Salesian Literature

Vol. 2, CONFERENCE 3 : Why we become religious

 

Our Mother has asked me, my dear Daughters, to speak to you on a mater of utmost importance, necessity and utility, that could be proposed namely, the purpose you should have in joining the Religious Life.

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Trivial motives

My dear Daughters, many join the Religious Life without even knowing why they are doing it.  They will come in front of a grill or in the parlour, and there they will see some Religious wearing a veil on their head, a serene face, looking well, unassuming and quite happy and contented according to their opinion.  And then, of a sudden, they will reflect and say to themselves: My God! How nice it is here!  Let us go there!  The world is so cold towards us.  We would not realize our expectations there.

 

Another one will say: My God! How well they sing in there!  It is so lovely to sing well!  They are right in coming over here so that others will listen to their beautiful voice.  For, perhaps, if they were to sing at home they would have to sing in a hall where no one would listen to them and would care whether they sang well or not.  In the Choir, everybody hears them sing, and they feel that each one hears them and pays attention to them.

 

Others join the Religious Life to find great peace, consolations and all sorts of satisfactions and interior delights.  And they say to themselves: How happy these Sisters are! They are away from the annoyance caused by their father and mother who do nothing else, except to shout.  We can do nothing to please them.  You have to go on beginning al over again.  Our Lord himself has promised many consolations to those who leave the world for his service.  So let us embrace religious life.

 

There you have, my dear Daughters, three different kinds of worthless motives to join the Religious Life, which is the House of God.  It should necessarily be God who builds the town or the city (Ps. 126/127:1), otherwise, even if it is built, it would  have to be destroyed.  I like to think, my dear Daughters, that your motives are quite different and hence that you are all good-natured and God will bless you.

 

 

Pure motives

Two comparisons come to my mind to make you understand on what and how your purpose should be based so that it is strong.  I shall rest satisfied by explaining one which is enough.  Take the case of an architect who wants to build a house.  He takes two things into account: firstly, he wants to know whether his building is for the use of an individual or for a prince or a king.  Accordingly he has to start differently.  Secondly, he makes a rough estimate, and considers whether he has sufficient means to undertake it.  Or if he wished to include the construction of a high tower, and did not have the means to meet, people would mock at him for having begun a thing from which he could not get out with honour (Lk. 14:18-30).  Moreover, he has to take the decision to bring down the old building that is in the site of the new one he wishes to construct.

 

My dear Daughters, we want to put up a big building.  It is to be the dwelling place of God in us and which makes of us His living temples.  So let us reflect seriously whether we have enough courage and determination to destroy our old selves and to crucify ourselves; or rather, to allow God Himself to destroy us and crucify us, so that He rebuilds us, to be the living temple of His majesty (1 Cor. 3:16-17).

 

I tell you, then my dear Daughters, that our only aim should be to unite ourselves with God, just as Our Lord Jesus Christ was united to God, His Father, while dying on the Cross.  I do not wish to speak to you on the general union brought about through Baptism, by which the Christians are united to God.  Through this sacrament, they receive the divine seal of Christianity which binds them to keep the commandments of God and the Church, to apply themselves to the performance of good works, to practise the virtues of faith, hope and charity which give value to their union.  They can rightly expect to go to Heaven where they will be united to the Supreme goodness as to their God by the above-mentioned means.  They are not bound to do more since as they have attained their goal which is to unite themselves to God through the usual and spacious way of faithfully obeying God’s Commandments.

 

 

What it means to be a religious

The same is not the case with you, my dear Daughters; for besides this common obligation which we have as Christians since God has chosen you to be his Spouses, we have then to know how and the conditions that are necessary to be a Religious as well as what it means to be a Religious.  It means to be bound to God by a continual mortification of ourselves, and to live for God alone.  Our own heart is always at the service of God’s Majesty.  Our eyes, our tongue, our hands and everything else serve Him continually and without any reserve.  Religious Life provides us with all the appropriate means to reach this goal such as prayers, spiritual reading, silence, interior recollection, and continual upliftings of the heart towards our Saviour.

 

We cannot arrive at this without a continual practice of the mortification of our passions, inclinations, bad moods and antipathies.  So we are bound to keep a constant watch over ourselves in order to make all these die.  Remember, my dear Daughters, if the grain of wheat which falls to the ground does not die, it remains all alone, but if it dies, it bears a hundredfold (Jn. 12:24).  The sacred words of Our Lord pronounced by His own lips are very clear about it.  Hence, those of you who aspire to become Novices and those of you who have taken the veil and are aspiring to make the Profession, reflect well more than once whether you are really determined to die to yourselves.  Ponder deeply over all that.  There is still time long enough to reflect over it, before making your final commitment.  For, I tell you solemnly, that if you want to live according to your natural dispositions (I do not wish to please you) you must live in the world.  Those who are determined to live according to the grace of God, let them enter Religious Life which is nothing else but a school of mortification and renouncement of self.  That is why it provides you with numerous tools – both interior and exterior for mortification.

