playing with it, and he is not to be tolerated. Such tendencies are signs that the soul is not converted, and no unconverted soul should be admitted to Religion. St. Augustine tells us that in his unregenerate days his reply to the Spirit's goading was: Give me chastity and self-control, only not yet."1

In considering the above signs, it is not to be thought that no Religious vocation is to be found without them. But when some or all of them are clearly present, and no exterior hindrance appears, one can feel morally sure that the vocation should be pursued.

Previous holiness of life, however, is not to be required too strictly. Many an one who has been unable to control his passions in the world, has, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, fled to Religion as being the only condition under which he could save his soul.

"Religion," says St. Francis de Sales, "tolerates our bringing our bad habits, passions and inclinations," and one is not to be discouraged in his quest of vocation because his life in the world has been on a low level. If he has the will to reform, entrance into the Life of the Counsels is not to be denied him. "God does not choose us because we are fitting, but He fits those whom He chooses," and the discipline of either the novitiate or the Professed Life would be superfluous, if souls were supposed to be well-trained in holiness before they came.

1 St. Augustine, Confessiones, Lib. viii, cap. 7.

2 St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Conferences, xx, p. 319. 3 R. M. Benson, Benedictus Dominus, p. 231.

"Religion does not consider it a great triumph," says the same St. Francis, " to fashion a mind already formed, a soul sweet and tranquil in itself, but it greatly esteems the reducing to virtue souls that are strong in their inclinations; for those souls, if they are faithful, will outstrip the others, acquiring by the point of the Spirit what the others possess without any trouble. It is not required of you to have no passions (that is not in your power, and God wills that you should feel them till your death, for your greater merit), nor even that they should not be strong; for that would be saying that a soul with bad habits cannot be fit to serve God. The world is mistaken in this idea; God rejects nothing where malice is not found."1

Ordinarily these signs should be accompanied by a loving desire for the Religious Life. Cases arise, however, of genuine vocation in which not only are such desire and affection absent, but in which there is a distinct aversion to the Life, although the soul is convinced that the Holy Spirit is calling him. In deciding such cases it must be remembered that feeling, and sense of enthusiasm, while great helps to the prosecution of an aim in life, are not to be counted as necessary signs of vocation. If such a soul has considered the matter with prayer, and has reached a conclusion as to God's will, based solely on the ground of reason, he is not to be turned back. If his will is set strongly on serving God in Religion, not because he himself desires it, but because he believes God desires it, he should be encouraged to go forward. 1 St. Francis de Sales, Spiritual Conferences, xx, p. 320.

II Of the Motives of Vocation

Questions concerning motives quite naturally present themselves to those who are seeking to know if they have a vocation. Let it be understood, however, that the solving of these questions belongs not so much to the aspirant as to the authorities of the community to which he may apply for advice and possible admission.

The aspirant has as yet no knowledge of the Life and its requirements, and therefore is not a competent judge of any of these things. He must defer to and depend upon those whose experience qualifies them to pass judgment in so weighty a cause.

The highest motive for seeking Religion lies in a desire for it as a positive good in itself, and not as a mere opportunity of escape from the evil that is in the world. Persons applying for admission into Religion who have suffered misfortune or disappointment or want, in the world, should be tested with unusual care lest, even unknown to themselves, they seek the service of God in Religion with an unworthy and selfish motive.

There is danger that such souls would not only be unable to seek perfection with that cheerfulness, promptness, courage, and perseverance that must mark the good Religious; but going forward with an unworthy motive would risk forfeiting even the salvation which they might otherwise attain by serving God in the world.

Entrance into Religion is not an escape from burdens, but the assuming of a burden, sweet and easy indeed to the magnanimous soul, but grievous

and impossible to be borne by those who undertake it with low motives and selfish intention.

Again, however, too much must not be expected of those who are but newly aspiring after perfection. They know not what it is, and how can they know the way?"Indeed, there are but few who come to God with a sole and undivided intention of serving Him." Even misfortune and disappointment may be the occasion of the desire to enter Religion, and as such they are not to be despised. God sometimes sends trial and loss with this end in view, that the soul realizing the worthlessness of earthly things may be induced to seek the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

The attitude of mind that leads one to take the first step towards Religion may, indeed, be in itself even grave sin, but God can and often does overrule it for the soul's good in the end. Men have entered Religion from motives of revenge, from anger, or pique, or to gain some selfish or worldly advantage, and on coming face to face with holy things have experienced a deep conversion that led them on to lives of sanctity."

1 St. Francis de Sales, Letters, xcviii (Lear).

2 St. Francis de Sales gave his Sisters a characteristically humorous illustration of this: "You must have read," he says, "what Platus relates of a fine gentleman of the world who was one day dressed and curled very smartly and mounted on his handsome horse, trying in every way to please the ladies; but as he was displaying himself he was thrown by his horse on the ground into the middle of the mud, so that he got up all dirty and muddy. This poor gentleman was so ashamed and confused at this accident that in anger he instantly resolved to become a monk, saying, 'O treacherous world! Thou hast laughed at me, but I will also laugh at thee; thou hast played me this trick, but I will play thee another; for I will nevermore have

Père Gautrelet gives a list of the principal motives that are wont to make an impression on the soul, and inspire it with a taste for the Religious Life.1 Persons who are concerned in deciding questions of vocation, whether for themselves or for others, will do well to familiarize themselves with these principles and their bearing on the circumstances of the particular cases that from time to time may come before them for decision.

1. The vanity of earthly things, incapable of filling our hearts or satisfying our desires.

2. The disgust inspired by a corrupt and perverse world, and the horror one feels for it.

3. The fear of making, as have so many others, a sad and eternal shipwreck among the numberless rocks found in the world and the snares laid for innocence.

4. The desire of being altogether forgotten, of forgetting self, and living a tranquil life sheltered from the dangers encountered in the world and the agitation which rules there.

5. The fear of sin, into which it is so easy to fall, and which it is so hard to get rid of.

6. The necessity of securing salvation, of avoiding eternal damnation, and the facility one finds for that in the Religious Life.

7. The desire of doing penance for the sins one has been so unhappy as to commit.

anything to do with thee, and from this hour I resolve to become a Religious.' And, in fact, he was received into Religion; where he lived holily; nevertheless his vocation came from a vexation," (Spiritual Conferences, xvii, p. 266.)

1 Gautrelet, op. cit., Vol. i, pp. 28-9.