs universal hatred, and passes in the eyes of the world for a senseless being and an enemy to virtue." " Woe to you," says the same doctor, in the words of Isaias, " woe to you who call evil good, and good evil; who change darkness into light, and light into darkness, bitterness into sweetness, and sweetness into bitterness. Now, what is there more lovely than virginity ? What is better or more charming ? ”

“ We must not therefore judge that a person is not really called because he happens, even before leaving the world, no longer to experience the sensible emotions which he felt in the beginning ; nor even because dislikes and coldnesses arise in him which make him waver and suppose that all hope is at an end. It is enough that the will remain constant and not abandon the holy vocation ; or even that he continue to entertain some attachment for it." [11] "Should the pious desires of a young man slacken for a time, that may still be a proof of vocation," says Father Pinamonti. ”

“ Are we to infer from this that, when God does not call a soul to one state more than to another, she may lightly and giddily embrace the state which flatters most the tendencies of nature? By no means. In all his actions man should be guided by reason ; and to put this reason aside where there is question of taking a determination on which depends the happiness of a whole life, would be the strangest and most fatal blindness. The Christian in all his works must follow the guidance of faith : and is the light of faith ever more necessary to him than in the choice of a state of life ? ”

“ He who is not in this indifference, and still prays to God to enlighten him on the choice of a state of life, and who, instead of conforming to God's will, rather asks God to conform to him, resembles a pilot that pretends to wish his vessel to advance, yet in reality does not want it to stir : he first throws out his anchor, and then unfurls his sails. God does not shed his light on souls thus disposed. ”

“ Gregory, the active life is : to feed the hungry, to teach the ignorant wisdom, to bring back to humility him whom pride is leading astray, to take care of the sick, give to every one what is profitable for him, and provide for the wants of those intrusted to our charge. The contemplative life retains, indeed, love for God and for our neighbor, but it rests by keeping from exterior activity. ”

“ To call marriage bad, is an injury to virginity; to honor the former, is to praise the latter. A person is not handsome because less ugly than some one else whose body is deformed; but he is truly such, when he excels in beauty those who are whole and free from defect. In this way, marriage, which is good in itself, leads us to admire virginity, that is better, and outstrips it in dignity as much as the captain and the general are above the common soldier and sailor. ”

“ Francis of Sales, " if in her chief actions she is moved by grace, and not by nature, according to grace and not according to nature she deserves to be accepted, with love and respect, as the temple of the Holy Ghost ; though she is a wolf in nature, she is a lamb by grace. I do not think that monasteries ought to send away all repentant girls. Prudence must be moderated by sweetness, and sweetness or gentleness by prudence. At times so much is to be got from repentant souls, that nothing should be refused them." ”

“ Can a man who does not know how to order his own life, regulate the life of another? How can I consider as my superior in prudence a man whom I see so far below me in his morals? Can I look upon as able to give me counsel, one who is unable to counsel himself? ”

“ She who marries a king looks upon herself as the happiest of women : but should you not, virgins, make every sacrifice, even that of life itself, were it necessary, to please Him whom you have chosen? He is no man of earth, he is no slave : he is the God who reigns in the heavens. He is above every principality and power ; above every virtue and name that can be spoken. He spreads out the heavens, he shakes the earth, the cherubim fall down before him, he is inaccessible to the seraphim, but for you he is a spouse, and even more than a spouse. ”

“ Try your strength, consult your friends, so that, later, you may never have reason to repent of your step. This wisdom of the world is earthy, animal, diabolical, the enemy of salvation. It chokes life and breeds lukewarmness. Be careful, it tells you. And why would you be careful? When the Angel of the great counsel calls, what need have you to wait for other counsels ? Let him consult his friends who has not heard these words of Christ : 'A man's enemies shall be they of his own household.' (Matt, x, 36.) Why does he profess to believe the Gospel who does not obey it? ”

“ When a soul, under the action of grace, has formed some salutary plan, it is a great cruelty to thwart its resolutions. It is malice like that of Herod, it is Babylonian barbarity, to slaughter newly-born infants ; but greater still is the wickedness of men who crush in souls, even before birth, the holy desires which they have formed. Men of this kind seem to me worse than the infernal dragon standing up before the woman about to bring forth, and ready to devour her offspring as soon as it should come into the world. ”

“ Are you, then, ignorant that virtue alone holds the promises of the life that now is, and of the life to come ? It constitutes the bliss of marriage, and it is it that married persons should seek before all things. "A virtuous woman rejoiceth her husband, and shall fulfil the years of his life in peace. A good wife is a good portion: she shall be given, in the portion of them that fear God, to man for his good deeds." ”

“ Chrysostom shows the sad consequences that may result from thoughtless and unscrupulous mockery of virginity or celibacy. Let us suppose, says he, that a man who has taken upon himself the severe sacrifices of virginity, should become with impunity the jest of great and small : whose courage, I ask, will not recoil from the prospect of taunts and ridicule ? It is only a soul, superhumanly generous and noble, that could embrace a virtue so loaded with contempt. But allow others, less hardy and less skilled, to receive some mutual assistance from our encouragements. ”

“ We consider marriage lawful; we also admire those who forego it. To keep from what is forbidden does not always betoken a grand and lofty soul. Hence, perfect virtue, not content with shunning faults branded by public opinion, triumphs in the performance of those acts, the omission of which would entail no guilt. But do you not prohibit marriage? God forbid! But, you will add, do you exhort us to keep continence? Yes, I advise it, for I understand the excellence of virginity ”

“ Therefore, a young widow, it seems to me, ought to be all the further from a second marriage, because she has known sorrow and widowhood so early in life. In remaining a widow, she is sure of her future, and protects herself against similar misfortunes. Though the state of widow hood is the same for all widows, the rewards differ widely, and are more brilliant for some than for others. The widow who, while yet young, undergoes the yoke of continence, deserves more honor and glory than another who takes up the practice only in her old age. ”

“ Evidently, it is not in the maxims of the world, but in Holy Writ, in Catholic tradition, in the works of the fathers, and in the theologians and masters of the spiritual life. And yet, where is the young man or the young woman, who, having to decide about the future, can run over immense volumes, written, for the most part, in an unknown tongue, with a view to draw from them the doctrine that is to enlighten and guide a decision? Absorbed as they are in countless occupations, parents are still less fit than their children for such a study. ”

“ Thomas strange inhale the perfume of piety, candor, and grace, which some religious boarding- schools breathe out at the close of a scholastic year; if they could get a close view of the supernatural loveliness which the solitude of a monastery sheds in a few months over these young souls, they would, with the holy doctor, acknowledge that " it is good for a man to bear the yoke of the Lord from his tenderest years." ”

“ We are well aware that there may be men who are the disgrace of the celibacy which they profess ; but, were we to judge of a state of life by the conduct of those who dishonor it, what condition could we esteem, what state could we embrace? Besides, the shortcomings of those living in Christian celibacy might often pass for virtues, if placed alongside the sins of the worldling. Poor slaves of the world ! the Christian maiden whom you laugh at has no contempt for you ; she sacrifices herself, she weeps and prays earnestly for you. ”