Cardinal Henry Edward Manning

“ Henry Edward Manning, Archbishop of Westminster and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, was born in 1808, eight years after Cardinal Newman, and died in 1892. He was one of the most notable figures of his generation; and, indeed, in a sense, an unique figure, for he contributed a new type to the already rich and various ecclesiastical life of England. ”

“ In 1857 the pope, proprio motu, appointed him provost (or head of the chapter) of Westminster, and the same year he took up his residence in Bayswater as superior of a community known as the “Oblates of St Charles,” an association of secular priests on the same lines as the institute of the Oratory, but with this difference, that they are by their constitution at the beck and call of the bishop in whose diocese they live. The community was thus of the greatest service to Cardinal Wiseman, whose right-hand man Manning thenceforward became. ”

“ Theology cannot hold out for ever against conscience: sooner or later he begins to suspect and to see that he has forfeited fervour and aspiration and the "multitude of sweetness" which God has hid for those who fear Him. He has made his priesthood a yoke instead of a law of liberty. When such a priest comes to die, he often has little brightness, or joy, or confidence. He has not dealt generously with his Master, and in his last need he finds too late that they who have most denied themselves for His sake are most like Him ”

“ Finally, among those who seek their own are the spiritual gluttons, who crave intensely after the consolations and enjoyment of religion, which they would speedily forsake if they were not allured like children. Those that seek the things that are Jesus Christ's are the innocent and the penitent, the disinterested, the self-denying, the good soldiers who endure hardness and the Cross in their zeal for souls, for the Church, and for the priesthood. The first use their liberty for themselves; the last, for their Master. In one of these two categories every priest will be ”

“ The holiness, the purity, the jealousy, the justice of God, are as the flames of a furnace, in which the pure are still more purified; but the impure are consumed. For God is a consuming fire. [4] Only those who are configured to the High Priest of their salvation, and by a true will desire to be perfectly sanctified in body, soul, and spirit, can stand before Him. On them His sanctity has a power of assimilation, which perfects the work which He began in them when He first called them. ”

“ He maintains that there are only two states, the one of liberty and the other of three vows: that the state of liberty is for those who do not aspire to be perfect, and the state of vows for those who are aiming at perfection. He directs those who are under his guidance to avoid two things, sin and strictness to avoid sin, of course; but to avoid strictness, as leading to scruples and as hindering liberty. Such priests excuse in themselves many things by the plea, "I am not a religious" and "I am only a secular priest." They are never at a loss for probable doctors and various opinions. ”

“ All these are failures in the law of liberty.
What motive, then, is there wanting to constrain a priest to the highest aspiration? We all are bound by the law of nature to obey our Maker with the utmost powers and affections of our whole being; by our redemption we are bound to glorify our Redeemer, for He has bought us for Himself. By our regeneration we are bound to obey the Holy Ghost as sons of God; by faith we are bound to obey the revealed law of God; by hope, to use all means of attaining eternal life; by charity, to love Him super omnia, with our whole soul and strength. ”

“ The vision of faith, conscious and unconscious, becomes a second nature. He sees always the world that is invisible. Its beauty, its sweetness, and its fragrance are perceptible to an inward sense. The incense of the Holy Mass in the morning, and of the Benediction of the evening, is as an odour from the eternal hills. A priest whose mind is full of this world must be often, if not always, spiritless and saddened. A priest whose mind is filled with the eternal world will be always—habitually and virtually, and very often actually—filled with its light, peace, and gladness. ”

“ Such a life, if out of sin, is often in the occasions of sin. Liberty goes into the world and into all its laxities so long as sin is not manifest. But the world is covered with a network of occasions, as the veil of covering which is spread over all nations. Where one escapes a score are taken in the meshes. Now a priest who so instructs other souls assuredly first uses himself the liberty he gives so freely. And there can be no doubt that as a strict priest has both peace and sweetness in the restriction of his liberty, a lax priest has little of either in the freedom he allows himself. ”

“ It is a grievous thing to see a Catholic or a Christian people turning its back to the light. Nevertheless, faithful pastors have the peace of knowing that they are on God's side, and that they are contending for the rights of God. In all their sorrows there is this deep joy, which none can take from them. S. John Chrysostom says: "The warfare of monks is great, and their labours many; but if one compare their toils to a priesthood well discharged, he will find as great a difference as between a private man and a king." ”

“ Whosoever loves God is united with Him, and the second death has no power over those that are His. A good priest will say, "I am not conscious to myself of anything, yet am I not hereby justified. He that justifieth me is the Lord." ”

“ THE PRIEST'S OBEDIENCE.
We have seen what is the priest's liberty. So long as he does not violate the obligations of his priesthood and the discipline of the Church, he has as much liberty as any other man. But if he use his liberty like other men, he will not be able to say to his flock, "Be ye followers of me as I also am of Christ." [1] A priest who lives up to the limits of his liberty is a lax priest, and a lax priest is an unhappy man. He is fenced all round with restrictions, and they gall him because he does not love them. ”

“ The conversation and the presence of some one becomes so alluring as to be a part of his thoughts, and a daily need. A false relation is insensibly formed, free perhaps from all sin, but fall of an unbalanced attachment, which draws him from our Divine Master, the priest's only Friend, to whom his whole heart was given. What nets for his feet lie in his path, what pits are open in his way. How insensibly he goes onward, not measuring the distance, till a gulf opens behind him, and his past is almost out of sight. All this is also a measure of time: not that time has done it. ”

