contemptible, will nevertheless set a parish in contention against their priest. A spirit of criticism, once roused, is ravenous and unrelenting. Peace and charity are destroyed, and ill-will arises between flock and pastor, from whose hands they receive the absolution of the most Precious Blood and the Bread of eternal life. At first sight some may wonder why S. Paul, after summing up a black list of the sins of the flesh, adds "enmities, contentions, emulations, wraths, quarrels, dissensions, sects," and closes the list with "murders, drunkenness, revellings, and suchlike."[1] In truth, the spiritual sins of "enmities and dissensions" are more Satanic than the sins of the flesh, for Satan has no body; and they are more at variance with God, because they are spiritual, and God is charity.
5. The last great sorrow of a priest that can now be added is the fall of a brother priest. It may be of one who has grown up with him from boyhood, and was ordained with him on the same day, or of one over whom he has watched with the care and hope of an elder brother. He was once innocent, bright in mind, single of heart, his intelligence full of light, and his natural powers largely unfolded. His outset was full of promise. Every one looked
- ↑ Gal. v. 19-21.
