2. For the good of his community. God has not only called individuals to the Life of the Counsels but has called communities into being in order to give opportunity to individual souls. Such communities must be maintained and their numbers kept up. The Superior who, without just cause, rejects an aspirant, is doing an injury to the community, which has entrusted him with authority just in order that he may be able to provide for its wellbeing and increase. Not only have personal vocations to be cherished, but the corporate service of the community must be maintained. This also involves the duty of fraternal charity. Each true vocation added to the community strengthens and edifies the whole body and is, therefore, a help to each soul in it, and the edification of the members of the community is one of the chiefest charges laid upon those to whom authority is entrusted.

3. For the good of his neighbour. A Superior fails to fulfil his trust and does a wrong to his neighbour if he without cause holds back from souls the blessing and benefit which come from consecrating themselves to God in Religion. His office and authority are to be exercised with this as one of the main ends in view.

It is evident from what has been said that no Religious authority has the right to consult his likes and dislikes in deciding who shall be admitted to a community and who rejected.

At the same time there are considerations that must often weigh, aside from the question of the reality of vocation. One may have a true vocation to Religion, but not to some particular community.

A Superior must have regard to the interests of the Religious Life in general, but he must consider his own community in particular; and he may judge a man fit for Religion but refuse to receive him for reasons that may be good and sufficient, based sometimes on his care of his community, sometimes on his care to see that the individual find the best environment for fulfilling his special vocation. An aspirant may also be rightly rejected if the community be too poor to support him.1

The first care of Religious authorities must be that of the Religious Life in general; second, that of their own community, not tolerating that which would be to the hurt or scandal of their own society; and, last of all, that of the applicant who desires to test his vocation. This being so, a Superior who is in doubt concerning a vocation is justified in letting the benefit of the doubt run in favour of the community and against the individual.

It is not a light thing to receive a man into the community when such reception is for better or worse for the entire natural life of the applicant. Once professed, the community is responsible for him, for his conduct and for his support, and a Superior must have positive reason for supposing that he will make a real contribution to its life, or he cannot lay such a burden on the community.

He must make as sure as possible that he has used due diligence to discover the true state of the case in question. Having done this, seeking earnestly the guidance of the Holy Ghost in reaching a 1 Johnson, English Canons, Vol. i, p. 260.

decision, he may follow his judgment without hesitation.

In most cases the principles set forth above apply more to the occasion of profession than to entrance upon the postulancy or the novitiate. Considering that every aspirant must be tested in a long novitiate, and during this period of probation may be sent away, and is himself free to depart at any time, no hurt will in ordinary cases come to the community, or scandal to Religion, by giving the doubtful aspirant an opportunity to prove his sincerity and fitness under the discipline to which the novice is subjected.

In most communities it is customary to receive thus many doubtful cases, and experience shows that more men depart than persevere.

There is an element of fairness in allowing the aspirant the opportunity to try, because in the last analysis there is no way in which he can make sure of his vocation save by testing himself under the actual discipline of the life. It is therefore common for spiritual directors to advise those who seek counsel concerning vocation to proceed as soon as possible to make an actual trial of themselves in some well-ordered novitiate. The furnace of strict discipline in a brief time separates the dross from the gold.

V. Of Inducing Others to Enter Religion

What has been said above of the responsibility of Superiors applies in a measure to all Religious. All who live the Life of the Counsels are bound to seek by their prayers, and in their intercourse with

externs, to secure all vocations possible, for the glory of God, for the building up of the life and works of their Order, as well as for the blessing in time and eternity that they may thereby bring to the souls that are thus led to God's service.

It is therefore not only right and proper, but incumbent on every Religious, to use all legitimate influence to bring others to the consideration of the Religious Life. In doing this care must be taken not to use undue influence, for it would be far from the divine honour, and almost certainly to the hurt of the soul affected, should one be led to enter Religion from motives of merely human love or respect.

At the present day, when the Life of the Counsels is so little known among us and so little preached, it is especially incumbent on those who understand and value it to do all they can to place it before men. This should be done in so direct and personal a way that, if at all honest with their consciences, they cannot choose but ask themselves the question, "Does God will me to be a Religious?" and having asked it, to seek a response from the Holy Ghost courageously, earnestly, and with prayer.

In Holy Scripture the Life of the Counsels is set before all men, not before a certain class or a chosen few only. The only limitation lies in our Lord's word, "He that is able to receive it, let him receive it";1 and no man can discover if he is one of those who is able until he has squarely grappled with the question and sought God's aid in resolving it. "Not called " often means "Not hearkening." It is there

1 St. Matthew xix. 12.

fore right and just, both in respect to God and our neighbour, to set the query before all, and thus furnish the opportunity for them to find God's blessing in Holy Religion if it be His will. And no small share of merit and blessing will be accorded to those who have thus for love of God and their brethren been the instruments of bringing men to so great a consecration of themselves to the divine service.

The notion that each soul should be left to its own leading, and that it is ill-advised or sinful to try to influence others to enter Religion, is an error as old as Religion itself. St. Thomas found it necessary to combat it in his day. "Those," he says, "who induce others to enter Religion not only do not sin, but merit great reward." In proof of this he cites the words of St. James: "He which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins"; 2 and the words of Daniel: "They that turn many to righteousness (shall shine) as the stars for ever and ever." The citation of these texts by the Angelical Doctor shows him to be among those who hold strong doctrine concerning the soul that is holding back from Religious vocation. Such an one he regards as erring from the truth" and needing to be turned from "the error of his way to righteousness."

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1 St. Thomas, Summa. 2. 2, Q. 189, Art. 9. 2 St. James v. 20. 3 Daniel xii. 3.