 

But you will cry out: My God! It is not this that I am seeking!  I thought that, to be a good Religious, it was enough to pray well, to have visions and revelations, to see Angels in human form, to be transported in ecstasy, to love well reading good books.  What is this?  I was so virtuous, so mortified in the world, and so humble that everybody admired me.  Was it not being humble and virtuous when I spoke so gently to my companions about devotional things recounted sermons to them and being at home behaved gently with those who resided there, especially, when they did not oppose me?  - Certainly, my Daughters, that was something good for the world, but Religious Life expects us to do works worthy of such a vocation (Eph. 4:1); that is, to die to self in all things, as much to what we judge to be good as well as to what is evil and useless. Do you think that all good religious of the desert reached so great a union with God, attained it by following their natural tendencies?  Certainly not.  They mortified themselves even in the most sacred things.  However much they loved singing divine canticles, they did not do it just to satisfy themselves.  Not at all.  On the contrary, they deprived themselves voluntarily even of those good and lawful delights, so as to be engrossed in hard labour and toil.

 

Oh, no, my Daughter, when the Rule says that we ask for books at a fixed hour, it does not mean that we ask for the books which please us the most.  Not at all.  That is not the purpose of the Rule, nor of other exercises.  One particular Sister will be drawn – or so it seems to her – to pray, to recite the Office, to be recollected and she is told: Sister, please go to the kitchen, or go and do this or that thing.  Do you not feel that this, indeed, is bad news to such a devout sister?

 

I always come back, my dear Daughters, to what I have been saying already so often to you: You have to die to yourself so that God can live in you (Gal. 2:20).  In fact it is impossible to acquire this union of our heart with God by any other means except that of mortification.  These are hard words: You must Die!  But they are followed by a great because Through this death you become one with God.  You must know that no one who is wise puts new wine into old wineskins (Mt. 9:17).  The nectar of divine love cannot be distilled into a heart where the Old Self reigns.  It is necessary to destroy it.  – How am I to destroy this Old Self?  How, my daughter?  By the strict observance of your Constitutions.  In God’s name, I can assure you that if you are faithful in practising what they teach, you will arrive, beyond doubt, to the goal you have set before you, and that is to unite yourself with God.  I hope you have noticed that I said: You have to work… We cannot at all acquire perfection by keeping our arms closed.  We have to work in good earnest to overcome ourselves and to live according to reason, Rule and obedience, and not according to the tendencies we have brought with us from the world.  Religious Life tolerates quite well that you bring you bad habits, passions and inclinations but not that you live according to them.  It gives you the Rules which serve as a winepress on your heart to drain away all that goes against God.  Live, therefore, courageously in fidelity to these Rules and you will be happy.

 

 

Need to practise

But some one may tell me!  My God!  What am to do?  I do not possess at all the spirit of the Rule!  I understand you quite well, my dear daughter.  That is not something you bring with you form the world into the Religious Life.  I will tell you more: Being in Paris where more things are found than in any other city in the world, and specially at the Palace, I noticed that some people sold perfumed gloves, plumes, crests, and other luxury items; but I did not find anybody selling the spirit of the Rule, neither of our own nor that of other Religious Congregations.  It is to tell you, my dear Daughters, that you acquire the spirit of the rules only by faithfully keeping the Rule.  I say the same regarding humility and gentleness, which are the foundations of this Congregation.  God will certainly give them to us, provided we have the courage and do our best to acquire them.  How happy we will be, if, just a quarter of an hour before our death, we find ourselves clothed with a dress woven with these two virtues!  Our whole life would be made use of quite well if we sew sometimes one piece and sometimes another.  In fact this sacred habit is not made up of one single piece, but several are necessary, that is, many repeated acts of these virtues.

 

 

Integration of passions

You tell me, Mother, that our Sisters have good will, but they do not have the strength to do what they want to.  They feel their passions so strongly, that they are afraid even to start walking.

 

-  Have courage, my dear Daughters!  I told you several times that Religious Life is a school in which you learn your lessons.  The teacher does not always demand that his pupil knows the lesson without mistakes.  It is enough that he takes care to do his best to learn it.  Thus let us also do, what we can.  God will be happy with us and our Superiors likewise.   Have you ever seen those who learn to shoot?  They often fall down; so too, those who learn to ride a horse.

 

However, they do not think that they are defeated.  For it is one thing sometimes to be beaten and quite another thing to be vanquished.  Sometimes your passions will raise their heads on account of which you say: Oh, I am not fit for the Religious Life because I have some passion.  – No, my dear Daughters, it is not so.  Religious Life does not boast of fashioning a gentle spirit and a peaceful heart in itself but it endeavours to bring persons who have strong natural inclinations, to the practice of virtue.  Indeed these persons, if they are faithful they will make greater progress than others acquiring at the point of the sword what others have without difficulty.

