moment without taking the last away. We have never two hours or two moments at once. Every moment in the day we may, if we will, renew the intention with which we said Mass in the morning. We may revive our prayers and thanksgivings at least by an aspiration. Our whole day would then be virtually pervaded by our Mass and Communion.
2. A second measure of value is the knowledge a priest may lay up by a punctual use of his time.
Labia sacerdotis custodient scientiam. But how shall the lips of the priest keep the science of God and of souls unless he be a man of sacred study? The theology of our early days is soon obscured by the failure of memory, and by the dust of a busy life. And therefore how precious is every moment a priest can redeem from active work to return to his old books, or to go further and deeper into his earlier studies. It is a good thing to have certain books always open, to be read at any moment that can be seized. There ought to be even in the busiest life certain horæ subsecivæ. We call them vaguely leisure hours. They are the hours that are cut out, as it were, by stealth from the main duties and works of the day. No better test than this can be found to see whether a priest knows the value of his time. Some men do everything as if they did nothing; and
