his obedience a Divine Presence meets the priest, and blesses him. The absence of such mental obedience betrays the absence of the gift of wisdom.
2. Another sign of mental obedience or docility is devotion to the Saints. They are our examples. Their counsels, their sayings, their instincts, are our rule and admonition. S. Philip bids us read authors who have S. before their name. They were once what we are now, weak, buffeted, tempted, penitent, and even sinful. We shall be hereafter, if we persevere to the end, what they are now. Their examples come home to us in every state of life, and in every part of our spiritual warfare. They are planted all along our path, in every age and condition, as guides and admonitions. In their lives we see the commandments, the precepts, and the counsels embodied. Every devout priest has his patrons. A priest without an intimate relation to Patron Saints can have little realisation of the supernatural order in which we live, and of our communion with "the spirits of the just made perfect."[1] It is not enough for a priest to have devotion to our Blessed Mother. She is not the patron of any one, being the Mother of all. Our relation to her is necessary, not voluntary. We cannot have God for
- ↑ Heb. xii. 23.
