1. It must be God and God only whom the novice is seeking. Self-will, however it may seem to direct the soul towards good and holy things, must be put aside. Voluntas Dei must be the motto; and he must show that at least in will and desire he seeks only the divine will, however it may be expressed. He who is thus setting out to seek God will subordinate all things to His will. He cares not what disposition is made of him. He can as readily rejoice in being turned back from what he hopes and prays may be his vocation as in being allowed to go on to profession. His attitude must be summed up in the words of Hilton's pilgrim: "I am nothing, I have nothing, I covet nothing, but only the love of our Lord Jesus."

The word sollicitus, employed in the Holy Rule, which, following Canon Doyle, we have rendered an eagerness for, is difficult to translate. Dom Oswald Blair, in his translation of the Rule, renders it fervent while in a familiar passage of the " Imitation" most editors have rendered it anxious, solicitous. Its etymology seems to indicate being wholly aroused, every faculty and sense keen and alert to spring forward at a moment's notice to accomplish the work proposed. This, then, is the spirit that must actuate the novice in Religion.

2. Has he, also, "an eagerness for the Work of God"? By this expression St. Benedict meant the Divine Office, or Opus Dei, as it was commonly called, and all the work of prayer that pertains to it and supports it.

1 Walter Hilton, The Scale of Perfection, p. 165 (London, 1870). 2 A Kempis, De Imit., i, 13.

This idea of eagerness does not imply that the novice must evince a feeling of love for prayer. It cannot be too often set before souls seeking perfection that love lies not in the emotions but in the will. He that wills resolutely, courageously, and perseveringly, -note these qualifications-to love the work of prayer is setting forth the sign of true vocation.

3. Has he "an eagerness for obedience," unafraid in the face of difficulties, ready without hesitation to try even apparent impossibilities, if the voice of authority speaks? And realizing the true essence of obedience, is he eager for the mortification of his own will, fearful of trusting it even when it may be allowed, and preferring to set it aside in favour of the will of another?

4. Then, above all, is there a like "eagerness for humiliation"? This last is the full and final test, for true Religion consists in humility, and according to a well-known saying of St. Bernard: "Humiliation is the path to humility, as patience is to peace, as reading is to knowledge."1

VII. Of the Spirit of the Good Novice

We must venture a summary of the spirit of the good novice regarding the discipline and opportunities of the novitiate.

The foremost aim of the aspirant must be to learn the meaning and extent of the obligation he is about to undertake. He will do his utmost to gain the best conception of the end that the Religious Life pro

1 St. Bernard, Ep. lxxxvii. Migne, P.L., Tom. 182, col. 217.

poses, namely, that of union with God through the development and daily practical exercise of the virtue of love. He will spare himself in nothing, that he may learn the means by which this end can be most surely attained. He will not be content to limit himself to such knowledge of these means as may be obtained from reading or from the instruction of his Superiors. He will be moved by a strong and persevering desire to practise them, and thus gain actual experience in the life that he proposes to live.

So far from being pleased if it be made light for him, while accepting humbly whatever course his Superior takes with him, he will the rather fear lest he be missing opportunities of practising that humility and obedience which he must learn by means of definitely assigned lessons if he is to become a good Religious. He will desire the best and fullest tests. He will wish to feel the full weight of the yoke before assuming it for life, and will spring forward with gladness of will, even though there be much repugnance of natural feeling, to submit himself to whatever is laid upon him. Nor will he be dismayed by this repugnance, but rather will he exert himself the more strenuously, recognizing it as a sign of a natural weakness which it is his one business by God's help to overcome.

Instead of yielding to a sense of resentment when his Superiors set a deliberate humiliation for him, he will happily co-operate with them, like a courageous patient who nerves himself to be firm and still, rendering every possible assistance to the surgeon while the knife does its healing work. Instead of indulging a sense of nervous self-consciousness

towards them because they have been the instruments of his humiliation, his heart will be drawn towards them with the gratitude one naturally feels towards a true friend and benefactor.

So far from such resentment will he be that conceiving for them a supernatural affection he will with simplicity of spirit give them his entire confidence, opening his heart without reserve to display every symptom of the disease that the novitiate is designed to cure, that they may the more surely apply the remedy he desires to receive. He and they will have but one mind and one heart in this great enterprise, and understanding each other they will be able to work together as yoke-fellows in Christ for the attaining of his perfection.

Nor will he be discouraged at the seeming slowness of his progress. He will appreciate the truth that grace as well as nature produces her most perfect works only imperceptibly and by degrees,"1 and instead of discouraging him, this condition will stimulate him to greater effort to overcome the faults that retard his rapid progress along the way of perfection. At the same time he will understand that perhaps there is no greater sign of progress than a sense of failure; for such a sense indicates that the soul is beginning to realize the greatness of the undertaking, and the inadequacy of his natural equipment to carry it out, which realization is necessary if one hopes to take a single effective step in the direction of the goal of perfection.

1 Gautrelet, op. cit., Vol. i, 65.

VIII. Of the Spirit of the Bad Novice

Much that we learn in this world is gained by observing contrasts. We have considered the character of the good novice. Let us see what we can learn from the comparative consideration of the bad novice.

Usually the failures of such a novice arise from pride and vanity. He comes to the community with no real sense of need. He is attracted too often by some sentimental consideration, or by the work he sees the community doing, and has no conception of the life that lies behind the outward activities. He has read certain books on Religion, and so shallow is his view of the State he is undertaking that he thinks this kind of knowledge is sufficient without putting it to the test in his own daily life. He is surprised, awakened, as it were, with a shock, when after a few days in the novitiate, he meets with some humiliation or discipline at the hands of his Superior. He adopts the view that the ordinary routine of the life contains ample opportunity for discipline without further opportunity being planned by the Master of Novices. He takes the position in his own mind that he is quite willing to be humiliated when he is guilty of some breach, but that when he does well and is buffeted for it, he cannot be expected to find satisfaction in it. When the Novice Master, true to his trust, makes things hard for him, he grows despondent, and if this discipline is applied with such a spirit that he cannot fail to see that love is behind it, he is depressed all the more, wondering why one who so plainly loves him should deal so harshly. So little does he realize his need !