ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ
TO THE
RELIGIOUS OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS.
St. Gregory being desired to write some spiritual instructions for the conduct of certain religious houses, excuses himself in his (>th Book and 27th Epistle in these terms : — " The exercises of mortification and prayer, practised by religious, produce such a source or fountain of wisdom in their hearts, that they stand not in need of being watered with those few drops our ardity is able to impart to them. For as the fountain in the midst of the terrestrial paradise watered all parts thereof, and kept it continually fresh and green without the help of rain, which it needed not ; so those who are in the paradise of religion have no need of being watered from without, because prayer and mortification produce in them such a source or fountain of grace, as is always sufficient to maintain their virtues in their full splendour and beauty.'*
I might, RR. FF., upon this account, with far more reason than St. Gregory, excuse myself after the same manner he did, to those faithful souls our Lord has planted in the garden of the Society of Jesus — souls, he has cultivated and watered by the help of that mental prayer they daily make. But though this excuse would doubtless be a very just one, if I imagined you expected anything new from me, yet I am prevented from making it, as I propose to myself nothing else in this work, than to revive in your memories what you already know and daily practise. In doing this, I shall pay obedience to our holy founder, who in one of his Constitutions ordains that, " once a week, or at least, once a fortnight, there should be one appointed to lay before our eyes the obligations of a spiritual life, lest human frailty, which daily inclines us to relax in our duties, might cause us to forget, and to discontinue them." (Cons. p. 3.) The Constitution, God be praised, is exactly observed throughout the whole Society, and produces great fruit therein. Having, therefore, above those
