ment, abiding for ever in the midst of us; and the priest is with Him morning, noon, and night, in continual intercourse, and a perpetual relation of love and protection on the one side, and love and service on the other.
1. This divine friendship consists first, and above all, in an identity of will with His will. Friendship is defined as idem velle idem nolle. This identity comes from assimilation to Him. If we are like Him, we shall love and hate as He loves and hates. The same things will be to us bitter or sweet as they are to Him. "We, beholding with open face the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord."[1] But a priest is to be the likeness of His Master to the world; and that likeness is a condition to the reception of Holy Orders. His will, therefore, ought to be identified with the will of his Lord. And so long as wills are identified friendships cannot fail. We well know what His will is for us. He wills "all men to be saved."[2] He wills our sanctification.[3] He wills that we trust Him altogether; that we not only say, but mean in all things, "Not my will, but Thine be done."
He wills also our happiness, and that with a