“ The first is joy over the innocent—that is, over the children who as yet are fresh in their baptismal grace; still more over those who have grown up to youth, to manhood, and to womanhood with the innocence of childhood. There can be no more beautiful sight in this world than a soul in grace. In the kingdom of their Father they shall shine as the sun: [9] already in this world in the sight of God they so bear His image and likeness that its brightness is not overcast by any cloud of wilful sin. They are the clean in heart who see God, and the peacemakers who are the sons of God. ”

“ If souls will not be redeemed he cannot save them. God Himself respects the freedom He created and gave to them. They can destroy themselves. As life draws on, and the work of a priest in the midst of his flock has brought him into contact with the good and the evil, the innocent and the penitent, he can look round upon it as the sower in the lingering summer when the corn is ripening, looks upon the harvest-field. ”

“ The last reward of a good priest is a happy death. A calm conscience in charity with all men is the witness of God's work in him. The priest may say, "Being confident of this very thing, that He who hath begun a good work in me will perfect the same until the day of Jesus Christ." [19] Ipse perficiet. "We know that we have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren." [20] We not only believe and hope, but we know. We know that where there is a. stream there must be a fountain. We know that the love of brotherhood flows from the love of God. ”

“ He has upon him the yoke of the priesthood, which frets him because it is not his joy. The happiest of men is a strict priest, to whom the yoke of the priesthood is sweet, and its restrictions far less than the limitations he has of his own free will imposed upon his liberty. ”

“ A priest who has nothing but his bare sustenance enjoys without burden or responsibility all the works of Nature in all their brightness and sweetness, and that in a higher degree, perhaps, than the lord of the soil. The beauty of the world is a common inheritance, and none enjoy it so keenly as those who by the donum scientiæ see God in everything, and everything in God. ”

“ He saw that the reverence of children to their parents, of subjects to their rulers, of people to their priests, of priests to their Bishops, of Bishops to the Head of the Church, is all one habit of mind, differing only in measure and accidental diversities. In itself it is all one habit of filial piety. A priest who is devout to the Saints will hardly be irreverent and contumacious, or critical and murmuring against his superiors. France has been infected and afflicted by a spirit of mockery against all authority, sacred or secular. ”

“ Sometimes men who, as students or clerics, promised great works for the Church have been placed by necessity in a sphere so narrow that their powers have had little to call them out. Such a sphere was too limited for their zeal. But in saying this we must not forget the words of S. Charles: that one soul is diocese enough for a Bishop. In counting by number we lose sight of the worth of each single soul, and the reward of saving if it be only one eternal soul. This would give work enough to a priest in the scarcest flock. ”

“ The love of children for a priest is the most unselfish love on earth, and so long as they are innocent it binds them to him by a confidence which casts out fear. The most timid and shrinking come to him as a relief and protection. They tell him everything—their hopes and fears, their troubles and their faults—with an undoubting confidence in his love and care. No priest has greater joy than the priest who loves his schools, and trains with his own eye and care the boys who surround his altar. ”

“ A priest is God's almoner. If he has nothing of his own, he receives in alms from the hand of His Master, and he distributes it again to the poor. The old, the helpless, and the destitute turn to him as their last hope. What Job in his profound humility said no priest will dare to say; yet every true priest would desire to be said of him when he is dead: "The ear that heard me blessed me, and the eye that saw me gave witness to me. ”

“ He may go where he will, stay as long as he likes, choose his own society. There is no one all day to check or to cross his liberty, and unchecked liberty easily grows to license. He is altogether independent of all except his Bishop, and his Bishop is at a distance. A priest is therefore, if any question arises, the judge in his own case. He decides and applies the law to himself. This is indeed a great and dangerous liberty, far beyond that of a layman. ”

“ The world has stolen away the heart of such a priest. It is no longer in his silent room, nor in the fellowship of his brethren, nor in the sanctuary, nor in his priesthood. It is somewhere abroad, in some house, or in some friendship, or in some intimacy. And when such a priest comes to die he cannot choose but cast up his reckoning, and make a horarium of his life. How many hours have I spent at the altar, and how many in the world? how many in the homes of the poor, and how many in the homes of the rich? ”

“ It powerfully sustains our will; it replenishes our mind, keeping alive in our memory the meditations of long years that are past with continual fresh accessions of light. And it brings down a special blessing into the heart of the preacher. Qui inebriat inebriabitur et ipse. He that abundantly refreshes the souls of men with the water of life shall be abundantly refreshed himself. He that watereth shall be watered himself in the very time and act of speaking for God. A humble priest preaching as he prays is united with the fountain of the water of life ”

“ They often say that they cannot pray, and that they cannot think: they can only lie and suffer. It is at such a time that a priest can think for them, and call their thoughts into activity. If he be a "fountain of water whose waters shall not fail," then he will refresh the soul that is dry through suffering and parched by mental anxiety. ”

“ We read that at one time even His brethren did not believe in Him. And at last one of His twelve disciples betrayed Him. It often happens that a priest is falsely accused by some one for whom he has had a special intimacy, and on whom he has bestowed a special care. It may be some soul ready to perish whom he has plucked as a brand from the burning. It often happens that they for whom we do most are least grateful and most malicious. Because so much has been done for them, they exact more; and because more cannot be done, they break out in jealousy and vindictiveness. ”

“ For a life of unlimited liberty is encompassed with manifold temptations. The very atmosphere is charged with danger. Few minds are so self-sufficing that they do not crave after human voices and human sympathies. A priest coming out of a seminary needs fellowship, and he often seeks it in society. ”