In the course of the day, wherever he may be, whatever he may do, he remembers that he is in the house of God, and in the service of God. In this way a laborious and wearisome life seems a paradise to him, dearer than any transitory enjoyment in the palaces of this world.
And in the evening, before he lies down to rest, he closes his day's work in the presence of the blessed Sacrament of the Altar, and commends his spirit to the sacred Heart of Jesus. And in spirit at least he is never separated from the hallowed precincts of the sanctuary; in thought and desire he is always united with Jesus in the Tabernacle, and he can truly say with the prophet: "My soul hath desired thee even in the night."
5. We can form an idea of the sublimity of the religious state, if we reflect on the example of Jesus, the God-man. He led a life of more than angelic purity, a life of mortification, renunciation, and self-denial, aid He willed to be born of a pure virgin, and loved Joseph more than any other man. on account of his virginal purity.
When a young man, imitating this great love of Our Lord for purity, takes refuge in the cloister, treading the pleasures of the world under his feet, in order in virginal purity to follow the chaste Lamb of God and His immaculate Mother, will he not then enjoy that sweet delight of pure souls which
