Father Von Doss, in his admirable "Thoughts and Counsels for Young Men," says truly:
"To receive the sacraments of Penance and the Blessed Eucharist only at Easter-time, is to reduce our Catholicity to a minimum, to hang on to the Church, 'as it were, by the last thread.
"The oftener we go to confession, the easier it becomes. The longer we stay away, the more difficult it is to discover our faults, the more awkward we become in this important business. God grant that this awkwardness and helplessness on the bed of death may not be followed by the most terrible consequences!
"Make the trial Go to confession often — at least once a month. You will see that it becomes easier with every repetition.
"O my God! I often grieve and lament in secret over the weakness and inconstancy of my heart! Miserable, almost despairing, I look down into the abyss, to whose verge my sinful passions have dragged me, and I regard myself as lost. I am so utterly the sport of the surging waves, that I fail to struggle against them.
"Vain lamentations! Cowardice! Folly! I can dam up the stream, and bring the waves to a standstill — not by a mere passive looking on, or wringing of my hands; not by an unmanly surrender of myself — but by a faithful employment of those means which He who has created me has placed before me.
"I can escape the abyss which threatens to engulf me — but it is only by repeatedly casting myself into Thy arms, O my God, and by clinging to Thee."
"A preservation from stumbling, and a help