 

Nobody expects you to have no passions at all; that is not in your power, and God wants you to feel their stirrings till your dying day, for your own good.  He also does not want them to be too weak, for that would be like telling that one who is not well-practised in virtue is not fit for God’s service.  The world is wrong in thinking this way, for God never rejects anything where there is no malice at all.  Tell me: what can a person do if she has such and such temperament or that she is subject to this or that passion?  Everything depends on our acts which we do under the influence of our passion which depends on our will.  Sin is a such wilful act that there can be no sin without the consent of our will.

 

Take the case when anger surprises me: I will say to my anger: Turn away, burst if you wish.  I will do nothing in your favour, not even utter a word according to your impulse.  God has given us this power; otherwise He would be biding us to achieve the impossible by calling us to a life of perfection.  It would, then, be an injustice which cannot be found in God.

 

Incidentally, a short story suitable to you occurs to my mind which I shall narrate: When Moses came down the mountain on which he had just spoken with God, he saw the people worshipping a golden calf which they had made during his absence.  Seized by a just anger and zeal for God’s glory, Moses said to his brother Aaron, turning the Levites: If there is someone on God’s side, let him take the sword in hand to kill all those whom he finds without sparing father or mother, brothers or sisters.  Let him put all to death.  The Levites then, took the sword in hand and the bravest Levite was the one who killed the most (Ex. 32:26-28).

 

 

Mortification

In the same way, my dear Daughters, take the sword of mortification in your hand to kill and to destroy your passions, and the one who has the biggest number to get rid of, will be the most valiant, provided she keeps cooperating with God’s grace. These two young Sisters sitting in front of me, one of whom is just 15 and the other 16 years old, have little to kill; their personality is yet in the process of awakening.  But as for the great personalities which have experienced many challenges and have tasted heavenly delights, these are the people whose task it is to overcome and put to death their passions.

 

 

Perfection through the observance of Rules and Constitutions

As you say, Mother, regarding those who have such earnest desires to achieve their perfection, that they want to overtake everybody else in the practice of virtues, they are flattering well a little this self-love by these vehement desires.  They would do better to follow the Community by observing the Rules well, for that is the only straight way of reaching God.  My dear daughters you are much better off than the likes of us who are in the world.  For whenever we ask for the way, someone says: take the road to the right; another says: take it to the left; and most often they deceive us.  But as for you, what you have to do is to let yourself be carried.  You are like those who are sailing on the sea.  The ship carries them and they remain in it without any worry.   While they rest, they also make a headway, and all they need only to ask is to know whether they are on the right direction. It is the duty of the sailors, who always seeing the pole star, know that they are following, the right direction and informs the people on board: Courage! You are on the right way.

 

Follow this beautiful star and this divine compass fearlessly, my dear Daughters, for it is Our Lord; the ship is your Rules, those who guide it and the sailors are the Superiors, who say to us often and habitually: Go ahead, my dear Sisters, through the strict observance of your Rules and Constitutions and you will happily reach God.  They will lead you safely.  Notice that I say: Make your way through faithful and strict observance for the one who neglects the way of the Lord will die (Prov. 19:16, says Solomon.

 

If, then, you do what you are taught, you will be very happy, my dear Daughters, and you will be satisfied, taste already here in this world the delights of heaven, at least in small samples.  But take care not to get attached to the interior relish and comfort Our Lord gives.  It is given to you like a little jam which the heavenly pharmacist puts on the bitter side of the mortification which you have to take for the sake of your health.  And even though the sick man takes the sweetness from the hand of the pharmacist, he is necessarily bound to suffer from the bitter effects of the purgation.

 

You see, then, quite clearly, what is expected of you, if you desire to become worthy brides of Our Lord and to enable you to be betrothed to Him on Mount Calvary.  Live your whole life and model all your actions according to these motives and God will bless you.  All our happiness is grounded on perseverance, and that is why, I exhort you, my very dear Daughters, with all my heart to persevere till the end.  I pray God to fill your heart with his grace and His divine love in this world and to give you the guarantee of His glory in the life to come.  Amen.

 

 

If I were to be a Sister

Mother, I have already replied elsewhere to your question; that is, whether the Sisters require to ask for special permission to receive Holy Communion or to practise mortifications more than the Community.  If I were a Sister, I think that I would not ask to be in any way different from the others; neither to receive Communion nor hair cloth, nor to wear the hair shirt, nor girdle nor extraordinary fasts, nor discipline nor any other thing, finding my happiness in following the Community in everything.  If I were strong and robust, I would not eat four times a day; but if I were obliged to do it, I would do it and I would say nothing about it.   If, on the contrary, I were weak and I was asked to eat just once a day, I would eat only once a day, without wasting my time thinking whether I would be strong or weak.  I want to have few things; what I wish to have, I want to have it for God.  I have almost no desires, but if I were to be born again I would not have any or I would not want to have any at all.  if God came to me and favoured me with the intimate feeling of His presence I would also go to him to accept it and cooperate with his graces; but if he did not want to come to me, I would stay there and would not go to Him; what I mean is, I will not seek after this feeling of His presence, but I would just be happy in the simple understanding that faith gives me.

 

May God be praised!

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