It is the only time he can call his own. Happy the priest who knows its value, and unwise the priest who wastes it in the world.
The other part of the Horarium is for a calculation of the way in which our life speeds away. Most men give one-third of every day to sleep, with its circumstances of rising and lying down: about three hours are due to Mass and office: who can say how much to private prayers and spiritual reading, to study, to the confessional, to the care of souls? and of all this who can fix the measure? To the world and to society some priests give little; many give too much. If, then, we live to seventy years, we shall have spent more than three-and-twenty years in sleep: about seven years in Mass and offices—that makes up about thirty out of seventy years. How are the other forty years bestowed? It would be well for us if in every place we heard the words, Quid hic agis, Elia?[1] and in every hour of our day, "Did you not know that I must be about My Father's business?"
- ↑ 3 Kings xix. 9, 13.
